Salmon & Black BC 91 19 19 Gloaming Desert Gold

A common misperception is that all the Jews were forced into the Diaspora by the Romans after the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in the year 70 C.E. and then, 1,800 years later, the Jews suddenly returned to Palestine demanding their country back. In reality, the Jewish people have maintained ties to their historic homeland for more than 3,700 years.

The Jewish people base their claim to the Land of Israel on at least four premises: 1) the Jewish people settled and developed the land; 2) the international community granted political sovereignty in Palestine to the Jewish people; 3) the territory was captured in defensive wars and 4) God promised the land to the patriarch Abraham.

In early 1991, Eritrean and Tigrean rebels began a concerted attack on Mengistu forces, meeting with surprising success for the first time since the civil war began in 1975. With the rebel armies advancing each day, Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam fled his country in early May. Rebels claimed control of the capital Addis Ababa shortly thereafter, and the situation of the Beta Israel took top priority in Israel. The Likud government of Yitzhak Shamir authorized a special permit for the Israeli airline, El Al, to fly on the Jewish Sabbath. On Friday, May 24, and continuing non-stop for 36 hours, a total of 34 El Al jumbo jets and Hercules C-130s—seats removed to accommodate the maximum number of Ethiopians—began a new chapter in the struggle for the freedom of Ethiopian Jewry.

Operation Solomon, named for the king from whom one of the theories suggest that the Beta Israel draw their lineage, ended almost as quickly as it began. Timing was crucial, since any delay by Israel could have allowed the rebels to hold the Jews as bargaining chips with Israel or the United States. A total of 14,324 Ethiopian Jews were rescued and resettled in Israel, a modern exodus of the grandest design. Operation Solomon rescued nearly double the number of Jews as were saved during Operation Moses and Joshua, and it did so in a mere fraction of the time.

More than 36,000 Ethiopian Jews now live in Israel and despite both economic and social hardships, their community has an integral part in Israeli society. In 1999, Avraham Yitzhak became the first Ethiopian immigrant to earn an MD degree from an Israeli medical school. In 2011, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs appointed Rachamim Elazar as Israel's Ambassador to Ethiopia, making him the first Israeli of Ethiopian descent to ever serve as an ambassador for the State of Israel. There are still many problems within the Ethiopian community in Israel - poverty, lack of education, etc - but large strides are being made every day.......................As early as the 16th century, Egypt's Chief Rabbi David ben Solomon ibn Avi Zimra (Radbaz) declared that in Halachic (Jewish legal) issues, the Beta Israel were indeed Jews. In 1855, Daniel ben Hamdya, a member of the Beta Israel, was the first Ethiopian Jew to visit Israel, meeting with a council of rabbis in Jerusalem concerning the authenticity of the Beta Israel. By 1864, almost all leading Jewish authorities, most notably Rabbi Azriel Hildsheimer of Eisenstadt, Germany, accepted the Beta Israel as true Jews. In 1908 the chief rabbis of forty-five countries had heeded Rabbi Hildsheimer's call and officially recognized the Beta Israel as fellow Jews.

In reaffirming the Radbaz's position centuries before, Rabbi Ovadia Yossef, Israel's Chief Sephardic Rabbi, stated in 1972, “I have come to the conclusion that Falashas are Jews who must be saved from absorption and assimilation. We are obliged to speed up their immigration to Israel and educate them in the spirit of the holy Torah, making them partners in the building of the Holy Land.”

In 1975, Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren wrote to the Beta Israel telling them, “You are our brothers, you are our blood and our flesh. You are true Jews.” Later that same year the Israeli Interministerial Commission officially recognized the Beta Israel as Jews under Israel's Law of Return, a law designed to aid in Jewish immigration to Israel. The Beta Israel were ready to come home.

Indeed, the Beta Israel were strictly observant in pre-Talmudic Jewish traditions. The women went to the mikvah, or ritual bath, just as observant Jewish women do to this day, and they continue to carry out ancient festivals, such as Seged, that have been passed down through the generations of Beta Israel. The Kesim, or religious leaders, are as widely revered and respected as the great rabbis in each community, passing the Jewish customs through storytelling and maintaining the few Jewish books and Torahs some communities were fortunate enough to have written in the liturgical language of Ge'ez.


Jewish Apathy . . .and its Defeat
The struggle to free the Beta Israel was not fought solely against the Ethiopian government. Much like some timid Jewish leaders during the Holocaust, some recent Jews sought to prevent a shanda fur de goyim (an embarrassment in front of the non-Jews) by not stirring up waves over Ethiopian Jewry.

The history of the Beta Israel's rescue is at times open to debate regarding the heroes of the Ethiopian Jewry movement. As with many struggles to free oppressed Jewry around the world, many advocated and vocalized opposition to those responsible for the lack of action on their behalf. Others, however, argued for a more quiet diplomacy, void of the public demonstrations and arrests that marked the struggle for Soviet Jewry.

Though over 8,000 Beta Israel managed to flee to Israel during his tenure, it was an Israeli official in charge of the Ethiopian Jews' absorption who may best symbolize the insensitivity that an extreme minority of people once held. Yehuda Dominitz who served as Director General of the Jewish Agency's Department of Immigration and Absorption, declared in 1980 that, “[taking] a Falasha (sic) out of his village, it's like taking a fish out of water...I'm not in favor of bringing them [to Israel].” Dominitz also refused to allow his agency to rent buses so Ethiopian Jews in Israel could travel to Jerusalem to observe their ancient holiday of Seged (Dominitz eventually relented, but had the buses take the Beta Israel to Haifa instead of Jerusalem).

Malkah Raymist, a writer for the World Zionist Organization, wrote in 1956 in The Jewish Horizon (of the Hapoel Hamizrachi of America Movement) that, “the reasons [for not bringing Ethiopian Jews to Israel] are simple and weighty. On one hand, they are well off where they are, while their development and mental outlook is that of children; they could fall an easy prey of exploitation, if brought here without any preparation. On the other hand, being a backward element, they would be and it would take several years before they could be educated towards a minimum of progressive thinking.”

In an American Association for Ethiopian Jews (AAEJ) press release, the AAEJ quoted its founder, Dr. Graenum Berger, as criticizing those who sought any delay in the rescue of the Beta Israel. Berger declared, “Not when Jews are dying...these revelations show once again that the policy of influencing factions of the government of Israel always have been against the immigration of the Ethiopian Jews. And, the same people who controlled their immigration then are controlling it now. These are the same people who gave instructions to the Israeli Embassy in Ethiopia (1956-1973) not to issue immigration visas to any Jew from Ethiopia.”

Berger himself came under criticism for his outspoken remarks concerning the Israeli efforts to rescue the Beta Israel, showing that nobody was immune from the rhetoric surrounding the issue.

FACT
This is perhaps the most odious claim made by Israel’s detractors. The Nazis’ objective was the systematic extermination of every Jew in Europe. Israel is seeking peace with its Palestinian neighbors. More than one million Arabs live as free and equal citizens in Israel. Of the Palestinians in the territories, 98 percent live under the civil administration of the Palestinian Authority. Israeli policies are designed to protect Israeli citizens—Jews and non-Jews—from the incessant campaign of terror. There has never been a plan to persecute, exterminate, or expel the Palestinian people.

In response to one such comparison, by a poet who referred to the “Zionist SS,” The New Republic’s literary editor Leon Wieseltier observed:

The view that Zionism is Nazism—there is no other way to understand the phrase “Zionist SS”—is not different in kind from the view that the moon is cheese. It is not only spectacularly wrong, it is also spectacularly unintelligent. I will not offend myself (that would be self-hate speech!) by patiently explaining why the State of Israel is unlike the Third Reich, except to say that nothing that has befallen the Palestinians under Israel’s control may responsibly be compared to what befell the Jews under Germany’s control, and that a considerable number of the people who have toiled diligently to find peace and justice for the Palestinians, and a solution to this savage conflict, have been Israeli, some of them even Israeli prime ministers. There is no support for the Palestinian cause this side of decency that can justify the locution “Zionist SS.” 41

The absurdity of the charge is also clear from the demography of the disputed territories. While detractors make outrageous claims about Israel committing genocide or ethnic cleansing, the Palestinian population has continued to grow exponentially. In Gaza, for example, the population increased from 731,000 in July 1994 to 1,657,155 in 2011, an increase of 127 percent. The growth rate was 3.2 percent, one of the highest in the world. The total Palestinian population in all the disputed territories (they include Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem) was 1,006,000 in 1950, 1,094,000 in 1970, and grew to 3,736,210 in 2011. 42

FACT
Even before the State of Israel was established, Jewish leaders consciously sought to avoid the situation that prevailed in South Africa. As David Ben-Gurion told Palestinian nationalist Musa Alami in 1934:

We do not want to create a situation like that which exists in South Africa, where the whites are the owners and rulers, and the blacks are the workers. If we do not do all kinds of work, easy and hard, skilled and unskilled, if we become merely landlords, then this will not be our homeland. 36

Today, within Israel, Jews are a majority, but the Arab minority are full citizens who enjoy equal rights and are represented in all the branches of government. Arabs are represented in the Knesset, and have served in the Cabinet, high-level foreign ministry posts (e.g., Ambassador to Finland) and on the Supreme Court.

Under apartheid, skin color determined every aspect of your life from birth until death. Black South Africans could not vote and were not citizens of the country in which they formed the overwhelming majority of the population. Laws dictated where they could live, work, go to school and travel. And, in South Africa, the government killed blacks who protested against its policies. By contrast, Israel allows freedom of movement, assembly and speech. Some of the government’s harshest critics are Israeli Arabs who are members of the Knesset.


“The difference between the current Israeli situation and apartheid South Africa is emphasized at a very human level: Jewish and Arab babies are born in the same delivery room, with the same facilities, attended by the same doctors and nurses, with the mothers recovering in adjoining beds in a ward. Two years ago I had major surgery in a Jerusalem hospital: the surgeon was Jewish, the anaesthetist was Arab, the doctors and nurses who looked after me were Jews and Arabs. Jews and Arabs share meals in restaurants and travel on the same trains, buses and taxis, and visit each other’s homes.

Could any of this possibly have happened under apartheid? Of course not.”

— Benjamin Pogrund 37


The situation of Palestinians in the territories is different. The security requirements of the nation, and a violent insurrection in the territories, forced Israel to impose restrictions on Arab residents of the West Bank and Gaza Strip that are not necessary inside Israel’s pre-1967 borders. Israeli policy is not based on race, but is a result of Palestinian animosity. Palestinians in the territories dispute Israel’s right to exist, whereas blacks did not seek the destruction of South Africa, only the apartheid regime.

If Israel were to give Palestinians full citizenship, it would mean the territories had been annexed. No Israeli government has been prepared to take that step. Instead, through negotiations, Israel agreed to give the Palestinians increasing authority over their own affairs. It is likely that a final settlement will allow most Palestinians to become citizens of their own state. The principal impediment to Palestinian independence is not Israeli policy, it is the unwillingness of the Palestinian leadership to give up terrorism and agree to live in peace beside Israel.

Despite all their criticism, when asked what governments they admire most, more than 80 percent of Palestinians consistently said Israel because they can see up close the thriving democracy in Israel, and the rights the Arab citizens enjoy there. By contrast, Palestinians place Arab regimes, including their own Palestinian Authority, at the bottom. 38

David Icke is a Neo-Nazi (Part Three): My Shadow, or the "Turd in the Punch Bowl"
I have felt, since first hearing of Mr. Icke, that he was put out there to discredit me specifically. His conspiracist sci-fi confabulations, or "research," tracks my own themes (mind control, political assassinations, fascist globalism, etc.) in a grossly distorted form.

He boosted my writing on the Simpson case whole, for instance, and mixed it up, defiled my research, with "Lizard Aliens." He's a repulsive parody of myself ...

I've attempted to read the capricious, wrong-headed "research" of David "Jesus" Icke, and found it an amateurish omelot of used conspiracy theories concocted by the John Birch Society and other far-right groups to discredit legitimate research on fascism, which is inherently conspiratorial. Most people, dumbed down by "mainstream" media, can't tell the difference, and Icke takes advantage of that fact to peddle stupid, far-right conspiracy theories and "alien" invasions.

Icke - who took up conspiracy writing, c. 1990 - about the time the CIA silenced me with constant harassment, torture and death threats - is tailor-made to cast a pall on my own field, my own work, and he's been doing it for years. - AC

" ... The death of Princess Diana? A ritual sacrifice of a moon goddess who had criticized her husband's reptilian royal family (443). ... "

GREENS TO PROTEST DAVID ICKE AT HART HOUSE THEATRE, OCT 6 (fwd)

The Robot's Rebellion is a conspiracy theory which claims a group of aliens and well-connected people, called the 'Illuminati', are manipulating and controlling world events with a view to establishing global domination.

One of Icke's main sources is a notorious document called the `Protocols of the Elders of Zion', which he renames `the Illuminati Protocols'. It states that Jews are trying to take over the world, and was used by the Nazis to justify the genocide of 6 million people. The Waffen SS used to carry copies in their knapsacks.

By using this document Icke denies the word of those historians who have demonstrated, beyond doubt, that the Protocols are a forgery. He also gives credence to those groups who still use the Protocols to justify their anti-Semitism. [end quote]

David Icke did extensive damage to the credibility of the Greens with his anti-Semitic writings and claims to be a son of god. His ongoing attempts to gain credibility for himself from his prior association with our party makes the damage all the more egregious and ongoing.

http://list.digital-copyright.ca/pipermail/action-forum/1999-October/000636.html
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"WAS HITLER A ROTHSCHILD ~ Articles by David Icke WAS HITLER A ROTHSCHILD? by David Icke Official history is merely a veil to hide the truth of what really happened. ... "
http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:hRfulkl6a6UJ:www.scribd.com/doc/63663/David-Icke-Was-Hitler-A-Rothschild+david+icke+is+a+nazi&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=8&gl=us
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Evening Standard (London)
Friday, 26 May, 1995,

The Dark Side of David Icke

He may seem like a harmless eccentric, but, says MARK HONIGSBAUM, some of the views put forward by self-styled guru David Icke, currently lecturing round Britain, are dangerously popular with anti-Semites and neo-Nazis.

It has become fashionable, even among adherents of the New Age, to dismiss David Icke as a crank. For a long time now the former Green Party spokesman and self-styled "Son of God" has been collecting fringe beliefs and theories like other people collect new shoes. UFOs, CIA "mind control", world apocalypse - you name it, David Icke has tried it.

But judging by the response to Icke's current lecture tour of Britain, he is no longer quite the figure of fun he used to be.

At a recent meeting in Glastonbury, for instance, more than 100 people paid 5 pounds each to hear his views. During the lecture, David Taylor, a national spokesman for the Green Party, repeatedly heckled Icke about his use of the notorious anti-Semitic forgery, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Meanwhile, the Jewish Chronicle has been pressing Icke's Bath-based publisher, Gateway, to reveal the truth about the manuscript of his latest book, said to contain offensive revisionary passages about the Holocaust.

Now uncanny parallels are emerging between Icke's thoughts - if that
is not too grand a term for his mishmash of conspiracy theories and
New Age - and the writings of senior figures in the armed militia
movement in America. ...

http://www2.ca.nizkor.org/ftp.cgi/orgs/british/combat-18/press/evening-standard.052695
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David Icke, the Reptilian Infiltration, and the Limits of Science Fiction
By James Trimarco
2 April 2007

... The author goes on to postulate a race of reptilians that has controlled human society from its very beginning. These beings, which Icke calls by the Sumerian[3] word "Anunnaki," infiltrate human society through interbreeding with humans and placing their crossbred offspring into roles of power in human society. The evidence he offers to support this claim, as the late conspiracy expert Bill Keith has pointed out, is hardly of academic quality. The evidence ranges from crackpot etymology (vampires are reptilians because "Dracula" sounds like "Draco" and so on) to references to books that have been repeatedly debunked by scientific experts. Keith characterizes Icke's scholarly methodology as "Believe every goddamn weird thing anybody, anywhere ever said."

The poor quality of Icke's scholarship should be obvious to any reader with a middle-school education, and yet his work resonates with many people. A closer investigation into Icke's vision of Anunnaki infiltration helps to explain the appeal his writings have for his small but loyal group of followers. For Icke, the story of human enslavement by reptilian forces begins about 450,000 years ago. Paraphrasing a translation of a Sumerian tablet by the controversial Orientalist Alexander Sitchin, Icke describes the arrival of the Anunnaki in Africa for the purpose of mining gold. At first, the Anunnaki roped their own working classes into laboring in these mines, but later they developed humanity as a slave race through genetic engineering (6). While the original purpose of humanity's creation involved the exploitation of human labor, Icke argues that the Anunnaki have other, darker uses for human beings. Throughout The Biggest Secret, Icke points to the bloodiest and most difficult chapters in human history and blames each one on Anunnaki scheming. Human sacrifice? Demanded by reptilian overlords (38). British colonialism? Designed to wipe out indigenous knowledge and replace it with propaganda and mind-control (129).

The death of Princess Diana? A ritual sacrifice of a moon goddess who had criticized her husband's reptilian royal family (443). ...

http://www.strangehorizons.com/2007/20070402/trimarco-icke-a.shtml
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Closing Comments: Don't Drink the Punch.

Do my comments and sources constitute an "ad hominem" attack? - yep-yep. I have no problem with calling people vile names so long as they are backed by real facts, not misbegotten impressions of the sort "AdamS," who opened this discussion, brought to me. If the shoe fits ...

Since part one, "AdamS" has commented that my response is largely "guilt by association" - but anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial are not guilt by association. Neither is publishing in Neo-Nazi publications, something I'd never do in five million years. Spotlight? Exposure? That makes him one of them, not tangentially "associated" but in the Nazi camp. Only a rank amateur or "fellow traveller" would accuse me of "ad hominem" and "guilt by association" here. The Protocols of the Elders of Zion? Lizards from the fourth-dimension? How stupid does it have to get before his readers question this crap? What's next? The Protocols of Satanic, Jewish Gay Clowns from the Dog Star?

I'm an anti-nazi who exposes the Holocaust. My Birchite "shadow" is a neo-nazi who denies it. There is no common ground here, and anyone who calls Icke - as a publisher in Santa Barbara once did - "the British Alex Constantine," is a hopeless nutter. I once heard a 9/11 researcher interviewed on NPR refer to Icke as a "turd in the punchbowl." Drink at your own discretion, but know what you're swallowing.