Scholar of Mideast Conflict Becomes Its Latest Heartbreaking Victim in Tel Aviv Terror

Jun 29, '16, 5:59 pm

Dwyer Regular Member   Join Date: February 26, 2007 Posts: 1,361 Religion: Byzantine Catholic

Scholar of Mideast Conflict Becomes Its Latest Heartbreaking Victim in Tel Aviv Terror Quote: (Dr. Michael) Feige, 58, a sociologist and anthropologist, was shot to death in Wednesday (June 8, 2016) night’s terror attack on Tel Aviv’s Sarona Market, an upscale dining and shopping complex in the heart of the city. When he lost his life Feige was a respected academic at the peak of his career, serving as head of the Israel Studies Track in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Ben-Gurion (i.e., David Ben-Gurion, first Prime Minister of Israel) University of the Negev and a member of the Ben-Gurion Research Institute for the Study of Israel and Zionism at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. His university biography describes him as specializing in “Israeli society, collective memory and political myth” . . . Professionally, Saposnik said, Feige’s internationally recognized scholarship “had a unique perspective, penetrating and analytical, profound, and vital to our understanding of Israeli society.” Feige’s book, he said, “is probably the most important book on the settler movement and Gush Emunim written so far” . . . Some of his recent work focused on the Rabin assassination. In an article published last year titled ”Rabin’s Assassination and the Ethnic Margins of Gush Emunim,” Feige analyzed Rabin assassin Yigal Amir through the lens of religion, ideology and ethnicity, pointing out that “a large percentage of political murderers in Israel have come from the ethnic margins of Gush Emunim and of the ideological settler community.” http://forward.com/news/342372/schol...ro-item-text-2 Sounds like he was an interesting writer. More on the Gush Emunim movement: Quote: Gush Emunim (Hebrew: גּוּשׁ אֱמוּנִים , Bloc [of the] faithful) was an Israeli messianic,[1] right-wing activist[2] movement committed to establishing Jewish settlements in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights.[3] While not formally established as an organization until 1974 in the wake of the Yom Kippur War, Gush Emunim sprang out of the conquests of the Six-Day War in 1967, encouraging Jewish settlement of the land based on the belief that, according to the Torah, God gave it to the Jewish people.[4] While Gush Emunim no longer exists officially, vestiges of its influence remain in Israeli society[5][6] . . . In late 1974, an affiliated group named Garin Elon Moreh, led by Rabbi Menachem Felix and Benjamin (Beni) Katzover, attempted to establish a settlement on the ruins of the Sebastia train station dating from the Ottoman period. After seven attempts and six removals from the site by the Israel Defense Forces, an agreement was reached according to which the Israeli government allowed 25 families to settle in the Kadum army camp southwest of Nablus/Shechem. The Sebastia agreement was a turning point that opened up the northern West Bank to Jewish settlement. The small mobile home site housing 25 families eventually became the municipality of Kedumim, one of the major settlements in the West Bank. The Sebastia model was subsequently copied in Beit El, Shavei Shomron, and other settlements . . . The ideological outlook of Gush Emunim has been described as messianic, fundamentalist, theocratic and right-wing [5][12][13][14][15] Its beliefs were based heavily on the teachings of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook and his son, Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Kook,[16] who taught that secular Zionists, through their conquests of Eretz Israel, had unwittingly brought about the beginning of the Messianic Age, which would culminate in the coming of the messiah, which Gush Emunim supporters believe can be hastened through Jewish settlement on land they believe God has allotted to the Jewish people as set forth in the Hebrew Bible. The organisation supported attempts to coexist with the Arab population, rejecting the population transfers proposed by Meir Kahane and his followers.[17] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gush_Emunim __________________ "It's a free country; you can say whatever you want." --Old American Saying (U.S. Postal Service stamp-- from 1977 Americana series which extols freedom of speech and features a Speaker's Stand decorated with an American Flag shield.)

#2   Jun 29, '16, 9:36 pm

GEddie Forum Elder Book Club Member   Join Date: March 18, 2009 Posts: 89,291 Religion: Catholic

Re: Scholar of Mideast Conflict Becomes Its Latest Heartbreaking Victim in Tel Aviv Terror May the eternal light shine upon him. Shalom, ICXC NIKA