Fanatics, Madoff: The worst of the Jewish community

We as a people, are as noble as the greatest tsadik, as low as the worst of our villains. (I remember my mother always breathing a sigh of relief when she knew for sure that a criminal was not, in fact, Jewish.) Between goniffs like Bernard Madoff and anti-Israel pro-Messianic religious fanatics in Hebron are we losing the legitimacy of our claim that we hold the moral high ground?
Madoff, whose Ponzi scheme cost Yeshiva University $110 million; Hadassah $90 million; the endowment fund of the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington more than $10 million; the Jewish Funds for Justice $3.9 million; the Forward (that other Jewish newspaper) a mere $355,000. If you’ve been doing your arithmetic you’ll see I’ve accounted for less than 10% of the $50 billion he’s reputed to have embezzled (or vaporized as far as anyone can tell). When I read in the Times last Week of a rich man, one of Madoff’s Judas goats who brought him clients, and then followed Max Bialystock’s guiding principle until Bernie’s scheme bankrupted even him, I didn’t cry. Schadenfreude is one of my minor sins. But cheating Hadassah? Yeshiva University?
If all that weren’t bad enough, he’s also handed a loaded shotgun to those who already despise us and want to see us dead. Here’s a sample from a blog with the innocuous sounding name, “The Truth will set you free”:

“Madoff was elected chairman of the board of [Yeshiva Universty’s] Syms School of Business in 2000…Does the ‘Jewish tradition’ taught at Yeshiva U. support giant ‘Ponzi’ schemes like the one run by their chairman? Is this the kind of business they teach the students at Syms? Cheat the ‘goyim,’ i.e. non-Jews, and steal their money? That is exactly what the Talmud teaches, make no mistake about it. It is the main reason that Jews have been despised and expelled from so many nations throughout history. Anyone familiar with the teachings of the Talmud, i.e. ‘Jewish tradition,’ will know that such anti-Christian schemes are at the heart of such an ‘education.’ This is why so many of the financial criminals involved in the current Zionist-produced ‘credit crisis’ are Jewish Zionists who have been indoctrinated in such ‘Jewish traditions.’ The Zionist criminals involved in 9-11 and the cover-up of the truth are all tied to the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, which is a similar Zionist institution.”

Thanks, Bernie, for letting slip the dogs of anti-Semitism; if this is the first step towards welcoming back the Middle Ages, to accusations of us using Christian blood to make our matzah, you can look to Bernie for inspiring it. Fascists of all stripes who would destroy the Jews are out there. Read further for another example.
Have your read Josephus’ The Jewish War, his history of the struggle between Jews and Romans that reached its crescendo with the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE and the suicides at Massada two years later? According to him, the slaughter of Jews in Jerusalem was by the Jewish zealots who objected to those Jews who would live amicably (if warily) with the Romans.
Earlier this month the Israeli Supreme Court ordered a disputed property in Hebron vacated until it could decide ownership. The army moved in, expelled the 200 or so zealots in occupation and then the fanatics went on a rampage—against Arabs. Their policy is called “Price Tag.” If the government wants to be conciliatory to Arabs, the price is these pogroms (not my term, nor the term of the Arab press, but one used by the Prime Minister of Israel). The hooligans shot Arab civilians, set fire to their homes, destroyed their crops and terrorized them. The Premier’s terminology sounds about right. He might also have called it an intifada.
Further to fan the flames of backlash, Baruch Marzel and Itamar Ben-Gvir, two of the Ayatollahs who urge the young on their destructive rampage and then attempt to justify it, threatened to march with their troops bearing 100 Israeli flags through the Arab city of Umm al-Fahm near Haifa. Their group? It has the evocative name of “The Jewish National Front,” a name which immediately brings to mind fascists in France, Britain and the United States who call themselves the National Front and want to impose racist policies on their reluctant homelands.
Were not the fascists of Europe enough for the world? Have we learned nothing? Lord, what fools these mortals be.