What They Don't Want You to Know about Kossovo

When the Ottoman Empire ruled over the Balkans, the native, non-Muslim subject peoples of the Empire were exploited, oppressed, and humiliated by law in the status of dhimmis. This history has largely been forgotten in recent years, at least in major newspapers and electronic information outlets, as well as in the foreign ministries of major states and among the staff of international organizations. Instead of the Ottoman Empire --a Muslim state-- ruling over and oppressing the non-Muslim subject peoples for four centuries, a newer narrative has taken hold --aided by Edward Said's distortions and lies. The new narrative or paradigm holds that the Balkan non-Muslim native peoples, especially Serbs, have oppressed and committed atrocities against the Muslims. The time when Muslim massacres of Bulgarians were featured in Western press reports passed long ago. The new Western narrative is a pro-Muslim one, especially regarding Muslim peoples and groups formed out of fractions of native peoples converted to Islam under Ottoman religious-based oppression. Such peoples are the Bosnian Muslims and the Albanian Muslims of Kossovo and Macedonia [some Albanians are not Muslim]. The new narrative reverses the traditional reality of severe repression by Muslims and replaces it with Serbian [or other Balkan non-Muslim] oppression of Bosnian Muslims and Kossovo Muslim Albanians. The United States and NATO countries went so far as to go to war to defend Bosnian and Kossovo Muslims against Serbs, whereas the Muslim armed bands and armies were easily as murderous as the Serbs, if not more so, and it is likely that as many or more Serbs were driven out of their homes in the Yugoslav wars [that is, were ethnically cleansed] as were non-Serbs.

The non-Serbs also included Croats [a Christian people]. The Croat nationalists --ideologically descended from the pro-Nazi Ustashis of World War 2-- were allied with the Bosnian Muslims at the beginning of the Bosnian war. Some 200,000 ethnic Serbs were driven out of the Krajna [Kraina] region of Croatia during the Bosnian war, not to mention other areas of Bosnia and Croatia. This elicited little outcry from the bien-pensant do-gooders of the time [the mid-1990s]. Curiously, the Croatian military strategy for driving the Serbs out of Krajna was elaborated by retired American generals, who seem to have received approval from their government for going to work for Neo-Ustashi Croatia [as reported in Time magazine].

In any event, the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s were marked by vast displays of love for peace and justice on the part of Western states. In the process of all this humanitarian effusion, the real history of the Balkans, Yugoslavia in particular, was turned upside down. The humiliated, degraded status of Serbs, Bulgars and Macedonians [sometimes considered Bulgars themselves] under Muslim Ottoman rule was forgotten, although Croatian Ustashi massacres of Serbs and Jews during World War 2 did get some slight attention in what is often nowadays called the MSM. Furthermore, with the collaboration of the Croatian government in Zagreb, jihadist Muslim fanatics from around the world were allowed to fly into the Zagreb airport and come to Bosnia to join the struggle. Various sorts of smugglers too were allowed to set up shop in the former Yugoslav states. Old Yugoslavia became a free transit zone for drug smugglers, white slavers [that is, smugglers of women for prostitution purposes], etc.

One hundred years ago, men of conscience in Europe --and these were really men of conscience, not like today's fakers and phoneys-- wrote of the Bulgarian and Armenian massacres, the Kishinev pogrom against Jews [1903] and the oppression of Serbs in Kossovo by Muslims, both the Ottoman government and local Albanian Muslims. Such a man of conscience was Victor Berard who wrote Pro-Macedonia [1904] and Serbie [1915]. Berard also wrote important works about the Phoenician influence on Homer's epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey, and on classical Greek culture. Among other things he pointed out the similarity and proximity of ancient Phoenician to the ancient Hebrew language, both derived from Canaanite. He used Hebrew letters to show the similarity of many Greek words to Canaanite/Phoenician/Hebrew words and concepts. He also believed that many place names on the coasts around the Mediterranean derived from names given by Phoenician sailors because of the maritime conditions in such localities. For instance, the name Monaco in southern France, he believed, derived from menuhhoh מנוחה meaning rest, a restful harbor for sailors. Cape Amorgo in the Greek isles, he wrote, came from margo`a מרגוע which means tranquillity or restfulness, another tranquil harbor for sailors.

In Pro-Macedonia, Berard wrote that Sultan Abdul-Hamid, who also bore the title Caliph [khalif ul-Islam] was

pursuing the systematic massacres of Slavs [p 19]

Furthermore, in

Macedonia . . . abominable things were making this province another Armenia [V Berard, Pro-Macedonia (Paris 1904), p iii].

In La Serbie, Berard gave an account of Serbian history, including information specifically about the situation of Serbs in Kossovo.

The peasant was furthermore molested, despoiled [of his goods], beaten and often killed by the Muslim chiefs. . . The Albanian lords, especially the beys of the plain of Kossovo, used methods, one of which was celebrated under the name of Tuch-Parassi, the coins of the tooth.
Each springtime and each autumn, the Albanian bey came to set up camp with his band in one of the villages of Kossovo. They had a joyful time, emptying the granary [grain silo], the [storage] cellar and the barnyard [of its animals]. [p 19]
[V. Berard, La Serbie: La Serbie et son histoire, les victoires serbes, le peuple serbe -- avant-propos de M. Mil. R. Vesnitch, ministre de Serbie a Paris (Paris: Armand Colin 1915).

If the history of Serbia, Kossovo, and Macedonia can be so distorted and falsified --turned upside down-- why not the history of Israel and the Jews, particularly the history of Arab-Jewish relations? In fact, that is what is being done -- by the same forces that falsify history in the Balkans.

It is forgotten that in traditional Arab-Muslim society, the Jews were at the bottom of the social totem pole, lawfully oppressed, exploited, and humiliated by the Muslim state and Muslim individuals. Indeed, at times, the Christians, who also suffered from the dhimmi status, let out their frustrations on the Jews. That is forgotten, as is the fact that the first to be driven out of their homes in the Land of Israel in the 20th century were Jews, in the Old City of Jerusalem in 1920, in Hebron and in Jerusalem neighborhoods within and without the Old City in 1929, in Jerusalem again in 1936-38, not to forget Jaffa at an earlier stage. In the Israeli War of Independence, the first people to be driven out of their homes were Jews in south Tel Aviv and several Jerusalem neighborhoods in December 1947 and January 1948. This fact is forgotten against the constant, widely broadcast and highly amplified Arab complaints of Arab loss of homes later in the war. Furthermore, claims are made on the Arab behalf --by Arabs and Western non-Arabs-- that Arabs are the indigenous people of the Land, that the Canaanites were Arabs, etc. The fact that Arab auxiliary troops and Arabs in the Roman legions served Rome in quelling Jewish revolts in the Province of Judea in 70 CE and 132-135 CE is forgotten, although it is mentioned in Roman histories [see Tacitus, The Histories, V:1]. So rewriting history is a trade practiced by major "news" organizations, the media, the MSM, or whatever we should call them. Jimmy Carter's mendacious diatribe about "apartheid" in Israel is part of this drive to falsify history and smear Israel, as are the Baker-Hamilton report and the Walt-Mearsheimer paper.
[on the dhimmi status in the Land of Israel in particular, see previous posts. Search for "dhimmi."]
- - - - - - - - -
Coming: more on Jewish history in Jerusalem, peace follies, falsifications of history, etc.

Pico della Mirandola on Ancient Jewish Influence on Pythagoras -- Something Positive for a Change

The world today is very negative. A few hundred people are slaughtered in Baghdad in a slow week. European Union leaders toady to the monumental liars of Teheran who are developing nuclear weapons that might hit their precious Europe, not only Israel. The EU and other states [especially the EU] donate billions to the "palestinian authority," helping terrorists although the EU purport to abhor terrorism. Condoleeza [not sweet but bitter] Rice brings Israel's prime minister, Smolmert, together with terrorist leader Mahmud Abbas --in the name of "peace." And so on. There may not be a clash of civilizations but civilization is being eroded away.

So let's be positive. Rather than accuse Europeans of being always and irremediably Judeophobic, we find that 500 years ago, one of the original [in both senses] and pioneering minds of the Italian Renaissance, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, believed in the philosophic character of Judaism, that Moses was a philosopher [p 166], that Plato and Pythagoras reflected the teachings of Moses:

And the statement by the philosopher Numenios that Plato was nothing other than an Attic [= Athenian] Moses, is rather well known. Even Hermippos the Pythagorean attests that Pythagoras brought much from the law of Moses into his own philosophy.[Jean Pic de la Mirandole, Oeuvres Philosophiques (Paris: PUF, 1993), p 140]

. . . many things have been handed to us by the ancient Hebrews [p 182]

Pico studied Hebrew and Aramaic, as well as Greek, and was close to the ruler of Florence, Lorenzo the Magnificent, the Medici, who did so much to encourage the arts and sciences, and the intellectual progress of the Renaissance. The Heptaplus is in fact dedicated to Lorenzo de Medici and purports to be a commentary on the Seven Days of Creation. Pico lived from 1463 to 1494. Although born in Mirandola Castle in the Dukedom of Ferrara, Pico spent most of his life as a scholar in Florence. He wrote all or most of his works in Latin, and they have been translated into Italian, French, and perhaps English.
The statements by Numenios and Hermippos about Jewish influence on --or parallels in-- Plato and Pythagoras are found in the original Greek in Menahem Stern's compilation Greek and Latin Authors on Jews and Judaism (Jerusalem: Israel Academy of Sciences). Plato and Pythagoras are among the most important classical philosophers. Pythagoras is known of course to high school geometry students as the inventor of the Pythagorean Theorem. Hermippos lived in the 3rd century BCE in Alexandria under the Ptolemies [Lagids], while Numenios lived in the 2nd century CE. Plato and Pythagoras are classic philosophers who need no introduction from me.
- - - - - - - -
Coming: More on Jews in Jerusalem, Islam and civilization, EU warmongering, peace follies, etc.

I'll be busy for a few days

I'm currently busy, and won't be able to post again until next week. Until then, I wish everyone a good week, and thanks for visiting.

Jews Oppressed in 19th Century Morocco -- Part 2

The letter below was sent to the Alliance Israelite Universelle in Paris from the town of Sheshwan [Chechouan] in Morocco. Originally written in Judeo-Arabic, it was translated by a Monsieur Carmona and transmitted with the original to the AIU in Paris. It is a statement by the Jewish community of Sheshwan and counter-signed by a man named Asseruya.

"The Captivity Is Felt Here as Much during the Day as at Night," 1864

. . . we hurry with some delay to indicate to you in writing the state of
the town of Sheshwan and its inhabitants.
Sheshwan is a small village
surrounded by Arab clans. The inhabitants [belonging to the
clans] are devoted to perpetual struggles the consequences of which are
made to rebound against us, their anger stirred up by their reciprocal
failures. And above all, the government of this region is so to speak nominal
and powerless. Here, the Captivity [of Israel in Exile] is
felt as much during the day as at night. As far as we are concerned, we are
almost accustomed to no longer having hope except in God Almighty.
So that you can have an idea of what we can suffer, we are going to tell
you of our monotonous life imprinted with several episodes.
When we leave the Jewish quarter, we must take off our shoes for the whole
passage through the Arab quarter, and this while looking forward to receiving
several stones on our bodies. No one tries to defend us.
Before the judges, it is said: "He is a Jew." The robberies here are very
out in the open. "An Arab goes to buy something from a Jew. In order to pay him,
he says to him: But I paid you, O Jew, son of a dog! The unfortunate man must
overlook it.
[quoted in Littman, "Quelques aspects de la condition de
dhimmi: Juifs d'Afrique du Nord avant la colonisation," Yod, v 2, fasc.
1, Octobre 1976; p 17]

Note the extreme inequality in law of the Jew in traditional Muslim-Arab society in North Africa before the French conquest, that is, before the start of colonization. The Jew here was without protection by the state and its organs of law and order, such as they were. This social order was not caused by Israel or Zionism.
- - - - - - - -
Coming: More on Jews in Morocco, Jews in Jerusalem, Hebron, peace follies, British diplomacy & psychological warfare, etc.

Buried Street of Second Temple Period Jerusalem Now Discovered

A while ago I referred to an important new archeological discovery in Jerusalem.
Here are excerpts from what the weekly newspaper Maqor Rishon had to say about the discovery:

In excavations in `Ir David [the original part of Jerusalem ruled by King David] one of the most impressive findings ever discovered in the city has been uncovered: A splendid, major street of steps from the Second Temple Period [from the Persian conquest till the destruction of the Temple, approx.] 600 meters long, that served pilgrims who went up from the Shilo'ah Pool to the Temple. Openings of the shops that have been revealed and the great magnificence of noticeable from the remnants of the street les the researchers to the conclusion that it was the main street of the city in the Second Temple Period. Beneath street level, drainage channels that fit what is described in the books of Yosef ben Matityahu [Josephus Flavius] have been discovered. Many findings have been discovered in the channels, including vessels and cooking pots with food remains. The archeologists estimate that the vessels served the besieged Jews who hid in the channels from the Roman soldiers during the Destruction [of the Temple = Hurban haBayit]. Also uncovered in the diggings were many coins from the time of the Revolt. Up till now, 30 meters of the street have been uncovered and the works at the site are expected to go for 3 years.
[Maqor Rishon, 1-26-2007]

(NOTICE that in the photo air tubes and supports for the tunnel have already been installed.)
- - - - - - - - -
Coming: more on Jews in Jerusalem, on Hebron, oppression of Jews in Morocco, peace follies, etc.

Jews Oppressed in 19th Century Morocco -- Part I

The big lie that Arabs traditionally treated Jews well is still around. It's a silly notion. But it dies hard. It is supported now and was supported and promoted in the past, by powerful interests, not only by Arabs, not only by the Arab League and such Arab spokesmen/propagandists as Clovis Maksoud, Ahmad Shukairy, Fayez Sayegh, Arafat, and others, but by powerful interests in the West that wanted to promote Arab nationalism and tear down and besmirch Zionism for sundry reasons. These reasons could have been the interest of having access to Arab oil and Arab markets or for building anti-Communist coalitions --at a time when Islam was considered a bulwark against Communism-- or plain and simple Judeophobia.

In the 1880s, a French officer named Charles Foucauld took a trip through Morocco disguised as a Jew. Therefore, he was treated as a Jew by the Arabs/Muslims. Every Muslim who passed him on the road insulted him without provocation.

May God make the father who begat you burn forever, Jew!
[Charles de Foucauld, Reconnaissance au Maroc, 1883-84 (Paris 1888), Michel Carrouges, Foucauld: Devant l'Afrique du Nord (Paris 1961), p 151; in David Littman, "Quelques Aspects de la Condition de Dhimmi: Juifs d'Afrique du Nord avant la Colonisation," Yod: Revue des Etudes Hebraiques et Juives Modernes et Contemporaines, vol 2, fasc. 1, October 1976, p 3]

Bear in mind that this was years before the French conquest of Morocco which took place in 1912. During Foucauld's survey, the country was thoroughly under Muslim rule.

Twenty years later, another French observer, Edmond Doutte', wrote about the Jews of Arr`en in southern Morocco.

One is bewildered that under such tyranny, a people has been able to preserve intact the faith that earned it this martyrdom. One still sees in one's mind the hatred inspired in the conquerors [the Arabs] by the resistance of these unfortunates, and the periodic massacres that decimate them.
[E Doutte', Missions au Maroc, En Tribu (Paris 1914), p 137; Littman, ibid., p 3]

One thing missing --unfortunately-- from the disputes in France around the attacks on Jews there by the Muslims, most of them immigrants from North Africa --including Morocco-- or their children, is the historical aspect. One of the necessary ways for the French Jewish community to deal with the brutal and sometimes murderous [literally] attacks on Jews by Arabs/Muslims unleashed by incitement in the French press and media [and in the mosques as well] after the beginning of the present war here in Israel is to stress the traditional relationship between Jews and Arabs in North Africa. That relationship has historically been one of Arab-Muslim oppression, economic exploitation, and humiliation of Jews based on Muslim teachings in the Quran [such as Sura 9:29], the Hadith, and shari`ah law. According to Muslim law, Jews are to be tolerated only as inferiors. They are not to enjoy equality with Muslims in society. This information ought to be stressed over and over by spokesmen for the French Jewish community. Moreover, it ought to be pointed out that about half or more of French Jews have a family background in North Africa, as does the overwhelming majority of Arabs/Muslims in France. Ilan Halimi, a young French Jew who worked as a store clerk, was kidnapped and murdered early last year. His family name indicates an origin in North Africa. Previous posts on this blog have dealt with Arab-Muslim society in general and in other places, and with Morocco in particular. You can search these posts on this blog.
- - - - - - -
Coming: Jews in Jerusalem, Hebron, peace follies, EU, UN, & State Department moral corruption regarding Israel and Jews, etc.