We Remember.

Tonight starts Yom HaShoah, literally "Day of the Holocaust." The world also remembers with Holocaust Remembrance Day. This will be my first Yom HaShoah as an Israeli citizen, with two small children, living the the land that G-d gave us.

It starts with a program at Yad Vashem, with Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu speaking, poetry being read... it's being broadcast on Mako TV, where my husband and I are watching, crying. My Hebrew may not be 100% but it is good enough to feel the pain when they read a daughter's letter to her mother, written while she was on a train to her death. I may not know all the words, but my soul knows a mother's anguish over her children traveling to their deaths simply because they were Jewish.

Have we learned anything? Jews? Non-Jews? The world?

The point of Yom HaShoah is to remember, but the lesson is to act.

Tomorrow at 10am, my husband and I will stand on the bridge over Route 4, listen for the two minute siren commemorating our six million lost souls, and watch as every single car, bus, and taxi stops on the highway. Jews will be together as each driver exits his and her vehicle and stands at attention, recalling how we were slaughtered by the Nazis and other Axis powers. My husband and I will hold hands as our tears fall. We will all hug our sons, daughters, and families tighter tomorrow night, knowing that without people and nations acting consciously and deliberately, this can happen again and, if we are not careful now, it will.

We have been hunted and murdered. We have been burned, literally and metaphorically. But, like a phoenix, from the ashes of our previous generation, we have burst forth with new life, strength, and ferocity. We have birthed our new country of Israel and provided her with strong young soldiers, intelligent and clever commanders; we have created technology that the entire world uses; we have won amazing amounts of Nobel Prizes, adding our intellect and insight to the planet's education; we have donated time, money, bodies, and blood to other countries who are in desperate need of help during emergencies (and many times been first in line to do so).

And with all this, we look back and wonder, who did we lose? Not just fathers, mothers, grandparents, children... But in those six million (and more), what would have been discovered, accomplished, created, not just for us, but for the world? How many family trees were brutally cut with wide, evil swings of the Nazi scythe? How many lives in how many countries were shredded in each day that passed, with each train car that left its station, with each boat that was turned back from safety?

Never forget what happened. Never forget that evil is everywhere, waiting for its opportunity to strike. Never forget that millions of children (babies, toddlers, school-age kids) were murdered, shot point-blank, because they were simply of no use to the Nazi party. Never forget that people voted for the Nazi party, that Austrians cheered as Germans came in, that there is a special award for Righteous Gentiles because, well, there were so few of them.

The world is still against the Jews. Anti-semitism is still raging like wildfire, consuming everything and everyone it touches. It lives out in the open, in tweets, Facebook pages, and jokes; it lives in groups on campuses, in BDS, in organizations taking over countries, and in your average citizen in Europe, South America, North America, Australia, Africa, Asia.... Don't doubt that hatred of Jews and Israel is alive and everywhere.

Never forget that the best way to remember is to act, open your mouth, do something! Whether it's to pray, donate money, be an advocate for good, do your job against evil. Every Jew and non-Jew is different, everyone has a role to play.

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. Don't do nothing. Don't EVER do nothing.

• Don't EVER assume you don't have a choice. 
• Don't EVER assume that someone else will do it.
• Don't EVER stop!

Never forget. Always act.

NEVER AGAIN.

World War III has Begun.

This article was originally posted on August 3, 2014 on shiradrissman.com... I have now updated it with proper numbers. It seemed appropriate to repost it here, today, after the attacks in France and Lebanon and after the Pope decided to declare that World War 3 has begun (I guess he needs to follow my blog). The truth is...

It's been headed in this direction for a while now, but in case you've only just noticed (or haven't yet because you're in denial), World War III began a while ago.

Here are the larger and more well-known events (I have only included the murdered, not the injured)

• February 26, 1993: WTC bombed (6 murdered) 
• December 24, 1994: Air France Flight 8969 hijacked in Algiers (3 murdered) 
• June 25, 1996: Khobar Towers bombed (20 murdered) 
• October 12, 2000: USS Cole attacked in Aden, Yemen (17 murdered) 
• September 11, 2001: WTC bombed (nearly 3,000 murdered) 
• August 5, 2003: Marriott Hotel bombing in South Jakarta (12 murdered) 
• March 11, 2004: Train bombings in Madrid, Spain (191 murdered) 
• September 9, 2004: Bombing at Australian embassy in Jakarta (9 murdered) 
• July 7, 2005: Multiple bombings in London underground (53 murdered) 
• July 23, 2005: Bomb attacks at Sharm el-Sheikh (64 murdered) 
• February 1, 2007: Plot to behead British Muslim soldier (thwarted) 
• September 13, 2008: Bombing series in Delhi, India (33 murdered) 
• November 26, 2008: Coordinated attacks in Mumbai, India (166 murdered) 
• June 18, 2009: Beledweyne bombing in Somalia (35 murdered) 
• May 1, 2010: Times Square car bombing attempted (thwarted) 
• December 10, 2010: Stockholm bombing (2 murdered) 
• July 18, 2011: Attack in Hotan, China (2 murdered) 
• February 23, 2012: Attacks in Baghdad (83 murdered) 
• March 20, 2012: Attacks in Baghdad (52 murdered) 
• April 15, 2013: Boston Marathon bombing (3 murdered) 
• May 22, 2013: Two men with cleavers murder British soldier in Woolwich. 
• September 21, 2013: Westgate Shopping Mall attack in Nairobi, Kenya (67 murdered) 
• September 22, 2013: Two Jundallah suicide bombers attack at a church service (105 murdered) 
• January 6, 2014: al-Qaeda linked terrorists execute "prisoners" at a children's hospital in Aleppo, Syria (50 murdered) 
• February 11, 2014: In Nigeria, Islamists come into a local village and slaughter residents (62 murdered) 
• March 15, 2014: Muslim herdsman in Nigeria shoot, burn, and hack their way through three Christian villages (150 murdered) 
• May 7, 2014: Islamists slaughter over villagers in Nigeria in an attack that lasts over twelve hours (336 hours) 
• June 12, 2014: The Islamic State massacres unarmed cadets at Camp Speicher, Iraq (1,566 murdered) 
• August 6, 2014: Boko Haram fire indiscriminately at Christian villages in Nigeria (997 murdered) 
• August 7, 2014: Yazidi death toll continues to rise in Iraq (397 murdered) 
• December 17, 2014: Human rights groups report the execution of women in Iraq for refusing to become brides of caliphate Jihadis (150 murdered) 
• January 7, 2015: Boko Haram goes on a massive killing spree that spans 16 villages in Nigeria (2,000 murdered) 
• April 2, 2015: Devout Muslims storm a Christian college in Kenya, separate out the non-Muslims, and execute the rest in cold blood (148 murdered) 
• October 1, 2015: Fatah gunmen shoot a Jewish couple to death in their car in front of their four young children in Israel 
• October 3, 2015: Two men walking with their families in Jerusalem are stabbed to death by an Islamist, who also shoots a baby in the leg 
• November 13, 2015: In Otniel, Israel, a father and son are murdered the week before the daughter's wedding. 
• November 13, 2015: ISIS orchestrated seven relatively simultaneous terrorist attacks in Paris (128 murdered). 

For a more detailed list of the 27,269 terror attacks since 9/11, please click here.

World War III is an ideological war between Islam and the rest of the world and it started HUNDREDS (really, thousands) of years ago (have you heard of the Marine Hymn? The "shores of Tripoli" are a reference to the Barbary Wars, wars against Muslim pirates). Nobody informed us it was instigated, and the majority of people today still don't know it's going on or don't want to admit it. It started insidiously and quietly. It's widespread and dangerous. The only way to fight it is to educate yourself and others, be aware, and acknowledge its existence.

Only in August 2014, after the three boys were kidnapped in Israel and after Hamas started firing rockets (again) at Israeli civilians, did people start to really notice the raging anti-Semitism occurring around the world. It has gotten horribly worse since. Not that it wasn't going on before - it was. But people see what they want, and don't see what they don't.

For years, there has been increasing acts of violence and intimidation against Jews, most notably, France, the UK, and other European countries. A statistical analysis has shown that 150 million people across Europe have serious anti-semitic views or a "demonic view" of Israel. The new anti-Semitism stems from the far right (authoritarianists, anti-communists, nativists, and fascists), the political left, and a growing Muslim population in these countries.

Even in peaceful Canada, there have been riots and violence against Jews and non-Jewish supporters of Israel. In Calgary the other day, hundreds of Muslims and non-Muslim Jew-haters rioted "peacefully" right before they attacked the group of a dozen or so pro-Israel protestors. No police were present and it almost escaped the attention of the media.

Take a close look at these numbers. 

There are 1.6 billion Muslims in the world today. It is estimated that 15-25% of those Muslims are radical, potentially active terrorists according to all intelligence sources around the world. That means, mathematically, that 240-400 MILLION Muslims are active, or potentially active, radical terrorists dedicated to the destruction of democracy and Western civilization. That's as many people, or more, as occupy our United States of America.

Let me repeat this. These 240-400 million people devote their lives and deaths to murdering and mutilating YOU, the infidel.

If you want to count how many radical Muslims there are in the world (who may not personally act on their beliefs but agree with them, morally, financially, or religiously, then you're looking at over 800 million Radical Muslims, more than half of all Muslims on the planet, adhere to the beliefs of the terrorists. (see Pew Research 2011).

According to the Qu'ran, they believe that men are worth more than women... in inheritance (4:11, 4:176), in court testimony (2:282), purity (5:6), dominion over the body (2:223), wife to husband ratio (4:3), sex slaves (4:24, 33:50), and more. This is supported by the Hadith, the record of the sayings of their prophet Mohammed, which supplements the Qu'ran.

Women are not alone. Muslims also look down upon homosexuals, Christians, hypocrites (those who claim to be Muslim but are not quite radical enough), and, of course, Jews.

Do not think that you will be spared.

"Oh ye who believe! Fight those of the disbelievers who are near to you, and let them find harshness in you, and know that Allah is with those who keep their duty." -Qu'ran, Sura 9:123.

They are encouraged to lay low, to lie to non-believers, to gain in numbers until such a time when they can take over. This is how they work. We can now see that their hard work and patience is paying off. Look at France where synagogues are burned and people are murdered in metal concerts. Look at Chicago where tens of thousands march in support of Hamas and their murderous methods. Look at Ann Arbor - where pro-"Palestinian" rallies and take place and people are afraid to act. 

It will only increase (and has). Keep your eyes open and do not blind yourself to what is happening. The war has begun. Jewish, not Jewish. White, Black, Yellow, Purple. Heterosexual, homosexual. If you aren't a radical Muslim, YOU are the infidel. YOU are their enemy. 

Be prepared to fight... because they already are.

Israel Doesn't Matter

The Land of Israel Doesn't Matter

Jewish Ideology
Jews believe in the sanctity of life. We are even instructed to break the holy Sabbath in order to save a life; it's called "Pikuach Nefesh." The rules of Kosher and fasting can be broken as well for sick and dying people.

Jews grant the same love of life to others. Even in our military actions against the Muslims, we pamphlet, text message, make phone calls, and even send soldiers in on the ground in order to reduce the amount of civilian Arab casualties.

Israelis wish only to live in peace. They gave back the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt and, in the past decade, they offered 98% of what the Arabs wanted and Arafat, on the Arabs' behalf, rejected it outright. Even today, all Jews want is peace and quiet.

Islamic Ideology
I'll let them speak for themselves.

"We love death like our enemies love life.
We love Martyrdom, the way in which [Hamas] leaders died." - Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, Al-Aqsa TV [Hamas], July 30, 2014

"Say (O Mohammed): Oh ye who are Jews! If ye claim that ye are favoured of Allah apart from (all) mankind, then long for death if ye are truthful." - Qu'ran 62:6

Ayman al-Zawahiri told Muslim women, "I advise you to raise your children in the cult of jihad and martyrdom and to instill in them a love for religion and death."

Hamas uses human shields, and fires missiles from private homes, schools, ambulances, and hospitals. They kidnap innocent teenagers and soldiers. They attempt to steal the bodies of murdered Jews. They rejoice when they hear of violence and heartbreaking news on the part of Israelis.

In a recent poll, 60% of those Arabs polled (including 55% in the West Bank and 68% in Gaza) reject permanent acceptance of Israel's existence, instead wanting one Palestinian state "from the river to the sea."

Hamas wants Israel destroyed and the Jews dead. Their own charter emphasizes, in several places, the desire to eliminate the Jews. Here is one of the juicier points, "Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it." -Hamas Charter Preamble

The Land of Israel, if it were ever truly an issue (rather than an excuse), is no longer of any importance. The Muslims want the Jews dead. Every last one of us. Even if we were to give away every last square meter of Israel, they would still run us through with spears, cut off our heads, and dangle us from the rooftops until the last one of us was dead.

Don't believe me? Just check out what they're doing to the Christians in Iraq.

An Accurate History about Palestine, Israel, and the "Palestinians," Part III (1956-1966)

PART III

The 1956 Sinai Campaign
In the early 1950s, Egypt violated the terms of the Armistice Agreement it had signed with Israel after the 1948 War of Independence. They blocked Israeli ships from passing through the Suez Canal, a major international waterway. It also began to block traffic through the Straits of Tiran linking the port of Eilat, in the south of Israel, to the Red Sea and Indian Ocean. This seriously damaged Israel's trade with Asia.

The Arab fedayun/fedayeen from Egypt, Jordan, and Syria continued to infiltrate across the border in order to maintain their attacks against Jewish civilians and military outposts. Arab infiltration and Israeli retaliation became a regular pattern and though Israel hoped its reactionary behavior would discourage more invasions, in 1955 alone, 260 Israeli innocent civilians were murdered or wounded by fedayeen.

In July 1956, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal, threatening British and French interests in oil supplies and western trade.

Since everyone had converging interests, Israel, Britain, and France planned an attack on Egypt, and on October 29, 1956, Israel began its assault on Egyptian military positions. She captured the whole of the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula. On October 31, 1956, France and Britain joined in and the hostilities ended on November 5, 1956, only seven days after it began. Israel didn't withdraw until 1957.

The United States had no knowledge of this attack, voiced strong opposition (due to its fear of the USSR and its interest in the Middle East), and urged Israel to withdraw from Egyptian territory. The UN stationed itself along the Egypt-Israeli border to prevent a blockage and further infiltrations, but Israel warned them that if Egypt blockaded the Gulf of Aqaba, it wouldn't hold back.

After the 1956 Suez Crisis

There was an uneasy truce after the Suez Crisis, but Arab states started competing among themselves for power and dominance. To quiet internal dissent, the governments expanded and strengthened their anti-Israel feelings.

Palestine Liberation Organization

In 1964, to continue the war against Israel, the Arab states, at the first Arab League Summit meeting, formed the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization). It had the purpose of creating an independent State of Palestine through armed struggle. The group used guerrilla tactics to attack Israel from Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, and Syria. The US and Israel considered it a terrorist organization until the Madrid Conference for peace in 1991, when the PLO decided to grow an alleged 'political' branch.

The PLO has a nominal legislative body, the Palestinian National Council (PNC), but most of their power is controlled by the PLO Executive Committee, made up of 18 people elected by the PNC. Yasser Arafat was the chamber of the PLO Executive Committee from 1969 until his death in 2004.

He was succeeded by Mahmoud Abbas (a.k.a. Abu Mazen). He is also a member of the Fatah party. He was elected to serve until January 9, 2009, but due to internal conflict, he unilaterally extended his term for another year and, since then, has not stepped down. Because of this, Hamas (Fatah's main rival and founded in 1987, to be addressed later) announced it would not recognize Abbas. 

Mahmoud Abbas is a terrorist. He financed the 1972 Munich Massacre, but since he was the best of the worst (other high ranking "Palestinians" were under arrest for multiple murders), he emerged as a leader. 

In February 1966, a coup d'etat took place in Syria, and the government was replaced by a union of the party's Military Committee and the Regional Command, ruled by Salah Jadid. This new government further increased the anti-Israel rhetoric as well as the infiltrations into Israeli territory.

Fatah

Fatah is formerly known as the Palestinian National Liberation Movement. It has had a strong involvement in revolutionary struggle and has maintained a number of militant groups. Its charter allows anyone who believes in the liberation of Palestine to be a member. It states, "Revolution is our path to freedom, independence, and construction. It is a revolution until victory ..."

This movement and this work are a national trust and a historic responsibility. You must shoulder the precious trust and recognize the historic responsibility. You must prepare yourself to inspire the spirit of organized revolutionary work in every Arab soul that is sincere to Palestine and that believes in its liberation. Let us train ourselves to be patient and to face ordeals, bear calamities, sacrifice our souls, blood, time and effort. All these are the weapons of revolutionaries. Therefore, Brother, do not stop. With the calm of the workers, the silence of the sincere, the determination of the revolutionaries, the resolve of the believers, and the patience of the strugglers, you must act quickly because our people cannot spare a single moment after our tragedy continued throughout all those long years. You must know that our enemy is strong and the battle is ferocious and long. You must know that determination, patience, secrecy, confidentiality, adherence to the principles and goals of the revolution, keep us from stumbling and shorten the path to liberation. Go forward to revolution. Long live Palestine, free and Arab.

In Short, There Are No "Palestinian" Refugees

In 1917, the British Empire wrested Palestine away from the Ottoman Turks and occupied the land there until 1947. Shortly thereafter, the UN decided to divide the area into a country for the Jews and the Arabs. The Jews accepted this partition plan even though they were only going to receive 20% of the land and even though Jerusalem would not be completely included either.

Not one of the 22 Arab states were happy with this partition simply because it provided Jews with a Jewish country. Not only did they reject it, but five Arab nations (with help from a couple others) decided to wipe it off the map within one day of its birth.

In order to protect Arabs, those nations warned the Arabs living in Israel at the time to flee, to get out of the way of their incoming armies. Those Arabs, approximately 539,000 of them, followed their instructions and voluntarily abandoned their homes and property so that the Jews would (in their hope) be murdered and eliminated. The Arab nations promised the Arabs that they could return and move into the Jews' houses after the anticipated successful annihilation of the Jews.

"We will smash the country with our guns and obliterate every place the Jews seek shelter in. The Arabs should conduct their wives and children to safe areas until the fighting has died down." -Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Said, quoted in Sir Am Nahbah ("The Secret Behind the Disaster") by Nimr el Hawari Nazareth, 1952

The Jews of Palestine tried to get the Arabs of Palestine to stay.

"Every effort is being made by the Jews to persuade the Arab populace to stay and carry on with their normal lives, to get their shops and business open and to be assured that their lives and interests will be safe. [However] ...A large road convoy, escorted by [British] military... left Haifa for Beirut yesterday... Evacuation by sea goes on steadily. ...[Two days later, the Jews were] still making every effort to persuade the Arab populace to remain and to settle back into their normal lives in the towns... [as for the Arabs,] another convoy left Tireh for Transjordan, and the evacuation by sea continues. The quays and harbor are still crowded with refugees and their household effects, all omitting no opportunity to get a place on one of the boats leaving Haifa." -Haifa District HQ of the British Police, April 26, 1948, quoted in Battleground by Samuel Katz

The Arabs refused, choosing instead to abandon their possessions and land. "The Arabs did not want to submit to a truce; they rather preferred to abandon their homes, their belongings and everything they possessed in the world and leave the town. This is in fact what they did." -Jamal Husseini, Acting Chairman of the Palestine Arab Higher Committee, told to the United Nations Security Council, quoted in the UNSC Official Records (N. 62), April 23, 1948, p.14.

At the same time, 850,000 Jews were expelled from other Arab countries where they had lived for hundreds of years. Some of the people who were forced to leave were successful professionals, and they left behind their property which was, of course, immediately confiscated. They all fled to the newly born Israel.

These Jewish refugees were immediately accepted by the State of Israel. They were given shelter, food, and clothing. They were treated as equals.

The Arab refugees who had voluntarily abandoned their land and property for the other Arab nations were not welcomed. They were treated as unwelcome migrants and placed in dilapidated refugee camps. The UN, through UNRWA, gave assistance because the host countries refused to.

Eventually, the camps become training camps for terrorists whose goal was to eliminate Israel. The host countries provided the training, weapons, explosives, and yet, the Arabs still weren't considered full citizens.

Rather, these Arab countries kept the displaced Arabs in misery, fed their anger, and used them as tools against the Jews and Israel, and pawns in the worldwide media.

According to the UN Refugee Agency, a refugee is "someone who has been forced to flee his or her country because of persecution, war, or violence." Based on this definition, there are no Palestinian Arab refugees. The Jews of Palestine never forced any Arabs of Palestine to leave. Quite the contrary. The Jews practically begged the Arabs to stay.

The Haifa Workers Council posted a bulletin on April 28, 1948, stating, "...our city flourished and developed for the good of both Jewish and Arab residents... Do not destroy your homes with your own hands; do not bring tragedy upon yourselves by unnecessary evacuation and self-imposed burdens. By moving out you will be overtaken by poverty and humiliation. But in this city, yours and ours, Haifa, the gates are open for work, for life, and for peace, for you and your families."

Even Great Britain recognized what was going on. The Times of London reported on April 4, 1948, "...the Jewish Hagana asked (using loudspeakers) Arabs to remain at their homes but most of the Arab population followed their leaders who asked them to leave the country."

Additionally, even if they were refugees, this status does not extend to further generations.

"The refugee status of the Palestinians was perpetuated by the host countries and the Palestinian leadership, and by the international community, through the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the only UN body dedicated to a specific refugee group (all other refugees in the world are the responsibility of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees). As a result, refugee status was passed down from father to son to grandson over 50 years, so that, today, they number three million to four million. That is why the Palestinians now account for about one-fourth of the world's refugees -- an impressive figure until one imagines how many refugees there would be if all the Finns and Germans and Indian Hindus and Muslims and European Jews who were made refugees after the Second World War (not to speak of the Greeks and Turks and Armenians who were made refugees during and after the First World War) were still considered refugees in the year 2000." -Mark Heller, co-author of No Trumpets, No Drums: A Two-State Settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

In essence, the "Arab Palestinian Refugee" problem is of their own doing. They made the decision to abandon their land, property, and possessions because they assumed the Arab countries would kill the Jews and defeat Israel. Their intent was evil and their actions backfired. They trusted other Arab countries who, not only failed to protect and take care of them, but then used them as weapons against the Israeli state and the Jews. They are now trying to take advantage of other countries, the UN, and people's ignorance of history and law. We cannot allow this.

The Jews of Palestine had requested that the Arabs of Palestine stay. Israel has repeatedly gone above and beyond to make peace with them. They still turn it down. [Most of] The Arabs still hate and kill. History hasn't changed, and neither will the future. Even today, as of June 2014, 60% of "Palestinians" oppose a two-state solution; they prefer that their leaders "work toward reclaiming all of historic Palestine, from the river to the sea." Two-thirds of those polled support continued resistance against the Jewish state. And if you're wondering about the remaining 40%... well, they view such a move as "part of a 'program of stages' to liberate all of historic Palestine later."

Let us be honest with them and ourselves and move forward from here. Let us focus on Israel, her Jewish future, and those who truly support her.