Life in the Stone Age

By Victor Rosenthal

Almost every day that passes sees attempts to murder Jews, because they are Jews. Some of these can even be called attempts at mass murder. No, I am not only talking about rockets launched from the Gaza strip and aimed at Israeli towns and cities. I am referring to something which almost never makes the news outside of Israel, and often goes unmentioned even here: what I have called “small-time terrorism,” which includes firebomb and rock-throwing attacks against Jews.

If you think rock-throwing is only an annoyance, watch the video here and think about this: a rock thrown from an oncoming vehicle at one in the opposing lane strikes its target at a velocity equal to the sum of the speeds of the two vehicles, plus whatever the thrower adds to it, less a bit due to air resistance. So a rock thrown at you from a car traveling at 100 km/h (60 mph) may hit your windshield at more than 200 km/h. Let’s say the rock is 10 cm (4.1”) in diameter; it will weigh nearly 1.5 kg, or more than 3 pounds. A brick could weigh twice as much.

Such a projectile is a deadly weapon which can smash through safety glass. Even if it does not also smash your skull or crush your chest, even if it misses you entirely, it can cause you to swerve off the road, as happened to Asher Palmer and his 1-year old son Yonatan, who were murdered by Arab rock-throwers.

But what if your vehicle is a bus with 30-50 passengers? What if you are a bus driver that has to fear every oncoming car day (and especially night) in and day out? Some of the roads are narrow, with unforgiving drop-offs or rocks on either side. Last night, two buses were attacked in this way, and only sheer luck (or a miracle) prevented a tragedy. Attempted mass murder.

Throwing stones at Jews has a long history, especially in the Muslim-Arab world. Edward Said, the Palestinian-American intellectual famous for the book Orientalism, symbolically (or ineffectually) threw a stone in the direction of Israeli soldiers at the Lebanese border. It is probably the most popular form of anti-Jewish terrorism practiced by Palestinian Arabs, since it is cheap, easy, and can be practiced by terrorists of any age. Sometimes Arab terrorists build barriers in the middle of a road to force cars to stop, and then attack them with rocks before trying to drag the occupants out and beat or kill them.

The Jewish state was created so that Jews would not have to live among cultures where the of stoning Jews is an everyday occurrence. Or, for that matter, stabbing them, shooting them, or running over them with cars. But that’s what Jews face here today. And they are expected to not defend themselves. So far this month four Palestinian Arabs have been killed by Israeli soldiers or police while attempting to commit murder, or immediately after. Palestinian officials are outraged. How dare we? They are supposed to kill us, not the reverse.

The problem is the same one that the Jewish people faced after they left Egypt and found their way to the Land of Israel. It is one that has beset human tribes since there were human tribes: the need to truly possess our land and repel those that want to take it from us. The ancient and elemental nature of the struggle is demonstrated by the fact that it is partly fought with stones, the oldest of weapons.

A solution to this problem will not be found in the realm of high technology, nor in the halls of diplomacy or international law. We will not get it from the Americans along with F-35s. It will begin with the understanding that it is our land, from the river to the sea (as the Arabs are fond of saying), and that it is the mission and the responsibility of the Jewish people to populate it, and to rule it. It is our ambiguity about this mission that allows our enemies to become strong enough to think that they can prevail.

January 3, 2022 | 8 Comments »

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8 Comments / 8 Comments

  1. @ADAM-

    I may be dense, but I don’t see that any of the remarks you quoted show his “anti-Semitism and/or anti-Zionism. I do know that he was deeply involved in trying to make Jews less patriarchal and more socialistic, less “Jewish” and more “Internationalistic”…From what I’ve read, he became very interested in Zionism after Hitler rose to power and he saw what was happening to the Jews.

    And…if I was aware , say in my country, that any Jew deliberately sold torn and ragged clothing, in the manner you say, I too would be ashamed, deeply in fact. How could I NOT…?? I’ve always felt that what Jews do, reflect on Jewry as a whole. When a Jew is awarded a Nobel, I get great “nachas”.

    A few years ago, my nephew became a Supreme Court Justice, I wrote to him that I was very proud of him, and that he brought extra status to our whole family. A bit hyperbolic I know, but deliberately so.

    If G-D Forbid he’d committed a heinous murder I’d have felt the exact opposite. And, I feel, if it occurred in your family, so would you.

  2. Trotsky was a lifelong anti-Zionist, and in some respects an antisemite as well. He stated several times after the Bolshevik Revolution that he could never be the leader of the country because the Russian people would never accept a Jew as their leader. After Lenin had a series of strokes, he asked Trotsky in private to challenge Stalin for the leadership of the party. After he had been forced to withdraw from active leadership of the country because of his poor health, But Trotsky at this time (1923) refused. Instead, he crawled to Stalin and publicly apologized to him at the 1923 party congress for having opposed him on some issues. Stalin did not accept his apology. Trotsky did not go into opposition to Stalin until after Stalin had him dismissed as commissar for war 1925. But by that time iStalin had consolidated power and it was no longer possible to dislodge him.

    In one article that he published in the 1930s, Trotsky wrote that “to my shame” Jewish sellers of used clothing sold torn and damaged clothing to customers at inflated prices. By and large this was false. Most Jewish sellers of used clothing were in fact honest and sold used clothing that was in good condition to poor working people who could not afford to buy new clothes. Trotsky’s “shame” remark reflected a “self-hating” attitude. Perhaps he acquired these antisemitic attitudes when as a child and teenager he attended and graduated from a Lutheran school.

  3. Dream on! Seriously, Israel’s Jews (the Druze actually are on board to crush the Arabim) are simply unwilling to bring Arab violence to a screeching halt by powerfully repressing them. Whether their refusal to do so stems from a galut mentality, fearing a European and American backlash, or from the absence of a strong moral and spiritual commitment to preserve Jewish life no matter the cost remains unclear. But ultimate responsibility for the endless deaths and violence against Jews can only be laid at the door of Israelis.

  4. @FelixQuigley I applaud your sentiment but the only thing I found when I googled: Trotsky Palestine was this compendium of his writings on “The Jewish Problem” in the last years of his life. And one month before he was assassinated, he wrote:

    The attempt to solve the Jewish question through the migration of Jews to Palestine can now be seen for what it is, a tragic mockery of the Jewish people. Interested in winning the sympathies of the Arabs who are more numerous than the Jews, the British government has sharply altered its policy toward the Jews, and has actually renounced its promise to help them found their “own home” in a foreign land. The future development of military events may well transform Palestine into a bloody trap for several hundred thousand Jews. Never was it so clear as it is today that the salvation of the Jewish people is bound up inseparably with the overthrow of the capitalist system.

    July, 1940

    https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1940/xx/jewish.htm

    I wonder what he would have written if he had lived long enough to see Israel win her independence but he didn’t.

  5. Perhaps the Knesset can pass a law saying rock throwing is a capital offense. Perhaps the IDF can start shooting rock throwers and trying to kill them after the law is passed. It will take 2 weeks . Rock throwing will cease as an effective tool. Of course there will be those who do not get the message. After a couple of months , it will be very obvious. Also the classic home demolition for throwing rocks will have a chilling effect on rock throwers.

  6. This is my favourite writer. He focuses in on the essence of the thinking of two people, and I regard both highly, Lord Balfour in 1917, Leon Trotsky in 1937. A Jewish state where Jews feel free and safe.