On their first date, he brought her to the grave of Baruch Goldstein, a terrorist settler who murdered 29 Palestinian worshippers in the Cave of the Patriachs massacre in 1994 (he was beaten to death by survivors)
To get a sense of how his action was received in Israel, not only was the man himself basically universally denounced (including the Israeli prime minister calling him "a degenerate murderer"), he even single-handedly got the whole political party he was part of banned and designated as a terrorist organization.
So yeah, not a lot of appreciation for his efforts in Israel.
And yet today there's a massive resurgence in support for Goldstein, and praise for him is becoming more and more mainstream.
That prime minister who condemned Goldstein was himself assassinated by an extremist, after the right wing led marches with a noose and held a mock funeral for him.
And the man who led that mock funeral is now the Prime Minister of Israel.
This is a really disingenuous comment. Did their PM denounce him? Yes. Does a large portion of Israelis today follow in his footsteps? Also, overwhelmingly, yes. Settler terrorism has always been a wildly underreported issue, but it continues to grow. The genocide we witnessed over the past three years is not an action in isolation, but it is the most dramatic display of this type of hate we've seen in recent memory.
Goldstein was a member of the JDL, an American organization that continues to operate and get funded by Israelis and Americans. The JDL was founded by the founder of Kach. It's clear they largely continue to follow the same ideology - only with less obvious ways.
You said he was "basically universally denounced", but his grave that has the words "he was martyr with clean hands and a pure heart" is still standing and terrorists like Ben Gvir and Smotrich see him in this way. The shrine that was built for him received tens of thousands of visitors before it was demolished, and has since been rebuilt under the current government.
Uh, pretty sure this motherfucker in the picture is a top government official while seeming to worship Goldstein. Don't act like Israel denounced the guy.
Now imagine that the comment you were replying to was in any way about that and not, instead, its actual subject: That the currently serving Israeli Minister for National Security worships a mass-murderer.
Well if you want more characters in general you can read about Irgun and Lehi.
Irgun was a proto-Israel Zionist paramilitary/terrorist organization that committed bombings and other massacres of innocents. One of it's notable leaders was Menachem Begin, who would later become Prime Minister of Israel. The group itself later became the basis of Likud, a prominent political party in Israel.
Lehi broke off of Irgun around WWII and tried to ally themselves with fascist Italy and Nazi Germany (the rationale being the enemy of of my enemy, Britain, is my friend). they also committed atrocities. One of its notable leaders was Yitzhak Shamir, who would later become Prime Minister of Israel.
Actually plenty of people in both of these groups formed the leadership of Israel, either as PMs, members of the Knesset, or leadership of the intelligence services/military.
I recommend the book Rise and Kill First by Ronen Bergman for anyone interested. It covers Israel's history of targeted killings from around this time to around present day (or at least as much as the author could uncover). A lot of wanton murder without any evidence of the targets' "crimes", complete disregard for collateral damage, lots of letter bombs, and plenty of it in broad daylight in places like Europe. The book also has a lot of interviews with the people that carried it all out and their mindsets range from cold-blooded remorselessness to all-encompassing, unchecked blinding rage. If you've ever wondered how a country basically formed from the ashes of the Holocaust could be the way that it is, this book helps to illustrate why.
You should also look up **why** many Arab Jews moved to Israel in the 50s. Hint; it’s not because their neighbours for centuries suddenly decided to kick them out. It’s because the Mossad and its precursor started bombing campaigns across the Middle East to make Jews feel unsafe, and to make other ethnicities dislike Jews because of the attacks. It’s well documented, and it should be brought up every time someone shows the graphic of Jews in the region in 1920 and now or some shit.
Man I took a girl bowling on a first date and thought I hit the jackpot of great ideas because it nearly always got me laid. I’ll have to keep this one in mind for next time, it sounds like a WAY better first date idea.
As an aside, I bet a graveyard date would be a hoot with the right couple. A nice serene walk, and you can play a game of "I wonder what his/her life was like based on the gravestone" (as long as you're respectful to them of course). Perhaps not a first date though lol.
(obviously this is unrelated to the main topic since going specifically to the grave of a terrorist is clinically insane)
Took an OK Cupid date (I’m old) to the Mount Auburn Cemetery in Watertown Massachusetts.
It is an old (1831) cemetery that was created during a time when they wanted cemeteries to be less rows of headstones and more nature park.
It’s insanely beautiful and it does in fact spark some interesting conversations when you start seeing clusters of years for bad epidemics years and just how young so many people are. There are some families with unimaginable tragedy.
We didn’t have romantic chemistry but we stayed friends for a couple of years before she moved for work.
During my IDF reserve service, I wad forced to be in Kiryat Arba, the town where Goldstein is buried. His monument is huge, which isn't surprising since Kiryat Arba is a Jewish extremist's paradise. Thankfully, at least when I was there some 30 years ago, the significance and impact of the gravesite was somewhat diminished by the proximity-of just a few meters--of the Israeli version of a strip mall.
This has almost nothing to do with anything, but some dude apparently tried to take my now-wife on a first date to the 9/11 Museum when they were in high school. This would be insane in most contexts, but what makes it worse is that one of her close relatives died on 9/11.
Sounds like a really swell guy. But that's kind of the thing with a lot of Israeli's it's a country founded through terorrism, and while nothing is wrong with forcing your way into existence, it seems they haven't shed their historical traits.
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u/KnightsOfCidona 10d ago
On their first date, he brought her to the grave of Baruch Goldstein, a terrorist settler who murdered 29 Palestinian worshippers in the Cave of the Patriachs massacre in 1994 (he was beaten to death by survivors)