September 2015, Muslims and the Jewish Redemption

Late September, 2015 is a time of joy for Jews around the world. It is Succot, the Jewish Holiday called, ‘the time of our joy”.

Succot is many things, all of them joyous:

-It’s a harvest holiday. It’s the time of year we celebrate the end of the summer harvest season. 

-It’s the holiday we rejoice over G-d’s protection. During this time, we recall how our G-d protected us from harm during our nation’s sojourn in the wilderness some 3,300+ years ago.

-It’s the holiday that follows the Days of Awe. On those Days (Rosh Hashannah and Yom Kippur), we faced judgment and, G-d forbid, punishment. Now, Succot, we rejoice. We do that to show HaShem we believe with a firm faith He has indeed forgiven our sins.

Jerusalem during Succot is a city of joy. The streets fill with families on what is unofficially a mini national vacation-time.

Schools are closed. Many offices are closed. Tourists appear in droves. People appear festive in both demeanor and outlook.

This year in Jerusalem, Jews aren’t the only people doing ‘things’ during Succot. Arabs, too, are busy.

Here’s a list of headlines for Tuesday, September 29, 2015. In Israel 2015, September 29^th is ‘the first day of Chol HaMoed’. ‘Chol HaMoed’ is an important 6-day (in Israel) “interlude” that marks the middle of Succot. The headlines below tell you how Arabs treat the Jewish religion—and the Jewish people—on this first day of ‘Chol HaMoed’:

-“ PM: Armed ‘Palestinians' Violating Temple Mount Status Quo”, Arutz Sheva, September 29, 2015.

-“ Jerusalem: Jewish Youth Attacked by Arabs - Then Arrested [by Israeli police, for defending himself]”, Arutz Sheva, September 29, 2015.

-“ Jerusalem: Two Arab Women Arrested for Harassing Jews”, Arutz Sheva, September 29, 2015.

- “Jerusalem: Arab Teen Arrested for Throwing Stones at Bus”, Arutz Sheva, September 29, 2015.

-“ Watch: Arab MK Goes Berserk on Temple Mount”, Arutz Sheva, September 29, 2015.

-“ Watch: Muslim Mob Pounces on Terrified Jewish Children”, Arutz Sheva, September 29, 2015.

-“ Eastern Jerusalem Arab Youth Arrested for Throwing Stones”, Arutz Sheva, September 29. 2015.

-“ Watch: Angry Muslims Protest as Jews Visit the Kotel”, Arutz Sheva, September 29, 2015.

-“ Hamas: All of Israel is Ours”, Arutz Sheva, September 29, 2015.

Hamas and Fatah hate Jews with a racist hatred. They riot during our holiday of joy specifically to express that hatred. They riot to prove they ‘own’ this place. With a peculiarly violent arrogance, they riot to show you they can do anything they want in Jerusalem.

Does anyone care about these riots, stoning attacks and assaults against Jews on religious holiday?  Does anyone question the religious hatred implicit in these attacks?

Tell me what would happen if Jews attacked Catholics on Easter Sunday? What would happen if Jews attacked Christians during the week of xmas? Would the nations remain so silence?

What would happen if Jews in America attacked blacks on the streets during Black history month?

What would happen if, during a Muslim holiday in America, Jews attacked Muslims? Would there be no outcry?

For those blacks and Muslims, there would be much outcry. The entire world would scream in anger.

Do you see what has happened when Jews in Jerusalem are attacked during a religious holiday? The world is silent.

The Jews of Jerusalem live in G-d’s Holy city. They live at the spiritual center of the world.

Muslims attack Jews in the Holiest Jewish city in the world and the gentiles of the world say nothing? That silence suggests tacit approval.

Do you notice the silence?

The nations don’t care if Jews are attacked. They don’t care if G-d’s Holy City is stoned. If they did care, they’d speak up.

Everything that happens in Israel today is about the Final Jewish Redemption. Those Muslim attacks against Jews in Jerusalem are part of the Final Redemption process. So is the nations’ silence over those attacks.  

Take another look at the headlines above. Those attacks have two purposes, both related to Redemption.

One purpose is to send a Muslim message to Jews: stay away from Jerusalem. Leave it. Abandon it.

That Muslim message is a pre-Redemption test. Does it frighten you? Does it prompt you to cancel your trip to Israel—or, worse, to cancel your aliyah plans?

Redemption isn’t about cancelling your plans. It isn’t about listening to Muslim messages.

It’s about standing up to shout, ‘this land is mine!…How dare you attack us?’

Yes, it’s about Redemption. If you want Redemption, you don’t cringe in fear. You don’t cancel anything.

That brings us to the second purpose of those dreadful headlines: the second purpose of those headlines is a Jewish Redemption message. That message is clear: listen to the Muslim hate—and then stand up for what’s yours!

It’s about Redemption, not fear.

The Doomsday of Israel's Left--and HaShem

Want to see an optimistic pessimist? Look at Israeli Leftists—and those who support a Leftist political vision for Israel. They believe with great optimism that Israel is doomed.

They believe with great faith in two things. First, HaShem plays no role whatsoever in what happens in Israel; and, second, Israel is doomed if it doesn’t endorse a ‘two state solution’.

These optimists see Israel through a pessimistic prism. They look at numbers and facts—and draw conclusions which, in the long run, prove false.

These anti-Israel Israeli Leftists remind one of what the motivational writer Zig Ziglar is reported to have said about the bumblebee: an engineer can prove to you that a bumblebee cannot fly. Its wings are too short and its body too big. But the bumblebee still flies.

Leftists—and, again, those who support a Leftist vision of Israel—are like the engineers who would deny the bumblebee’s ability to fly. They say Israel is too small to support a Jewish state. Israel has too many Arabs. Israel has too few Jews. Israel is doomed in the future unless it capitulates today.

Leftists conclude that if Israel doesn’t agree to create a new state of ‘Palestine’ out of the Jewish Judea-Samaria, Israel will never remain a democratic, Jewish state (Sergio Della Pergola, as quoted by Ariel Zellman, “The Democratic Challenge”, insp, 2013). Arab birth rates are so much higher than Jewish rates, they argue, Israel is destined to lose its Jewish majority (ibid). Arabs will so outnumber Jews, they’ll simply use the ballot box to take over Israel.

The Left (and its friends) cite World Bank data (ibid) to prove their point. They cite the propagandistic ‘Palestinian Bureau of Statistics’ (“Palestinians Will Outnumber Jews In Israel By 2020″ (NOT)”, israelstreet. org, January 3, 2013). They cite their own Leftist friends (“Palestinians Now Outnumber Jews in Israel/Palestine”, liveleaknews, October 17, 2012).

Poor Israel. If it doesn’t immediately surrender holy Jewish ancestral homeland to those who seek to destroy it, it will destroy itself tomorrow.

This has been a prime Leftist argument for Israel to commit national suicide. Don’t wait to be destroyed by your enemies; take your future into your own hands: destroy yourself now by volunteering to shrink your borders to indefensible borders!

Since few outside the Left accept this Arabs-will-outbirth-you argument, Israel’s Left is trying a new doomsday argument. According to Leftist Alon Tal, it’s not the Arab birth-rate that’ll kill Israel, it’s the combination of both the Arab and the Jewish birth rates that’ll destroy Israel (“Israel's soaring population: Promised Land running out of room?”, Jerusalem Post, September 26, 2015).

The new anti-Israel mantra is no longer ‘birth rate’. It’s ‘population density’.

The argument works like this: today, Israel has a population density of 352 people per square kilometre (ibid). By 2059, that density will increase to (as much as) 880 per square kilometre.

Leftists want you to be frightened. Israel is a small country. This increase in density, they claim, threatens Israel. Israel can’t sustain such a population density (ibid). Israel is “on the road to an ecological, social and quality of life disaster” (ibid).

The Left is frightened by this ‘discovery’. But according to the World Bank’s own numbers (in a survey different from that cited by Israel’s Left), a density of 880 people per square kilometre doesn’t come close to meeting the ‘life-threatening-disaster’ criteria cited by Israel’s Left.

You see, Israel’s future density projection pales beside some current density numbers for countries that also have limited space. But few have written the kind of eulogies for those countries Israel’s Left would write for Israel.

For example, as of 2014, Bahrain has a population density of 1,792 per square kilometre, more than twice that of Israel’s future projection. Bangladesh has a density of 1,222 per sq kilometre. Bermuda has a density of 1,304 per… Hong Kong has a density number of 6,897 per square kilometre, almost eight times greater than the Left’s future projection for Israel.

Then there’s Macao. Its density number is 19, 328 per square kilometre, almost 22 times that of the Left’s Doomsday estimate for Israel.  

Macao is still ‘alive’.

Maldives’ density is 1,191. Malta is 1,136. Monaco is 18,812 (not a misprint).  Singapore has a density of 7,814 per square kilometre.

Israel’s Left isn’t dismayed by such numbers. They’re optimistic. Once Israel’s density reaches 880 per square kilometre, it’ll be doomed.

Actually, they’re right. Israel is doomed—if you don’t believe in HaShem. Israel’s like that bumblebee. It can’t survive. It’s too this; and, worse, it’s too that—just like the bumblebee.

Perhaps that’s why HaShem created the bumblebee—to teach us that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

It’s too bad Israel’s Left rejects HaShem. If it believed in HaShem, it would know why Israel exists, survives and thrives: this is the land of HaShem; this is the Land of miracles.

It’s the land HaShem Himself gave to us. It’s ours, forever.

Does Obama+Iran = treason+genocide?

Here’s an essay that may require a strong stomach to read. It’s “Obama’s Genocidal Treason”, frontpagemag, September 24, 2015, by essayist Daniel Greenfield. I’ve edited it.

I want you to tell me what you think of it:

“No government has the blood of more American soldiers on its hands today than the government of Iran. From Lebanon to Afghanistan to Saudi Arabia to Iraq, Iran has been killing American soldiers for decades.

241 in Beirut. 19 at the Khobar Towers. Over 500 in Iraq and Afghanistan. The last time the United States officially fought Iran was under Reagan. But Iran has never stopped killing Americans. There’s no reason to believe that this killing will stop once Iran has the nuclear weapons that Obama is helping it obtain.

The last time left-wing radicals helped an open enemy of the United States go nuclear, they were put on trial. The sentencing judge at the time said that because “the nature of Russian terrorism is now self-evident” it was now impossible to claim no harm had been done.

“I believe your conduct in putting into the hands of the Russians the A-bomb years before our best scientists predicted Russia would perfect the bomb has already caused, in my opinion, the Communist aggression in Korea, with the resultant casualties exceeding 50,000 and who knows but that millions more of innocent people may pay the price of your treason. Indeed, by your betrayal you undoubtedly have altered the course of history to the disadvantage of our country,” Judge Kaufman stated. 

These words of the Rosenberg verdict apply equally well to Obama’s betrayal on Iran. What the Rosenbergs did for Stalin, Obama does for the Ayatollah Khamenei.

Obama’s dirty nuclear deal with Iran has already empowered Iran’s aggression across the region. The more concessions Obama, Hillary Clinton and John Kerry have made, the more aggressive Iran has become.

If Iran is allowed to go nuclear, its aggression will become much worse and much more devastating.

This isn’t a Chamberlain story. It’s Vidkun Quisling and Philippe Pétain.

It’s not bad judgment. It’s treason.

Obama doesn't appease Iran; he sympathizes with its anti-American grievances. As he told his negotiators, Iran’s rulers feel “vulnerable” because of how America “meddled” in “their democracy” and that its anti-Americanism is a “defensive” reaction to “avoid repeats of the past.”

Obama identifies with the anti-American resentments of Muslim terrorists instead of the suffering of their victims. His foreign policy has been based on empowering the enemies of the United States to turn their grievances into a “defense” against American influence and intervention. He has done it from Cuba to Iran, backing Communist and Muslim Brotherhood tyrants. But his Iranian deal is his bloodiest crime.

An Iranian nuclear bomb isn’t just a weapon. It’s an instrument of genocide. It’s an existential threat to our civilization. The spies who helped the USSR go nuclear weren’t just passing along information about a weapon; they transformed a military conflict into a permanent global crisis in which the very fate of humanity rested on the whims of brutal aging ideologues in Moscow.

By clearing Iran’s path to the bomb, Obama has transformed the slow conflicts of conventional terrorism into a catastrophic civilizational crisis. An Iranian nuclear bomb will not sneak up on us the way that the demographic crisis of Muslim migration and its accompanying terrorism have. It will not be an incremental problem. A nuclear arms race between Sunnis and Shiites in which terrorists on both sides wield nuclear weapons will make the entire structure of Western civilization unsustainable.

9/11 saw a few jets used to devastate a city. The next wave of weapons will kill millions, not thousands.

The traitors who turned the USSR into a power capable of destroying the world were motivated by the same hidden agenda as the proponents of the Iran nuclear deal. They believed that an American nuclear monopoly would lead to arrogance and warmongering. They were convinced that American power had to be checked.

Those who have opened the nuclear gates to Tehran today believe that a nuclear Iran will be a deterrent against American imperialism. Their number includes Barack Obama.

After having failed with the Muslim Brotherhood, Obama intends to make Iranian power into a deterrent against future military interventions by a Republican successor. If he can get “Tehran Joe” Biden, a notorious sympathizer of the Iran Lobby, to watch the store while Iran goes nuclear, Iran will dominate the region the way that the Soviet Union dominated Eastern Europe.

Obama’s terrorist treason gambles that Iran will be “rational”. He gambles that Iran’s leaders will be Khrushchevs, political and cautious, rather than Stalins, willing to kill millions for a murderous ideology.

Leftist appeasers of Iran, in and out of the administration, obsessively cling to the belief that the Islamic regime in Iran is rational. They rationalize their treason by insisting that Iran’s leaders and fevered mobs don’t really mean it when they shriek, “Death to America”.

If Iran’s leader did mean it, Obama and his friends could be accessories to genocide.

Obama’s Iran pathway has rationalized treason at every step, made every compromise seem inevitable and reasonable, and minimized the final catastrophic betrayal by presenting his version of a nuclear Iran as the only possible choice. Like Benedict Arnold, he whittled away all other options except defeat or treason so as to make the latter seem like the sensible and patriotic choice.

Stalin’s nuclear traitors used the same logic.  By rationalizing each betrayal as the only alternative to war, they forced us to raise our children under a shadow of nuclear annihilation.  

Obama has done the same thing. He’s betrayed America. He’s betrayed the American victims of Iranian terror. He’s betrayed American soldiers who were murdered, maimed and tortured by Iran’s terrorist armies. He’s betrayed hundreds of millions of Americans in the homeland who will now be forced to raise their children under the shadow of Iran’s nuclear terror.

For the first time since the end of the Cold War, Obama makes the mass murder of millions of Americans by a vicious enemy possible once again.

This US president has impoverished millions of Americans. He has the blood of soldiers and police officers on his hands. But his final legacy may be far worse—a collaboration in acts of mass murder that would rival Adolf Hitler”.

These are very, very strong words. Is this essayist correct?

Has Barack Obama committed treason? Does such treason open the door to genocide against America?

You'll have to decide for yourself.

(you can read the original at the website frontpagemag)

Arabs and the UN prepare for Yom Kippur

The Jewish Holy Day of Yom Kippur is about choices. Through prayer and repentance, we get the opportunity to choose life.

Humans have choices. Nations have choices. The UN has choices. Through actions, everyone chooses life or death, blessing or curse.

The Arab world chooses. It chooses disintegration. At the very least, Yemen, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon drown themselves in their own blood. The Palestinian Authority is so corrupt, its own citizens speak of a future ‘Palestine’ as a ‘police state’  (Mudar Zahram, “The Palestinians Are Afraid of Abbas’ State”, Lib Dem Friends of Israel, January 12, 2015).

Arabs don’t choose democracy. They don’t choose freedom. They choose oppression.  

The UN also chooses. It chooses to ignore Arab oppression.

In each of the four Arab countries above, the political choice-du-jour is Islamic terror. It’s a terror that focuses primarily on its own citizens.

The UN doesn’t care. We know it doesn’t care because it doesn’t act against those internal national terror campaigns.

Look at the war in Syria. Look at Iraq.

The UN has made its choice. It won’t choose life.

The Arab world makes a mockery of the United Nations’ effort to help humanity. The UN says it is dedicated to helping humanity (“The Millennium Development Goals Report, 2015”, un. Org). But Islamic terror kills with a horrifying inhumanity. 

The UN doesn’t care. It does virtually nothing about the   terror. It’s made its choice.

Look at what the Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaims as a right of every human being. Read the list—and you’ll see what Islamic terror takes away from the humanity it controls:

-the right to personal security (Article 3);

-the right not to be enslaved (Article 4);

-the right not to be tortured (Article 5);

-the right to equal protection under the law without discrimination (Article 7);

-freedom from arbitrary arrest, detention or exile (Article 9);

-the right to a full, fair, public, independent and impartial legal hearing for crimes (Article 10);

-the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty (Article 11);

-the right to privacy (Article 12);

-the right to equal rights in a marriage (Article 16);

-the right to retain one’s own property; the right not to be deprived of that property (Article 17);

-the right to practice one’s own religion (Article 18);

-the right to express one’s thoughts freely (Article 19);

-the right to assemble peacefully (Article 20);

-the right to have equal access to public services (Article 21);

-the right to receive equal pay for equal work, without discrimination (Article 23);

-the right to a standard of living adequate for the health (Article 25);

-the right to education (Article 26).

When Sharia law is imposed by Islamic terrorists, virtually every one of these rights is erased. The UN does almost nothing.  

The UN created the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It says it believes in ‘human rights’. It tells the world it’s a bastion for human rights and equality (Joseph E. Katz, “Record of the United Nations, why is it so anti-Israel”, EretzYisroel. Org).

It doesn’t give Israel equality. It demonizes Israel (ibid).

The UN chooses. The one state the UN chooses to vilify repeatedly is the world’s only Jewish state.  

In 2006/7, the UN made a choice for humanity. It created the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC). Through that Council, the UN said it would watch over the world.

In its first year of existence (2007), the UNHRC made a choice. It voted 10 times to condemn, express regret over or otherwise ‘express concern over’ supposed Israeli human rights violations. But it refused to condemn human rights violations in any of the world’s other 191 countries (“Anti-Israel Resolutions at the HRC”, unwatch. org). The UNHRC has made that choice every year.

The UN doesn’t care about helping humankind. It cares only about the Jews.

The UN ignores most of humanity. It ignores most human rights violators.

It cares only about Jews.

Some will say the UN must focus so obsessively on Israel because Israel is such an egregious international ‘criminal’. For example, during the 60-day 2014 Gaza-Israel war the UN cried with anguish over the death of 2,200 ‘civilian’ Gazans, including 540 children. UN ‘humanitarians’ savaged Israel for those deaths.

Meanwhile, some 291 children were killed every month in Syria in 2014 (Rick Gladstone and Mohammad Ghannam, “Syria Deaths Hit New High in 2014, Observer Group Says”, New York Times, January 1, 2015). That means that more children were killed in 60 days in Syria than in the 60-day war in Gaza: In 2014, 3,500 Syrian children were killed (ibid).

The UN didn’t care about those 3,500 children. It cared only about the 540 Gazan children. No one wrung his hands over Syrian children.  

To the UN, Jews are killers. Since its modern reconstitution in 1948, the Jewish state has killed more than 35,000 Muslims. Surely, the Jews should be savaged for those deaths, right?

It doesn’t matter that these Muslims died because they were trying to destroy Israel. What matters is, the Jews killed them.

Question: if those who kill 35,000 between 1948-2008 should be savaged, what should you do with those who killed 11,000,000 in the same time period?

That’s how many Muslims were killed by other Muslims in the same 1948-2008 timeframe (Gunnar Heinsohn and Daniel Pipes, “11 million Muslim-on-Muslim killings since 1948 (Statistics)”, The Muslim Issue, September 24, 2013).

The UN doesn’t care. It chooses to cry over the 35,000 killed by Israel. It chooses to ignore the 11,000,000 killed by Muslims.

The UN chooses to ignore killers of millions. It chooses to demonize Jews who kill because they’ll die if they don’t defend themselves.

Since New Year’s eve 5776 (September 13, 2015), Arabs riot in Jerusalem. They curse Judaism. They attack Jews. They praise Muslims who might be killed rioting against Jews on the Temple Mount as holy ones who will rewarded by the Islamic god (“Abbas: Blood of ‘martyrs’ spilled on Temple Mount is ‘pure’”, Times of Israel, September 17, 2015). Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas welcomes every drop of [Muslim] blood spilled in Jerusalem in their Muslim war against Jews (Video: “'We welcome every drop of blood spilled in Jerusalem'”, Israel Matzav, September 22, 2015).

The UN publishes that all humans have the right to freely practice their religion (Article 18, above). But Jews aren’t included in those rights. They must be forbidden from stepping onto their holiest site on earth—because, Muslims declare, Jewish feet are on that holy site are ‘filthy’ (Lea Speyer, “Abbas Vows to Stop “Filthy Feet” of Jews from Stepping Foot on Temple Mount”, breakingIsraelnews, September, 18, 2015). 

On Rosh Hashanna, humans and nations are judged (The Complete ArtScroll Mahzor, Rosh Hashannah, nusach Sefard,Mesorah publications,Brooklyn, NY, 1986, p.454). On Yom Kippur, those judgments are finalized (sealed). For nations, that means he who blesses Israel will be blessed; he who curses Israel will be cursed.

The Arabs and the UN prepare for Yom Kippur.

G-d, Yom Kippur and Jewish behaviour

Shabbat Shuva was Saturday, September 19, 2015. That’s the one Shabbat each year that always falls between Rosh Hashanna (the Jewish New Year) and the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement). 

Shabbat Shuva means, ‘Sabbath of Return’. The word Shuva refers specifically to ‘a religious return’. It speaks of ‘repentance’. By repenting our sins, we return to G-d.

The ten days between Rosh Hashanna and Yom Kippur (this year, September 23, 2015) are about preparing for judgment. Shabbat Shuva is part of that preparation. When Shabbat Shuva ends, we understand that Yom Kippur—and G-d’s judgment—is very close.

Some Jews have a problem with G-d. He’s not visible. They say if they can’t see Him, He doesn’t exist.

They don’t understand that G-d is purposefully hidden. They don’t know about a Jewish concept called, Haster Panim, (the ‘hidden face’).

Too many Jews don’t understand the Biblical link between G-d hiding his ‘face’ and our behaviour. They don’t understand there’s a reason G-d is hidden.  

On September 19, 2015, we read the weekly Torah portion called, Va’yeilech (D’varim, 31: 1-30). The only references in the Tanach (the Jewish Bible) to ‘Haster Panim’ (G-d hides His ‘face’) appear in this one Torah portion.

The concept of Haster Panim appears in two p‘sukim (sentences), (D’varim, 31:17-18). In these sentences, Haster Panim is linked to punishment: Israel will forsake HaShem; it will ‘annul’ its covenant with Him. Therefore, HaShem will hide his ‘face’. Israel will suffer.

‘Haster Panim’ (G-d hides His ‘face’) is about cause and effect. It’s about behaviour-and-punishment.

It’s more than a concept. It’s a reality. It’s our reality. We know that from our prayers—and our history.

We see that in our Rosh Hashanna, Yom Kippur and other holiday prayers (in the Musaf service). Those prayers say, “Because of our sins we were exiled from our land”.

Exile is punishment. That punishment has almost always been administered by the nations.

Our current exile began 1,945 years ago. That’s when G-d hid His ‘face’ from us.

It’s still hidden.

Jews don’t like that. They don’t understand the link between our rebellion and the fact that G-d hides His ‘face’ as a consequence of that rebellion.

When G-d punishes us by hiding His ‘face’ from us (D’varaim 31:17-18), we react. Our Torah (ibid) tells us exactly how we do that: we blame G-d for our self-induced woes.

We say our troubles come because G-d is absent (a loose translation of 31:17, above). We claim, in other words, that we suffer because G-d walked away from us. We blame our sorrows on Him, not our behaviour.

Today, many complain, that G-d doesn’t help us because he’s absent. He’s absent, they say, because He doesn’t exist.

The Jewish Commentator Malbim (1809-1879) anticipated that complaint. He says it’s wrong. G-d’s absence is not proof He doesn’t exist. It’s proof He does exist.

It’s proof He exists because of these two Biblical sentences (D’varim, above). These sentences set the stage for that proof. They predict the future.

We’ll rebel against G-d. G-d will punish us by hiding His ‘face’ from us. When G-d hides, we’ll say he doesn’t exist.   

But of course, we suffer because we walk away from Him. He told us we would do that. He promised we would suffer. He promised He would ‘hide’ from us. He predicted we would blame Him.

That’s exactly how some Jews behave.

They’re so predictable, these Jews. They betray Israel. They work to destroy Israel. They hate the Torah. They hate G-d.

When G-d doesn’t protect them, they’re shocked. They cry out at G-d, ‘how DARE you?’ They claim that if G-d won’t protect them even as they sin, He doesn’t exist.

Our Tanach teaches us repeatedly that’s not a recipe for success. It’s a recipe for disaster.

Yom Kippur is Wednesday, September 23, 2015. During these days between Rosh Hashanna and Yom Kippur, we have the opportunity to recalibrate how we relate to our G-d before we stand before Him. We should recalibrate carefully because the nations are eager to punish us. They’re eager to bring evil upon Israel.

The Jewish people live with a Jewish-only formula. If we sin, G-d will hide His face and the nations will punish us.

Yes, the formula is far more complex than that. But this is part of it. We can’t reject G-d’s covenant. We can’t do whatever we want.

It doesn’t work that way in Judaism.

The nations validate that truth. Their successes against us should remind us of our rebellion, not G-d’s absence.

We have to recalibrate. We have to reboot. We have to change how we relate to G-d.

Return to HaShem.

If we return to Him, He will return to us: His ‘face’ will no longer be hidden.

Then, our Redemption will begin.

 

In America, it’s now the ‘f---ing Jews’

In America, Jews are a minority. They’re not Christian.  They’re often pro-Israel. How does that sit with America’s mainstream media (msm)?

That’s a tough question. One reason it’s so difficult to answer is the nature of today’s media.

Modern media is no longer a reliable news source. It doesn’t tell the truth. It’s become a propaganda machine.

It doesn’t digest the news for your benefit. It cooks the news, the better to manipulate you.  

It shapes the news. It manages the news according to the point of view it believes readers want to—or should--see.

As in war, the first casualty in such a ‘news process’ is truth. Objective news isn’t a goal—that won’t shape how readers think.  What’s important today is the ‘narrative’ you see; when a provider can shape the news to that ‘narrative’, it has the power to create a readership that loves every (predictable) word it writes.  

If the provider can make the news riveting—with a bad guy you can boo—prospects for success jump: readers love a good story.

That’s how America’s msm uses Israel and the Jews—to shape a story. Israel and the Jews don’t exist to tell the world the truth about Muslim Jew-hate. It uses Israel and the Jews to sell a predictable ‘narrative’ about bad versus good, Israel versus Arab.

The narrative is almost always the same. Israel is the bad guy, always harming others; Jews are a threat, always, in some way, manipulative, controlling others.

We saw this narrative—and its ugly consequence--at work at a CNN Republican Presidential candidate debate on Wednesday night, September 16, 2015. According to the ratings, the debate was a ‘smash hit’ (Matt Wilstein, “CNN Debate Gives Network Its Highest Ratings Ever”, mediaite. com, September 17, 2015).

As millions watched (ibid), several candidates referred to Israel in positive terms. These repeated references offended one of America’s ‘star pundits’, Conservative Ann Coulter. While Republican candidates reaffirmed their support for Israel in their closing statements, Coulter tweeted, “how many f—king Jews do these people think there are in the United States?” (Karol Markowicz, “How Ann Coulter Made It Kosher To Hate Jews”, forward, September 17, 2015). Her comment supposedly caused an uproar. It didn’t.

Instead, it brought out pro-Coulter defenders, many of them echoing two ideas:  (1)“Lots of people agree with her. She should stand tough and not grovel before the kikes. Kikes don't care what you call them as long as they're making money. The more the kikes bitch, the more people turn against them” (“Ann Coulter has her Mel Gibson moment,” vnnforum, September 17, 2015); and, (2) “Coulter has a strong enough following to do a Glenn Beck and start her own media empire” (ibid).  

The next day (Thursday, September 17, 2015), Coulter assessed the supposed uproar she’d caused. She tweeted, “Boy were they wrong @ Jewish influence! I complained about pandering on Israel (Reagan & abortion) & haven’t heard a thing about it!” (Markowicz, ibid).

Coulter says she likes Jews—and Israel (ibid). But her comment about ‘f—king Jews’ didn’t suggest that. It suggested what her many defenders revealed: Jew-hate, Israel-bashing and Holocaust-denial.

It was ugly. She’d used her position as a public professional to open an extremely dangerous door (virulent anti-Semitism).

Her comment hardly caused a blip on the news. USA Today said her comment received (only) ‘mixed results’ (Mary Bowerman, “Ann Coulter rants about 'Jews' and Israel during GOP debate”, September 17, 2015). A search on the New York Times site came up blank. Ditto for the Washington Post.

Coulter used gutter language to vilify Jews. No one cared. But when Donald Trump didn’t verbally attack a questioner at a campaign stop the day after the CNN debate, msm went nuts. Trump’s non-attack against a man who called US President Barack Obama a Muslim was termed ‘racist’ (Josh Feldman, “DNC Pounces on Trump Muslim Question Uproar: His 'Racism Knows No Bounds'”, mediaite, September 17, 2015). He was called ‘gutless (Josh Feldman, “Anderson Cooper Trashes Trump: Didn't Have 'Guts' to Rebuke Anti-Muslim 'Loudmouth'”, mediate, September 17, 2015).

In the firestorm that followed his non-response to the Muslim reference, Trump was thoroughly raked over the coals (Josh Feldman, “Matthews Rips Trump's 'Racist Crap' After Rally Question About Getting Rid of Muslims”, mediaite, September 17, 2015). But, you may notice, when Ann Coulter referred to Jews as ‘f—king Jews’, no one in the media rushed to accuse her of anything.

American Jews, beware. Muslims are protected. They’re off limits. But you’ve just been re-classified. You’re no longer ‘Jews’. You’re now, ‘f—king Jews’.

If you’ve ever been assaulted on the street by a Jew-hating thug, you understand clearly what those two words really, really mean.

Are you listening?

Here’s some advice: pick up, pack up and come home. Israel wants you. Increasingly now, America doesn’t.

Why Destroy Israel? It saves too many lives

The anti-Israel movement has become the front line for Jew-hate (Simon Plosker, “Anti-Semitism and Terror Flags on Display at London Anti-Israel Demo”, HonestReporting, September 10, 2015). The anti-Israel industry has made Jew-hate acceptable.

That’s why it’s okay for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement to call for economic war against Israel. It’s okay to wage economic war against Israel (Nitsan Keidar, “EP [European Parliament] Decides to Label Golan, Judea and Samaria Products”, Arutz Sheva, September 10, 2015).

It’s also okay to demonize Israel (Rachel Avraham, “Goal of the BDS Movement: Delegitimize Israel”, UnitedwithIsrael, July 10, 2013). It’s okay to call for the destruction of Israel (Ari Yashar, “Iran's 'Death to Israel Day' Coincides with Nuke Deal Deadline”, Arutz Sheva, July 8, 2015). It’s okay to call for the killing of Jews (“Austrian Prosecutor: Call to Kill Jews is Legitimate Form of Protesting Against Israel”, TheTower, February 12, 2015).

It’s okay to want to destroy Israel.

There are more than fifty Muslim states in the world. There’s only one Jewish state. But for some, that’s one Jewish state too many.

Iran wants to annihilate the Jewish state (Stuart Winer and Marissa Newman, “Iran supreme leader touts 9-point plan to destroy Israel”, Times of Israel, November 10, 2014). Hamas wants to destroy the Jewish state (“The Covenant of the Hamas—Main points”, fas.org/irp/world/para/docs, no date). The Islamic Mufti of Jerusalem wants to kill Jews within that Jewish state (Daniel Siryoti and Shlomo Cesana, “Israel to probe Jerusalem mufti's call to kill Jews”, Israel Hayom, January 22, 2012).

Many NGO’s (non-government organizations) want the same thing. They’re funded by nations, international unions, church groups and human rights organizations. They work to defame Israel. They work to destroy Israel (Denis MacEoin, “The NGO Campaign to Destroy Israel”, gatestone institute, July 17, 2015).

How does Israel respond? Instead of spitting hate, it saves lives.

Whenever a major natural disaster hits a nation, Israel doesn’t just send canned food or bottled water. It sends unique state-of-the art field hospitals (staffed by Israelis), equipped with innovative therapies, medical devices and technologies developed to help serve the injured in out-of-the way, often hard-to-reach places (Maya Yarowsky, “How Israeli Life-Saving Tech Is Leading Rescue Efforts In Nepal”, nocamels, April 30, 2015). Israel brings to these devastated locations breakthrough ideas including, for example, something called, ‘powered plasma’, an Israeli invention that allows for infinite supplies of blood that don’t need to be refrigerated (ibid)—a blessing in places where electricity has been cut.

But these unique, high-tech hospitals aren’t the only Jewish life-saving medical miracles from Israel. Israel’s a major medical innovator. It's got more than 1,000 companies doing Research and Development for healthcare and life science products (Abigale Klein Leichman, “The top 12 most amazing Israeli medical advances”, israel21c, October 15, 2013).

Here’s a short list of some of Israel’s latest life-saving miracles:

-specialized robotics to help paraplegics stand, walk, climb stairs--and participate in a 26-mile marathon;

-the world’s first ‘pillcam’, a camera the size and shape of a pill, swallowed as part of an endoscopic exam;

-specialized drugs to prevent deadly infections in patients with compromised immune systems (“Once Again, Israeli Discoveries Promise Medical Breakthrough”, unitedwithisrael, January 12, 2015), and to treat Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, Type 1 Gaucher's disease and a variety of cancers;

-a breakthrough discovery that would allow early detection, and possibly prevention, of colon and uterine cancers (ibid);

-a system to correct severe curvature of the spine (scoliosis) that minimizes risks, scar size, complications, recovery time and cost (Leichman, above, ibid);

-stem-cell therapy products to treat blood cancers, solid tumors, autoimmune diseases, genetic metabolic diseases and non-malignant blood diseases such as sickle-cell anemia (ibid);

-a technique to remove benign breast lumps in a 10-minute ultrasound-guided procedure that penetrates the tumor and engulfs it with ice (ibid)—a treatment that can be done in a doctor’s office;

-a unique, FDA-approved single-use needle for painless delivery of vaccines into the skin using semiconductor technology (ibid);

-a blood-flow diverter to redirect blood flow from a brain aneurysm (a bulge in a weak artery wall), so that a stable clot can form, thereby reducing the danger that a potentially fatal aneurysm could rupture (ibid);

According to at least one estimate, perhaps as much as half the world’s population has had its lifespan extended in one way or another by a variety of Israeli innovations (Michael Ordman, “If it wasn’t for Israel you might not be alive”, Jerusalem Post, January 5, 2012). These innovations include new cancer treatments, new medical advances, humanitarian aid (that high-tech field hospital, above, for example) and extraordinary agricultural innovations (ibid).

For example, across the globe, a growing number of nations face a spreading water crisis that threatens life and food-production. Israel--a desert environment--has a water surplus.

Israel is the world’s first water superpower (Abigail Klein Leichman, “Israel holds solutions to world water crisis”, Israel21c, September 16, 2015). Israel has developed advanced irrigation technologies, dual-flush toilets, seawater desalination, advanced wastewater treatment and reuse, drought-resistant seeds, cutting-edge metering and leak-detection systems (ibid). Already, 150 countries have turned to Israel for help managing water shortages (ibid).

Israel saves lives. It horrifies the anti-Israel movement to consider how many lives Israel saves.

They hate Israel. They want you to believe the world will be far better off with (G-d forbid) no Israel (Josef Joffe, “A world without Israel,” foreignpolicy, October 22, 2009).

They’re wrong. Without Israel, tens of millions would die each year.

Go ahead. Join the Jew-hate. Throw away you cell phones, computers, video cams, heart medicine, GPS apps, cancer treatments, diabetes treatments, water supply technologies, etc.

Demand that Israel be erased! Join the call to kill Jews!

You’ll create a New World. After a while, you’ll be able to call that New World, ‘The New Dark Ages’.

The G-d of Israel has a Story for you. It’s the Story of the Final Jewish Redemption. Do you doubt that Israel’s miracles are part of that Story?

Stay tuned.

Rosh Hashanna: when the nations are judged

(This is a re-write of an essay that originally appeared September 24, 2014)

The Jewish New Year of 5776 begins at sundown on September 13, 2015. This two-day period is called, Rosh Hashanna. It’s also called, the ‘Day of Judgment’.

Our Heritage talks about that judgment. It teaches that each of us will pass before HaShem as sheep pass before a shepherd. It teaches also that nations will be judged (Rabbi Pinchas Kasnett, “Abarbanel on the Parsha: Parshat Emor, ohrsomayach, May 3, 2014).  

We have to guess how nations are judged on Rosh Hashanna. But we don’t have to guess what will happen to them on their Final Judgment.

At that time, they will pass before HaShem (our G-d), one at a time, perhaps just like us (Avodah Zarah 2a-b).

The first nation to appear before HaShem will be the most prominent among them, Rome. Rome is the ‘forefather’ of the modern West.

Ancient Rome created the Jewish exile we now live through. The modern Roman West creates and supports much of the anti-Jewish agitation we see almost every day in the news.

The ancient Rome was responsible for the destruction of our beloved Jerusalem. The modern Rome was responsible for the Holocaust that murdered 6 million Jews, killing perhaps 3,600 Jews a day for perhaps five years.

This Rome will stand before HaShem. It will tell HaShem it deserves reward, not punishment for its deeds. It will say, ‘we have established many marketplaces. We have constructed many bath houses. We have amassed much silver and gold’ (ibid, 2b).

Rome will argue, ‘we have done all of this for the benefit of the Jew. Because of our actions, Jews were able to involve themselves with Torah study’ (ibid, 2b).

To this claim, HaShem will reply, your actions did indeed benefit the Jewish people. Your efforts did help Jews involve themselves with Torah study. But that wasn’t your intention. Whatever you have done was done for yourselves only, for your own interests. Your motivations for your efforts were not altruistic.

HaShem will tell Rome, you established markets, but not for Jews. You did that for your own commercial interests—and to create places for prostitutes. Your bath houses were mostly for you, to ‘luxuriate yourselves in them’ (ibid).

HaShem will judge Rome. He will tell Rome, your actions do not merit reward.

Think about how Western nations have treated Jews over the last 2,000 years. Think about how the West still vilifies the Jewish people. Think about how HaShem might judge them, based upon the evidence he sees from those 2,000 years.

The next nation to stand before HaShem will be Persia—Iran. HaShem will ask, ‘in what did you involve yourselves?’ (ibid,2b).

Persia (Iran) will reply, we constructed many bridges. We have conquered many cities. We have fought many defensive wars. We have done all this for the Jews, so that they should be able to involve themselves with Torah study (ibid).

HaShem will reject Persia’s argument. He will tell Persia, ‘whatever you have done, you have done for yourselves only. You constructed bridges to collect tolls from those who used those bridges. You conquered many cities not for Jews, but in order to press their citizens and livestock into serving your kings. The wars you have waged were possible only because I allowed them to be fought’ (ibid).

HaShem will judge Persia-Iran. He will say, your actions do not merit rewards.

The Persians, our Heritage tells us (ibid, 2b), will be shocked. They will expect reward because, they will argue, they weren’t Rome.

You see, Rome had destroyed the Jews’ last Temple (70 CE). The Persians, however, had allowed the Jews to return to their homeland with Ezra (perhaps 510 BCE), to rebuild the first Temple, which had been destroyed by the Babylonians.

Nevertheless, Persia-Iran will not merit reward. Indeed, think about how modern Iran speaks of Israel today. Will this modern anti-Semitic Persia be rewarded for how it treats the Jewish people—or punished?

Other nations will follow. Each will plead its case before G-d. Each will argue that it had worked to benefit the Jews. Each will praise its own secular accomplishments. Each will claim that Jews clearly benefited from those accomplishments. Each will argue that its actions and behaviour merit reward, not punishment (ibid).

They will all compare themselves to Rome. They will all say, ‘we are not Rome. We never destroyed the Holy Temple’. Each will claim that it never subjugated the Jewish people—certainly not like Rome has done.

HaShem will reject their claims. We learn from this rejection that He will judge them all by one standard: the way each treated the Jewish people (see ibid, 2b, the notes in the ArtScroll Avodah Zara Shottenstein Edition).

Their behaviour towards the Jewish nation will determine their fate. As they treated Jews, so, too, now, will they be rewarded--or punished. Think about how the nations treat Jews. Can you imagine the verdicts they will receive?  

Rosh Hashanna is here. This holiday is about Judgment. It reminds us that we are all accountable. We will all be judged for our actions. Nations will be no different (Rosh Hashanna, 8b).

How do you think that’s going to work out?

 

What the New York Times might be telling Jews

Some say The New York Times is one of the best newspapers in the world (Blake Fleetwood, “Why The New York Times Is the Best Newspaper in the World”, Huffington Post, February 5, 2014). Others call it one of the world’s greatest newspapers (“The New York Times, the American newspaper”, britannica. com, no date).

This week, the Times shows us what kind of newspaper it really is. It’s created a ‘Jew Tracker’.

Does that tell you something?

The ‘Jew-Tracker’ is a chart. This chart allows you to see which Jews in Congress do not back the Obama Iran deal (Steven Hayward, “NY Times Launches Its Jew-Tracker”, powerline blog, September 10, 2015).  The inference is, a lot of Jews in Congress oppose the Iran deal. Why else would you need a ‘Jew Tracker’?

Remember that question. We’ll come back to it.

Perhaps you’ve seen reports about this chart. It’s quite simple. It tells you, by name, which Democrats oppose the President. It tells you who among them are Jewish. Presumably, there are a lot of such Jews. Otherwise, why would one need a chart?

To make sure you understand what you’re looking at, the chart includes a yellow ‘highlighter’ component, to focus your attention on ‘Jews’. You know, so that you’ll not forget the purpose of the chart.

For the US Senate, the chart looks something like this:                                                          

Senator Name--Jewish?—State & est. Jewish pop.

C. Schumer --------Yes---------New York, 9.1 per cent Jewish

B. Cardin------------Yes--------Maryland, 4.2 per cent Jewish

R. Menendez------No--------New Jersey, 5.8 per cent Jewish

J. Manchin the 3^rd--No------West Virginia, O.1 per cent Jewish

 

All references to ‘Jewish’ are highlighted in yellow.

You should look up the chart for yourself. My brief representation doesn’t capture the quality of the original. Also, in the original chart, you’ll see the names of Democratic Jewish House Members who don’t back the deal.

Do a google-search for ‘New York Times Jew Tracker’. You’ll find the chart.

One can make two observations about this chart. First, the chart itself reveals a disturbing calculus: under the ‘Jewish?’ column, the chart states that ten per cent of the US Senate is Jewish. That means, with 100 Senators total, there are 10 Jews in the Senate.

Perhaps this is why one needs a ‘Jew Tracker’. Ten Jewish Senators could be hard to track without a chart, right?

But the chart reveals that, in fact, only two Jewish Senators do not back the deal—just two. In addition, the chart also reveals that, of the four Democratic Senators who don’t back the deal, two are not Jewish.

Why create a ‘Jew-Tracker’ for two names? In fact, why do we need to track Jews at all? The Nazis in 1930’s Germany did that. They did it as part of their anti-Jew ideology. Why is the New York Times behaving the same way?

The second observation is that the Times did make a change to the chart--after it had been accused of creating an anti-Semitic device (Terresa Monroe-Hamilton, “Not Cool: The New York Times Goes Anti-Semitic With Congressional ‘Jew Tracker’”, rightwingnews, September 10, 2015).  The Times deleted the ‘Jewish?’ Column.

But the chart still shows plenty of ‘Jewish’ content.

This online ‘Jew Tracker’ is offensive. It strikes me as open bigotry.

The New York Times explained the chart this way: “Though more Jewish members of Congress support the deal than oppose it, the Democrats against the deal are more likely to be Jewish or represent Jewish constituencies [emphasis mine]” (Adam Kredo, “New York Times Launches Congress ‘Jew Tracker’”, Washington Free Beacon, September 10, 2015).

This is an outrageously absurd statement. It’s pure anti-Semitism. Here’s why: first, according to the chart, only two of four Democrats who do not back the deal were Jewish. Two of four doesn’t make anything ‘more likely’, yet that’s the Times’ claim.

To conclude from ‘two-of-four’ that opponents were ‘more likely’ Jewish is patently false. It’s a false accusation against Jews.

That’s pure anti-Semitism. It’s a kind of statement that would have fit right into Nazi-influenced German newspapers of the early 1930’s.

Then there’s the issue of suggesting that an Iran opponent was ‘more likely’ to represent a Jewish constituency (see the Times quote, above). The chart doesn’t entirely support that assertion. First of all, the chart shows that Manchin of West Virginia, a non-Jew who doesn’t back the deal, has a Jewish constituency of 0.1 per cent of his state’s total population. Since when is 0.1 per cent of a population ‘a constituency’?

Then there’s the question of constituency influence.  For example, the fact that the Jewish Senator Cardin works with a 4.2 per cent Jewish constituency in his state suggests that, if anything, his Jewish constituency could be too small to influence him. The Times doesn’t prove otherwise. Without supporting evidence, that size constituency could be meaningless.

More important, on what basis does the Times assume that Senator Cardin’s Jewish constituency was anti-deal, and had influenced him to oppose it? (That’s the Times’ suggestion). In fact, American Jews have been very ambivalent about this deal. Until very, very recently, most Jews in the US favoured the deal (“Poll: US Jews more likely to back Iran deal than non-Jews”, Jerusalem Post, July 25, 2015); only recently have American Jews started to turn against it. Therefore, without hard numbers, the most likely assumption one could make about Cardin’s Jewish constituency is that it would probably pressure him both ways—to back the deal and to oppose it, reflecting the ambivalence of the general US Jewish population. The Times offers no evidence that Cardin was acting because of pressure from his Jewish constituency.

It offers no proof its anti-Jewish suggestion is correct.

Then, there’s the recent head-count on where all the Jews in Congress stand on this deal (“Final tally: 19 of 28 Jewish lawmakers back the Iran nuclear deal”, Times of Israel, September 10, 2015). In case you’ve forgotten your arithmetic, 19 of 28 is 67.85 per cent (these numbers suggest that the Times may have actually misrepresented where Jewish lawmakers stand).

According to my math, more Jews in Congress, percentage-wise, back the deal than non-Jews. So why do we need a ‘Jew-Tracker’? Why are Jews being singled-out?

I don’t know what your reaction is to this chart. But I see it as shouting, ‘it’s the JEWS, the JEWS, the JEWS who oppose Obama!’

Right now, more Jews, percentage-wise, support Obama than non-Jews. More Jews in Congress, percentage-wise, support this deal than non-Jews. Therefore, we need a ‘Jew Tracker’ because…?

The New York Times has crossed a line. Jews have long felt comfortable in American precisely because this kind of anti-Jew behaviour has been kept out of the newspapers.  

Does the appearance of this chart in the prestigious New York Times tell us something? Is it a sign that America has changed how it thinks about Jews?

What do you think?