September 29, 2010
Bibi's Speech at the UN General Assembly
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Nearly 62 years ago, the United Nations recognized the right of the Jews, an ancient people 3,500 years-old, to a state of their own in their ancestral homeland.
I stand here today as the Prime Minister of Israel, the Jewish state, and I speak to you on behalf of my country and my people.
The United Nations was founded after the carnage of World War II and the horrors of the Holocaust. It was charged with preventing the recurrence of such horrendous events.
Nothing has undermined that central mission more than the systematic assault on the truth. Yesterday the President of Iran stood at this very podium, spewing his latest anti-Semitic rants. Just a few days earlier, he again claimed that the Holocaust is a lie.
Last month, I went to a villa in a suburb of Berlin called Wannsee. There, on January 20, 1942 , after a hearty meal, senior Nazi officials met and decided how to exterminate the Jewish people. The detailed minutes of that meeting have been preserved by successive German governments. Here is a copy of those minutes, in which the Nazis issued precise instructions on how to carry out the extermination of the Jews. Is this a lie?
A day before I was in Wannsee, I was given in Berlin the original construction plans for the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Those plans are signed by Hitler's deputy, Heinrich Himmler himself. Here is a copy of the plans for Auschwitz-Birkenau, where one million Jews were murdered. Is this too a lie?
This June, President Obama visited the Buchenwald concentration camp. Did President Obama pay tribute to a lie?
And what of the Auschwitz survivors whose arms still bear the tattooed numbers branded on them by the Nazis? Are those tattoos a lie? One-third of all Jews perished in the conflagration. Nearly every Jewish family was affected, including my own. My wife's grandparents, her father's two sisters and three brothers, and all the aunts, uncles and cousins were all murdered by the Nazis. Is that also a lie?
Yesterday, the man who calls the Holocaust a lie spoke from this podium. To those who refused to come here and to those who left this room in protest, I commend you. You stood up for moral clarity and you brought honor to your countries.
But to those who gave this Holocaust-denier a hearing, I say on behalf of my people, the Jewish people, and decent people everywhere: Have you no shame? Have you no decency?
A mere six decades after the Holocaust, you give legitimacy to a man who denies that the murder of six million Jews took place and pledges to wipe out the Jewish state.
What a disgrace! What a mockery of the charter of the United Nations! Perhaps some of you think that this man and his odious regime threaten only the Jews. You're wrong.
History has shown us time and again that what starts with attacks on the Jews eventually ends up engulfing many others.
This Iranian regime is fueled by an extreme fundamentalism that burst onto the world scene three decades ago after lying dormant for centuries. In the past thirty years, this fanaticism has swept the globe with a murderous violence and cold-blooded impartiality in its choice of victims. It has callously slaughtered Muslims and Christians, Jews and Hindus, and many others. Though it is comprised of different offshoots, the adherents of this unforgiving creed seek to return humanity to medieval times.
Wherever they can, they impose a backward regimented society where women, minorities, gays or anyone not deemed to be a true believer is brutally subjugated. The struggle against this fanaticism does not pit faith against faith nor civilization against civilization.
It pits civilization against barbarism, the 21st century against the 9th century, those who sanctify life against those who glorify death.
The primitivism of the 9th century ought to be no match for the progress of the 21st century. The allure of freedom, the power of technology, the reach of communications should surely win the day. Ultimately, the past cannot triumph over the future. And the future offers all nations magnificent bounties of hope. The pace of progress is growing exponentially.
It took us centuries to get from the printing press to the telephone, decades to get from the telephone to the personal computer, and only a few years to get from the personal computer to the Internet.
What seemed impossible a few years ago is already outdated, and we can scarcely fathom the changes that are yet to come. We will crack the genetic code. We will cure the incurable. We will lengthen our lives. We will find a cheap alternative to fossil fuels and clean up the planet.
I am proud that my country Israel is at the forefront of these advances - by leading innovations in science and technology, medicine and biology, agriculture and water, energy and the environment. These innovations the world over offer humanity a sunlit future of unimagined promise.
But if the most primitive fanaticism can acquire the most deadly weapons, the march of history could be reversed for a time. And like the belated victory over the Nazis, the forces of progress and freedom will prevail only after an horrific toll of blood and fortune has been exacted from mankind. That is why the greatest threat facing the world today is the marriage between religious fanaticism and the weapons of mass destruction.
The most urgent challenge facing this body is to prevent the tyrants of Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Are the member states of the United Nations up to that challenge? Will the international community confront a despotism that terrorizes its own people as they bravely stand up for freedom?
Will it take action against the dictators who stole an election in broad daylight and gunned down Iranian protesters who died in the streets choking in their own blood? Will the international community thwart the world's most pernicious sponsors and practitioners of terrorism?
Above all, will the international community stop the terrorist regime of Iran from developing atomic weapons, thereby endangering the peace of the entire world?
The people of Iran are courageously standing up to this regime. People of goodwill around the world stand with them, as do the thousands who have been protesting outside this hall. Will the United Nations stand by their side?
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The jury is still out on the United Nations, and recent signs are not encouraging. Rather than condemning the terrorists and their Iranian patrons, some here have condemned their victims. That is exactly what a recent UN report on Gaza did, falsely equating the terrorists with those they targeted.
For eight long years, Hamas fired from Gaza thousands of missiles, mortars and rockets on nearby Israeli cities. Year after year, as these missiles were deliberately hurled at our civilians, not a single UN resolution was passed condemning those criminal attacks. We heard nothing - absolutely nothing - from the UN Human Rights Council, a misnamed institution if there ever was one.
In 2005, hoping to advance peace, Israel unilaterally withdrew from every inch of Gaza . It dismantled 21 settlements and uprooted over 8,000 Israelis. We didn't get peace. Instead we got an Iranian backed terror base fifty miles from Tel Aviv. Life in Israeli towns and cities next to Gaza became a nightmare. You see, the Hamas rocket attacks not only continued, they increased tenfold. Again, the UN was silent.
Finally, after eight years of this unremitting assault, Israel was finally forced to respond. But how should we have responded? Well, there is only one example in history of thousands of rockets being fired on a country's civilian population. It happened when the Nazis rocketed British cities during World War II. During that war, the allies leveled German cities, causing hundreds of thousands of casualties. Israel chose to respond differently. Faced with an enemy committing a double war crime of firing on civilians while hiding behind civilians - Israel sought to conduct surgical strikes against the rocket launchers.
That was no easy task because the terrorists were firing missiles from homes and schools, using mosques as weapons depots and ferreting explosives in ambulances. Israel , by contrast, tried to minimize casualties by urging Palestinian civilians to vacate the targeted areas.
We dropped countless fliers over their homes, sent thousands of text messages and called thousands of cell phones asking people to leave. Never has a country gone to such extraordinary lengths to remove the enemy's civilian population from harm's way.
Yet faced with such a clear case of aggressor and victim, who did the UN Human Rights Council decide to condemn? Israel . A democracy legitimately defending itself against terror is morally hanged, drawn and quartered, and given an unfair trial to boot.
By these twisted standards, the UN Human Rights Council would have dragged Roosevelt and Churchill to the dock as war criminals. What a perversion of truth. What a perversion of justice.
Delegates of the United Nations,
Will you accept this farce?
Because if you do, the United Nations would revert to its darkest days, when the worst violators of human rights sat in judgment against the law-abiding democracies, when Zionism was equated with racism and when an automatic majority could declare that the earth is flat.
If this body does not reject this report, it would send a message to terrorists everywhere: Terror pays; if you launch your attacks from densely populated areas, you will win immunity. And in condemning Israel , this body would also deal a mortal blow to peace. Here's why.
When Israel left Gaza , many hoped that the missile attacks would stop. Others believed that at the very least, Israel would have international legitimacy to exercise its right of self-defense. What legitimacy? What self-defense?
The same UN that cheered Israel as it left Gaza and promised to back our right of self-defense now accuses us -my people, my country - of war crimes? And for what? For acting responsibly in self-defense. What a travesty!
Israeljustly defended itself against terror. This biased and unjust report is a clear-cut test for all governments. Will you stand with Israel or will you stand with the terrorists?
We must know the answer to that question now. Now and not later. Because if Israel is again asked to take more risks for peace, we must know today that you will stand with us tomorrow. Only if we have the confidence that we can defend ourselves can we take further risks for peace.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
All of Israel wants peace.
Any time an Arab leader genuinely wanted peace with us, we made peace. We made peace with Egypt led by Anwar Sadat. We made peace with Jordan led by King Hussein. And if the Palestinians truly want peace, I and my government, and the people of Israel , will make peace. But we want a genuine peace, a defensible peace, a permanent peace. In 1947, this body voted to establish two states for two peoples - a Jewish state and an Arab state. The Jews accepted that resolution. The Arabs rejected it.
We ask the Palestinians to finally do what they have refused to do for 62 years: Say yes to a Jewish state. Just as we are asked to recognize a nation-state for the Palestinian people, the Palestinians must be asked to recognize the nation state of the Jewish people. The Jewish people are not foreign conquerors in the Land of Israel . This is the land of our forefathers.
Inscribed on the walls outside this building is the great Biblical vision of peace: "Nation shall not lift up sword against nation. They shall learn war no more." These words were spoken by the Jewish prophet Isaiah 2,800 years ago as he walked in my country, in my city, in the hills of Judea and in the streets of Jerusalem .
We are not strangers to this land. It is our homeland. As deeply connected as we are to this land, we recognize that the Palestinians also live there and want a home of their own. We want to live side by side with them, two free peoples living in peace, prosperity and dignity.
But we must have security. The Palestinians should have all the powers to govern themselves except those handful of powers that could endanger Israel .
That is why a Palestinian state must be effectively demilitarized. We don't want another Gaza , another Iranian backed terror base abutting Jerusalem and perched on the hills a few kilometers from Tel Aviv.
We want peace.
I believe such a peace can be achieved. But only if we roll back the forces of terror, led by Iran , that seek to destroy peace, eliminate Israel and overthrow the world order. The question facing the international community is whether it is prepared to confront those forces or accommodate them.
Over seventy years ago, Winston Churchill lamented what he called the "confirmed unteachability of mankind," the unfortunate habit of civilized societies to sleep until danger nearly overtakes them.
Churchill bemoaned what he called the "want of foresight, the unwillingness to act when action will be simple and effective, the lack of clear thinking, the confusion of counsel until emergency comes, until self-preservation strikes its jarring gong."
I speak here today in the hope that Churchill's assessment of the "unteachability of mankind" is for once proven wrong.
I speak here today in the hope that we can learn from history -- that we can prevent danger in time.
In the spirit of the timeless words spoken to Joshua over 3,000 years ago, let us be strong and of good courage. Let us confront this peril, secure our future and, God willing, forge an enduring peace for generations to come.
September 28, 2010
Cargo of armed UN mines sparks El Al security alert in Canada
Drama at Toronto airport over anonymous shipment of primed explosives - later revealed to be destined for the UN in Sinai.
By Yossi Melman Tags: Israel news An explosive cargo sparked a security alert at a Toronto airport on Sunday before it emerged that a consignment of deadly landmines was bound for United Nations troops in Sinai - and was not part of a terror plot.
The cargo was destined to reach the Multinational Force and Observers in the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt, and consisted mainly of training equipment.
But UN officials had apparently neglected to inform El Al, Israel's national carrier, about the transfer of the consignment copntaining military landmines, some of them primed to detonate, toToronto's Pearson International Airport,
The anonymous weapons shipment sparked a high alert and El Al refused to allow the containers aboard its Tel Aviv-bound plan, handing them to Canadian forces for examination.
El Al refused to comment directly on the incident, but in an official statement emphasized that all cargo carried by the company undergoes meticulous security checks.
No El Al flights were delayed as a result of the incident.
The cargo was destined to reach the Multinational Force and Observers in the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt, and consisted mainly of training equipment.
But UN officials had apparently neglected to inform El Al, Israel's national carrier, about the transfer of the consignment copntaining military landmines, some of them primed to detonate, toToronto's Pearson International Airport,
The anonymous weapons shipment sparked a high alert and El Al refused to allow the containers aboard its Tel Aviv-bound plan, handing them to Canadian forces for examination.
El Al refused to comment directly on the incident, but in an official statement emphasized that all cargo carried by the company undergoes meticulous security checks.
No El Al flights were delayed as a result of the incident.
Sermon of The Century
EHR KUMT
First Day of Rosh Hashanah 2010
Sermon delivered by Rabbi Schlomo Lewis of Atlanta
I thought long and I thought hard on whether to deliver the sermon I am
about to share. We all wish to bounce happily out of shul on the High
Holidays, filled with warm fuzzies, ready to gobble up our brisket, our
honey cakes and our kugel. We want to be shaken and stirred – but not too
much. We want to be guilt-schlepped – but not too much. We want to be
provoked but not too much. We want to be transformed but not too much.
I get it, but as a rabbi I have a compelling obligation, a responsibility
to
articulate what is in my heart and what I passionately believe must be said
and must be heard. And so, I am guided not by what is easy to say but by
what is painful to express. I am guided not by the frivolous but by the
serious. I am guided not by delicacy but by urgency.
We are at war. We are at war with an enemy as savage, as voracious, as
heartless as the Nazis but one wouldn’t know it from our behavior. During
WWII we didn’t refer to storm troopers as freedom fighters. We didn’t call
the Gestapo, militants. We didn’t see the attacks on our Merchant Marine
as acts by rogue sailors. We did not justify the Nazis rise to power as
our
fault. We did not grovel before the Nazis, thumping our hearts and
confessing to abusing and mistreating and humiliating the German people.
We
did not apologize for Dresden, nor for The Battle of the Bulge, nor for El
Alamein, nor for D-Day.
Evil – ultimate, irreconcilable, evil threatened us and Roosevelt and
Churchill had moral clarity and an exquisite understanding of what was at
stake. It was not just the Sudetenland, not just Tubruk, not just Vienna,
not just Casablanca. It was the entire planet. Read history and be
shocked
at how frighteningly close Hitler came to creating a Pax Germana on every
continent.
Not all Germans were Nazis – most were decent, most were revolted by the
Third Reich, most were good citizens hoisting a beer, earning a living and
tucking in their children at night. But, too many looked away, too many
cried out in lame defense – I didn’t know.” Too many were silent. Guilt
absolutely falls upon those who committed the atrocities, but
responsibility
and guilt falls upon those who did nothing as well. Fault was not just
with
the goose steppers but with those who pulled the curtains shut, said and
did
nothing.
In WWII we won because we got it. We understood who the enemy was and we
knew that the end had to be unconditional and absolute. We did not stumble
around worrying about offending the Nazis. We did not measure every word
so
as not to upset our foe. We built planes and tanks and battleships and
went
to war to win….. to rid the world of malevolence.
We are at war… yet too many stubbornly and foolishly don’t put the pieces
together and refuse to identify the evil doers. We are circumspect and
disgracefully politically correct.
Let me mince no words in saying that from Fort Hood to Bali, from Times
Square to London, from Madrid to Mumbai, from 9/11 to Gaza, the murderers,
the barbarians are radical Islamists.
To camouflage their identity is sedition. To excuse their deeds is
contemptible. To mask their intentions is unconscionable.
A few years ago I visited Lithuania on a Jewish genealogical tour. It was
a
stunning journey and a very personal, spiritual pilgrimage. When we
visited
Kovno we davened Maariv at the only remaining shul in the city. Before the
war there were thirty-seven shuls for 38,000 Jews. Now only one, a
shrinking, gray congregation. We made minyon for the handful of aged
worshippers in the Choral Synagogue, a once majestic, jewel in Kovno.
After my return home I visited Cherry Hill for Shabbos. At the oneg an
elderly family friend, Joe Magun, came over to me.
“Shalom,” he said. “Your abba told me you just came back from Lithuania.”
“Yes,” I replied. “It was quite a powerful experience.” “Did you visit
the
Choral Synagogue in Kovno? The one with the big arch in the courtyard?”
“Yes, I did. In fact, we helped them make minyon.” His eyes opened wide
in
joy at our shared memory. For a moment he gazed into the distance and
then,
he returned. “Shalom, I grew up only a few feet away from the arch. The
Choral Synagogue was where I davened as a child.”
He paused for a moment and once again was lost in the past. His smile
faded. Pain filled his wrinkled face. “I remember one Shabbos in 1938
when
Vladimir Jabotinsky came to the shul” (Jabotinsky was Menachim Begin’s
mentor – he was a fiery orator, an unflinching Zionist radical, whose
politics were to the far right.) Joe continued “When Jabotinsky came, he
delivered the drash on Shabbos morning and I can still hear his words
burning in my ears. He climbed up to the shtender, stared at us from the
bima, glared at us with eyes full of fire and cried out. ‘EHR KUMT. YIDN
FARLAWST AYER SHTETL – He’s coming. Jews abandon your city.’ ”
We thought we were safe in Lithuania from the Nazis, from Hitler. We had
lived there, thrived for a thousand years but Jabotinsky was right -- his
warning prophetic. We got out but most did not.”
We are not in Lithuania. It is not the 1930s. There is no Luftwaffe
overhead. No U-boats off the coast of long Island. No Panzer divisions on
our borders. But make no mistake; we are under attack – our values, our
tolerance, our freedom, our virtue, our land.
Now before some folks roll their eyes and glance at their watches let me
state emphatically, unmistakably – I have no pathology of hate, nor am I a
manic Paul Revere, galloping through the countryside. I am not a
pessimist,
nor prone to panic attacks. I am a lover of humanity, all humanity.
Whether they worship in a synagogue, a church, a mosque, a temple or don’t
worship at all. I have no bone of bigotry in my body, but what I do have
is
hatred for those who hate, intolerance for those who are intolerant, and a
guiltless, unstoppable obsession to see evil eradicated.
Today the enemy is radical Islam but it must be said sadly and reluctantly
that there are unwitting, co-conspirators who strengthen the hands of the
evil doers. Let me state that the overwhelming number of Muslims are good
Muslims, fine human beings who want nothing more than a Jeep Cherokee in
their driveway, a flat screen TV on their wall and a good education for
their children, but these good Muslims have an obligation to destiny, to
decency that thus far for the most part they have avoided. The Kulturkampf
is not only external but internal as well. The good Muslims must sponsor
rallies in Times Square, in Trafalgar Square, in the UN Plaza, on the
Champs
Elysee, in Mecca condemning terrorism, denouncing unequivocally the
slaughter of the innocent. Thus far, they have not. The good Muslims must
place ads in the NY Times. They must buy time on network TV, on cable
stations, in the Jerusalem Post, in Le Monde, in Al Watan, on Al Jazeena
condemning terrorism, denouncing unequivocally the slaughter of the
innocent
– thus far, they have not. Their silence allows the vicious to tarnish
Islam and define it.
Brutal acts of commission and yawning acts of omission both strengthen the
hand of the devil.
I recall a conversation with my father shortly before he died that helped
me
understand how perilous and how broken is our world; that we are living on
the narrow seam of civilization and moral oblivion. Knowing he had little
time left he shared the following – “Shal. I am ready to leave this earth.
Sure I’d like to live a little longer, see a few more sunrises, but
truthfully, I’ve had it. I’m done. Finished. I hope the Good Lord takes
me soon because I am unable to live in this world knowing what it has
become.”
This startling admission of moral exhaustion from a man who witnessed and
lived through the Depression, the Holocaust, WWII, Communist Triumphalism,
McCarthyism, Strontium 90 and polio. – Yet his twilight observation was –
“The worst is yet to come.” And he wanted out.
I share my father’s angst and fear that too many do not see the authentic,
existential threat we face nor confront the source of our peril. We must
wake up and smell the hookah.
“Lighten up, Lewis. Take a chill pill, some of you are quietly thinking.
You’re sounding like Glen Beck. It’s not that bad. It’s not that real.”
But I am here to tell you – “It is.” Ask the member of our shul whose
sister was vaporized in the Twin Towers and identified finally by her
charred teeth, if this is real or not. Ask the members of our shul who
fled
a bus in downtown Paris, fearing for their safety from a gang of Muslim
thugs, if this is an exaggeration. Ask the member of our shul whose son
tracks Arab terrorist infiltrators who target – pizza parlors, nursery
schools, Pesach seders, city buses and play grounds, if this is dramatic,
paranoid hyperbole.
Ask them, ask all of them – ask the American GI’s we sit next to on planes
who are here for a brief respite while we fly off on our Delta vacation
package. Ask them if it’s bad. Ask them if it’s real.
Did anyone imagine in the 1920’s what Europe would look like in the 1940’s.
Did anyone presume to know in the coffee houses of Berlin or in the opera
halls of Vienna that genocide would soon become the celebrated culture?
Did
anyone think that a goofy-looking painter named Shickelgruber would go from
the beer halls of Munich and jail, to the Reichstag as Feuhrer in less than
a decade? Did Jews pack their bags and leave Warsaw, Vilna, Athens, Paris,
Bialystok, Minsk, knowing that soon their new address would be Treblinka,
Sobibor, Dachau and Auschwitz?
The sages teach – “Aizehu chacham – haroeh et hanolad – Who is a wise
person
– he who sees into the future.” We dare not wallow in complacency, in a
misguided tolerance and naïve sense of security.
We must be diligent students of history and not sit in ash cloth at the
waters of Babylon weeping. We cannot be hypnotized by eloquent-sounding
rhetoric that soothes our heart but endangers our soul. We cannot be
lulled
into inaction for fear of offending the offenders. Radical Islam is the
scourge and this must be cried out from every mountain top. From sea to
shining sea, we must stand tall, prideful of our stunning decency and moral
resilience. Immediately after 9/11 how many mosques were destroyed in
America? None. After 9/11, how many Muslims were killed in America?
None. After 9/11, how many anti-Muslim rallies were held in America?
None. And yet, we apologize. We grovel. We beg forgiveness.
The mystifying litany of our foolishness continues. Should there be a shul
in Hebron on the site where Baruch Goldstein gunned down twenty-seven Arabs
at noonday prayers? Should there be a museum praising the U.S. Calvary on
the site of Wounded Knee? Should there be a German cultural center in
Auschwitz? Should a church be built in the Syrian town of Ma’arra where
Crusaders slaughtered over 100,000 Muslims? Should there be a thirteen
story mosque and Islamic Center only a few steps from Ground Zero?
Despite all the rhetoric, the essence of the matter can be distilled quite
easily. The Muslim community has the absolute, constitutional right to
build their building wherever they wish. I don’t buy the argument – “When
we can build a church or a synagogue in Mecca they can build a mosque
here.” America is greater than Saudi Arabia. And New York is greater than
Mecca. Democracy and freedom must prevail.
Can they build? Certainly. May they build? Certainly. But should they
build at that site? No -- but that decision must come from them, not from
us. Sensitivity, compassion cannot be measured in feet or yards or in
blocks. One either feels the pain of others and cares, or does not.
If those behind this project are good, peace-loving, sincere, tolerant
Muslims, as they claim, then they should know better, rip up the zoning
permits and build elsewhere.
Believe it or not, I am a dues-paying, card carrying member of the ACLU,
yet
from start of finish, I find this sorry episode disturbing to say the
least.
William Burroughs, the novelist and poet, in a wry moment wrote – “After
one
look at this planet, any visitor from outer space would say – “I want to
see
the manager.”
Let us understand that the radical Islamist assaults all over the globe are
but skirmishes, fire fights, and vicious decoys. Christ and the
anti-Christ. Gog U’Magog. The Sons of Light and the Sons of Darkness; the
bloody collision between civilization and depravity is on the border
between
Lebanon and Israel. It is on the Gaza Coast and in the Judean Hills of the
West Bank. It is on the sandy beaches of Tel Aviv and on the cobblestoned
mall of Ben Yehuda Street. It is in the underground schools of Sderot and
on the bullet-proofed inner-city buses. It is in every school yard,
hospital, nursery, classroom, park, theater – in every place of innocence
and purity.
Israel is the laboratory – the test market. Every death, every explosion,
every grisly encounter is not a random, bloody orgy. It is a calculated,
strategic probe into the heart, guts and soul of the West.
In the Six Day War, Israel was the proxy of Western values and strategy
while the Arab alliance was the proxy of Eastern, Soviet values and
strategy. Today too, it is a confrontation of proxies, but the stakes are
greater than East Jerusalem and the West Bank. Israel in her struggle
represents the civilized world, while Hamas, Hezbollah, Al Queda, Iran,
Islamic Jihad, represent the world of psychopathic, loathesome evil.
As Israel, imperfect as she is, resists the onslaught, many in the Western
World have lost their way displaying not admiration, not sympathy, not
understanding, for Israel’s galling plight, but downright hostility and
contempt. Without moral clarity, we are doomed because Israel’s galling
plight ultimately will be ours. Hanna Arendt in her classic Origins of
Totalitarianism accurately portrays the first target of tyranny as the Jew.
We are the trial balloon. The canary in the coal mine. If the Jew/Israel
is permitted to bleed with nary a protest from “good guys” then tyranny
snickers and pushes forward with its agenda.
Moral confusion is a deadly weakness and it has reached epic proportions in
the West; from the Oval Office to the UN, from the BBC to Reuters to MSNBC,
from the New York Times to Le Monde, from university campuses to British
teachers unions, from the International Red Cross to Amnesty International,
from Goldstone to Elvis Costello, from the Presbyterian Church to the
Archbishop of Canterbury.
There is a message sent and consequences when our president visits Turkey
and Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and not Israel.
There is a message sent and consequences when free speech on campus is only
for those championing Palestinian rights.
There is a message sent and consequences when the media deliberately
doctors
and edits film clips to demonize Israel.
There is a message sent and consequences when the UN blasts Israel
relentlessly, effectively ignoring Iran, Sudan, Venezuela, North Korea,
China and other noxious states.
There is a message sent and consequences when liberal churches are
motivated
by Liberation Theology, not historical accuracy.
There is a message sent and consequences when murderers and terrorists are
defended by the obscenely transparent “one man’s terrorist is another man’s
freedom fighter.”
John Milton warned, “Hypocrisy is the only evil that walks invisible.”
A few days after the Gaza blockade incident in the spring, a congregant
happened past my office, glanced in and asked in a friendly tone –
“Rabbi. How’re y’ doing?”
I looked up, sort of smiled and replied – “I’ve had better days.”
“What’s the matter? Is there anything I can do to cheer you up?” he
inquired.
“Thank you for the offer but I’m just bummed out today and I showed him a
newspaper article I was reading.
“Madrid gay pride parade bans Israeli group over Gaza Ship Raid.” I
explained to my visitor – “The Israeli gay pride contingent from Tel Aviv
was not allowed to participate in the Spanish gay pride parade because the
mayor of Tel Aviv did not apologize for the raid by the Israeli military.”
The only country in the entire Middle East where gay rights exist, is
Israel. The only country in the entire Middle East where there is a gay
pride parade, is Israel. The only country in the Middle East that has gay
neighborhoods and gay bars, is Israel.
Gays in the Gaza would be strung up, executed by Hamas if they came out and
yet Israel is vilified and ostracized. Disinvited to the parade.
Looking for logic?
Looking for reason?
Looking for sanity?
Kafka on his darkest, gloomiest day could not keep up with this bizarre
spectacle and we “useful idiots” pander and fawn over cutthroats, sinking
deeper and deeper into moral decay, as the enemy laughs all the way to the
West Bank and beyond.
It is exhausting and dispiriting. We live in an age that is redefining
righteousness where those with moral clarity are an endangered, beleaguered
specie.
Isaiah warned us thousands of years ago – “Oye Lehem Sheh-Korim Layome,
Laila v’Laila, yome – Woe to them who call the day, night and the night,
day.” We live on a planet that is both Chelm and Sodom. It is a
frightening and maddening place to be.
How do we convince the world and many of our own, that this is not just
anti-Semitism, that this is not just anti-Zionism but a full throttled
attack by unholy, radical Islamists on everything that is morally precious
to us?
How do we convince the world and many of our own that conciliation is not
an
option, that compromise is not a choice?
Everything we are. Everything we believe. Everything we treasure, is at
risk.
The threat is so unbelievably clear and the enemy so unbelievably ruthless
how anyone in their right mind doesn’t get it is baffling. Let’s try an
analogy. If someone contracted a life-threatening infection and we not
only
scolded them for using antibiotics but insisted that the bacteria had a
right to infect their body and that perhaps, if we gave the invading
infection an arm and a few toes, the bacteria would be satisfied and stop
spreading
Anyone buy that medical advice? Well, folks, that’s our approach to the
radical Islamist bacteria. It is amoral, has no conscience and will spread
unless it is eradicated. – There is no negotiating. Appeasement is death.
I was no great fan of George Bush – didn’t vote for him. (By the way, I’m
still a registered Democrat.) I disagreed with many of his policies but
one
thing he had right. His moral clarity was flawless when it came to the War
on Terror, the War on Radical Islamist Terror. There was no middle ground
–
either you were friend or foe. There was no place in Bush’s world for a
Switzerland. He knew that this competition was not Toyota against G.M.,
not
the Iphone against the Droid, not the Braves against the Phillies, but a
deadly serious war, winner take all. Blink and you lose. Underestimate,
and you get crushed.
I know that there are those sitting here today who have turned me off. But
I also know that many turned off their rabbis seventy five years ago in
Warsaw, Riga, Berlin, Amsterdam, Cracow, Vilna. I get no satisfaction from
that knowledge, only a bitter sense that there is nothing new under the
sun.
Enough rhetoric – how about a little “show and tell?” A few weeks ago on
the cover of Time magazine was a horrific picture with a horrific story.
The photo was of an eighteen year old Afghani woman, Bibi Aisha, who fled
her abusive husband and his abusive family. Days later the Taliban found
her and dragged her to a mountain clearing where she was found guilty of
violating Sharia Law. Her punishment was immediate. She was pinned to the
ground by four men while her husband sliced off her ears, and then he cut
off her nose.
That is the enemy (show enlarged copy of magazine cover.)
If nothing else stirs us. If nothing else convinces us, let Bibi Aisha’s
mutilated face be the face of Islamic radicalism. Let her face shake up
even the most complacent and naïve among us. In the holy crusade against
this ultimate evil, pictures of Bibi Aisha’s disfigurement should be
displayed on billboards, along every highway from Route 66 to the Autobahn,
to the Transarabian Highway. Her picture should be posted on every lobby
wall from Tokyo to Stockholm to Rio. On every network, at every commercial
break, Bibi Aisha’s face should appear with the caption – “Radical Islamic
savages did this.” And underneath – “This ad was approved by Hamas, by
Hezbollah, by Taliban, by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, by Islamic
Jihad,
by Fatah al Islam, by Magar Nodal Hassan, by Richard Reid, by Ahmanijad, by
Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, by Osama bin Laden, by Edward Said, by The Muslim
Brotherhood, by Al Queda, by CAIR.”
“The moral sentiment is the drop that balances the sea” said Ralph Waldo
Emerson. Today, my friends, the sea is woefully out of balance and we
could
easily drown in our moral myopia and worship of political correctness.
We peer up into the heavens sending probes to distant galaxies. We peer
down
into quarks discovering particles that would astonish Einstein. We
create
computers that rival the mind, technologies that surpass science fiction.
What we imagine, with astounding rapidity, becomes real. If we dream it,
it
does, indeed, come. And yet, we are at a critical point in the history of
this planet that could send us back into the cave, to a culture that would
make the Neanderthal blush with shame.
Our parents and grandparents saw the swastika and recoiled, understood the
threat and destroyed the Nazis. We see the banner of Radical Islam and can
do no less.
A rabbi was once asked by his students….
“Rebbi. Why are your sermons so stern?” Replied the rabbi, “If a house is
on fire and we chose not to wake up our children, for fear of disturbing
their sleep, would that be love? Kinderlach, ‘di hoyz brent.’ Children
our
house is on fire and I must arouse you from your slumber.”
During WWII and the Holocaust was it business as usual for priests,
ministers, rabbis? Did they deliver benign homilies and lovely sermons as
Europe fell, as the Pacific fell, as North Africa fell, as the Mideast and
South America tottered, as England bled? Did they ignore the demonic
juggernaut and the foul breath of evil? They did not. There was clarity,
courage, vision, determination, sacrifice, and we were victorious. Today
it
must be our finest hour as well. We dare not retreat into the banality of
our routines, glance at headlines and presume that the good guys will
prevail.
Democracies don’t always win.
Tyrannies don’t always lose.
My friends – the world is on fire and we must awake from our slumber. “EHR
KUMT.”
First Day of Rosh Hashanah 2010
Sermon delivered by Rabbi Schlomo Lewis of Atlanta
I thought long and I thought hard on whether to deliver the sermon I am
about to share. We all wish to bounce happily out of shul on the High
Holidays, filled with warm fuzzies, ready to gobble up our brisket, our
honey cakes and our kugel. We want to be shaken and stirred – but not too
much. We want to be guilt-schlepped – but not too much. We want to be
provoked but not too much. We want to be transformed but not too much.
I get it, but as a rabbi I have a compelling obligation, a responsibility
to
articulate what is in my heart and what I passionately believe must be said
and must be heard. And so, I am guided not by what is easy to say but by
what is painful to express. I am guided not by the frivolous but by the
serious. I am guided not by delicacy but by urgency.
We are at war. We are at war with an enemy as savage, as voracious, as
heartless as the Nazis but one wouldn’t know it from our behavior. During
WWII we didn’t refer to storm troopers as freedom fighters. We didn’t call
the Gestapo, militants. We didn’t see the attacks on our Merchant Marine
as acts by rogue sailors. We did not justify the Nazis rise to power as
our
fault. We did not grovel before the Nazis, thumping our hearts and
confessing to abusing and mistreating and humiliating the German people.
We
did not apologize for Dresden, nor for The Battle of the Bulge, nor for El
Alamein, nor for D-Day.
Evil – ultimate, irreconcilable, evil threatened us and Roosevelt and
Churchill had moral clarity and an exquisite understanding of what was at
stake. It was not just the Sudetenland, not just Tubruk, not just Vienna,
not just Casablanca. It was the entire planet. Read history and be
shocked
at how frighteningly close Hitler came to creating a Pax Germana on every
continent.
Not all Germans were Nazis – most were decent, most were revolted by the
Third Reich, most were good citizens hoisting a beer, earning a living and
tucking in their children at night. But, too many looked away, too many
cried out in lame defense – I didn’t know.” Too many were silent. Guilt
absolutely falls upon those who committed the atrocities, but
responsibility
and guilt falls upon those who did nothing as well. Fault was not just
with
the goose steppers but with those who pulled the curtains shut, said and
did
nothing.
In WWII we won because we got it. We understood who the enemy was and we
knew that the end had to be unconditional and absolute. We did not stumble
around worrying about offending the Nazis. We did not measure every word
so
as not to upset our foe. We built planes and tanks and battleships and
went
to war to win….. to rid the world of malevolence.
We are at war… yet too many stubbornly and foolishly don’t put the pieces
together and refuse to identify the evil doers. We are circumspect and
disgracefully politically correct.
Let me mince no words in saying that from Fort Hood to Bali, from Times
Square to London, from Madrid to Mumbai, from 9/11 to Gaza, the murderers,
the barbarians are radical Islamists.
To camouflage their identity is sedition. To excuse their deeds is
contemptible. To mask their intentions is unconscionable.
A few years ago I visited Lithuania on a Jewish genealogical tour. It was
a
stunning journey and a very personal, spiritual pilgrimage. When we
visited
Kovno we davened Maariv at the only remaining shul in the city. Before the
war there were thirty-seven shuls for 38,000 Jews. Now only one, a
shrinking, gray congregation. We made minyon for the handful of aged
worshippers in the Choral Synagogue, a once majestic, jewel in Kovno.
After my return home I visited Cherry Hill for Shabbos. At the oneg an
elderly family friend, Joe Magun, came over to me.
“Shalom,” he said. “Your abba told me you just came back from Lithuania.”
“Yes,” I replied. “It was quite a powerful experience.” “Did you visit
the
Choral Synagogue in Kovno? The one with the big arch in the courtyard?”
“Yes, I did. In fact, we helped them make minyon.” His eyes opened wide
in
joy at our shared memory. For a moment he gazed into the distance and
then,
he returned. “Shalom, I grew up only a few feet away from the arch. The
Choral Synagogue was where I davened as a child.”
He paused for a moment and once again was lost in the past. His smile
faded. Pain filled his wrinkled face. “I remember one Shabbos in 1938
when
Vladimir Jabotinsky came to the shul” (Jabotinsky was Menachim Begin’s
mentor – he was a fiery orator, an unflinching Zionist radical, whose
politics were to the far right.) Joe continued “When Jabotinsky came, he
delivered the drash on Shabbos morning and I can still hear his words
burning in my ears. He climbed up to the shtender, stared at us from the
bima, glared at us with eyes full of fire and cried out. ‘EHR KUMT. YIDN
FARLAWST AYER SHTETL – He’s coming. Jews abandon your city.’ ”
We thought we were safe in Lithuania from the Nazis, from Hitler. We had
lived there, thrived for a thousand years but Jabotinsky was right -- his
warning prophetic. We got out but most did not.”
We are not in Lithuania. It is not the 1930s. There is no Luftwaffe
overhead. No U-boats off the coast of long Island. No Panzer divisions on
our borders. But make no mistake; we are under attack – our values, our
tolerance, our freedom, our virtue, our land.
Now before some folks roll their eyes and glance at their watches let me
state emphatically, unmistakably – I have no pathology of hate, nor am I a
manic Paul Revere, galloping through the countryside. I am not a
pessimist,
nor prone to panic attacks. I am a lover of humanity, all humanity.
Whether they worship in a synagogue, a church, a mosque, a temple or don’t
worship at all. I have no bone of bigotry in my body, but what I do have
is
hatred for those who hate, intolerance for those who are intolerant, and a
guiltless, unstoppable obsession to see evil eradicated.
Today the enemy is radical Islam but it must be said sadly and reluctantly
that there are unwitting, co-conspirators who strengthen the hands of the
evil doers. Let me state that the overwhelming number of Muslims are good
Muslims, fine human beings who want nothing more than a Jeep Cherokee in
their driveway, a flat screen TV on their wall and a good education for
their children, but these good Muslims have an obligation to destiny, to
decency that thus far for the most part they have avoided. The Kulturkampf
is not only external but internal as well. The good Muslims must sponsor
rallies in Times Square, in Trafalgar Square, in the UN Plaza, on the
Champs
Elysee, in Mecca condemning terrorism, denouncing unequivocally the
slaughter of the innocent. Thus far, they have not. The good Muslims must
place ads in the NY Times. They must buy time on network TV, on cable
stations, in the Jerusalem Post, in Le Monde, in Al Watan, on Al Jazeena
condemning terrorism, denouncing unequivocally the slaughter of the
innocent
– thus far, they have not. Their silence allows the vicious to tarnish
Islam and define it.
Brutal acts of commission and yawning acts of omission both strengthen the
hand of the devil.
I recall a conversation with my father shortly before he died that helped
me
understand how perilous and how broken is our world; that we are living on
the narrow seam of civilization and moral oblivion. Knowing he had little
time left he shared the following – “Shal. I am ready to leave this earth.
Sure I’d like to live a little longer, see a few more sunrises, but
truthfully, I’ve had it. I’m done. Finished. I hope the Good Lord takes
me soon because I am unable to live in this world knowing what it has
become.”
This startling admission of moral exhaustion from a man who witnessed and
lived through the Depression, the Holocaust, WWII, Communist Triumphalism,
McCarthyism, Strontium 90 and polio. – Yet his twilight observation was –
“The worst is yet to come.” And he wanted out.
I share my father’s angst and fear that too many do not see the authentic,
existential threat we face nor confront the source of our peril. We must
wake up and smell the hookah.
“Lighten up, Lewis. Take a chill pill, some of you are quietly thinking.
You’re sounding like Glen Beck. It’s not that bad. It’s not that real.”
But I am here to tell you – “It is.” Ask the member of our shul whose
sister was vaporized in the Twin Towers and identified finally by her
charred teeth, if this is real or not. Ask the members of our shul who
fled
a bus in downtown Paris, fearing for their safety from a gang of Muslim
thugs, if this is an exaggeration. Ask the member of our shul whose son
tracks Arab terrorist infiltrators who target – pizza parlors, nursery
schools, Pesach seders, city buses and play grounds, if this is dramatic,
paranoid hyperbole.
Ask them, ask all of them – ask the American GI’s we sit next to on planes
who are here for a brief respite while we fly off on our Delta vacation
package. Ask them if it’s bad. Ask them if it’s real.
Did anyone imagine in the 1920’s what Europe would look like in the 1940’s.
Did anyone presume to know in the coffee houses of Berlin or in the opera
halls of Vienna that genocide would soon become the celebrated culture?
Did
anyone think that a goofy-looking painter named Shickelgruber would go from
the beer halls of Munich and jail, to the Reichstag as Feuhrer in less than
a decade? Did Jews pack their bags and leave Warsaw, Vilna, Athens, Paris,
Bialystok, Minsk, knowing that soon their new address would be Treblinka,
Sobibor, Dachau and Auschwitz?
The sages teach – “Aizehu chacham – haroeh et hanolad – Who is a wise
person
– he who sees into the future.” We dare not wallow in complacency, in a
misguided tolerance and naïve sense of security.
We must be diligent students of history and not sit in ash cloth at the
waters of Babylon weeping. We cannot be hypnotized by eloquent-sounding
rhetoric that soothes our heart but endangers our soul. We cannot be
lulled
into inaction for fear of offending the offenders. Radical Islam is the
scourge and this must be cried out from every mountain top. From sea to
shining sea, we must stand tall, prideful of our stunning decency and moral
resilience. Immediately after 9/11 how many mosques were destroyed in
America? None. After 9/11, how many Muslims were killed in America?
None. After 9/11, how many anti-Muslim rallies were held in America?
None. And yet, we apologize. We grovel. We beg forgiveness.
The mystifying litany of our foolishness continues. Should there be a shul
in Hebron on the site where Baruch Goldstein gunned down twenty-seven Arabs
at noonday prayers? Should there be a museum praising the U.S. Calvary on
the site of Wounded Knee? Should there be a German cultural center in
Auschwitz? Should a church be built in the Syrian town of Ma’arra where
Crusaders slaughtered over 100,000 Muslims? Should there be a thirteen
story mosque and Islamic Center only a few steps from Ground Zero?
Despite all the rhetoric, the essence of the matter can be distilled quite
easily. The Muslim community has the absolute, constitutional right to
build their building wherever they wish. I don’t buy the argument – “When
we can build a church or a synagogue in Mecca they can build a mosque
here.” America is greater than Saudi Arabia. And New York is greater than
Mecca. Democracy and freedom must prevail.
Can they build? Certainly. May they build? Certainly. But should they
build at that site? No -- but that decision must come from them, not from
us. Sensitivity, compassion cannot be measured in feet or yards or in
blocks. One either feels the pain of others and cares, or does not.
If those behind this project are good, peace-loving, sincere, tolerant
Muslims, as they claim, then they should know better, rip up the zoning
permits and build elsewhere.
Believe it or not, I am a dues-paying, card carrying member of the ACLU,
yet
from start of finish, I find this sorry episode disturbing to say the
least.
William Burroughs, the novelist and poet, in a wry moment wrote – “After
one
look at this planet, any visitor from outer space would say – “I want to
see
the manager.”
Let us understand that the radical Islamist assaults all over the globe are
but skirmishes, fire fights, and vicious decoys. Christ and the
anti-Christ. Gog U’Magog. The Sons of Light and the Sons of Darkness; the
bloody collision between civilization and depravity is on the border
between
Lebanon and Israel. It is on the Gaza Coast and in the Judean Hills of the
West Bank. It is on the sandy beaches of Tel Aviv and on the cobblestoned
mall of Ben Yehuda Street. It is in the underground schools of Sderot and
on the bullet-proofed inner-city buses. It is in every school yard,
hospital, nursery, classroom, park, theater – in every place of innocence
and purity.
Israel is the laboratory – the test market. Every death, every explosion,
every grisly encounter is not a random, bloody orgy. It is a calculated,
strategic probe into the heart, guts and soul of the West.
In the Six Day War, Israel was the proxy of Western values and strategy
while the Arab alliance was the proxy of Eastern, Soviet values and
strategy. Today too, it is a confrontation of proxies, but the stakes are
greater than East Jerusalem and the West Bank. Israel in her struggle
represents the civilized world, while Hamas, Hezbollah, Al Queda, Iran,
Islamic Jihad, represent the world of psychopathic, loathesome evil.
As Israel, imperfect as she is, resists the onslaught, many in the Western
World have lost their way displaying not admiration, not sympathy, not
understanding, for Israel’s galling plight, but downright hostility and
contempt. Without moral clarity, we are doomed because Israel’s galling
plight ultimately will be ours. Hanna Arendt in her classic Origins of
Totalitarianism accurately portrays the first target of tyranny as the Jew.
We are the trial balloon. The canary in the coal mine. If the Jew/Israel
is permitted to bleed with nary a protest from “good guys” then tyranny
snickers and pushes forward with its agenda.
Moral confusion is a deadly weakness and it has reached epic proportions in
the West; from the Oval Office to the UN, from the BBC to Reuters to MSNBC,
from the New York Times to Le Monde, from university campuses to British
teachers unions, from the International Red Cross to Amnesty International,
from Goldstone to Elvis Costello, from the Presbyterian Church to the
Archbishop of Canterbury.
There is a message sent and consequences when our president visits Turkey
and Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and not Israel.
There is a message sent and consequences when free speech on campus is only
for those championing Palestinian rights.
There is a message sent and consequences when the media deliberately
doctors
and edits film clips to demonize Israel.
There is a message sent and consequences when the UN blasts Israel
relentlessly, effectively ignoring Iran, Sudan, Venezuela, North Korea,
China and other noxious states.
There is a message sent and consequences when liberal churches are
motivated
by Liberation Theology, not historical accuracy.
There is a message sent and consequences when murderers and terrorists are
defended by the obscenely transparent “one man’s terrorist is another man’s
freedom fighter.”
John Milton warned, “Hypocrisy is the only evil that walks invisible.”
A few days after the Gaza blockade incident in the spring, a congregant
happened past my office, glanced in and asked in a friendly tone –
“Rabbi. How’re y’ doing?”
I looked up, sort of smiled and replied – “I’ve had better days.”
“What’s the matter? Is there anything I can do to cheer you up?” he
inquired.
“Thank you for the offer but I’m just bummed out today and I showed him a
newspaper article I was reading.
“Madrid gay pride parade bans Israeli group over Gaza Ship Raid.” I
explained to my visitor – “The Israeli gay pride contingent from Tel Aviv
was not allowed to participate in the Spanish gay pride parade because the
mayor of Tel Aviv did not apologize for the raid by the Israeli military.”
The only country in the entire Middle East where gay rights exist, is
Israel. The only country in the entire Middle East where there is a gay
pride parade, is Israel. The only country in the Middle East that has gay
neighborhoods and gay bars, is Israel.
Gays in the Gaza would be strung up, executed by Hamas if they came out and
yet Israel is vilified and ostracized. Disinvited to the parade.
Looking for logic?
Looking for reason?
Looking for sanity?
Kafka on his darkest, gloomiest day could not keep up with this bizarre
spectacle and we “useful idiots” pander and fawn over cutthroats, sinking
deeper and deeper into moral decay, as the enemy laughs all the way to the
West Bank and beyond.
It is exhausting and dispiriting. We live in an age that is redefining
righteousness where those with moral clarity are an endangered, beleaguered
specie.
Isaiah warned us thousands of years ago – “Oye Lehem Sheh-Korim Layome,
Laila v’Laila, yome – Woe to them who call the day, night and the night,
day.” We live on a planet that is both Chelm and Sodom. It is a
frightening and maddening place to be.
How do we convince the world and many of our own, that this is not just
anti-Semitism, that this is not just anti-Zionism but a full throttled
attack by unholy, radical Islamists on everything that is morally precious
to us?
How do we convince the world and many of our own that conciliation is not
an
option, that compromise is not a choice?
Everything we are. Everything we believe. Everything we treasure, is at
risk.
The threat is so unbelievably clear and the enemy so unbelievably ruthless
how anyone in their right mind doesn’t get it is baffling. Let’s try an
analogy. If someone contracted a life-threatening infection and we not
only
scolded them for using antibiotics but insisted that the bacteria had a
right to infect their body and that perhaps, if we gave the invading
infection an arm and a few toes, the bacteria would be satisfied and stop
spreading
Anyone buy that medical advice? Well, folks, that’s our approach to the
radical Islamist bacteria. It is amoral, has no conscience and will spread
unless it is eradicated. – There is no negotiating. Appeasement is death.
I was no great fan of George Bush – didn’t vote for him. (By the way, I’m
still a registered Democrat.) I disagreed with many of his policies but
one
thing he had right. His moral clarity was flawless when it came to the War
on Terror, the War on Radical Islamist Terror. There was no middle ground
–
either you were friend or foe. There was no place in Bush’s world for a
Switzerland. He knew that this competition was not Toyota against G.M.,
not
the Iphone against the Droid, not the Braves against the Phillies, but a
deadly serious war, winner take all. Blink and you lose. Underestimate,
and you get crushed.
I know that there are those sitting here today who have turned me off. But
I also know that many turned off their rabbis seventy five years ago in
Warsaw, Riga, Berlin, Amsterdam, Cracow, Vilna. I get no satisfaction from
that knowledge, only a bitter sense that there is nothing new under the
sun.
Enough rhetoric – how about a little “show and tell?” A few weeks ago on
the cover of Time magazine was a horrific picture with a horrific story.
The photo was of an eighteen year old Afghani woman, Bibi Aisha, who fled
her abusive husband and his abusive family. Days later the Taliban found
her and dragged her to a mountain clearing where she was found guilty of
violating Sharia Law. Her punishment was immediate. She was pinned to the
ground by four men while her husband sliced off her ears, and then he cut
off her nose.
That is the enemy (show enlarged copy of magazine cover.)
If nothing else stirs us. If nothing else convinces us, let Bibi Aisha’s
mutilated face be the face of Islamic radicalism. Let her face shake up
even the most complacent and naïve among us. In the holy crusade against
this ultimate evil, pictures of Bibi Aisha’s disfigurement should be
displayed on billboards, along every highway from Route 66 to the Autobahn,
to the Transarabian Highway. Her picture should be posted on every lobby
wall from Tokyo to Stockholm to Rio. On every network, at every commercial
break, Bibi Aisha’s face should appear with the caption – “Radical Islamic
savages did this.” And underneath – “This ad was approved by Hamas, by
Hezbollah, by Taliban, by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, by Islamic
Jihad,
by Fatah al Islam, by Magar Nodal Hassan, by Richard Reid, by Ahmanijad, by
Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, by Osama bin Laden, by Edward Said, by The Muslim
Brotherhood, by Al Queda, by CAIR.”
“The moral sentiment is the drop that balances the sea” said Ralph Waldo
Emerson. Today, my friends, the sea is woefully out of balance and we
could
easily drown in our moral myopia and worship of political correctness.
We peer up into the heavens sending probes to distant galaxies. We peer
down
into quarks discovering particles that would astonish Einstein. We
create
computers that rival the mind, technologies that surpass science fiction.
What we imagine, with astounding rapidity, becomes real. If we dream it,
it
does, indeed, come. And yet, we are at a critical point in the history of
this planet that could send us back into the cave, to a culture that would
make the Neanderthal blush with shame.
Our parents and grandparents saw the swastika and recoiled, understood the
threat and destroyed the Nazis. We see the banner of Radical Islam and can
do no less.
A rabbi was once asked by his students….
“Rebbi. Why are your sermons so stern?” Replied the rabbi, “If a house is
on fire and we chose not to wake up our children, for fear of disturbing
their sleep, would that be love? Kinderlach, ‘di hoyz brent.’ Children
our
house is on fire and I must arouse you from your slumber.”
During WWII and the Holocaust was it business as usual for priests,
ministers, rabbis? Did they deliver benign homilies and lovely sermons as
Europe fell, as the Pacific fell, as North Africa fell, as the Mideast and
South America tottered, as England bled? Did they ignore the demonic
juggernaut and the foul breath of evil? They did not. There was clarity,
courage, vision, determination, sacrifice, and we were victorious. Today
it
must be our finest hour as well. We dare not retreat into the banality of
our routines, glance at headlines and presume that the good guys will
prevail.
Democracies don’t always win.
Tyrannies don’t always lose.
My friends – the world is on fire and we must awake from our slumber. “EHR
KUMT.”
September 26, 2010
Freeze....Defrosted!
The freeze is over!
Time to build and expel the horrible Arab Nazi Muslims!!!
Avi
Time to build and expel the horrible Arab Nazi Muslims!!!
Avi
Taqiyya
The practice of concealing one’s faith in dangerous circumstances originates in the Qur’an itself, which deems blameless those who disguise their beliefs in such cases. The practice of taqiyya in difficult circumstances is considered legitimate by Muslims of various persuasions. Sunni and Shi’i commentators alike observe that Q 16:106 in particular refers to the case of ‘Ammar b. Yasir, who was forced to renounce his beliefs under physical duress and torture.
Similarly, Q 3:28 enjoins believers not to take the company of doubters unless as a means of safeguarding themselves. “Let not the believers take those who deny the truth for their allies in preference to the believers – since he who does this cuts himself off from God in everything – unless it be to protect yourself against them in this way…” Regarding 3:28, Ibn Kathir, a prominent authority writes, "Whoever at any time or place fears their [infidels'] evil may protect himself through outward show." As proof of this, he quotes Muhammad's companion, al-Hassan, who said, “taqiyya is acceptable till the Day of Judgment [i.e., in perpetuity].”
Muslims...All Muslims are the enemy of the entire world and they all must be defeated! There is no alternative.
The end of days have clearly begun....be ready...
Chag Sameach!!
Avi
Similarly, Q 3:28 enjoins believers not to take the company of doubters unless as a means of safeguarding themselves. “Let not the believers take those who deny the truth for their allies in preference to the believers – since he who does this cuts himself off from God in everything – unless it be to protect yourself against them in this way…” Regarding 3:28, Ibn Kathir, a prominent authority writes, "Whoever at any time or place fears their [infidels'] evil may protect himself through outward show." As proof of this, he quotes Muhammad's companion, al-Hassan, who said, “taqiyya is acceptable till the Day of Judgment [i.e., in perpetuity].”
Muslims...All Muslims are the enemy of the entire world and they all must be defeated! There is no alternative.
The end of days have clearly begun....be ready...
Chag Sameach!!
Avi
Muslim "Extremist"
1. In 1968 Bobby Kennedy was shot and killed by:
a. Superman
b. Jay Leno
c. Harry Potter
d. A Muslim male extremist between the ages of 17 and 40
2. In 1972 at the Munich Olympics athletes were kidnapped and massacred by:
a. Olga Corbett
b. Sitting Bull
c. Arnold Schwarzenegger
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
3. In 1979 the US Embassy in Iran was taken over by:
a. Lost Norwegians
b. Elvis
c. A tour bus full of 80-year-old women
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
4. During the 1980's a number of Americans were kidnapped in Lebanon by:
a. John Dillinger
b. The King of Sweden
c. The Boy Scouts
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
5. In 1983 the US Marine barracks in Beirut was blown up by:
a. A pizza delivery boy
b. Pee Wee Herman
c. Geraldo Rivera
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
6. In 1985 the cruise ship Achille Lauro was hijacked and a 70 year old American passenger was murdered and thrown overboard in his wheelchair by:
a. The Smurfs
b. Davey Jones
c. The Little Mermaid
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
7. In 1985 TWA flight 847 was hijacked at Athens, and a US Navy diver trying to rescue passengers was murdered by:
a. Captain Kidd
b. Charles Lindberg
c. Mother Teresa
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
8. In 1988 Pan Am Flight 103 was bombed by:
a. Scooby Doo
b. The Tooth Fairy
c. The Sundance Kid
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
9. In 1993 the World Trade Center was bombed the first time by:
a. Richard Simmons
b. Grandma Moses
c. Michael Jordan
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
10. In 1998 the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed by:
a. Mr. Rogers
b. Hillary Clinton, to distract attention from Wild Bill's women problems
c. The World Wrestling Federation
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
11. On 9/11/01 four airliners were hijacked; two were used as missiles to take out the World Trade Centers, and of the remaining two, one crashed into the US Pentagon, and the other was diverted and crashed by the passengers. Thousands of people were killed by:
a. Bugs Bunny, Wiley E. Coyote, Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd
b. The Supreme Court of Florida
c. Mr. Bean
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
12. In 2002 the United States began fighting a war in Afghanistan against:
a. Enron
b. The Lutheran Church
c. The NFL
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
13. In 2002 reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and murdered by:
a. Bonnie and Clyde
b. Captain Kangaroo
c. Billy Graham
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
14. And now we can add: In 2009, 31 people were wounded and 13 American Soldiers murdered on base at Fort Hood by a Major that was known as...
a. You guessed it! - A Muslim male extremist between the age of 17 and 40.
Muslims are Terrorists...
Period.
Avi
a. Superman
b. Jay Leno
c. Harry Potter
d. A Muslim male extremist between the ages of 17 and 40
2. In 1972 at the Munich Olympics athletes were kidnapped and massacred by:
a. Olga Corbett
b. Sitting Bull
c. Arnold Schwarzenegger
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
3. In 1979 the US Embassy in Iran was taken over by:
a. Lost Norwegians
b. Elvis
c. A tour bus full of 80-year-old women
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
4. During the 1980's a number of Americans were kidnapped in Lebanon by:
a. John Dillinger
b. The King of Sweden
c. The Boy Scouts
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
5. In 1983 the US Marine barracks in Beirut was blown up by:
a. A pizza delivery boy
b. Pee Wee Herman
c. Geraldo Rivera
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
6. In 1985 the cruise ship Achille Lauro was hijacked and a 70 year old American passenger was murdered and thrown overboard in his wheelchair by:
a. The Smurfs
b. Davey Jones
c. The Little Mermaid
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
7. In 1985 TWA flight 847 was hijacked at Athens, and a US Navy diver trying to rescue passengers was murdered by:
a. Captain Kidd
b. Charles Lindberg
c. Mother Teresa
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
8. In 1988 Pan Am Flight 103 was bombed by:
a. Scooby Doo
b. The Tooth Fairy
c. The Sundance Kid
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
9. In 1993 the World Trade Center was bombed the first time by:
a. Richard Simmons
b. Grandma Moses
c. Michael Jordan
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
10. In 1998 the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed by:
a. Mr. Rogers
b. Hillary Clinton, to distract attention from Wild Bill's women problems
c. The World Wrestling Federation
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
11. On 9/11/01 four airliners were hijacked; two were used as missiles to take out the World Trade Centers, and of the remaining two, one crashed into the US Pentagon, and the other was diverted and crashed by the passengers. Thousands of people were killed by:
a. Bugs Bunny, Wiley E. Coyote, Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd
b. The Supreme Court of Florida
c. Mr. Bean
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
12. In 2002 the United States began fighting a war in Afghanistan against:
a. Enron
b. The Lutheran Church
c. The NFL
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
13. In 2002 reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and murdered by:
a. Bonnie and Clyde
b. Captain Kangaroo
c. Billy Graham
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
14. And now we can add: In 2009, 31 people were wounded and 13 American Soldiers murdered on base at Fort Hood by a Major that was known as...
a. You guessed it! - A Muslim male extremist between the age of 17 and 40.
Muslims are Terrorists...
Period.
Avi
September 24, 2010
Afraid of Freedom: By Moshe Feiglin
11 Tishrei, 5771
Sept. 19, '10
Translated from the NRG website.
Nobody has to worry about the allegiance of the religious officers and soldiers who are crowding the ranks of the IDF today. IDF documents made public after the expulsion from Gush Katif show that statistically, it was actually the soldiers who were not connected to a religious framework who refused to obey orders - and that phenomenon was negligible.
There is a different phenomenon though, that should be worrying those people who view freedom of thought, freedom of choice and freedom of conscience as a threat to their hegemony.
Polls and in-depth studies unequivocally prove that Israeli society is rediscovering its Judaism. The fascinating aspect of this phenomenon is that the younger generation of Israelis is actually closer to traditional Judaism than their parents. This Yom Kippur, more young people fasted than their adult counterparts. In the past, the opposite was true. The synagogues and community leaders were relegated to the "old generation," while the youngsters wanted nothing to do with "religion". But now, Israeli society is becoming more and more faith-based, with the younger generation blazing the trail.
Israeli society is becoming more faith-based - not more "religious." The phenomenon that we are experiencing is much broader than the "repentance movement" in its strictly religious parameters.
In the days of entertainer-turned-rabbi Uri Zohar, to "repent" meant to turn from a "secular Jew" into a "religious" or "haredi" Jew. But these definitions do not reflect reality. The question that actually defines the status of a given Jew on the faith continuum is: Is G-d present in your life or not? There are Jews who observe the commandments, but have left G-d out of the picture. There are even "progressive" movements that excel at that. On the other hand, there are Jews who still have not connected to Jewish law in its entirety, but experience G-d as very much present in their lives.
On this fundamental level, all of us are returning to G-d all the time. This ongoing experience is not a move from one end of the social spectrum to the other, but a gradual cohesion of the two extremes- together with G-d.
Only a person who fears G-d benefits from true liberty:
"And the midwives feared G-d and did not do what the king of Egypt told them, and they let the children live." (Exodus 1)
Two Hebrew women whose lives were worth no more than dust in the Egyptian gulag refuse to obey the orders of the greatest king in the ancient world - the Egyptian Pharaoh - and don't throw the Jewish baby boys into the Nile River. Their fear of G-d preserved their liberty.
As part of my sentence for "sedition" against the Oslo Accords government, I did community service in a state nursing home. One of the old gentlemen there told me his own story about a different gulag:
"When I went to first grade in the Stalin-era public school in Russia, I made sure never to ask permission from my teacher to let me use the bathroom. It was very important to me to be sure that when I would need to ask permission to go to the bathroom, she would believe me and let me leave the classroom. I knew that I would need to use this escape route when the state nurse would come to check the personal hygiene of the students. If she would find the tzitzit (ritual fringes) that I had under my shirt, she would report me to the authorities and my father would be sent to his death in Siberia."
My friend in the nursing home told this story very matter-of-factly. But it gave me the goose bumps. I was in awe of the father who would risk his life for his faith and the little boy whose fear of Heaven made him truly free at the ripe old age of six.
The wave of return to G-d that Israeli society is now experiencing will necessarily lead to liberty for our Land as well. That is what the people in the ivory towers have to watch out for - not for the religious soldiers.
Sept. 19, '10
Translated from the NRG website.
Nobody has to worry about the allegiance of the religious officers and soldiers who are crowding the ranks of the IDF today. IDF documents made public after the expulsion from Gush Katif show that statistically, it was actually the soldiers who were not connected to a religious framework who refused to obey orders - and that phenomenon was negligible.
There is a different phenomenon though, that should be worrying those people who view freedom of thought, freedom of choice and freedom of conscience as a threat to their hegemony.
Polls and in-depth studies unequivocally prove that Israeli society is rediscovering its Judaism. The fascinating aspect of this phenomenon is that the younger generation of Israelis is actually closer to traditional Judaism than their parents. This Yom Kippur, more young people fasted than their adult counterparts. In the past, the opposite was true. The synagogues and community leaders were relegated to the "old generation," while the youngsters wanted nothing to do with "religion". But now, Israeli society is becoming more and more faith-based, with the younger generation blazing the trail.
Israeli society is becoming more faith-based - not more "religious." The phenomenon that we are experiencing is much broader than the "repentance movement" in its strictly religious parameters.
In the days of entertainer-turned-rabbi Uri Zohar, to "repent" meant to turn from a "secular Jew" into a "religious" or "haredi" Jew. But these definitions do not reflect reality. The question that actually defines the status of a given Jew on the faith continuum is: Is G-d present in your life or not? There are Jews who observe the commandments, but have left G-d out of the picture. There are even "progressive" movements that excel at that. On the other hand, there are Jews who still have not connected to Jewish law in its entirety, but experience G-d as very much present in their lives.
On this fundamental level, all of us are returning to G-d all the time. This ongoing experience is not a move from one end of the social spectrum to the other, but a gradual cohesion of the two extremes- together with G-d.
Only a person who fears G-d benefits from true liberty:
"And the midwives feared G-d and did not do what the king of Egypt told them, and they let the children live." (Exodus 1)
Two Hebrew women whose lives were worth no more than dust in the Egyptian gulag refuse to obey the orders of the greatest king in the ancient world - the Egyptian Pharaoh - and don't throw the Jewish baby boys into the Nile River. Their fear of G-d preserved their liberty.
As part of my sentence for "sedition" against the Oslo Accords government, I did community service in a state nursing home. One of the old gentlemen there told me his own story about a different gulag:
"When I went to first grade in the Stalin-era public school in Russia, I made sure never to ask permission from my teacher to let me use the bathroom. It was very important to me to be sure that when I would need to ask permission to go to the bathroom, she would believe me and let me leave the classroom. I knew that I would need to use this escape route when the state nurse would come to check the personal hygiene of the students. If she would find the tzitzit (ritual fringes) that I had under my shirt, she would report me to the authorities and my father would be sent to his death in Siberia."
My friend in the nursing home told this story very matter-of-factly. But it gave me the goose bumps. I was in awe of the father who would risk his life for his faith and the little boy whose fear of Heaven made him truly free at the ripe old age of six.
The wave of return to G-d that Israeli society is now experiencing will necessarily lead to liberty for our Land as well. That is what the people in the ivory towers have to watch out for - not for the religious soldiers.
Purim in the 21 century
The Esther Scroll is, in a sense, the most relevant biblical book today.
It is about assimilated Jews and written for them.
The Greek version of the Esther contains profuse prayers, but the Jewish
canonical version lacks any reference to God. It is as secular as Woody
Allen’s movies. Perhaps for that reason Esther is the only canonical book
absent from the Dead Sea Scrolls. Religious people simply were not interested in
secular romance.
The Esther was written for intelligent people. Judean peasants could believe
that Joshua parted the River Jordan and the flowing water kept forming a wall
into the skies; Rambam warned that these miracles were not to be taken
literally. Educated Babylonian Jews wouldn’t buy that. In the Esther, miracles
are of a different order: they represent improbable rather than physically
impossible events. To educated Jews, God performs miracles by adjusting
probabilities rather than by violating the laws of nature.
Mordechai Bilshan was a typical assimilated Jew, much like any ADL functionary
today. Just as Jews of today are called Paul, after our Christian nemesis, he
took the name of Marduk Bel Shunu, [god] Marduk Our Lord. Not unlike the modern
court Jews, Mordechai was extremely ill-mannered, as he refused to show basic
respect to viceroy. The entire Jewish community was endangered because of
Mordechai’s frankly unethical behavior; did you think, “Polish tax
farmers?”
Rabbis surmise that Mordechai behaved brutishly because he was certain of
eventual deliverance. Such a hypothesis does not square with the fact that
Mordechai rent his closes and was otherwise shocked upon hearing of Haman’s
reaction—extermination of all Jews.
Mordechai was a scheming Jew at that. Upon overhearing putschists, he quickly
ratted on them to the king. By doing so, Mordechai kept alive the very ruler who
would order the annihilation of all Jews. The narrator missed no opportunity to
hint to his readers that assimilated Jews are guilty, and deserving of their
fate.
Mordechai was only happy to introduce Esther, his cousin, to a pagan king for a
marriage which would likely have amounted to a one-time concubinage. Esther,
too, had no trouble understanding that she should keep her Jewishness from the
king. She abandoned Judaism in favor of pagan religious ceremonies.
At the time of the crisis, both assimilated personages changed. When Esther
initially refused to plead with the king for the Jews, Mordechai clearly hinted
to her that she could not expect that her own Jewishness would remain hidden
from the king. Pressed against the wall, Esther sprung into action, and with
much cunning and strong nerve overcame Haman, her husband’s favorite.
Esther was not your liberal Jew. After she managed to reverse the edict, Jews
were allowed to slaughter those who hated them. After five hundred alleged
anti-Semites were murdered in the capital, the shocked king turned to Esther to
ask if, perhaps, she wished for something else. Pretending not to understand
him, Esther answered that indeed, she had a wish—for one more day of killings.
So the Jews murdered another three hundred residents the next day.
Among other things, the Esther Scroll reminds American Jews to gather their
last shreds of Jewishness and support the expulsion of the Arabs as the least
criminal measure according to our religious precepts.
By
Obadiah Shoher.
It is about assimilated Jews and written for them.
The Greek version of the Esther contains profuse prayers, but the Jewish
canonical version lacks any reference to God. It is as secular as Woody
Allen’s movies. Perhaps for that reason Esther is the only canonical book
absent from the Dead Sea Scrolls. Religious people simply were not interested in
secular romance.
The Esther was written for intelligent people. Judean peasants could believe
that Joshua parted the River Jordan and the flowing water kept forming a wall
into the skies; Rambam warned that these miracles were not to be taken
literally. Educated Babylonian Jews wouldn’t buy that. In the Esther, miracles
are of a different order: they represent improbable rather than physically
impossible events. To educated Jews, God performs miracles by adjusting
probabilities rather than by violating the laws of nature.
Mordechai Bilshan was a typical assimilated Jew, much like any ADL functionary
today. Just as Jews of today are called Paul, after our Christian nemesis, he
took the name of Marduk Bel Shunu, [god] Marduk Our Lord. Not unlike the modern
court Jews, Mordechai was extremely ill-mannered, as he refused to show basic
respect to viceroy. The entire Jewish community was endangered because of
Mordechai’s frankly unethical behavior; did you think, “Polish tax
farmers?”
Rabbis surmise that Mordechai behaved brutishly because he was certain of
eventual deliverance. Such a hypothesis does not square with the fact that
Mordechai rent his closes and was otherwise shocked upon hearing of Haman’s
reaction—extermination of all Jews.
Mordechai was a scheming Jew at that. Upon overhearing putschists, he quickly
ratted on them to the king. By doing so, Mordechai kept alive the very ruler who
would order the annihilation of all Jews. The narrator missed no opportunity to
hint to his readers that assimilated Jews are guilty, and deserving of their
fate.
Mordechai was only happy to introduce Esther, his cousin, to a pagan king for a
marriage which would likely have amounted to a one-time concubinage. Esther,
too, had no trouble understanding that she should keep her Jewishness from the
king. She abandoned Judaism in favor of pagan religious ceremonies.
At the time of the crisis, both assimilated personages changed. When Esther
initially refused to plead with the king for the Jews, Mordechai clearly hinted
to her that she could not expect that her own Jewishness would remain hidden
from the king. Pressed against the wall, Esther sprung into action, and with
much cunning and strong nerve overcame Haman, her husband’s favorite.
Esther was not your liberal Jew. After she managed to reverse the edict, Jews
were allowed to slaughter those who hated them. After five hundred alleged
anti-Semites were murdered in the capital, the shocked king turned to Esther to
ask if, perhaps, she wished for something else. Pretending not to understand
him, Esther answered that indeed, she had a wish—for one more day of killings.
So the Jews murdered another three hundred residents the next day.
Among other things, the Esther Scroll reminds American Jews to gather their
last shreds of Jewishness and support the expulsion of the Arabs as the least
criminal measure according to our religious precepts.
By
Obadiah Shoher.
September 20, 2010
A Completely New Paradigm: By Moshe Feiglin
6 Tishrei, 5770
Sept. 14, '10
We have already been to this movie - over and over again:
The Right wins the elections.
A few months later - its elected leader makes a severely leftist declaration.
Afterwards, his "close aides" explain that it was simply a tactical diversion.
Estrangement and harassment of the settlers and settlements ensue.
Followed by the renewal of the "peace process."
Jews are murdered by Arab terrorists.
The "peace process" continues. "We can't play into the hands of the extremists."
The talks fail.
Unilateral concessions.
War.
The other part of the movie - the reaction of the Right - also follows a set pattern:
The Yesha Council embarks on a public relations campaign.
Massive demonstrations.
Great slogans, gleaned from the prime minister's past promises and warnings.
Possibly even road-blocking.
"Illegal" settlement.
Attempts to cook up all sorts of political magic solutions - inside and outside the Likud.
We all know that the same old methods will not work.
Not because they are not the right way to work. They are the least we can do stop Israel's collapse. But they don't work because they do not address the source of the problem.
The problem is not the government and not the prime minister. They are just the symptoms. Protesting the symptoms has never gotten us anywhere and it never will.
When we blocked the highways, we deceived ourselves into believing that the train had simply fallen off the tracks. We believed that all we needed to do was to put it back on the tracks and all would be well. The same is true of our political campaigns. We deceived ourselves into believing that the problem was a given prime minister. All that we would need to do would be to replace him or his government and then the next rightist coalition would not dare threaten the settlements.
Time and again we held the most massive demonstrations and the most successful public relations campaigns. But instead of achieving our goals, we became Israel's perpetual, irritating cry-babies. Israel continues to fall apart, irrelevant of its government and ministers and irrelevant of its election results. The collapse relentlessly marches on, like a raging tsunami.
It is not the individuals who are at fault here, but the frame of reference from which they work. The Israeli who bares his neck today to Achmadinijad's nuclear sword does so because his frame of reference tells him that there is no alternative. Israel's elite does not recognize the Jewish Nation or its right to self-definition. It maintains that justice is completely on the side of the Arabs. They are the permanent phenomenon here, while the Jews are simply temporary. That is why there is no chance that Israel will take out Iran's nuclear reactor. And it certainly will not insist on keeping Judea and Samaria.
We can demonstrate, we can try to delay the end and we can try to use political pressure. But with our current national frame of reference, we are playing a zero sum game.
We must completely change our national frame of reference. That is where Manhigut Yehudit is focusing its energies. One of the tools that we will employ to change the existing paradigm is a new newspaper that will describe the Jewish State as it should be. When we say that to save Israel from the dangers threatening us we will put out a new newspaper, it sounds detached from reality. A newspaper can stop a country's collapse?
Yes, it can. If we manage to create a new frame of reference throughout Israeli society, we will be able to make the change Israel so desperately needs. When Israelis understand that they are being offered a real alternative, they will choose it.
We are busily working on our new newspaper, to be called, "Tomorrow." The newspaper, to be broadly distributed, will not attack anyone and will not deal with the present outrages. Instead, it will present the alternative on the basis of working papers, interesting ideas and excellent graphics.
The newspaper's readers will begin to experience the new Jewish paradigm and will have a new frame of reference with which to analyze reality. They will realize that we can protect ourselves from destruction, live as a sovereign Jewish state in the Land of Israel and deal with all the accompanying challenges if we finally establish an authentic Jewish state. They will also learn that a Jewish state is not what they have been frightened into thinking it is, and that in most cases, it is just the opposite.
They will learn that a truly Jewish state will restore the liberty that was stolen from them before they were even born. They will learn that in a truly Jewish state their financial situation will be better, their security will be enhanced and their private and national lives will be filled with meaning.
Sept. 14, '10
We have already been to this movie - over and over again:
The Right wins the elections.
A few months later - its elected leader makes a severely leftist declaration.
Afterwards, his "close aides" explain that it was simply a tactical diversion.
Estrangement and harassment of the settlers and settlements ensue.
Followed by the renewal of the "peace process."
Jews are murdered by Arab terrorists.
The "peace process" continues. "We can't play into the hands of the extremists."
The talks fail.
Unilateral concessions.
War.
The other part of the movie - the reaction of the Right - also follows a set pattern:
The Yesha Council embarks on a public relations campaign.
Massive demonstrations.
Great slogans, gleaned from the prime minister's past promises and warnings.
Possibly even road-blocking.
"Illegal" settlement.
Attempts to cook up all sorts of political magic solutions - inside and outside the Likud.
We all know that the same old methods will not work.
Not because they are not the right way to work. They are the least we can do stop Israel's collapse. But they don't work because they do not address the source of the problem.
The problem is not the government and not the prime minister. They are just the symptoms. Protesting the symptoms has never gotten us anywhere and it never will.
When we blocked the highways, we deceived ourselves into believing that the train had simply fallen off the tracks. We believed that all we needed to do was to put it back on the tracks and all would be well. The same is true of our political campaigns. We deceived ourselves into believing that the problem was a given prime minister. All that we would need to do would be to replace him or his government and then the next rightist coalition would not dare threaten the settlements.
Time and again we held the most massive demonstrations and the most successful public relations campaigns. But instead of achieving our goals, we became Israel's perpetual, irritating cry-babies. Israel continues to fall apart, irrelevant of its government and ministers and irrelevant of its election results. The collapse relentlessly marches on, like a raging tsunami.
It is not the individuals who are at fault here, but the frame of reference from which they work. The Israeli who bares his neck today to Achmadinijad's nuclear sword does so because his frame of reference tells him that there is no alternative. Israel's elite does not recognize the Jewish Nation or its right to self-definition. It maintains that justice is completely on the side of the Arabs. They are the permanent phenomenon here, while the Jews are simply temporary. That is why there is no chance that Israel will take out Iran's nuclear reactor. And it certainly will not insist on keeping Judea and Samaria.
We can demonstrate, we can try to delay the end and we can try to use political pressure. But with our current national frame of reference, we are playing a zero sum game.
We must completely change our national frame of reference. That is where Manhigut Yehudit is focusing its energies. One of the tools that we will employ to change the existing paradigm is a new newspaper that will describe the Jewish State as it should be. When we say that to save Israel from the dangers threatening us we will put out a new newspaper, it sounds detached from reality. A newspaper can stop a country's collapse?
Yes, it can. If we manage to create a new frame of reference throughout Israeli society, we will be able to make the change Israel so desperately needs. When Israelis understand that they are being offered a real alternative, they will choose it.
We are busily working on our new newspaper, to be called, "Tomorrow." The newspaper, to be broadly distributed, will not attack anyone and will not deal with the present outrages. Instead, it will present the alternative on the basis of working papers, interesting ideas and excellent graphics.
The newspaper's readers will begin to experience the new Jewish paradigm and will have a new frame of reference with which to analyze reality. They will realize that we can protect ourselves from destruction, live as a sovereign Jewish state in the Land of Israel and deal with all the accompanying challenges if we finally establish an authentic Jewish state. They will also learn that a Jewish state is not what they have been frightened into thinking it is, and that in most cases, it is just the opposite.
They will learn that a truly Jewish state will restore the liberty that was stolen from them before they were even born. They will learn that in a truly Jewish state their financial situation will be better, their security will be enhanced and their private and national lives will be filled with meaning.
Yom Kippur Assessment
It is clear to us now that the Nation of Israel needs to see how we will run our country according to Jewish values before it will vote for the faith-based alternative. For now, we are strengthening our political accomplishments - partly thanks to the massive registration of the faith-based public for the Likud. The main focus of our efforts, though, is to make an authentic Jewish state a tangible and pertinent concept. If we succeed in arousing the curiosity and creative talents of our nation so that people will begin to see their Jewish-state dreams in practical terms, the authentic Jewish state will become a relevant alternative.
Let us pray that we will emerge from this "year of the freeze" to a year of vitality and renewal. Let us pray for the speedy healing of the nation and its individuals and for great success as we progress toward our goal of perfecting the world under the sovereignty of Heaven.
Gmar Chatima Tovah,
Moshe Feiglin
The Temple Mount Sifting Project
Success in Fund Raising Tour
Posted by templemount on 19/09/2010
Aran Yardeni’s fund raising tour was a major success, and soon we will establish an archaeological lab for analysis and publication of the finds. Aran’s tour was initiated by two wonderful people, Marty Peretz and Joseph Finder, who visited the sifting site as tourists and were very impressed with the work we are doing. They realized the difficulties we are having in bringing the finds to publication and volunteered to help organize a fund raising tour. Marty Peretz is a Harvard University lecturer in government studies and is the publisher and editor-in-chief of The New Republic magazine. Joseph Finder is the author of several best-selling thriller novels, including Vanished, Power Play, and Killer Instinct.
We have much work ahead of us now. We plan to establish an archaeological lab in which we will sort, document, and study our finds. We have already recovered approximately 10,000 special finds – weights, arrowheads, jewelry, coins, etc. In addition, we have about 40,000 baskets of prevalent finds – pottery shards, bones, glass fragments, etc. We plan to establish a special website for the publication of special finds that we need assistance in identifying. By means of this website we will be sharing the research with scholars all over the world. Our goal is to finish the research in two to three years. With God’s help we will also complete our publications in this time frame.
Thank you to all the good people who assisted in this fund raising mission, whether by donating funds, arranging lecture venues, or by introducing us to potential donors.
Posted by templemount on 19/09/2010
Aran Yardeni’s fund raising tour was a major success, and soon we will establish an archaeological lab for analysis and publication of the finds. Aran’s tour was initiated by two wonderful people, Marty Peretz and Joseph Finder, who visited the sifting site as tourists and were very impressed with the work we are doing. They realized the difficulties we are having in bringing the finds to publication and volunteered to help organize a fund raising tour. Marty Peretz is a Harvard University lecturer in government studies and is the publisher and editor-in-chief of The New Republic magazine. Joseph Finder is the author of several best-selling thriller novels, including Vanished, Power Play, and Killer Instinct.
We have much work ahead of us now. We plan to establish an archaeological lab in which we will sort, document, and study our finds. We have already recovered approximately 10,000 special finds – weights, arrowheads, jewelry, coins, etc. In addition, we have about 40,000 baskets of prevalent finds – pottery shards, bones, glass fragments, etc. We plan to establish a special website for the publication of special finds that we need assistance in identifying. By means of this website we will be sharing the research with scholars all over the world. Our goal is to finish the research in two to three years. With God’s help we will also complete our publications in this time frame.
Thank you to all the good people who assisted in this fund raising mission, whether by donating funds, arranging lecture venues, or by introducing us to potential donors.
'ANTI-ZIONISM = ANTI-SEMITISM'
M.L. King Jr., "Letter to an Anti-Zionist Friend," Saturday Review_XLVII (Aug. 1967)
". . . You declare, my friend, that you do not hate the Jews, you are merely 'anti-Zionist.' And I say, let the truth ring forth from the high mountain tops, let it echo through the valleys of God's green earth: When people criticize Zionism, they mean Jews--this is God's own truth.
"Antisemitism, the hatred of the Jewish people, has been and remains a blot on the soul of mankind. In this we are in full agreement. So know also this: anti-Zionist is inherently antisemitic, and ever will be so. "Why is this? You know that Zionism is nothing less than the dream and ideal of the Jewish people returning to live in their own land. The Jewish people, the Scriptures tell us, once enjoyed a flourishing Commonwealth in the Holy Land. From this they were expelled by the Roman tyrant, the same Romans who cruelly murdered Our Lord. Driven from their homeland, their nation in ashes, forced to wander the globe, the Jewish people time and again suffered the lash of whichever tyrant happened to rule over them.
"The Negro people, my friend, know what it is to suffer the torment of tyranny under rulers not of our choosing. Our brothers in Africa have begged, pleaded, requested--DEMANDED the recognition and realization of our inborn right to live in peace under our own sovereignty in our own country.
"How easy it should be, for anyone who holds dear this inalienable right of all mankind, to understand and support the right of the Jewish People to live in their ancient Land of Israel. All men of good will exult in the fulfillment of God's promise, that his People should return in joy to rebuild their plundered land.
This is Zionism, nothing more, nothing less.
"And what is anti-Zionist? It is the denial to the Jewish people of a fundamental right that we justly claim for the people of Africa and freely accord all other nations of the Globe. It is discrimination against Jews, my friend, because they are Jews. In short, it is antisemitism.
"The antisemite rejoices at any opportunity to vent his malice. The times have made it unpopular, in the West, to proclaim openly a hatred of the Jews. This being the case, the antisemite must constantly seek new forms and forums for his poison. How he must revel in the new masquerade! He does not hate the Jews, he is just 'anti-Zionist'!
"My friend, I do not accuse you of deliberate antisemitism. I know you feel, as I do, a deep love of truth and justice and a revulsion for racism, prejudice, and discrimination. But I know you have been misled--as others have been--into thinking you can be 'anti-Zionist' and yet remain true to these heartfelt principles that you and I share.
Let my words echo in the depths of your soul: When people criticize Zionism, they mean Jews--make no mistake about it."
". . . You declare, my friend, that you do not hate the Jews, you are merely 'anti-Zionist.' And I say, let the truth ring forth from the high mountain tops, let it echo through the valleys of God's green earth: When people criticize Zionism, they mean Jews--this is God's own truth.
"Antisemitism, the hatred of the Jewish people, has been and remains a blot on the soul of mankind. In this we are in full agreement. So know also this: anti-Zionist is inherently antisemitic, and ever will be so. "Why is this? You know that Zionism is nothing less than the dream and ideal of the Jewish people returning to live in their own land. The Jewish people, the Scriptures tell us, once enjoyed a flourishing Commonwealth in the Holy Land. From this they were expelled by the Roman tyrant, the same Romans who cruelly murdered Our Lord. Driven from their homeland, their nation in ashes, forced to wander the globe, the Jewish people time and again suffered the lash of whichever tyrant happened to rule over them.
"The Negro people, my friend, know what it is to suffer the torment of tyranny under rulers not of our choosing. Our brothers in Africa have begged, pleaded, requested--DEMANDED the recognition and realization of our inborn right to live in peace under our own sovereignty in our own country.
"How easy it should be, for anyone who holds dear this inalienable right of all mankind, to understand and support the right of the Jewish People to live in their ancient Land of Israel. All men of good will exult in the fulfillment of God's promise, that his People should return in joy to rebuild their plundered land.
This is Zionism, nothing more, nothing less.
"And what is anti-Zionist? It is the denial to the Jewish people of a fundamental right that we justly claim for the people of Africa and freely accord all other nations of the Globe. It is discrimination against Jews, my friend, because they are Jews. In short, it is antisemitism.
"The antisemite rejoices at any opportunity to vent his malice. The times have made it unpopular, in the West, to proclaim openly a hatred of the Jews. This being the case, the antisemite must constantly seek new forms and forums for his poison. How he must revel in the new masquerade! He does not hate the Jews, he is just 'anti-Zionist'!
"My friend, I do not accuse you of deliberate antisemitism. I know you feel, as I do, a deep love of truth and justice and a revulsion for racism, prejudice, and discrimination. But I know you have been misled--as others have been--into thinking you can be 'anti-Zionist' and yet remain true to these heartfelt principles that you and I share.
Let my words echo in the depths of your soul: When people criticize Zionism, they mean Jews--make no mistake about it."
JERUSALEM STREETS ON YOM KIPPUR
Posted By Judy Lash Balint (Jerusalem Diaries:In Tense Times)
9/18/2010 07:52:00 PM
I know most Jews call Yom Kippur by other names, but here in Jerusalem, it's the Day of No Traffic Lights. There are no traffic lights because there's no traffic on Yom Kippur in Jerusalem. The city just turns off the lights for 25 hours. Imagine-an entire country without any motor vehicle traffic apart from emergency vehicles and security patrols. The quiet is absolutely stunning. Starting from sundown on erev Yom Kippur, 25 hours of blissful peace and quiet. Think of the negative carbon footprint impact! No traffic; radio and TV stations are silent; no phones ringing; no home appliances whirring; no airplanes overhead-you can actually hear the wind in the trees and the song of the birds.
Pedestrians share the road with bicycles ridden by hundreds of secular Israelis who savor the day as a safe opportunity to try out their biking skills with no annoying traffic lights or crazy Israeli drivers. But the overwhelming sense is of a people taking a complete day to evaluate and perhaps change their lives.
Walking to Kol Nidre, the streets are thronged with people clad in white, to signify purity and a withdrawal for one day from the vanities of our usual fancy clothing.
Every synagogue is packed to overflowing, and several hundred community centers around the country also offer Yom Kippur services with emphasis on discussion and openness for those who might never before stepped foot in a synagogue.
After the Kol Nidre prayers are over, it's as if the entire city spills out onto the streets. Strolling along in the middle of streets usually clogged with cars is the main pastime as people saunter off home, greeting friends along the way.
This Yom Kippur, the weather was a perfect 75 degrees. Last year, I spent the closing Neilah service of Yom Kippur at a shul just down the street, as it was too hot to trek back down to my regular shul after the break.
As I took a seat at the very back of that neighborhood shul, an elderly woman was wheeled in by her son who parked her wheelchair just in front of me. Her fingers were severely misshapen and she wore thick glasses. She carefully unfolded a copy of the Amidah part of the Neilah service that had been blown up on large sheets of paper. Next, she carefully extracted a magnifying glass from a little box and oblivious to the Chazan, proceeded to painstakingly slide the magnifying glass over every word of the prayers. She completed her reading just as the congregation came to the closing verses and she joined in the fervent singing of 'Next year in a Rebuilt Jerusalem.' She even managed to clap as the men danced in a lively circle to express joy at having been given another opportunity to make amends before God.
After the piercing tones of the shofar marked the conclusion of another Day of No Traffic Lights and the congregation clamored out of the doors to get home for refreshments, half a dozen secular people from the neighborhood were arriving, hoping to hear the shofar. This particular shul finished a few minutes before the appointed time for the end of the holiday, so the neighbors were disappointed to have missed it, but another group was still praying in another part of the building, and the outsiders quickly made their way down the stairs to take in the tradition.
Before I even made it home, a few cars were already on the streets and the Day of No Traffic Lights was no more.
9/18/2010 07:52:00 PM
I know most Jews call Yom Kippur by other names, but here in Jerusalem, it's the Day of No Traffic Lights. There are no traffic lights because there's no traffic on Yom Kippur in Jerusalem. The city just turns off the lights for 25 hours. Imagine-an entire country without any motor vehicle traffic apart from emergency vehicles and security patrols. The quiet is absolutely stunning. Starting from sundown on erev Yom Kippur, 25 hours of blissful peace and quiet. Think of the negative carbon footprint impact! No traffic; radio and TV stations are silent; no phones ringing; no home appliances whirring; no airplanes overhead-you can actually hear the wind in the trees and the song of the birds.
Pedestrians share the road with bicycles ridden by hundreds of secular Israelis who savor the day as a safe opportunity to try out their biking skills with no annoying traffic lights or crazy Israeli drivers. But the overwhelming sense is of a people taking a complete day to evaluate and perhaps change their lives.
Walking to Kol Nidre, the streets are thronged with people clad in white, to signify purity and a withdrawal for one day from the vanities of our usual fancy clothing.
Every synagogue is packed to overflowing, and several hundred community centers around the country also offer Yom Kippur services with emphasis on discussion and openness for those who might never before stepped foot in a synagogue.
After the Kol Nidre prayers are over, it's as if the entire city spills out onto the streets. Strolling along in the middle of streets usually clogged with cars is the main pastime as people saunter off home, greeting friends along the way.
This Yom Kippur, the weather was a perfect 75 degrees. Last year, I spent the closing Neilah service of Yom Kippur at a shul just down the street, as it was too hot to trek back down to my regular shul after the break.
As I took a seat at the very back of that neighborhood shul, an elderly woman was wheeled in by her son who parked her wheelchair just in front of me. Her fingers were severely misshapen and she wore thick glasses. She carefully unfolded a copy of the Amidah part of the Neilah service that had been blown up on large sheets of paper. Next, she carefully extracted a magnifying glass from a little box and oblivious to the Chazan, proceeded to painstakingly slide the magnifying glass over every word of the prayers. She completed her reading just as the congregation came to the closing verses and she joined in the fervent singing of 'Next year in a Rebuilt Jerusalem.' She even managed to clap as the men danced in a lively circle to express joy at having been given another opportunity to make amends before God.
After the piercing tones of the shofar marked the conclusion of another Day of No Traffic Lights and the congregation clamored out of the doors to get home for refreshments, half a dozen secular people from the neighborhood were arriving, hoping to hear the shofar. This particular shul finished a few minutes before the appointed time for the end of the holiday, so the neighbors were disappointed to have missed it, but another group was still praying in another part of the building, and the outsiders quickly made their way down the stairs to take in the tradition.
Before I even made it home, a few cars were already on the streets and the Day of No Traffic Lights was no more.
September 14, 2010
Jabotinsky had Hitler in crosshairs
British colonel's diary reveals how Revisionist Zionist** leader planned to murder Nazi tyrant - Shlomo Nakdimon
In December 1939, four months after the beginning of World War II, Zionist leader Ze'ev Jabotinsky paid a visit to a retired 61-year-old British colonel.
The colonel, Richard Henry Meinertzhagen, served as an advisor at the War Office in London and knew Jabotinsky from his service in the British army in the Land of Israel after the Ottoman era in 1918.
The colonel documented his conversation with the Zionist leader in his private diary, which was published in London in 1959 as a book titled, "Middle East Diary, 1917-1956." Here is a short segment from the conversation:
Jabotinsky: I have brought a plan to bomb Hitler and the entire Nazi leadership.
Meinertzhagen: An ambitious plot.
Jabotinsky: An attainable one.
Meinertzhagen: Do elaborate.
Jabotinsky: A number of high-ranking Nazis in Munich must be assassinated. Their funeral will require the arrival of their senior comrades, including Hitler. Bombs containing 100 kilograms of explosives will be concealed in one of the coffins. As all the Nazis gather around the grave, 100 kilograms of bombs will explode and they'll all move on to the next world.
Meinertzhagen: Who will activatethe bomb system?
Jabotinsky: The Jewish gravedigger in Munich. He's a friend of mine.
The colonel, who was impressed by the plan, presented it to the Foreign Office in London. He concluded this chapter in one short line in his diary: The Foreign Office frowned and the Nazis were saved.
--
** Revisionist Zionism is a nationalist faction within the Zionist movement. It is the founding ideology of the non-religious right in Israel, and was the chief ideological competitor to the dominant socialist Labor Zionism. Revisionism is represented primarily by the Likud Party.[
In December 1939, four months after the beginning of World War II, Zionist leader Ze'ev Jabotinsky paid a visit to a retired 61-year-old British colonel.
The colonel, Richard Henry Meinertzhagen, served as an advisor at the War Office in London and knew Jabotinsky from his service in the British army in the Land of Israel after the Ottoman era in 1918.
The colonel documented his conversation with the Zionist leader in his private diary, which was published in London in 1959 as a book titled, "Middle East Diary, 1917-1956." Here is a short segment from the conversation:
Jabotinsky: I have brought a plan to bomb Hitler and the entire Nazi leadership.
Meinertzhagen: An ambitious plot.
Jabotinsky: An attainable one.
Meinertzhagen: Do elaborate.
Jabotinsky: A number of high-ranking Nazis in Munich must be assassinated. Their funeral will require the arrival of their senior comrades, including Hitler. Bombs containing 100 kilograms of explosives will be concealed in one of the coffins. As all the Nazis gather around the grave, 100 kilograms of bombs will explode and they'll all move on to the next world.
Meinertzhagen: Who will activatethe bomb system?
Jabotinsky: The Jewish gravedigger in Munich. He's a friend of mine.
The colonel, who was impressed by the plan, presented it to the Foreign Office in London. He concluded this chapter in one short line in his diary: The Foreign Office frowned and the Nazis were saved.
--
** Revisionist Zionism is a nationalist faction within the Zionist movement. It is the founding ideology of the non-religious right in Israel, and was the chief ideological competitor to the dominant socialist Labor Zionism. Revisionism is represented primarily by the Likud Party.[
September 9, 2010
First Blood - Was Meir Kahane’s murder al-Qaida’s earliest attack on U.S. soil?
We made plans to meet in early November, after a lecture I was giving at New York University. But Salem didn’t show. I went back to my hotel that night and had chalked it up as a lost opportunity. The phone rang at 2 in the morning. It was Salem, summoning me to a meeting outside 26 Federal Plaza, the building that houses the FBI’s New York office. Very cloak and dagger, but that’s how this man rolls. You don’t infiltrate the cell responsible for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing without practicing a little tradecraft. Anyway, when my cab pulled in to Foley Square a few minutes later, Salem was standing in the shadows.
That was the start of a series of interviews that led to some astonishing revelations about two of the most infamous al-Qaida murders since Osama Bin Laden formed his terror network. The first one—in fact, arguably the first blood spilled by al-Qaida on U.S. soil—occurred on the night of November 5, 1990, just after Rabbi Meir Kahane, the founder of the ultra-nationalist Jewish Defense League, finished a speech at the Marriott East Side in New York.
Kahane, a volatile figure who had been expelled from the Israeli Knesset in the mid-1980s and returned to the United States to warn American Jews about what he believed to be a “second holocaust” at the hands of radical Islam, was gunned down by El Sayyid Nosair, an Egyptian émigré. The New York Police Department initially labeled him a lone gunman. I have argued that it was much more than that: an unsolved murder with dire implications for the war on terror.
Now, as a result of new intelligence I’ve learned from Salem, it’s clear for the first time that the rabbi’s death was directly linked to Osama Bin Laden. More surprising, there was a second gunman on the night of Kahane’s murder: a young Jordanian cab driver named Bilal Alkaisi. Alkaisi was also identified in FBI files I’ve obtained as the “emir” of a hit team in a second grisly al-Qaida-related homicide months after the assassination—the 1991 murder of Egyptian immigrant Mustafa Shalabi. The identities of the alleged killers in that second slaying have now become known as a result of information from Salem that prompted the New York Police Department to reopen the Shalabi case.
But the real news is that Alkaisi, originally indicted in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, was cut loose by the feds in 1994 and presumably remains at large. This new intelligence, about a pair of historic terror-related homicides in New York City, lay buried for years in the files of the Joint Terrorism Task Force—until I obtained them from a government source.
Click - http://www.tabletmag.com/news-and-politics/44243/first-blood/print/
For the rest of the lengthy story.....
Avi
September 8, 2010
British inferiority complex - Obadiah Shoher
For Britain, the Arab-Israeli peace process is not only a matter of objective
self-interest: of course the British side with the Arabs, both as a matter of
historical allegiance and out of modern-day economic and strategic necessity.
Israel has little hope of competing with the strategic importance of the Arabs:
a whining country suing for peace is not a viable geopolitical partner for
anyone. But even if Israeli leadership changes miraculously and turns the
country into a strategic asset, we cannot hope to become as significant as the
Arabs, whose influence is based on oil, aggressive fundamentalism, and
terrorism, and who occupy a large territory of geopolitical importance. Thus,
the West will continue its natural alliance with Arabs.
Moreover, the West sees the Arabs as a strong and important culture, while Jews
are stereotyped as an ugly, Holocausted minority. Psychologically, too, Western
sympathies are on the side of the Arabs. That may change with the Muslim influx
into Europe, which will turn them into a hated minority, but so far the
stereotype holds.
Back to the British: the peace process for their leaders is highly
personal—Britain tried to occupy the same land Israel took over. Israeli
victory is thus a British defeat. Naturally, the British seek to subvert the
victor. That logic applies to most Christians, except for a small segment of
pro-Jewish Evangelicals, and even for them a favorable attitude to Jews is not
built-in: in the 1940s, they did not love Jews very much (nor did the Jews love
Jews, for that matter). Islam is just another competing religion, but Judaism is
far different: if Jews are right, then Christians are wrong. Mohammed recognized
Jesus; Jews don’t. Naturally, most believing Christians would prefer Jerusalem
to be internationalized, or at least in Muslim hands, rather than under Jewish
control.
But by far most gentiles simply do not care. They would mildly prefer that the
conflict be settled in order to stop the news of the Arabs’ oppression and
Arab terrorism, but the issue is as remote to them as any tribal conflict.
Israelis are unduly wary of the world’s reaction to its actions. They confuse
the reactions of leaders with public opinion. Engaged in foreign affairs and
close to Arabs, Western leaders condemn Israel while the Western public is
mildly curious at the most. In the short term, it is only the leaders’
opinions that matter: it is they, rather than the public, who can inflict
sanctions on us. In the long term, leaders cannot veer too far from their voters
and press issues that are irrelevant to the public.
Israel won’t make her international position any worse by evicting the Arabs.
self-interest: of course the British side with the Arabs, both as a matter of
historical allegiance and out of modern-day economic and strategic necessity.
Israel has little hope of competing with the strategic importance of the Arabs:
a whining country suing for peace is not a viable geopolitical partner for
anyone. But even if Israeli leadership changes miraculously and turns the
country into a strategic asset, we cannot hope to become as significant as the
Arabs, whose influence is based on oil, aggressive fundamentalism, and
terrorism, and who occupy a large territory of geopolitical importance. Thus,
the West will continue its natural alliance with Arabs.
Moreover, the West sees the Arabs as a strong and important culture, while Jews
are stereotyped as an ugly, Holocausted minority. Psychologically, too, Western
sympathies are on the side of the Arabs. That may change with the Muslim influx
into Europe, which will turn them into a hated minority, but so far the
stereotype holds.
Back to the British: the peace process for their leaders is highly
personal—Britain tried to occupy the same land Israel took over. Israeli
victory is thus a British defeat. Naturally, the British seek to subvert the
victor. That logic applies to most Christians, except for a small segment of
pro-Jewish Evangelicals, and even for them a favorable attitude to Jews is not
built-in: in the 1940s, they did not love Jews very much (nor did the Jews love
Jews, for that matter). Islam is just another competing religion, but Judaism is
far different: if Jews are right, then Christians are wrong. Mohammed recognized
Jesus; Jews don’t. Naturally, most believing Christians would prefer Jerusalem
to be internationalized, or at least in Muslim hands, rather than under Jewish
control.
But by far most gentiles simply do not care. They would mildly prefer that the
conflict be settled in order to stop the news of the Arabs’ oppression and
Arab terrorism, but the issue is as remote to them as any tribal conflict.
Israelis are unduly wary of the world’s reaction to its actions. They confuse
the reactions of leaders with public opinion. Engaged in foreign affairs and
close to Arabs, Western leaders condemn Israel while the Western public is
mildly curious at the most. In the short term, it is only the leaders’
opinions that matter: it is they, rather than the public, who can inflict
sanctions on us. In the long term, leaders cannot veer too far from their voters
and press issues that are irrelevant to the public.
Israel won’t make her international position any worse by evicting the Arabs.
September 7, 2010
Awake and Rise! - Paul Eidelberg
Let's ponder the names of Israeli prime ministers since the signing of the Oslo or Israel-PLO Agreement of September 1993:
Yitzhak Rabin
Shimon Peres
Binyamin Netanyahu
Ehud Barak
Ariel Sharon
Ehud Olmert
(And again, Binyamin Netanyahu)
What do these prime ministers have in common?
1) All are assimilated or inauthentic Jews.
2) All have religiously adhered to the Oslo Agreement despite its having been violated, again and again, by the PLO-Palestinian Authority.
3) All have therefore contributed to the undoing of what even non-religious observers have called the miracle of the Six-Day War—evidence of which is even contained (unwittingly) in Michael Oren's Six Days of War. Oren, who is not religious—indeed, he is a cultural relativist—was appointed by Mr. Netanyahu as Israel's ambassador to the United States. Ponder this brief summary of Oren's account of the first two days of the war:
On Day One, in little more than half an hour, the Israel Air Force destroyed 204 planes—half of Egypt’s air force—all but nine of them on the ground (while destroying six Egyptian air fields, four in Sinai and two in Egypt). “The Israelis were stunned. No one ever imagined that a single squadron could neutralize an entire air base” (175).
On Day Two, Col. Avraham Adan, watching the rout of the Egyptian army, was “stupefied.” “You ride past burnt-out vehicles and suddenly you see this immense army, too numerous to count, spread out over a vast area as far as your eyes can see … It was not a pleasant feeling, seeing that gigantic enemy and realizing that you’re only a single battalion of tanks” (216). Moshe Dayan was no less puzzled: “Though Israel had gained command of the skies, Egypt’s cities were not bombed, and the Egyptian armored units at the front could have fought even without air support” (ibid.). Gen. Avraham Yoffe: “There was no planning before the war about what the army would do beyond the al-’Arish-Jabal Libni axis, not even a discussion. Nobody believed that … the [Egyptian] collapse would be so swift” (ibid.).
4) Despite the enormous power of the IDF and its stunning victory in the Six-Day War, every Government of Israel since then has pursued a policy of territorial retreat, which means it has been appeasing Arab thugs—and this, regardless of which party in Israel has been at the helm.
5) The prime ministers mentioned above are conspicuous failures. None have displayed dauntless courage, let alone political wisdom and inspiring Jewish pride. All lack direction or clear cut Jewish national purpose. All behave like leftists! The deceased Rabin aside, all supported Labor's policy of "unilateral disengagement" from Gaza. This they did contrary to the Knesset testimony and warnings of Israel's highest defense and intelligence officers.
As for the people of Israel: recall that the vast majority rejected Labor's defeatist policy in the January 2003 election. Recall, too, that this election was effectively nullified when Likud Prime Minister Ariel Sharon adopted Labor's policy! The government subsequently betrayed the nation in October 2004, when the Knesset voted for disengagement—which it did even though 74 of its members had campaigned against that policy, which was never debated in public. What does the government's contempt for the public mean in regime terms?
6) It means—but no one dares say—that Israel's Government is, in reality, a democratically elected dictatorship! This dictatorship results from the fact—virtually unheard of in every democracy—that members of parliament are not individually accountable to the voters in constituency elections. It was precisely this systemic fact that enabled 23 of the 38 Likud MKs to vote for disengagement with impunity! The system facilitates political treachery.
7) Does it not cry to heaven that Netanyahu could endorse a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria without parliamentary and public debate? Doesn't this suggest he will persist in the pusillanimous policy of appeasement, of territorial retreat, of dishonesty vis-a-vis the despotic Palestinian Authority? Awake oh Jews: you are closer than ever to losing your heartland to your implacable and Janus-faced enemies: Where is common sense? Where is resistance and outrage? The SYSTEM and its spineless leaders have demoralized and disempowered you!
8) I conclude from the above considerations, reinforced by more than thirty years of observing the inane and ignoble behavior of Israeli prime ministers and their self-serving system of multiparty coalition government that the State of Israel must perish for Israel to survive!
9) Israel will continue to decline so long as it continues to elect inauthentic Jewish prime ministers—and this is not a call for conventional religious leaders.
10) Indeed, I blame the religious leaders for failing to initiate a movement to reform Israel's decadent political culture, which can the more readily be done because a large majority of the people of Israel, despite a left-wing dominate media, have always been more right-minded as well as more faithful to the Jewish heritage than Israel's smug and faint-hearted governments.
Sooner or later the Jewish People will scrap their decrepit State and restore the name of Israel. What a blessing this would be to our patriotic friends in the United States who are seeking to restore the name of America! May the New Year bless these two nations and redeem for each its noble heritage.
Yitzhak Rabin
Shimon Peres
Binyamin Netanyahu
Ehud Barak
Ariel Sharon
Ehud Olmert
(And again, Binyamin Netanyahu)
What do these prime ministers have in common?
1) All are assimilated or inauthentic Jews.
2) All have religiously adhered to the Oslo Agreement despite its having been violated, again and again, by the PLO-Palestinian Authority.
3) All have therefore contributed to the undoing of what even non-religious observers have called the miracle of the Six-Day War—evidence of which is even contained (unwittingly) in Michael Oren's Six Days of War. Oren, who is not religious—indeed, he is a cultural relativist—was appointed by Mr. Netanyahu as Israel's ambassador to the United States. Ponder this brief summary of Oren's account of the first two days of the war:
On Day One, in little more than half an hour, the Israel Air Force destroyed 204 planes—half of Egypt’s air force—all but nine of them on the ground (while destroying six Egyptian air fields, four in Sinai and two in Egypt). “The Israelis were stunned. No one ever imagined that a single squadron could neutralize an entire air base” (175).
On Day Two, Col. Avraham Adan, watching the rout of the Egyptian army, was “stupefied.” “You ride past burnt-out vehicles and suddenly you see this immense army, too numerous to count, spread out over a vast area as far as your eyes can see … It was not a pleasant feeling, seeing that gigantic enemy and realizing that you’re only a single battalion of tanks” (216). Moshe Dayan was no less puzzled: “Though Israel had gained command of the skies, Egypt’s cities were not bombed, and the Egyptian armored units at the front could have fought even without air support” (ibid.). Gen. Avraham Yoffe: “There was no planning before the war about what the army would do beyond the al-’Arish-Jabal Libni axis, not even a discussion. Nobody believed that … the [Egyptian] collapse would be so swift” (ibid.).
4) Despite the enormous power of the IDF and its stunning victory in the Six-Day War, every Government of Israel since then has pursued a policy of territorial retreat, which means it has been appeasing Arab thugs—and this, regardless of which party in Israel has been at the helm.
5) The prime ministers mentioned above are conspicuous failures. None have displayed dauntless courage, let alone political wisdom and inspiring Jewish pride. All lack direction or clear cut Jewish national purpose. All behave like leftists! The deceased Rabin aside, all supported Labor's policy of "unilateral disengagement" from Gaza. This they did contrary to the Knesset testimony and warnings of Israel's highest defense and intelligence officers.
As for the people of Israel: recall that the vast majority rejected Labor's defeatist policy in the January 2003 election. Recall, too, that this election was effectively nullified when Likud Prime Minister Ariel Sharon adopted Labor's policy! The government subsequently betrayed the nation in October 2004, when the Knesset voted for disengagement—which it did even though 74 of its members had campaigned against that policy, which was never debated in public. What does the government's contempt for the public mean in regime terms?
6) It means—but no one dares say—that Israel's Government is, in reality, a democratically elected dictatorship! This dictatorship results from the fact—virtually unheard of in every democracy—that members of parliament are not individually accountable to the voters in constituency elections. It was precisely this systemic fact that enabled 23 of the 38 Likud MKs to vote for disengagement with impunity! The system facilitates political treachery.
7) Does it not cry to heaven that Netanyahu could endorse a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria without parliamentary and public debate? Doesn't this suggest he will persist in the pusillanimous policy of appeasement, of territorial retreat, of dishonesty vis-a-vis the despotic Palestinian Authority? Awake oh Jews: you are closer than ever to losing your heartland to your implacable and Janus-faced enemies: Where is common sense? Where is resistance and outrage? The SYSTEM and its spineless leaders have demoralized and disempowered you!
8) I conclude from the above considerations, reinforced by more than thirty years of observing the inane and ignoble behavior of Israeli prime ministers and their self-serving system of multiparty coalition government that the State of Israel must perish for Israel to survive!
9) Israel will continue to decline so long as it continues to elect inauthentic Jewish prime ministers—and this is not a call for conventional religious leaders.
10) Indeed, I blame the religious leaders for failing to initiate a movement to reform Israel's decadent political culture, which can the more readily be done because a large majority of the people of Israel, despite a left-wing dominate media, have always been more right-minded as well as more faithful to the Jewish heritage than Israel's smug and faint-hearted governments.
Sooner or later the Jewish People will scrap their decrepit State and restore the name of Israel. What a blessing this would be to our patriotic friends in the United States who are seeking to restore the name of America! May the New Year bless these two nations and redeem for each its noble heritage.
The Arab Lobby - Alan M. Dershowitz
While the media and politicians engage in frenzied debate about the virtues and vices of building—or preventing the building of—a Muslim community center (cum mosque) near the "sacred ground" of 9/11, Iran continues to build a nuclear weapon, as the Israelis and Palestinians take a tentative step toward building a peaceful resolution to their age-old conflict. Inevitably, whenever Middle East issues take center stage, the question of the role of lobbies, particularly those that advocate for foreign countries, becomes a hot topic. This book by longtime Middle East authority, Mitchell Bard, is a must read for anyone who cares—and who doesn't?—about the role of lobbies in influencing American policy in the Middle East. Its thesis, which is sure to be controversial, is easily summarized:
Yes Virginia, there is a big bad lobby that distorts US foreign policy in the Middle East way out of proportion to its actual support by the American public. Professors Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer, author of the screed, The Israel Lobby, are right about that. But the offending lobby is not AIPAC, which supports Israel, but rather the Arab lobby, which opposes the Jewish state.
Both the pro-Israel and pro-Arab lobby (really lobbies because there are several for each) are indeed powerful but there is a big difference — a difference that goes to the heart of the role of lobbying in a democracy. Bard puts it this way:
"One of the most important distinguishing characteristics of the Arab lobby is that it has no popular support. While the Israeli lobby has hundreds of thousands of grass root members and public opinion polls consistently reveal a huge gap between support for Israel and the Arab nations/Palestinians, the Arab lobby has almost no foot soldiers or public sympathy. It's most powerful elements tend to be bureaucrats who represent only their personal views or what they believe are their institutional interests, and foreign governments that care only about their national interests, not those of the United States. What they lack in human capital in terms of American advocates, they make up for with almost unlimited resources to try to buy what they usually cannot win on the merits of their arguments."
The Arab Lobby: The Invisible Alliance That Undermines America’s Interests in the Middle East. By Mitchell Bard. 432 pages. Harper. $27.99. This is a critical distinction for a democracy. The case for Israel (though not for all of its policies) is an easy sell for pro-Israel lobbyists, especially elected representatives. Voting in favor of Israel is popular not only in areas with large concentration of Jewish voters, but throughout the country, because Israel is popular with Evangelical Christians in particular and with much, though certainly not all, of the public in general. Lobbies that reflect the will of the people are an important part of the democratic process. Thus, the American Association of Retired People (AARP), the principal lobbying group for the elderly, is extremely powerful because there are so many elderly people in this country who want to protect social security, Medicaid, and other benefits. The National Rifle Association (NRA) is a powerful lobby precisely because so many Americans, for better or worse, love their guns. And The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is a powerful lobby because Americans, in general, support the Middle East's only democracy and reliable American ally.
But why is the Arab lobby, and most particularly the Saudi lobby, also powerful? Saudi Arabia has virtually no support among Americans. Indeed, it is widely reviled for its export of terrorists such as Osama Bin Laden, its manipulation of oil prices, its anti-Christian and anti-Semitic policies, its total deprivation of any semblance of freedom of speech or dissent, and its primitive forms of punishment that include stoning and amputation. Yet, as Bard demonstrates, the Saudi lobby has beaten the pro-Israel lobby over and over again in head to head conflicts, such as the sale of sophisticated weapons to a regime that doesn't even have the technical skills to use them, and the conflict over whether to move the United States' Embassy to Jerusalem. Even now, Saudi Arabia is lobbying to obtain a multi-billion dollar arms deal , and it is likely to succeed over the objections of Israel.
How then does a lobby with no popular support manage to exert influence in a democratic country? The secret is very simple. The Arab lobby in general and the Saudis in particular make little effort to influence popularly elected public officials, particularly legislators. Again, listen to Bard:
"The Saudis have taken a different tact from the Israeli lobby, focusing a top-down rather than bottom-up approach to lobbying. As hired gun, J. Crawford Cook, wrote in laying out his proposed strategy for the kingdom, 'Saudi Arabia has a need to influence the few that influence the many, rather than the need to influence the many to whom the few must respond.'"
The primary means by which the Saudis exercise this influence is money. They spend enormous amounts of lucre to buy (or rent) former state department officials, diplomats, White House aides, and legislative leaders who become their elite lobbying corps. Far more insidiously, the Saudis let it be known that if current government officials want to be hired following their retirement from government service, they had better hue to the Saudi line while they are serving in our government. The former Saudi ambassador to the United States, Prince Bandar, who was so close to the President George H.W. Bush that he referred to himself as "Bandar Bush," acknowledged the relationship between how a government official behaves while in office and how well he will be rewarded when he leaves office. "If the reputation then builds that the Saudis take care of friends when they leave office, you'd be surprised how much better friends you have when they are just coming into office."
Bard concludes from this well known quid pro quo that: "given the potential of these post-retirement opportunities, it would not be surprising if officials adopted positions while in government to make themselves marketable to the Arab lobby."
The methodology employed by the Arab lobby is thus totally inconsistent with democratic governance, because it does not reflect the will of the people but rather the corruption of the elite, while the Israeli lobby seems to operate within the parameters of democratic processes. Yet so much has been written about the allegedly corrosive nature of the Israeli lobby, while the powerful Arab lobby has widely escaped scrutiny and criticism. This important book thus contributes to the open marketplace of ideas by illuminating the dark side of the massive and largely undemocratic Arab lobbying efforts to influence American policy with regard to the Middle East.
Yes Virginia, there is a big bad lobby that distorts US foreign policy in the Middle East way out of proportion to its actual support by the American public. Professors Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer, author of the screed, The Israel Lobby, are right about that. But the offending lobby is not AIPAC, which supports Israel, but rather the Arab lobby, which opposes the Jewish state.
Both the pro-Israel and pro-Arab lobby (really lobbies because there are several for each) are indeed powerful but there is a big difference — a difference that goes to the heart of the role of lobbying in a democracy. Bard puts it this way:
"One of the most important distinguishing characteristics of the Arab lobby is that it has no popular support. While the Israeli lobby has hundreds of thousands of grass root members and public opinion polls consistently reveal a huge gap between support for Israel and the Arab nations/Palestinians, the Arab lobby has almost no foot soldiers or public sympathy. It's most powerful elements tend to be bureaucrats who represent only their personal views or what they believe are their institutional interests, and foreign governments that care only about their national interests, not those of the United States. What they lack in human capital in terms of American advocates, they make up for with almost unlimited resources to try to buy what they usually cannot win on the merits of their arguments."
The Arab Lobby: The Invisible Alliance That Undermines America’s Interests in the Middle East. By Mitchell Bard. 432 pages. Harper. $27.99. This is a critical distinction for a democracy. The case for Israel (though not for all of its policies) is an easy sell for pro-Israel lobbyists, especially elected representatives. Voting in favor of Israel is popular not only in areas with large concentration of Jewish voters, but throughout the country, because Israel is popular with Evangelical Christians in particular and with much, though certainly not all, of the public in general. Lobbies that reflect the will of the people are an important part of the democratic process. Thus, the American Association of Retired People (AARP), the principal lobbying group for the elderly, is extremely powerful because there are so many elderly people in this country who want to protect social security, Medicaid, and other benefits. The National Rifle Association (NRA) is a powerful lobby precisely because so many Americans, for better or worse, love their guns. And The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is a powerful lobby because Americans, in general, support the Middle East's only democracy and reliable American ally.
But why is the Arab lobby, and most particularly the Saudi lobby, also powerful? Saudi Arabia has virtually no support among Americans. Indeed, it is widely reviled for its export of terrorists such as Osama Bin Laden, its manipulation of oil prices, its anti-Christian and anti-Semitic policies, its total deprivation of any semblance of freedom of speech or dissent, and its primitive forms of punishment that include stoning and amputation. Yet, as Bard demonstrates, the Saudi lobby has beaten the pro-Israel lobby over and over again in head to head conflicts, such as the sale of sophisticated weapons to a regime that doesn't even have the technical skills to use them, and the conflict over whether to move the United States' Embassy to Jerusalem. Even now, Saudi Arabia is lobbying to obtain a multi-billion dollar arms deal , and it is likely to succeed over the objections of Israel.
How then does a lobby with no popular support manage to exert influence in a democratic country? The secret is very simple. The Arab lobby in general and the Saudis in particular make little effort to influence popularly elected public officials, particularly legislators. Again, listen to Bard:
"The Saudis have taken a different tact from the Israeli lobby, focusing a top-down rather than bottom-up approach to lobbying. As hired gun, J. Crawford Cook, wrote in laying out his proposed strategy for the kingdom, 'Saudi Arabia has a need to influence the few that influence the many, rather than the need to influence the many to whom the few must respond.'"
The primary means by which the Saudis exercise this influence is money. They spend enormous amounts of lucre to buy (or rent) former state department officials, diplomats, White House aides, and legislative leaders who become their elite lobbying corps. Far more insidiously, the Saudis let it be known that if current government officials want to be hired following their retirement from government service, they had better hue to the Saudi line while they are serving in our government. The former Saudi ambassador to the United States, Prince Bandar, who was so close to the President George H.W. Bush that he referred to himself as "Bandar Bush," acknowledged the relationship between how a government official behaves while in office and how well he will be rewarded when he leaves office. "If the reputation then builds that the Saudis take care of friends when they leave office, you'd be surprised how much better friends you have when they are just coming into office."
Bard concludes from this well known quid pro quo that: "given the potential of these post-retirement opportunities, it would not be surprising if officials adopted positions while in government to make themselves marketable to the Arab lobby."
The methodology employed by the Arab lobby is thus totally inconsistent with democratic governance, because it does not reflect the will of the people but rather the corruption of the elite, while the Israeli lobby seems to operate within the parameters of democratic processes. Yet so much has been written about the allegedly corrosive nature of the Israeli lobby, while the powerful Arab lobby has widely escaped scrutiny and criticism. This important book thus contributes to the open marketplace of ideas by illuminating the dark side of the massive and largely undemocratic Arab lobbying efforts to influence American policy with regard to the Middle East.
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