This past week, I took a break from Zionism education and traveled to Milwaukee, WI to be with my other people. I am still on a political high from being at the Republican National Convention all week! I cannot describe the feeling being there – forget all the excitement of not only seeing great politicians and personalities up close and speaking to some of them (Rep. Byron Donalds, Chairwoman Rep. Elise Stefanik (who asked me to send her my proposal for Zionism education), Lee Zeldin, Judge Jeanine Pirro, Boris Epshteyn, Speaker Mike Johnson – the best personality), but the actual MAGA everyday people.
I met native Hawai’ians, Hispanic teens from Louisiana and Virginia, farmers from Iowa, Black teachers from the Bronx, an inner-city youth counselor from the south side of L.A, some of my fellow Jews, White people from all over, Arabs from Michigan and Minnesota, Asians from across the U.S., and many many Hispanics. To the point where I wonder if any Latinos are voting for the party of slavery and the KKK because there was such a strong representation at the RNC.
And yet, no one was talking about identity politics. Not one person said ‘as a Jew’ or ‘as a Black person’ or ’as an Asian’ etc – ALL were talking about issues as Americans.
Even when a young Orthodox Jew, Shabbos Kestenbaum, spoke at the convention, addressing Jew-hate at Harvard, and his resolute stance to not cower but fight back at the highest level (he is suing the Harvard Administration, and gave testimony for the Congressional hearings on campus antisemitism), it was not seen as a ‘Jew’ problem, but an American problem that this level of hate is allowed against citizens who are ethnic Jews. Everyone was cheering Shabbos during his passionate speech.
A hostage family was also featured, the family of Omer Neutra, who was a tank commander near Gaza. Full support from the Republican crowd. However, the Washington Post, a liberal rag, had an issue with the Neutra family because they ‘failed’ to mention the ‘suffering’ in Gaza. The liberals care more about the murderous Arab occupiers in Jewish Gaza than the actual atrocities that started this current war.
Eric Trump also mentioned Israel. He did not have to. He wanted to.
You meet a fellow MAGA supporter, it is like meeting a family member who you love instantly. Except for a few obnoxious DC young staffers who liked to talk through speeches, and very few grifters, the vast majority were incredibly friendly and instant friendships were formed.
I was invited to visit farms, churches, restaurants, vacation homes, etc.
We all truly love America. That is the difference between the Patriots and everyone else. The RINOs love globalism, and the Democrats love terrorists, have loved terrorists since 1967 (https://tbtnisrael.com/operation-sig/). Hated Jews since FDR and even before, and championed the KKK as a paramilitary for their pro-slavery party.
The only terrorist flags we saw were at the counter-protests.
However, little did we know that during President Trump’s speech, Houthi terrorists launched suicide drone missiles towards Tel Aviv. One of which hit a friend’s apartment building (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-hVDNBYQ3s), killing one of his neighbors. I’m grateful my friend and his friends are ok, but there is no reason why a Jew had to be murdered by Houthi missiles. Over 220 missiles were launched by Houthi rats for months on end, and only after a Jew was killed, did Netanyahu finally respond and ordered a hit on a Houthi-controlled port city, Hodeidah, in Yemen. The port will be burning for days due to the oil refineries that were also targeted.
The financial terrorism spigot must be turned off. When President Trump was in the White House, Iran was under severe financial sanctions, there was no funding for the terrorist PA in Israel (all of Judea & Samaria is in Israel), no funding to the terrorist UNRWA, and thus, no funding Hamas. Jihad Joe reversed all the de-funding. Nor does it make any difference that Jihad Joe just dropped out of the 2024 election. Whoever replaces him, unless it is Senators Manchin or Fetterman, will be the same on all the issues including terrorism.
Much attention post October 7th genocide is given to the debate, is it Arabs? Is it Islam? Who/what is the actual threat? The answer is, it’s complicated. Sort of.
For thousands of years, prior to Islam, Jews and Arabs were the best of friends. For those who are interested in human migration patterns, the people who would later become Arabs and Jews, were part of the same pre-Neolithic (Paleolithic) group from the Zagros Mountain region, all comprised the J2 Semite haplogroup. As that population moved south, half split east and half split west. The ones in the east became Arabs (named for the Arabian Peninsula) and the ones in the Western portion, were all Semitic tribes as well. Out of those Semitic tribes, Jews emerged in the Hill Country (Judea & Samaria) of Canaan at the start of the Iron Age, about 4,000 years ago.
There were many territorial fights among the Semitic tribes, and Jews certainly joined in (there were even territorial land grabs between the Jewish tribes), and later dominated within Canaan, but none of the fighting was related to hatred of Jews for being Jews. Actual antisemitism did not emerge until the start of Christianity. Pre-Christianity, Jews lived just fine in Europe as well. Jews arrived to Europe first as traders per King Solomon’s request.
Jews felt so comfortable with Arabs that thousands of Jews moved from Israel to the Hejaz region of the Arabian Peninsula after the destruction of the First Temple in 586 BC – so much so that Judea became a protectorate and major trading partner of the Hejaz.
Later, many Bar Kokhba rebels joined the aforementioned Jews after 136 AD.
From 586 BC – until Islam was invented in 610 AD, Jews lived among the then Pagan Arabs without issue. The Arab Himyarite Kingdom of Southern Arabia (what would become Yemen) was so philosemitic that that they adopted the Judean faith, though they did not intermarry with Jews. But, as soon as Islam was invented, the Jews living in that region were treated as dhimmis (second class citizens).
The Quran has a multitude of surahs that mention what to do with kafirs (non-believers); below are just a few:
Surah 3:151: “We shall cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve (all non-Muslims) …”
Surah 2:191: “And kill them (non-Muslims) wherever you find them … kill them. Such is the recompense of the disbelievers (non-Muslims).”
Surah 9:5: “Then kill the disbelievers (non-Muslims) wherever you find them, capture them and besiege them, and lie in wait for them in each and every ambush …”
Contrary to popular (mis)information, the word ‘Islam’ does not mean peace, it means submission.
When it comes to Jews and Muslims/Arabs, here is where history gets interesting:
Christians did far more damage to Jews in Israel than any Muslim ruler or Empire. The Crusaders near decimated the Jewish population in Israel, and the British occupiers openly worked against Jews in our homeland (post 1922, when it ceased being a Mandate and became an occupation – https://tbtnisrael.com/british-occupation-background/). The British fomented each and every Arab riot against Jews in Israel, from 1929 – 1948, and then numerous British Officers trained Arab armies against Israel.
It was an Arab Muslim ruler, Saladin I, who invited Jews back to Jerusalem after the Crusader years. The Ottoman Muslims, for most of their 400 year rule (1882 is when the Ottomans stopped Jewish immigration to Palestine) also left Jews fairly alone in Israel, thanks to their Millet system – though they collected onerous taxes, they let other faiths and ethnicities rule themselves especially in Palestine. In fact, they treated Jews better than Christians for half of their rule – both in Palestine and throughout the Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans also asked Jews to rebuild Tiberias. The exception was Jerusalem, there the dhimmi laws were strictly applied to both Jews and Christians.
Many may not know that Jews were not being assaulted by only Arabs prior to the British occupation, but mainly by Druze. At one point, Jews and Druze in Israel were intermarrying, but the Druze put a stop to that practice in the 10th century. For centuries after, it was Druze who were attacking Jews in the North of the country. There were even two massacres against Jews by the Druze – one in the 17th century in Safed and one in 1838. The pogrom in 1834 was Arab led, and stopped by an Egyptian Muslim ruler. In 1831, the Muslim Viceroy of Egypt annexed what was called Southern Syria, and Safed (Tzfat) was part of that region.
The Druze (who are not Muslim but are Arab) by 1936 drove out most of the Jews from Peki’in in the late 1930s, a northern town in Israel where Jews lived for nearly 2,000 years since the destruction of the Second Temple – in fact, many of the Priestly class members decamped there and became farmers. It was not until 1948 that the Druze in Israel pledged allegiance to Israel, as they saw that Jews were going to be in charge.
Jews fared far worse under dhimmi status in most other parts of the Muslim world. Iran is a prime example – prior to Islam, Persians (who are not Arabs) were Zoroastrians and had a strong affinity for Jews. As soon as Islam took over, the stance of Jews greatly deteriorated.
Yemen was the worst in terms of treatment of Jews, despite the Habbani Judean clan being elevated and used as warriors – they fought alongside Arabs and were hired as security detail for Imams and Sheikhs. The Jews in Yemen even developed their own cuisine in its entirety as Muslims did not eat with Jews, aside from the small Habbani tribe.
Skipping ahead, it was a Muslim nation, Albania (though they recently became majority Christian), who saved Jews during the Holocaust. Jews also were able to flee to Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan during WWII. Many Jews chose to stay in Central Asia as they were treated better in that region than under Slavic Christian parts of the USSR.
Today, those Central Asian ties have transferred over to alliances with Israel. Azerbaijan, a very Muslim nation being one of them. Israel supplies weapons to Azerbaijan, and in turn, Israel is Azerbaijan’s top oil importer.
Kosovo, a Muslim country, has an embassy in Jerusalem (in exchange for recognition of Kosovo’s independence). And it was advantageous for the Ottomans to import Circassians from the Balkans to Israel in the 1880s; today, they make up the majority of Muslims in the IDF.
Arab Christians in Israel are a completely separate category. 80% of that population are Arameans who lived in Israel for over 1,000 years, and the rest are actually genetic Jews who were converted. Just like the Bedouins in Jordan, Israel, and the Sinai are mostly genetic Jews, descendant from Jews who moved to the Hejaz and eventually made their way back home.
In late 2022, I traveled to a portion of the Arab world (Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Oman, and all over the UAE (not just Dubai and Abu Dhabi) on a non-Jew tour (was on a Jew tour in spring 2022; it was very skewed and did not show reality). What I saw was clear; while the governments may be either pro-Israel or at least Israel tolerant, the vast majority of the populations are not, never will be, which made me thankful for police states in the Middle East because democracy for Arabs equals electing the Muslim Brotherhood. The hatred of Jews is deeply ingrained from centuries of propaganda. There are are fewer than 1500 Jews in Pakistan and yet Pakistanis hate Jews and Israel with a passion. There are no more Jews in Algeria and Libya and we see the same disease of Jew-hatred there. Even the UAE, prior to very recently, there were never Jews living there and yet until the Abraham Accords, they did not acknowledge the existence of Israel. Therefore to even think of any of the now moderate Arab nations taking over governance of Jewish Gaza post-war is not just unthinkable, it is dangerous to Jews in Israel.
Nearly all the nations in the Middle East were once Christian: Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Iraq, or proudly Pagan (Saudi Arabia where 3 goddesses were worshiped and some are bravery bringing back that cultural acknowledgement). Islam swept over all those nations. Look what happened to other countries like Iran and Turkey (the people living in Turkey are mostly Greeks and Armenians, not Turks – Turks are people from the Steppes of Central Asia who came down and overtook what became Turkey. Just like the Khazars all converted to Islam from Christianity, so too did the Turks. And through the Ottoman occupation, imposed Islam onto the indigenous people of Turkey.
The only nation standing in the way is Israel. Having Israel not be majority Muslim, having strong Jews in Israel who fight back is an existential threat to Islam. There will always be attempts of wars and future genocides against Jews in Israel. The only way to block those attempts is for Israel to be the strongest in the region – to show the Middle East that Jewish genocides will result in elimination of an Arab occupier population on stolen land (Gaza and 2/3rds of Judea & Samaria), to show that one missile attack (not 220) will result in the destruction of a port 1300 miles away. Islam is here to stay, it is the fastest growing religion (of the three actual religions – Christianity, Islam, Buddhism), and we are never going to get our peaceful Pagan Arabs back.
It took Christians 2,000 years to reform. The Holocaust was the culmination of nearly 2,000 years of Christian antisemitism. Who knows if and when Islam will reform – it already had its ‘Golden Age’ and since then, it has reverted backwards. Until there are so many Muslims that we cannot name them on two hands who speak out loudly against antisemitism, I will hold to the claim that the issue is Islam (despite a few tolerant countries in Central Asia), and the Western liberals who uphold the religion of submission and Kafir-hatred.