Updates

I'm over at my Mom's. I forgot the Saints were playing today. As of now, she isn't too happy with them. The Panthers are ahead by 20 points.

It does give me a chance to post a few thoughts. I found out about the justifiable action Israel began in Gaza yesterday. No nation should be expected to allow it's people to be bombarded on a daily basis by Qassam rockets. From what I've read, Israel has destroyed a terrorist training camp and killed over 200 terrorists.

Jack has a good round-up.

I missed last weeks Haveil Havalim. 198 is up.

Miriam has some great news about Chabad House of Mumbai re-opeing.

Who Will Speak?

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.
When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.
When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.
When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I was not a Jew.
When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.

The above poem is famous because it speaks volumes about the injustices and atrocities the Germans carried out. No one spoke against them except a few brave souls who ended up the concentration camps as well.

There's a new silence going on in the world today and it is being helped by none other than the United Nations. The United Nations has a special envoy only listens to the Palestinian side. These envoys usually have never met an Israeli victim of a Palestinian terrorist. The United Nations also has a special refugee unit for just the Palestinians, never mind the fact there were more Jewish refugees from Arab countries than there were Palestinian refugees. The United Nations has has a special day of solidarity with Palestinians when the 1947 partition plan went through. They don't have a special day of solidarity with Israel for the same partition.

When India is attacked by Muslim terrorists, very few offer excuses for the terrorists. The murderers are seen for who they are: Cold-blooded murderers. During the attacks in Mumbai, the Chabad Center was targeted. India has a total population of 1 billion. Of that billion, 5,000 are Jews.

Mottel written a post well worth reading. An excerpt:

Did the Terrorists target Israelis and Israeli causes -yes, but by the very fact that they indiscriminately killed Jews, regardless of National affiliation or belief, makes it much larger then Anti-Israeli sentiment. It is Judeophobia and antisemitism most foul.

There may be those that can argue that Jewish identity is one entirely separate then that of the Holy Land. Perhaps in the past there was room for philosophical debate, and in the isolated realm of Academia (which by no chance of fate is host to the most vicious and virulent antisemitic tirades spoken in the free world since the fall of the Third Reich) there may be continued room for debate. - I would venture that since Antisemitism went out of style with ashes of our brethren in Auschwitz, Belzec and Chelmno, and has today hidden itself in Anti-Zionism and the pages of the Guardian. Mr. Silverstein may choose differ.

When we deal with Islamic Extremists, however, there is no room for differentiation between Judaism and Zionism -to them they are one and the same. When Daniel Pearl was killed, by Pakistani terrorists might I add, there was no difference between Zionism and Judaism. So to by the victims of Beis Chabad Mumbai.
Mr. Silverstein, may I perhaps suggest (though I by no means recommend) strolling alone down the streets of Gaza city, Damascus or Karachi and see if your separation from "Jewish Nationalism" will be of much use to you . . . If your knowledge of Geo-Political conflict will allow you to point out that you are there to help the Islamic cause . . . Need I any further proof to my words then Silversteins own, and I quote:

"Even the Chabad movement should taken to task for not providing greater security for its facility. In a city already beset by past terror attacks, any target perceived as Jewish or Israeli (not just Israeli government buildings) should have had serious surveillance (i.e. security cameras) and the ability to lock itself down quickly"

Already, Islamic terrorists have moved beyond merely Jewish/Israeli targets. Americans and the British are targeted more and more. Indians are facing more threats.

No excuses for any type of terrorist must be allowed. It shouldn't matter if the victim of terrorism is an Israeli citizen, an Indian citizen, and American citizen, a British citizen, or someone from Bali. No excuses must be made for the terrorists. Terrorists seek to destroy, maim, and murder. Who will speak against these vile acts against humanity?

Speaking Out

The Muslims in India are speaking out against the terrorists who attacked Mumbai.

Throngs of Indian Muslims, ranging from Bollywood actors to skullcap-wearing seminary students, marched through the heart of Mumbai and several other cities on Sunday, holding up banners proclaiming their condemnation of terrorism and loyalty to the Indian state.

Muslims took part in a candlelight march last week toward the Oberoi hotel in Mumbai.
The protests, though relatively small, were the latest in a series of striking public gestures by Muslims — who have often come under suspicion after past attacks — to defensively dissociate their own grievances as a minority here from any sort of sympathy for terrorism or radical politics in the wake of the deadly assault here that ended Nov. 29.

Muslim leaders have refused to allow the bodies of the nine militants killed in the attacks to be buried in Islamic cemeteries, saying the men were not true Muslims. They also suspended the annual Dec. 6 commemoration of a 1992 riot in which Hindus destroyed a mosque, in an effort to avert communal tension. Muslim religious scholars and public figures have issued strongly worded condemnations of the attacks.

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There were 40 Muslims among the dead in the Mumbai attacks. The Muslims in India have realized that terrorism isn't to redress grievances but to murder innocents and that it is an attack against the country in which they live. it is a good start.

There are 140 million Muslims who live in India. The Muslim leaders in India have made a strong stand against terrorist attacks even going as far as not allowing the terrorists to be allowed burial in Muslim graveyards. Perhaps these leaders in India can talk to the leaders of the Palestinian Authority and Arab countries. Instead of making heroes out of child-murderer Sumar Kuntar, shun them. When suicide bombers blow them selves up and try to murder innocents, do not allow them to be buried in Muslim cemeteries. Instead of making martyrs out of those who are willing to gun down high school students, condemn them loudly and offer no excuses for the vile murders they have committed. This will be the real start for statehood for Palestine and peace in the Middle east.

Until all terrorists are condemned and no more excuses are offered for their vile murders, there will not be peace. It cannot be okay for Palestinian terrorists to shed the blood of innocent Israelis. Those terrorists must be condemned as well.

The Answer to Terror

The aim of those who spread the evil of terror besides murdering innocents is to make others fearful and to keep them from moving forward. The answer is not to be paralyzed by the lingering fear. Akiva at Mystical paths has posted Rivka Holtzberg's parents will go to Mumbai and continue the work of their daughter and son-in-law. They will also be taking the couples two year old son with them. This is the answer to terror. I'm worried about what will happen. I can be reasonably think Rivka's parents are fearful as well. Their hope outweighs the fear.

If you are on Facebook, you can help by donating to the HoltzbergCause.

Or you can go directly to Chabad's web-site and donate.

Songbird

Suketu Mehta, from Mumbai writes about the terror attacks. Two paragraphs stuck out. The first:

Mumbai is a “soft target,” the terrorism analysts say. Anybody can walk into the hotels, the hospitals, the train stations, and start spraying with a machine gun. Where are the metal detectors, the random bag checks? In Mumbai, it’s impossible to control the crowd. In other cities, if there’s an explosion, people run away from it. In Mumbai, people run toward it — to help. Greater Mumbai takes in a million new residents a year. This is the problem, say the nativists. The city is just too hospitable. You let them in, and they break your heart

In the news reports on the vile, cowardly, and murderous attacks, time after time, it was reported how the population of Mumbai did their best to help those trapped in the hotels and wounded on the streets. They did so at great risk their lives. Sandra, at the Jewish Center, faced the terrorists head on and slammed a door in their face. Hours later, when she heard two year old Moishe calling her name, she didn't hesitate and ran toward him, scooped him up from amid the bodies of his dead parents, and carried him out of the building. Hers is but one of the many of selfless acts by those in Mumbai who tried to help one another.

The other paragraph that struck me reflects the anger I've been feeling about the Jewish Center attack. I'm angry about the loss of life and all those who were murdered but the attack on the Jewish Center was personal. I didn't know any of those were murdered but they were my people. I know there are many critics of Chabad but my personal experience has been positive. Mehta has this to say:

In 1993, Hindu mobs burned people alive in the streets — for the crime of being Muslim in Mumbai. Now these young Muslim men murdered people in front of their families — for the crime of visiting Mumbai. They attacked the luxury businessmen’s hotels. They attacked the open-air Cafe Leopold, where backpackers of the world refresh themselves with cheap beer out of three-foot-high towers before heading out into India. Their drunken revelry, their shameless flirting, must have offended the righteous believers in the jihad. They attacked the train station everyone calls V.T., the terminus for runaways and dreamers from all across India. And in the attack on the Chabad house, for the first time ever, it became dangerous to be Jewish in India.

Think about that last statement. India has become dangerous for Jews. The sickness and evil of Islamic terrorists is spreading.

It is a war on the openness that we have in the West and in India. It is a war on ideas and the notion that all people are free to chose how to live their lives. It is an evilness and a darkness. There should be no excuses for these vile murderers. Condemnation must be given where ever the attacks occur. There can be no excuse given for terror attacks in Israel, Spain, London, New York, Bali, and India. These terrorists are not freedom fighters. They are not militants. They are cold-blooded murderers who seek nothing more than to silence the songbird of freedom.