Alternative Insight

The New Sicarii


Although they might not have been the first terrorists, they wrote the book on terrorism. Rejecting other landscapes but their narrow view of the world, they believed their inner might could defeat the invincible Romans and killed co-religionists who refused to continue the battle. By using concealed daggers to dispatch their foes, they acquired the name Sicarii. In effect, they were a suicide prone sect who didn't mind taking fellow Jews with them to death.

The Sicarii played a principal role in provoking the Roman onslaught against the Jewish population in Jerusalem and in the eventual destruction of the city. Their identifying characteristics: victimhood, no compromises, use of daggers to resolve issues, generating hate, and creating victims. Two questions still require responses: Why did the Sicarii pursue a suicide effort and why did the first century Jews tolerate their presence?

History tells us that populations never learn from history and proceed to commit the same mistakes. The Jews have followed this principal; Sicarii have been prevalent throughout Jewish history and have often brought tragedy to Jewish populations.

Roman crushing of the Jewish rebellion in Jerusalem in 67 AD did not stop Jewish rebellions in Roman territories. Thirty eight years later, Jewish tribes in Crete, Cyrenaica (modern day eastern Libya), Cyprus, Mesopotamia and the Aegean took advantage of Roman struggles with other nations to start the Kitos war. According to Roman history, the war "spiraled out of control resulting in a widespread slaughter of Roman citizens and others by the Jewish rebels. The rebellions were finally crushed by Roman legionary forces, chiefly by the Roman general Luseis Quietus, whose name gave the conflict its title."
The Jewish Encyclopedia describes the Cyrene massacres:

By this outbreak Libya was depopulated to such an extent that a few years later new colonies had to be established there.

In Cyprus a Jewish band under a leader named Artemion had taken control of the island, killing thousands of civilians. Under the leadership of one Artemion, the Cypriot Jews participated in the great uprising against the Romans under Trajan, and they are reported to have massacred 240,000 Greeks (Dio Cassius, lxviii. 32) (ED: Evidently greatly exaggerated). A small Roman army was dispatched to the island, soon reconquering the capital. After the revolt had been fully defeated, laws were created forbidding any Jews to live on the island.

Wars undertaken with no possibility of permanent victory assured destruction of Jewish populations. More puzzling -- done during times when history indicates the Jews were relatively accepted and free to practice their religion in the Roman Empire.

In the first century AD, Jews lived across the Roman Empire in relative harmony. Protected by Rome and allowed to continue their religion, everything was fine until rebellion in Judaea led to a major change in the practice of their faith. By the beginning of the first century AD, Jews had spread from their homeland in Judaea across the Mediterranean and there were major Jewish communities in Syria, Egypt, and Greece. Practicing a very different religion from that of their neighbors, they were often unpopular. As a result, Jewish communities were often close-knit, to protect themselves and their faith.

Jews had lived in Rome since the second century BC. Julius Caesar and Augustus supported laws that allowed Jews protection to worship as they chose. Synagogues were classified as colleges to get around Roman laws banning secret societies and the temples were allowed to collect the yearly tax paid by all Jewish men for temple maintenance. There had been upsets: Jews had been banished from Rome in 139 BC, again in 19 AD and during the reign of Claudius. However, they were soon allowed to return and continue their independent existence under Roman law.
(http://www.pbs.org/empires/romans/empire/jews.html)

If fighting and losing two wars against impossible odds was not sufficiently punishing, Simon Bar Kokhba, a proclaimed Messiah, commandeered another revolt against the Roman Empire during the years 132-136 AD. The revolt temporarily succeeded in establishing an independent state in parts of Judea for two years until the Roman army overcame the rebellion. Result: The Romans barred Jews from Jerusalem, except for Tisah B'av, a fast day that commemorates the destruction of the Jerusalem Temples. Sicarrii among the Jews continued for centuries with false Messiahs and troubling figures who defied authority in losing causes.

For several reasons, the initial Zionist thrust resembled the Sicarii actions.
Although their philosophy had little appeal to the Jewish people of the late 19th century, Zionists behaved as if they spoke for all Jews.

The first Zionist Congress (1887) was to have taken place in Munich, Germany. However, due to considerable opposition by the local community leadership, both Orthodox and Reform, it was decided to transfer the proceedings to Basle, Switzerland. Theodore Herzl acted as chairperson of the Congress which was attended by some 200 participants. (ED: Only 69 were delegates) http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Zionism/firstcong.html

The Reform Judaism's (representing most of American Jews at that time) 1885 Pittsburgh Platform called for Jews to adopt a modern approach to the practice of their faith.

Instead of a nation, the Pittsburgh Platform envisions Jews as a religious community within a nation. For this reason, there was an explicit rejection of Zionism, which was viewed as unnecessary because American Jews were at home in America.

The 19th century emancipation movements liberated west and middle European Jews and permitted them to integrate into European society. The Russian Jews, who had major problems, didn't consider Zionism as a relief for their difficulties. Between 1881 and 1914, 2.5 million Jews migrated from Russia--2 million to America and only 30,000 to Palestine. Another 500,000 went to the large capitals of Western Europe. (Bernard Avishai, The Tragedy of Zionism)

Rather than benefiting world Jewry, the Zionist message endangered it.
Nations were uncertain about their Jewish citizens, who were portrayed by Zionists as having different consciences and mind-sets. Zionism presented Jews as having allegiance to an external ideal, willing to leave their native country if the opportunity became available. By 1914 the original Zionism had become a stagnant adventure. The Balfour Declaration and the allied victory in World War I revived the Zionist mission. Despite the revival and the establishment of the state of Israel, it is unproven that the original Zionism succeeded or even had a presence. The Jews who immigrated to Israel immediately after 1948 arrived for mainly economic and political reasons and not to fulfill a Zionist mission. Israel even claims the massive number of immigrants from North Africa and the Middle East (Mizrahi) did not arrive voluntarily, but were forced out of their homes. Zionism has not persuaded a great number of Jews to leave or not integrate themselves in their western nations. The Economist (Jan.11, 2007) mentions that only 17% of American Jews regard themselves as pro-Zionist and only 57% say that "caring about Israel is very important."

The attempt to recruit the world in an embargo against Nazi Germany in 1933 can be considered a Sicarii effort.
Jewish organizations initiated an international boycott campaign as a response to German discriminatory policies and abuses of German Jews. In March 1933 the American Jewish War Veterans and the American League for the Defense of Jewish Rights launched the first US Jewish boycott campaign. Although, undoubtedly originated with proper intentions, the boycott was doomed and counterproductive. Nations struggling with economic depressions did not want to disturb world trade, were occupied with their own problems and were not prepared to encounter Germany. The Nazis, who would never have been moved by any embargo, took advantage of the intended boycott to try to prove their argument that Jews engaged in international conspiracies. The boycott campaign further enraged the Nazis against the Jews and heightened the discrimination against them.

The underground war fought by Jewish militias against the British Mandate exposed more Sicarii.

The modern Sicarii, those who claim to speak for the Jewish people but are bringing them to eventual decline, have replaced metal daggers with character assassination, defamation, attacking words, wounding innuendos and bludgeoning malice towards their fellow Jews. They have a unique focus of utmost loyalty to the state of Israel. Jews who don't share their views and refuse to profess similar loyalty receive their daggers of condemnation.

Lack of historical, scientific and archaeological findings to support a great Hebrew civilization, implausability of Jewish claims to territory of the Levant, and severe reactions to Israel's attempts to create a singular heritage to Jerusalem, contradict the Sicarii focus. Nevertheless, the Sicarii consider fellow Jews who are educated with this knowledge as stupid and deceived traitors and unleash their wrath to intimidate and silence them. Preposterous expressions, such as 'self-hating' Jews, anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism, and all those who are antagonistic to Israel are anti-Semites, exhibit a lexicon of hate that guides their actions. The over-used epithets expose the Sicarii's lack of facts, reality and logic to support their arguments. The rights of others - no consideration at all.

Their insulting and ugly epithets solicit accusations of Jewish baseness, Jewish lack of regard for others, Jewish feelings of superiority, and fuel anti-Jewish feeling. Sicarii web sites unashamedly provide a list of 'self-hating' Jews, examples are at http://www.heebz.com/categories/Self-Hating-Jews and http://masada2000.org/list-K.html.

The lists pit Jew against Jew, and defame innocent persons. Words beget violence and the more radical Sicarii are driven to behave violently. One appearance of their violence is the attacks on Tikkun's Rabbi Lerner.

Zionist Extremist Hate Crime Against Rabbi Lerner: Third Attack on His Home and the Limits of "Freedom of the Press," 3/17/2011, Berkeley, California
"Only one day after Rabbi Lerner presented the Tikkun Award to South African Justice Richard Goldstone, at a celebration of Tikkun's twenty-fifth anniversary attended by over 600 people at the University of California, Berkeley, Lerner's home was again assaulted by extremist Zionists who once again plastered posters over his home. This is the third assault on Lerner's home since he announced he would be presenting the award to Justice Goldstone, whose report on Israel's human rights violations during the Israeli assault on Gaza in Dec. 2008 and Jan.2009 was denounced by the State of Israel and by the AIPAC-dominated House of Representatives last year. "

An array of well known and consistent dagger throwers in universities, radio, television and print media target those who criticize Israel. They conspire to deny academic antagonists any professorial tenure, halt publication of books, prevent production of plays and sidetrack printing of articles. Not interested in truth or reality, these attackers don't dialogue or debate issues. Sparked by, "We are always right," they engage in character assassination, slander and defamation to subdue their rivals. Most disconcerting is their use of the World War II Holocaust to advance their agenda. In addition to appointing themselves as the voice of live Jews, the Sicarii assume themselves to be the voice of dead Jews.

A true story of a typical Sicario:
Seated at breakfast in a Jerusalem hostel, a forty year old English woman explains why she is a new arrival in the West Bank settlement Ma'ale Adumim. She never felt at home in an England filled with anti-Semites. Here, in Israel she feels she has come home. Turn to an American who is asked if he feels the same. He explains he never faced anti-Semitism in his life and never felt anything else but being an American. His words enrage the British expatriate who leaps up and utters: "No, first you are a Jew. Then, you are an American."

It is natural that many Jews regard their birth nation as their primary faith and remain separated from Israel. Many regard Israeli laws to be intolerant, not protective of minorities and somewhat comparable to the Nazi Nuremburg laws. Some examples:

Many Jews refuse to accept the rationalization that the oppression of the Palestinian people is a temporary measure brought about by Israel's security considerations. They see no reason to be drawn into the conflict in which they have no part. Not so with the new Sicarii.

Three huge granite stones rest comfortably on the top of Midbar Sinai Street, in Givat Havatzim, Jerusalem's northernmost district. Cut to specification, the imposing stones represent one of several preparations by the Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faithful Movement to erect a Third Temple on the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount. Because the Islamic Wafq owns and controls all the property on the Haram al-Sharif, by what means can these stones be transferred to the Temple Mount and how can a Temple be constructed there? Not by any legal means. The stones are a provocation, which the Israel government refuses to halt. Because the Sicarii now have the occupation forces on their side, it becomes obvious they will be more threatening. In ancient times, their efforts contributed to the destruction of Jerusalem. Now it could be the entire Middle East.

alternative insight
june 2011

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