The Battle for Civil Rights In Israel

 

Jews came from all over the world to live in Eretz Yisrael. Some Jews had an easier time adjusting while other’s experienced more difficulty. The modern state of Israel was founded by Ashkenazi Secular Jews with leftist leanings who wanted to create the state in their own image and create a new Jew. The founding fathers believed in socialism more than the torah or Jewish law. Their vision of a modern civilization was mid 19th century Europe. The new Jew would shed his religion. The founding fathers wanted to emulate Europe. The vision of Zionism faced the west although they were located in the East . This view point locked out anyone with a traditional view or middle eastern cultural outlook.

The Jews from the Middle East, the Mizrachim , were torah observant and held in esteem a different form of Zionism.

Upon their arrival the Mizrachim were forced into the less desirable parts of the country.  They were herded into tent camps called Maabarot. Later these would get upgrade to tin shacks. These camps were like prisons. Guards at the gate and barbed wire fences they could not leave the camp without permission. Like military prisoners. Ashkenazi from Europe got better housing, better jobs and more access to a good education. The Mizrachim in many instances did nit get the same passage. They did not take this lying down and they fought against it in a variety of ways.

Their first method was non violent protests. They would post themselves in front of government offices and camp offices asking for better housing and jobs. These protests were often brutally suppressed by the police. Golda Meir would later adopt the tactic of selecting a delegation from the protestors who would then air their grievances. Meir made them promises she never followed through on.

The police were a tool used by the state in order to suppress the Mizrachim. The police would hold educational events and other kind activities for the Mizrachim. Mizrachi Jews were also shoved into police work. As the oppression worsened the riots would get more violent. Things would eventually escalate into breaking into offices and smashing things up. There were also fights between different ethnic groups situated in the camps. To counter the oppression these Mizrachim would join opposition parties hoping for better treatment.

Two major rebellions stand out. The first is the Wadi Salib rebellion of 1959. This started out with a Moroccan Jew being drunk and disorderly the police arrived and fired warning shots in the air that managed to hit the guy in the spine. He was crippled for life. This sparked violent protests filled with anger at the abusive treatment by the Ashkenazi elite. The second was the Hatikvah Rebbellion of 1965. This was caused by the Dan bus line not extending their service to this town. Lack of services sparked riots and drag racing.

In Israel there is a two tiered system for the countries Jews. On tier one you have Ashkenazi Jews that have access to better jobs, better housing, more political right. The second tier is for Jews of the Middle East. They have menial jobs, stuck in substandard housing, lacking educTion opportunities etc. many Middle eastern Jews wanted to emigrate elsewhere.

The Plight of Single Mizrachi Mothers

 Vicki Knafo made history with her famous march to Jerusalem to protect Netanyahu’s austerity measures. These measures cut the welfare allowance for singe unemployed mothers. This brought the plight of single mothers into Israel’s national spotlight. The authoress ,Smadar Lavie, is a university professor with a doctorate. She studied this movement and lived it. Professor Lavie is a single mother in Israel who also is part Yemenite. Single mothers have it tough but if you are a Jew if middle eastern descent it is even worse.

Smadar writes about the feeling of waiting hours in line only to be told that she has to go to another office to collect her check, which means more hours in line. There are times when she would be sent to this interview for this job or that many of which she was over qualified for. The clerks who run things sometime take advantage of these desperate single mothers. The buracracy is an instrument of torture.  The clerk if they are well intentioned thinks they are helping the single mother. It is just torture.

The cards are stacked against the Mizrachi Jews, those Jews who hail from Middle East. Originally they were brought here for labor so the pioneers from Europe would not have to rely on Arab labor. As cheap labor these Jews were abused by their fellow Ashkenazi brothers and sister. It persists to this day as Mizrachi Jews do not earn as much as their Ashkenazi counterparts. They are pegged into low paying manual labor jobs. Mizrachi Jews comprise well over 50 percent of the population yet they only occupy a small minority of white collar jobs. There are no Mizrachi professors who made it on their own steam. The ones who made it are married to Ashkenazi husbands or wives.

The country was founded by leftist, secular Ashkenazi Jews and they still hold the power. There are femsist organizations among both Ashekanzim and Mizrachi. The Ashkenazi ones are more international and focus on the rights of women elsewhere, especially Palestinians yet they ignore the plight of Mizrachi women. The Mizrachi women are fighting this on their own. The system is against them. They can be punished for protesting by denying checks or if they demonstrate lack of ability to care for their children then the children can be removed. Ashkenazi women have funds and connections so it will not effect them that much.

Many Mizrachi Jews vote for Likud or the right. It was the Mizrachi vote that got Menachem Begin voted in. They feel and rightfully so that the left took advantage of them and abused them. It was the Likud that focused on their plight. But alas things never end. No systematic change is on the horizon.

Invention of the Palestinians

 Where in history has the nation of the Palestinians ever been mentioned. Certainly not in ancient annals of our before Christ history and certainly not in the anno domini time period. Check the Sumerian, Egyptian,Greek Roman annals and you find no mention of them. You do find notes on the Hebrews, Israelites, Judeans and Jews. 

After the conquest of Judea by the Romans the land was named by the Romans, Phillistine after the phillistines who settled Gaza in biblical times. This was designed to erase the Jewish connection to the land. As Judea was now called Phillistine where did the experts form her boundaries and border. Why from the Bible of course. The Bible also mentions Israelites, judeans and Hebrews but no Palestinians.

Through out history no nation of Palestine has ever been mentioned. There are no famous Palestinians scientists, artists or even Palestinian contribution to society. It seems as though they popped up out of nowhere. Being truthful they kind of did.

The so called Palestine land mass was controlled by different empires through out history. There was no Palestinian government running the land ever. All the historical artifacts are Canaanite , Israelite, Greek Roman, Turkish but not Palestinian. There is Islamic art but that was supplied by Turks or other Muslims. But not Palestinians.

Who are these Palestinians? Where did they come from? After World War 1 the British had control over mandate Palestine. The Zionists were building up the land. These Jews were referred to as Palestinians or Palestinians Jews. Arabs started coming from near by areas to take advantage of the growing economic growth there. While Jewish Nationalism took root and began to grow Arab nationalism grew right along side with it.

Haj Amin Al Husseini drove the fiery rhetoric against the Jews with religiously inspired sermons that spread false information and conspiracy theories about Jews. This lead to fiery attacks against Jews in Israel and allowed for all sorts of terrorist activities. Never once was Palestine mentioned but rather the land was considered part of Syria. There were no Palestinian Arabs at the time. The only Palestinians were Jews. The area if Palestine was part of the Arab nation and it was a sin to let the Jews have a state of their own.

Through out world war 2 the Arabs revolted against the British and attacked the Jews. Their role model was the FLN in Algeria. They adopted FLN tactics used against the French to attack the British and the Jews. These terrorists attacked innocent civilians, women , chidren and their own people.

The book documents world acceptance of Palestinian nationalism and excusing their acts of terror while the Israelis in the media are getting bashed more and more often. Palestinian nationalism crystallizes in the late 60’s and early 70’s.  Leftist ideology embraced Palestinians nationalism and gave it the wording in order to sugar coT it for the world. What was hidden was a fundamentalist pill along the lines of ISIS. 

The book documents the Israeli Arab conflict from beginning to end. Almost every single terror attack by the Palestinians against Israel, Jews and the west is documented. The book will give the reader a full view of the conflict.

The Further Adventures of Utred Ragnarson

 

The adventures of Utred of Babbenburg continue. Just first after dealing a brutal defeat to the Danes and killing the infamous Ubbe. Utred makes way to his wife and son in Exincestor. That was a mistake as Odar the younger makes off with Ubbe’s banner and claims credit for the victory. Utred does not take this lying down. As a result of his being confrontational in the kings presence over the insult he is forced to do penatence . Some reward for saving king Alfred’s Wessex. After receiving this humiliation at the kings court Utred comes home to a homestead straddled in debt and a thieving worker. Utred kills the worker and refuses to pay the blood price. Utred cannot stay still. After a time him and a guy named Leofric take one of the kings boat and put a Viking mast head on it calling it the “Fire Drakker” one place they Raif is Cornwall. They deceive it Briton king and steal away with Iseult a shadow queen. Soon after arriving at home he is called to the kings Witan. At the gathering Utred is convicted of his crimes and forced to face the invincible Steappa. As the fight commences the Vikings attack again. The town is burning and the king flees into the swamp. What follows are the adventures in Utred helping the king Alfred regain his throne.

The Blood Queen

 

She stands out as the second most famous vampiric historical personage after Vad “the Impaler” Dracula. The real life Elizabeth  Bathory was a noble woman of high birth who was married to count Nadasy. The count was one of the brave nobles who defended Hungary from the brutal depravatities of the Ottoman Turks. After he died she inherited everything and she also became obsessed with holding on to her youth. To ensure her youth she resorted to killing young beautiful girls and women and then bathe in their blood. Eventually the bodies piled up and they caught on to her.

This story is speculative fiction, the authoress, Kimberly Kraft has written two other books on Elizabeth Bathory. She has the knowledge to pull it. What follows is years after she died her son searches out a servant who worked with the family for years to discern if the rumors were true or not. Benedict Deseo is a perfect source of information. Both Elizabeth and herself were infatuated with one another when she first arrived at the estate. What could have boiled up into an intense love affair is put to an abrupt stop but Benedict’s father . The affair would have been a disaster. Their love thwarted Benedict observes the day to day events from the side line. He relates the story of Elizabeth’s first transgression that would have aborted the marriage but there was too much money involved to break the engagement. Then there is the husbands cruel and degrading treatment of her. The husband beat servants mercilessly. Elizabeth might have picked that up from him. Then an older woman is hired as a servant and she teaches Elizabeth the art of besting servants. Benedict was forced into watching. It is her way of getting even for him standing her up when she first got there. She did not know his father beat him half to death for liking her.

The book was face paced and a very enjoyable read, I read it in one day and plan on getting the rest of Kimberly Craft’s books on Elizabeth Bathory.

Getting High with Magick

 

A highly recommended book for those who love cannabis and Magick. Here is a book that combines the two. The first part of the book goes into the history of cannabis and how it has been with us and promoted our development. Most of the research in this part was gleaned from the work of Chris Bennet, who has written extensively about the history of cannabis. Indeed it has. Spread by the Scythians who used it in their funeral rites its use has spread through out the centuries through Greek Roman times to the present. There is also a nice section on recipes. Just a few as it is not a cookbook. The book delves into meditation practices, ceremonial Magick rituals, breathing exercises you name it. Excellent book for beginning Magick users who may or may not have been long time cannabis users. Some of the meditating includes mindfulness  meditation , zen breathing where you focus on just your breath mantra meditation and a few others. The author has also included some ceremonial Magick rituals that have been modified and made somewhat easier to follow from old Zoroastrianism. Included are rituals to charge talimsmans connect with your answers. A nice paradigm in the building there is also some NLP concepts thrown in. If you wish to explore cannabis from a pagan perspective then this book is for you and a great starting point at that.

The Philosopher Within

Everyone knew who Bruce Lee was. No one would doubt that he was a martial artist of the highest level. There are things that many people do not know about Bruce. Most people on the street do not know that he founded the art of Jeet Kune Do . His movies were a vehicle for self expression and getting his point across. He was also a philosopher.

Bruce believed in formless form, being like water and adapting and fitting into every situation. It changed for based on it’s container. Adaptable as they say. One should compare the blade of grass to that of tree. If a strong wind blows then the solid tree will break but the blade of grass will bend and yield. You should. Do the same.

The key points of Bruce’s philosophy were daoism and Zen Buddhism. He believed that everything should be fluid and not fixed. The universe and the world are constantly changing and we should change with it. He never liked the fixed rigid ness of many martial arts. He felt they did nit adapt and change to meet with situation. There are lots of dead people who thought that their art could defend them against whatever. They were wrong. Bruce thought a gun was the best self defense.

Then what are the martial arts for . They could be used for self defense but they were a means of self expression. When one mastered whatever it was they were doing for self expression one could say they are a person of gung fu. Meaning they mastered whatever they were doing and perfected themselves. It could be martial art they were doing or dance or golf.

Sometimes people defended the art based on where it came from. Chinese people might like a style because it was Chinese. Someone may prefer karate because it is Japanese. This sort of cemented a certain racism. Martial arts should be learned based on useful they are not rejected because they are foreign.

Bruce used his movies to make a point. In Way of the Dragon he travels to Rome to help defend a resturaunt from some thugs. One of the workers refuses to learn karate because it is foreign. Bruce said learn it anyway. If it useful why not learn to use it.

No martial art has it all. Jiu Juitsu has ground fighting, the kwin do great kick, American boxing’s good punches. To be a good fighter one needs to be well rounded. The arts give you tools and the object is to be able to use those tools when the time is ready.

Take what is useful from any art and discard the rest. Be practical. The author had a chance to interview Brandon Lee , Bruce’s son, before he too died under strange circumstances. The author also had a letter sent to him from Bruce. You can learn a lot from Bruce Lee even if you are not a Martial Artist,