Re: Nobel Prize Winners

"George Z. Bush" <georgezbush@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
news:noOKg.1300$Ez.1128@xxxxxxxxxxxx:

Earl wrote:
El Castor <NotAnyone@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
news:YJqdncgduub8zGbZnZ2dnUVZ_tednZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxx:



Yes the message can be taken the other way. Jews in
Israel need to be better neighbors.

Thank God the Arabs are great neighbors! Other than the
fact that they have been trying since 1948 to kill every
last Jew, they have been just swell. When was the last
time one of those pesky Jews walked into an Arab coffee
shop and blew himself up?



Israeli jews rarely go on a suicide mission.

They prefer to leave the bomb at the Arab schoolyard and
run away so they can plant more in the future. Even during
the Israeli terrorist actions under the Brits, the only
time they fought it out was when they were trapped. Lots of
bombs, but few suicide bombers.

But occasionally a jew in Israel will walk into a mosque or
get on a bus in an arab area (Israeli cits also). Then pull
out a machine gun and spray. After killing a few dozen the
rest of the crowd just kill him with bare hands.

Earl, any particular reason you left out the last paragraph
of the story you got your information from? The reason I
ask is that you described the only two despicable incidents
involving Israeli Jews murdering Arabs that have happened
in the last 12 YEARS. How many times during that same
period have their Palestinian Arab brethren perpetrated
mayhem on Jews during the same time?


There have been a number of claims and even court actions where
Israelis (principly settlers or jewish fundamentalists like
Goldstein) have engaged in random killings and driveby
shootings.

The problem is that a MAJOR fraction of the Israeli population
considers actions like Goldsteins to be perfectly valid. The
strange thing is that the justification is that it is not
improper to kill non-jews, only that jews may suffer because of
the act.

I am attaching a long article by Israelis that points out that
the behavior was praised localy, just not talked about
internationally. It really provides an interesting insight into
the attitudes of these fundamentalists.

I have met jews in the US who belong to these groups. They are
just as weird as the most rabid AQ member or Taliban. The
difference is that we have fund raisers here who send US dollars
over to the ME to cause mischief. And yes Abramoff sent the
Indian money that was supposed to go to US charities for
athletic puropses to supply the religious right of Israel with
the tools of the trade.


But in any case TWO is not the number.


most attacks were smaller and easier to hide.
but major cases were
1984 Bus bombing plot (arab buses designed to kill non observant
jews also)

1990 Ami Poper lines up Palestineans and does a StValentines
shooting

1994 Goldstein Purim celebrations with bullets

Rabin

2005 Arab bus machine gunnings


Note that Goldstein was about to receive a majority as a reward
for his faithfull service, even though he would not treat
wounded nonjews, and regularly caused disruptions.

The attitude of Goldstein and the others IS part of the basic
outlook in Israel.


http://www.geocities.com/alabasters_archive/goldstein_significan
ce.html

***********



The story of the massacre committed by Baruch Goldstein in the
Patriarchs' Cave in Hebron on February 25, 1994, is well known.
Goldstein entered the Muslim prayer hall and shot worshippers
mostly in their backs, killing 29, including children, and
wounding many more. In this chapter we shall not describe that
massacre; rather we shall focus upon Goldstein's career prior to
the massacre and upon the reactions of the Israeli government
and fundamentalist Jews to the massacre a short time after it
occurred. This should provide a vivid illustration of Jewish
fundamentalism. We shall extend our discussion of some details
until the summer of 1998.

One important background fact about Goldstein exemplifies the
influence of Jewish fundamentalism in Israel: long before the
massacre, Goldstein as an army physician repeatedly breached
army discipline by refusing to treat Arabs, even those serving
in the Israeli army. He was not punished, either while in active
or reserve service, for his refusal because of intervention in
his favor. Political commentators discussed this story in the
Hebrew press even though not a single Israeli politician
referred to it. This story deserves detailed exploration in our
analysis of Jewish fundamentalism.

In his March 1, 1994, Yediot Ahronot article, Arych Kizel, a
regular Davar correspondent, wrote that Goldstein, shortly after
immigrating to Israel and as a conscript assigned to an
artillery battalion in Lebanon as a doctor, refused to treat
Gentiles. According to Kizel, Goldstein, after refusing to treat
a wounded Arab, declared: "I am not willing to treat any non-
Jew. I recognize as legitimate only two [religious] authorities:
Maimonides and Kahane." Kizel further reported:

Three Druze soldiers who served in Goldstein's battalion
approached their commander and asked for another doctor to be
stationed in their battalion, because they were afraid that
Goldstein would refuse to treat them in case they were wounded.
Because of their request Goldstein was reassigned to another
battalion. He continued to serve as a military doctor both in
the conscript army and in the reserves. After some years he was
reassigned to the regional Hebron brigade of the central command
where he thereafter served his reserve stint. Immediately after
receiving this assignment, he told his commanders that his
religious faith would make it impossible for him to treat
wounded or ill Arabs; he asked to be reassigned elsewhere. His
request was granted, and he was reassigned to a reserve unit
serving in South Lebanon.
Amir Oren, who subsequently became the military correspondent of
Haaretz, provided the most complete story of Goldstein's
relations with the Israeli army and the entire Israeli political
establishment in his March 4 Davar article. According to Oren,
after the 1984 elections and the subsequent formation of the
national unity government, then Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin
and then Chief of Staff General Moshe Levy learned about
Goldstein's refusal to treat non-Jews in Lebanon. Oren wrote:

When Goldstein's refusal to treat non-Jewish patients became
evident to his commanders, both the artillery corps and medical
corps commanders quite naturally wanted to court-martial him and
thus get rid of him. They took it for granted that this could be
easily done, because Goldstein had graduated only from the
army's course for medical officers. [Goldstein did not have
combat officer training, which is normally a prerequisite for
admission to the course for medical officers.] The two corps
[commanders] also knew that Goldstein, while attending the
army's course for medical officers, had become notorious as an
anti-Arab extremist.
According to other Hebrew press reports, some of Goldstein's
trainee colleagues demanded that he be dismissed from the
course; their demand was refused. Oren related: "(Goldstein) was
already then protected by highly placed people in senior
ministries. Those patrons requested that Goldstein be allowed to
serve in Kiryat Arba rather than in a combat battalion." The
situation then developed into "a bone of contention between the
commander of the army's medical corps and its chief rabbi." Oren
continued:

In the end the issue of what to do with an officer who openly
refused to obey orders by invoking Halacha has never been
resolved, even if that officer openly refused to provide medical
help both to Israeli soldiers and POWS. Can we avoid being
stunned by the army's failure to court-martial Goldstein? Why
was no order to court-martial him ever issued by the entire
chain of the army command? That chain of command included the
commander of the northern command, Reserve General Orri Or [a
Labor MK and later in 1994 the chairman of the Knesset Committee
for Foreign and Defense Affairs], and General Amos Yaron, who
now is the commander of the manpower department. Why did they
refuse to decide without first consulting the chief rabbi? The
already embarrassed medical corps [commanders] now [after the
massacre] admit that they were scared by publicity that might
have propelled the religious parties and religious settlers'
lobbies to make things more of a mess than ever before. The fear
of publicity time after time prompted the army commanders to
give in to all kinds of Goldsteins, rather than to denounce
their views and court-martial them.
Many sources corroborated Oren's hinting that this Goldstein
situation did not constitute a unique case. The story told by
Oren revealed the pervasiveness of the religious parties'
influence in the Israeli army. Jewish orthodoxy's stance against
non-Jews, as openly advocated by Goldstein's idolized leader,
Rabbi Meir Kahane, was?and still is?an essential position held
by the major religious parties. As such, this stance has had a
strong impact upon the Israeli army. Had Rabin and the army
commanders mentioned by Oren, moreover, felt no affinity
whatsoever with Kahane's and Goldstein's views, they would not
have given in to the religious parties with such abandon and
thus sacrificed all consideration of military discipline.
Israeli policies, directed towards Palestinians, other Middle
East Arabs (perceived by Zionists as non-Jews) and people of
other nations, are only explainable by assuming that they are
based upon anti-Gentile feeling. The anti-Gentile feeling is
strongest among the most religious Jews but exists as well in
this secular milieu. This is the reason why support for
Goldstein in 1984 and 1985 had a sequel in the excuses by many
Israeli leaders for the slaughter. These excuses were thinly
disguised by mostly hypocritical expressions of shock.

Goldstein's refusal to give proper medical treatment to non-Jews
continued after he was transferred to Kiryat Arba. In his
February 27,1994 Yediot Ahronot article, Nahum Barnea wrote:

The senior Israeli army officer in the Hebron area told me about
his two encounters with Baruch Goldstein. The second time he saw
him was in the company of Kach goons who were abusing President
Ezer Weisman during his visit to Kiryat Arba. The first time he
encountered Goldstein was after an Israeli soldier had wounded a
local Arab in his legs. The Arab was brought to an army clinic
for treatment, but Goldstein refused to treat him. Another army
physician had to be summoned to substitute for Goldstein. The
officer did not explain why Goldstein was thereafter not demoted
in rank but was rather allowed to keep performing his duties in
the reserves. Incidentally, his misconduct also constituted a
violation of the oath he had taken upon becoming a doctor, but
for this the Israeli army cannot be blamed.
Barnea made clear that the entire Israeli establishment, not
just the army, was responsible for the leniency granted to
Goldstein for his misdeeds. The leniency lasted until the
massacre. Only after the massacre did the official line change
to shock, coupled with assertions that Goldstein had acted
alone. Thus, during the first three hours after the slaughter
Rabin and his retinue insisted either that Goldstein was a
psychopath or that he was a devoted doctor who happened to
suffer a momentary derangement. Barnea reported: "Within hours a
whole edifice of rationalization was built, according to which
Goldstein had allegedly been under unbearable mental pressure,
because he had to attend so many wounded and dead [persons],
including Arabs." The men who propagated this lie knew that
Goldstein had refused to treat Arabs. Barnea continued: "Thus,
the Arabs were made guilty for what he could not avoid doing.
The implication was that the Arabs assaulted him rather than the
other way around and that he really acted for the benefit of the
Arabs by letting them finally realize that Jewish blood could
not be shed with impunity." This brazen lie was maintained as
long as possible before being abandoned without apology. The
propagation of such a lie reveals the influence of Jewish
fundamentalism upon the secular parts of the Israeli
establishment.

Goldstein represented Jewish fundamentalism in the extreme. Some
of the Gush Emunim leaders at the time of the massacre were only
a bit less extreme. Barnea compared Goldstein's attitude toward
non-Jews with that of Rabbi Levinger, the Gush Emunim leader
whom he interviewed on the day of the massacre:

Levinger was in a good mood; after arguing about how religious
settlers should respond to the massacre, he shortly before had
won the three hour debate at a session of the Kiryat Arba
municipality. The secretary of the Council of Judea, Samara and
Gaza District, Uri Ariel, [who became director of the prime
minister's office in 1998] proposed condemning the massacre.
Levinger staked his authority behind the proposal that the
[Israeli] government should instead be condemned [for putting
Goldstein] under unbearable mental pressure [propelling him to
action].
In the discussion the terms "murder," "massacre" or "killing"
were avoided; instead the terms used were "deed," "event" or
"occurrence." The reason is that according to the Halacha the
killing by a Jew of a non-Jew under any circumstances is not
regarded as murder. It may be prohibited for other reasons,
especially when it causes danger for Jews. In many cases the
real feelings about a Jew murdering non-Jews, expressed in
Israel with impunity, correspond to the law. Levinger told
Barnea that the resolution "expresses in passing" the sorrow
about dead Arabs "even though it emphasizes the responsibility
of the government." When asked by Barnea whether he felt sorry,
Levinger answered: "I am sorry not only about dead Arabs but
also about dead flies."

Goldstein on principle had refused to treat non-Jews for many
years before the massacre. He worked as the municipal doctor of
Kiryat Arba and treated Arabs only when he could not avoid doing
so. Barnea quoted one of Goldstein's colleagues from the Kiryat
Arba clinic who recalled that "whenever Goldstein arrived at a
traffic accident spot and recognized that some of the injured
were Arabs, he would attend to them but only until another
doctor arrived. Then, he would stop treating them. 'This was his
compromise between his doctor's oath and his ideology,' said his
colleague."

The Halacha enjoins precisely the behavior of Goldstein's
refusing to attend non-Jews. The Halacha dictates that a pious
Jewish doctor may treat Gentiles when his refusal to do so might
be reported to the authorities and cause him or other Jews
unpleasantness. There is reason to believe that whenever doctors
as pious as Goldstein were forced to treat Arabs they behaved as
did Goldstein. In his previously cited Yediot Ahronot article,
Arych Kizel added that the Israeli army found that Goldstein's
conduct did not require any disciplinary measures. A Maariv
correspondent wrote in his March 8, 1994 article that
Goldstein's military service record was sufficiently
distinguished to earn him a ceremonial promotion from the rank
of captain to that of major. The president of Israel would have
officially awarded this promotion on April 14, 1994, Israel's
independence day. Only Goldstein's death, which occurred at the
time of the massacre, prevented what would have been a revealing
promotion.

An even greater example ofJewish fundamentalism's influence upon
the secular part of the Israeli establishment can be detected in
the official arrangement of Goldstein's elaborate funeral at a
time that the deliberate character of the massacre could not be
denied. The establishment was affected by the fact, widely
reported in the Hebrew press but given little place in the
foreign press, that within two days of the massacre the walls of
religious neighborhoods of west Jerusalem (and to a lesser
extent of many other religious neighborhoods) were covered by
posters extolling Goldstein's virtues and complaining that he
did not manage to kill more Arabs. Children of religious
settlers who came to Jerusalem to demonstrate sported buttons
for months after the massacre that were inscribed: "Dr.
Goldstein cured Israel's ills." Numerous concerts of Jewish
religious music and other events often developed into
demonstrations of tribute to Goldstein. The Hebrew press
reported these incidents of public tribute in copious detail. No
major politician protested against such celebrations.

President Weizman expressed more extravagantly than others his
sorrow for the massacre. Weizman, as reported by Uzi Benziman in
his March 4, 1994 Haaretz article, was also engaged in lengthy
and amiable negotiations with Goldstein's family and Kach
comrades concerning a suitably honorable funeral for the
murderer. Kiryat Arba settlers, many of whom had already
declared themselves in favor of the mass murder in radio and
television interviews and had lauded Goldstein as a martyr and
holy man, demanded that General Yatom, the commander responsible
for the Hebron area, allow the funeral cortege to parade through
the city of Hebron, in order to be viewed by the Arabs even
though a curfew existed. Yatom did not object outright to the
demand but opposed it as something that could cause disorder.
Tzvi Katzover, the mayor of Kiryat Arba and one of the most
extreme leaders of the religious settlers, telephoned Weizman
and threatened that the settlers would make a pogrom of Arabs if
their demands were not met. Weizman responded by telephoning the
chief of staff and asking why the army opposed the demand of the
settlers. According to Benziman, Chief of Staff Barak answered:
"The army was afraid that Arabs would desecrate Goldstein's tomb
and carry away his corpse." In further negotiations involving
Barak, Yatom, Rabin, Kach leaders and Kiryat Arba settlers,
Weizman assumed the consistent position, as stated by Benziman,
that "the army should pay respect to the desires and
sensibilities of the settlers and of the Goldstein family."
Ultimately, the negotiated decision was that a massively
attended funeral cortege would take place in Jerusalem and that
the police would close some of the busiest streets to the
traffic in Goldstein's honor. Afterwards, the murderer would be
buried in Kiryat Arba along the continuation of Kahane Avenue.
According to Benziman, Kach leaders at first rejected this
compromise. General Yatom had to approach the Kach leaders in
person and beg them abjectly for their agreement, which he
finally secured. Yatom also had to obtain consent from the
notorious Kiryat Arba rabbi, Dov Lior. As reported in the March
4, 1994, issue of Yerushalaim Lior declared: "Since Goldstein
did what he did in God's own name, he is to be regarded as a
righteous man." Benziman explained the conduct of Weizman and
his entourage: " After the fact the officials of the
presidential mansion justify those goings on by the need to
becalm the settlers' mood." After the funeral the army provided
a guard of honor for Goldstein's tomb. The tomb became a
pilgrimage site, not only for the religious settlers but also
for delegations of pious Jews from all Israeli cities.

The details of Goldstein's funeral as arranged through the
office of President Weizman are significant. The facts below
were taken mostly from the Ilana Baum and Tzvi Singer report,
published in Yediot Ahronot on February, 28 1994. The funeral's
first installment took place in Jerusalem. Among the estimated
thousand mourners only a few were settlers from Kiryat Arba.
Baum and Singer noted: "Without having met Goldstein personally,
other mourners most of whom were Jerusalemites, were
enthusiastic admirers of his deed. Many more were Yeshiva
students. A large group represented the Chabad Hassidic
movement, another group [consisted of anti-Zionist] Satmar
Hassids." Other Hassidic movements were also well represented.
(Not mentioned in the English-language press, Goldstein, a
follower of Kahane, was also a follower of the Lubovitcher
rabbi.) Baum and Singer continued:

People awaiting the arrival of the corpse could be heard
repeating: "What a hero! A righteous person! He did it on behalf
of all of us." As usual in such encounters between religious
Jews, all the participants tuned into a single, collective
personality, united by their burning hatred of the Israeli
media, the wicked Israeli government and, above all else, of
anyone who dared to speak against the murder.
Before the start of the procession well-known rabbis eulogized
Goldstein and commended the murder. Rabbi Israel Ariel, for
example, said: "The holy martyr, Baruch Goldstein, is from now
on our intercessor in heaven. Goldstein did not act as an
individual; he heard the cry of the land of Israel, which is
being stolen from us day after day by the Muslims. He acted to
relieve that cry of the land!" Toward the end of his eulogy
Rabbi Ariel added: "The Jews will inherit the land not by any
peace agreement but only by shedding blood." Ben-Shoshan
Yeshu'a, a Jewish underground member, sentenced to life
imprisonment for murder and amnestied after a few years spent
under luxurious hotel conditions, lauded Goldstein and praised
his action as an example for other Jews to follow.

Border guards, police and the secret police protected the
funeral cortege. Baum and Singer related:

An entire unit of border guards precede the cortege; they were
followed by young Kahane group members from Jerusalem who
continuously yelled: "death to the Arabs." While obviously
intending to find an Arab to kill, they could not spot one.
Suddenly, a border guard noticed an Arab approaching the cortege
behind a low fence. The border guard immediately jumped over the
fence, stopped the Arab and, using force, led him away to safety
before anyone could notice. He [the border guard] thus saved him
[the Arab] from a certain lynching.
Behind the young Kahane group members was a coffin, which was
surrounded by leaders of Kahane splinter groups, some of whom
were wanted by the police. (The police and the secret police
claimed later that they did not recognize these wanted leaders.
The press correspondents easily recognized them.) Baum wrote:

Tiran Pollak, a Kahane group leader wanted by the police,
granted me an interview near the coffin. "Goldstein was not only
righteous and holy," he told me, "but also a martyr. Since he is
a martyr, his corpse will be buried without being washed, not in
a shroud but in his clothes. The honorable Dr. Goldstein has
always refused to provide medical help to Arabs. Even during the
war for Galilee he refused to treat any Arab, including those
serving in the army. General Gad Navon, the chief rabbi of the
Israeli army, at that time contacted Meir Kahane to ask him to
persuade Baruch Goldstein of blessed memory to treat the Arabs.
Kahane, however, refused to do so, because this would be against
the Jewish religion." Suddenly the crowd began yelling: "Death
to the journalists." I looked around and realized that I was the
only journalist inside the crowd of mourners. I clung to Tiran
Pollak and begged him to "please protect me." I was scared to
death that the crowd might recognize me as a journalist.
Military guards transported Goldstein's coffin to Kiryat Arba
through Palestinian villages. A second round of eulogies was
delivered in the hall of the Hesder Yeshiva Nir military
institution by a motley of religious settlers, including the
aforementioned Rabbi Dov Lior. Lior said: "Goldstein was full of
love for fellow human beings. He dedicated himself to helping
others." The terms "human beings" and "others" in the Halacha
refer solely to Jews. Lior continued: "Goldstein could not
continue to bear the humiliations and shame nowadays inflicted
upon us; this was why he took action for no other reason than to
sanctify the holy name of God."

Tohay Hakah reported in Yerushalaim on March 4,1994 upon another
Lior eulogy of Goldstein a few days after the funeral. He
recalled that Lior several years ago was excoriated in the press
for recommending that medical experiments be performed on the
live bodies of Arab terrorists. The outcry against this
recommendation influenced the attorney general to prevent the
otherwise guaranteed election of Lior to the Supreme Rabbinical
Council of Israel. The attorney general, however, did not
interfere with Lior's current rabbinical duties. The press
reported upon other eulogies, delivered not only in religious
settlements but in religious neighborhoods of many Israeli towns
during the days immediately following the slaughter. The Hebrew
press reportage of these eulogies suggests that the most
virulent lauding of Goldstein and the calling for further
massacres of Arabs occurred in the more homogeneous religious
communities.

The approval of Goldstein and his mass murder extended well
beyond the perimeters of the religious Jewish community. Secular
Israeli Jews, especially many of the youth, praised Goldstein
and his deed. That Israeli youth were even more pleased by the
massacre than were the adults is well-documented. The concern
here nevertheless will be with the adult population, which in
many ways is the most significant. According to Yuval Katz, who
wrote an article published in the March 4, 1994 issue of
Yerushalaim, it is not true that "with the exception of a few
psychopaths, the entire nation and its politicians included, has
resolutely condemned Dr. Goldstein, even though, luckily for us,
all major television networks in the world were last week still
deluded by this untruth." Katz told how a popular television
entertainer, Rafi Reshef, who was not controlled as tightly as
the moderators in sedate panels, "could this week announce the
findings of some reliable polls." Katz continued:

It is important that according to one poll about 50 per cent of
Kiryat Arba inhabitants approve of the massacre. More important
is another poll that showed that about 50 per cent of Israeli
Jews are more sympathetic toward the settlers after the massacre
than they were before the massacre. The most important poll
established that at least 50 per cent of Israeli Jews would
approve of the massacre, provided that it was not referred to as
a massacre but rather as a "Patriarch's Cave operation," a nice-
sounding term already being used by religious settlers.
Katz reported that the politicians and academics interviewed by
Reshef failed to grasp the significance of those findings.
Attributing them to a chance occurrence, they refused to comment
upon them. He tended to excuse them:

I presume that those busy public figures, along with everybody
else who this week exerted himself to speak in the name of the
entire nation simply did not have time to walk the streets in
the last days. Yet, with the exception of the wealthiest
neighborhoods, people could be seen smiling merrily when talking
about the massacre. The stock popular comment was: "Sure,
Goldstein is to be blamed. He could have escaped with ease and
have done the same in four other mosques, but he didn't."
The impression of many other Israelis corresponded to the Reshef
findings. People were rather evenly divided into two categories:
in one category the people were vociferous in cheering the
slaughter; in the other category the people mostly remained
silent and condemned the massacre only if encouraged to do so.
Katz continued:

Therefore, this was the right time to draw finally the obvious
conclusion that we, the Jews, are not any more sensitive or
merciful than are the Gentiles. Many Jews have been programmed
by the same racist computer program that is shaping the majority
of the world's nations. We have to acknowledge that our supposed
advancement in progressive beliefs and democracy have failed to
affect the archaic forms of Jewish tribalism. Those who still
delude themselves that Jews might be different than [people of]
other nations should now know better. The spree of bullets from
Goldstein's gun was for them an occasion to learn something.
The wise comments of Katz were not heeded in Israel except by a
minority. It may be that had more Israeli Jews paid attention
and heeded the words of Katz the murder of Yitzhak Rabin would
have been averted. In the view of this book's authors, the
important difference between the real shock caused by Rabin's
murder and the lack of shock caused by Goldstein's massacre lies
in the fact that Goldstein's victims were non-Jews.

Although less direct than Katz, many other commentators in the
Israeli Hebrew press have focused upon that part of the Israeli
Jewish public who were shocked by the rejoicing over the
massacre of innocent people and disturbed by the apologia
offered by many politicians and public figures. Some of those
people who were shocked described the backers of and apologists
for Goldstein as "Nazis" or "Nazi-like." These same people, who
can be considered moderate hawks rather than Zionist doves, had
before the massacre reacted negatively to the use by a few
Israeli Jewish critics of such terminology in describing a part
of the Israeli Jewish population. These "moderate hawks" had
habitually labelled many Arab organizations, such as the Abu
Nidal group and the Popular Front for the Liberation of
Palestine, "Nazi" or "Nazi-like." They did not repudiate their
views about these Arab organizations; they merely concluded that
some Jewish individuals and organizations also merit being so
labelled on equal terms with some Arabs. The prestigious
journalist, Teddy Preuss, reflected upon all of this in a most
severe but substantially representative manner in his March 4,
1994 Davar article:

Compared to the giant-scale mass murderers of Auschwitz,
Goldstein was certainly a petty murderer. His recorded
statements and those of his comrades, however, prove that they
were perfectly willing to exterminate at least two million
Palestinians at an opportune moment. This makes Dr Goldstein
comparable to Dr Mengele; the same holds true for anyone saying
that he [or she] would welcome more of such Purim holiday
celebrations. [The massacre occurred on that holiday.] Let us
not devalue Goldstein by comparing him with an inquisitor or a
Muslim Jihad fighter. Whenever an infidel was ready to convert
to either Christianity or Islam, an inquisitor or Muslim Jihad
fighter would, as a rule, spare his life. Goldstein and his
admirers are not interested in converting Arabs to Judaism. As
their statements abundantly testify, they see the Arabs as
nothing more than disease-spreading rats, lice or other
loathsome creatures; this is exactly how the Nazis believed that
the Aryan race alone had laudable qualities that were
inheritable but that could become polluted by sheer contact with
dirty and morbid Jews. Kahane, who learned nothing from the
Nuremberg Laws, had exactly the same notions about the Arabs.
Really, Kahane had the same notions about non-Jews. Although
less scathing than Preuss, other Israeli commentators suggested
the same consideration.

In contrast to the above criticism were the even more numerous
comments about the harm caused to Israeli Jews by the Goldstein
massacre. The lament in the February 28, 1994 Haaretz Economic
Supplement, for example, was headlined: "Goldstein's massacre
caused distress on the Tel-Aviv stock market." Other papers
voiced similar sentiments. More importantly, Shimon Peres and
other senior dovish politicians presented a typical political
apologia in their criticism of the massacre, which they
delivered in a meeting of the Knesset Committee for Foreign and
Defense Affairs. Specific detail of this meeting is included
below to illustrate the real opinions of most Israeli
politicians and their general disregard of a major massacre of
non-Jews except as it affected the interests of Israel and its
allies. A March 8, 1994 Haaretz article reported the discussion
at this meeting. Peres wasted no time expressing heartfelt shock
about the murdered Palestinians but spoke instead about the harm
to Israel caused by the "pictures of corpses that the entire
world could watch." Peres did not condemn the armed religious
settlers for their public rejoicing and shooting; he deplored
the harm caused to Israel and to themselves by the pictures of
them. As quoted in Haaretz, Peres added: "The events in Hebron
also adversely affected the interests of President Mubarak and
King Hussein, and even more of the PLO and its leadership."
Peres then went on to say: "We have had Jewish Kibbutzim located
in the midst of Arab inhabited areas for 80 years, and I cannot
recall a single instance of such a slaughter nor of firing at
Arab buses nor of maiming Arab mayors." At this point in the
discussion senior Likud politicians interpolated Peres. As
reported in Haaretz:

The first to interrupt Peres' speech was Sharon. "Kibbutzim are
dear to me no less than to you, but there have been many cases
when somebody from a kibbutz would go out to murder Arabs."
Peres answered: "The two cases are not comparable, because in
the case under discussion the murderer was supported by a whole
group of followers." Benny Begin [answered]: "Why are you always
talking in generalities?" Peres [responded] : "I am not. I only
maintain that in order to pursue the peace process we need the
PLO as a partner, and now this partnership is in straits and we
need to help the PLO." Sharon [answered]: "You mean that we
should help that murderer [Arafat]." Peres, angrily banging the
table [responded]: "And what about Egyptians with whom you,
Likud, made peace? Didn't Egyptians murder Jews? Really. What's
the difference between war and terrorism? Does it make any
difference how 16,000 of our soldiers were killed? Everywhere,
states are making deals with terror organizations." Netanyahu
[spoke]: "No state exists that has made a deal with an
organization still committed to its destruction. The PLO has not
rescinded the Palestinian Covenant. You are dwelling upon the
crime committed in Hebron not in order to reassure people [Jews]
living there but in order to advance your plan to establish a
Palestinian state." Peres [answered]: "It is you and your plans
that will lead to the formation of a Palestinian state, because
it is you, the Likud, that created the PLO in Madrid. It is you
who conceived the autonomy in the first place, contrary to all
our [previously pursued] aims." Netanyahu [stated]: "Autonomy is
not the same thing as state." Peres [continued]: "But it is
Sharon who is first to say that autonomy is bound to lead to a
Palestinian state... I am not less steadfast than are you; this
is why I have elaborated the most restrictive possible
interpretation of autonomy in Oslo, in relation to its
territory, power and authorities. This is why we are against
international observers and consent only to the temporary
presence of representatives from the countries contributing
money. And regarding the Palestinian Covenant, they have
renounced it publicly, but they find it difficult to convene
their representative bodies to ratify this renunciation." Begin
[answered]: "Let me remind you that the PLO has not undertaken
publicly to rescind the Palestinian Covenant." Peres [answered]
: "I don't give a damn about you and/or your legalistic
verbiage! Arafat said that he renounced the Palestinian Covenant
and for me Arafat is the PLO."
The above passage shows, among other things, that knowledge of
Israeli politics and more generally Jewish affairs can be best
attained by using the original sources of what Jews say among
themselves.

The continuing process of Goldstein's elevation to the rank of
saint by groups of Israeli Jews and his worship as such began
soon after the massacre. In his February 28, 1994 Haaretz
article, Shmnuel Rosner recounted a sermon delivered on the
Sabbath after the massacre by Rabbi Goren, the former chief
military rabbi and chief rabbi of Israel. Rosner wrote: "Goren's
conclusion was that next time an authorization would be needed
for a massacre. The authorization should come from the community
'not from the [present] illegal government."' Rosner observed
that the audience liked Goren's sermon but would have preferred,
as would numerous other Israeli Jews, that the army rather than
Goldstein had committed the massacre.

In the days and weeks after the massacre, appreciation of
Goldstein and his deed spread throughout the Israeli religious
community and among its supporters in the United States. The
initial expressions of that appreciation may be most
significant, because they were spontaneous and because they
illustrated the influence, even beyond the messianic community,
of an ideology that approved indiscriminate killing of Gentiles
by Jews. Avirama Golan described in her February 28, 1994
Haaretz article how news about Goldstein on the day of the
massacre became known in the overwhelmingly Haredi city of Bnei
Brak and how the next day a religious Jewish crowd reacted with
praise of Goldstein during a mass entertainment event. The
massacre occurred on Purim, the festival during which religious
Jews are merry and sometimes drink alcoholic beverages to the
point of drunkenness. Bnei Brak streets were filled to capacity
by joyful celebrants that day; a special security force,
comprised of religious veterans of the Israeli army's elite
units, had been hired by the mayor to enforce order and modesty.
Golan described the response in the streets to the spreading
news of the massacre:

A hired security guard, with a huge gun in his belt, a black
skullcap on his head, and special insignia of "Bnei Brak
Security Team " on his chest, stared at a fundraising stall.
Then he noticed his pal across the street. "A Purim miracle, I'm
telling you, Purim miracle," he shouted at the top of his voice.
"That holy man did something great. 52 Arabs at one stroke."
However, the fundraiser, a slim yeshiva student, was skeptical.
"That's just impossible," he said. "Those must be just stories."
But the people standing around confirmed the news. "It was on
the radio," they said. "Where?" "In the Patriarchs' Cave in
Hebron." The yeshiva student turned pale. "I don't mind the
Arabs, but it is us who will pay the price," he said. "What are
you talking about?" the security guard shouted, "It's a Purim
miracle. God has helped." People around the stall formed two
groups: on the one hand those who said that God Himself ordained
a well-deserved punishment of the Arabs; on the other, those who
remained silent throughout. The fundraiser went on writing
receipts and shaking his head. "Oh," he said, "nothing really
happened." The Bnei Brak functionary's wife said that dozens of
visitors who, as is customary on Purim, visited their home that
morning, were shocked. "By the murder?" somebody asked. "To tell
you the truth, not exactly by the murder. About what may now
happen to the Jews."
Jumping to the evening of the next day, Golan continued: "Masses
of religious Jews were expected to come to Yad Eliahu Stadium
[the biggest in Israel] to be entertained by the famous
religious jazz singer, Mordechai Ben-David. For months before
the massacre, this evening had been planned as a demonstration
intended to save the land of Israel from Rabin, Peres and other
Jewish infidels." All factions of the religious community were
represented in the crowd. Golan again continued:

The first part of the evening passed quietly and even rather
dully. Only after the intermission, some minutes before the star
of the evening was to appear, the crowd went on a rampage. The
master of the ceremony called upon a Kiryat Arba resident to
address the crowd. He started by praising that "righteous and
holy physician, Dr. Goldstein, who rendered us a sacred service
and got martyred in the process." The speaker called upon the
audience to mourn him. By and large, the audience remained
silent. Some applauded. Only a single individual, wearing a
small beard and a knitted skullcap, stood up and yelled: "I
disagree; that was a cold-blooded murder!" Instantly he was
physically assaulted. Many in the crowd yelled: "Kick the
infidel out of the hall!" The tempers calmed down only when Ben-
David finally appeared on the stage and began singing. Outside
after the performance some people reminisced that more Gentiles
had been killed by the Jews in Susa during the original Purim
[75,000]. They, therefore, reasoned that this was the right time
to kill a comparable number of Gentiles in the holy land.
No wonder that Dov Halvertal, a member of the almost defunct
faction of the NRP doves, told Golan: "This Purim joy epitomizes
the moral collapse of religious Zionism... If religious Zionism
does not undertake soul-searching right now, I doubt if it will
ever have another opportunity."

Subsequent developments showed that neither the religious
Zionists nor other factions within the Jewish religious
community were or are in any mood to engage in soul-searching.
On the contrary, the appreciation of Goldstein and the feeling
that Jews have a right and duty to kill Gentiles who live in the
land of Israel are growing. In his March 23, 1994 Haaretz
article, Nadav Shraggai discussed the visit of a delegation of
all Israeli branches of the Bnei Akiva, the large youth movement
affiliated with the NRP, to Kiryat Arba and Hebron, which was
then under a curfew selectively applied to its Arab inhabitants.
The purpose of this visit was to "encourage Jewish settlers."
Yossi Leibowitz, a settler leader from Hebron, as described by
Shraggai, "beaming with satisfaction visible in his face asked
the delegation: 'Have you already visited the tomb of holy Rabbi
Doctor Goldstein?'" The visitors rejected the suggestion but did
not utter one word of rebuke to the worshippers of the new
saint. They then had to withstand a flurry of abuse from their
local Bnei Akiva comrades who argued that their refusal to pay
homage to Goldstein amounted to support of the left. Local
rabbis affiliated with the NRP seconded the denunciation. Rabbi
Shimon Ben-Zion, a senior teacher in the local Hesder Yeshiva
and hence a state employee, delivered a eulogy of Goldstein and
of what he called "his act." He added: "[If the government]
keeps bowing low to Arabs, all of whom are murderers, [and if]
the Jews fail to establish a firm rule over the land of Israel
[there will be] more Goldsteins." Most visitors made counter-
arguments; they were nevertheless influenced by their hosts'
arguments; they came to believe that their duty to support the
Jewish settlers in Hebron was more important than any minor
disagreements about Goldstein's sainthood.

Gabby Baron reported in the March 16, 1994 Yediot Ahronot:

Deputy Minister of Education Mikha Goldman was physically
assaulted yesterday after delivering a welcoming speech at a
meeting of Jerusalem's district teachers in the Binyaney Ha'umah
hall in that city. He managed to avoid being hurt. His speech
infuriated dozens of religious teachers, because he talked about
his visit to Kiryat Arba and the shock he experienced when
finding how enthused the religious school children were by the
massacre in the Cave of the Patriarchs. A virtual riot erupted
in the hall, which was filled by about 5000 Jerusalem district
teachers, as soon as he spoke about it. Dozens of religious
teachers jumped onto the podium. A female teacher who managed to
reach it [the podium] picked up a flowerpot from the speaker's
table; she was ready to hurl it at him when at the last moment
she balked. All the religious teachers assembled in rage in
front of the podium and decried the deputy minister as "a
fascist." Goldman insisted upon continuing his speech. When he
ended, he had to leave the building under heavy guard, thanks to
which the pursuing teachers were unable to injure him.
Neither Education Minister Arnnon Rubinstein nor Prime Minister
Rabin uttered a single word in condemnation of the incident.

On April 5, 1994, Israeli radio reported that Rabbi Shimon Ben-
Zion had distributed a leaflet among the Kiryat Arba and Hebron
settlers requesting financial contributions for a book about
"Saint Baruch Goldstein." On April 6, Yediot Ahronot published
the text. The book refers to Goldstein as "Rabbi Doctor Baruch
Goldstein of blessed memory, let the Lord avenge his blood." The
Kiryat Arba municipal council backed the ideas of Ben-Zion. In
his April 5, 1994 Haaretz article, Arnnon Barzilay reported that
two days earlier Gush Emunim leaders, including Mayor Benny
Katzover, had an amicable talk with Prime Minister Rabin who
apologized to them for his past outbursts against them and
promised never to repeat them. (The outbursts anyway were
intended for consumption of the Israeli "doves," Arafat and the
Western media.) The two sides agreed to cooperate closely in the
future. Thus, Rabin understandably found it ill-advised to say
anything about Rabbi Ben-Zion's idea.

About one year later the Kiryat Arba municipality obtained a
permit from the Civil Administration of the Occupied Territories
to build a large and sumptuous memorial on Goldstein's tomb,
which has become a place of pilgrimage. Thousands of Jews from
all Israeli cities, and even more from the United States and
France, have come to light candles and pray for the intercession
of "holy saint and martyr," now in a special section of paradise
close to God and able to obtain for them various benefits, such
as cures for diseases from which they suffer, or to grant them
male offspring. The visitors have donated money for Goldstein's
comrades. No Orthodox rabbi has criticized this.

The well-publicized worship of the new saint has brought
increasing opposition from secular Jews. (The opposition of
Palestinians, especially those living in Hebron, to the hero-
worship of Goldstein and to the monument to this mass murderer
are not within the scope of this book but should be obvious.)
After a long campaign in the press, Knesset members passed a
piece of legislation in May, 1998, that prohibited the building
of monuments for mass murderers and ordering removal of existing
ones. The Israeli army should have removed the monument
immediately after passage of the law in the Knesset. Instead
army spokesmen announced that negotiations over the Goldstein
monument were on-going with Goldstein's family and local rabbis.

The book in praise of Goldstein, titled Blessed the Male, was
published in 1995 and sold in many editions. Most of the readers
were from the religious public. The book contained eulogies of
Goldstein and halachic justifications for the right of every Jew
to kill non-Jews. Rabbi Yitzhak Ginsburgh, the then head of the
Kever Yosef (tomb of Joseph) Yeshiva, located on the outskirts
of Nablus, wrote one chapter of that book. The essence of Rabbi
Ginsburgh's views were presented in Chapter 4. His and other
such ideologies, even if expressed more cautiously, explain
Goldstein's massacre, the considerable support Goldstein and
later his followers have received from religious Jews and the
ambiguous attitude of Israeli governments to this crime. Those
people, especially Germans, who were silent and did not condemn
Nazi ideology before Hitler came to power are also, at least in
a moral sense, guilty for the terrible consequences that
followed. Similarly, those who are silent and do not condemn
Jewish Nazism, as exemplified by the ideologies of Goldstein and
Ginsburgh, especially if they are Jews, are guilty of the
terrible consequences that may yet develop as a result of their
silence.






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