Recently, an Israeli religious school was in the news a great deal
because of a tragic attack that cost the lives of 8 students
(this attack was preceded by Israeli attacks that had cost the
lives of 238 Palestinians.) Yet, in all the media attention, little was reported about the kind of beliefs this school and others often teach their students.
Accordingly, IF Americans Knew have posted the excellent book by Israel Shahak: JEWISH HISTORY, JEWISH RELIGION on our their website. Shahak, a survivor of Bergen-Belsen, was
a highly respected Israeli professor, endorsed by such writers as Noam Chomsky, Edward Said, and Gore Vidal.
http://www.ifamericansknew.org
Shahak's information is profoundly unsettling, but it is important to understand it if one is to fully comprehend the conditions Palestinians are living under.
One of Shahak's major themes is that a great deal of significant information is never translated from the Hebrew into English. For that reason, he wrote this book. Below is a short excerpt:
"My final, more general example ...
concerns the attitude of the Hassidic movement
towards non-Jews. Hassidism - a continuation
(and debasement!) of Jewish mysticism -
is still a living movement, with hundreds of
thousands of active adherents who are
fanatically devoted to their 'holy rabbis',
some of whom have acquired a very
considerable political influence in
Israel, among the leaders of most parties
and even more so in the higher echelons
of the army.
"What, then, are the views of this movement
concerning non-Jews? As an example, let
us take the famous Hatanya, fundamental
book of the Habbad movement, one of the
most important branches of Hassidism.
According to this book, all non-Jews are
totally satanic creatures 'in whom there
is absolutely nothing good'. Even a
non-Jewish embryo is qualitatively
different from a Jewish one.
The very existence of a non-Jew is 'non-essential',
whereas all of creation was created solely for the
sake of the Jews.
"This book is circulated in countless editions...
In Israel these ideas are widely disseminated
among the public at large, in the schools and
in the army. (According to the testimony of
Shulamit Aloni, Member of the Knesset, this
Habbad propaganda was particularly stepped
up before Israel's invasion of Lebanon in
March 1978, in order to induce military
doctors and nurses to withhold medical
help from 'Gentile wounded'.
This Nazi-like advice did not refer specifically
to Arabs or Palestinians, but simply to
'Gentiles', goyim.) A former Israeli President,
Shazar, was an ardent adherent of Habbad,
and many top Israeli and American politicians -
headed by Prime Minister Begin - publicly
courted and supported it.
It is easier to read this book in the print version, and you are urged to buy it at local bookstore, or order it from the University of Michigan Press
(http://www.press.umich.edu
titleDetailDesc.do?id=114956) or Amazon above.
However, at top of this posting a pdf of the book is available of the text along with the text on IF Americans Knew available online so that it will be quickly available and easily searched.
