Worth a few minutes of your time.
June 28, 2010
Rabbi Dr. Richard Rubenstein on Obama
June 25, 2010
Jewish Dancers Attacked in Germany
by Maayana Miskin
(Israelnationalnews.com) A Jewish dance group was attacked in Germany last Saturday while performing during a street festival in Hanover. The incident led to discussion this week of the phenomenon of anti-Semitism among immigrant youth.
Members of the Haverim dance group were pelted with stones as they took the stage. One dancer was injured. As youth threw stones, they screamed “Juden Raus” (Jews out).
Six suspects ranging in age from nine to 19 have been identified. Five of the six are Muslim immigrants.
Charlotte Knobloch, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, said the incident showed the “widespread” hatred of Jews and Israel in Germany's Muslim immigrant community. “It particularly saddens me that those anti-Semitic views can already be seen with such vehemence among children and youths,” she told the Die Welt newspaper.
Another Central Council member, Stephan Kramer, expressed concern, telling the Associated Press, “This latest incident shows something we have not experienced before: A growing radicalization of young Muslims, which affects not only the Jewish community but the entire German community.”
Hanover Mayor Stephan Weil said his city had filed charges against the attackers. They stand accused of incitement to racial hatred and causing bodily harm.
Jewish organizations in Germany said anti-Semitic incidents had been unusually frequent in recent weeks following a clash between IDF commandos and members of a Turkish terrorist group. The clash took place at sea as the Turkish citizens, along with other foreigners, attempted to break Israel's naval blockade of Gaza.
Attacks based on anti-Israel hatred were not unheard of prior to the flotilla clash either: In May, attackers set fire to a synagogue in western Germany, leaving a letter that said, “Until you leave Palestinians alone, we won't leave you alone.”
Members of the Haverim dance group were pelted with stones as they took the stage. One dancer was injured. As youth threw stones, they screamed “Juden Raus” (Jews out).
Six suspects ranging in age from nine to 19 have been identified. Five of the six are Muslim immigrants.
Charlotte Knobloch, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, said the incident showed the “widespread” hatred of Jews and Israel in Germany's Muslim immigrant community. “It particularly saddens me that those anti-Semitic views can already be seen with such vehemence among children and youths,” she told the Die Welt newspaper.
Another Central Council member, Stephan Kramer, expressed concern, telling the Associated Press, “This latest incident shows something we have not experienced before: A growing radicalization of young Muslims, which affects not only the Jewish community but the entire German community.”
Hanover Mayor Stephan Weil said his city had filed charges against the attackers. They stand accused of incitement to racial hatred and causing bodily harm.
Jewish organizations in Germany said anti-Semitic incidents had been unusually frequent in recent weeks following a clash between IDF commandos and members of a Turkish terrorist group. The clash took place at sea as the Turkish citizens, along with other foreigners, attempted to break Israel's naval blockade of Gaza.
Attacks based on anti-Israel hatred were not unheard of prior to the flotilla clash either: In May, attackers set fire to a synagogue in western Germany, leaving a letter that said, “Until you leave Palestinians alone, we won't leave you alone.”
June 24, 2010
The ominous feeling of ..... danger - Avi
June 24, 2010 - Diaspora
Update from the Galut.
1) Anti-Semitism is on the rise...everywhere
2) Muslims are taking over Europe...baby by baby and immigrant by immigrant as you read this!
3) The so called "Flotilla" to provide aid to the so called "Palestinians"
4) Obama is the POTUS and is clearly anti-Israel
5) The economy in the US is grinding to a slow methodical halt.
6) The Government of Israel remains feckless and secular.
7) Assimilation seems to be increasing...
8) Muslims are using Western and Democratic laws to gain a foothold in the US. The birthrate concept, could threaten this Democracy.
9) The divisions in Judaism are clearly helping Assimilation.
10) The issue in the Galut of the US - "American Jew" or "Jewish American" seems to be based solely on the belief in HaShem. Whether or not I follow the statutes 100%...has personal consequences. As a Jewish American I care about Israel and want a non secular Government ...even if it will affect me if (when) I make Aliyah...by setting rules that may require me to be more Observant! I welcome the LAWS!
11) Iran is the largest threat to the entire World, but Israel is clearly it's first target.
12) The Anti-Semitism that is here is beneath the surface...not to far beneath. There are probably more people who are not racist...but there are so many more people in general...that there are more racists as well.
13) The black community in the US are not only driving while Black...they are (fill in the blank ) while Black.
Generally speaking even though Black people in the US do not consider Jews to be White...we are certainly not their friend or ally.
14) Xtians want us gathered to Israel for the Rapture, Hezbollah wants us gathered to make the targeting easier, Baptists want us Baptist , Presbo's want us gone, Employes still want us as Lawyers, Accountants and Dr's, Jewish Americans want Moshiach to come, Amercan Jews want us all to get along and PEACE, and so on.
15) The more I look at the Map in the US the more I see where we live..and I know why. The Southern Jews are mostly in Fl, becasue we all know that Fl is not part of the south...the rest are nuts.
16) The more we try to hold culture in the Us...the more we will be accused of...of...of.... not Assimilating!!
So it is a lose, lose....If we Assimilate...we become extinct and if we don't Assimilate there will be many who want to make us extinct.
The World is clearly against Israel.
Based on belief in Hashem and the Redemption....this is the way it is supposed to be before Moshiach comes.
So what will happen in the Galut? Will it start here first?
B*H*
Payback will be a B*tch
Avi
Update from the Galut.
1) Anti-Semitism is on the rise...everywhere
2) Muslims are taking over Europe...baby by baby and immigrant by immigrant as you read this!
3) The so called "Flotilla" to provide aid to the so called "Palestinians"
4) Obama is the POTUS and is clearly anti-Israel
5) The economy in the US is grinding to a slow methodical halt.
6) The Government of Israel remains feckless and secular.
7) Assimilation seems to be increasing...
8) Muslims are using Western and Democratic laws to gain a foothold in the US. The birthrate concept, could threaten this Democracy.
9) The divisions in Judaism are clearly helping Assimilation.
10) The issue in the Galut of the US - "American Jew" or "Jewish American" seems to be based solely on the belief in HaShem. Whether or not I follow the statutes 100%...has personal consequences. As a Jewish American I care about Israel and want a non secular Government ...even if it will affect me if (when) I make Aliyah...by setting rules that may require me to be more Observant! I welcome the LAWS!
11) Iran is the largest threat to the entire World, but Israel is clearly it's first target.
12) The Anti-Semitism that is here is beneath the surface...not to far beneath. There are probably more people who are not racist...but there are so many more people in general...that there are more racists as well.
13) The black community in the US are not only driving while Black...they are (fill in the blank ) while Black.
Generally speaking even though Black people in the US do not consider Jews to be White...we are certainly not their friend or ally.
14) Xtians want us gathered to Israel for the Rapture, Hezbollah wants us gathered to make the targeting easier, Baptists want us Baptist , Presbo's want us gone, Employes still want us as Lawyers, Accountants and Dr's, Jewish Americans want Moshiach to come, Amercan Jews want us all to get along and PEACE, and so on.
15) The more I look at the Map in the US the more I see where we live..and I know why. The Southern Jews are mostly in Fl, becasue we all know that Fl is not part of the south...the rest are nuts.
16) The more we try to hold culture in the Us...the more we will be accused of...of...of.... not Assimilating!!
So it is a lose, lose....If we Assimilate...we become extinct and if we don't Assimilate there will be many who want to make us extinct.
The World is clearly against Israel.
Based on belief in Hashem and the Redemption....this is the way it is supposed to be before Moshiach comes.
So what will happen in the Galut? Will it start here first?
B*H*
Payback will be a B*tch
Avi
Tips on the Temple-building -- Obadiah Shoher
“I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west; I will
say to the north: ‘Give up,’ and to the south: ‘Keep not back, bring My
sons from far, and My daughters from the end of the earth.’” -Isaiah 43:5-6.
Jewish emigration from the countries east and west of Israel was relatively
free, but very hard from Russia (north) and Ethiopia (south). Do you think that
was a coincidence? “I will bring them from a northern country” (Jeremiah
31:7). At the time of Jeremiah, there was no Jewish Diaspora worthy of note
north of Israel.
When? “With fury poured out, will I be king over you… and I will purge out
from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against Me; I will bring
them forth out of the land where they sojourn, but they shall not enter into the
land of Israel… and I will bring you out from the peoples, and will gather you
out of the countries wherein you are scattered, with a mighty hand.” -Ezekiel
20:33-38. Holocaust, then the creation of Israel.
Some corroborating details, perhaps? Sanhedrin 97a, “In the generation of
messiah, Torah scholars will meet in brothels [as happens routinely in Tel Aviv
slums], Galilee will be no more [Arab, off-limits to Jews].… border residents
will move from town to town, met with disapproval [Sderot, Kiryat Shmona
evacuees]…. God-fearers [haredim] will be despised. The face of the generation
will be a dog’s face, and truth will be lost.” More details: “Wine will be
expensive despite plentiful harvest, and the entire government will fall into
apostasy.”
“I the LORD will hasten it in its time,” -Isa60:22. Sanhedrin 98a explains
that if Israel deserves it the salvation will come fast; otherwise it will come
in its own time. Such a reading is divorced from Isaiah’s text, which promises
to hasten the events without qualification. This can only mean that the time
will run faster at the end of days, as in the Mayan concept of time.
The rabbinical doctrine of the supernatural messiah was meant to dissuade Jews
from running after every savior. That approach might have saved the nation, but
perhaps, on the contrary, it prevented us from liberating our land long ago,
when Jews were more numerous than Palestinian Muslims. Rabbis laboriously
explained absurdities or metaphors such as the Danielic promise of messiah as
someone “like a son of man” flying on the clouds (Sanhedrin 98a), instead of
concentrating on much more sensible earlier prophecy where the messiah is said
to ride a donkey, meaning that he’s a common person. But you don’t expect a
Temple to descend from heaven at the call of someone who rides a donkey—or
even a BMW—and rabbis, averse to building the Temple in mundane ways, wait for
the heavenly figure subject to Shas approval.
The concept of heavenly salvation is a perversion of Judaism. God doesn’t act
in the world directly. Even the Flood was a completely natural event. Everywhere
the Scripture says that God did this or that, it’s a metaphor for Israel:
“God discomfited Sisera” (Judges 4:15) means merely that Jews defeated him.
So it is with the heavenly Temple and messianic wars: God wages wars by enabling
us to do so.
Support for any political agenda can be found in Tanakhs fanciful prophecies
and their even more fanciful interpretations. This childish game is silly. I
have no doubt about God’s existence, commandments, etc., but I cannot make
myself believe the nonsense of heavenly son of man or, for that matter, urim and
tummim. It is written rightly that God doesn’t perform miracles by violating
the laws of nature. The high priest didn’t speak with God in the holy of
holies; he did not consult the magic amulets; the Ark, if it’s so immensely
holy, won’t have fallen into the hands of heathens and disappeared. And no, I
don’t believe it is hidden below the Temple Mount.
The end is near. The time runs faster, Israel is gathered from all corners of
the earth, Zechariah’s two-thirds are lost in Holocaust and assimilation, and
Jews returned to Zion with force and miracles. Stop wasting time on theological
nonsense. Recognize that the Temple won’t descend from heaven. Go build it
yourself.
You may view this at -
http://samsonblinded.com/blog/
June 23, 2010
An Urgent Message from Prof. Paul Eidelberg
Iran has declared war, threatening to "wipe Israel off the map." It would be foolish and criminally irresponsible to minimize this threat. Iran will soon have the nuclear weapon to fulfill this Islamic goal.
Since Israel cannot depend on the United States to prevent Iran from getting the bomb, or protect Israel by means of a nuclear shield, Israel must preempt even if this will only delay the Iran's nuclear development.
Israel's government must understand that a nuclear armed Iran will (1) curtail Jewish immigration to Israel; (2) increase the exodus of Jews from Israel—those having means and talents to settle in another country; (3) decrease the birthrate of Jews in Israel; (4) increase the proportion of Arabs in the Knesset via the charming democratic principle of one adult-one vote; (5) diminish economic investment and development in Israel; (6) increase Arab terrorist attack on Israel from both Hamas and Hezbollah—all of which points to the end of the Jewish state.
Now, this state of affairs demands that Israel replace its dysfunctional system of government where five or six or more rival parties form the Cabinet. Israel requires a presidential system and for reasons best articulated by Alexander Hamilton the Federalist Papers as the present writer has proposed during the past two decades.
During the American Civil War, Abraham Lincoln acted as a dictator, as did Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt, respectively, in the First and Second World Wars. Israel cannot afford a plural executive consisting of the leaders of rival political parties, each with its own priorities and ambitions.
An alternative remedy is to increase the parliamentary electoral threshold to 10 percent, as was proposed by David Ben-Gurion. Of course this will be opposed by the small parties, but that is precisely why Israel urgently needs a unitary or presidential system of government.
We're at war kindelach, and if you want to have grandchildren in Israel, you'd better act NOW!
Since Israel cannot depend on the United States to prevent Iran from getting the bomb, or protect Israel by means of a nuclear shield, Israel must preempt even if this will only delay the Iran's nuclear development.
Israel's government must understand that a nuclear armed Iran will (1) curtail Jewish immigration to Israel; (2) increase the exodus of Jews from Israel—those having means and talents to settle in another country; (3) decrease the birthrate of Jews in Israel; (4) increase the proportion of Arabs in the Knesset via the charming democratic principle of one adult-one vote; (5) diminish economic investment and development in Israel; (6) increase Arab terrorist attack on Israel from both Hamas and Hezbollah—all of which points to the end of the Jewish state.
Now, this state of affairs demands that Israel replace its dysfunctional system of government where five or six or more rival parties form the Cabinet. Israel requires a presidential system and for reasons best articulated by Alexander Hamilton the Federalist Papers as the present writer has proposed during the past two decades.
During the American Civil War, Abraham Lincoln acted as a dictator, as did Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt, respectively, in the First and Second World Wars. Israel cannot afford a plural executive consisting of the leaders of rival political parties, each with its own priorities and ambitions.
An alternative remedy is to increase the parliamentary electoral threshold to 10 percent, as was proposed by David Ben-Gurion. Of course this will be opposed by the small parties, but that is precisely why Israel urgently needs a unitary or presidential system of government.
We're at war kindelach, and if you want to have grandchildren in Israel, you'd better act NOW!
June 17, 2010
Addendum to "Critically Needed: Moral Clarity" - Paul Eidelberg
It is well known that a large majority of the Congress of the United States is at least verbally supportive of Israel, even though, year after year, Congress has allocated hundreds of millions of dollars to Israel's enemy the PLO or Fatah-led Palestinian Authority. Of course, Congress was bankrolling the Middle East policy of the Administration.
Since Israel has friends in Congress and enjoys the support of most Americans, it is only natural for Israeli prime ministers to visit America.
However, America, for the first time in its glorious history, has an anti-American president whose Muslim roots have made him conspicuously anti-Israel, which hostility may well be construed as anti-Jewish. Moreover this president wants to emasculate Jewish retention of Israel's capital, Jerusalem.
Therefore, an Israeli prime minister should not go to the capital of the United States, Washington, D.C., for to do so is to dignify the present anti-American occupant of the White House, Barack Hussein Obama —a fortiori, because his occupancy of the White House may be fraudulent according to various law suits claiming that Mr. Obama is not a native-born American.
Leaving this controversial legal issue aside, it’s safe to say that Mr. Obama, who disgraced America by bowing to Saudi King Abdullah—the ruler of a totalitarian regime that trafficked in black slavery—will not visit Israel during his presidency. And this, despite the fact that fifty retired Army and Air Force and Marine Generals and fleet Admirals very recently warned Mr. Obama that Israel is a strategically important asset of the United States.
I have said and reiterate that the Prime Minister of Israel must uphold his nation's honor. To do so, I now add, is to sanctify the Name of God.
I dare say that Israel's current humiliation and precarious situation is a result of the failure of its Prime Minister to recognize that he would not be living in Israel or holding his office were it not for the Covenant at Mount Sinai and the countess millions of Jews who have upheld that Covenant—yes and have suffered millennia of torments to Sanctify God's Name.
Since Israel has friends in Congress and enjoys the support of most Americans, it is only natural for Israeli prime ministers to visit America.
However, America, for the first time in its glorious history, has an anti-American president whose Muslim roots have made him conspicuously anti-Israel, which hostility may well be construed as anti-Jewish. Moreover this president wants to emasculate Jewish retention of Israel's capital, Jerusalem.
Therefore, an Israeli prime minister should not go to the capital of the United States, Washington, D.C., for to do so is to dignify the present anti-American occupant of the White House, Barack Hussein Obama —a fortiori, because his occupancy of the White House may be fraudulent according to various law suits claiming that Mr. Obama is not a native-born American.
Leaving this controversial legal issue aside, it’s safe to say that Mr. Obama, who disgraced America by bowing to Saudi King Abdullah—the ruler of a totalitarian regime that trafficked in black slavery—will not visit Israel during his presidency. And this, despite the fact that fifty retired Army and Air Force and Marine Generals and fleet Admirals very recently warned Mr. Obama that Israel is a strategically important asset of the United States.
I have said and reiterate that the Prime Minister of Israel must uphold his nation's honor. To do so, I now add, is to sanctify the Name of God.
I dare say that Israel's current humiliation and precarious situation is a result of the failure of its Prime Minister to recognize that he would not be living in Israel or holding his office were it not for the Covenant at Mount Sinai and the countess millions of Jews who have upheld that Covenant—yes and have suffered millennia of torments to Sanctify God's Name.
Critically Needed: Moral Clarity - Paul Eidelberg
Israel has never been in greater need of moral clarity. Why? Because it faces annihilation.
To begin with, let's consider a worst case but not an unrealistic scenario.
Any of Barack Obama's statements to the contrary notwithstanding, this self-professed and mendacious Muslim wants Iran to obtain nuclear weapons. Why? To enable Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to fulfill his Islamic vow to "wipe Israel off the map."
If so, Israel must preempt, despite the danger of Iran turning off the oil flowing through the Persian Gulf (which Iran could readily do anyway if it has nuclear weapons).
However, if Prime Minister Netanyahu lacks moral clarity, more precisely, if he remains paranoid about "world opinion," he may not give the IDF the green light.
This paranoia is a Jewish problem primarily resulting, of course, from millennia of European Jew-hatred, and secondarily from a servile view of morality, whereby Jews prefer victim-hood.
Even the Six-Day War did not cure Jews of this malady or lack of moral clarity, since their timid government offered to return the land regained by the IDF for "peace."
Another but related factor is the loss of Jewish national pride, the obverse of Israel's paranoid quest for the approval of the nations. Ariel Sharon proclaimed that his cozy relationship with George W. Bush was Israel's strongest asset. Netanyahu was crushed by Obama's rude treatment of him earlier this year in Washington.
I told a religious member of the Knesset the following: "Obama bowed to Saudi King Abdullah. Bibi bowed to Obama. This was followed by the Gaza Flotilla. A Prime Minister of Israel should not even go to the United States. Upholding Israel's honor should be his paramount concern."
Let me add this. Anwar Sadat was assassinated because he went to, and thus dignified—in Muslim eyes—the Jewish state.
Now ponder this double entendre. Bibi, after degrading Israel by endorsing a Palestinian state on the homeland of the Jewish people, laid down the humiliating condition—humiliating primarily to Israel!—that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state.
Why would any Israeli prime minister with a stitch of Jewish pride give a hoot what the nations of the world think of Israel—nations that worship Mammon and respect only Power?
The people of Israel, degraded by one morally obtuse prime minister after another, are in critical need of moral clarity.
To begin with, let's consider a worst case but not an unrealistic scenario.
Any of Barack Obama's statements to the contrary notwithstanding, this self-professed and mendacious Muslim wants Iran to obtain nuclear weapons. Why? To enable Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to fulfill his Islamic vow to "wipe Israel off the map."
If so, Israel must preempt, despite the danger of Iran turning off the oil flowing through the Persian Gulf (which Iran could readily do anyway if it has nuclear weapons).
However, if Prime Minister Netanyahu lacks moral clarity, more precisely, if he remains paranoid about "world opinion," he may not give the IDF the green light.
This paranoia is a Jewish problem primarily resulting, of course, from millennia of European Jew-hatred, and secondarily from a servile view of morality, whereby Jews prefer victim-hood.
Even the Six-Day War did not cure Jews of this malady or lack of moral clarity, since their timid government offered to return the land regained by the IDF for "peace."
Another but related factor is the loss of Jewish national pride, the obverse of Israel's paranoid quest for the approval of the nations. Ariel Sharon proclaimed that his cozy relationship with George W. Bush was Israel's strongest asset. Netanyahu was crushed by Obama's rude treatment of him earlier this year in Washington.
I told a religious member of the Knesset the following: "Obama bowed to Saudi King Abdullah. Bibi bowed to Obama. This was followed by the Gaza Flotilla. A Prime Minister of Israel should not even go to the United States. Upholding Israel's honor should be his paramount concern."
Let me add this. Anwar Sadat was assassinated because he went to, and thus dignified—in Muslim eyes—the Jewish state.
Now ponder this double entendre. Bibi, after degrading Israel by endorsing a Palestinian state on the homeland of the Jewish people, laid down the humiliating condition—humiliating primarily to Israel!—that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state.
Why would any Israeli prime minister with a stitch of Jewish pride give a hoot what the nations of the world think of Israel—nations that worship Mammon and respect only Power?
The people of Israel, degraded by one morally obtuse prime minister after another, are in critical need of moral clarity.
Thinking Outside the Cave - Paul Eidelberg
Part I: In Search of a Jewish Agenda
Journalists necessarily focus on daily or transient political events. I try to understand the unseen meta-political causes of these events. Hence I invite people to think outside of what Plato called the "Cave."
(1) Ask any pundit why the world is so focused on Israel and most will blame Israel's handling or mishandling of the "Palestinian problem"—today the "Free Gaza Flotilla."
(2) Ask Israeli pundits why so many nations support Hamastan in Gaza, a terropolis, vis-à-vis Israel, and a large majority will point to "anti-Semitism."
Apropos of the Flotilla fiasco, one pundit said Israel's Government lacks a strategy. "The first rule of strategy," says this pundit, "is to keep your opponent busy attending to your agenda so he has no time to advance his own." Okay, but what is Israel's agenda?
I've been studying Israeli governments for more than three decades, and regardless of which party or party coalition is at the helm, its agenda is preoccupied with the Arab-cum-security problem. It seems to me that this fixation is a quasi-paranoid manifestation of a cave mentality.
I contend that the world is down on Israel because its Government, by focusing on the Arab problem, ignores what is far more fundamental—the Jewish problem. Cave dwellers can't deal with this problem. It demands thinking outside the Cave.
Put another way: Although Israel's Declaration of Independence refers to Israel as a Jewish state, Israel's ruling elites don't even know what is a "Jewish state"! None has formulated, in terms comprehensible to the average citizen, the ends, the institutional means, and the foreign policy appropriate to a Jewish state ensconced in the hostile environment of the Middle East. More important, none has set forth the kind of public education required to enlighten Israelis and toughen them vis-a-vis their genocidal enemies.
Perhaps this compounded failing is the esoteric reason why the world is down on Israel? After all, if Israel is supposed to be a light unto the nations, how can it fulfill this function if Israel's Government doesn't know what a Jewish state is? This ignorance, however, is inevitable because the term "Jewish state" is an oxymoron!
The world believes that the "state" makes and enforces the laws of a nation, which laws are of supreme authority. This contradicts Judaism, which posits the Torah as Israel's Supreme Law. The state is nothing more than the custodian of that Law. The Torah Jew regards the idea of the sovereign state—an idea advanced by Machiavelli—as idolatry, akin to paganism. A world of sovereign states unconstrained by Divine Law is equivalent to polytheism as opposed to ethical monotheism.
Strange as it may seem, the laws enacted by Israel's Government tacitly conform to Machiavelli's idea of the sovereign state, in consequence of which Israel cannot possibly be a light unto the nations! Perhaps this is the unknown reason why many nations question Israel's legitimacy as a sovereign state, an attitude pundits will attribute to anti-Semitism—a correct but superficial conclusion. It never occurs to them that this anti-Semitism may be the effect of a hidden cause, namely, that Israel today is unworthy of its Jewish reputation!
Can it be that the world is down on Israel because its posing as a Jewish state is factitious, like the Palestinian state endorsed by Prime Minister Netanyahu?
Can it be that Israel is declining because its Government's agenda is not a Jewish agenda?
Can it be that Israel's Government has shirked its world-historical responsibility, to enlighten mankind by comporting itself as a Torah nation in which Equality dwells with Excellence, Freedom with Virtue, Wealth with Beauty, the here and now with love of the Eternal?
Can it be that Israel is going downhill because its Government has forsaken the Torah which endows not only Jews but also Christians with dignity, self-confidence, and fortitude? Can it be that the Government's abandonment of the God of Israel is the ultimate reason why Europe has given up on Christianity and is succumbing to Islam? This is thinking outside the Cave.
And yet, any well-educated Christian knows that Christianity stands on the foundations of the Torah. Any well-educated Christian knows that the "Higher Law" doctrine of the American Declaration of Independence is rooted in the Bible of Israel. Any well-educated Christian will agree with the eighteenth-century divine, Yale President Ezra Stiles, who, along with Harvard President Samuel Langdon, recognized that the American Constitution was ultimately based on the Ten Commandments. Can one say this of the modern state of Israel?
Were not some of the founders of this state Marxists or atheists? Did it ever occur to the architects of this state that its paramount purpose is to reveal the infinite wisdom, power, and graciousness of God in every domain of existence? But if Israel shirks this sacred duty, is it not contributing to the irrationality that has gained ascendancy in postmodern Western civilization?
Contrast Nietzsche, who said: "Wherever the Jews have attained to influence, they have taught to analyze more subtly, to argue more acutely, to write more clearly and purely: it has always been their problem to bring people to 'raison.'" Is not Judaism called the "religion of reason"?
The rationality for which Jews are famous has its origin in the Torah, where reason is linked to ethical monotheism. The Torah, elaborated in the Talmud and codified by intellectual giants like Maimonides, habituated Jews to rational debate and deliberation in public affairs, which fructified the thinking of many judiciaries and parliaments.
Therefore, if Israel forsakes the Torah, which infused reason in the laws governing the social and economic relations of mankind, what is one to expect of the behavior of nations? Will they not succumb to nihilism?
I marvel at America, the Judeo-Christian nation par excellence, which has repeatedly saved Europe from tyranny and which alone can save mankind from Islamic imperialism. How could such a nation elect as its president a Muslim whose agenda is anti-American, hence contrary to Judeo-Christian civilization?
But what are we to expect of America when Israel doesn't have a Jewish agenda, indeed, whose elites have sacrificed their intellects to the shadows of the Cave cast by the fabricators and followers of Oslo's fictitious and fatal peace process?
Israel, the staggering superpower of the Middle East, cannot even surmount paltry terrorist groups like Hamas and the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority! And so vile nations tainted by Jew-hatred enter the imbroglio in support of Muslim thugs and murderers! How did this happen? Is Israel's Government responsible for this grotesque state of affairs?
I hesitate to engage in recrimination at this precarious juncture; but if Israel remains in the Cave, it will never see the light.
Part II: The Cave Dwellers
What are we to think of the Rabin Government that allowed Yasser Arafat, the godfather of international terrorism, to establish a base in Israel? This is the same government that erased the words "Judaism" and "Eretz Israel" from the Soldiers Code of Ethics.
What are we to think of Rabin's Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, the mastermind of Oslo who applied for Israel's membership in the Arab League? And what shall be said of the MKs that elected this genius Israel's President?
What are we to think of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who, in addressing a joint session of the American Congress in 1996, said there is no clash of civilizations in the Middle East? This is the Netanyahu who, as a member of the Sharon Government, voted for the expulsion of 10,000 Jews from their homes in Gaza and Northern Samaria—the same Netanyahu who, without any authority, endorsed an Arab state in the homeland of the Jewish people.
What are we to think of former Prime Minister Ehud Barak—now Israel's Defense Minister—who once said that had he been born an Arab, he too would be a terrorist?
What are we to think of former Prime Minister Sharon who said that his son Omri—mind you his son—had taught him not to think in terms of black and white—this, while Allah's homicide bombers were reducing Jewish men, woman, and children to body parts?
What are we to think of Ehud Olmert, who told a New York audience in June 2005: "We are tired of fighting, we are tired of being courageous, we are tired of winning, we are tired of defeating our enemies." The following year the Vinograd Commission reported on Israel's defeat in its Second War in Lebanon, for which it blamed the ineptitude of the Olmert Government but failed to reveal a basic cause of that ineptitude: Israel's irrational system of multiparty cabinet Government which made Amir Peretz Israel's bungling Defense Minister.
The same system obscured the responsibility of the political echelon in Israel's failure to pre-empt in the Yom Kippur War—a fact the Agranat Commission of inquiry ignored. We can expect more of the same in the investigation of the Government's mishandling of the "Free Gaza Flotilla"—for which many fault Ehud Barak but obscure the system of multiparty cabinet government that made this flawed character Israel's Defense Minister.
Conclusion
During the past two decades, Oslovian cave dwellers have been at the helm in Israel. They remained or remain in office even though their policies terminated or tormented the lives of thousands of Jews. Yes, but even their critics say nothing of an obvious cause of this suffering: Israel's irrational as well as corrupt system of government. So Israel limps along from disaster to another, and one cannot but wonder whether Jews will have the opportunity to leave the Cave and establish a rational form of government inspired by a Jewish agenda
Journalists necessarily focus on daily or transient political events. I try to understand the unseen meta-political causes of these events. Hence I invite people to think outside of what Plato called the "Cave."
(1) Ask any pundit why the world is so focused on Israel and most will blame Israel's handling or mishandling of the "Palestinian problem"—today the "Free Gaza Flotilla."
(2) Ask Israeli pundits why so many nations support Hamastan in Gaza, a terropolis, vis-à-vis Israel, and a large majority will point to "anti-Semitism."
Apropos of the Flotilla fiasco, one pundit said Israel's Government lacks a strategy. "The first rule of strategy," says this pundit, "is to keep your opponent busy attending to your agenda so he has no time to advance his own." Okay, but what is Israel's agenda?
I've been studying Israeli governments for more than three decades, and regardless of which party or party coalition is at the helm, its agenda is preoccupied with the Arab-cum-security problem. It seems to me that this fixation is a quasi-paranoid manifestation of a cave mentality.
I contend that the world is down on Israel because its Government, by focusing on the Arab problem, ignores what is far more fundamental—the Jewish problem. Cave dwellers can't deal with this problem. It demands thinking outside the Cave.
Put another way: Although Israel's Declaration of Independence refers to Israel as a Jewish state, Israel's ruling elites don't even know what is a "Jewish state"! None has formulated, in terms comprehensible to the average citizen, the ends, the institutional means, and the foreign policy appropriate to a Jewish state ensconced in the hostile environment of the Middle East. More important, none has set forth the kind of public education required to enlighten Israelis and toughen them vis-a-vis their genocidal enemies.
Perhaps this compounded failing is the esoteric reason why the world is down on Israel? After all, if Israel is supposed to be a light unto the nations, how can it fulfill this function if Israel's Government doesn't know what a Jewish state is? This ignorance, however, is inevitable because the term "Jewish state" is an oxymoron!
The world believes that the "state" makes and enforces the laws of a nation, which laws are of supreme authority. This contradicts Judaism, which posits the Torah as Israel's Supreme Law. The state is nothing more than the custodian of that Law. The Torah Jew regards the idea of the sovereign state—an idea advanced by Machiavelli—as idolatry, akin to paganism. A world of sovereign states unconstrained by Divine Law is equivalent to polytheism as opposed to ethical monotheism.
Strange as it may seem, the laws enacted by Israel's Government tacitly conform to Machiavelli's idea of the sovereign state, in consequence of which Israel cannot possibly be a light unto the nations! Perhaps this is the unknown reason why many nations question Israel's legitimacy as a sovereign state, an attitude pundits will attribute to anti-Semitism—a correct but superficial conclusion. It never occurs to them that this anti-Semitism may be the effect of a hidden cause, namely, that Israel today is unworthy of its Jewish reputation!
Can it be that the world is down on Israel because its posing as a Jewish state is factitious, like the Palestinian state endorsed by Prime Minister Netanyahu?
Can it be that Israel is declining because its Government's agenda is not a Jewish agenda?
Can it be that Israel's Government has shirked its world-historical responsibility, to enlighten mankind by comporting itself as a Torah nation in which Equality dwells with Excellence, Freedom with Virtue, Wealth with Beauty, the here and now with love of the Eternal?
Can it be that Israel is going downhill because its Government has forsaken the Torah which endows not only Jews but also Christians with dignity, self-confidence, and fortitude? Can it be that the Government's abandonment of the God of Israel is the ultimate reason why Europe has given up on Christianity and is succumbing to Islam? This is thinking outside the Cave.
And yet, any well-educated Christian knows that Christianity stands on the foundations of the Torah. Any well-educated Christian knows that the "Higher Law" doctrine of the American Declaration of Independence is rooted in the Bible of Israel. Any well-educated Christian will agree with the eighteenth-century divine, Yale President Ezra Stiles, who, along with Harvard President Samuel Langdon, recognized that the American Constitution was ultimately based on the Ten Commandments. Can one say this of the modern state of Israel?
Were not some of the founders of this state Marxists or atheists? Did it ever occur to the architects of this state that its paramount purpose is to reveal the infinite wisdom, power, and graciousness of God in every domain of existence? But if Israel shirks this sacred duty, is it not contributing to the irrationality that has gained ascendancy in postmodern Western civilization?
Contrast Nietzsche, who said: "Wherever the Jews have attained to influence, they have taught to analyze more subtly, to argue more acutely, to write more clearly and purely: it has always been their problem to bring people to 'raison.'" Is not Judaism called the "religion of reason"?
The rationality for which Jews are famous has its origin in the Torah, where reason is linked to ethical monotheism. The Torah, elaborated in the Talmud and codified by intellectual giants like Maimonides, habituated Jews to rational debate and deliberation in public affairs, which fructified the thinking of many judiciaries and parliaments.
Therefore, if Israel forsakes the Torah, which infused reason in the laws governing the social and economic relations of mankind, what is one to expect of the behavior of nations? Will they not succumb to nihilism?
I marvel at America, the Judeo-Christian nation par excellence, which has repeatedly saved Europe from tyranny and which alone can save mankind from Islamic imperialism. How could such a nation elect as its president a Muslim whose agenda is anti-American, hence contrary to Judeo-Christian civilization?
But what are we to expect of America when Israel doesn't have a Jewish agenda, indeed, whose elites have sacrificed their intellects to the shadows of the Cave cast by the fabricators and followers of Oslo's fictitious and fatal peace process?
Israel, the staggering superpower of the Middle East, cannot even surmount paltry terrorist groups like Hamas and the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority! And so vile nations tainted by Jew-hatred enter the imbroglio in support of Muslim thugs and murderers! How did this happen? Is Israel's Government responsible for this grotesque state of affairs?
I hesitate to engage in recrimination at this precarious juncture; but if Israel remains in the Cave, it will never see the light.
Part II: The Cave Dwellers
What are we to think of the Rabin Government that allowed Yasser Arafat, the godfather of international terrorism, to establish a base in Israel? This is the same government that erased the words "Judaism" and "Eretz Israel" from the Soldiers Code of Ethics.
What are we to think of Rabin's Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, the mastermind of Oslo who applied for Israel's membership in the Arab League? And what shall be said of the MKs that elected this genius Israel's President?
What are we to think of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who, in addressing a joint session of the American Congress in 1996, said there is no clash of civilizations in the Middle East? This is the Netanyahu who, as a member of the Sharon Government, voted for the expulsion of 10,000 Jews from their homes in Gaza and Northern Samaria—the same Netanyahu who, without any authority, endorsed an Arab state in the homeland of the Jewish people.
What are we to think of former Prime Minister Ehud Barak—now Israel's Defense Minister—who once said that had he been born an Arab, he too would be a terrorist?
What are we to think of former Prime Minister Sharon who said that his son Omri—mind you his son—had taught him not to think in terms of black and white—this, while Allah's homicide bombers were reducing Jewish men, woman, and children to body parts?
What are we to think of Ehud Olmert, who told a New York audience in June 2005: "We are tired of fighting, we are tired of being courageous, we are tired of winning, we are tired of defeating our enemies." The following year the Vinograd Commission reported on Israel's defeat in its Second War in Lebanon, for which it blamed the ineptitude of the Olmert Government but failed to reveal a basic cause of that ineptitude: Israel's irrational system of multiparty cabinet Government which made Amir Peretz Israel's bungling Defense Minister.
The same system obscured the responsibility of the political echelon in Israel's failure to pre-empt in the Yom Kippur War—a fact the Agranat Commission of inquiry ignored. We can expect more of the same in the investigation of the Government's mishandling of the "Free Gaza Flotilla"—for which many fault Ehud Barak but obscure the system of multiparty cabinet government that made this flawed character Israel's Defense Minister.
Conclusion
During the past two decades, Oslovian cave dwellers have been at the helm in Israel. They remained or remain in office even though their policies terminated or tormented the lives of thousands of Jews. Yes, but even their critics say nothing of an obvious cause of this suffering: Israel's irrational as well as corrupt system of government. So Israel limps along from disaster to another, and one cannot but wonder whether Jews will have the opportunity to leave the Cave and establish a rational form of government inspired by a Jewish agenda
June 16, 2010
The new American Jews - Yisrael Wolman
According to emissaries, leaders, and researchers in the US, the stereotypical image of the American Jew who attributes mystical-religious meaning to Israel, is deeply affected by the Shoah, and is heart-warmed by the sight of a Jewish soldier is departing from this world. Age is doing its thing. The younger generation – those in their 30s and 40s – and especially for its leaders, finds this image ridiculous.
Young Jewish Americans today are free of their parents’ and grandparents’ primeval fear of the “gentile” environment, great caution, and of course, of the axioms regarding the State of Israel as a substitute for religion, a home for the Jews, or a doomsday shelter. Israel will protect them? Don’t make them laugh. There are young Jewish communities in the US who no longer celebrate Israel’s Independence Day, while others are embroiled in great debate about this.
This trend cuts across sectors – it is true for “Jews” of all types (and there are quite a few of those across the US) and is also afflicting modern Orthodoxy, which in the past was considered relatively immune.
Make no mistake about it: The New American Jews do not turn their backs to their Jewish roots. The opposite is true – they are proud of it and show it off. Not only do they have no problem with life in Diaspora, they celebrate it big time. However, their Judaism is mostly being linked to cultural aspects: Music, food, literature, mysticism, and religious ritual.
The Internet and Facebook generation is also the generation of globalization – we live in a world that includes many shades, they say, and everyone has its honorable place. Our unique “shade” is poetic: The Shtetl and Phillip Roth and Kabala and Gefilte Fish, yet most of all it’s our universal aspiration for social justice and for Tikkun Olam. Israel is integrated into this, yet as a source for liberating and scathing criticism regarding the “situation” in the territories, the absence of cultural pluralism, and so on.
Uncle Rahm
Absurdly enough, the successful Taglit project (which enables any Diaspora Jew to visit Israel conveniently) played a key role in facilitating the above-mentioned developments. Their stay here indeed connects the Americans to their Judaism, but also grants legitimacy to a critical approach: We all live in an open world after all, no? So why don’t we talk about everything openly?
The aging Jewish leadership in the US, which is horrified by the polls about ongoing assimilation and low birthrates among Jews, has increasing turned its attention inward during the past decade. It invests most of its energy at home, in a bid to boost the Jewish component. Meanwhile, organizations such as J Street show that, as opposed to what sociologists thought in the past, success in this area does not simultaneously guarantee blind solidarity with Israel.
The tragedy here is that all of this is of no interest to the average Israeli. Tens of thousands of Israelis fly to America every year to hang out at Times Square, gamble in Las Vegas, or have fun at Disney World. How many of them visit even one Jewish institution there? How many met American Jews in their age group?
Israel’s citizens had been pampered for many years by the warm hug of Uncle Jack from America. He was always perceived as having deep pockets, a kind and merciful heart, and tearful eyes, but also – just between us - as a friendly fool. Well, take note: The uncle has been replaced. Today he may be called Rahm Emanuel.
Young Jewish Americans today are free of their parents’ and grandparents’ primeval fear of the “gentile” environment, great caution, and of course, of the axioms regarding the State of Israel as a substitute for religion, a home for the Jews, or a doomsday shelter. Israel will protect them? Don’t make them laugh. There are young Jewish communities in the US who no longer celebrate Israel’s Independence Day, while others are embroiled in great debate about this.
This trend cuts across sectors – it is true for “Jews” of all types (and there are quite a few of those across the US) and is also afflicting modern Orthodoxy, which in the past was considered relatively immune.
Make no mistake about it: The New American Jews do not turn their backs to their Jewish roots. The opposite is true – they are proud of it and show it off. Not only do they have no problem with life in Diaspora, they celebrate it big time. However, their Judaism is mostly being linked to cultural aspects: Music, food, literature, mysticism, and religious ritual.
The Internet and Facebook generation is also the generation of globalization – we live in a world that includes many shades, they say, and everyone has its honorable place. Our unique “shade” is poetic: The Shtetl and Phillip Roth and Kabala and Gefilte Fish, yet most of all it’s our universal aspiration for social justice and for Tikkun Olam. Israel is integrated into this, yet as a source for liberating and scathing criticism regarding the “situation” in the territories, the absence of cultural pluralism, and so on.
Uncle Rahm
Absurdly enough, the successful Taglit project (which enables any Diaspora Jew to visit Israel conveniently) played a key role in facilitating the above-mentioned developments. Their stay here indeed connects the Americans to their Judaism, but also grants legitimacy to a critical approach: We all live in an open world after all, no? So why don’t we talk about everything openly?
The aging Jewish leadership in the US, which is horrified by the polls about ongoing assimilation and low birthrates among Jews, has increasing turned its attention inward during the past decade. It invests most of its energy at home, in a bid to boost the Jewish component. Meanwhile, organizations such as J Street show that, as opposed to what sociologists thought in the past, success in this area does not simultaneously guarantee blind solidarity with Israel.
The tragedy here is that all of this is of no interest to the average Israeli. Tens of thousands of Israelis fly to America every year to hang out at Times Square, gamble in Las Vegas, or have fun at Disney World. How many of them visit even one Jewish institution there? How many met American Jews in their age group?
Israel’s citizens had been pampered for many years by the warm hug of Uncle Jack from America. He was always perceived as having deep pockets, a kind and merciful heart, and tearful eyes, but also – just between us - as a friendly fool. Well, take note: The uncle has been replaced. Today he may be called Rahm Emanuel.
Indifference and outrage - Ophir Falk
World indifferent to global atrocities but outraged by Jewish self-defense
During his millennium address to the White House a decade ago, Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel told a distinguished audience that the horrors of the 20th century were possible because of the world’s indifference to the suffering of the oppressed in Cambodia and Nigeria, India and Pakistan, Eritrea and Ethiopia, and on a different level, of course, Auschwitz and Treblinka. Murder was facilitated by indifference.
Indifference, he explained, can be “tempting and even seductive” but must be uprooted from human nature. Wiesel could not understand why President Roosevelt who, “was a good man, with a good heart”, refrained from “bombing the railways leading to Birkenau, just the railways, just once”. The cost of indifference was staggering.
Today, the world is indifferent to the ongoing atrocities in Darfur, to tyranny and torture of dissidents in Tehran, to starvation and AIDS in Africa and to the disregard for women’s human rights throughout most of the Islamic world.
The world, however, is no longer indifferent to the Jews – it is outraged by them! It is outraged Jews dare defend themselves. It was outraged when Begin bombed Saddam’s reactor in 1981. It is now outraged that Israel, that bothersome bully in the Middle East (or as Krauthammer of the Washington Post puts it “Those troublesome Jews”), dared kill nine radical Islamists on board a vessel of villains to Gaza.
They are outraged again, just like when Israel acted in self defense after more than 8,000 rockets were launched from Gaza at its citizens between 2005 and 2008. The outrage has led the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council, composed of such Human Rights giants as Pakistan, Cuba and Saudi Arabia, to once again demand “an independent international fact-finding mission.”
Israel can only count on itself
The press too has once again gone overboard. With a blatant discount for facts, The Economist reported Israel “resorts to violence too readily” and put a picture of Benjamin Netanyahu behind barbed wires on the cover of its weekly magazine. A New York Times editorial stated that same week that, "Turkey is understandably furious about Israel's disastrous attack on the Turkish aid ship.” And of course, Reuters, the home of dishonest journalists, was caught doctoring photographs that incriminated a knife-wielding “peace activist”, replacing it with a picture of a passenger providing care to a wounded IDF soldier.
Double standards are also applied by Israel’s closest allies. President Obama insists that Israel allow an international inquiry to inspect its actions, yet he has dismissed any form of criticism or inquiry of his targeted killing - drone war policy that has directly caused the death of hundreds of civilians in Pakistan and Afghanistan since he took office.
Whether its indifference or outrage – one thing is clear. When it comes to vital security interests, Israel can count solely on itself. A case in point is nuclear Iran.
In this context, President Obama may ultimately be remembered as “a good man, with a good heart,” and his efforts to impose important yet unenforceable sanctions on Ahmadinejad’s regime may attest to that. However, these are not the “crippling sanctions” needed or promised and it is still a mystery whether he views a nuclear Iran as an existential threat to anyone, other than perhaps Israel.
A soft setting for his indifference. He won’t bomb those plants, not even one of them.
Israel’s security is in its own hands. Therefore, today perhaps more than ever, Netanyahu’s overarching task is to guarantee that the fate of Israel’s six million Jews will differ from that of those who lived in Europe during the darkest days of humanity. We should all be indifferent to the hypocritical outrage over Israel’s just actions.
During his millennium address to the White House a decade ago, Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel told a distinguished audience that the horrors of the 20th century were possible because of the world’s indifference to the suffering of the oppressed in Cambodia and Nigeria, India and Pakistan, Eritrea and Ethiopia, and on a different level, of course, Auschwitz and Treblinka. Murder was facilitated by indifference.
Indifference, he explained, can be “tempting and even seductive” but must be uprooted from human nature. Wiesel could not understand why President Roosevelt who, “was a good man, with a good heart”, refrained from “bombing the railways leading to Birkenau, just the railways, just once”. The cost of indifference was staggering.
Today, the world is indifferent to the ongoing atrocities in Darfur, to tyranny and torture of dissidents in Tehran, to starvation and AIDS in Africa and to the disregard for women’s human rights throughout most of the Islamic world.
The world, however, is no longer indifferent to the Jews – it is outraged by them! It is outraged Jews dare defend themselves. It was outraged when Begin bombed Saddam’s reactor in 1981. It is now outraged that Israel, that bothersome bully in the Middle East (or as Krauthammer of the Washington Post puts it “Those troublesome Jews”), dared kill nine radical Islamists on board a vessel of villains to Gaza.
They are outraged again, just like when Israel acted in self defense after more than 8,000 rockets were launched from Gaza at its citizens between 2005 and 2008. The outrage has led the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council, composed of such Human Rights giants as Pakistan, Cuba and Saudi Arabia, to once again demand “an independent international fact-finding mission.”
Israel can only count on itself
The press too has once again gone overboard. With a blatant discount for facts, The Economist reported Israel “resorts to violence too readily” and put a picture of Benjamin Netanyahu behind barbed wires on the cover of its weekly magazine. A New York Times editorial stated that same week that, "Turkey is understandably furious about Israel's disastrous attack on the Turkish aid ship.” And of course, Reuters, the home of dishonest journalists, was caught doctoring photographs that incriminated a knife-wielding “peace activist”, replacing it with a picture of a passenger providing care to a wounded IDF soldier.
Double standards are also applied by Israel’s closest allies. President Obama insists that Israel allow an international inquiry to inspect its actions, yet he has dismissed any form of criticism or inquiry of his targeted killing - drone war policy that has directly caused the death of hundreds of civilians in Pakistan and Afghanistan since he took office.
Whether its indifference or outrage – one thing is clear. When it comes to vital security interests, Israel can count solely on itself. A case in point is nuclear Iran.
In this context, President Obama may ultimately be remembered as “a good man, with a good heart,” and his efforts to impose important yet unenforceable sanctions on Ahmadinejad’s regime may attest to that. However, these are not the “crippling sanctions” needed or promised and it is still a mystery whether he views a nuclear Iran as an existential threat to anyone, other than perhaps Israel.
A soft setting for his indifference. He won’t bomb those plants, not even one of them.
Israel’s security is in its own hands. Therefore, today perhaps more than ever, Netanyahu’s overarching task is to guarantee that the fate of Israel’s six million Jews will differ from that of those who lived in Europe during the darkest days of humanity. We should all be indifferent to the hypocritical outrage over Israel’s just actions.
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