Jewish people, generations after the Holocaust, continue to perish in an ongoing battle to survive in their homeland, said a Jewish sympathizer at the Orem LDS Institute Thursday.
Murray Greenfield, who was born and raised in New York, is somewhat surprised to have found himself immersed in the fight of his people in Israel."I've always felt very Jewish here and what I knew about anti-Semitism I knew from my parents' stories," said Greenfield, speaking to the International Forum audience at the Orem LDS Institute next to Utah Valley State College.
"After the war I was invited to synagogue and there I was told, `We need guys like you to sail ships,' " said Greenfield. "I told them I hated the Merchant Marine. I did not like the work."
But when he realized there was no pay being offered because there was no money, he said, "I'll go!"
"I found out I was needed," said Greenfield. "I ended up living in Israel after all."
And helping bring Jews out of European prison camps into Pal-es-tine.
"I got very proud of it all. I became a Zionist."
Greenfield has since spent years helping his people recover, relocate and try to restore their lands. He has been imprisoned for his efforts, "a badge of honor," he claims.
He has watched the British "play dirty pool" with his fellow Jews, promising land and then taking it away. He has seen army after army invade.
"They are there to wipe us out, for no other reason. We just kept getting attacked. We kept going to war through no fault of our own."
Greenfield said even today the Arab constitution says Jews shall NOT exist in Palestine. The Jews are reported as "occupying" Israel as opposed to having Israel as theirs.
Three times more Jews have been murdered since the autonomy agreement, said Greenfield, but police turn deaf ears to Jewish pleas when they find the Arab murderers living among them.
"I'm not sure the world's against Jews but I'm not sure they love us, either.
Every day brings a new attack and the prospect of peace moves away, said Greenfield. "Both sides must want peace before it can be."
"With it all, we continue to build," he said.
"We grow apples and fruit and children. We make it beautiful so they want to take it away from us."