By Anderson Harkov
Modiin Israel March 16, 2010
Excuse myself and a few million of my fellow Israelis for being a little skeptical when Vice President Joseph Biden announced last week that the Obama administration was fully committed to Israel’s security. After all, wasn’t this the same administration that has constantly tried to put Israel in a corner and demand concessions in exchange for nothing from the Palestinians? Isn’t this the same administration that has only luke warmly condemned the Goldstone Protocols of Zion- better know as the Goldstone Report? Isn’t’ this the same administration that tried to rewrite history when it visited Egypt - and failed to visit Israel – and announced Israel exists only because of the Holocaust? Sorry Biden (out of respect for the Obama administration the rest of this article will refrain from using titles since they can not seem to recall that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is our prime minister), but we’re Israelis , you have to prove you are fully committed.
That proof never came. Instead millions of Israelis have been sipping their coffee this week and saying to each other; “You see. You can’t trust anybody. Not even America.” In less than a week that full commitment turned out to be a full commitment if we do what Obama wants and act like we are the 51st state. Obama, Biden, and Clinton, warm weather friends if we have ever seen any, knew perfectly well that the Ramat Shlomo housing project was located in a completely Jewish neighborhood within the Jerusalem municipality. They knew perfectly well that the project was being built on undisputed land – except to those who reject Israel’s right to exist. Indeed the three high ranking officials, that is Obama, Biden, and Clinton, know that the housing project is planned for an area that was never part of an Arab capital, that was not even set aside for the country rejected by the Arabs in 1948, and was occupied by the Jordanian’s from 1948 to 1967.
Maybe Obama wasn’t ready for a full commitment. (You know men these days.) After all, he has been playing the field; groveling to the Syrians one week, glorifying the peaceful Muslim religion that has been behind the deaths of thousands of victims of terrorism the last one hundred years, most of them either Jews or their fellow Muslims. How can one be fully committed to Israel when one is busy appeasing Iran and its anti-Semitic president? I think maybe it’s a good thing Biden and Clinton broke off the commitment. We Israelis weren’t that into it anyway. We preferred the previous arrangement where actions spoke louder than words and every now and then the United States even said something nice about Israel.
Oh, and about all those potential guests who have never been here, have never been asked to come here, and certainly now will never be invited. You know the men and women of the Marines, 101st Airborne, and the Rangers; tell them we wish them good luck, safe passage, and much success in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq the Untied States started in response to 9/11. Now that troop surge by Obama was a real commitment.
So Mr. Biden don’t let the door on Air Force Two, or whatever your plane is called, hit you on your way to the tarmac. Oh, and by the way, if Obama ever awakens from his slumber and attacks Iran, don’t expect us to take a bunch of missiles landing on our cities without retaliating, like we agreed to do in the Gulf War. You see a commitment works both ways.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Thursday, February 11, 2010
'In a generation or two, the US will ask itself: who lost Europe?'
Here is the speech of Geert Wilders, Chairman, Party for Freedom, the Netherlands, at the Four Seasons, New York, introducing an Alliance of Patriots and announcing the Facing Jihad Conference in Jerusalem.
Dear friends,
Thank you very much for inviting me.
I come to America with a mission. All is not well in the old world. There is a tremendous danger looming, and it is very difficult to be optimistic. We might be in the final stages of the Islamization of Europe. This not only is a clear and present danger to the future of Europe itself, it is a threat to America and the sheer survival of the West. The United States as the last bastion of Western civilization, facing an Islamic Europe.
First I will describe the situation on the ground in Europe. Then, I will say a few things about Islam. To close I will tell you about a meeting in Jerusalem.
The Europe you know is changing.
You have probably seen the landmarks. But in all of these cities, sometimes a few blocks away from your tourist destination, there is another world.. It is the world of the parallel society created by Muslim mass-migration.
All throughout Europe a new reality is rising: entire Muslim neighborhoods where very few indigenous people reside or are even seen. And if they are, they might regret it. This goes for the police as well. It's the world of head scarves, where women walk around in figureless tents, with baby strollers and a group of children. Their husbands, or slaveholders if you prefer, walk three steps ahead. With mosques on many street corners. The shops have signs you and I cannot read. You will be hard-pressed to find any economic activity. These are Muslim ghettos controlled by religious fanatics. These are Muslim neighborhoods, and they are mushrooming in every city across Europe. These are the building-blocks for territorial control of increasingly larger portions of Europe, street by street, neighborhood by neighborhood, city by city.
There are now thousands of mosques throughout Europe. With larger congregations than there are in churches. And in every European city there are plans to build super-mosques that will dwarf every church in the region. Clearly, the signal is: we rule.
Many European cities are already one-quarter Muslim: just take Amsterdam, Marseille and Malmo in Sweden. In many cities the majority of the under-18 population is Muslim. Paris is now surrounded by a ring of Muslim neighborhoods. Mohammed is the most popular name among boys in many cities.
In some elementary schools in Amsterdam the farm can no longer be mentioned, because that would also mean mentioning the pig, and that would be an insult to Muslims.
Many state schools in Belgium and Denmark only serve halal food to all pupils. In once-tolerant Amsterdam gays are beaten up almost exclusively by Muslims. Non-Muslim women routinely hear 'whore, whore'. Satellite dishes are not pointed to local TV stations, but to stations in the country of origin.
In France school teachers are advised to avoid authors deemed offensive to Muslims, including Voltaire and Diderot; the same is increasingly true of Darwin. The history of the Holocaust can no longer be taught because of Muslim sensitivity.
In England sharia courts are now officially part of the British legal system. Many neighborhoods in France are no-go areas for women without head scarves. Last week a man almost died after being beaten up by Muslims in Brussels, because he was drinking during the Ramadan.
Jews are fleeing France in record numbers, on the run for the worst wave of anti-Semitism since World War II. French is now commonly spoken on the streets of Tel Aviv and Netanya, Israel. I could go on forever with stories like this. Stories about Islamization.
A total of fifty-four million Muslims now live in Europe. San Diego University recently calculated that a staggering 25 percent of the population in Europe will be Muslim just 12 years from now. Bernhard Lewis has predicted a Muslim majority by the end of this century.
Now these are just numbers. And the numbers would not be threatening if the Muslim-immigrants had a strong desire to assimilate. But there are few signs of that. The Pew Research Center reported that half of French Muslims see their loyalty to Islam as greater than their loyalty to France. One-third of French Muslims do not object to suicide attacks. The British Centre for Social Cohesion reported that one-third of British Muslim students are in favor of a worldwide caliphate. Muslims demand what they call 'respect'. And this is how we give them respect. We have Muslim official state holidays.
The Christian-Democratic attorney general is willing to accept sharia in the Netherlands if there is a Muslim majority. We have cabinet members with passports from Morocco and Turkey.
Muslim demands are supported by unlawful behavior, ranging from petty crimes and random violence, for example against ambulance workers and bus drivers, to small-scale riots. Paris has seen its uprising in the low-income suburbs, the banlieus. I call the perpetrators 'settlers'. Because that is what they are. They do not come to integrate into our societies; they come to integrate our society into their Dar-al-Islam. Therefore, they are settlers.
Much of this street violence I mentioned is directed exclusively against non-Muslims, forcing many native people to leave their neighborhoods, their cities, their countries. Moreover, Muslims are now a swing vote not to be ignored.
The second thing you need to know is the importance of Mohammed the prophet.. His behavior is an example to all Muslims and cannot be criticized. Now, if Mohammed had been a man of peace, let us say like Ghandi and Mother Theresa wrapped in one, there would be no problem. But Mohammed was a warlord, a mass murderer, a pedophile, and had several marriages - at the same time. Islamic tradition tells us how he fought in battles, how he had his enemies murdered and even had prisoners of war executed. Mohammed himself slaughtered the Jewish tribe of Banu Qurayza. If it is good for Islam, it is good. If it is bad for Islam, it is bad.
Let no one fool you about Islam being a religion. Sure, it has a god, and a here-after, and 72 virgins. But in its essence Islam is a political ideology. It is a system that lays down detailed rules for society and the life of every person. Islam wants to dictate every aspect of life. Islam means 'submission'. Islam is not compatible with freedom and democracy, because what it strives for is sharia. If you want to compare Islam to anything, compare it to communism or national-socialism, these are all totalitarian ideologies.
Now you know why Winston Churchill called Islam 'the most retrograde force in the world', and why he compared Mein Kampf to the Quran. The public has wholeheartedly accepted the Palestinian narrative, and sees Israel as the aggressor. I have lived in this country and visited it dozens of times. I support Israel. First, because it is the Jewish homeland after two thousand years of exile up to and including Auschwitz, second because it is a democracy, and third because Israel is our first line of defense.
This tiny country is situated on the fault line of jihad, frustrating Islam's territorial advance. Israel is facing the front lines of jihad, like Kashmir, Kosovo, the Philippines, Southern Thailand, Darfur in Sudan, Lebanon, and Aceh in Indonesia. Israel is simply in the way. The same way West-Berlin was during the Cold War.
The war against Israel is not a war against Israel. It is a war against the West. It is jihad. Israel is simply receiving the blows that are meant for all of us. If there would have been no Israel, Islamic imperialism would have found other venues to release its energy and its desire for conquest. Thanks to Israeli parents who send their children to the army and lay awake at night, parents in Europe and America can sleep well and dream, unaware of the dangers looming.
Many in Europe argue in favor of abandoning Israel in order to address the grievances of our Muslim minorities. But if Israel were, God forbid, to go down, it would not bring any solace to the West It would not mean our Muslim minorities would all of a sudden change their behavior, and accept our values. On the contrary, the end of Israel would give enormous encouragement to the forces of Islam. They would, and rightly so, see the demise of Israel as proof that the West is weak, and doomed. The end of Israel would not mean the end of our problems with Islam, but only the beginning. It would mean the start of the final battle for world domination. If they can get Israel, they can get everything.
So-called journalists volunteer to label any and all critics of Islamization as a 'right-wing extremists' or 'racists'. In my country, the Netherlands, 60 percent of the population now sees the mass immigration of Muslims as the number one policy mistake since World War II. And another 60 percent sees Islam as the biggest threat. Yet there is danger greater than terrorist attacks, the scenario of America as the last man standing. The lights may go out in Europe faster than you can imagine. An Islamic Europe means a Europe without freedom and democracy, an economic wasteland, an intellectual nightmare, and a loss of military might for America - as its allies will turn into enemies, enemies with atomic bombs. With an Islamic Europe, it would be up to America alone to preserve the heritage of Rome, Athens and Jerusalem.
Dear friends,
Thank you very much for inviting me.
I come to America with a mission. All is not well in the old world. There is a tremendous danger looming, and it is very difficult to be optimistic. We might be in the final stages of the Islamization of Europe. This not only is a clear and present danger to the future of Europe itself, it is a threat to America and the sheer survival of the West. The United States as the last bastion of Western civilization, facing an Islamic Europe.
First I will describe the situation on the ground in Europe. Then, I will say a few things about Islam. To close I will tell you about a meeting in Jerusalem.
The Europe you know is changing.
You have probably seen the landmarks. But in all of these cities, sometimes a few blocks away from your tourist destination, there is another world.. It is the world of the parallel society created by Muslim mass-migration.
All throughout Europe a new reality is rising: entire Muslim neighborhoods where very few indigenous people reside or are even seen. And if they are, they might regret it. This goes for the police as well. It's the world of head scarves, where women walk around in figureless tents, with baby strollers and a group of children. Their husbands, or slaveholders if you prefer, walk three steps ahead. With mosques on many street corners. The shops have signs you and I cannot read. You will be hard-pressed to find any economic activity. These are Muslim ghettos controlled by religious fanatics. These are Muslim neighborhoods, and they are mushrooming in every city across Europe. These are the building-blocks for territorial control of increasingly larger portions of Europe, street by street, neighborhood by neighborhood, city by city.
There are now thousands of mosques throughout Europe. With larger congregations than there are in churches. And in every European city there are plans to build super-mosques that will dwarf every church in the region. Clearly, the signal is: we rule.
Many European cities are already one-quarter Muslim: just take Amsterdam, Marseille and Malmo in Sweden. In many cities the majority of the under-18 population is Muslim. Paris is now surrounded by a ring of Muslim neighborhoods. Mohammed is the most popular name among boys in many cities.
In some elementary schools in Amsterdam the farm can no longer be mentioned, because that would also mean mentioning the pig, and that would be an insult to Muslims.
Many state schools in Belgium and Denmark only serve halal food to all pupils. In once-tolerant Amsterdam gays are beaten up almost exclusively by Muslims. Non-Muslim women routinely hear 'whore, whore'. Satellite dishes are not pointed to local TV stations, but to stations in the country of origin.
In France school teachers are advised to avoid authors deemed offensive to Muslims, including Voltaire and Diderot; the same is increasingly true of Darwin. The history of the Holocaust can no longer be taught because of Muslim sensitivity.
In England sharia courts are now officially part of the British legal system. Many neighborhoods in France are no-go areas for women without head scarves. Last week a man almost died after being beaten up by Muslims in Brussels, because he was drinking during the Ramadan.
Jews are fleeing France in record numbers, on the run for the worst wave of anti-Semitism since World War II. French is now commonly spoken on the streets of Tel Aviv and Netanya, Israel. I could go on forever with stories like this. Stories about Islamization.
A total of fifty-four million Muslims now live in Europe. San Diego University recently calculated that a staggering 25 percent of the population in Europe will be Muslim just 12 years from now. Bernhard Lewis has predicted a Muslim majority by the end of this century.
Now these are just numbers. And the numbers would not be threatening if the Muslim-immigrants had a strong desire to assimilate. But there are few signs of that. The Pew Research Center reported that half of French Muslims see their loyalty to Islam as greater than their loyalty to France. One-third of French Muslims do not object to suicide attacks. The British Centre for Social Cohesion reported that one-third of British Muslim students are in favor of a worldwide caliphate. Muslims demand what they call 'respect'. And this is how we give them respect. We have Muslim official state holidays.
The Christian-Democratic attorney general is willing to accept sharia in the Netherlands if there is a Muslim majority. We have cabinet members with passports from Morocco and Turkey.
Muslim demands are supported by unlawful behavior, ranging from petty crimes and random violence, for example against ambulance workers and bus drivers, to small-scale riots. Paris has seen its uprising in the low-income suburbs, the banlieus. I call the perpetrators 'settlers'. Because that is what they are. They do not come to integrate into our societies; they come to integrate our society into their Dar-al-Islam. Therefore, they are settlers.
Much of this street violence I mentioned is directed exclusively against non-Muslims, forcing many native people to leave their neighborhoods, their cities, their countries. Moreover, Muslims are now a swing vote not to be ignored.
The second thing you need to know is the importance of Mohammed the prophet.. His behavior is an example to all Muslims and cannot be criticized. Now, if Mohammed had been a man of peace, let us say like Ghandi and Mother Theresa wrapped in one, there would be no problem. But Mohammed was a warlord, a mass murderer, a pedophile, and had several marriages - at the same time. Islamic tradition tells us how he fought in battles, how he had his enemies murdered and even had prisoners of war executed. Mohammed himself slaughtered the Jewish tribe of Banu Qurayza. If it is good for Islam, it is good. If it is bad for Islam, it is bad.
Let no one fool you about Islam being a religion. Sure, it has a god, and a here-after, and 72 virgins. But in its essence Islam is a political ideology. It is a system that lays down detailed rules for society and the life of every person. Islam wants to dictate every aspect of life. Islam means 'submission'. Islam is not compatible with freedom and democracy, because what it strives for is sharia. If you want to compare Islam to anything, compare it to communism or national-socialism, these are all totalitarian ideologies.
Now you know why Winston Churchill called Islam 'the most retrograde force in the world', and why he compared Mein Kampf to the Quran. The public has wholeheartedly accepted the Palestinian narrative, and sees Israel as the aggressor. I have lived in this country and visited it dozens of times. I support Israel. First, because it is the Jewish homeland after two thousand years of exile up to and including Auschwitz, second because it is a democracy, and third because Israel is our first line of defense.
This tiny country is situated on the fault line of jihad, frustrating Islam's territorial advance. Israel is facing the front lines of jihad, like Kashmir, Kosovo, the Philippines, Southern Thailand, Darfur in Sudan, Lebanon, and Aceh in Indonesia. Israel is simply in the way. The same way West-Berlin was during the Cold War.
The war against Israel is not a war against Israel. It is a war against the West. It is jihad. Israel is simply receiving the blows that are meant for all of us. If there would have been no Israel, Islamic imperialism would have found other venues to release its energy and its desire for conquest. Thanks to Israeli parents who send their children to the army and lay awake at night, parents in Europe and America can sleep well and dream, unaware of the dangers looming.
Many in Europe argue in favor of abandoning Israel in order to address the grievances of our Muslim minorities. But if Israel were, God forbid, to go down, it would not bring any solace to the West It would not mean our Muslim minorities would all of a sudden change their behavior, and accept our values. On the contrary, the end of Israel would give enormous encouragement to the forces of Islam. They would, and rightly so, see the demise of Israel as proof that the West is weak, and doomed. The end of Israel would not mean the end of our problems with Islam, but only the beginning. It would mean the start of the final battle for world domination. If they can get Israel, they can get everything.
So-called journalists volunteer to label any and all critics of Islamization as a 'right-wing extremists' or 'racists'. In my country, the Netherlands, 60 percent of the population now sees the mass immigration of Muslims as the number one policy mistake since World War II. And another 60 percent sees Islam as the biggest threat. Yet there is danger greater than terrorist attacks, the scenario of America as the last man standing. The lights may go out in Europe faster than you can imagine. An Islamic Europe means a Europe without freedom and democracy, an economic wasteland, an intellectual nightmare, and a loss of military might for America - as its allies will turn into enemies, enemies with atomic bombs. With an Islamic Europe, it would be up to America alone to preserve the heritage of Rome, Athens and Jerusalem.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Kislev: The Month of Dreams
Our perspective of a situation can actually change our reality.
By Yehoshua Leib Ha Kohen
It is empowering to recognize that it is up to us to determine our experiences. We may not be able to change facts or situations, but we can absolutely change how we view them. We determine if we want to see something as a punishment or a challenge, an annoyance or an opportunity.
We are in the month of Kislev, the month of dreams. All the dreams in the Torah are read in the Torah portions during this month. There is a lot of discussion in Jewish thought as to the meaning of our dreams and how much weight we should give to them. And one of the interpretations is that it is up to us to interpret our dreams and spin them in a positive way.
We are taught that hakol holech acharei hapeh, that everything follows the mouth. This means that what we say creates reality. This is one of the important ways in which we “…are created in His Image.” We can create something by calling forth. If you think positively, you will speak positively and if you speak positively you are more likely to act positively and through these actions, bring HaShem’s Light into the world. This is our job as all points’ maintainers and ‘tikkunists’ (cosmic repairmen) of the ‘Olam’ world (all worlds.)
So let’s ensure especially in this month of dreams, that we have an outlook that creates the positive actions toward the life we all want to be living. And let’s start taking our positive dreams, the ones we have when are asleep and those when we are awake, and make them come true!
Yehoshua Leib ha Kohen is a Religious Zionist whose vision is to speak to all peoples, as the Torah commands - 'To be a Lamp unto Their Feet.' He is a Ph.D. psychologist and brings messages to guide and inspire the understanding of the wisdom of G-d's Light and the Way to Him and a joyous faith-based life.
By Yehoshua Leib Ha Kohen
It is empowering to recognize that it is up to us to determine our experiences. We may not be able to change facts or situations, but we can absolutely change how we view them. We determine if we want to see something as a punishment or a challenge, an annoyance or an opportunity.
We are in the month of Kislev, the month of dreams. All the dreams in the Torah are read in the Torah portions during this month. There is a lot of discussion in Jewish thought as to the meaning of our dreams and how much weight we should give to them. And one of the interpretations is that it is up to us to interpret our dreams and spin them in a positive way.
We are taught that hakol holech acharei hapeh, that everything follows the mouth. This means that what we say creates reality. This is one of the important ways in which we “…are created in His Image.” We can create something by calling forth. If you think positively, you will speak positively and if you speak positively you are more likely to act positively and through these actions, bring HaShem’s Light into the world. This is our job as all points’ maintainers and ‘tikkunists’ (cosmic repairmen) of the ‘Olam’ world (all worlds.)
So let’s ensure especially in this month of dreams, that we have an outlook that creates the positive actions toward the life we all want to be living. And let’s start taking our positive dreams, the ones we have when are asleep and those when we are awake, and make them come true!
Yehoshua Leib ha Kohen is a Religious Zionist whose vision is to speak to all peoples, as the Torah commands - 'To be a Lamp unto Their Feet.' He is a Ph.D. psychologist and brings messages to guide and inspire the understanding of the wisdom of G-d's Light and the Way to Him and a joyous faith-based life.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Two Is One
The Torah tells us that Adam was created as a unibeing. One side of his head had a male face and the other side a female face. When G-d saw Adam alone in the garden it was the first time he uttered the words “Lo tov” “Not good.” It is not good for man to be alone. And He took one ‘side’ of Adam out of him and separated Chava. He called her an ‘ezer-kenegdo’ which means a ‘help-mate-over-against-you’ which our Sages, of Blessed memory, have explained thus: If the man is doing what he should in following G-d’s ways, his wife will be a help-mate. Meaning she will support him, help him and stand by his side.
But if, on the other hand, he is not following the ways that G-d has shown him, not living a life based upon the three pillars of Torah; That is - Charity =Giving of one’s Self, one’s Money, and one’s compassion. Service =Prayer, Mitzvot and Study of Torah, and bringing this into his life and his community, and practicing these actions for his wife and children, then she shall be ‘over-against’ him to bring him back on track. We see good women doing just this in and outside of the religious community. This is the way G-d created women to be.
We learn from this many things. First that it is the duty of a man to provide for his wife as it says in the Jewish marriage contract (Ketuba.) This consists of two kinds of provision: The first is material provision, food, clothing and shelter. The second is spiritual provision. He must go out and seek knowledge of Torah and especially the parts of Torah that he can bring to his wife, to inspire her, and in turn that she can teach them to, and inspire her children. The duty of a woman is to join with and receive from the man and perform the necessary actions with the intentions to transform what he has brought. These are the functions that are natural to a woman.
What do I mean that are natural to a woman? There are functions that are hard-wired biologically, hormonally and chemically in a man and in a woman. They are different, corresponding and complimentary. The simplest and analogical (meaning it obtains on all levels) example is the function of each during the act of physical union.
During this act the man is erect and thrusting. The woman is receptive and accommodating. At the culmination of the act, the man deposits a substance inside of the woman. She then, in receiving this substance, has all the necessary functions and apparatus for this substance to find its way to her particular receptor cell and join with it, in much the same way as how Adam and Chava were joined at their creation. We start as a unibeing too.
In the ‘Image-of-G-d’ they begin the process of co-creation with Him, of another human being. But it is not just this joining function that the woman provides, but the entire magically-mystical and biologically perfect environment needed for this new life to grow and develop. She spends nine very important months nurturing and tending this being in her belly.
During this precious time it is the function of the man to protect her from any outside threats or stresses, so that her process of creation may thrive. He must also provide even more at this time. He needs to provide for her nourishment physically, emotionally and spiritually. She feeds the child inside and he feeds her.
This creational process, in its functions is replicated as a man and wife create their home and family. The Torah says that the only times a man may leave his wife is to go in search of parnassah (livelihood) or in search of spiritual knowledge (Torah.) His function is to acquire these, bring both of these and to deposit them unto his wife. The raw materials of food he brings and she transforms this into a meal. The spiritual substance he brings, she transforms into stories and education for their children. And thus they each perform their functions.
Look deeply and you will see that the Torah does not know of man and woman as separate beings. Each act is performed once through a single body—a body that in our world appears as two, but which the Torah sees as one. On the contrary, for both to do the same mitzvah would be redundant, for why should one half of the body do what the other has already done?
They are a single whole, whether they know of and have found one another yet or not. Where does a woman put on tefillin or wear tzitzit? On the body of her male counterpart.
Yehoshua Leib ha Kohen is a Religious Zionist whose vision is to speak to all peoples, as the Torah commands - 'To be a Lamp unto Their Feet.' He is a Ph.D. psychologist and brings messages to guide and inspire the understanding of the wisdom of G-d's Light and the Way to Him and a joyous faith-based life.
But if, on the other hand, he is not following the ways that G-d has shown him, not living a life based upon the three pillars of Torah; That is - Charity =Giving of one’s Self, one’s Money, and one’s compassion. Service =Prayer, Mitzvot and Study of Torah, and bringing this into his life and his community, and practicing these actions for his wife and children, then she shall be ‘over-against’ him to bring him back on track. We see good women doing just this in and outside of the religious community. This is the way G-d created women to be.
We learn from this many things. First that it is the duty of a man to provide for his wife as it says in the Jewish marriage contract (Ketuba.) This consists of two kinds of provision: The first is material provision, food, clothing and shelter. The second is spiritual provision. He must go out and seek knowledge of Torah and especially the parts of Torah that he can bring to his wife, to inspire her, and in turn that she can teach them to, and inspire her children. The duty of a woman is to join with and receive from the man and perform the necessary actions with the intentions to transform what he has brought. These are the functions that are natural to a woman.
What do I mean that are natural to a woman? There are functions that are hard-wired biologically, hormonally and chemically in a man and in a woman. They are different, corresponding and complimentary. The simplest and analogical (meaning it obtains on all levels) example is the function of each during the act of physical union.
During this act the man is erect and thrusting. The woman is receptive and accommodating. At the culmination of the act, the man deposits a substance inside of the woman. She then, in receiving this substance, has all the necessary functions and apparatus for this substance to find its way to her particular receptor cell and join with it, in much the same way as how Adam and Chava were joined at their creation. We start as a unibeing too.
In the ‘Image-of-G-d’ they begin the process of co-creation with Him, of another human being. But it is not just this joining function that the woman provides, but the entire magically-mystical and biologically perfect environment needed for this new life to grow and develop. She spends nine very important months nurturing and tending this being in her belly.
During this precious time it is the function of the man to protect her from any outside threats or stresses, so that her process of creation may thrive. He must also provide even more at this time. He needs to provide for her nourishment physically, emotionally and spiritually. She feeds the child inside and he feeds her.
This creational process, in its functions is replicated as a man and wife create their home and family. The Torah says that the only times a man may leave his wife is to go in search of parnassah (livelihood) or in search of spiritual knowledge (Torah.) His function is to acquire these, bring both of these and to deposit them unto his wife. The raw materials of food he brings and she transforms this into a meal. The spiritual substance he brings, she transforms into stories and education for their children. And thus they each perform their functions.
Look deeply and you will see that the Torah does not know of man and woman as separate beings. Each act is performed once through a single body—a body that in our world appears as two, but which the Torah sees as one. On the contrary, for both to do the same mitzvah would be redundant, for why should one half of the body do what the other has already done?
They are a single whole, whether they know of and have found one another yet or not. Where does a woman put on tefillin or wear tzitzit? On the body of her male counterpart.
Yehoshua Leib ha Kohen is a Religious Zionist whose vision is to speak to all peoples, as the Torah commands - 'To be a Lamp unto Their Feet.' He is a Ph.D. psychologist and brings messages to guide and inspire the understanding of the wisdom of G-d's Light and the Way to Him and a joyous faith-based life.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
The Sanctity of Human Life
By Yehoshua Leib ha Kohen October 18, 2009
One of the great teachings of Judaism is that human life is sacred. The biblical account of the creation of Adam and Eve "in the Divine image" (Genesis 1:26-27) introduces the idea that human life is special.
It is true that from this perspective all existence is special. Light, sea, dry land; sun, moon, and stars; vegetation, fish, birds, animals, insects — all is the amazing handiwork of the Creator. Yet there is still something extra about a human being.
One difference we see in the account of creation is that while all other living creatures were created in large numbers, the first human being, Adam, was created alone. Adam combined within himself Eve. G-d divided them and they produced offspring who eventually filled the whole world. It is further stated in the Talmud (Sanhedrin 37a) that the fact that Adam was created alone is to teach us the significance of each individual: "Anyone who destroys a human life is considered as if he had destroyed an entire world, and anyone who preserves a human life is considered to have preserved an entire world."
The unique aspect of human beings is of course our power of free will. Everything else that G-d created is simply subject to His built-in program, what we call “nature.” The flower grows in the sunlight; the bird of prey swoops on a field-mouse. The human being too has an inner “nature” which in some ways is not very different from that of an animal, desiring the same kinds of things: food, territory, satisfaction of instinctive passion. But a human being is also confronted with Divine commands, a higher teaching and free will which impel and command him toward ‘good’ and transform his or her animal nature. The choice that each person has, whether to follow his higher aspirations or one’s simple animal nature, gives us our identity as human beings.
As such, our actions have an immense effect. Maimonides the tenth century philosopher and sage presents the idea(Laws of Repentance 3:4) that we should consider the entire world to be equally balanced between good and bad, and that each of us as an individual is equally balanced between good and bad. Then, it is clear that if one does one good action, one tips the balance for oneself and for the entire world to the side of good, “bringing salvation to the world.”
These mysterious creations, human men and women, are important. Because man was created alone the message is that every single individual existentially stands alone and at the same time, acts as a representative of all mankind. Each life is precious and cannot be thrown away. Murder is forbidden for both Jew and non-Jew.
However, if a person tragically is trying to destroy others, and if despotic leaders persuade their people to engage in and to support acts of destruction, one must defend oneself, even preemptively. “If someone comes to kill you, rise early to kill him first,” says the Talmud (Sanhedrin 72a). The Lubavitcher Rebbe adds that your clear readiness to defend yourself could save your enemy’s life as well as your own.
Today, in Israel and elsewhere, we, the Jewish people, are under threat. So too is the concept of the sanctity of life, and indeed civilization as we know it. For the sake of humanity, we must defend ourselves. If we at least recognize this truth, then hopefully others will too. Recognizing the sanctity of life and being ready to do something to preserve it is an important step towards living up to our role as Jews and as human beings, with the power to tip the balance for a world of good.
Yehoshua Leib ha Kohen is a Religious Zionist whose vision is to speak to all peoples, as the Torah commands - 'To be a Lamp unto Their Feet.' He is a Ph.D. psychologist and brings messages to guide and inspire the understanding of the wisdom of G-d's Light and the Way to Him and a joyous faith-based life.
One of the great teachings of Judaism is that human life is sacred. The biblical account of the creation of Adam and Eve "in the Divine image" (Genesis 1:26-27) introduces the idea that human life is special.
It is true that from this perspective all existence is special. Light, sea, dry land; sun, moon, and stars; vegetation, fish, birds, animals, insects — all is the amazing handiwork of the Creator. Yet there is still something extra about a human being.
One difference we see in the account of creation is that while all other living creatures were created in large numbers, the first human being, Adam, was created alone. Adam combined within himself Eve. G-d divided them and they produced offspring who eventually filled the whole world. It is further stated in the Talmud (Sanhedrin 37a) that the fact that Adam was created alone is to teach us the significance of each individual: "Anyone who destroys a human life is considered as if he had destroyed an entire world, and anyone who preserves a human life is considered to have preserved an entire world."
The unique aspect of human beings is of course our power of free will. Everything else that G-d created is simply subject to His built-in program, what we call “nature.” The flower grows in the sunlight; the bird of prey swoops on a field-mouse. The human being too has an inner “nature” which in some ways is not very different from that of an animal, desiring the same kinds of things: food, territory, satisfaction of instinctive passion. But a human being is also confronted with Divine commands, a higher teaching and free will which impel and command him toward ‘good’ and transform his or her animal nature. The choice that each person has, whether to follow his higher aspirations or one’s simple animal nature, gives us our identity as human beings.
As such, our actions have an immense effect. Maimonides the tenth century philosopher and sage presents the idea(Laws of Repentance 3:4) that we should consider the entire world to be equally balanced between good and bad, and that each of us as an individual is equally balanced between good and bad. Then, it is clear that if one does one good action, one tips the balance for oneself and for the entire world to the side of good, “bringing salvation to the world.”
These mysterious creations, human men and women, are important. Because man was created alone the message is that every single individual existentially stands alone and at the same time, acts as a representative of all mankind. Each life is precious and cannot be thrown away. Murder is forbidden for both Jew and non-Jew.
However, if a person tragically is trying to destroy others, and if despotic leaders persuade their people to engage in and to support acts of destruction, one must defend oneself, even preemptively. “If someone comes to kill you, rise early to kill him first,” says the Talmud (Sanhedrin 72a). The Lubavitcher Rebbe adds that your clear readiness to defend yourself could save your enemy’s life as well as your own.
Today, in Israel and elsewhere, we, the Jewish people, are under threat. So too is the concept of the sanctity of life, and indeed civilization as we know it. For the sake of humanity, we must defend ourselves. If we at least recognize this truth, then hopefully others will too. Recognizing the sanctity of life and being ready to do something to preserve it is an important step towards living up to our role as Jews and as human beings, with the power to tip the balance for a world of good.
Yehoshua Leib ha Kohen is a Religious Zionist whose vision is to speak to all peoples, as the Torah commands - 'To be a Lamp unto Their Feet.' He is a Ph.D. psychologist and brings messages to guide and inspire the understanding of the wisdom of G-d's Light and the Way to Him and a joyous faith-based life.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Jewish Justice or no Justice
By Moshe Feiglin27 Elul, 5769 (Sept. 16, '09)
"Today the world is being born, today all the creations of all the worlds stand in judgment." "And it will be determined for the countries, which for the sword and which for peace."
(Rosh Hashanah liturgy)
As we enter the gates of our synagogues this Rosh Hashanah, it looks like we will also be entering the gates of the International Court in The Hague. This is the inevitable destination of a nation that insists on detaching its Judaism from its national life. If we are not interested in Jewish justice in Jerusalem, we will be treated to Western, Christian justice in Spain, England or The Hague.
When a Swedish newspaper reported that Israel's soldiers slaughtered "Palestinians" so that they could sell their organs, we didn't believe that anybody would take the bizarre story seriously. But it is actually making quite a few waves. Soon an international investigative committee will be established to reveal "the truth." After all, such serious charges must be investigated thoroughly. And who, if not the judges of enlightened Europe, are more worthy to reveal the truth with clarity and complete objectivity?
Blood libels are nothing new. There is nothing more logical about selling "Palestinian" organs than about slaughtering Christian children to use their blood to bake matzahs. So how do these absurd claims become legitimate? It is not really a matter of legal fact. It is a matter of the location of the judicial body.
When a Jew is in exile and the Christians are the judicial authority, the blood libel becomes a possibility. The question is not if the Jews slaughtered Christian children to use their blood to bake matzahs. The question is if the issue is justiciable. In the Christian courts of the Middle Ages the answer was affirmative. Likewise, in the current organ harvest story, there is no question of revealing the truth. The only question is if the judicial tribunal that we have accepted upon ourselves will decide to judge these ludicrous accusations. Then – in the days of the blood libels, the Jews did not have the option to choose which judicial authority they would accept. They lived under the dominion of the judicial authority that considered these libels fact. But today, the Jews willingly surrendered their own judicial authority. They chose, of their own free will, to forgo their ethical sovereignty and to deposit it in the hands of the Western world and the International Court in The Hauge.
"What is the problem in Azoun?" my frustrated neighbor asked me the other day, after a steady stream of rocks and firebombs has continued to emanate from this 'peaceful' Arab village. "They bring in an entire IDF division and they still can't stop the violence? Wouldn't it just be easier to cut off their electricity?" Technically, my neighbor is right. We could easily leave the reserve soldiers at home and enjoy quiet nonetheless. But the State of Israel and the IDF are fettered to the Christian judicial dominion that we have brought upon ourselves.
As the Beijing Olympics approached, I wrote that the State of Israel, as the representative of the Jewish Nation, should boycott the games. The Chinese have established concentration camps for opponents of the radically leftist regime there. Next to the concentration camps there are "medical centers" that specialize in supplying human organs by order. No lines, no problems finding the proper match, any organ can be supplied; kidneys, corneas, hearts – the organs are always fresh and plentiful. They belong to "criminals" who have been executed but who, at the last minute repented and donated their organs as an act of atonement. How noble. In reality, the organs are harvested while the victims are still alive. That is probably the best way to keep them fresh.
I claimed that Israel - the representative of the Jewish Nation, the People of the Book who herald the ethics of the prophets – must see itself as a lighthouse of morality for the world and should not lend legitimacy to the regime of horrors in China by attending the Olympic Games. The reactions that I received were more or less: "America, England and France are not boycotting the Olympics, and you expect Israel to boycott them?" In other words, it cannot be that we bear a more fundamentally ethical insight than the Western world. Furthermore, we are so small, so who are we to boycott the Chinese giant if the US and Europe are not doing so? In other words, morality is measured in square kilometers and the size of a country's population and army.
When charges of organ harvesting by Israel's soldiers began to emerge, I thought that it was quite "measure for measure." We rejected our universal role and refused to take a stand on the Chinese organ harvesting issue, and got it right back in our own collective face.
We are the children of the King. We do not have the privilege to stand passively at the sidelines and to be "just another country." We have only two options: One is to judge the world according to Jewish justice – the ethical justice of the prophets that must be restored to Jerusalem. The second option is, right after Rosh Hashanah, to re-lock our universal responsibility safely in our synagogues and to leave Judaism strictly in the domain of religion. If that is the option we choose, we will not be judging the world according to the ethics of the prophets. The world will judge us – in the International Court in The Hague.
"Today the world is being born, today all the creations of all the worlds stand in judgment." "And it will be determined for the countries, which for the sword and which for peace."
(Rosh Hashanah liturgy)
As we enter the gates of our synagogues this Rosh Hashanah, it looks like we will also be entering the gates of the International Court in The Hague. This is the inevitable destination of a nation that insists on detaching its Judaism from its national life. If we are not interested in Jewish justice in Jerusalem, we will be treated to Western, Christian justice in Spain, England or The Hague.
When a Swedish newspaper reported that Israel's soldiers slaughtered "Palestinians" so that they could sell their organs, we didn't believe that anybody would take the bizarre story seriously. But it is actually making quite a few waves. Soon an international investigative committee will be established to reveal "the truth." After all, such serious charges must be investigated thoroughly. And who, if not the judges of enlightened Europe, are more worthy to reveal the truth with clarity and complete objectivity?
Blood libels are nothing new. There is nothing more logical about selling "Palestinian" organs than about slaughtering Christian children to use their blood to bake matzahs. So how do these absurd claims become legitimate? It is not really a matter of legal fact. It is a matter of the location of the judicial body.
When a Jew is in exile and the Christians are the judicial authority, the blood libel becomes a possibility. The question is not if the Jews slaughtered Christian children to use their blood to bake matzahs. The question is if the issue is justiciable. In the Christian courts of the Middle Ages the answer was affirmative. Likewise, in the current organ harvest story, there is no question of revealing the truth. The only question is if the judicial tribunal that we have accepted upon ourselves will decide to judge these ludicrous accusations. Then – in the days of the blood libels, the Jews did not have the option to choose which judicial authority they would accept. They lived under the dominion of the judicial authority that considered these libels fact. But today, the Jews willingly surrendered their own judicial authority. They chose, of their own free will, to forgo their ethical sovereignty and to deposit it in the hands of the Western world and the International Court in The Hauge.
"What is the problem in Azoun?" my frustrated neighbor asked me the other day, after a steady stream of rocks and firebombs has continued to emanate from this 'peaceful' Arab village. "They bring in an entire IDF division and they still can't stop the violence? Wouldn't it just be easier to cut off their electricity?" Technically, my neighbor is right. We could easily leave the reserve soldiers at home and enjoy quiet nonetheless. But the State of Israel and the IDF are fettered to the Christian judicial dominion that we have brought upon ourselves.
As the Beijing Olympics approached, I wrote that the State of Israel, as the representative of the Jewish Nation, should boycott the games. The Chinese have established concentration camps for opponents of the radically leftist regime there. Next to the concentration camps there are "medical centers" that specialize in supplying human organs by order. No lines, no problems finding the proper match, any organ can be supplied; kidneys, corneas, hearts – the organs are always fresh and plentiful. They belong to "criminals" who have been executed but who, at the last minute repented and donated their organs as an act of atonement. How noble. In reality, the organs are harvested while the victims are still alive. That is probably the best way to keep them fresh.
I claimed that Israel - the representative of the Jewish Nation, the People of the Book who herald the ethics of the prophets – must see itself as a lighthouse of morality for the world and should not lend legitimacy to the regime of horrors in China by attending the Olympic Games. The reactions that I received were more or less: "America, England and France are not boycotting the Olympics, and you expect Israel to boycott them?" In other words, it cannot be that we bear a more fundamentally ethical insight than the Western world. Furthermore, we are so small, so who are we to boycott the Chinese giant if the US and Europe are not doing so? In other words, morality is measured in square kilometers and the size of a country's population and army.
When charges of organ harvesting by Israel's soldiers began to emerge, I thought that it was quite "measure for measure." We rejected our universal role and refused to take a stand on the Chinese organ harvesting issue, and got it right back in our own collective face.
We are the children of the King. We do not have the privilege to stand passively at the sidelines and to be "just another country." We have only two options: One is to judge the world according to Jewish justice – the ethical justice of the prophets that must be restored to Jerusalem. The second option is, right after Rosh Hashanah, to re-lock our universal responsibility safely in our synagogues and to leave Judaism strictly in the domain of religion. If that is the option we choose, we will not be judging the world according to the ethics of the prophets. The world will judge us – in the International Court in The Hague.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Obama prepares to throw Israel under the bus
Jewish World Review May 7, 2009 / 13 Iyar 5769
By Melanie Phillips
A sobering view by one of Britain's most respected columnists
Read and forward via our "e-mail a friend feature"
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com
Barak Obama is attempting to throw Israel under the Islamist bus, and he’s getting American Jews to do his dirty work for him. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel reportedly told the Israel lobbying group AIPAC on Sunday that efforts to stop Iran hinged on peace talks with the Palestinians. General James Jones, National Security Adviser to Obama, reportedly told a European foreign minister a week ago that unlike the Bush administration, Obama will be ‘forceful’ with Israel. Ha’aretz reports:
Jones is quoted in the telegram as saying that the United States, European Union and moderate Arab states must redefine ‘a satisfactory endgame solution.’ The U.S. national security adviser did not mention Israel as party to these consultations.
Of course not. If you are going to throw a country under the bus, you don’t invite it to discuss the manner of its destruction with the assassins who are co-coordinating the crime. As I said here months ago, the appointment of Jones and the elevation of his post of National Security Adviser at the expense of the Secretary of State was all part of the strategy to centralize power in the hands of those who want to do Israel harm.
On Tuesday, Vice-President Joe Biden and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry turned the thumbscrews tighter, telling Israel to stop building more settlements, dismantle existing outposts and allow Palestinians freedom of movement.
This is all not only evil but exceptionally stupid. The idea that a Palestine state will help build a coalition against Iran is demonstrably absurd. The Arab states are beside themselves with anxiety about Iran. They want it to be attacked and its nuclear program stopped. They are desperately fearful that the Obama administration might have decided that it can live with a nuclear Iran.
The idea that if a Palestine state comes into being it will be easier to handle Iran is the opposite of the case: a Palestine state will be Iran, in the sense that it will be run by Hamas as a proxy for the Islamic Republic. The idea that a Palestine state will not compromise Israel’s security is ludicrous.
It is of course, by any sane standard, quite fantastic that America is behaving as if it is Israel which is holding up a peace settlement when Israel has made concession after concession – giving up Sinai, giving up Gaza, offering all the territories to the Arabs in return for peace in 1967, offering more than 90 per cent of them ditto in 2000, ditto again to Mahmoud Abbas in the past year -- only to be attacked in return by a Palestinian terrorist entity, backed in its continued aggression, let us not forget, by the countries of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, which has made no concessions at all and is not being pressured to do so.
It is not the aggressor here but the victim of aggression that America is now choosing to beat up. In any sane world, one might think the Americans would be piling the pressure on the Palestinians to renounce their genocidal ambitions against Israel, to stop teaching and training their children to hate and kill Jews, to adhere to the primary requirement in the Road Map that they must dismantle their infrastructure of violence as the first step in the peace process; one might think, indeed, that they would view Mahmoud Abbas’s repeated statements that the Palestinians will never accept Israel as a Jewish state to be the main impediment to peace.
But no. The repeated professions that America will never jeopardize Israel’s security are stomach churning when Obama is actually blaming Israel for measures it has taken to safeguard its security – the settlements were always first and foremost a security measure, and the travel restrictions are there solely to prevent more Israelis being murdered – and trying to force it to abandon them. Now comes further news that Obama will also try to force Israel to give up its nuclear weapons – which it only has as a last ditch insurance against the attempt to annihilate it to which several billion Arabs remain pledged.
Of course Obama doesn’t care that Hamas would run any Palestinian state. Of course he doesn’t care that Israel would be unable to defend itself against such a terrorist state. Because he regards Israel as at best totally expendable, and at worst as a running sore on the world's body politic that has to be purged altogether. His administration is proceeding on the entirely false analysis that a state of Palestine is the solution to the Middle East impasse and the route to peace in the region. What that state will look like or do is something to which at best the administration's collective mind is shut and at worst makes it a potential cynical accomplice to the unconscionable. So Israel is to be forced out of the West Bank. Far from building a coalition against Iran, Obama is thus doing Iran’s work for it.
None of this, however, should come as the slightest surprise to anyone who paid any attention to Obama’s background, associations and friendships before he became President and to the cabal of Israel-bashers, appeasers and Jew-haters he appointed to his administration, with a few useful idiots thrown in for plausible deniability.
American Jews, meanwhile, are reacting as predicted – with a total absence of spine. As IsraelMatzav reports, AIPAC was sending delegates to visit Congress to 'convince' Representatives and Senators to sign a petition calling for a two-state solution. Inspired! Almost eighty per cent of American Jews voted for Obama despite the clear and present danger he posed to Israel. They did so because their liberal self-image was and is more important to them than the Jewish state whose existence and security cannot be allowed to jeopardize their standing with America’s elite.
But the ordinary American people are a different matter. They do value and support Israel. They do understand that if Israel is thrown under that bus, the west is next. And it is they to whom Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu must now appeal, over the heads of the politicians and the media and certainly America’s Jews and everyone else. He must tell the American people the terrible truth, that America is now run by a man who is intent on sacrificing Israel for a reckless and amoral political strategy which will put America and the rest of the free world at risk.
This is shaping up to be the biggest crisis in relations between Israel and America since the foundation of Israel six decades ago. Those who hate Israel and the Jews will be gloating. This after all is precisely what they hoped Obama would do. To any decent person looking on aghast, this is where the moral sickness of the west reaches the critical care ward.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in Washington and the media consider "must reading." Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Comment by clicking here. [of course please feel free to leave comments on my blogsite also!]
JWR contributor Melanie Phillips is a British journalist and author of, most recently, Londonistan. She is best known for her controversial column about political and social issues which currently appears in the Daily Mail. She was awarded the Orwell Prize for journalism in 1996
By Melanie Phillips
A sobering view by one of Britain's most respected columnists
Read and forward via our "e-mail a friend feature"
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com
Barak Obama is attempting to throw Israel under the Islamist bus, and he’s getting American Jews to do his dirty work for him. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel reportedly told the Israel lobbying group AIPAC on Sunday that efforts to stop Iran hinged on peace talks with the Palestinians. General James Jones, National Security Adviser to Obama, reportedly told a European foreign minister a week ago that unlike the Bush administration, Obama will be ‘forceful’ with Israel. Ha’aretz reports:
Jones is quoted in the telegram as saying that the United States, European Union and moderate Arab states must redefine ‘a satisfactory endgame solution.’ The U.S. national security adviser did not mention Israel as party to these consultations.
Of course not. If you are going to throw a country under the bus, you don’t invite it to discuss the manner of its destruction with the assassins who are co-coordinating the crime. As I said here months ago, the appointment of Jones and the elevation of his post of National Security Adviser at the expense of the Secretary of State was all part of the strategy to centralize power in the hands of those who want to do Israel harm.
On Tuesday, Vice-President Joe Biden and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry turned the thumbscrews tighter, telling Israel to stop building more settlements, dismantle existing outposts and allow Palestinians freedom of movement.
This is all not only evil but exceptionally stupid. The idea that a Palestine state will help build a coalition against Iran is demonstrably absurd. The Arab states are beside themselves with anxiety about Iran. They want it to be attacked and its nuclear program stopped. They are desperately fearful that the Obama administration might have decided that it can live with a nuclear Iran.
The idea that if a Palestine state comes into being it will be easier to handle Iran is the opposite of the case: a Palestine state will be Iran, in the sense that it will be run by Hamas as a proxy for the Islamic Republic. The idea that a Palestine state will not compromise Israel’s security is ludicrous.
It is of course, by any sane standard, quite fantastic that America is behaving as if it is Israel which is holding up a peace settlement when Israel has made concession after concession – giving up Sinai, giving up Gaza, offering all the territories to the Arabs in return for peace in 1967, offering more than 90 per cent of them ditto in 2000, ditto again to Mahmoud Abbas in the past year -- only to be attacked in return by a Palestinian terrorist entity, backed in its continued aggression, let us not forget, by the countries of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, which has made no concessions at all and is not being pressured to do so.
It is not the aggressor here but the victim of aggression that America is now choosing to beat up. In any sane world, one might think the Americans would be piling the pressure on the Palestinians to renounce their genocidal ambitions against Israel, to stop teaching and training their children to hate and kill Jews, to adhere to the primary requirement in the Road Map that they must dismantle their infrastructure of violence as the first step in the peace process; one might think, indeed, that they would view Mahmoud Abbas’s repeated statements that the Palestinians will never accept Israel as a Jewish state to be the main impediment to peace.
But no. The repeated professions that America will never jeopardize Israel’s security are stomach churning when Obama is actually blaming Israel for measures it has taken to safeguard its security – the settlements were always first and foremost a security measure, and the travel restrictions are there solely to prevent more Israelis being murdered – and trying to force it to abandon them. Now comes further news that Obama will also try to force Israel to give up its nuclear weapons – which it only has as a last ditch insurance against the attempt to annihilate it to which several billion Arabs remain pledged.
Of course Obama doesn’t care that Hamas would run any Palestinian state. Of course he doesn’t care that Israel would be unable to defend itself against such a terrorist state. Because he regards Israel as at best totally expendable, and at worst as a running sore on the world's body politic that has to be purged altogether. His administration is proceeding on the entirely false analysis that a state of Palestine is the solution to the Middle East impasse and the route to peace in the region. What that state will look like or do is something to which at best the administration's collective mind is shut and at worst makes it a potential cynical accomplice to the unconscionable. So Israel is to be forced out of the West Bank. Far from building a coalition against Iran, Obama is thus doing Iran’s work for it.
None of this, however, should come as the slightest surprise to anyone who paid any attention to Obama’s background, associations and friendships before he became President and to the cabal of Israel-bashers, appeasers and Jew-haters he appointed to his administration, with a few useful idiots thrown in for plausible deniability.
American Jews, meanwhile, are reacting as predicted – with a total absence of spine. As IsraelMatzav reports, AIPAC was sending delegates to visit Congress to 'convince' Representatives and Senators to sign a petition calling for a two-state solution. Inspired! Almost eighty per cent of American Jews voted for Obama despite the clear and present danger he posed to Israel. They did so because their liberal self-image was and is more important to them than the Jewish state whose existence and security cannot be allowed to jeopardize their standing with America’s elite.
But the ordinary American people are a different matter. They do value and support Israel. They do understand that if Israel is thrown under that bus, the west is next. And it is they to whom Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu must now appeal, over the heads of the politicians and the media and certainly America’s Jews and everyone else. He must tell the American people the terrible truth, that America is now run by a man who is intent on sacrificing Israel for a reckless and amoral political strategy which will put America and the rest of the free world at risk.
This is shaping up to be the biggest crisis in relations between Israel and America since the foundation of Israel six decades ago. Those who hate Israel and the Jews will be gloating. This after all is precisely what they hoped Obama would do. To any decent person looking on aghast, this is where the moral sickness of the west reaches the critical care ward.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in Washington and the media consider "must reading." Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Comment by clicking here. [of course please feel free to leave comments on my blogsite also!]
JWR contributor Melanie Phillips is a British journalist and author of, most recently, Londonistan. She is best known for her controversial column about political and social issues which currently appears in the Daily Mail. She was awarded the Orwell Prize for journalism in 1996
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