“Catch the Jew ” by Tuvia Tenenbom
Catch the Jew by Tuvia Tenenbom is a book that came out in 2015. He is a political writer and a journalist. He has published articles in many newspapers throughout the world. The book is very well written and the concept involves interviewing people in Israel from around the world and of course Arabs and Jews. I think I will find much to write about as I take excerpts from his book and relate them to you, my readers.
In the heart of a Palestinian neighbourhood he interviews Irving Moskowitz. A Jew living amoung Arabs who has set himself up as a real-estate broker and one way or another he buys Arab properties and sells them to Jews. He is well protected by armed guards. He lives in Maale Zeitim. Of course in theory if an Arab sells property to Jews he can be killed. In a nefarious way he arranges for the transfer of properties that in a two state solution would remain part of Palestine.
It is the nature of nationalities to live amoung their own. This happens all over the world, and in Toronto as well. Why does it have to be? Why doesn’t the Israel government buy land from Jews in Jewish neighbourhoods and sell them to Arabs and Vice-versa. Oh you say the people will not buy. They will if the price is subsidized by the government so that the property is too good a buy to turn down. When you get to know somebody as a neighbour, you learn to like and live with them.
All people like to get their way and lie to achieve their ends. The less powerful in most cases lie more often. Our author interviews Hanan Ashrawi . Hanan is the human face of the Palestinian Liberation Organization PLO and projects a likeable image of the Palestinians. She is a Christian Arab and behind her desk is a map of Palestine that does not show Israel or the al Aqsa mosque . After all she is a Christian. She states that the Palestinians have been living on their land for hundreds and thousands of years. That is a monstrous exaggeration, but she says the Palestinians are paying for European anti-Semitism, which in my humble opinion is to some extent true. Hanan claims the Christians in the holy land have the longest tradition of Christianity. When the Israelis left Ramallah there were 20% Christians and now there are 1.5%. The Muslims kicked out the Christians but she adroitly refuses to discuss this. She eventually admits there were Jewish tribes there but has no knowledge of the Jewish temple. According to her there never was a Jewish state at that time. When I was a youngster the Jews going to the holy land referred to the country as Palestine. What would have happened if the Jews called their state “Palestine” Good question!. All the inhabitants of that era called themselves Palestinians.
I ask an Israeli soldier if any of his political views have changed since serving on the Lebanese border or in Hebron. Yes, he says I have become for of a rightist. Standing at the checkpoint is not easy. You don`t know what will happen next. Most days the Palestinians push their 10 year old kids to throw stones at us. What can you do, fight with 10 year old children. I can hear the near-by schools and they teach the kids to hate Jews.
The author meets a journalist called Gideon Levy. He is from the Sudetenland in Germany. He says that the more he sees the occupation is brutal and cruel, he becomes more radical. He says the Israelis believe that they are the “Chosen people” and have been victimized and therefor are entitled to everything. Gideon does not speak Arabic, has no Arab friends and does not report on the Palestinian atrocities. He is just not interested. He says the average Palestinian wants peace more than the Israelis. He wants the Israelis to be super human even if they lose their country.
Gerald Steinberg of the right-leaning NGO monitor covers 150 international NGO`s operating in Israel. At least 50 are funded by Germany or German foundations. All of them are on the Palestinian side. They fund , it appears any group from Europe with anti-Israel bias. The German Protestant Brot fur die Welt , he tells me is one of the worst. They fund social groups that try to talk Israeli youth to avoid joining the army.
Itimar Shapira He is a guide chosen by the people who sent the Italian students. Nothing more or less than a self-hating Jew. At Yad Vashem, the monument for millions of Jews slaughtered. He walks you around showing the pictures of what the Nazis did to the Jews and says that is what the Jews are doing to the Palestinians.
Rabbi Akiva is spiritual leader. He is a Rabbi for Human Rights. He never takes sides in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and will never make a move that can be interpreted as taking sides. I ask him what he thinks and this is what he says.
Israel is abusing Palestinians inside Israel and out. Israel practices racism against Palestinians. Israel steals Palestinian lands. Israel imprisons Palestinians illegally. Israel constantly engages in discriminatory measures against innocent Palestinians. All settlements are illegal. Israel regularly breaks international law. Israel is a brutal occupier. Israel`s army routinely helps and protects settlers` criminal activities against Palestinian villages. Israel acts and behaves like any other brutal dictatorship in history. Israeli archeologists routinely destroy evidence that might support Palestinian claims to the land. And so on and so on.
I can`t explain how he doesn’t break into laughter when he tells me he is apolitical.
Haamad Awidat, a Druze who produces segments for various European news agencies welcomes me into his office. He lives in the northern part of the Golan Heights. Who will win in a war I ask? The Arabs will win because they are connected to the land. The Jews are connected with their bank accounts, not with the land.
Just out of curiosity, I ask an Israeli military officer for comments, and he tells me there is an “old custom” of European diplomats who join up with leftist activists of all kinds on a regular basis and that they plan and plot their next moves together against Israel and its activities.
What transpires today is not so much about Arabs as it is about Jews and Europeans. Haaretz and B`Tselem are made up of Jews who dedicate their lives to help those who hate them. As for the Europeans: Their diplomats behave in a manner that is the opposite of anything diplomats should be doing, with their journalists composing articles that are the opposite of what journalists should be doing. And to add insults to injury the Europeans generously fund Jews who don`t like Jews.
Beit Hanina, the all-Arab neighbourhood in Jerusalem where “Medecins sans Frontier” MSF is located, has been cited to me by Palestinians as an example of of an Arab neighbourhood that is being neglected by the Israeli authorities due to their racist ideology. I walk the streets. What can I say? If this is an example of a neighbourhood being neglected, its residents should do their utmost to keep it neglected for eternity.
I should interject here. I was in Jerusalem and taken around by Khaled Abu Toamah a few years ago. He did show me neglected Arab areas. Murray Rubin
From an interview of Tenenbom–The Europeans hate the Jews, they don`t even know how much they hate the Jews. Its so embedded in their culture, so ingrained in them, and that’s what everybody sees and nobody knows.
An Epilogue
Witnessing the tremendous investments and endless attempts of the Europeans, not to mention the Germans, all geared to undermine the Jews in this land, in Israel, was an extremely unsettling experience. Being showered with love by the Arabs, just because they thought I was an Aryan, a German, was very discomforting. Watching the Jews and seeing how powerless they are, even now that they have their own state, was distressing
If logic is any guide, Israel will not survive. Besieged by hate from without and from within, no land can survive for very long .
I DO NOT AGREE WITH TUVIA TENENBOM
Here is why. If North Korea and Pakistan can exist because they have the bomb, so can Israel. The problem is that the world thinks Israel will not use it. The world must realize that now the Jews will play for keeps. Nobody cares about the Jews but Jews. Use the bomb if necessry and let the world know we mean business We should start by throwing out the European NGO`s. What other state allows NGO`s in whose main purpose is to undermine the state. They are all anti-Semites in any case. Jews need allies. Let`s start with the Asians. They are not anti-Semitic because most are not Christians .
