When I go onto a Jewish social site – say the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis, Facts and Logic About the Middle East, Israel Advocacy Movement, Stand With Us, TheTorah, etc. – I come into the discussion with all my cards on the table, from which to build and guide these discussions from. I come into these scenes absolutely honest about our Jewish people, so that other Jews learn to stop arguing with anti-Jewish haters or ignorant Colonizers, and redirect their words to representing our indigenous Jewish expression in this world. Here is what I mean, how I introduce my Jewish self:
Fellow Jews, we must learn to stop being baited into arguing with Colonizer hate-speech and revisionist histories. Jews became an indigenous ethno-religious people in ANE Moab (Jordan), crossed the river and became an indigenous ethno-nationality in Judea-Samaria. We have always lived in our land, no matter how many times Imperial Colonizers (BCE) and religious Colonizers (CE) – Arab Islam and European Christianity – have occupied our land.
Even the Persians took to occupying for awhile. But, the Jewish people, the Indigenous People of Judea-Samaria, have always been determined to re-establish our sovereignty in Zion, Judea-Samaria. Most of the Jews in today’s Israel are Middle Eastern and North African in family descent, unlike Jews who were pushed into Europe.
It is not the Jewish people’s fault that anti-Jewish racism (anti-Zionism) is a systemic hatred ingrained into non-Jewish cultures, and that non-Jews are born into this cultural indoctrination.
In no way do their words and revisionist histories about Jews and about Judea-Samaria change anything about the historical reality that we, the Jewish people, are the Indigenous People of Judea-Samaria, and that Arabs are Colonizers who took occupation of our ancestral land.
Only foreigners to Judea-Samaria call our land “Palestine,” just like only foreigners to Wampanoag lands call these Indigenous People’s land “America/USA.” Only Colonizers, Arab Muslims and European Christians, steal Indigenous Peoples’ lands and, then, call themselves the “natives” and the Indigenous People the outsider threat.
Often I’ll get a response from a Western raised Jew that says the following: “Being anti-Zionist is NOT being anti-Semitic. I am a Jew. I am NOT a Zionist. Israel does not speak for me any more than Ireland speaks for my wife.”
My response continues our Jewish need for radical honesty in this colonized world – especially if we, the Jewish people, ever expect to have *real peace and security* in this world:
Zionism is the fundamental core of Judaism (Judah-ism), my Jewish friend. If you are an anti-Zionist as a Jew, then you have internalized anti-Jewish racism, full stop. Allow me, a Sephardi Jew, to explain to you what I mean.
“Under the color of law, one million indigenous Jews from the Middle East and North Africa were persecuted, dispossessed and ultimately fled or were ethnically cleansed from countries their ancestors lived in for millenia. Of those, 650,000 found refuge in Israel, the place where they regained freedom, rights and a sense of personal security.
Zionism is an embedded religious principle of our faith, demanded in our Bible, fulfilled by our ancestors, Judges and Kings, by our First Temple and Second Temple Commonwealths. It has been the yearning of Jews throughout more than 2,500 years of diaspora; the Babylonian Diaspora, the Byzantine Diaspora, the Spanish Diaspora, the European Diaspora and the Middle East and North African Diaspora.
The Establishment of the State of Israel in the lands of Ancient Israel is the fulfillment of that religious imperative. Moreover, political Zionism was a part of Jewish communal life in nearly every country in the Middle East as is evidenced by the underground Zionism clubs that existed throughout the region. Today, the majority of the Mizrahi and Sephardic community resides in Israel, and the vast majority of Mizrahi and Sephardic Jews, in Israel and in diaspora, are self-identified Zionists.”
– JIMENA, along with a coalition of Sephardic and Mizrahi synagogues and communal organizations
The response to this is often disappointingly fully expected: “Yeah, I’ve been called a self-hater for not being a bigot towards Muslims and also because my wife isn’t Jewish.”
To this colonized equivalency response, I respond:
That’s okay. Now, learn something about your own Indigenous People of Judea-Samaria, and be a proud Zionist. Judaism is an ethno-religion bound to Judea-Samaria, not a Colonizer religion from Arabia or Europe that has colonized an Indigenous People’s land. Arabs already control 12 of the 15 nations of the Middle East (and all the biggest ones), but will not settle for less than controlling our ancestral land, as well (hence, no achieved peace agreements!).
Do you know that Arabia is way larger than the State of Texas? Did you know that Arabs don’t want us Jews having sovereignty in just a portion of historic Judea-Samaria? Did you know that present day Israel is only the size of the State of New Jersey? Did you know that the so-called “Palestinian” people are a mixture of descendants of war refugees (caused by Syria, Transjordan, and Egypt’s ten month siege to conquest Israel, the “nakba”) and Jordanian and Egyptian political squatters (Arab nation citizens that were promised Israel would be conquested for Arabs alone and they would inherit – which, of course, did not happen!)?
At this point, with actual legitimately wayward/colonized Jews, it’s silence. But, this is just the start of the conversation, because the Colonizers (Arabs/Muslims and whites/Christians) choose to step in and reinvent history – as if this changes *anything* historically factual that I’ve shared.
But, let me ask you this: Has anything I’ve said not made sense to a non-Western-influenced Jew?
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My fellow Jews, let’s make something very clear here! Like anti-Black racism, which is a non-Black created problem, anti-Jewish racism is a non-Jewish created problem – that has been built systemically into near all non-Jewish cultures. Just as individuals can strongly believe that they are not “racist,” they can still be thinking and acting like racists, at the same time. Even some Jews, for having integrated into non-Jewish societies, have internalized anti-Jewish racism. And, this here, is an excellent example of how one can be racist (and, if a racialized minority oneself, even towards one’s own) and *not* even realize it.
I have had many encounters with colonized Jews who are clearly proudly and openly Jewish, but are equally bought into non-Jewish anti-Jewish racism over the existence of a sovereign nation-State of Israel. So, their internalized anti-Zionism (which is Jew-hate, full stop!) leads them to say to fellow Jews (especially, if of a different skin color) that “we are just co-religionists, nothing more” and, further, that anti-Zionist rhetoric and revisionist propaganda is just “criticizing Israeli policies” (no, it is not, full stop!). This is Colonizer talk echoed in the mouths of the systemically oppressed and marginalized, aka internalized racism.
There are 42 million Black citizens in the USA, instantly and unconsciously stereotyped on sight, out of 329.5 million citizens of this USA nation. In this entire world of human beings, there are only 15.2 million members of the Jewish people, an ethno-religious indigenous people of, Judea-Samaria, who are instantly and unconsciously stereotyped on sight once their Jewishness is revealed (regardless the skin color of the Jew). Think carefully about this! How should the oppressed behave in order to survive as a people in this world? Will even compliance to this be allowed by those who’ve inherited systemic racism towards minorities from birth?
In other words, the privileged majorities – those who get to set the social narratives and marginalize undesired narratives – how do you know that you are not racist, until a minority calls you out on your unaddressed inherited racism?!
Israeli Zionism is the only successful Indigenous Sovereignty restoration project, so far, in the history of this world. Jewish Zionism is the most successful decolonizing project ever achieved by an Indigenous People to date. We have every reason to be proud of our Jewish achievement. May we not be the *only* Indigenous People to achieve this in this world!
Attached snapshot – a glimpse of what the Jewish people actually look like, when not being white-washed by Colonizers as “white” people.
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It really disturbs me that top notch Jewish scholars feel the need to engage in intellectual dishonesty, all to *not* draw to the Jewish people the expected historical ire and hatred for Jews over our honest words. This TABS article is yet another example!
Eighty-one (81) times in the Greek text of the four canonical gospels, the Jewish writers wrote “the Son of Man” in reference to Jesus. It is a play of words taken from Jewish apocalyptic literatures about the “Sons of Light.” Yet, in this article – by a Jew trying to be diplomatic with Christians(!) – she says the gospels are saying that Jesus was “God’s son.” *No!* That’s all on Christianity, alone! Capitulation of this kind by Jews to the Christian “sensitivities” is evidence of the Jewish *fear of Christianity*.
There are over 2.4 billion converts to Christianity that think they know all, because they read it in their Christian bible! And, every Jew on this planet is (or should be!) very aware there are only 15 million of us in this entire world. So, the fear *is* very real! But, as the Indigenous People of Judea-Samaria, we the Jewish people must get over this Colonizer instilled fear, for it keeps us confined to the ghettos that were made for us, to silence us. If we are ever to have *peace and safety* as the Jewish people, we must take charge of our narratives – our voices – and challenge the voices of the humans who out number us!
Certain books of the Christian bible were, indeed, written by Jews who were knowledgeable in the earlier written Jewish apocalyptic literatures. Certain books were written by gentile pre-Christians. You can tell the difference between the books written by Jews and the books written by gentiles in the following way:
Barring specific additions to the Jewish books by later gentiles, the Jewish books adhere to the requirement upon Jews to fulfill Torah laws faithfully, though challenging the legitimacy of Pharisaic Oral Law. These books also declare Jesus to be a Son of Man (a play upon the apocalyptic literatures “Sons of Light”), who teaches observance to Torah law. Further, the writers of the Jewish books were Torah law observant Jews themselves, and expected Jesus to do a successful bar Kokhba-style revolt against Rome (the “Beast”), and reestablish Israeli sovereignty in their lifetime (though bar Kokhba came later).
Because this Jewish Jesus sect was a Pharisaic sect, when Jesus was killed by the Romans, these Jews expected Jesus to resurrect – meaning, for his breath to return to his body and he walking out of the tomb alive – and for him to fulfill the fight against Rome. Their writings are a multiple attempt to put this sect’s story to paper, starting with the book of Mark (minus its ending), finding mythical genealogical qualities and comparisons with Isaac and Moses in Matthew, and resulting in the mystical apocalyptic writing of Revelation.
The gentiles received these Jewish writings primarily through some Jewish heretics of the Jesus sect. You might have heard of Paul, who sought followers in the gentile Aegean north. Paul’s teachings, in a gentile world that had no interest in fulfilling Torah law and that worshipped idols, reversed Jesus’s teachings as written in the Jewish books. In Paul’s writings and the writings of gentile followers of Paul, Jesus was now the Son of God and had come to free his followers (now gentile followers) from Torah law. Jesus also quite resembled in their gentile minds a certain Roman demigod, and it was chic in that time in Rome to turn special humans into a god.
So, in this pre-Christianity environment, you see the opinion that the Jewish followers had about this gentile twisting and warping of Jewish literature. It was a Jew that wrote the epithet “synagogue of Satan,” referring to this pre-Christian religion. For that epithet against pre-Christianity, when Christianity became a Roman religion in the 4th century CE with its new Trinity god (that the Church Fathers declared superior to YHWH of the Jews), they turned that epithet against all of the Jewish people – calling us the most vile and evil things in their foundational writings.
Merry Christmas, Colonizers!
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It is my hope in life to *not only* reunite all Jews to a common shared understanding about us, that we *teach* to the world around us about us – but, more importantly, that we never let our biases nor our fears miss out on reaching out to Jews and *any* potential allies that have internalized anti-Jewish rhetoric. We should never silence our voices in fear or confusion! The only path to peace for the Jewish people in this world is radical honesty. Everyone needs to hear – not our colonized voice – our *real* voice, unapologetically!
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I know! History, demonstrable and factual history, is painful. I get it! But, it is also *necessary* to teach – for the sake of the real victims in this world. It is the Tomb of the *Jewish* Patriarchs!
The only reason Arabs think that the Jewish ancestors are their ancestors, too, is because Mohammed invented a religion in Arabia in the 6th century CE that told Arabs to believe this. Thus, Mohammed successfully usurped the Arab polytheistic ethno-religion of his people, and replaced his-their idol-worshipping Arab ancestors with the ancestors of Moab, Judah, and Edom (of which, out of these three peoples, only the Jewish people remain to chant the stories).
Christianity, created in the 4th century CE in the Aegean north, has actually been worse, historically, when it comes to this appropriating of the Jewish people’s identity, ancestry, and our ANE inherited literatures. So, don’t think that I’m picking on one Colonizer religion and favoring the other Colonizer religion. *Both* need to recognize our Jewish Indigenous Rights!
Our right to self-sovereignty in our ancestral land. Our right to have a voice and tell non-Jews what our stories are for *and* what they are actually saying. Our right to being an Indigenous People with a social narrative that non-Jews around this world seek out – to compare themselves and their behaviors with.
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The other day while I was driving, I saw a Church billboard with the following question on it: “What was Joseph thinking when Jesus was born?”
From a Jewish perspective, this is actually a VERY good question! For it has legal implications that must be addressed, especially once the family closet gets aired and what happened becomes a local Jewish scandal. Let me explain.
There is a power dynamic at play here that has been used by men in patriarchal societies for thousands of years now. Wherein, if you are a married woman or a woman about to be married (engaged), then you don’t have a real say involving your body and your destiny. This Jesus story is a perfect example of this immoral imbalance between men and women in all patriarchal societies.
I would imagine, as a Jew myself, that Joseph – a Torah law-abiding Jew – would have been thinking to himself, “How do I explain to others that YHWH god, who gave our Jewish people Torah to obey, raped my wife-to-be and gave us a mamzer (illegitimate child from adultery/rape) for a first born?”
The story itself sets the stage for this and begs the question, “Who was baby Jesus’s real father?” Was it the angel Gabriel who impregnated Mary without allowing her a chance to consent? Was it YHWH god who did it, while she was asleep? Was it someone that Joseph personally knew, another human male – but, so as to cover up a scandal that would have ruined Mary, he claimed Jesus as his own? No matter how you question it, Mary’s voice is silenced, and her body is no more than the property of men.
This story is a learning lesson, because it explains exactly why Jews are forbidden to worship any demigod, any idol, and any likeness of anything we experience in reality as “God” itself, per the very command of the Jewish people’s YHWH god. Isaac was a demigod, too. And, in the original version of the story – before it was edited and amended into our Torah by a scribe – Isaac’s birth by Divine-male rape of Sarah led to his child sacrifice upon an altar, that Isaac himself had built, at the hand of his knife-wielding legal/step- father, Abraham.
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I’ve made it a life’s mission for me to teach Jews that have been affected by colonization and colonizer narratives about us, to reframe our way of thinking and speaking about our Jewishness (our personal, communal, and public narrative) to a more indigenous expression. Thus, deemphasizing the colonizers’ preferred narratives, both European and Arab colonizers, that Jews are just a religion and that Jews are somehow only “white” people. Further, that Jews are always the source of social problems, wherever in this world.
First, Judaism (Judāh-ism) has always been about the continuity and future of our indigenous ancestral language, literatures, ethno-religion, rituals, and halachot that tie us לדור ודור ledor vador – for all generations – to the land of our ancestors, Judea-Samaria. As such, a Jew is a recognized member of a Jewish community, as defined by this Jewish community’s halacha. Even humanistic and secular Jewish communities have a halacha of some sort, even though they reject Rabbinic halacha.
Second, because of CE colonizing religions – European Christianity and Arab Islam – we Jews have been taught to think of ourselves a little too often as a “world religion,” though we lack the physical body numbers, and a race/ethnicity that is fully derived from European racial category constructs to be this.
Third, we, the Jewish people, are the only remaining descendants of the Canāanite people out of three – Moab, Edom, and Judah – that preserve the ancestral language, inherited literatures, the original halachot/mitzvot, and seasonal rituals of the land of Southwest Asia (the Levant). It was the Canāanite people that migrated down and settled for over 400 years in Egypt, then (in several) exoduses returned to the Levant with their stories for us to inherit.
Fourth, the scroll of D’varim and extra-biblical ANE artifacts all testify clearly that the Jewish people became an ethno-religious people in ANE Moab (present day Jordan, east side of the river), crossed the river, and became an ethno-nationality in Judea-Samaria (west side of the river).
Fifth, because the Jewish people literally sprung from the Levant land, Israel is not a Colonizer nation, and it is *unfair* for the Jewish people to be expected to behave *as* one – all because Arabs, like Christians, felt the need to colonize Judea-Samaria for their newly invented religions. So, we should never apologize for our Zionism!
Sixth, we would be wise as an Indigenous People of Judea-Samaria to unite with the other 370 million Indigenous Peoples trying to survive intact within this world. Our correct focus as an ethno-religious people will help ensure all Indigenous Peoples’ futures. We absolutely *need* to consider and to respond to this! Decolonization is a must for present day Israel, the Jewish people!
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Oh, yes, before I forget, let me express why I can never be bought into majority views on who we are as a people:
A beautiful story sharing – that highlights a couple our Jewish leaders and scholars who are “neurodivergent” throughout Jewish history.
“To find ourselves in Shammai is to find ourselves outcasts with R. Eliezer. There is a saying attributed to R. Isaac Luria — the sixteenth-century rabbi and Kabbalist known as the Ari — by R. Shneur Zalman of Liadi in his book Likkutei Torah: that when Mashiach comes, Halakhah will shift from following the house or ideology of Hillel to that of Shammai. The dream of a redeemed world is one where the shamutim come back to the beit midrash. What are we waiting for?”
Yes, yes! This, the Shammai way, the return to Indigenous ways, while maintaining modern sensibilities and ethics, is what I strive to teach Jews.
The First Yeshiva Exile
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If you made it this far, then you deserve the following words from Rabbi Yitz Greenberg:
“The Exodus itinerary is not really a geographic passage through trackless wastes, past hostile or threatening nations, toward the Promised Land of Israel. The journey is much more difficult because it is a psychological odyssey from slavery, internalized passivity, and a sense of worthlessness, toward freedom, maturity, and taking responsibility as a free adult. The Israelites must gain a sense of self-worth that is not self-centered or achieved at the expense of others. Their ultimate goal – not necessarily grasped at first – is to reach the level of loving one’s self, but then extending the feeling and to love one’s neighbor as one’s self.”
Which can only come from radical honesty!
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