Bombings at Istanbul Synagogues Kill 15 In spite of Turkey being the first Muslim country to recognize Israel in 1948, simultaneous blasts — both homicide car bombings — rocked two of downtown Istanbul’s synagogues on Saturday, killing at least 15 people and wounding at least 140, the interior minister said. The bombings occurred near the Neve Shalom (ironically, Hebrew for “oasis of peace”) synagogue, the city’s largest. The other severely damaged the Beth Israel Synagogue in the affluent district of Sisli, three miles away, reports said. The explosions happened during Sabbath prayers that began at around 10 a.m. Most of
Read More +Let’s talk about borders. Any discussion of borders should start with the Torah, wherein the land, including what is now Jordan, was promised by God to the Israelites. What’s that you say? Such arguments don’t resonate with the secular? But it is the Torah that gave a history to these lands and reflects the Jewish presence there for over one thousand years. It is also why the Arabs are fighting for these lands so vehemently. Okay, okay, let’s forget about the God arguments. How about the Balfour Declaration in 1917, which stipulated that Britain, the leading power of the day,
Read More +Q: What has happened to the hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees from Arab lands? Were there any to begin with? A: Yes. Many. The heading of an article from the New York Times of May 16, 1948 — a day after Israel declared its independence — proclaims: “Jews in Grave Danger in all Moslem Lands. Nine Hundred Thousand in Africa and Asia Face Wrath of Their Foes”. Arabs have been killing Jews since 1882. Already in Iraq (1936 and 1941), Syria (1944-45), Egypt and Libya (1945), and Aden (1947) — all before the state of Israel’s founding — murderous
Read More +The Forgotten Middle East Refugees
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In 1948, nearly 900,000 Jews — indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa — lived in what are now known as the “Arab States.” Today, 99% of these ancient Jewish communities no longer exist in the lands where we lived for thousands of years. Arab governments forced us to leave, confiscated our property and stripped us of our citizenship. JIMENA’s mission is to advocate and educate about the history and plight of the Jews indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa. In the absence of truth and justice, there can be no reconciliation, without which there can be
Read More +Myth of “Arab East Jerusalem”
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The Myth of “Arab East Jerusalem” If a reporter were to write a story today which referred to Communist East Berlin, his editor would immediately call him on the carpet. The reason is simple. Communist East Berlin hasn’t existed for eight years. But if that same reporter were to write a story referring to another fiction, “Arab East Jerusalem,” no correction would be made, even though “Arab East Jerusalem” hasn’t existed for 30 years. Between 1948 and 1967, the Jordanian army occupied the Old City of Jerusalem and adjacent neighborhoods. They made these into “Arab East Jerusalem” by expelling the
Read More +The Arab Invasion – 1948
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The Arabs not only rejected partition, but attacked Israel from all sides. On the day that Israel declared its independence, the Arab League Secretary, General Azzam Pasha declared “jihad”, a holy war. He said, “This will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacres and the Crusades”. (1) The Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin Al Husseini stated, “I declare a holy war, my Moslem brothers! Murder the Jews! Murder them all!” (2) The armies of Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt and Iraq invaded the tiny new country with the declared intent
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