A Drone In Time

Open letter:  To those who defame and harm the Jewish people for lack of                historical knowledge and perspective.

I have often wondered why God chose to keep the Jewish people so small in numbers and subjected us to exodus, exile, pogroms, the Holocaust, the October 7^th massacre and a new war to destroy Hamas, the perpetrators of this unpresented barbaric attack.  How have we managed to survive while the rulers and regimes who tried to destroy us have not?

As a drone hovers high in the sky viewing and recording a vast area of land and events, A Drone in Time will cover a broad view of historical events that have molded the Jewish people and Israel into a resilient, courageous and enduring nation.

Sadly, whether or not by divine plan, Jews became the proverbial, Canary in the Coal Mine.  A barometer for the problems within the society they exist in and the scapegoat for the rulers to blame, punish and destroy with diabolical cruelty.  Ironically, although their intent was to obliterate the Jews, history records that the rulers succumbed to their own demise and the rest of the population suffered as well.

So let’s take flight with A Drone in Time for a quick overview of centuries of Jewish persecution and how those murderous regimes ended:

The Exodus from Egypt was the defining event in the history of the Jewish People and a catastrophe for Egypt.  Pharaoh’s refusal to let the Hebrews leave resulted in plagues sent by God, devastating Egypt and creating economic disaster.

The drowning of the Egyptian forces in the Red Sea left Egypt open and vulnerable to foreign invasions.

The destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem by the Babylonians took place in 586 BC.  Thousands of Jews died by fire, crucifixion and starvation. Those who could not escape were taken as slaves.

The Babylonian Empire was conquered by Cyrus the Great in 539 BC.

The destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans in 70 CE was retaliation for an ongoing revolt.  Thousands of Jews perished and many were sold into slavery.

The fall of the Roman Empire occurred in 476 CE when it was overthrown by the Germanic warlord Odoacer.

During the Crusades starting in 1096 CE, and throughout the Middle Ages ending in the 15^th century, Jews were forced to convert to Christianity. Those who refused were either killed or committed suicide. Throughout Europe Jews were persecuted, forced into ghettos, denied citizenship or government posts and excluded from professions.  Deadly pogroms included full scale massacres.

In 1242 CE, thousands of volumes of the Talmud (Bible) were burned in Spain.  A wave of violence culminated in the Massacre of 1391, when 50,000 Jews were killed.

The Spanish Inquisition began in 1481 CE.  Jews who refused to convert to Christianity were burned at the stake.  The expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492 was the result of 200 years of harassment into forced conversions.

In 1288 CE, the first mass burning of Jews at the stake took place in France.  Many fled to Portugal from Spain and France. The Inquisition continued unabated in Portugal where thousands of Jews were also burned at the stake.                                 

In 1808, Joseph Bonaparte ended the Spanish Inquisition.

From the 16^th to the 19^th centuries, in the Soviet Union and Europe, pogroms were staged killing hundreds of thousands of Jews.  The fraudulent and antisemitic Protocols of the Elders of Zion was published in Russia in 1905, stating that the Jews had a plan to conquer the world. This led to widespread slaughter of Jews.   

The Soviet Union collapsed on December 31, 1991.

Adolph Hitler was humiliated when Germany lost the First World War (1914-1918), and looked for scapegoats to blame. The Jews became his main target.  At the heart of Nazi ideology was racial hatred and the creation of a pure “Aryan race.” It was the rise of eugenics and Jew-hatred which led to Hitler’s genocidal policies.

Nazi Germany and its allies built 44,000 concentration camps and murdered 20 million people. Those who did not fit the Aryan profile were murdered either by being gassed to death and burned in diabolically designed ovens, or shot and pushed into mass graves. Six million Jews were systematically executed, destroying nearly half of the Jewish population.  The other fourteen million consisted of physically and mentally handicapped German children and adults who were the first to be killed by the Nazis at Hartheim Castle of Horror in Austria.

Also killed were gay men, lesbians, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Gypsies, communists, socialists, Soviets, Poles, Slavs, black people, political prisoners, and Western allied POWs.

Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945 rather than be taken prisoner, ending one of the darkest eras in human history.

Arab/Israelis first visit to Dachau Concentration Camp in Germany:

Lastly, the Ethiopian Jews as isolated as they were, also suffered from centuries of religious persecution, massacres, enslavement, forced baptism or choosing suicide rather than conversion. They were denied education and the right to own land. From 1974 to 1991, under Marxist rule during the Mengistu (anti-religious) regime, they were forbidden to practice their Judaism, were persecuted, jailed and killed. Thousands died from starvation and rebels shooting them while escaping into the Sudan desert.  Ethiopia as a whole was also in crisis.    

In 1991, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi toppled Mengistu’s 17-year Marxist regime. Mengitsu fled to Zimbabwe where he was tried in absentia for genocide by the Ethiopian Supreme Court, found guilty and sentenced to death. He remains in exile in Zimbabwe.

If the Jews are the Canary in the Coal Mine, WE are in perilous times once again.  Corrupt politicians and global elites are destroying our freedoms, independence and productivity on an international scale.  And as expected, WE are the scapegoat for the masses with the rise in Jew-hatred worldwide, escalating out of control after the October 7^th massacre. WE are being threatened by mobs, murdered in our synagogues, brutally attacked in the streets, killed by suicide bombers and barbarically massacred in our own homes.  Social media brainwashes and influences Jew-haters to act with impunity at university and corporate campuses. While extremism is easily reinforced and emboldened because of political ignorance and manipulation of the masses. This level of cruelty and hostility has not been seen since pre-war Germany almost 88 years ago.

One last thing I’d like to bring to your attention.  The difference between then and now is that WE are Military Strong.  Israel is one of the most formidable and technologically advanced military powers in the Middle East and the world, and that changes the equation.  WE fight back against those who threaten our existence and test our might.

It is my sincere hope that during our quick flight with A Drone in Time, that those who defame and harm the Jewish people gained some historical perspective and realize that because of the battles WE have fought for centuries, surviving those who tried to destroy us, WE have become like armadillos able to shield ourselves from those who are so full of hate.  WE can only benefit from constructive alliances building bridges of peace with one another, like the Abraham Accords, so that aggressions against us will finally come to an end. For WE are always optimistic, believe that giving up is not an option, and know that good will ultimately prevail over evil.  For WE—CELEBRATE LIFE!               

NOW WHOSE SIDE WOULD YOU RATHER BE ON?