| Before moving on to examine certain policies adopted by the state of Israel, we need to remember that it isn't a proper approach to criticize its policies as a whole. As is true of a great many other nations, various different elements shape the state of Israel's policies. Those policies and practices illuminated here are the perverted activities of radical circles within Israel's inner establishment, under the influence of radical Zionist ideology, and based on misinterpretation of the Old Testament. These circles represent the main obstacle to peace, regarding all non-Jews as inferior, considering their mistreatment as legitimate, and aiming at world domination. The information in this chapter should be considered in that light. Chapter One examined the efforts of certain Zionist leaders to establish the state of Israel, and in particular how radical Zionists worked hand-in-hand with anti-Semites from the beginning of the 20th century to accomplish their goal. Certainly the most striking examples of this collaboration were the arrangements between Nazi Germany and some Zionists, whose aspiration was to exile European Jews to Palestine and to establish a Jewish state there, no matter what. This policy proved successful in two ways. First, thanks to the Nazis' anti-Semitic policy, large numbers of Jews did emigrate to Palestine. The second aspect of their success was psychological: Now the world could assent to Jews, who had suffered most terribly during World War II, establishing their own nation.
This policy of invasions reflected some Israeli leaders' dreams for a "Greater Israel." This objective stemmed from a misinterpretation of certain statements in the Old Testament. According to that erroneous view, the Children of Israel had been promised the greater part of the lands of the Middle East. Thus, radical circles envisaged the Judaization of these lands by their being seized and cleansed of their Arab population. Because of such influential radical views in its administration, Israel did everything possible to avoid relinquishing its occupied territories, above all the core of the "Promised Land" on the West Bank. In order to realize Judaization, Jewish immigrants have been settled in these occupied territories. Some of these settlers were radical Jews, considering it a religious mission. But the real settlers were to be immigrants from the Diaspora. In short, the founding of Israel did not put an end to its need for Jewish immigrants. Those Jews who have emigrated to Palestine since 1948 represented only a small portion of the world's Jews, most of whom continued to prefer to live in the Diaspora. The dream of a Greater Israel continued to be the motive that made some Israeli leaders seek the emigration of world Jewry to Israel. As the decades passed, however, they have been disappointed. Each year, they set a target for the number of Jews they hope will immigrate, but those goals have seemed more and more utopian. Ben Gurion's attempt to persuade four million Jews to immigrate to Israel between 1951 and 1961 failed badly; only 800,000 responded to his summons. By the end of that ten-year period, the annual number of immigrants had fallen below thirty thousand. In 1975 and 1976, the number of Jews emigrating from Israel actually exceeded those immigrating there.
In the history of Zionism and the State of Israel, there has never been a mass emigration. The radical or Zionist Jews always arrived at the country in small groups and in small numbers. When these idealists realized that the facts were not as they dreamt, they left Israel. All Jewish communities preferred to immigrate to other places rather than Israel, even in their most troubled times. Only 60 thousand of the 300 thousand Jews of Germany emigrated during the period 1933-39. Most of them did not even think of immigrating to Israel. This applies to other Jewish communities as well. The 50-60 percent of the Russian Jews who are the most downtrodden desire to go elsewhere than Israel. We do not like these facts, but there is no way to deny them. We should understand one thing; no mass immigration to Israel will ever take place. Thus Diaspora Jews have continued to resist immigrating to Israel after its establishment, no less than they did in the 1920s and '30s. What, then, should have been done to bring them to Israel? Simply put, the answer was to repeat the earlier policy: to instigate the threat of anti-Semitism once more as a goad to drive the Jews out of the Diaspora to Israel. Some Zionists have shown little reluctance in saying exactly that. As the American rabbi Leo Pfeffer, an official of the American Jewish Congress, stated, "It is possible that some anti-Semitism is necessary to insure Jewish survival."106In 1958, Nahum Goldmann, President of the World Zionist Organization, emphasized Zionism's inevitable need for anti-Semitism and warned that a current decline of anti-Semitism "might constitute a new danger to Jewish survival."107 Earlier, the Nazis had been enlisted to aid "Jewish survival." This time, new links could be forged with a variety of local anti-Semites, or, failing such links, Israel itself could direct operations to create an artificial anti-Semitism. This is what actually happened! The following pages relate in some detail the Jewish state's war, on several fronts, against Diaspora Jewry. Threats to Diaspora Jews from Israeli Leaders Although we realized our dream of establishing a Jewish state, we are still at the beginning. Today there are only 900,000 Jews in Israel, while the greater part of the Jews are still abroad. The future consists of bringing all Jews to Israel. We appeal to the parents to help us bring their children here. Even if they decline to help, we will bring the youth to Israel; but I hope that this will not be necessary.108In December 1960, at the Twenty-fifth World Zionist Congress in Jerusalem, Ben Gurion again castigated Jews who resisted immigrating to Israel. He derided Jews who lived outside Israel as "Jews without a God," adding that "Jews in America do not even know what being a real Jew means."
In May 1948, in a report submitted to the American Jewish Congress, held by the efforts of Simon Rifkind and Louis Levinthal, advisers on Jewish affairs, and Zionist leader Rabbi Philip Bernstein, radical Zionist Rabbi Klausner openly threatened the Jewish nation. He admitted that in the past, radical Zionist leaders had fostered a persecution complex to pressure Jews to immigrate to Israel, and he frankly advocated that the policy should continue: ... I am convinced that the people must be forced to go to Palestine... By “force” I suggest a program. It is not a new program. It was used before, and most recently… The first step in such a program is the adoption of the principle that it is the conviction of the world Jewish community that these people must go to Palestine... To effect this program, it becomes necessary for the Jewish community at large to reverse its policy and instead of creating comforts for the Displaced Persons to make them as uncomfortable as possible. The American Joint Distribution Committee supplies should be withdrawn... A further procedure would call for an organization such as the Haganah to harass the Jew... It must be borne in mind that we are dealing with a sick people. They are not to be asked, but to be told, what to do... If this program is not accepted, let me assure this Conference that an incident will occur which will compel the American Jewish community to reconsider its policy and make the changes herein suggested. At that time, there will have been much more suffering, a greater wave of anti-Semitism and a tougher struggle to accomplish what might perhaps be accomplished today. 110
As Klausner admitted, the policy of Israel's inner establishment has been to promote Jewish immigration through using force. He made no bones about how this should be implemented in practice: "to make them as uncomfortable as possible." If, despite these pressures, immigration to Israel remained beneath expectations, Klausner's final expedient was to warn of what might eventually befall Diaspora Jews: They could face "an accident" which would "bring many pains with it." Such an "accident" might well resemble that created as a result of the radical Zionists' World War II collaboration with the Nazis against European Jews who resisted immigrating to Palestine. Zionist leader Dr. Israel Goldstein complained of Jewish apathy regarding immigrating to Israel, and delivered implicit and threatening messages: What are American Jews waiting for? Are they waiting for a Hitler to force them out? Do they imagine that they will be spared the tragedies which have forced Jews of other lands to emigrate?111Ben Gurion stated that for Israel, "saving Jews from bondage was a holy duty." After the 1949 Israeli election, he referred to Jews living outside Israel as "remnants": We must save the remnants of Israel in the Diaspora. We must also save their possessions. Without these two things, we shall not build this country.112Ben Gurion had put into words Israel's future policy. The first "remnants in the Diaspora" to be forced to immigrate to Israel were in fact Jews who had survived the Nazi concentration camps. Terror by Radical Zionists against Jews in the Postwar DP Camps
The report, in which Rabbi Klausner had argued for forcing Jews to immigrate to Palestine, was the basis for the various terror tactics that the radical Zionist organization Irgun applied in the displaced persons camps. This policy of oppression implemented against their fellow Jews would come to light only years later. More than once, intelligence reports of OMGUS (the Office of Military Government for Germany—U.S.) reported the brutal measures undertaken by the Irgun among Jews to raise funds and to recruit soldiers, by force, for fighting the Arabs in Palestine. Here are some examples taken from an OMGUS report: Irgun kept the running of these camps under its control. The organization also influenced the police force in these camps. Irgun and the camp police employed violent methods, intimidating, threatening and shedding blood if necessary… In July 1948, DPs [displaced persons] in Berlin who claimed to have just arrived from Poland were found instead to have fled the American zone to avoid the Irgun "recruitment" drives. In Duppel Center DP Camp, Irgun recruiters beat some of those who refused to "volunteer" to fight the Arabs in Palestine, and others were threatened with death if they ever refused to go. While prospective recruits were being persuaded, the main gates to the camp were closed to prevent escape.113The militants of the Haganah also used force against their fellow Jews. Stephen Green writes: Some of the camps began to report around this time that the Haganah was adopting violent tactics similar to those of the Irgun. An elite, paramilitary group within the Haganah called Sochnut began to appear in report after report of threats, beatings, and intimidation... Although the OMGUS authorities only began to notice this selection process in mid-1948, it had in fact been practiced for many months, especially by the Irgun... Jewish victims of the Nazi terror again were forced to flee friends and family, to escape Zionist terror.114
By mid-1948, intelligence reports of OMGUS were calling "terror tactics" what had become standard operating procedure in the DP camps for recruiters from both the Haganah and the Irgun. A typical incident occurred at the Kriegslazarett Camp in Traunstein, Bavaria. The camp police cordoned off the building to prevent anyone entering or leaving. On 14 June, a Jewish holiday, those Jews who refused to go to Israel were warned not to go to the synagogue; otherwise they would be expelled from the synagogue. When Israel was founded, those Jews living in Palestine organized terror in the camps to convince them to migrate to Israel. Since Israel's foundation, around a dozen people had left the Kriegslazarett camp. These volunteers were known as the "Ghuis." Six or seven of these men returned a couple of days later. During the time they remained in the camps, they terrorized the other young people who were unwilling to go to Israel.116 Such Jews, subjected to every kind of pressure in the DP camps, were guilty only of rejecting radical Zionism. To get them to immigrate to the Promised Land, the radical Zionist leaders compelled them to become radical Zionists by committing acts of terror and discrimination against non-radical Zionist and anti-Zionist Jews.117 Their policy of intimidation implemented against Jews living in the DP camps gradually became known, and was supplemented by a feverish propaganda campaign. On August 21, 1948, the American magazine The New Leader printed a letter from Louis Nelson, then manager of the Knit Goods Workers Union, later vice president of the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union. Nelson reported that the campaign sought to force displaced persons to accept Zionism, and to join the Palestinian Jewish army. Alfred Lilienthal described the Zionist pressure in the DP camps: This means confiscation of food rations, dismissal from work, smashing of machines sent by Americans to train DPs in useful skills, taking away legal protection and visa rights from dissenters, even to the point of expelling them from the camps, and in one instance, the public flogging of a recalcitrant recruit for the Israeli Army. In addition, widespread stories of pogroms even in the USA were told to the ignorant and harassed DPs…118This policy of certain Zionist leaders, in its various ramifications, eventually paid off. The Jewish community, drained by the war years, found resistance difficult. Jews released from the camps with these Zionists' help followed their orders and left for Israel, although, as Lilienthal writes, "The majority specified a preference of going anywhere but Palestine, despite the intense propaganda work of the Jewish Agency among the inmates of the... camps."119
As Israeli writer Amos Perlmutter observes: Ben Gurion and the Zionists then decided to combine the Holocaust and independence, the plight of Jewish displaced persons and survivors of the camps with the concept of partition… The pursuit of a displaced persons policy had not been one of the Zionists' major goals (no matter how much some historians like to insist that it was). Now, in 1946, the plight of the displaced persons in British camps coincided with pragmatic politics on several levels. On the most immediate front, immigration to Eretz Israel was always a major Zionist concern…120
This law has been debated in Israel for many years. Some intellectuals believe that it is clearly racist. Yet the official policy it expresses has never changed. Shimon Peres stated the Israeli point of view in the newspaper Davar on January 25, 1972, saying that the implementation of Law 125 (the Law of Return) was a continuation of the war to get Jews to come to Israel and settle there. Peres's statement that making Jews settle in Israel was a "war" is true, insofar as some influential circles in Israeli administration use compulsion on Diaspora Jewry, due to its unwillingness to "make aliyah," or immigrate to Israel. Thus these circles make war not only on hostile nations or groups, but also on that portion of world Jewry that has allegedly lost the awareness of race and turned their backs on radical Zionism. Organizer of Emigration: Mossad le-Aliyah Bet
In its efforts to convince unwilling Jews to immigrate to the Promised Land, Aliyah Bet had no use for humane persuasion. Turkkaya Ataov, professor emeritus of international relations, in the book Siyonizm ve Irkcilik (Zionism and Racism), writes: More than 80 percent of the emigrants to Israel came from Eastern Europe, the Arabian Middle East, and North Africa. Although most of these Jews had no intention to emigrate, a clever policy of oppression and propaganda compelled them to do so. Egyptian Jews unwilling to join felt themselves in danger, while 700 thousand people from Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco were forced to emigrate with threats and feverish calls.121Aliyah Bet devised numerous dirty tricks to convince thousands of Jews living outside Israel to immigrate to the Promised Land. Its dark operations against the Jewish community outside Israel included: • "Operation Magic Carpet" (1949-1950), in which fifty thousand Yemenite Jews were lured to Israel by the claim that on the foundation of Israel, "the Messiah had appeared there;" • "Operation Ali Baba" (1950-1959), in which 120,000 Iraqi Jews were induced to immigrate to Israel by outrages that included the bombings of synagogues in Baghdad, carried out by Aliyah Bet; • "Operation Moses" (1984), a covert operation in which Aliyah Bet carried off seven thousand Ethiopian Jews from eastern Sudan to Israel; and • "Operation Solomon" (1991), in which fifteen thousand more Ethiopian Jews were purchased like slaves from the leaders of the Ethiopian regime, and transported to Israel. Aliyah Bet created the atmosphere necessary for large numbers of Jews to perceive "aliyah" ("return") as "salvation." Of Aliyah Bet, the Israeli journalists Dan Raviv and Yossi Melman write: Members of the intelligence community firmly denied using any terrorist tactics, but they were proud to say that they consistently came up with new and original methods to transport Jews to Israel. They were, after all, for the survival of their new nation... Thanks to the secret agents of Aliyah Bet, the population of Israel nearly doubled, to over one million Jews, in the first four years after independence.122Its agents succeeded in doubling the population of Israel in its first four years. But this success rested on tactics just as vile as those used in radical Zionism's earlier operations to pressure Jews to immigrate to Palestine. Mossad Bombs Iraqi Jews: Operation Ali Baba As the first to "suffer from harsh conditions," a number of Israeli leaders chose Iraqi Jews who, as descendants of the Biblical Hebrews exiled to Babylon, had a 2,500-year history in Mesopotamia. Their population now numbering 150,000, they had built sixty synagogues and until the arrival of Mossad's agents, had lived in peace with their Muslim neighbors. Despite the enactment of the Law of Return in 1950, the Iraqi Jews were unwilling to "return" to Israel. Mossad agents, aware of this reluctance, did not hesitate to inform Iraqi Jews of the danger that supposedly menaced them. A bomb placed in Baghdad's Masouda Shemtov Synagogue killed three Iraqi Jews and injured ten. In the following days, it turned out that the bombers were Mossad agents. The book Siyonizm ve Irkcilik says, "Israeli [Mossad] agents were exposed and tried as responsible for the bombing of the Masauda Shemtou Synagogue in Baghdad."124 The incident is also treated in detail in Every Spy a Prince, a history of the Mossad by the Israeli journalists Dan Raviv and Yossi Melman. David Reuben, an Iraqi Jew, witnessed the dangers to which his countrymen were exposed. Relating his view of Operation Ali Baba, Reuben stressed that the Zionists waged psychological warfare against Iraqi Jewry. Its primary aim was to create hostility between Muslims and Jews in order to force the Jews to flee to their "homeland." In addition to the psychological war, synagogues were bombed as well, resulting in injuries to Jews. Muslims were accused of these deeds, until eventually the Jews came to believe that they weren't safe in their own homes. According to Reuben, radical Zionists were responsible for all the incidents.125
Iraqi Jews frightened by the Mossad's bombs found their "escape" through immigration to Israel. By the end of Operation Ali Baba, conceived and carried out by radical Zionist leaders, 120,000 Iraqi Jews had been transferred to Israel.
Shlomo Hillel [a senior Aliyah B operative] was posing as "British businessman Richard Armstrong," representing Near East Air Transport Corporation of the United States in talks with the Iraqi government. The obscure American airline covered its tracks carefully so as to disguise its close ties with the Israel government. No one knew that during 1948-1949 the company had flown all fifty thousand Jews of Yemen Aden to Israel... After two years of active anti-Semitic oppression, the Iraqi parliament passed a law in March 1950 that permitted every Jew who wished to do so to leave the country. They would simply have to give up their Iraqi citizenship. This seemed surprisingly lenient from a regime that had declared war on Israel and arrested hundreds of Jews for Zionist activities. The explanation lay in incentives offered to the prime minister who opened the emigration gates, Toufik al-Sawidi. He was also the chairman of Iraq Tours, which—by no coincidence—was appointed agent for Near East Air Transport Corporation. In other words by a roundabout method, the head of Iraq's government received bribes and kickbacks from Israeli intelligence.126Naeim Giladi is now writing books on Israel's cruel policy toward the Jews of Iraq. The New American View reports that Giladi was born in Iraq in 1930. In his youth, while still a committed and active radical Zionist, Giladi witnessed murderous attacks inflicted on the Iraqi Jewish community. As a living witness to what happened behind the scenes in those days, the details he provides are valuable admissions. He joined the underground Zionist movement in the wake of the Jewish massacre in Baghdad organized by the British in 1941. After World War II, he worked on Operation Ali Baba to transfer Iraqi Jews to Israel. In 1992 Giladi published a book titled Ben Gurion's Scandals: How the Haganah of the Mossad Eliminated Jews, in which he described his experiences in the underground Zionist organization in Iraq. He also provided information about the underground Zionist agent Ben Porat, who enabled Iraqi Jews to migrate from Baghdad to Israel. According to Giladi, Ben Porat terrified and terrorized the Jews to leave Iraq, where they had lived in peace and wealth for 2,500 years. Giladi maintained that Mossad terrorists bombed cafes and synagogues frequented by Jews in order to force them to migrate to Israel, and that Zionists such as Ben Porat accused Iraqi Muslims for carrying out such attacks. The plan worked, and the Jews fled to Israel. Yet the Iraqi Jewish people found themselves in the position of second-class citizens, oppressed by the European Jews running Israel.127 Thus radical Zionists with underground organizations forced Iraq's Jews to leave what had been their homeland for thousands of years, and to become second-class citizens. In today's Israel, the tragedy of the Iraqi Jews continues: The Iraqis in Israel were already disgruntled, blaming the European-born leadership of the Jewish state for thrusting them into primitive tents and huts with little hope of decent housing or employment. The new Sephardic—"Oriental"—immigrants felt humiliated to be sprayed with insecticide and given no freedom of choice.128 Removing the Ethiopian Jews from Their Homeland, or Moses and Solomon Operations To enable the 1984 operation, the Israelis paid sizable bribes to Ethiopia's leaders and—since the Ethiopian Jews had to be transferred by way of Sudan—they also bought off the overthrown President of Sudan and his close associates. Sudanese President Gaafar Muhammad al-Nimeiry, Vice President Omar el-Tayeb, and their "special consultant" Baha Ydris (nicknamed "Mr. 10 Percent" for his well-known involvement in taking bribes and in all sorts of other illegal activities) accepted $56 million for allowing the Falashas to be transferred via Sudan. In short, radical Zionist leaders purchased the Falashas just like chattel, after driving a bargain with Ethiopia's and Sudan's leaders. The negotiating parties had no need to ask where the Ethiopian Jews would like to live. The Falashas' price was paid to the Ethiopian leaders, and the Ethiopian Jews were later flown to Israel. Nokta magazine paints a dramatic picture of their arrival: When the Falashas, numbered stickers on their foreheads, got off the plane, they left a pale and tired, young yet frail, impression on people. Almost fourteen thousand Falashas arrived in Zion with numbers on their foreheads, and they resembled the Jewish prisoners consigned to Nazi concentration camps years ago with tattoos on their wrists.129The treatment they underwent came quickly to the notice of international organizations. A human rights group called the French Solidarity Association criticized the Israeli government, declaring that there were no humanitarian reasons to transfer Ethiopian Jews to the Promised Land: The French Solidarity Association suggested that the Israeli government had not transferred the Ethiopian Jews to Israel out of humane considerations and declared that the real reason for the rescue operation was to establish new settlements in the occupied territories so that Israel could continue its expansionist policy. In the meantime, opposition to the secret transfer of thousands of Falashas to Israel continues. Because of the uproar this event created, the Israeli government had to end the emigration.130In 1991's Operation Solomon, another group of Ethiopian Jews was transported to Israel. The brains behind this operation were the Iranian Jew David Alliance and the Iraqi Jew Sami Shamoon, led by Uri Lubrani. Once again, bribery figured in: A financial deal between Uri Lubrani and Ethiopia's President Mengistu Haile Mariam clinched the operation. The transfer of fifteen thousand Jews to Israel began with Lubrani's meeting with Mengistu to gain his permission. Mengistu's opening offer was $100 million. Lubrani countered with $25 million, but Mengistu said he couldn't accept less than $57.5 million. Finally, they agreed on a payment of $30 million. After the deal was completed, Operation Solomon transferred more than fourteen thousand Ethiopian Jews by air to Israel in May 1991. For the Falashas, the real tragedy began in Israel. After the glittering promises with which they had lured the Ethiopian Jews, certain Zionist leaders gave them housing barely fit for human habitation.
Life in the Promised Land is a tragedy... the lives of thousands of Ethiopian Jews have turned into a nightmare in which they are settled in trailers close to the desert with no opportunity of schooling or jobs. Worn-out huts, difficult to call houses, now resemble black ghettoes. Last year, fourteen thousand black Jews were suddenly transferred to Israel in an air operation that lasted for twenty-two hours, but no permanent housing was provided for these people. A thousand of them are living in hostels and the remaining thirteen thousand are leading their lives in trailers. These trailers are completely isolated from the rest of Israeli society... The leaders of these black Jews describe their conditions as a social tragedy and are awaiting reforms soon. The Ethiopian Jewish leader Rahamim Elazar says, "Trailers are just like ghettos," and adds, "Israel will be condemned around the world as a racist country for isolating these black Jews from the community." Elazar compares the Falashas' trailer camps in Israel to the black shanty towns in South Africa, adding that "The trailers are so dirty and lacking in drainage that I cannot even call them modern Soweto." He expresses hopelessness for the future. Maaritesh Kandia, with five children, says, "In the summer it is terribly hot, and in winter it is terribly cold. I wish we had a normal place to stay in." Thirteen thousand of the Ethiopians who were brought to Israel in Operation Solomon currently live in four hundred trailers lined up side by side at the edge of the desert. Maaritesh Kandia and her fellow Falashas complain about their isolation: for instance, they are forced to send their children to school in Jerusalem, two hours away.131
According to an investigation by the Israeli Ministry of Immigrant Absorption, a third of the Ethiopian Jews who were transferred to Israel five years ago in Operation Moses do not have permanent places of residence. The same ministry confirmed reports stating that immigrants settled in Kiryat Arba were living in poor conditions.132Although it has now been ten years since they were brought to Israel, the Ethiopian Jews feel closer to the Arabs than to the Jews of Israel. The Arab-language magazine El-Mecelle examined the plight of the Falashas in an article that noted the ill-treatment and discrimination the Falashas have undergone in Israel, as well as their complaints: From the day the Ethiopian Jews arrived in Israel, they have objected to being called Falashas, since in the Ethiopian language Amharic, falasha means "others, different ones." They also complain that the miserable conditions and ill treatment they suffer started only in Israel, not in their former homeland, where they had led peaceful settled lives... Yusuf Minkasha, a technician in the Israeli army, says "One day I will surely leave Israel and go back to Ethiopia"... A pregnant Ethiopian woman comments: "The Israelis have shown that they see us as different from themselves in every regard. I feel closer to the Arabs and prefer to be treated by an Arab doctor, because he will certainly respect me and treat me accordingly."133
The most important problem of the community is their yearning for the families they left in Ethiopia. Unhappiness arising from this separation of families has resulted in suicide attempts by many Ethiopians. Up to now, a total of twenty-five Ethiopians has committed suicide. With Operation Moses they have experienced a social crisis, and the transfer from one very different culture to another has caused depression.134On June 16, 1991, the total number of suicides was reported by Nokta magazine to have reached fifty. Afterwards, suicides still continued. Some Zionist leaders took no interest in the Ethiopian Jews' wretched conditions. Bereft of sympathy and support in Israel, the Falashas decided to approach American Jews for help. They sent to American Jews a letter reproaching certain Israeli leaders. On November 16, 1988, Shalom reported on it in an article titled, "Open Letter to the American Jews—Narrating the Pain of Ethiopian Jews—Silence Is Murder." Here are some lines from the letter: Every day we hear the cries of their sorrow. All their letters speak of death and famine. They report only of children dying from hunger, women, and dying villages. But for more than four years, our families have been kept in silence, and condemned to poverty and hunger. The people who experience these are Ethiopian Jews. We tried to approach American Jewry in order to help us unite our families. Our purpose is to appeal to a larger community which will be interested in our families.
"We have signed below as persons representing different sectors of the Ethiopian community. We inform that it causes us astonishment and regret that the Ethiopian Government does not allow the Ethiopian Jews to unite with their children, mothers, fathers, and relatives." The most basic human rights are denied the Ethiopian Jews. Our families are separated. To increase sensitivity we have signed this letter, but it too is denied. Have these Jewish leaders no conscience? The behavior of the Diaspora Jewish leaders is sending our families to death and separation—Shlome Mula (President, Ethiopian Jewish Students Union); Rahamim Elazar (President, Union of Ethiopian Jews in Israel); Uri Tekele (Leader, Beta Israel Association); Yisrael Yitzhak (President, Ethiopian Immigrants Association). The radical Israelis not only mistreated the Ethiopian Jews in Israel, but concealed the hardships of the Falashas in Ethiopia. In 1987, for example, the Ethiopian government arrested some of the Falashas, then tortured them in prison. Although the radical Israelis were well aware of what their Ethiopian brethren were suffering, they avoided to make any attempts to save them. Consequently, Mesfin Ambaw, secretary of the Ethiopian Immigrants Association, declared, "The Israeli government is not interested in us at all; people have been murdered in our villages and terrible things are happening."135Certain Israelis' insensitivity actually resulted from their seeking a pretext for another emigration operation they were planning for Ethiopian Jewry. They were waiting for the Falashas' miserable conditions to worsen, until the Falashas themselves would beg to leave Ethiopia for Israel. On June 16, 1991, the periodical Nokta summarized the situation: The Israeli government at that time chose to keep silent regarding the Ethiopian government's attitude toward the Falashas because they [the Israelis] wanted to transfer more Ethiopian Jews to Israel. The Israelis did not regard the Falashas as authentic Jews; the purpose of transferring them to Israel was chiefly to settle them on Arab territories under Israeli occupation. Therefore, Israel's policy towards the Falashas has never been a humane one. During Operation Moses in 1984, some Zionist leaders transported 7,000 Falashas to Israel. In their efforts to soothe world opinion, Israeli leaders called it a "rescue operation," but what actually occurred was far less rosy. The Falashas were not really "rescued," and many actually lost their lives during the operation! Shalom acknowledged as much, describing Operation Moses as causing "the biggest death toll of Ethiopian Jews in the last century," adding that: Operation Moses resulted in the deaths of a thousand Ethiopian Jews... Most of the deaths occurred during the transfer through Sudan.136Operation Magic Carpet: Yemenite Jews Deceived by the Lie that "the Messiah Appeared in Israel" To increase immigration to Israel, new scenarios were needed. From the beginning, in fact, immigration to Palestine had been accomplished artificially. One interesting example dates from 1948, when a group of Jews from Yemen were tricked into eventually being brought to Israel. In those years, Arab workers in Israel's agricultural sector earned high wages by doing the most difficult labor, such as domestic help or work in industry. Before long, a new solution was found to lower costs, as well as the region's Arab population. Doctor Thon, who worked for the Jewish Agency of the World Zionist Organization, had explained it in a speech in 1908: Only an eastern Jew would work for the lower wages offered to an Arab. In this way these eastern Jews transferred to Israel will be supporting "Hebrew labor," which is the aim of Zionism, and the elimination of Palestinian labor will come as a result... If the continuous settlement of immigrating Yemen families to the pre-determined regions is successful, then another problem would be solved: The women and daughters of Yemenite families will replace Arab women as maids in the homes of immigrant families. The Arabs are earning as much as 20 to 25 francs a month.137A theoretical solution was found to the problem: Yemenite Jewish men would work as laborers and their women as maids, in the hardest jobs, for the lowest wages. The problem was how to persuade them to immigrate to Israel. It was solved by a quite sordid method: In 1911 a pseudo-preacher was sent to Yemen—the "Zionist-Socialist" Warshavsky, re-named for the purpose "Rabbi Yavne'eli"—in order to announce to the Yemeni Jews the coming of the Messiah and the third Kingdom of Israel. Much later, in 1948, the Yemeni immigrants were brought to Israel in the operation called Magic Carpet. In the aircraft that conveyed them, they chanted, "David! David! [i.e. Ben Gurion] King of Israel!" This operation was carried out in two phases, between December 1948 and March 1949, and between July 1949 and September 1950, and cost $5.5 million.138
Between 1948 and 1949, Operation Magic Carpet accomplished the immigration of 50,000 Yemenite Jews. They had been deceived, and in Israel, their tragedy were just beginning. In the Promised Land, their lives would be far from the comfortable, pious ones they had been promised. On the contrary, they were greeted with the worst, most difficult jobs: Most of these emigrants began work as farmers, and they became the labor force for industry or transportation. While clearing swamps for agriculture, many of the young people lost their lives.139
The plan was for Listen Bismirka, an American Jew operating in Yemen, to make the rounds of Yemenite Jewry and encourage them to immigrate to Israel... Bismirka [worked] in the mountains of Yemen, trying to convince pious Jews to immigrate. Reportedly, by doing so, it is aimed to bring all Yemenite Jews to Israel.The radical Israelis had some success in these operations. Once again, Yemenite Jews were deceived by shining words and promises, but after immigrating, their new lives offered them only trouble. Zaman adds: Families transferred to Israel from Yemen by various duplicitous methods are reported to be in distress. Two Jewish Yemenite families wrote a special letter to the government of Yemen describing their miserable situation in Israel. These families declared their desire to return to Yemen, and expressed their misery: "We are in distress here. They took our twenty-five thousand dollars and passports. Please send us new passports and tickets so we can return to our country."The poverty and distress that Yemenite Jews faced in Israel were so obvious that even the Israeli media reported it. Shalom, in a story picked up from the French-language Tribune Juive, described what happened to the Yemenite Jews in Israel: Everything starts with the Magic Carpet Operation. 48,000 people are settled in maaborats [transit camps] hastily set up in Israel. The death rate in these camps is quite high. Inadequate nutrition, the exhausting trip to Israel, and the deficiencies in the health organizations in the face of so many immigrants are the basic reasons for this unfortunate situation. In the winter of 1949, amidst freezing weather conditions, strange things began to happen in the Rosh Hasim Camp: Mothers and fathers were searching for their lost babies... This happened repeatedly. Twelve- to eighteen-month-old babies were diagnosed with some disease, then sent to hospitals or otherwise taken from their families. Next the family would be told that their child had died. But only a few families received a death certificate. Furthermore, the families were unable to learn where their children were buried. The sorrowful parents were informed that their babies had been buried hastily to prevent the spread of epidemics… According to the statement of one witness, a mother fought to see her child... and was able to withdraw the child from the hospital. The child was perfectly healthy. The hospital authorities simply apologized and said that there had been a mistake in the hospital records. After that, a rumor spread through the maaborats: Babies are disappearing in the hospitals. In these strange unexplained circumstances it is believed that more than 500 babies were lost.140
News in the Israeli media has excited the Yemenite Jewish community: "We are the taken-away children of immigrants from Yemen who came to Israel 30 years ago." These are persons who were adopted by American families in their infancy, had come in search of their real parents, Jews of Yemenite origin living in Israel.Nine years later, in a story titled "Yemenite Jews Are Searching for Their Rights in Israel," Shalom reported more about the mysteriously lost babies of Yemenite Jews: What really happened to the 613 Yemenite babies who were taken away from their families and given to more "developed" ones? It is known that they are alive somewhere but the Israel government takes no steps to investigate the matter.141Thus, some Israeli administrators within the inner establishment inflicted another blow on the Yemenite Jews. First, they lured them from a settled and peaceful existence in their homeland. But that wasn't enough for these Israeli leaders: They kidnapped babies from the Yemenite Jews, then told them their children were dead. This, of course, was just another lie—the children had been given to American Jews for adoption. Some Israeli leaders did still more. During the transfer of Yemenite Jews to Israel, they confiscated thousands of ancient handwritten books and scrolls, and never returned them. The excuse was made that the books weighed too much for transport by plane; their return to their owners was solemnly promised. Not long afterward, these Israeli officials announced that there had been a fire in the hangar where the books had been unloaded, and that none could be saved.
The travails of the Jews of Yemen, and the dark policies formulated for them by certain Israelis continued. Certain radical Israeli leaders experimented with a new method to bring Yemenite Jews to Israel. All at once, rumors began to surface everywhere that Jews in Yemen were being tortured and even killed due to their religion. The source of the rumors could not be determined. Official reports were issued on the matter. The purpose was to make the remaining Jews of Yemen feel they were unsafe there and had to immigrate to Israel. In the days that followed the initial reports, it became clear that the Israel's inner establishment was behind them, that the rumors did not reflect the truth, but were deliberate falsehoods. When the truth came out, the inner establishment panicked. To save face, they announced that "Yemenite Jews were accused of preparing false reports and spreading untrue rumors."142 In fact, the Jews of Yemen were most unlikely, and scarcely able, to have carried out such a provocative campaign. As noted, they enjoyed a settled existence in their homeland—so they had no need to spread such rumors. Some radical Israelis, of course, claimed that the Yemenite Jews had been persecuted because of their religion before they came to Israel—but this was only to justify their own covert operations. They wanted to be seen as the saviors of Yemenite Jewry. But Shalom refuted their pretexts for the operations: "The real condition of the 1,000-1,100 Jews in Yemen is this: They are free to practice their religion. There are many synagogues in Yemen still open for public worship."143 Other Israeli Jew-Buying Methods: Romanian Jews and the Luxembourg Agreement
Rabbi Rosen says: "It is my proudest achievement that 97% of Jews left." ... Probably more interesting is the fact that Rabbi Rosen was also a member of Romania's puppet parliament which... is bringing him under scrutiny for his links with the Ceaucescu dynasty... Although Rosen has always denied any knowledge of it, Israeli [radicals were] literally allowed to buy Jews from the Romanian Government. And by 1978, according to Ion Pacepa, Romania's former Head of Security who defected to the West, the amount could range from $2,000 to $50,000 depending on the citizen's value to each state.144Ana Pauker played an important role in laying the groundwork for the emigration of Romanian Jews to Israel. Pauker, a leading communist who formerly served as Romania's minister of foreign relations, was the elder sister of Zionist Zalman Rabinsohn. On November 20, 1952 the Communist Party tried her along with 13 communist leaders, 11 of them Jewish, in the Prague Trials for supporting Zionists. Israel's Secret Relations with Contemporary Nazis In light of this, SS General Kurt Becher is an interesting exception. Becher was the Reich Special Commissar for all Nazi concentration camps, and if Israelis were to search for an enemy, his name should have been at the top of their wanted list. However, instead of calling for Becher's arrest and trial, certain circles of power and influence in Israel have done business with this former Nazi general! The American Jewish researcher Ralph Schoenman has revealed their relationship: SS General Kurt Becher... was appointed Commissar of all Nazi concentration camps by Heinrich Himmler... He became president of a corporation that headed up the sale of wheat to Israel. His corporation, the Cologne-Handel Gesellschaft, did extensive business with the Israeli government.145The "apartheid" rulers of South Africa, too, included men who were both former Nazis and close friends of Israel. South African racist Prime Minister John Vorster's relationship with Israel is of particular interest. Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi, professor of psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, comments on a state visit Vorster made to Israel in his book The Israeli Connection: Whom Israel Arms and Why:
Beit-Hallahmi adds: "What the South Africans get from Israel, as they wage their war for survival, is first and foremost inspiration. Second is practical guidance in every facet of their military endeavor."147 Most South African leaders who admire Israel are in fact former Nazi sympathizers, as Hallahmi points out. The South African journalist Breyten Breytenbach describes this interesting situation: What a strange identification the Afrikaners have with Israel. There has always been a strong current of anti-Semitism in the land, after all—the present rulers are the result and the direct descendants of pro-Nazi ideologues. And yet they have the greatest admiration for Israel... They identify themselves with Israel as the Biblical chosen people of God, as a modern embattled state surrounded by a sea of enemies.148Thus Israel's inner establishment has maintained good ties with contemporary Nazis as well as with earlier ones. In reality, contrary to what is generally thought, the two ideologies of radical Zionism and fascism work together in perfect harmony, which transforms into active collaboration at every convenience. |
106 The National Jewish Post and Opinion, October 6, 1959.
107 New York Times, July 24, 1958.
108 New York Times, December 13,1951.
109 Roger Garaudy, Siyonizm Dosyası, p. 166.
110 Alfred M. Lilienthal, What PriceI srael?, 50th Anniversary Edition 1953-2003, pp. 148-49
111 Turkkaya Ataov, Siyonizm ve Irkcilik (Zionism and Racism), Ankara, 1985, p. 54.
112 Alfred M. Lilienthal, What Price Israel?, p. 150.
113 Copy in Publications File, Records of the Document Library Branch, Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff, G-2, Record Group 319, National Archives, Secret Weekly Intelligence Report 112 from the Office of the Director of Intelligence, OMGUS, Dated July 3, 1948.
114 Stephen Green, Taking Sides: America's Secret Relations with a Militant Israel, New York, 1984, p.50.
115 Copy in Publications File, Records of the Document Library Branch, Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff, G-2, Record Group 319, National Archives, Secret Weekly Intelligence Report 112 from the Office of the Director of Intelligence, OMGUS, Dated July 3, 1948.
116 Ibid.
117 Turkkaya Ataov, Siyonizm ve Irkcilik, p. 55.
118 Ibid.
119 Ibid., p. 56.
120 Amos Perlmutter, Israel: The Partitioned State: A Political History since 1990, New York, 1985, p. 113.
121 Turkkaya Ataov, Siyonizm ve Irkcilik, pp. 56-57.
122 Dan Raviv & Yossi Melman, Every Spy a Prince: The Complete Story of Israel's Intelligence Community, Boston, 1991, pp. 38-39.
123 Turkkaya Ataov, Siyonizm ve Irkcilik, p. 55.
124 Ibid., p. 57.
125 Jerusalem Post, July 21, 1964.
126 Dan Raviv & Yossi Melman, Every Spy a Prince, p. 36.
127 New American View, August 1, 1993.
128 Dan Raviv & Yossi Melman, Every Spy a Prince, p. 38.
129 Nokta Magazine, June 16, 1991.
130 Hurriyet Daily, January 10, 1985.
131 Gundem Magazine, October 10, 1992.
132 Shalom, September 6, 1989.
133 El-Mecelle, January 22, 1994.
134 "Will the Ethiopian Jews Celebrate the Fifth Anniversary of Operation Moses?," Shalom, December 6, 1989.
135 Shalom, October 18, 1989.
136 Shalom, August 5, 1987.
137 La Question Juive, İlan Hale'vi, p. 24. The report in question by Dr. Thon was first published in 1970 in Tel Aviv, in Hebrew, in the book The History of Zionist Colonization published by Massada Publications.
138 Roger Garaudy, Siyonizm Dosyası, pp. 153-154.
139 I. Rennap, Anti-Semitizm ve Yahudi Sorunu (Anti-Semitism and Jews Problem), Istanbul, 1991, pp. 88-89.
140 Shalom, September 16, 1982.
141 Shalom, November 27, 1991.
142 Shalom, April 2, 1986.
143 Ibid.
144 David Musa Pidcock, Satanic Voices Ancient & Modern: A Surfeit of Blasphemy Including the Rushdie Report. From Edifice Complex to Occult Theocracy, Oldbrook, 1992, pp. 164-165.
145 Ralph Schoenman, The Hidden History of Zionism, San Francisco, 1988, p. 37.
146 Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi, The Israeli Connection: Whom Israel Arms and Why, New York, 1987, p. 121.
147 Ibid., p. 161.
148 Ibid
107 New York Times, July 24, 1958.
108 New York Times, December 13,1951.
109 Roger Garaudy, Siyonizm Dosyası, p. 166.
110 Alfred M. Lilienthal, What PriceI srael?, 50th Anniversary Edition 1953-2003, pp. 148-49
111 Turkkaya Ataov, Siyonizm ve Irkcilik (Zionism and Racism), Ankara, 1985, p. 54.
112 Alfred M. Lilienthal, What Price Israel?, p. 150.
113 Copy in Publications File, Records of the Document Library Branch, Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff, G-2, Record Group 319, National Archives, Secret Weekly Intelligence Report 112 from the Office of the Director of Intelligence, OMGUS, Dated July 3, 1948.
114 Stephen Green, Taking Sides: America's Secret Relations with a Militant Israel, New York, 1984, p.50.
115 Copy in Publications File, Records of the Document Library Branch, Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff, G-2, Record Group 319, National Archives, Secret Weekly Intelligence Report 112 from the Office of the Director of Intelligence, OMGUS, Dated July 3, 1948.
116 Ibid.
117 Turkkaya Ataov, Siyonizm ve Irkcilik, p. 55.
118 Ibid.
119 Ibid., p. 56.
120 Amos Perlmutter, Israel: The Partitioned State: A Political History since 1990, New York, 1985, p. 113.
121 Turkkaya Ataov, Siyonizm ve Irkcilik, pp. 56-57.
122 Dan Raviv & Yossi Melman, Every Spy a Prince: The Complete Story of Israel's Intelligence Community, Boston, 1991, pp. 38-39.
123 Turkkaya Ataov, Siyonizm ve Irkcilik, p. 55.
124 Ibid., p. 57.
125 Jerusalem Post, July 21, 1964.
126 Dan Raviv & Yossi Melman, Every Spy a Prince, p. 36.
127 New American View, August 1, 1993.
128 Dan Raviv & Yossi Melman, Every Spy a Prince, p. 38.
129 Nokta Magazine, June 16, 1991.
130 Hurriyet Daily, January 10, 1985.
131 Gundem Magazine, October 10, 1992.
132 Shalom, September 6, 1989.
133 El-Mecelle, January 22, 1994.
134 "Will the Ethiopian Jews Celebrate the Fifth Anniversary of Operation Moses?," Shalom, December 6, 1989.
135 Shalom, October 18, 1989.
136 Shalom, August 5, 1987.
137 La Question Juive, İlan Hale'vi, p. 24. The report in question by Dr. Thon was first published in 1970 in Tel Aviv, in Hebrew, in the book The History of Zionist Colonization published by Massada Publications.
138 Roger Garaudy, Siyonizm Dosyası, pp. 153-154.
139 I. Rennap, Anti-Semitizm ve Yahudi Sorunu (Anti-Semitism and Jews Problem), Istanbul, 1991, pp. 88-89.
140 Shalom, September 16, 1982.
141 Shalom, November 27, 1991.
142 Shalom, April 2, 1986.
143 Ibid.
144 David Musa Pidcock, Satanic Voices Ancient & Modern: A Surfeit of Blasphemy Including the Rushdie Report. From Edifice Complex to Occult Theocracy, Oldbrook, 1992, pp. 164-165.
145 Ralph Schoenman, The Hidden History of Zionism, San Francisco, 1988, p. 37.
146 Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi, The Israeli Connection: Whom Israel Arms and Why, New York, 1987, p. 121.
147 Ibid., p. 161.
148 Ibid
