Israeli court orders mother to circumcise her son

Comment:  What a lovely introduction to the world for Jewish babies. Any God that demands that you lob off the foreskin of the penis in order to praise his power is playing a very sick joke. And it is even more ridiculous to actually believe such a barbaric practice has any merit at all other than messing up the child's psychology. And now we have a court order to that effect. A mother under Israeli law, must mutilate her son's member in order to remain a good mother.

"Removal of the foreskin prepares the soul [of the baby] to accept the yoke of Heaven and study God's Torah and commandments."

What a load of tripe. The only "yoke" that the baby has to "accept" is ritual abuse masquerading as religious doctrine.

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The Telegraph

An Israeli mother has been ordered by a religious court to circumcise her son against her will or face fines of £90 for every day the procedure remains undone. 

The unprecedented ruling has been handed down by one of Israel's rabbinical courts, which have legal jurisdiction over religious questions - including marriage and divorce - concerning the country's Jewish majority. 

It was issued by a panel of three rabbis in the Israeli town of Netanya after the one-year-old boy's parents filed for divorce. The father insisted during the proceedings that his son be circumcised, as required under Jewish religious tradition. In their ruling, the rabbis suggested that the mother's refusal was part of a ploy to save her marriage. 

The mother, who has been identified only as Elinor, said her son had been born with a medical problem that prevented him undergoing ritual circumcision on the eighth day after birth, as is customary in Jewish law. 

"As time went on, I started reading about what actually happens in circumcision, and I realized that I couldn't do that to my son. He's perfect just as he is," Haaretz newspaper quoted her as saying. She said her husband originally had no objection to not having their son circumcised but changed his mind during the divorce case.

The woman told Israel's Channel Two television news programme that she was unemployed and could not afford to pay the fine, which already adds up to £450. 

In their ruling, the three rabbis wrote: "Circumcision is a standard surgical procedure that is performed on every Jewish baby boy, so when one of the parents demands it, the other cannot delay it except where it is proven to be medically dangerous. 

"Fulfilling the command of circumcision is not a [mere] surgical medical act....Brit milah [the rite of circumcision] is exactly what it says: a covenant that God made with His chosen people, the nation of Israel." 

The judgement was upheld by a higher rabbinical court after the mother appealed. The appeal ruling warned that a verdict in her favour could trigger "a flood of [similar] cases", giving a "terrifying dimension" to divorce proceedings. 

"This trend must be stopped immediately for the common good, which takes precedence over that of the individual," the judges concluded. They added: "Removal of the foreskin prepares the soul [of the baby] to accept the yoke of Heaven and study God's Torah and commandments." 

Rabbinical courts are part of Israel's judicial system and are overseen by the ministry of religious services. In addition to holding exclusive jurisdiction over the marriage and divorce of Jews, they have the power to rule on matters of personal status, alimony, child support, custody and inheritance. Their rulings are enforced by the police and other legal agencies in the same ways as those of civil courts. 

The mother plans a further appeal to Israel's supreme court, Haaretz reported her lawyer as saying. 

The rulings come against a backdrop of rising concern in Israel over recent attempts in Europe and elsewhere to prohibit ritual circumcision on humanitarian grounds. Israeli officials and rabbis claim the trend is fueled by anti-Semitism. 

In their appeal ruling, the rabbis wrote: "We have been seeing public and legal fights against circumcision in the United States and Europe for quite some time. The public in Israel stands united against this phenomenon, seeing it as another aspect of the anti-Semitic acts that must be fought." 

Israel's foreign ministry condemned the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe last month after it adopted a resolution calling for regulation of religious circumcision, which is also carried out on Muslim boys shortly after birth. 

The foreign ministry demanded that the resolution be annulled, saying it "casts a moral stain on the Council of Europe and fosters hate and racist trends in Europe". 

Imploding the Myth of Israel

 

  source: thewe.cc

By Chris Hedges

Information Clearing House

Israel has been poisoned by the psychosis of permanent war. It has been morally bankrupted by the sanctification of victimhood, which it uses to justify an occupation that rivals the brutality and racism of apartheid South Africa. Its democracy—which was always exclusively for Jews—has been hijacked by extremists who are pushing the country toward fascism. Many of Israel’s most enlightened and educated citizens—1 million of them—have left the country. Its most courageous human rights campaigners, intellectuals and journalists—Israeli and Palestinian—are subject to constant state surveillance, arbitrary arrests and government-run smear campaigns. Its educational system, starting in primary school, has become an indoctrination machine for the military. And the greed and corruption of its venal political and economic elite have created vast income disparities, a mirror of the decay within America’s democracy.

And yet, the hard truths about Israel remain largely unspoken. Liberal supporters of Israel decry its excesses. They wring their hands over the tragic necessity of airstrikes on Gaza or Lebanon or the demolition of Palestinian homes. They assure us that they respect human rights and want peace. But they react in inchoate fury when the reality of Israel is held up before them. This reality implodes the myth of the Jewish state. It exposes the cynicism of a state whose real goal is, and always has been, the transfer, forced immigration or utter subjugation and impoverishment of Palestinians inside Israel and the occupied territories. Reality shatters the fiction of a peace process. Reality lays bear the fact that Israel routinely has used deadly force against unarmed civilians, including children, to steal half the land on the West Bank and crowd forcibly displaced Palestinians into squalid, militarized ghettos while turning their land and homes over to Jewish settlers. Reality exposes the new racial laws adopted by Israel as those once advocated by the fanatic racist Meir Kahane. Reality unveils the Saharonim detention camp in the Negev Desert, the largest detention center in the world. Reality mocks the lie of open, democratic debate, including in the country’s parliament, the Knesset, where racist diatribes and physical threats, often enshrined into law, are used to silence and criminalize the few who attempt to promote a civil society. Liberal Jewish critics inside and outside Israel, however, desperately need the myth, not only to fetishize Israel but also to fetishize themselves. Strike at the myth and you unleash a savage vitriol, which in its fury exposes the self-adulation and latent racism that lie at the core of modern Zionism.

There are very few intellectuals or writers who have the tenacity and courage to confront this reality. This is what makes Max Blumenthal’s “Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel” one of the most fearless and honest books ever written about Israel. Blumenthal burrows deep into the dark heart of Israel. The American journalist binds himself to the beleaguered and shunned activists, radical journalists and human rights campaigners who are the conscience of the nation, as well as Palestinian families in the West Bank struggling in vain to hold back Israel’s ceaseless theft of their land. Blumenthal, in chapter after chapter, methodically rips down the facade. And what he exposes, in the end, is a corpse.  

Read more

Sexism and the State of Israel

Independent

As dusk falls in Mea Shearim, Jerusalem's most pious neighbourhood, black-clad and hatted Jewish men hurry home along the narrow streets lined by medieval-style houses where lights burn dimly in darkened windows.

Less than half a mile away, young Israelis mix in bustling bars in central Jerusalem, anathema to this religious ultraorthodox community that has tried its hardest to hide itself away from the temptations of secular life, and ensure a rigorous separation between men and women.

Ironically, though, it is the ultraorthodox community's efforts to impose its religious values on ordinary Israelis, particularly women, that many fear is undermining Israel's democracy, and which now poses the greatest threat to this community's survival.

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Lessons in American History: Scapegoating

Veterans Today

Iran is not the real target

Some time ago, during the Clinton administration, I learned that a group of Israeli/American extremists in Washington were planning on forcing the US to invade Iran.  

Some of these people worked with friends in the White House, some being taped by the FBI tied to spying by their closest associates, spying on the US, nuclear secrets and such, secrets passed on by Israel to China.

As soon as Bush took office, friends at every agency told me they were being asked to submit falsified intelligence about weapons programs in Iraq and terrorist cells in both Iraq and Iran.  They said the orders came from the president’s national security advisor who was planning a war on Iraq.

Other friends, some at the highest levels of government, Reagan onward, now working as lobbyists, told me a pattern was emerging and that war was coming.

All were good friends of Israel, some had visited many times, some actually headed pro-Israeli organizations in the US.

Even friends in Israel, folks on the military side, warned that things were getting out of control in America.  “Duff, we have some crazy suckers here but the gang you guy are stuck with all belong in straitjackets.”

They told me that Republican lobbying organizations were being approached by Islamic charities.

The charities had a history of working for the CIA during the long war against the Soviets in Afghanistan and were still active in trying to put things back together with the millions of refugees who remained in Pakistan and the total destruction of the economy in Afghanistan.

The new Taliban government wasn’t helping with their bizarre religious practices and extreme hostility toward both the US and Pakistan.

The story was that Karl Rove had ordered US Attorney’s to target Muslims, including dozens of top CIA assets, for arrest as terrorists.  You can imagine the confusion that began to cause around Washington.

Those who work the region, I am one of those, know to what degree the US got involved in long term tribal and ethnic hostilities in Afghanistan and the horrible mess we left when we simply walked away.

The CIA created the Taliban when it could have been something very different. We left a vacuum which was filled by India with their intrigues in Kashmir and their desire to foment terrorism in Pakistan.

This is never spoken of but Kashmir is critical, it is a largely Muslim region, certainly mostly Pakistan, that was invaded by India and is used as a military threat with the local population subjected to the same horrors Israel subjected the Palestinian people to for over 60 years.

But that never happened.  Just rent the movie Exodus or turn on Fox News.  You will never hear that 95% of the land Israeli Jews live on now was under legal title to Palestinians who had been there for some time.

Palestinians, of course, were Christians for hundreds of years as were all citizens of the region.

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Why calling a Jew a Jew is still taboo in France

France 24

Apple removed an iPhone app naming Jewish celebrities from its French store Wednesday, following legal threats from conservative Jewish activists. The app’s creator, who is Jewish himself, says it’s time for French Jews to come out of the closet.

“What’s wrong with calling a Jew a Jew?” asks French software engineer Johann Lévy, who created an iPhone application that lets users consult a database of celebrities to find out if they are Jewish or not. “I’d challenge anyone to call me an anti-Semite,” he says. “I am Jewish myself.”

But a month after he launched the “Juif ou pas juif” (Jew or Not Jew) application in France, Lévy has fallen victim to the collective ire of Jewish and anti-racism activists. On Wednesday, his app was removed from the French Apple Store, after repeated threats of legal action against the California giant.

“The app violates local law and is no longer available in the app store in France,” Apple spokesperson Tom Neumayr said on Thursday.

Sammy Ghozlan, head of the National Bureau against Anti-Semitism (BNVCA), an anti-semitism watchdog, described the app as “dangerous” in an interview with FRANCE 24. “To categorise somebody by whether they are Jewish or not Jewish could result in hostile behaviour against those people. It’s putting Jews in a category apart; we are absolutely against doing that,” he said.

Ghozlan’s group was joined by the International League against Racism and Anti-Semitism, the Union of French Jewish Students (UEJF) and the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions (CRIF) in berating the app for its apparent disregard of French law. While Ghozlan accepted that Lévy probably meant no harm in creating it, “it was, above all, illegal,” he said.

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Senior Israeli archaeologist casts doubt on Jewish heritage of Jerusalem

Middle East Monitor via sott.net

A senior archaeologist at Tel Aviv University has cast doubt on the alleged Jewish heritage of Jerusalem. Israel Finkelstein's claims have been made in the face of official Israeli and biblical claims to the occupied city.

Professor Finkelstein, who is known as "the father of biblical archaeology", told the Jerusalem Post that Jewish archaeologists have found no historical or archaeological evidence to back the biblical narrative on the Exodus, the Jews' wandering in Sinai or Joshua's conquest of Canaan. On the alleged Temple of Solomon, Finkelstein said that there is no archaeological evidence to prove it really existed.

According to Finkelstein's university colleague, archaeology lecturer Rafi Greenberg, Israel is supposed to find something if it digs for a period of six weeks. But, Greenberg told the Jerusalem Post, Israelis have been excavating the so-called City of David in the occupied Jerusalem neighbourhood of Silwan for two years to no avail.

Professor Yoni Mizrahi, an independent archaeologist who has worked with the International Atomic Energy Agency, agreed with Israel Finkelstein. He said that the right-wing Elad Association has not found anything "saying welcome to David's palace" although that was taken for granted by Elad, as if the group depended on scriptural texts to guide them in their work. [...]

Jerusalem and the Birthplace Of Modern Terrorism

This clip is from episode one of a British-made documentary from 2002 titled ‘The Age Of Terror’, and examines the bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem on 22nd July 1946 by Zionists, in which the south wing of the hotel, then occupied by British civil-military authorities, was bombed killing ninety-one people. Twenty-eight of the victims were British, forty-one Arabic, while seventeen were Jewish.

The Zionist who carried-out the attack were known as the Irgun, and were led by a future prime minister of Israel, Menachem Begin. The King David Hotel bombing was an act of terrorism that is widely-considered to be the first real incidence of 20th century terrorism.

In the Name of God?

apocalypse-no.net/en/ 

How would you react if you became aware of the fact that extremist sects were gradually taking over key positions of international power? And what if these groups were doing so because they consider themselves the chosen ones of God? -- chosen to bring global events into line with Biblical prophecy so that this would make possible the coming of the Messiah as predicted at the end of times? What if these fanatics, as the final step towards achieving their goal, are planning to provoke a Third World War starting in the Middle East, a Third World War that will first reduce the Holy Land to ashes and then the rest of the world? Frightening, but a sad reality – because this is exactly what is happening now. 

Evangelical Pentecostal churches play a major role in this secret apocalyptic battle as well as the pseudo-judaic esoteric cult of Chabad Lubavich and Hardal – the radical representatives of “religious Zionism”. Each group today has succeeded in gaining alarming positions of power:

Estimating the worldwide budget of the american Kabbala-Church Chabad at “100 Million Dollar a year, to say the least” – which is no less than half of the sum the Vatican has to its disposal – the German Magazine “Focus” calls the late leader of the Cult, rabbi Schneerson, “the hidden ruler of Israel… No jewish statesman on a visit to the United States, no matter if likud or labor, could get around a private audience.” Moishe, son of the most intimate Schneerson-confidant Yehudah Krinsky and Press-Secretary, admits to the journal: “The Rebbe did participate in every Israli development.”On top of that during the last years Chabad was successfully seizing the majority of the jewish chief rabbinates all over the world. Supported from here and via Israeli diplomatic and intelligence channels as well as lobbying the sect (which was called a “mental disease” by the former Berlin Jewish community rabbi Walther Rothschild) promotes its political aims.

The most profound influence of Chabad and Hardal is exerted on the United States, where in the wake of George W. Bush, the spirit of Christian apocalyptic thinking has taken over. In 2003 chabadnik Paul Wolfowitz, an éminence grise of occult power, led the world into the Iraq war which was allegedly prophesied in the Bible. He was assisted by the following persons who were either allegedly inspired directly by the Bible or who had lent an ear to such whisperings: The US President, Vice-President Dick Cheney; National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice, now Secretary of State; Minister of Justice John Ashcroft, the leader of the Republican Party in Congress, Tom DeLay, House Majority Leader (no. 1 and leader of his party), Bill Frist; his vice-secretary (and no. 2) Mitch McConnell, the Republicans’ no. 3, Senate Republican Conference Chairman Senator Rick Santorum, the no. 4 of the party; Senate Republican Policy Committee Chairman Jon Kyl; the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives and vice party spokesperson Dennis Hastert. Furthermore, several advisors of the US President and the chief of the Home Security Department. Each of the above persons had ideological and/or personal ties with the apocalyptic messianic network, some of them sort advice from obscure bible-code experts and doomsday gurus on the eve of the Iraq war.

Now this doomsday-cabal is promoting a war against Iran – with the clear intention of dragging Russia into the final battle of the Apocalypse “Gog versus Magog” and leading the battle towards its climax on the battlefield of Armageddon in the Middle East. We shouldn’t be surprised if President Mahmud Ahmadinejad in Teheran joins in the last act of this Biblical drama, as he too is a believer in the coming of a heavenly Messiah, as are his supporters. Final precondition to this “heavenly liberation act”: the start of the Third World War. Prominent White House critics in the USA (amongst them Senators and Congressmen) already point to the danger of a staged nuclear attack which would provoke this war and initiate a process of mass murder.

WE SAY NO!

Bearing in mind the international silence before and during the murdering of Jews between 1942 and 1944 we are warning of a Second Holocaust in Israel and a mass bloodbath on a global scale. We oppose apocalyptical sectarianism which is reaching for the heart of our governments via non-elected think-tanks, elite networks and lobby groups worth billions in order that they may set the world on fire. We say this to the members of parliament representing the people who are responsible and accountable to their citizens and required to give information to them: if you allow yourselves to become part of or even influenced by this plot, you risk a catastrophe and …

[...]

A terrifying scenario

Please imagine the following scenario for just one moment:
A messianic sect, which sees itself as the right arm of God, undermines mainstream Judaism as well as key positions of international power. Supported by Christian fanatics it gains access to presidential palaces in America, Russia and Israel. From there both parties try to bring world events into line with Biblical prophecies – events that have to be pursued to their bitter end: Then only when the last prophecy has been fulfilled, will the longed-for Messiah descend to earth. It is exactly this vision which prepares the ground for the most devastating of all wars – Armageddon – starting with the Middle East.

It reads like the script for a James Bond film but may soon become reality even though the media ignores the subject totally. Neither is the pseudo-Judaic Chabad sect fiction nor are the highly political machinations of its omnipresent networkers; researchers of the scene have been pointing out for years that this doomsday-cult which is worth billions is about to put itself at the head of mainstream Judaism by a secretive as well as broad undermining manoeuvre. (Toby Axelrod, Chabad Broadens Reach, May 13th, 2005, Jewish News of Greater Phoenix and Philip Carmel, Chabad Within Europe, ibd., May 20th, 2005). The cult which actively supports radical right-wing settlers in the Holy Land is even now being courted by national policy in the heart of Europe: In 2006 newspapers reported the support of the German Minister of the Interior Schäuble as well as the Minister of Justice Zypries for the inauguration of the sect’s grandiose centre in the capital of Berlin. In 2007 the German Foreign Minister Steinmeier inaugurated the Chabad synagogue in Berlin-Wilmersdorf.

Jewish end time networkers have, as a result of clever power management, become even more influential within the Israeli establishment. Leading politicians such as Benjamin Netanjahu turn to it for advice before making serious decisions; President Katzav is also said to be a follower of the messianic sectarians headed by the rabbis Schneerson and Kook.

In the US, where books dealing with eschatological themes have been heading the bestseller lists for years, professed “Christian” fundamentalists have, in the wake of George W. Bush, taken over top positions in the state. Prominent representatives of the White House, amongst them the President himself, sympathize with apocalyptic Pentacostal churches. Equally strong is the influence of biblical inspired Scotch Rite Lodges and quasi-freemasonic orders who - apart from striving on their own to “fulfill the book” - support their members’ delusions of vocation and of being one of the chosen few. 

There is evidence in abundance that this dangerous cabal constitutes a key element in the administration “gearbox” of the last superpower. From there it is exerting highly dangerous political influence – bypassing the peoples’ will and without any democratic legitimation whatsoever. 

Power over the last superpower: 

Chabad Lubavitch

The social position of Chabad Lubavitch in the United States is very impressive. In 1983 on the occasion of the 80th birthday of Schneerson, the sect’s messiah, the US Congress established his birthday as a National Day of Education (Education Day) and he was awarded the National Scroll of Honour. This is why millions of students are now “entitled” to remember a guru who is worshipped by a great part of his followers as an incarnate messiah. But wait for this: When rabbi Schneerson died in 1994 he was posthumously awarded with the highest civil honour of the US Congress, the Congressional Gold Medal, for his lifework and “for his extraordinary and incessant contribution to a global education, morals and deeds of kindness”. Never before has a religious person, whether Christian or otherwise, been honoured like this. 

Chabad – a shining example? In the past leading chabadniks have on several occasions been taken to court and convicted of money laundering, mafia connections and drug trafficking. “Isolated incidences” and thus insignificant explains the sect’s leadership. However, the fact that the religious delusion of belonging to a chosen race has reached most alarming proportions within this cult, can not be regarded as insignificant. Rabbi Schneerson, according to the praise of several US presidents, an example for brotherliness and compassion, taught that “´the body of a Jewish person is of a totally different quality from the body of [members] of all other nations of the world … A non-Jew’s entire reality is only vanity. It is written: And the strangers shall guard and feed your flocks. The entire creation [of a non-Jew] exists only for the sake of the Jews.´” (Allen C. Brownfeld, Jewish Fundamentalism In Israel, Washington Report of Middle East Affairs, March 2000). This is an adaptation of the most important text of Lubavitch Chassidism, the book of HaTanya. Its author, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Lyadi, the founder of the Chabad movement, maintained “that Jewish and gentile souls are fundamentally different, the former ´divine´ and the latter ´animalistic´.” (Allan Nadler, Charedi Rabbis Rush To Disavow Anti-Gentile Book, Forward, December, 19th 2003). Zalman’s words are: “The souls of Goyim (Gentiles) are of a totally different inferior kind. All Jews are good by nature, all Goyim (Gentiles) are bad by nature. Jews are the pride of creation, the Goyim are its scum.” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, March 11th, 1994).

In spite of this fact, according to Rabbi Schneerson, Judaism has to take care of the ones repudiated by God, so that they may fulfil their prophesied task and render support, respect and earthly riches to the chosen ones. As a means of achieving this goal Chabad draws upon the non-biblical Noachidic laws in order to tie the Gentiles to the Israelite god of the Old Testament. From the point of view of a Talmud follower Noachidism is the religion for the rank and file of mankind whereas the Jews in accordance with the laws of Moses perform the function of a superior “priest” above the others. Chief Rabbi Schneerson taught: “It is obvious and self-evident that in modern times we must carry out the Divine Command we received through Moshe: ´To compel all human beings to accept the commandments enjoined upon the descendants of Noach.´” (Shabbos Parshas Vayeishev, 21th Day of Kislev, 5745c in Sichos in English, vol. 24). By 1723 freemasonry had already incorporated the Noachidic statutes into its Consitutions… Charges & Regulations; freemasons have always called themselves “Noachids”. In 1991 when the first war on Iraq was started, George Bush sen. forwarded this peculiar “blessing” to the whole nation: The seven Noachidic laws were solemnly declared to be the foundation of the United States by the Congress and the President (Public Law 102-14, 102nd Congress).

This most probably explains the strong Chabad influence on American politics. Levi Shemtov, the chief representative of the sect, is called by influential newspapers “the unofficial rabbi of the Capitol”, which is the US parliament. (Bill Broadway, Hassidic Outpost in D.C., Washington Post. July 3rd, 1999). According to the Jerusalem Post Thomas Kahn, Staff Director of the Democratic Budget Committee in the Congress, added: "There's nobody who is more widely respected and warmly received in Congress, the administration, and the diplomatic corps.” (Jerusalem Post, Internet edition, October 22nd, 2000). The Post further confirms this fact from its own point of view: In its internet edition the renowned Israeli paper casts its eyes over the events of the day in the Chabad “embassy” in Washington. We are informed that there are photos of associated politicians in Shemtov’s office “including former Republican Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, a close personal friend. On the walls … a bipartisan array of other VIPs including President Bill Clinton, Vice President Al Gore, and former prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu.”

Furthermore we are told that Shemtov’s interests are also adopted by the National Security Council and the State Department and that the cult’s lobbyist is in regular contact with a few dozen ambassadors. “Twenty-five, he says proudly, came to the Habad building's dedication, which was also attended by the Democratic candidate for Vice-President, Senator Lieberman, other members of Congress, the mayor of D.C., and Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman.” (Jerusalem Post, Internet edition, October 22nd, 2000).

When George W. Bush became president he brought three admirers of Rabbi Schneerson into the White House: His long term press officer Ari Fleischer, Vice-Chief of Staff (now Chief of Staff) Joshua Bolton and Vice-Secretary of Defence, Paul Wolfowitz. The latter is considered to be the driving force behind the neo-conservative movement, which in turn forms the link to the powerful Israel-lobby for imperialist US-geopolitics connected with oil interests. It was Wolfowitz who produced a strategic document one year before 9/11 in which he called for a militarization of the American energy policy which included foreign interventions. To achieve this, the study envisaged a catalytic catastrophic event such as a new Pearl Harbour as being helpful.

The timing of the 9/11 attack as well as the attendant consequences achieved the desired effect and also coincided with the prophetic timetable of Chabad. The same holds true for the war in Iraq with none other than Paul Wolfowitz identified by mainstream press as the main instigator and driving force. (Gregor Peter Schmitz, Weltbank-Präsident Zoellick: Der Bush-Mann, den alle lieben, Spiegel –Online, October 19th, 2007).

Chabad rabbi Naftali Estulin writes under the title “The rebbe’s revolution in 5762” (i.e. 2001 AD): “Providence had it that Bush’s son has become president and is now being given the opportunity to complete that which his father began: eradicating evil from the world as a beginning and foretaste of the fulfillment of the Messianic prophecies..." “...What practical lessons can we derive from current events? The Rebbe gave us the job of bringing Moshiach [the messiah]. If we thought for a moment that we could get out of it, recent events have shown us otherwise. The previous President Bush also thought he could get out of fulfilling the role which the Rebbe said America has, but the Rebbe arranged things so that his son could complete the job. The world is waiting for us, for us to fulfill our role in preparing the world to greet Moshiach. The Rebbe is waging the wars of Moshiach on his own, but he gave the job of preparing the world to us.” (Beis Moshiach Magazine, Brooklyn/New York, Online-Edition, www.beismoshiach.org )

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Further reading: Historian Demands Action On Powerful Doomsday Cults

 

"Foreskin Man" Takes On Genital Mutilation

sott.net/

Even though they'd be a great medium for it, comic books aren't known for tackling sensitive social, religious or cultural topics in an overt way. People who read comic books are looking for fantasy and escapism rather than intellectual stimulation - just like people who read men's magazines. Maybe that's why a new comic produced by Matthew Hess, the president of MGMBill, an organisation that has authored a bill that has been submitted to the US congress to ban Male Genital Mutilation (hence MGMBill), has made the headlines recently.

Unashamedly titled Foreskin man, the comic book series features a blonde superhero doing battle with the evil 'Mohel' (Mohel being the Hebrew word for a Jewish person trained in the practice of Brit milah or Bris (circumcision).

I have to admit that my first reaction on hearing about the comic was 'what a good idea!', but when I saw the comic and the reaction it had received from certain quarters, my reaction was more along the lines of 'this the best idea since anti-Vegetarian man!'

It seems a little weird to me that I would actually have to write this but, I'm not exactly a fan of genital mutilation, regardless of the justification, hence my appreciation of Foreskin Man.

So circumcision, what's it all about?

According to the WHO, 30% of the world's men are circumcised. Apparently a majority of Muslim men are circumcised, and while there is no specific age when the 'procedure' should be carried out, it is commonly done at 7 years old or later. At the very least, a 7 year old (or older boy) has some capacity to understand and prepare himself for the event, and at that age a local anesthetic is used because everyone knows 7 year old boys feel pain. In the case of Jews however, the Bris is invariably performed on the 8th day after birth, and anesthetic is NOT commonly used because, as everyone knows, 8 day old boys feel no pain.

While some nut jobs still think that circumcision is necessary for 'health' reasons, the origins of this repugnant idea are to be found in religion, which just makes it all the more insane. I mean, 'god told me to cut my son's penis'?? Or even worse, 'god told me not to use anesthetic when I have my 8 day old son's penis cut'? Or, 'would you like to attend our son's 'Bris this weekend? The Mohel is going to chop off a part of his penis and then suck some blood out of it with his mouth. There'll be nibbles!' What is there NOT to repulse any normal person about that scenario? I mean, we're talking about an extremely painful procedure on a child that has only just been born! (in the case of Jews). What kind of first (and life-long lasting) impression is that going to give to the child? Then again, we're probably not talking about 'normal people' here in the sense of people free from mind-programming of one sort or another, and the fact that 33% of parents in the oh, so 'civilized' USA subject their children to this neanderthal procedure is kind of unbelievable when you consider that only 2% of the US population is Jewish. That's not to say that there may not be a rational (in a psychologically messed up way) origin to the whole idea of 'peepee whacking', as I've heard it euphemistically called.

The 8th day after birth idea is Jewish and apparently inspired by the wrathful Jewish god 'Yahweh' (who, by the way, seems for all the world to be some kind of ancient alien or something, but that's a whole other story).

In Genesis Chapter 17, verses 10 through 14, 'Yahweh' promises Abraham that he'll do lots of wonderful things for him, on one condition: he must make sure that all his peeps chop a chunk off their willies, or to be more precise:

"This is My covenant, which you shall keep, between Me and you and your posterity after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. And you shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token or sign of the covenant between Me and you. He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised, every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house or bought with your money from any foreigner not of your offspring. He that is born in your house, and he that is bought with your money, must be circumcised; and My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. And the male who is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant."

It's kind of funny (in a full-blown psychologically-warped way) that so many people look at verses like that and think to themselves, 'where do I sign up!?'

Getting to the point; this kind of infant torture, especially within the first couple of weeks of life, is obviously pure evil, but it also has scary social health implications, and the reason is 'imprinting'.

Thanks to the work of people like Konrad Lorenz we know that animals like geese and monkeys are 'imprinted' early in life with not only ideas of what a 'mother figure' is, but also with very basic 'attitudes' and 'beliefs'. For example, the geese experiments determined that, within a few hours of birth, geese will bond with something, anything, and forever after recognize it as their mother. Since monkeys have a broader range of measurable reactions and monkey 'emotions' than geese (and are closely related to humans - some more than others) those experiments produced results that had interesting implications for humans. For example, it was determined that if a monkey does not receive motherly stimulation before he is a certain number of weeks old, he will grow up to be cold, aloof, and unfriendly to his own offspring. Monkey's also have a 'mother imprint window' during which time they will bond with almost anything that loosely resembles a monkey mother, although the window is a few weeks, rather than a few hours, after birth.

In the case of humans, the general idea is that, when born, the brain/nervous system/body complex of a child is like a blank slate, but with a special natural disposition to accepting certain types of 'writing' at certain stages. The concept of imprinting applies to senses, motor functions, emotions and thinking but the windows of imprinting are different for each function. There are apparently three periods of imprinting in a child's life, in Freudian terms these are 'oral', 'anal' and 'genital' or just the first, second and third 'circuits'.

So as concerns eighth day after birth circumcision on human babies, that would be the 'first circuit imprinting' that is affected. This first circuit imprinting is most often (for obvious reasons) done by what is perceived to be the mother or first mothering object (and for humans there is usually a real mother available). This imprinting can be conditioned by nourishment or threat, and is mostly concerned with what is safe and what is not safe. Trauma (as in the child getting its 'peepee whacked') during this phase can cause an unconsciously motivated mechanical retreat from anything threatening to physical safety and can last a life time.

In a medical paper in the 1992 Sept-Oct edition of the Journal of Midwifery, the authors state that circumcision involves "excruciating pain, perinatal encoding of the brain with violence, interruption of maternal-infant bonding and betrayal of infant trust." The British Medical Association stated in 2006 that "it is now widely accepted, including by the BMA, that this surgical procedure [circumcision] has medical and psychological risks." No shit Sherlock!

In 2001, Sweden passed a law allowing only persons certified by the National Board of Health to circumcise infants, requiring a medical doctor or an anesthesia nurse to accompany the circumciser and for anesthetic to be applied beforehand. In 2001, the World Jewish Congress stated that this constituted the "first legal restriction on Jewish religious practice in Europe since the Nazi era." A word of advice for the World Jewish Congress: when the government of a country attempts to protect your babies from excruciating pain with the simple use of anesthetic, it's doesn't look good when you imply that they are Nazis for doing so.

All of which gives us lots of food for thought about why our society appears to be so dysfunctional. The question is, did it have to be dysfunctional already for such a barbaric idea as circumcision to be adopted by so many, or is it so dysfunctional (partly) because 30% of men are circumcised?

Since people who have been traumatized during the imprinting phase of the first circuit tend to view other people in an 'us and them' way; since they tend to easily feel threatened by disapproval because disapproval suggests the idea of extinction or loss of food supply; and since virtually all Jewish men were circumcised 8 days after they were born; what can all that tell us about the history of the 'Middle East conflict', its causes and ongoing lack of solutions? And, finally, since those who have been negatively imprinted at this stage tend to have a chronic muscular armoring that prevents proper, relaxed breathing and are 'up tight', is the Éiriú Eolas programme their best hope for recovery?

Getting back to Foreskin Man. Unsurprisingly, the Anti-Defamation League has been quick to defend the archaic and probably psychopathically-inspired practice of cutting off the foreskin of Jewish babies at a crucial and very vulnerable time by dragging out the old 'anti-Semitism' canard:

"with its grotesque anti-Semitic imagery and themes, reaches a new low and is disrespectful and deeply offensive," Nancy J. Appel, ADL Associate Regional Director, said in a statement Friday."

Sure, Foreskin Man tends to vilify the 'Mohel', but it's a comic book! It's meant to have an arch evil bad guy, and the author assures us that other practitioners of circumcision will be dealt with in a similar way. So someone tell the ADL to get off it's high horse, and that the only thing grotesque, low, disrespectful and deeply offensive about this topic is the practice of mutilating 8 day old children. So I'm with Foreskin Man. The world needs superheroes who aren't afraid to take on the most entrenched, and frankly screwed up, ideas that, for some ungodly reason, still hold sway over our increasingly uncivilised world. And while I have no way of knowing, it would be rather ironic if the creator of Foreskin Man, Matthew Hess, turned out to be circumcised (and Jewish) because he could make a pretty good argument that Foreskin Man is simply a result of negative first circuit imprinting. How would the ADL deal with that one I wonder?