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53258
From: akira, [DNS_Address]
Subject: "Today he is a baby, tomorrow he is a fighter"
URL: https://www.zeteonews.com/p/today-he-is-a-baby-tomorrow-he-is
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WARNING: MEHDI HASAN IS ON THE SUBSTACK. Delete at your emotionally reactive discretion, Bopp. "Today he is a baby, tomorrow he is a fighter" Mehdi’s Monday Memo on the latest call for genocide, plus new GOP cowardice MEHDI HASAN MAR 11, 2024 (Photo by Abed Rahim Khatib/picture alliance via Getty) Imagine the scene. A prominent Muslim cleric, funded by the government of a Muslim-majority country, goes in front of the cameras and calls for the killing of all Israelis. When asked, “Babies too?” he answers, “The same thing. You can’t be clever with the Quran.” What do you think the reaction inside of Israel would be? How about the response from the West and especially from Western media? Outrage? Condemnation? Endless discussions about Islamic extremism, Quranic incitement, and the need for religious reform? But what if I told you that the cleric isn’t a Muslim but actually… a far-right Israeli Jew? And the call for genocidal violence isn’t against Israelis but against Palestinians in Gaza? Last week, the head of the Shirat Moshe Hesder Yeshiva in Jaffa Rabbi Eliyahu Mali said at a yeshiva conference that the entire Gazan population should be killed, claiming that “there are no innocents.” When asked, “Babies too?” Mali replied, “The same thing. You can’t be clever with the Torah.” “The message in this is very clear, if you will not kill them - they will kill you," he declared at the conference and on camera. “Today's terrorists are the children of the previous operation that you kept alive, and the women are actually the ones who create the terrorists.” The rabbi claimed that there was no difference between "the 18, 16, 20, 30- year-old man holding a weapon at you” and the children in Gaza because, he argued, they are the “future generation” of terrorists. “Today he is a baby, today he is a child, tomorrow he is a fighter. Today's 18-year-old terrorists were eight-year-old children ten years ago in the previous operation.” Shocking, right? But it gets worse. Mali is not some random or fringe rabbi. He is one of the most senior Israeli religious figures in the city of Jaffa and his students go on to serve in the Israeli military. “He’s not just head of a yeshiva; he’s head of a hesder yeshiva,” wrote former State Department adviser Barnett Rubin on Twitter. “Many yeshiva students do not serve in the military, but hesder yeshivas combine Torah study with military service. So young military recruits are being taught that genocide is a religious duty.” (That endless stream of TikTok videos from sociopathic Israeli soldiers in Gaza filming themselves committing war crimes now makes a lot more sense, doesn’t it?) But wait, there’s more! Mali’s yeshiva received the equivalent of around $800,000 in subsidies from the Israeli government last year – the same year in which Israel received at least $3.8 billion from the United States in economic and military aid. Mali’s yeshiva also receives tax-deductible donations via a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in the United States called the Central Fund of Israel. So if you are an American taxpayer reading this post then, congratulations, you are helping fund this preacher of hate and terror. The inconvenient truth for Israel’s liberal defenders, in the United States, the UK, and beyond, is that Mali is far from an isolated case. Anti-Palestinian racists and religious extremists dominate Israeli politics; the likes of Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich are senior members of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. Genocidal and fascistic sentiments have been spreading across vast swaths of Israeli society for many years now. Polls suggest ordinary Israelis not only back this murderous assault on Gaza, which has led to more than 30,000 Palestinian deaths, but aren’t too bothered by the suffering of the civilian population and want more firepower to be used against the strip. Last week, CNN’s Clarissa Ward interviewed a group of unhinged Israeli protesters who are physically blocking humanitarian aid from reaching the children of Gaza. “Not a single loaf of bread should go there ’til our hostages are coming back,” one of them told Ward. Meanwhile, the Israeli government has been silent in the wake of Mali’s rabid comments while the rabbi himself has tried to deflect criticism by pointing to the one portion of his speech where he insisted Israeli soldiers should obey the orders of their superiors. (To her credit, Merav Michaeli, the head of Israel's opposition Labor Party, has called for Mali to be fired from his post). To reiterate: this is an Israeli government-funded, hate-preaching, genocide- inciting rabbi in Jaffa who has helped educate and train some of the Israeli soldiers who are now fighting in Gaza. His organization remains eligible for tax-deductible donations from the United States. And yet, not a peep so far from CNN, NBC, ABC, the BBC, the Washington Post, the New York Times, or the Times of London. Subscribe The Republican Party That You Knew Is Dead Chris Sununu is the self-styled ‘moderate’ Republican governor of New Hampshire. He has spent the past few years lambasting former president Donald J. Trump. Sununu has called Trump “f**king crazy” (April 2022), a “loser” (April 2023), a “coward” (January 2024), and an “asshole” (February 2024). On Saturday, Sununu endorsed Trump. Mitch McConnell is the self-styled ‘mainstream’ Republican leader in the Senate. In the wake of the attack on the Capitol in January 2021, McConnell accused Trump of being “practically and morally responsible for provoking” the violence, describing the former president’s actions “unconscionable”. Meanwhile, Trump has spent the past three years personally attacking McConnell as an “old broken down crow” and a “piece of sh*t,” while also targeting his (Taiwan-born) wife Elaine Chao with vicious, racist abuse. Last Wednesday, McConnell endorsed Trump. I could go on and on. But what’s the point? The spinelessness of Republican leaders in the face of Trump has been clear for all to see for almost a decade now. Is anyone really surprised to see McConnell throw his own wife under the bus and endorse Trump? Remember 2016, when Trump suggested Senator Ted Cruz’s wife was ugly and then Cruz… did phone banking for Trump (and has since become a full-on Trump sycophant)? (Screen shot via Twitter) The Republican Party of Sununu and McConnell and other self-styled ‘moderate’ or ‘establishment’ Republicans “no longer exists,” bragged Don Jr. on Saturday. “People have to understand that America First, the MAGA movement, is the new Republican Party. That is conservatism today.” I hate to agree with the former president’s failson, but he’s right. The Republican Party, as we once knew it, is gone. It’s finished. It’s dead. Thanks to the cowardice, complicity, and cynicism of its most prominent leaders. Subscribe What I’m Watching Saturday Night Live’s cold open featured Hollywood star Scarlett Johansson doing a hilariously brilliant ‘Scary Mom’ spoof of Republican senator Katie Britt’s much-mocked response to the State of the Union. What I’m Quoting “In a time of deceit telling, the truth is a revolutionary act” - attributed to George Orwell. Who I’m Meeting Look who I had the privilege of having dinner with in Doha last week. The one and only Motaz Azaiza, who has been an invaluable voice for Gazans since October 7th. Subscribe ***Reminders*** Zeteo is still in soft-launch mode. Our shows, and full content and list of contributors, won’t be released until late April. In the meantime, have you seen our trailer? Or my announcement post for Zeteo? Or my viral video on the top seven lies about Gaza? |
53260
From: mitra, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Welcome to Desert Religions
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You think Muslims are the only ones to suffer from such horrific polemics? Does a Yeshiva Rabbi compare to the President of a country? Hatred in the ME is served with pablum. A few days ago you wrote you don't care about ancient religious writings (Don't have the exact quote) yet it is these writings that are playing out in misery of today and Muslims aren't just victims but also players in this contest. "Egypt’s newly elected president, Mohamed Morsi, was caught on tape about three years ago urging his followers to “nurse our children and our grandchildren on hatred” for Jews and Zionists. Not long after, the then-leader of the Muslim Brotherhood described Zionists as “bloodsuckers who attack the Palestinians,” “warmongers,” and “descendants of apes and pigs.” These remarks are disgusting, but they are neither shocking nor new. As a child growing up in a Muslim family, I constantly heard my mother, other relatives, and neighbors wish for the death of Jews, who were considered our darkest enemy. Our religious tutors and the preachers in our mosques set aside extra time to pray for the destruction of Jews. For far too long the pervasive Middle Eastern qualification of Jews as murderers and bloodsuckers was dismissed in the West as an extreme view expressed by radical fringe groups. But it is not. All over the Middle East, hatred for Jews and Zionists can be found in textbooks for children as young as 3, complete with illustrations of Jews with monster-like qualities. Mainstream educational television programs are consistently anti-Semitic. In songs, books, newspaper articles, and blogs, Jews are variously compared to pigs, donkeys, rats, and cockroaches, and also to vampires and a host of other imaginary creatures. Consider this infamous dialogue between a 3-year-old and a television presenter, eight years before Mr. Morsi’s remarks. Presenter: “Do you like Jews?” 3-year-old: “No.” “Why don’t you like them?” “Jews are apes and pigs.” “Who said this?” “Our God.” |
53262
From: akira, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: Welcome to Desert Religions
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Spare me the lecture. I'm wondering what your opinion is regarding US supplying Israel with the lethal weapons it's using for its mass murder and starvation campaign. Do you support US complicity or not? |
Responses:
[53263]
53263
From: mitra, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: Welcome to Desert Religions
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So you approve of training children to hate as long as their targets are Jewish? "So long as you pit each other tribe against tribe you will be a little people ..." Lawrence of Arabia |
Responses:
None
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