Rape is an ugly word, an even uglier deed. I don’t use the word lightly or easily. Rape is a crime of violence, not passion; of destruction. The intent is to take the soul, destroy the body. It is an injustice beyond measure, a violation of humanity. No, I’ve never been raped but I know women who have been.

When someone uses the word “holocaust” – even without the capital letter, it bothers me because too often it is thrown around easily and rather than elevate the crime, it diminishes, just a bit, the Holocaust. I think rape is the same way – people use the word so freely, it takes away from when a real rape is inflicted on a person.

And yet…and yet, I’m going to use it here because it is the only word I can think of that applies, and the man ultimately responsible for this rape, this cultural rape – is Barack Hussein Obama – and yes, I’m using his middle name because he felt fine using it in Cairo and other places. And perhaps, just a little, that middle name plays a role in what he is about to do.

The full story, credit for it, comes from and goes to Caroline Glick in her article in the Jerusalem Post, “Our World: A miracle and an Outrage.” The gist of it is – by some miracle, 2,500 years of heritage, of holy books and more survived the devastation and the almost entire complete exile of the Iraqi Jewish community. Saddam Hussein (yeah, there’s that name again), stole over 2,700 Jewish books and writings from the Jewish community. He stored them in some basement to rot and by some miracle, invading US troops found the waterlogged remains.

Amazingly enough, the troops and leaders realized the magnitude of what they had found and the collection was taken to the States, refurbished, renewed, reclaimed at a cost of $3 million dollars. I don’t know how, but I’m willing to raise the money to pay the Americans back for this kindness.

But…here comes the outrage about which Caroline Glick wrote. The American government proudly put their accomplishment on display. Good for them. The exhibition at the National Archives runs through January – that is the scheduled date of the cultural rape about to take place. On or around that time, Obama and the State Department feel it is their responsibility to return the archive to its rightful owners. And I commend them for this decision as much as I condemn them for being too stupid to know who those rightful owners are. No, Mr. President

I believe that the Israeli Ambassador to the United States should request an immediate meeting with the United States President. I believe our Prime Minister must, in no uncertain terms, make it clear that the owners of the archives are the Iraqi Jews – who live primarily in Israel and that to send the archives, these holy books, “back” to Iraq is tantamount to destroying them. Obama might as well blow them up in Washington for all that sending them back to Baghdad will accomplish.

It is hard to believe that caring human beings would not do all in their power to stop a rape they know is about to take place – well, here’s our chance. We know where, we know when – now it is up to each of us to stop it.

Obama – what do you want to stop this travesty? Do you want 3 million dollars? We will raise it. You want a request from the Iraqi Jewish community – I’ll see to it. You want the Israeli government to request it – Bibi, please, do this before it is too late.

Just was what was stolen by the Nazis has long been recognized as belonging to the victims of the Holocaust, the archives belong to the Jews from whom Saddam Hussein stole them. They are not, and never were, the legacy of Iraq – rather, they are the legacy of a small community that was all but hounded into exile, only to re-establish themselves in Israel.

The archives should be donated to the community here in Israel, to a museum they established as a true legacy to what was once a thriving Jewish community. These holy books never belonged to the Iraqi government, Saddam Hussein, or the greater Iraqi people. To deny the rightful owners, to turn these books over to the Iraqis is an abomination, a cultural rape of 2,500 years.

Please help – write to Washington and demand that the archive be given to their rightful owners, the Iraqi JEWISH community, largely represented in Israel and no where else.

Please write to your Congress representatives and ask them to add their voices against this injustice.

Visit A Soldier’s Mother.

Former president Moshe Katzav has requested a retrial from the Supreme Court.

Katzav claims that his conviction was solely based on the testimony of ‘A’, and no other evidence.

Katzav claims that calls made from his car prove he wasn’t with ‘A’ at the times he was supposed to have been raping her.

Katzav has been claiming his innocence since the beginning of the ordeal.

Former President of Israel Moshe Katzav was granted his first 24 hour furlough from Maasiyahu prison on Monday.

Katzav, who claims he is innocent and never committed the crimes he was convicted of, was sentenced to 7 years in jail for two counts of rape of former employees. He has petitioned President Shimon Peres for a pardon, to no avail.

Having served a quarter of his sentence, Katzav is now eligible for 24 hour furloughs every month, which is considered to be part of the rehabilitation process.

Initially, during the furlough he is under house arrest, but he will be allowed to attend shul.

If the furloughs go well, their lengths of time will be extended, and he will no longer be under house arrest during the leaves.

Katzav had one leave, a year and half ago for 8 hours, to go to his son’s wedding.

Mobs protesting the rule of Mohammed Morsi have sexually assaulted nearly 100 women and raped at least 91  in the last four days of protests, Human Rights Watch reported.

Forty-six attacks took  place on Sunday, 17 on Monday and 43 on Tuesday, according to figures attributed to the Egyptian Operation Anti-Sexual Harassment/Assault, which operates a hotline for victims of sexual assault. The Nazra for Feminist Studies women’s rights group  reported that there were five similar attacks on Friday.

“The government response has been to downplay the extent of the problem or to seek to address it through legislative reform alone” Al Jazeera reported”

Several women required surgery after the attacks and some were beaten with metal chains and were stabbed.

Al Jazeera noted, “Sexual harassment has long been common in Egypt, but its increasing occurrence and ferocity has shaken the protest movement. A large number of women had fallen victim to gang assaults too in the square – the epicenter of 2011 revolution.”

An American television journalist was brutally gang raped in the protests against Hosni Mubarak two years ago.

On Sunday evening, a hundred residents of south Tel Aviv, as well as former MK Michael Ben-Ari, demonstrated in Neve Sha’anan’s Levinsky Park, following the stabbing spree carried out by the illegal African infiltrators that have taken over this section of Tel Aviv.

The protesters claimed that the police have abandoned their neighborhoods, and have not done anything to stop the downward slide that has turned this Tel Aviv neighborhood into the most dangerous place in Israel.

Violence, stabbings, rape, and shootings have become commonplace.

During the protest, police kept thousands of African infiltrators as well as the members of Leftwing activist groups that enable and help these illegal infiltrators, away from the protesters, though that didn’t stop both the infiltrators and activists from jeering and taunting the Tel Aviv residents.

Still, it was probably the most police protection these citizens have received in months.

The international community should focus on the true root of conflict in the Middle East, which is the human rights violations occurring in the Muslim world.

Many world leaders appear to falsely believe that if only the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were solved, all of the problems that presently exist in the Middle East would magically disappear. For this reason, they focus an enormous amount of energy on trying to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, instead of attempting to halt the democide in Syria; stopping the tyrannical regime in Iran; or pressuring the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood into respecting women’s rights, freedom of speech and minority rights. Yet, even if the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were to end tomorrow, all of these problems that cause much conflict would still exist.

DEMOCIDE IN SYRIA

The situation in Syria is deteriorating by the day. Presently, whether 94,000 or 120,000 Syrians have perished, more Syrians have been killed within the last two years than the total number of causalities from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict between 1948 and 2009. Aside from the horrific death toll, Syrian civilians are getting tortured and raped en masse, while entire population centers are getting leveled to the ground. As a result, many Syrians have been forced to flee their homes. Over 1.6 million Syrians are presently refugees, according to the United Nations. Women and children make up three quarters of the Syrian refugee population, likely because the Syrian regime has resorted to rape as a political tool to oppress the Syrian people. No amount of pressure on Israel to withdraw to the 1967 borders will improve the plight of the people of Syria.

MASS REPRESSION IN IRAN

The present reality in Iran is also atrocious. In a country where adulteresses are routinely stoned to death, female political prisoners are as a matter of policy raped before they are executed, believers in the Bahai faith are denied the right to practice their religion, being gay is viewed to be a capital offense, and the present ruling regime seeks to have nuclear power; Iran remains a problematic state, despite the recent election of pragmatic Islamists to power. Peace negotiations between Mahmoud Abbas and Benjamin Netanyahu would not convince the Iranian leadership to institute democratic reforms and stop their nuclear program in the absence of international pressure.

THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD DICTATORSHIP IN EGYPT

Under the Muslim Brotherhood’s tutelage, Egypt is slowly creeping in the direction of becoming another Iran. The Arab Spring there is quickly turning into a dark winter. Since the Muslim Brotherhood has come to power, the Egyptian press is being radicalized, while liberal voices within Egypt are being persecuted. Some Egyptian human rights activists claim that there is no difference between the Muslim Brotherhood and Mubarak when it comes to oppressing dissent. Like in Iran, women and minorities are suffering significantly under Islamist rule.

Sexual harassment and rape within Egypt has worsened under the Muslim Brotherhood, with many of the instances of gender based violence originating with the Muslim Brotherhood itself. Some Egyptian women who have attempted to protest against this phenomenon have been gang raped. Meanwhile, the situation for Egypt’s Jewish and Coptic minorities have also significantly worsened. Copts have gotten massacred since Mubarak fell from power, illustrating that Egypt is not a safe place for Christians, unlike Israel, which is the safest place for Christians in the entire Middle East. The few Jews left in Egypt can’t walk in the streets without getting harassed. Elements of Egyptian society are opposed to Egyptian Jews having minority rights. None of this will change should an historic peace agreement be reached between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

FOCUS ON ISSUES AT HAND

Members of the international community, instead of focusing on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with tunnel vision, should take off their blinders and pay attention to the real issues that are causing conflict in the Middle East. These issues include stopping a nuclear Iran; establishing genuine Middle Eastern democracies that respect minority rights, women’s rights, and freedom of speech; and preventing massive human rights violations from continuing to occur throughout the Muslim Middle East. Solving the Israel- Palestine conflict will not address any of these issues.

Asher Tagai journeyed to Israel from Ethiopia and his ordeal coming to the Holy Land is truly inspiring. Asher Tagai was born an Ethiopian Jew and has lived a hard life. In the 1980’s, the Ethiopian regime was biased against Jews and Israel and countless Ethiopian Jews were imprisoned by the government based on the fabricated charge of being a Zionist spy. Asher recounted that he was sent to jail by Ethiopian authorities on fraudulent charges, resulting in his subsequent recognition as a prisoner of Zion. In some areas of the country, Judaism was even illegal and Jews were forcefully converted to Christianity. According to Asher, “many Jews preferred to commit suicide over becoming Christian.”

Asher claims that between 1979 and 1984, many Ethiopian Jews sought to escape these conditions by making Aliyah to Israel. They left behind an ancient history and rich cultural heritage. Due to the fact that he was serving time in jail Asher was part of one of the later waves of the Ethiopian Jewish exodus to Israel. He said that he prayed to G-d a lot during this period of time to be set free, so that he would be able to come to Israel with his family. However, it was very dangerous to make Aliyah to Israel during this period of time. According to Asher, “anyone who was caught” making Aliyah to Israel “was given the death penalty.” 

Asher claims that what the Ethiopian Jewish community experienced was very similar to the exodus story in ancient times. He explained, “In one day, we packed up all of our stuff and if you couldn’t, you just left it. There was a lot of uncertainty. You could never know what happened from one day to the next.” Asher claimed that Ethiopian Jewish families were separated from each other during their voyage. He explained, “They went by non-Jewish guidance to Sudan during the night and hid during the day. There was a lot of robbery, thieves, rape, murder; every thing bad that you could imagine, along the way.”

As bad as the situation was in Ethiopia, Asher said that the situation got even worse when the Ethiopian Jews arrived in Sudan. In Sudan, members of the Ethiopian Jewish community were forced to live in horrific conditions in special camps. According to Asher, Ethiopian Jewish families with pregnant women and very small children “were sleeping in tents” in extremely hot weather. “It was like living in an oven,” he explained. Furthermore, “The food and water they got from Red Cross was in a bad condition and they got sick. Some died. At least 5 to 6 people per family died,” Asher stated, “You went to sleep and didn’t know if the person next you will get up.”

Asher was traumatized by the ordeal and still suffers from nightmares to this day. He claimed, “There were 19 bodies on the same day surrounding me and sick people had to make graves with their bare hands, even though they were sick. My sister delivered a son who died and she also got sick. She wanted to go back to Ethiopia to see her father and then died. Only her daughter survived.”

Asher finally managed to make Aliyah to Israel and upon arrival within the country, he kissed the ground. Today, he is living and working in Israel, has a family, makes sure to volunteer with the Ethiopian Jewish community and also helps other Ethiopian Jews make Aliyah to Israel so that they can be given the same opportunities that he was. When he was in prison in Ethiopia, Asher promised G-d that he would give back to the community if given the chance to make Aliyah with his family and he has kept his word regarding that. He concluded, “I suffered a lot in Ethiopia. Making Aliyah was like coming back to life. Everyday I thank God for being in Israel.”

Visit United with Israel.

Ophelie Namiech, South Sudan country director of the Israeli humanitarian organization IsraAID, is working in South Sudan to promote gender equality, women’s rights and helping local activists address gender-based violence.

Ophelie Namiech, a former French national, has made Aliyah to Israel and is presently serving as the South Sudan country director for IsraAID.  The humanitarian organization provides emergency relief and development assistance to different countries across the globe. In South Sudan, IsraAID is involved in development assistance for the emerging nation. 

“I made Aliyah in order to help build Israel’s future”

Namiech’s ultimate professional goal was to build a career that combined her love for the State of Israel with assisting the South Sudanese people. “I made Aliyah in order to build Israel’s future. I wanted to make a difference. I felt I needed to be part of Israel on the inside,” she stated. “It is such a pride to say that I am Israeli. It’s a reason to make Aliyah. Israel was founded based on humanitarian values.” She believes that by working to build relations between Israel and South Sudan and by accompanying the new state in in its efforts to build strong economic and social foundations, she is strengthening the role of Israel in international development and humanitarian action (Tikkun Olam). According to her, Israel has the opportunity – and the duty – to assist other friendly nations that struggled for their independence – like South Sudan – to build themselves.

Gender Issues in South Sudan

Presently, South Sudan, which gained independence in 2011, has a humanitarian crisis in the border regions of the country as well as an internal conflict. According to Namiech, “South Sudan was fifty years in war. […] Sexual violence was used as a weapon of war, like is common in East Africa. It was not only used as weapon of war but it is also traumatized the nation.” She continued, “There are not studies on this, but at least two thirds of the women have faced gender based violence, rape, sexual violence, domestic violence, etc.” Namiech claimed that the international community focused almost exclusively on helping out the border regions, and did not have the capital city Juba as a priority.

Nevertheless, “Juba faced rapid urbanization with the massive absorption of refugees, displaced people, and migrants seeking better opportunities. All of this created social and economic pressure on Juba as well as social challenges.” She continued, “You have five star hotels for internationals and then a slum area where women and children are being raped.” She personally witnessed a child getting raped by five men and claimed that such things happen on a daily basis. “No one was working in Juba, because they were focusing elsewhere,” she asserted. Yet, after IsraAID began assisting local activists in South Sudan promoting gender equality, other NGOs joined in.

Namiech Working to Make a Difference

IsraAID  seeks to train social workers, community leaders and teachers to be able to address gender-based violence on their own. Namiech claims that merely providing humanitarian assistance is not long-term thinking, since soon after, once the international activists depart, the aid also goes with them and without being given the tools to deal with the issue on their own, the South Sudanese won’t be able to effect change on their own. This is why Namiech is so motivated to provide local South Sudanese activists with the tools that they need in order to make a difference.

IsraAID has successfully developed a positive working relationship between social workers, teachers, and the police. “As a result of this, there were joint programs. They are doing joint awareness sessions in schools to raise awareness on children’s and women’s rights,” Namiech asserted. Yet in addition to assisting with collaboration between various local South Sudanese actors, Namiech has worked with IsraAID to bring the same Israelis who built the first women’s shelters in Israel to South Sudan, to train the South Sudanese how to do it. They also bring experienced Israeli therapists to train South Sudanese therapists how to treat trauma victims.