{"id":63,"date":"2010-07-15T12:09:38","date_gmt":"2010-07-15T12:09:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/rabbishmuleyunleashed\/2010\/07\/kaddafis-ship-to-gaza-and-his-ark-in-new-jersey.html"},"modified":"2010-07-15T12:09:38","modified_gmt":"2010-07-15T12:09:38","slug":"kaddafis-ship-to-gaza-and-his-ark-in-new-jersey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/rabbishmuleyunleashed\/2010\/07\/kaddafis-ship-to-gaza-and-his-ark-in-new-jersey.htm","title":{"rendered":"Kaddafi’s Ship to Gaza, and His Ark in New Jersey"},"content":{"rendered":"

As of this writing, a Libyan ‘aid’ ship that was on its way to challenge Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza and further inflame the world against the Jewish state for keeping arms out of the hands of Hamas terrorists has now docked in Egypt. The ship is paid for by a charity run by Muammar Kaddafi’s son, Saif al-Islam Kaddafi. When it comes to the Kaddafi family mob, anything with the word charity in it must be taken with an Everest-sized helping of salt. This is, after all, a family that has brutalized Libya and plundered its wealth for four decades making it easy to give away money that was never theirs in the first place.<\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/p>\n


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<\/font><\/p>\n

It should come as no surprise, however, that Kaddafi’s ‘charity’ is
\ndirected against provoking and delegitimizing Israel. Godfather Muammar’s
\nhatred of Israel is obsessive and neurotic. In just the last year alone Kaddafi
\nhas accused Israel of instigating every current African conflict, being
\nresponsible for genocide in Sudan, and, at the UN general assembly in
\nSeptember, murdering John F. Kennedy. Last summer the tyrant called for
\nIsrael’s embassies to be kicked out of all Africa. In March, 2009 his mission
\nto the UN accused Israel of turning Gaza into a concentration camp and last
\nDecember Kaddafi’s Ambassador to the UN, Muhammad Shalgham, my next-door
\nneighbor, showed images of decapitated and burned Palestinian adults at the
\nSecurity Council, blaming the grizzly carnage on unprovoked Israeli aggression.
\nHis display, which flouted all rules of UN protocol, was condemned by the
\nUnited States as a ‘rhetorical display designed to inflame.’<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

All of this makes me ask a simple question. How is it that Englewood,
\nNew Jersey, which has thousands of prominent Jewish residents and an estimated
\n700 orthodox Jewish families, simply accepts the presence of the Libyan mission
\nto the UN in its midst?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I will not here recount my ongoing and fruitless effort to have our
\nelected local and state officials in New Jersey challenge the presence of the
\nLibyan mission, which refuses to pay a single dollar in taxes, even for their
\nown police protection and trash removal, since the tale of their capitulation
\nto the Libyans is something they justify with having launched a failed court challenge
\nnearly thirty years ago. It seems odd that a state that tragically lost 37
\nresidents in the Lockerbie bombing would feel comfortable allowing the
\nterrorist government who sponsored the attack – and today celebrates the
\ncowardly terrorist who planted the bomb –  safe haven within New Jersey
\nborders.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I am, however, extremely puzzled at how committed Jews, who love and
\npublicly support Israel, can allow an embassy which regularly defames and
\nthreatens the Jewish state, to live peacefully in its community and immediately
\nnext-door to one of North America’s largest Jewish day schools without protest.
\nAfter all, Englewood, New Jersey, is not the United Nations. What are the
\nLibyans doing here?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Is the job of combating all the evil libels directed against Israel
\nfrom Libya solely the responsibility of Israel’s Jews? Do we in the American
\nJewish community have no role in combating Kaddafi’s attacks?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In May the New York Post reported that another Kaddafi son, Al-Saadi
\nKaddafi, invested $100 million into a Los Angeles-based movie production
\ncompany, Natural Selection, run by Matthew Beckerman, a Jewish producer. That a
\nJewish American could accept the blood money of the Kaddafi family, who have
\nmurdered so many innocent people, including American servicemen, in order to
\nmake entertainment is simply staggering.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Like the Jewish Day School that is my neighbor, I too live immediately
\nnext-door to the Libyan mission. Waking up every morning and seeing the Libyan
\nflag flying in the midst of a robust American community is shocking. I ask
\nmyself, What kind of example is it for American children to learn that we
\nadults are utterly passive in the face of Kaddafi’s evil? Should these children
\nnot be learning that part of being an American and part of being Jewish is
\nprotesting oppression and banishing it from our communities?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Visualize this for a moment. Every day, hundreds of Jewish children
\nplay on swingsets and in sandboxes a few hundred feet from a fluttering Libyan
\nflag. If a convicted sex offender moved right next door to the school, there
\nwould be an outcry. Pressure would be brought to ensure that the resident,
\nhowever legal, moved elsewhere. But the Ambassador of an Israel-hating,
\nterror-sponsoring government – whose leader Ronald Reagan called the mad-dog of
\nthe Middle East – lives in the heart of a robust, American Jewish community.
\nWhere is the logic?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Jewish education must be first and foremost about Jewish values, one
\nof the greatest being an ironclad commitment to opposing injustice and the
\ntrampling of innocents. We are the people who produced Moses who brought
\nPharaoh’s oppressive regime to its knees. We are the people who gave the world
\nthe Ten Commandments, with its injunction to forever rail against murder. And
\nwe are the people who gave the world the Hebrew Bible with its magnificent
\ncommandment to never stand idly by the blood of one’s neighbor.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I speak here not only of Jewish blood but also, of course, of Arab
\nblood, of whom Kaddafi has murdered untold thousands. All are equally G-d’s
\nchildren.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In Englewood we need the residents of our community making it clear to
\nour public officials, some of whom are up for election this coming November,
\nthat our support for their candidacies is contingent on their public opposition
\nto Kaddafi and his representatives’ presence. Englewood, like every American
\ncity, should be a terrorist-free zone.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, founder of This World: The Values Network,
\nhosts ‘The Shmuley Show’ on WABC in New York City and is the author most
\nrecently of ‘Renewal: A Guide to the Values-Filled Life.’ Follow him on Twitter
\n@RabbiShmuley.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As of this writing, a Libyan ‘aid’ ship that was on its way to challenge Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza and further inflame the world against the Jewish state for keeping arms out of the hands of Hamas terrorists has now docked in Egypt. 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