Through out Jewish history the weeks surrounding Passover has been a dangerous time for the Jews. Mostly because of the famous blood libel that Matzo was made from the blood of Christian Children. Anybody whose ever eaten it knows that Matzo is made from a combination of sheet rock and cardboard (at least it tastes that way).
Blood libel is a term with a specific and terrible history. It refers to the scurrilous accusation that Jews kidnapped and murdered Christian children to use their blood to prepare Passover matzoh. Charges of blood libel have spurred massacres of Jews throughout the centuries; the myth was revived by Hitler, and persists today in places like Russia, the Muslim world, and even in the United States in a different form.
Like many of the anti-Semitic actions/stories the blood libel is based on something Jews can’t do. When the Nazis put tattoos on the arms of Jews it was because tattoos are forbidden in Judaism, likewise, when the Jew-haters claim that Jews are “eating blood” one of the reasons they select that libel because the Torah forbids Jews from consuming blood. As is written in Leviticus 17:10-14:
And whatsoever man there be of the house of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among them, that eateth any manner of blood, I will set My face against that soul that eateth blood, and will cut him off from among his people. For the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that maketh atonement by reason of the life. Therefore I said unto the children of Israel: No soul of you shall eat blood, neither shall any stranger that sojourneth among you eat blood. And whatsoever man there be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among them, that taketh in hunting any beast or fowl that may be eaten, he shall pour out the blood thereof, and cover it with dust. For as to the life of all flesh, the blood thereof is all one with the life thereof; therefore I said unto the children of Israel: Ye shall eat the blood of no manner of flesh; for the life of all flesh is the blood thereof; whosoever eateth it shall be cut off.
Salting the meat is part of the Koshering process to get rid of the last traces of blood.
It started 3,500 years ago in the land of Egypt: ” we were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt,” the story of Exodus says. The 10th and final plague hit the firstborn sons of every Egyptian. To avoid the plague Jews smeared the blood of a slaughtered lamb on the doorposts of the Jewish homes, the death passed over them.
Josephus tells us that already in Roman times, the Greeks spread rumors that the Jews slaughtered a Greek in the Temple in Jerusalem and ate his intestines as part of their rites.
The story of William of Norwich (d. 1144) is often cited as the first known accusation of European blood libel against Jews. The Jews of Norwich, England were accused of murder after a Christian boy, William, was found dead. It was claimed that the Jews had tortured and crucified their victim. The Jews of the town were murdered.
The British blood libel spread throughout Europe. France’s first blood libel took place in Blois in 1171, 31 Jews were burned on the stake as Passover approached.
In 1840 an elderly Italian monk-priest, Padre Tommaso, and his servant disappeared in Damascus, Syria, after having visited the Jewish quarter in the city. A French consul to the Ottoman Empire, Ratti-Menton, promoted a groundless theory of ritual murder of Tommaso that the local Muslim government largely accepted. Jewish leaders were arrested and tortured. Sixty of their children were held hostage and starved to pressure their parents into confessing. One source said that four adults died from the mistreatment; another states that two died and some were permanently disabled. Most of the rest confessed involvement in a ritual murder. The consul then requested permission from the Syrian government to murder the rest of his suspects. (Jonathan Frankel, “‘Ritual Murder’ in the Modern Era: The Damascus Affair of 1840,” Jewish Social Studies Volume 3, Number 2).
That event is credited with introducing the blood libel myth to the Arab world, where it is still circulating.
Today the story changes a bit, “horrible Israeli soldiers deliberately killing children,”usually accepted by the mainstream and spread by the media without question even though they are false.
One such blood libel the al Durah hoax, where a young child was supposedly shot by Israeli forces, was picked up by the world media and incited a Palestinian intifada, which caused the deaths of more than a thousand Palestinian and Israeli citizens. The only problem was the entire thing was staged by a Palestinian Cameraman who worked for one of the French TV Networks. The the boy was never harmed by the IDF.
Pamphlets distributed in Novosibirsk, Russia, a few years ago warned:
Beware Russian parents. Keep watch over your children before the coming of April 2008, the Jewish holiday of Passover. These disgusting people still engage in ritual practice to their gods. They kidnap small children and remove some of their blood and use it to prepare their holy food (matzah). They throw the bodies (of the children) out in garbage dumps.
In a March 2010 speech on Al-Aqsa TV, Salah Eldeen Sultan founder of the American Center for Islamic Research and the Islamic American University stated :
The Zionists kidnap several non-Muslims – Christians and others… this happened in a Jewish neighborhood in Damascus. They killed the French doctor, Toma, who used to treat the Jews and others for free, in order to spread Christianity. Even though he was their friend and they benefited from him the most, they took him on one of these holidays and slaughtered him, along with the nurse. Then they kneaded the matzos with the blood of Dr. Toma and his nurse. They do this every year. The world must know these facts about the Zionist entity and its terrible corrupt creed. The world should know this.
The modern version of the libel usually involves the warlike American Jews controlling our foreign policy and pushing the country into war, or the warlike Jewish State of Israel deliberately trying to kill young Palestinians.
The United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) is also famous for perpetuating the blood libel myth, by creating Human Rights charges against Israel that they don’t make against the countries that actually commit human rights violations. This is why it was disturbing when President Barack Obama has decided give the Council credibility by joining the Council. It was a indication of his approval of their libel.
Three days after Bush #43 went into Iraq in 2003 (and three weeks before Passover), anti-Semite and holocaust denier Pat Buchanan came up with a new angle to the blood libel, three weeks before Passover he claimed those dammed jooos pushed us into war:
“For whose benefit these endless wars in a region that holds nothing vital to America save oil, which the Arabs must sell us to survive? Who would benefit from a war of civilizations between the West and Islam? Answer: one nation, one leader, one party. Israel, Sharon, Likud.” ( The American Conservative Whose War? 3/24/03)
The truth is that Prime Minister Sharon strongly recommended against the Iraq war, prophetically saying that Saddam Hussein is the west’s only check on Iran and removing the despot would allow the Iranian regime to dominate the gulf.
President Obama echoed Buchanan’s statements during the run-up to the Iran deal. In a 20 minute phone call with mostly leaders of progressive Jewish groups (organized by the anti-Israel J-Street) Obama said over and over that opponents of the Iran deal come from the same “array of forces that got us into the Iraq war,” he said a “bunch of billionaires who happily finance super PACs” are “putting the squeeze on members of Congress.”
The message was clear to the Jewish participants, William Daroff Senior Vice President for Public Policy & Director of the Washington office of The Jewish Federations of North America tweeted during the meeting “Jews are leading effort to kill #Irandeal. ‘Same people opposing the deal led us into Iraq war,’” and followed with “Canard: Jews got us into Iraq War.”
The president was able to get away with canard in that here in the United States more often than not blood Libel is the language of the progressive left. The Daily Kos, the largest progressive website/social community whose annual convention called “Netroots Nation” has been addressed by former Secretary of State Clinton and her husband, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and President Obama among others, despite the fact that the Kos site makes it a habit of portraying Jews as blood-thirsty Nazis.
The illustration for in one Kos post in 2007, “Zionism was and remains a racist ideology,” (since removed) shows former Israeli foreign minister Lieberman as Adolf Hitler. It includes the word Zionism in blood and tattooed on his hand is a skull with a Star of David.
Other recent examples come from the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement, supported by our President, Democratic Party leaders, and even DCCC Chairman at the time Long Island Congressman [score]Steve Israel[/score].
The movement ideological hero was author Naomi Klein another supporter of the modern blood libel who claims that “[Some Jews] even think we get one get-away-with-genocide-free-card.” But she does say we have a reason for our genocidal tendencies—money. In her book The Shock Doctrine Klein explains that Israel is run by a vast military-industrial complex that purposely perpetuates war against the Palestinians so they can develop and more importantly sell, new weapons on the worldwide market.
The founders of OWS, an organization called Adbusters believes the Jews are forcing the world into bloody wars. In an article Jazz and the Jihad published on their website, they claim Jews forced the US into Iraq and Afghanistan, and are trying to force America into an Iran war.
The Ziocons have some big appetite to satisfy. The same lobbies that led America towards this disastrous invasion in Iraq and Afghanistan are now doing whatever they can to push America towards intervention in Iran and Syria… It currently fights the last sovereign pockets of Muslim resistance. The true aim of the Zionist lobbies is concealed. Instead the Zionist lobbies promote some righteous phony humanitarian alternatives. The American Jewish Committee (AJC), for instance, is aggressively lobbying against human rights abuse in Iran and Darfur. Since human rights issues are really close to my heart, I find myself wondering whether the Jewish organization shouldn’t rather be concentrating on the colossal war crimes that are daily repeated by Israel in Palestine.
But the news media participates in the blood libel also The news coverage of the Israel war with Hamas two years ago contained elements of the “blood libel.” Palestinian civilian deaths were overstated (even before Bernie Sanders), some claimed that Israel’s response to 50k+ rockets was disproportionate, and charging that Israel was targeting or ignoring civilians, instead of the truth which was that Hamas was using civilians as human shields.
Don’t be fooled, Bernie Sanders recent claims of the IDF killing 10,000 Palestinians, or a disproportionate response is nothing less than an example of the modern blood libel(what exactly is the correct response to 50k+ rockets fired toward your civilians?). It can’t be discerned for sure whether Sanders actually feels that way or is pandering to his progressive base.
Hillary Clinton’s cheek kiss of Suha Arafat after the terrorist’s wife accused Israel of poisoning Palestinian children, is an acceptance of the blood libel as truth. Her recent rejection of the modern libel is simply her way of pandering to the Jewish voters and donors she needs during her presidential run.
Even during the most recent rash of terror attacks the story in the news was usually Israeli Police Shoot Palestinian, then in smaller letters or some where down in the lower part of the story is that the police shot the Palestinian after he stabbed three Israelis and was running toward the policemen with a knife.
A great example occurred in October of last year when Israeli police shot a man who was lunging at them with a knife, but MSNBC’s Ayman Mohyeldin claimed the man’s hand was open and couldn’t be holding a knife. A blood libel lie so blatant that host Jose Diaz’ Balart used the video Mohyeldin filed to show that it was very clear that the terrorist’s hands weren’t open and it certainly looked like he had a knife in his hand (Mohyeldin was not fired for lying on the air).
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| DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Shultz Who is Jewish Doesn’t Mind the Antisemitism Which Plays a Big Role in the Daily Kos |
In the weeks leading up to and during the Passover holiday when we tell the story of how God wondrously delivered our ancestors from Egypt. The Jew haters of all forms will still be out there accusing the Jews of a lust for blood. Some will say Israelis but that is simply a politically correct way of saying Jews.
Sadly our political leaders and media owners accept the purveyors of this libel into the mainstream, speak at their conferences, and support their movements. In most cases their support is not due to some latent Antisemitism, but because of a crass desire to put votes (or ratings over morality). How else does one explain all of the anti-Semites protected by President Obama, or the presence of blood libel purveyors like Pat Buchanan, Ayman Mohyeldin, or Al Sharpton on cable news.
Near the end of the Seder, Jews open the door to the outside the purpose of which most people say is to symbolically invite the Prophet Elijah to join the meal. But others believe the reason has more to do with the prayer which comes next:
“Pour out Thy wrath upon the nations that know Thee not, and upon kingdoms that did not call upon Thy name. For they have consumed Jacob, and laid waste his habitation. Pour out Thy rage upon them, and let Thy fury overtake them. Pursue them in anger and destroy them, from under the heavens of the LORD.”
It is unique in Jewish Prayer, we don’t normally pray for bad things to happen to bad people. Usually we pray for them to change their ways. But Passover is the celebration of our freedom as a people. Perhaps the reason to open the door and make that prayer is to make a very public show to the haters, like the slime who perpetuate the modern day blood libel, or politicians who accept hatred in the name of votes, that as a free Jewish people we will no longer hide and with the help of God we will never stand for your hatred.
