Dear Friends and Patriots,

Below is an excerpt from an excellent and thoughtful article by Alan Bergstein, published yesterday at RenewAmerica. The article's title is "The basis and dangers of the current war against Israel." The excerpt contains updates of truths I've written about for several years.

If you've noticed, American Jewry is not too supportive of Israel. Many of our people have committed to "Wokeness" and are enthralled with the Progressive movement, whose advocates, together with the radical Black Lives Matter racists, are openly supportive of the Palestinian goal of destroying Israel. It's our opinion that fake "Jewish" groups such as T'ruah, J-Street, Jewish Voice for Peace, Bend the Arc, Americans for Peace Now, and a host of other Progressive-led agencies endanger Jews and Israel with their constant condemnations of Israel being an "apartheid state" that denies the Palestinians their freedoms. We're tired of hearing the "Two State Solution" touted as a solution to end 75 years of the victimization and bloodshed of Jews. Even the once formidable Anti-Defamation League, once a staunch defender of Jews and Israel under its longtime leader Abe Foxman, now led by former Soros and Obama bigwig Jonathan Greenblatt, has seen fit to only support Israel's right to self-defense. In his May 14th proclamation on the attacks on Israel, he never once mentioned Hamas, Iran, or the Palestinian Authority by name as the terrorist culprits. Rather, he touted his group's mysterious "Social Cohesion Summit" as a means to bring the warring parties together. Sounds like another great-sounding but useless social justice program to tame the primitive savages of Hamas and the PLO. Won't work!

To an extent, a too-great extent if you ask me, many American Jews have become very much like errant Republicans – those who ignore the party's platform and "vote their conscience." We (people of my ilk) refer to such errant Republicans as RINOs. You all know what that acronym means. Similarly, there are those too-many American Jews who have become JINOs. You know what that means? To me, it means there are Jews who will loudly proclaim their Jewish ancestry and heritage for whatever gain it affords them, yet when it comes down to it they don't want to be bothered with the reality of Israel, nor of their own cultural heritage. "What does Israel have to do with me?" they ask. It's a good question; that I'll grant. But I have an answer for it. I also have some thoughts about the cultural heritage question.

Israel is the motherland of all Jews, and of all Christians. It's the well-spring of our common heritage as believers in the one true God. Muslims, mostly of Arab descent, may lay claims to that land, but only because they've dwelled in the region for many centuries – most of those centuries as flock-tenders and wanderers. If the Holy Bible is to be believed, and I admit I'm one who believes, Jews have a rightful place in Israel that's backed up by the Holy Bible and by recorded history. When they departed from the land that God granted to them, it wasn't by their choice – the Romans ordered them out. You do understand the diaspora, don't you?

There are those who contend there was a modern diaspora that took place between 1946 and 1950. Those who contend this will say the Palestinians were forced from their homes and lands and had to flee for their lives. I'm certain you've heard that story. It's the one the Palestinians have hawked for decades. But it's not true. To a far greater extent the Palestinians just left. They were aided by the new United Nations and urged on by political forces in the region, and lived for decades as modern wanderers – in one Muslim host country, then another. They moved around quite a bit because their host nations were reluctant to have them in their midst in the first place, and after putting up with all the problems Palestinians caused them, they were more than willing to push them away. So, as Arabs have done for thousands of years, they wandered. And they caused trouble wherever they went.

Do you understand the history of Palestine? You do understand there never was such a country, don't you? They're called Palestinians because they came from an area designated by the British as "the Palestinian Region of the Levant." It's actually from ancient Greek and Roman terms for the area, but was never officially the legal name of anything. The British ruled the area under the Sykes-Picot Treaty, which broke the Middle East into the countries we're now familiar with, except for Israel and Jordan. That territory was ruled under the "British Mandate" as Trans-Jordan. It was the same area most of the early Zionists moved to, mostly from Russia. It's true that local Arabs and others who populated the Middle East between the 1870s and late 1940s had no love for the Zionists. That's still their sentiment today. But they make no distinction between an everyday Jew and a Zionist. To them, Jews and Zionists are one and the same – but they aren't. In the end, that doesn't matter. What matters is what's going on today in Israel. And, it should matter to all Jews everywhere. Anti-Semitism is a powerful force, and is as alive today as it ever was.

Most people seem unaware of the precursor event for the violence of today. Do you know what started it all? If not, I'll tell you.

The current flare-up came when Palestinian propagandists made claims of Israeli evictions of Arab-Israelis from their properties in and around Jerusalem. The way it was described, the Arabs were just booted off their lands and out of their homes – evicted just because the Jews who took over wanted what they had, and the "anti-Palestinian" Israeli government refused to help the poor Palestinians who were displaced. You may want to believe that, but it's totally untrue. The truth is the claims to those properties (I think a total of eight are involved, but don't quote me on the number) has been adjudicated over and over again, and almost every time the matters go to courts, it's the Jewish claims that get upheld. There are clear titles to those properties going back in at least one case to 1875. IT'S A PROPERTY OWNERSHIP DISPUTE! The first round of cases was heard in courts over 40 years ago. In that round, the Jewish owners were told they did indeed own the properties, but couldn't displace those who were occupying them. The court ruled the Israeli-Arabs were tenants and could stay, but had to pay the Jewish property owners rent. That's something that never happened. In the most recent round of cases, five of the eight Arab "tenants" were declared squatters, which paved the way for the owners to commence eviction actions. It was when the evictions began that this entire charade was cooked up. That's what all the fuss is about. And it's a great window into that world. See how little it takes to set off a huge conflagration? Who wants WWIII to start over a property dispute where one side has never been right?

The truth of today's Palestinians is – they are parasites. They live to make war on Israel. In truth, they raise their children to be "holy warriors against Zionism." They're paid to do so by their funding-masters in Iran and Qatar. The Palestinians, per capita, are the most heavily subsidized population on the planet, yet the overwhelming majority of them are dirt poor. Their "authorities" take all the money donations from their benefactors, which includes all the Muslim Brotherhood operations in the U.S., along with private donations from all over the bleeding-heart world. Being professional victims is very, very lucrative for the officers of the PLO and of HAMAS. Recall that Yasser Arafat's widow is sitting on a $2B kitty in a Swiss bank – left to her by her Palestinian Patriot Warrior husband. That's just one example of the graft and corruption going on there. Consider also Mahmoud Abbas, the current President of the PLO. He was elected to that office for a four-year term in 2005. He's still in office. Though his term is four years, it's been 17 years since an election has been held. Oh, and lest I forget, the authorities there do make restitution payments for every Palestinian who gets killed by Israeli actions. They breed their children to die as martyrs, then cash in. Do you get the picture?

Patrick Henry wrote, "Gentlemen my cry peace, peace – but there is no peace." That's the truth of the Middle East. There is no incentive for peace. All the incentives are toward conflict. They're all aimed at just what we're watching today.

As to that Jewish cultural heritage question, I have a few thoughts to share. If I were a Jew, I'd be a darned good one. By that, I mean I wouldn't cut corners. I would adhere to my faith as if it was the only important thing in my life, aside from my blood relatives. I wouldn't belong to any Reform temple, either. That would be too easy. One's faith isn't supposed to be easy. Today, we see all too many people who have fully embraced secularism as their new faith. What does secularism require of you? It requires living and breathing. Otherwise – no demands at all. You can believe whatever you want, do pretty much whatever you want, and be anything you want. There are zero constraints for the secularism adherent. Every thought, deed, and consequence can be rationalized away – none of which threatens your status as a secularist. But...how exactly can one claim to be a Jew and be a secularist, too? Doesn't that constitute an untenable dichotomy, if not an outright conflict of interest? DNA may make one a Jew, but my DNA makes me a Lusitanian, and I never go around proclaiming or living off my Lusitanian heritage. So, to my mind, if you're going to claim you're a Jew – BE A JEW! I'm okay with that. As for JINOs – them, I have no time for.

Thank you for paying attention to this public service announcement.

In Liberty,

Steve