COLUMN: New Laban and new Nephi
It’s a fact that the 10 million Jews that live on this planet are automatically granted Israeli citizenship and encouraged to live in Israel at the expense of ordinary American taxpayers via American foreign aid to Israel.
Israel is probably the only country in the world where obtaining citizenship is solely based on a person’s religion. Therefore, one could theorize that 10 million people might come and live “in peace” on the tiny, tiny piece of land called Palestine. Currently there are 3 million Palestinians and 6 million Israelis already living there.
Such an Israeli immigration policy will not promote peace when those immigrating are encouraged to live on Palestinian land now occupied by Israelis.
I have always believed that if you pick any Israeli by random and ask him, “What is your favorite thing to do?” He’d say, “Making up stories.” Of course, history is one of these stories. Fortunately, we have historians who write in details. Everyone will have the opportunity to go to the library and research the truth.
Mothers have always warned their children about not to tell lies, because it’s not good policy. In regard to Israelis attempting to steal Palestinian land we hear the lies and propaganda again and again, because maybe if they say it enough times they, and the world, will believe it.
Israelis and their “democratic” government have consistently proved they don’t want peace. They have no intention of removing the occupants from Palestinian land. No intention at all. The fact that the Israelis have no intention of removing the settler thieves is supported by its immigration policy and many other facts.
One of those facts came on Sept. 22, 1998, when the Israeli newspaper Maariv published results of a survey in which two-thirds of Israelis supported the idea of expelling Palestinians from their land. In Hebron and the rest of the occupied territories the vast majority of the settler thieves are supporters or members of the Kach and Moledet political parties. Those parties’ policies explicitly call for “transfer” of Palestinians from their lands by any means, including violence. Transfer is a nice euphemism for stealing.
Settler thieves own automatic machine guns and many times have used them to kill innocent, peaceful, law-abiding Palestinians. In Hebron, an Israeli settler named Baruch Goldstein, who grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y., entered a mosque in the middle of the holy month of Ramadan carrying his automatic machine gun and murdered and seriously injured 250 praying Palestinians. The Israeli weekly Kol Haeir reported that some Israelis were placing a special Mezuzah (prayers/Jewish commandments) for Baruch Goldstein on the main entrance of Jerusalem’s Western Wailing Wall.
Today beside the Mezuza you will find a dedication: “In memory of [Baruch Goldstein] the son of Israel, may G-d bless him.” Goldstein the terrorist is a legend in Israel and always will be and is a perfect example of how Israelis respect other religions.
Another Israeli legend is “Yigaal Amir” who killed the Israeli Prime Minister Yitzaak Rabin in 1995. In Amir’s first court appearance he was crystal clear about his principles and justification for killing his own prime minister.
Amir told the judge Rabin’s assassination was meant to stop the peace process. When asked where he got his terrorist ideas, Amir told the magistrate he drew on the Halacha, which is the Jewish legal code. Amir said, “According to the Halacha you can kill thy enemy.” And when asked whether he acted alone, he replied, “It was God.” Amir is one of many Israelis who refuse to think of peace with Palestinians.
It is not a mystery of why Israelis don’t respect other religions when they read in the holy book of Talmud the following “great” verses: * “Just the Jews are humans, the non-Jews are no humans, but cattle,” Kerithuth 6b, page 78 Jebhammoth 61
* “The birth rate of non-Jews has to be suppressed massively,” Zohar 11, 4b
* “The non-Jews have been created to serve the Jews as slaves,” Midrasch Talpioth 225
* “The non-Jews have to be avoided even more than sick pigs,” Orach Chalim 57, 6a.
One should keep in mind that talmud is Hebrew for “to learn.”
I went to al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem three years ago, and at the mosque’s gate I had to ask for permission from an Ethiopian Jewish soldier to enter the mosque. I had to tell him what I was doing in the mosque and how long I was to stay. Today, it’s impossible for me to enter Jerusalem.
So I ask, “Is it acceptable for Israelis to interrogate Muslims going to a mosque to pray?” And if so, “Is it OK for someone to interrogate Jews going to the synagogue to pray?” The double standard is hypocritical.
Israelis want Palestinians to learn the meaning of the word “compromise.” Palestinians know what compromise is all about, because they have compromised their homes, their resources, and their land.
In The Book of Mormon, Nephi 3: 8-20, we read the story of Nephi and Laban, and when God showed no mercy to Laban, the evil, He asked Nephi to smite off his head with his own sword. And the moral of the story is that the power of God does not allow evil to last long. And Israeli racist policies sow the seeds from which they will reap.
Yasir H. Kaheil is a graduate student in water resources. Comments can be sent to him at yasir@cc.usu.edu.