"The first photo shows my grandchildren hiding from Russian terrorists' missiles... we evacuated them to Israel... In the second photo, the same people are hiding from Hamas terrorists' missiles."
Source: https://t.me/pravdaGerashchenko_en/28485
Chief rabbi of Ukraine @RabbiUkraine writes on his Facebook page:
"The first photo shows my grandchildren hiding from Russian terrorists' missiles in Kyiv region in the first days of the terrible invasion of Ukraine.
Later, together with thousands of people, we evacuated them to Israel and Europe.
In the second photo, the same people are hiding from Hamas terrorists' missiles.
Two different parts of the world, but such a common pain and struggle... My heart breaks to see these faces, but I believe that the light of truth and faith will help us to go through these challenges
I pray to the Almighty to bring down his anger and fury on all those involved in the terror of civilians!"
While yes this is sad, you had to have known and expected that Israel was a potentially dangerous place. This just happens to be the largest attack in recent times
People can't just go anywhere, you need friends/family, maybe a job opportunity, not to mention all the visa/refugee stuff
The guy is a rabbi, almost any temple in the world would have sheltered him and offered him work and sponsorship
Doubt.
Israel has a high rate of dual citizenship, so he was likely already a citizen in Israel.
Cool and it still is a contested land with attacks happening legit weekly from all sides. Saying you thought it was safe is just idiotic.
I heard he went to North Korea next
Then to Taiwan
Yemen
Afghanistan
Victim blaming at it's finest. Wonderful job you've done here.
Nobody is saying it's his fault for being a rocket magnet. But come on, Israel hasn't exactly been the most peaceful place on earth for the last, oh, 3000 years or so.
Spoken truly as someone who has never been in such a situation and agreed with by fellow ignorants. Wonderful.
I'm full of compassion for him and his family. But as an important religious figure, publicly saying that you pray for the fury and anger of your God to go down on your enemies is awful. I understand the sentiment. I understand the anger, I do. But praying for something negative to happen - especially when you are supposed to lead other people - cannot be the right way to go.
Pray for the war to end. Pray for peace. Pray for Hamas to understand their wrongdoings. Pray for the terrorists to realize what they are doing. Pray for them to stop and beg forgiveness. If you want, pray for God to judge them. But praying for violence isn't what prayer should be used for.
Have you read the old testament?
Some Jews are now openly talking about forcing a destitute and oppressed people to wander into exile. At least initially, through the Egyptian Desert.
And don't see the irony at all.
I know what you mean. But that should be the distinction between religious extremists and "mainstream" religious leaders, shouldn't it? Extremists tend/can promote the negative, brutal, violent parts of their scripture. The modern-moderate mainstream approach is usually to focus on the unifying, loving, connecting, forgiving aspect. And this is why his statement pisses me off so much. Being the representative of the Jewish community in Ukraine, speaking for/to this community, advocating the violent aspects of your religion's scripture is an awful move.
Shh we don't do that one or talk about it anymore! /S
You mean the book where Israel frequently gets attacked by outside forces as a means of punishment from God? The book where God exiles the Israelites to a foreign land because of their extreme sin?
Jewish fundamentalists are radical extremists. This sort of rhetoric isn't rare coming out from this community, nor is it ever frowned upon. They get away with it for obvious reasons.
So they escaped russian occupation of Ukraine to Israel-occupied Palestine. Some irony.
Let go of your delusion. Israel owns the land now. Russia is occupying and will be kicked out. Even Ukraine agrees with Israels actions. This isn't a marvel movie.
It's land, and Israel has no greater claim than Palestine does.
If they can't live together in that area I don't think we should let them have governments. Maybe they should just become a vassal state and maybe in a hundred years after every one of the people who are alive and part of this conflict are dead they can be permitted to start electing their own leadership again.
Israel has proven that it can't self-govern without genocide, and Palestine doesn't have a government because it's literally a nation of children who weren't born when the government was elected.
The irony of using the word delusion while failing to perform basic pattern-matching . . .
Terrible and tragic. No one should have to endure such terror and trauma, especially children. I wish humans could stop being sadistic, petty, violent animals and work together to solve disagreements and compromise in nonviolent ways. I know it's a naive ideal, but surely it's a better goal to work towards than... well, this.
Better move to Yemen next.
Bad Luck Brian
Sounds like that guy that was able to get away from Hiroshima, and fled to ... Nagasaki
Should've just staid put. It's not like they're going to nuke the same city!
If I prayed, I'd do so for them. May they be able to tell this story to their grandchildren
That's a weird way of saying, "I'm not praying for these people." (jk)
@ivanafterall @Wilshire @Rapidcreek it means he's an atheist. Would you perfer performative prayers? Do they count?
Intercessory prayer doesn't work.
That's pretty funny.
I remember pleading to my friend not to move to Israel due to the danger of living there. This was 14 years ago. This man has no excuse, he has decades of precedent to go off.
I know Jews who've moved to Canada years ago and are booking flights back to Israel to help out however they can.
Some anonymous guy at JFK paid for the flights of 250 Jews who got called to return to the IDF.
The excuse is that it's their home. They will give their lives to ensure it survives. It's the homeland to every Jewish person on this planet and as you note, there's decades (Millenia in fact) of history written in blood showing just how important that strip of desert is to the survival of the Jewish people.
I don't know what called your friend over there, I assume he's a Jew as well and if so that might actually be all there is to it.
I hope your friend is doing alright. Hope you are too.
There's history showing how much they want that strip of desert but I'm not sure there's any history showing that strip of desert is important to their survival. Unless you have something more to share?
The evidence is quite clearly found in the Jewish population of the surrounding countries....oh wait, they've been ethnically cleansed.
Which is exactly what Hamas is saying they intend on doing.
Considering the history of the region, the numerous recorded events attempting to remove Jews from the region, it's very obvious to all but the most bigoted why that country is critical to their survival.
It's also why they'll demolish the threats to their survival. They've lived thru not having a homeland and they will not let that happen again, regardless of the social media zeitgeist or the cheers of terrorism supporters.
Israel's policy of expanding settlements in West Bank and elsewhere was the primary cause of this.
By making peaceful solutions impossible- by denying the Palestinians any space for life- Israel has left only terrorism and desperation
Hamas and the Israeli right share responsibility for every death.
Fascinating how you're claiming Israel has made it impossible when Hamas is the one who not only refuses to negotiate, but openly calls for the murder of an entire group of people.
The specific reason is because successive right-wing Israeli governments have empowered Hamas, while expanding settlements in the West Bank.
By those policies, Israel has accomplished two things. A) increasing radicalization, and B), dis-empowering non militant. It's not as if a rival group to Hamas even could operate in Gaza, and Israel has allowed that situation to come about through its material policies.
It's "fascinating" to you because you clearly don't understand that context. Which is, I'll note, broadly acknowledged by Israeli sources including a former PM (Ehud)
I disagree.
Saying that anyone who doesn't see things the way you do is a bigot, is not the way to convince people you're right. On the contrary, it makes it clear that you've got nothing to offer.
No, the fact you hold two different groups to two clearly different standards in the same situation is what proves you to be the bigot you are.
I've only referred to one group in this thread. I've no idea what makes you think I have different standards for different groups. Perhaps you're confusing me with another poster?
That's not the point of my comment. People are well within their right to move to Israel and join the armed forces and sacrifice their life for their cause. However this man moved his children away from one war zone to another war zone, and posts pictures trying to elicit sympathy. I brought up my friend to illustrate the point that Israel has always been known to be a dangerous area. My only guess is that the logistics of moving to Israel was simpler for him than the other options.