Haaretz
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Commentary & critique of main article
The son of a leading Hamas figure, who famously converted to Christianity, served for over a decade as the Shin Bet security service's most valuable source in the militant organization's leadership, Haaretz has learned.
Mosab Hassan Yousef is the son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, a Hamas founder and one of its leaders in the West Bank. The intelligence he supplied Israel led to the exposure of a number of terrorist cells, and to the prevention of dozens of suicide bombings and assassination attempts on Israeli figures. [...]
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Commentary & critique of main article
The son of a leading Hamas figure, who famously converted to Christianity, served for over a decade as the Shin Bet security service's most valuable source in the militant organization's leadership, Haaretz has learned.
Mosab Hassan Yousef is the son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, a Hamas founder and one of its leaders in the West Bank. The intelligence he supplied Israel led to the exposure of a number of terrorist cells, and to the prevention of dozens of suicide bombings and assassination attempts on Israeli figures. [...]
Chassidwi umos haolam.
ReplyDeleteDon't know if it is really healthy for this guy that his activities should be published together with his name.
ReplyDeleteNormally, you do not do this.
This is the official response to the article from Islamic Media Front which is a Salafi publication: (Salafis are generally regarded as an extremist movement):
ReplyDelete"Christianity’s evangelical institutions are dangerous too. There are many Christian schools in Gaza where 90% of the students are Muslims.
While Yousef’s criticisms of individuals are not related to Islam, his criticisms of Hamas’ leadership have merit. What do [Hamas supporters] know of Islam except the name? We see their fanaticism for the movement as if it were fanaticism for religion.”
I thought that was interesting.
Yousef IS an Evangelical Christian missionary whose goal first and foremost is to convert both Jews and Muslims to Christianity.
Yousef gave up his family in order to become a Christian missionary.
Although he may have provided valuable military intelligence to Israel, I believe that we should not glorify him nor should we parade him about as a "Jewish" hero or even a righteous Gentile because Yousef abandoned his practice as a monotheist in order to engage in the idolatry of worshipping Jesus as god.
Hamas is certainly a dangerous terrorist organization that is a threat to Jews worldwide, but Christianity is MUCH more of a threat to Jews and Judaism both in Israel and globally than Hamas.
We have to follow our Torah and our Rabbis who forbid praising idolaters and with regard to accepting donations from Christians and Christian organizations.
One things for sure: this kid has cajones!
ReplyDeletecojones
ReplyDeleteJersey Girl speaks wisely.
ReplyDeleteOnce again jersey girl bends over backwards to defend muslims, islam, jihad, hamas, and any other group that you might view negatively. Just ignore the rocks, the burning tires, the buses, the pizza shops, the imams and their battle cries, etc etc. Only Jersey girl knows the real Islam, and only those who react in fancy articles to the reality know what is really Islam. Reality is all just an illusion to be ignored.
ReplyDeleteTo say Hamas is not practicing Islam is like saying Michael Jackson was not a singer. We are not blind and we are not buying it.
Btw, where did the article state that he is a missionary? Not all xtians are missionaries. I did not read anywhere that he is a missionary.
All Christians are missionaries as one of Christianity's most basic tenets is witnessing the "good news" that Jesus Christ is your savior.
ReplyDeleteSince ALL Christians believe that those who do not accept Jesus will burn in Hell for Eternity, every Christian you meet wants to save you from damnation by getting you to accept that Jesus is Lord.
I am not saying that Hamas is not practicing Islam, ALL Orthodox Islamic scholars say that Hamas is not practicing Islam.
There are approximately 15,000 members of Hamas and there are 1.5 Billion Muslims in the world. Hamas represents 1/1000th of 1% of all Muslims in the world. In other words, 99.99999% of all Muslims in the world are not members of Hamas.
To say that Hamas is Islam is like saying that a belief held by 1/1000th of 1% of all Jews in the world is representative of Judaism.
That would be 140 Jews like Jack Teital, Baruch Goldstein and Manis Friedman (you know that there are many more than that) who believe in murdering every Arab man, woman and child just because they are Arabs.
Is THAT what our Torah teaches us?
And by the way, I and many, many other Jews monitor the Friday derashes of many Imams around the world as they are broadcast in Arabic each week. I will let you know when anyone credible (not MEMRI who famously mistranslates! out of context) hears an Imam issuing a battle cry against Jews.
Don't believe the anti Islamic propaganda you are being bombarded with by Christian missionaries.
Just remember that Muslims the world over are also being bombarded with anti Jewish propaganda by the same Christian organizations who have shaped your world view.
"All Christians are missionaries "
ReplyDeleteThat's not true.
If I said all Muslims are terrorists would you accept such stupidity? Yours is equally stupid. And I'm sure you'd fly off the handle if anyone ever dared say that the Muslim religion demands JIHAD or that a significant percentage of Muslims are terrorists and terrorist supporters.
"To say that Hamas is Islam is like saying "
I did not say "Hamas is Islam." Non-starter.
You speak of Hamas comprising a small percentage of Muslims. Who cares? Of course a sectarian group will be small. It doesn't mean they do not adhere to the overall banner of a religion. Your argument is akin to me saying that since Satmar is such a tiny fraction of the world's Jews (even a subset within Orthodox Jews, which are already a minority) therefore Satmar is not really practicing Judaism. Or Bostoner Chassidim since they are so tiny, are not practicing Judaism. Absurd. Of what relevance is it that a small fraction of the world's muslims are hamas members? A small fraction of the world's muslims are also PLO members, Aqsa brigades members, Islamic Jihad members, Jama'ah Islamiyah members, iranian revolutionary guard members, etc etc - Who cares?
Let's leave aside the fact that the popularity and support of hamas well exceeds the # 15,000. Again it is irrelevant even with that distortion.
If you refer to "scholars" as the westerner-convert/born-again Muslims who teach academically in universities, sorry for the reality check but those are not Muslims scholars any more than Reform Kippa-wearing R. Suzy Smith is a rabbi.
I cannot speak for Jack Teital, since I know next to nothing about him, but I know quite certainly that you ascribe incorrect views inaccurately to Baruch Goldstein ZT"L Hashem yikom damo and R Manis Friedman. I read about R Manis Friedman who spoke about what soldiers should do in warfare with an enemy nation. He did not say people should go around murdering people (Arabs) on the streets. And it seems he later apologized, so he must not be too solid in his view. Likewise you invented something about Baruch Goldstein because your buddy-buddy Muslims don't like him. You of course cannot back up your statement of his views because that was not his view.
Are you honestly suggesting that the mosques in Israel do not incite violence against Jews?! You are living in la-la land. It must be the capital of new jersey.
Acts 1:8 Jesus said, "You shall be my witnesses".
ReplyDeleteThe noun that means "to witness" is used 24 times in the New Testament.
Luke 24:46-48: "Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day. And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are my witnesses of these things." Confession of the facts. This is the task of a confessional witness (cf. John 15:27 and Acts 1:21, 22).
The gospel is itself an evangelistic confession designed to bear witness and thereby win converts. This is expressed in John 20:30, 31. "Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples which are not written in this book, but these have been written in order that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God, and in order that by believing you may have life in his name."
I could go on and on and on. But basically you should get the point that "witnessing" (ie. converting, preaching, evangelizing etc) belief in Jesus Christ to non believers is as much a part of Christianity as Torah study is to Judaism.
I am very much aware that mosques in Israel incite violence against Jews.
I am also aware that Russian Gentile political leaders in Israel incite violence against Jews.
I am also aware that there are many synagogues especially among the settlers who incite violence against Arabs.
I am also aware via firsthand testimony of many former soldiers that the IDF senselessly and cruelly incites violence against Arab civilians.
There is one standard of right and wrong and that is our Torah.
We have to constantly be reminded of this Eternal Truth.
"If you refer to "scholars" as the westerner-convert/born-again Muslims who teach academically in universities"
ReplyDeleteNo, I am in frequent touch with the English speaking son of a very senior Imam in Egypt who is the scion of generation of Egyptian Imams.
I am able to understand derashes in Arabic, so I am quite certain that I am not being fed a watered down version of the ideology since I listen to the same speeches in Arabic also.
My father comes from a generations long line of Chief Rabbis from Arabic speaking countries and as such my father and grandfather had a great deal of contact with Islamic leaders.
My father taught me everything I know about Islam. I have only verified the teachings of my father via my years of contacts with Islamic scholars all over the world that I made while doing research and writing for a scholarly publication of interest to Sephardic Jews.
You shall not pervert judgment; you shall not respect persons, nor take a bribe; for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise, and perverts the words of the righteous. Justice, justice shall you pursue, that you may live, and inherit the land which the Lord your G-d gives you. (Deut. 16:18-20)
Too many "Jewish" organizations have been taking too much money and other gifts from Evangelical Christians and this may very well be the biggest threat to Jewish continuity today.
I am far from alone in this belief. Many very well respected Rabbis the world over have been saying this, including Chief Sephardic Rabbi Bakshi Doron who gave the keynote speech at the 2005 World Congress of Imams and Rabbis for Peace and who has authored many articles on the topic.
We should be listening to our Rabbis and not to Evangelical Christians such as Youssef.
>That would be 140 Jews like Jack Teital, Baruch Goldstein and Manis Friedman (you know that there are many more than that) who believe in murdering every Arab man, woman and child just because they are Arabs.<
ReplyDeleteJersey Girl: That is such a load of crock that I now have to seriously doubt everything you have said or will say.
It seems to me that if you really feel the way you do regarding Christianity and Islam as you state in your posts above, you ought to move to some Moslem country and see how you like it.
Joseph2
This past week another synagogue in my area was vandalized with swastikas, KKK etc. They three skinheads (white supremacists) who did it also desecrated the cemetery.
ReplyDeleteNearly every synagogue in my area has been recently vandalized. We regularly see a lot of swastikas, Iron crosses and green paint in the Jewish neighborhoods also.
Have you been listening to what many in the Tea Party movement (20% of Americans and growing) have had to say about Jews and other minorities? It is eerily reminiscent of 1933 Europe (chas v'shalom).
If you look back in history, any time the Christian population becomes more zealot, both Jews and Muslims suffer terribly.
History has also repeatedly shown us (ie. Spain and the Crusades) that anytime Christians declare war on Islam it is also a war on Jews.
My cousins who still live in Morocco are quite happy there. They think that we are crazy to stay in the US given the current anti Semitic sentiments.
There have also been many North African descent Jewish families who came to America to escape the anti Semitism in France who decided that it was even worse in the US, and who then moved to Tunisia or Morocco.
I think that it is good to know that all Muslim countries still have a policy of granting automatic refugee status to Jews fleeing a Christian country (this was the case during WWII. My mother's entire family was saved from the Shoah because they were able to get Algerian visas after taking refuge in the Paris Mosque).
Hopefully things will change in the US. But there are many fears and it is not good to go around with blinders on.
Many of the leaders of our community have taken trips to Muslim countries and some have even bought property or moved business interests.
When Jewish community leaders who are known for their foresight are buying up property in Damascus and meeting with the leaders of Arab nations to firmly establish that the Jews of their communities are still citizens of the countries they left, I believe that this is worth noting and paying attention to.
When the Former Chief Rabbi along with many other leading Rabbis in our community are working full time to establish peaceful relations with the Muslim world, I believe that we should also be paying attention to this.
Regarding your statement in response to my statement:
">That would be 140 Jews like Jack Teital, Baruch Goldstein and Manis Friedman (you know that there are many more than that) who believe in murdering every Arab man, woman and child just because they are Arabs.<"
"Jersey Girl: That is such a load of crock that I now have to seriously doubt everything you have said or will say."
Maybe you google before deciding that something is a "load of crock".
In an interview for the May 2009 issue of Moment Magazine when asked "How should Jews treat their Arab neighbors?", Rabbi Manis Friedman responded:
"Destroy their Holy sites. Kill men, women and children (and cattle)."
I can't link to the article itself, which I did see last June, when it first came out, but there is enough on the web about it to verify that Manis Friedman did indeed say this.
Jews have suffered more under Christianity and Europeans than under Islam, there is no question about that.
ReplyDeleteIt was the European Romans who burned down the 2nd Bais Hamikdosh and put the Jews into their 2000 year Exile. It was the European Christians who implemented anti-Jewish policies. The most anti-Semitic book of all time is the Christian New Testament for the way it denigrates and portrays all Jews.
The Crusades was by Christians and happened in Europe. The Inquisition was by Christians in Europe. The Ghettos were in Europe to keep Jews away from Christians, the real first Apartheid. The Pogroms took place in Europe by rioting Christians. The Cossacks and Chmelnitzki were in Europe blessed by Christian leaders. The Pale of Settlement was in Europe run by the Christian Czars of Russia. Fascism and Communism were created and imposed in Christian Europe. World War One was in Europe among Christian nations that forced Jews to fight for them and kill each other. And, the Holocaust was in Europe, while 99.999% of the Christians either helped it or looked on in silence.
So clearly Jersey Girl's viewpoint should be well-taken because in Muslim lands, while Jews did suffer and were second class dhimmi citizens yet they flourished there for millennia and even when the end came with the rise of Arab Nationalism that was created by the European Nazi trained and inspired Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, and now especially active as Hamas, Jews from Arab lands were kicked out and fled but at least 99.999% of them left with their lives intact to make a new beginning in Israel, France, the Americas and wherever else they settled.
Yes indeed, today modern Israel faces Islamic and Arab enemies, but the real ULTIMATE threats to it have always been from the NORTHERN/EUROPEAN/CHRISTIAN nations, from Germany (as in World War One that undermined the Turks, and later in World War Two with Rommel attacking Egypt to enter Palestine) from the British (who took over after World War One), from the USSR and even from the USA that has not always supported Israel on everything.
The Muslim Turks actually helped the Jews when they defeated the Christian Crusaders once and for all and set up their mostly benevolent rule in Eretz Yisrael for 500 years starting from Suleiman the Magnificent in 1417 to 1917 opening the doors to Jews to come home from EUROPE to Eretz Yisrael and set up communities that became the Haredi Old Yishuv.
When the Jews were expelled from Christian Spain in 1492 if they could make it to the Islamic Ottoman Empire of the Turks they were welcomed and were safe and began to flourish making the Turks rich while Spain became a backwater without its Jews who had enriched it in all ways.
Thank you RaP. You are so eloquent, intelligent and well written.
ReplyDeleteI wish I could express ideas as well as you do.
Shabbat Shalom, Purim Sameach! to all .
Can I ask about the Arabs yelling allah akbar when they murder in Israel - are these xtians or muslims? (yes sometimes both, but that phrase is Islamic, and most of the terrorists are Muslim).
ReplyDeleteWhile you are worried about precious tombstones, there are lives at stake in Israel, there are people being killed, and it is not the xtian pseudo"scriptures" that are motivating the violence.
Speak about 2000 years of exile all you want, but we are not talking about history, we are talking about Right Now. So your point about crusaders, etc etc is irrelevant.
Ignorant people often cite the example of the muslim turks that took in Jews in 1492, but is no one aware of the Almoravids? How about the Almohads? What did they do in Spain? These were Muslims. Do you understand the brutal forced conversions the Jews were put through by this group and other "radical" muslim dynasties? Anyone read the Rambam's letter to Teyman and all his gory descriptions of the brutal Muslim oppression of Jews including the forced beheadings in several places in the middle east?
How about the Grenada massacre of 1066? Does that not count? Thousands of Jews massacred, should we ignore that and chalk it up to "friendly relations" and "tolerant Islam?" Or do we just read what we like to read, all about the "golden age of Spain" which lasted a whole 150 years or so (WOW!) as if that somehow defines all of muslim-Jewish relations in all parts of the world and all eras of history.
You people are woefully ignorant. You bend over backwards to defend islam and to whitewash the jihad that is incumbent upon every good muslim to wage against the Jew and other infidel. Xtianity was bad to us Jews. Boker tov. Islam also treats us badly. Please wake up. The bombs in the buses were not yashka-saults.
Jersey girl you are incredibly naive. You do not understand that they say one thing in English and something else in Arabic. They appeal to the audience. Yassir Arafat Yemach Shemo Vezichro is the prime example. He famously said 'peace peace' but in Arabic he chanted war, war, terror, terror.
ReplyDelete"I am also aware that Russian Gentile political leaders in Israel incite violence against Jews. "
Which ones would those be? Please tell us.
"I am also aware that there are many synagogues especially among the settlers who incite violence against Arabs. "
Baloney.
"I am also aware via firsthand testimony of many former soldiers that the IDF senselessly and cruelly incites violence against Arab civilians. "
Right the far-leftist arab-lovers that hillel brings to campus, that's a great source, real accurate. Right, the IDF incites the arabs... how exactly? By existing? And when the arabs riot (witness what is happening in Hevron right now - oh I forgot, you're in New Jersey, you have no idea what's happening there), and the IDF responds with anti-riot measures like rubber bullets etc, putting their own lives in danger to be merciful to these cruel violent and angry criminals making chaos in the streets, is that the IDF's way of "Inciting" violence from Arabs? Oh I get it. What you're trying to say is that if you react too mercifully with cruel beasts making chaos in the streets, you only encourage them to riot more and be more violent. In that case, you're correct. The IDF should be way tougher with these criminals.
To Student V: Nevertheless the Midrashic literature teaches that at the end of days Yishmael (basically the Arabic Islamic nations) will do teshuva, while Eisav himself having been decapitated, his heirs and maybe like what the Hashem in Torah COMMANDS should be done to Amalek for having destroyed the 2nd Bais Hamikdosh and for all the suffering they inflicted on the Jews out of hate and jealousy, that will come at the end of the still unbroken 2010 years golus and suffering under his regime.
ReplyDeleteChristians are now ALSO responsible for the massive silent holocaust that has lured hundreds of thousands of Jews in America into apostasy by becoming Christians through their ongoing missionizing. They do it by LOVE BOMBING while with the Arabs at least you know who the enemy is to deal with them.
Yes there have been many horrendous and tragic episodes under Muslims and there still are. It started with Muhamad himself when the areas of Saudi Arabia that were dominated by many Jewish tribes that had sought refuge there from the destructions of both Jewish temples were forced to convert to Islam, taken into slavery or beheaded. And the blame can be put at his feet for the ongoing religious hostility of Islam to Jews, but on a broader historical scale, the rise of Islam in Arab and North African lands in the 700s was an important counterbalance to the dangerous rise and spread of Christianity in Europe and the world. There has to be a counterbalance in everything in creation.
The Jews and Israel are still doing a huge balancing act between these two rival cultures and religions, having given birth to both. Christianity and Islam were shaped and molded by Jewish teachers and teachings that were then plagiarized by Christian and Islamic theologians for their own needs and ends. That was the will of Hashem in case, according to what the RAMBAM teaches, to make the gentiles aware of Biblical and Judaic notions, especially of a final messianic age.
So ask yourself if you are talking from the macro perspective or from the micro more personal and emotional one. Each is valid but make sure not to mix up relatively minor (yet very tragic) historical events with the huge forces in history that reveal other patterns in time.
Happy Purim!
So your answer is: *babble babble bla bla bla, I think I know what God is doing up there * The midrashic literature (as if it's one corpus with one solitary opinion, one *true binding 'prediction of the future' that no one argues and everyone agrees with and we all know will come true) the "midrashic literature" says this one thing I like to quote, so close your eyes, shut your mouth and stop pointing out the painfully obvious. And oh yeah, even if muslims are killing you in the meantime, just accept it because their jihad is only temporary and at some later time, they will repent, despite the fact that they cite their religion right now that jihad is incumbent.
ReplyDeleteWow! I'm so enlightened now! How can I thank you?
Have a Happy Purim, and may God and real Torah teachings rid us of illusions that prevent us from seeing reality that is right in front of us.
Student V: It's obvious you don't have a clue about how to debate or discuss a subject. If you disagree with a point of view then state your reasons and cite some facts or examples, but when you launch into silly childish insults like "babble babble bla bla bla" and" you reveal yourself to be infantile and when you say stuff like "close your eyes, shut your mouth and stop pointing out the painfully obvious" the only thing that becomes painfully obvious is your utter inability to remain calm and rational during a discussion as you launch into your own version of jihadistic attacks just because you don't like the way the topic is being handled. Grow up!
ReplyDelete""close your eyes, shut your mouth and stop pointing out the painfully obvious" "
ReplyDeleteThis was not an instruction to you. I was characterizing what you are basically telling me to do with your post. Thus it is not a 'jihad attack' on you - I perceived your response to be telling this to me! In quite condescending fashion, you are telling me that regardless of what I may see or think, don't worry because there's a midrash that says x, y, z and therefore, it's all ok.
The 'bla bla bla' part was overboard, but basically you are giving me a drasha for why I should ignore reality. That was the basis of my statement, or what I meant to convey in not the best of terms. By doing so, you are also trying to say you understand what God is doing, how He is behind this or that event, and therefore how we should react. But this is ludicrous.
"They do it by LOVE BOMBING while with the Arabs at least you know who the enemy is to deal with them."
I don't know how you expect people to take this as a consolation, that at least we know the arabs/muslims are bombing us openly. That makes it ok? That they bomb us and outwardly hate us (as opposed to deception) makes it acceptable? Aside from the fact that they do use deception ("Palestinian" - no such people - an invented lie), and aside from the fact that this really is no consolation even if they were completely honest, the point being debated with Jersey girl was the question of do they hate us or not. You are admitting they do. But you are saying you prefer their hate over the xtian "pseudo-love"-hate or "love bombing" attacks whatever those may be. It's your prerogative to prefer one form of enemy religious coercion/hatred over another enemy's method. But don't tell me that the coercion and hatred does not exist. That is what Jersey girl is trying to tell me throughout this thread.
And while she would want me brought up on charges for suggesting that jihad is demanded of every Muslim by Islamic religion (It is), I'd merely be telling the truth. If I would dare *inaccurately suggest that all Muslims are terrorists/jihadists, I'd be tarred and feathered, but perhaps for good reason since it's not true that all Muslims follow their religion as Muhammad/hadith intended. Not all Muslims are jihadists.
But the same is true for xtians. Even if what she says is true (how did she become such an expert in xtian fables? I certainly don't know much about it and find it hard to believe that she can correctly give us a definitive rendering of their theology... but let's grant her that even for argument's sake) - Even if she is correct that a "true" xtian must witness or whatever the term was that means they have to convert everyone else, that is a parallel to Islam demanding jihad. Not everyone carries out the religion properly or as intended. Not all xtians are missionaries. Yet she wishes to prove from the xtian fables that they are.