Tag: America

Posted on

The Election That Broke America

Something happened on Nov. 3rd. The quiet deconstruction of a unified American ethos, which had been occuring slowly and with little open expression, finally broke out into the conscious psyche of American politics.

For years there has been a growing divide between Red State and Blue State America, but now this divide has spilled out into a real split. Neither side trusts eachother and neither side appears interested in reconciling. In a sense there are two countries existing in one land mass.

So what’s next? And how does this impact Israel and the world?

The aftermath of the election and the uncertainty of America’s future as its decline becomes more and more apparent has no doubt emboldened its enemies, which in many cases are the same enemies that Israel has.

Without unity of purpose and with one President in the White House and another “President” acting as a shadow president, the US remains fractured on all issues. China, Iran, immigration, abortion, gun rights, and more appear to be issues which both the Blue Country and Red Country have diametrically divergent views about.

Ultimately, there is no long term salvation for the USA without a real sense of cultural cohesiveness; the sort of something, which is more than just a focus on making money.

America is now heading towards a breakup. First it will be unoffical, but as unresolvable issues pile up and the hard left tries to be more bolshevik than the bolsheviks, the break will in fact materialize. Red Country America and Blue Country America will separate.

Iran will rise once more after being beaten back by Trump. Turkey will continue to dominate and expand. China will overtake the USA and the West as the unrivaled superpower.

Israel will continue to be seen by Greece and Cyprus as well as the Eastern block of the EU as the fulcrum, which they can rely on. The same goes for the Sunni Arab States.

So however the next week pans out for Trump or Biden (media projections are meaningless) the USA has passed the tipping point and is now on a real descent.

The Statue of Exile falls at the End of Days. We will soon find out how long that actually takes and what will be taken down with it.

Posted on

Israel and the American Jewish Crises

The key to strengthening and supporting the community is to bypass its failed leadership and speak and interact directly with American Jews.

As the New Year 5778 begins, 88% of Israeli Jews say that they are happy and satisfied with their lives. This makes sense. Israel’s relative security, its prosperity, freedom and spiritual blossoming make Israeli Jews the most successful Jewish community in 3,500 years of Jewish history.

The same cannot be said for the Jews of the Diaspora. In Western Europe, Jewish communities that just a generation ago were considered safe and prosperous are now besieged. Synagogues and Jewish schools look like army barracks. And the severe security cordons Jews need to pass through to pray and study are entirely justified. For where they are absent, as they were at the Hyper Cacher Jewish supermarket in Paris in 2015, assailants strike.

Western European Jewry’s crisis is exogenous to the Jewish communities. It isn’t the Jews who caused the crisis, which may in time cause the wholesale exodus of the Jews from Europe. The crisis is a function of growing levels of popular antisemitism spurred by mass immigration from the Islamic world and the resurgence of indigenous European Jew-hatred, particularly on the far Left.

The same cannot be said of the American Jewish community, which at the dawn of 5778 also finds itself steeped in an ever deepening crisis. And while antisemitism is a growing problem in America, particularly on university campuses, unlike their European counterparts, American Jews could mount and win a battle against the growing anti-Jewish forces. But in large part, they have chosen not to. And they have chosen not to fight the antisemites because they are in the midst of a self-induced identity crisis.

First, there is the problem of demographic collapse.

According to the Pew Research Center’s 2013 study of American Jewry, nearly 60% of American Jews intermarry. Based on the Pew data, the Jewish People Policy Institute published a report in June that noted that not only are 60% of American Jews who get married marrying non-Jews, only half of American Jews are getting married at all. And among those who are getting married, less than a third are raising their children as Jewish in some way.

Earlier this month, a study of American Jews was published by the Public Religion Research Institute. It found that not only hasn’t the situation improved since the Pew survey was published, the trend toward assimilation and loss of Jewish identity among American Jews has accelerated.

In 2013, 32% of American Jews under 30 said that they were not Jews by religion. Today the proportion of Jews under 30 who say they have no relation to the Jewish faith has ballooned to 47%.

Not surprisingly, the wholesale abandonment of Jewish faith by nearly half of young American Jews has taken a toll on the two liberal streams of American Judaism. According to the study, the percentage of American Jews who identify as Reform or Conservative Jews is in free fall.

Whereas in 2013, 35% of American Jews identified as Reform, today, a mere four years later, only 28% identify as Reform. The situation among Conservatives is even worse. In 2013, 18% of American Jews identified as Conservatives. Today, only 14% do. Among Jews under 30 the situation is even starker. Only 20% of American Jews under 30 identify as Reform. Only 8% identify as Conservative.

To be sure, the trend toward secularism and assimilation among US Jewry is not new. And over the years, Reform and Conservative leaders have adopted varying strategies to deal with it.

In 1999 the Reform movement tried to deal with the problem by strengthening the movement’s religious practices. Although the effort failed, the impulse that drove the strategy was rational. American Jews who seek spiritual and religious meaning likely want more than a sermon about tikkun olam.

The problem is that they also want more than a rabbi donning a kippa and a synagogue choosing to keep kosher.

This is why, as the number of Reform and Conservative Jews is contracting, the number of American Jews who associate with the Orthodox movement is growing. Between 2013 and 2017, the proportion of young American Jews who identify as Orthodox grew from 10% to 15%.

Moreover, more and more American Jews are finding their spiritual home with Chabad. Today there are more Chabad houses in the US than Reform synagogues.

Unable to compete for Jews seeking religious fulfillment, the Reform and Conservative movements have struck out for new means of rallying their bases and attracting members. Over the past year, two new strategies are dominating the public actions of both movements.

First, there is a selective fight against antisemitism. While antisemitism is experiencing a growth spurt in the US progressive movement, and antisemitism is becoming increasingly overt in US Muslim communities, neither the Reform nor Conservative movements has taken significant institutional steps to fight them.

Instead, both movements, and a large swath of the Jewish institutional world, led in large part by Reform and Conservative Jews, have either turned a blind eye to this antisemitism or supported it.

Take for instance the case of Davis, California, imam Amman Shahin.

On July 21 Shahin gave a sermon calling for the Jewish people to be annihilated. His Jewish neighbors in the progressive Jewish communities of Davis and Sacramento didn’t call the police and demand that he be investigated for terrorist ties. They didn’t demand that his mosque fire him.

Instead, led by the Oakland Jewish Federation, local rabbi Seth Castleman and the JCRC, they embraced Shahin. They appeared with him at a public “apology” ceremony, where he failed to apologize for calling for his Jewish colleagues, and every other Jew, to be murdered.

All Shahin did was express regret that his call for genocide caused offense.

On the other hand, the same leaders stand as one against allegations of antisemitic violence stemming from the political Right. In the face of an utter lack of evidence, when Jewish institutions were subjected to a rash of bomb threats last winter, Reform and Conservative leaders led the charge insisting that far-right antisemites were behind them and insinuated that the perpetrators supported President Donald Trump. When it worked out that all of the threats were carried out by a mentally ill Israeli Jew, they never issued an apology.

So, too, the Reform and Conservative movements, like the rest of the American Jewish community, treated the Charlottesville riot last month like a new Reichstag fire. They entirely ignored the violence of the far-left, antisemitic Antifa protesters and behaved as though tomorrow neo-Nazis would take control of the federal government. They jumped on the bandwagon insisting that Trump’s initial condemnation of both groups was proof that he has a soft spot for neo-Nazis.

The problem with the strategy of selective outrage over antisemitism is that it isn’t at all clear who the target audience is. Survey data shows that the more active Jews are in the synagogue, the less politically radical they are and the more devoted to Jewish causes they are. So it is hard to see how turning a blind eye to leftist and Muslim antisemitism will rally their current membership more than they already have been rallied. Moreover, the more radicalized Jews become politically, the more outlets they have for their political activism both as Jews and as leftists. No matter how anti-Trump Conservative and Reform leaders become, they can never rival the progressive forces in the Democratic Party.

Prospects for success of the second strategy are arguably even lower. The second strategy involves cultivating animosity toward Israel over the issue of egalitarian prayer at the Kotel.

Last June, the government overturned an earlier decision to build a passageway connecting the Western Wall Plaza with Robinson’s Arch, along the Southern Wall, where egalitarian prayer services are held. The government also rescinded a previous decision to have representatives of the Conservative and Reform movements receive membership in the committee that manages the Western Wall Plaza.

The government’s first decision was non-political. The Antiquities Authority nixed the construction of the passage due to the adverse impact construction would have on the antiquities below the surface.

As to the second decision, it is far from a matter of life and death. The committee has no power to influence egalitarian prayers for better or for worse.

And yet, rather than acknowledge that the decision was a setback but it didn’t harm the status of egalitarian prayer at the Wall, the Reform and Conservative movements declared war against the government and dragged much of the organized Jewish establishment behind them.

The Reform leadership canceled a scheduled meeting with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, and the Jewish Agency Board followed suit.

Six hundred Conservative rabbis signed a letter to Netanyahu accusing him of betraying Diaspora Jewry and announcing they would be forced to reconsider their support for Israel.

Ambassador David Friedman, who had just taken residence in Israel a month before the explosion, used his first public remarks as ambassador to call his fellow American Jews to order.

Friedman said, “Yesterday, I heard something that I thought I’d never hear before. And I understand the source of the frustration and the source of the anger. But I heard a major Jewish organization say that they needed to rethink their support for the State of Israel.

“That’s something unthinkable in my lifetime, up until yesterday. We have to do better. We must do better,” he said.

But in the intervening months, the Conservative and Reform movements have not relented in their attacks. They have ratcheted them up.

The thinking appears to be that if they can make this problem look like a life or death struggle between Israel and progressive Jewry, they can both keep their dwindling bases engaged and attract members of the increasingly anti-Israel Jewish far Left.

The problem with this is that just as they cannot outdo the Democratic Party in their hostility toward Trump, so the Conservative and Reform movements cannot be more anti-Israel than Jewish Voices for Peace and other anti-Israel Jewish groups.

 The question for Israelis is what this failure of the mainstream American Jewish leadership means for the future of Israel’s relationship with American Jewry. Jewish survival and continuity through the ages has been predicated and dependent on our ability as Jews to uphold the commandment of the sages that all Jews are responsible for one another. As the most successful Jewish community in history, Israel has a special responsibility for our brethren in the Diaspora.

The first step toward fulfilling our duty is to recognize the basic fact that while it is true that the American Jewish community is in crisis, the leaders of that community are in an even deeper crisis. And the key to strengthening and supporting the community is to bypass its failed leadership and speak and interact directly with American Jews.

Originally published on the Jersusalem Post

Posted on

Obama’s war against America

In 1989, following her tenure as President Ronald Reagan’s ambassador to the UN Jeane Kirkpatrick described how the Palestinians have used the UN to destroy Israel.

Following outgoing US President Barack Obama’s assault on Israel at the UN Security Council last Friday, longtime UN observer Claudia Rossett wrote an important article at PJMedia where she recalled Kirkpatrick’s words.

In “How the PLO was legitimized,” published in Commentary, Kirkpatrick said that Yassir Arafat and the PLO worked “to come to power through international diplomacy – reinforced by murder.”

Kirkpatrick explained, “The long march through the UN has produced many benefits for the PLO. It has created a people where there was none; a claim where there was none. Now the PLO is seeking to create a state where there already is one. That will take more than resolutions and more than an ‘international peace conference.’ But having succeeded so well over the years in its campaign to delegitimize Israel, the PLO might yet also succeed in bringing the campaign to a triumphant conclusion, with consequences for the Jewish state that would be nothing short of catastrophic.”

As Rossett noted, in falsely arguing that Obama’s support for Friday’s UN Security Council Resolution 2334 is in line with Reagan’s policies, Obama’s UN ambassador Samantha Power deliberately distorted the historical record of US policy towards Israel and the PLO-led UN onslaught against the Jewish state.

In stark contrast to Power’s self-serving lie, neither Reagan nor George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton nor George W. Bush would have ever countenanced a resolution like 2334.

Obama’s predecessors’ opposition to the war against Israel at the UN was not merely an expression of their support for Israel. They acted also out of a fealty to US power, which is directly targeted by that war.

It is critical that we understand how this is the case, and why the implications of Resolution 2334 are disastrous to the US itself.

Resolution 2334 is being presented as an “anti-settlement” resolution. But it is not an anti-settlement resolution.

Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria and neighborhoods in Jerusalem are being used – as they always have been used – as a means of delegitimizing the Jewish state as a whole, and legitimizing Palestinian terrorists and Islamic terrorists more generally. Resolution 2334 serves to criminalize Israel and its people and to undermine Israel’s right to exist, while embracing Palestinian terrorists and empowering them in their war to annihilate Israel.

America’s historic refusal to countenance such actions at the UN Security was never a purely altruistic position. It was also a stand for American power and the inherent justice of American superpower status and global leadership.

Throughout most of its history, the UN has served as a proxy battlefield first of the Cold War, and since the destruction of the Soviet Union, for the war against the US-led Free World.

Beginning in the early 1960s, the Soviets viewed the political war against Israel at the UN as a means to undermine the moral basis for the US-led West. If Israel, the only human rights defending state in the Middle East, and the US’s only stable ally in the region could be delegitimized, then the very coherence of the US-led Western claim to moral superiority against the totalitarian Soviet empire would be undone.

Hence, the first Soviet attempt at the UN to castigate Zionism, the Jewish national liberation movement, as a form of racism was made in 1965, two years before Israel took control of Judea and Samaria and united Jerusalem in the Six Day War.

That attempt failed. But nine years later the wording first raised in 1965 was adopted by the UN General Assembly which passed resolution 3379 slandering libeled Zionism as “a form of racism.”

With their automatic majority in the General Assembly and all other UN organs, the Soviets used the Palestinian war against Israel as a proxy for their war against America. After the demise of the Soviet Union, the Islamic bloc, backed by members of the former Soviet bloc, the non-aligned bloc and the Europeans continued their campaign. The only thing that kept them from winning was the US and its Security Council veto.

When Obama chose to lead the anti-Israel lynch mob at the Security Council last week, he did more than deliver the PLO terrorist organization its greatest victory to date against Israel. He delivered a strategic victory to the anti-American forces that seek to destroy the coherence of American superpower status. That is, he carried out a strategic strike on American power.

By leading the gang rape of Israel on Friday, Obama undermined the rationale for American power. Why should the US assert a sovereign right to stand against the radical forces that control the UN?

If US agrees that Israel is committing a crime by respecting the civil and human rights of its citizens to live in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, then how can America claim that it has the right to defend its own rights and interests, when those clash with the views of the vast majority of state members of the UN?

Following Obama’s assault on Israel Friday, Senators Lindsay Graham and Ted Cruz called for the US to end its financial support for the UN at least until the Security Council abrogates Resolution 2334. They are correct.

But it isn’t anger at how Obama has and is expected to continue to use the Security Council to imperil Israel that should inform the incoming Trump administration’s actions. Rather a determination to maintain US power and secure its national security requires that the UN be permanently defunded and defanged.

For eight years, through his embrace and empowerment of US enemies, betrayal and weakening of US allies, emaciation of the US armed forces and repeated apologies for America’s past assertions of global leadership Obama has waged a determined war against US superpower status. The last vestige of the strategic and moral rationale for US power was the protection America afforded Israel at the Security Council.

Now with that gone, it has become a strategic imperative for the US to render the UN irrelevant. This can only be undertaken by permanently defunding this corrupt institution and using the US’s Security Council veto to end the UN’s role as the arbiter of international peace and security, by among other things, ending the deployment of UN forces to battle zones.

Only by stripping the UN of its financial wherewithal to assault US allies and American interests and by denying it the institutional and operational capacity to serve as an arbiter of disputes morally and legally superior to the US can America protect its sovereignty and advance its interests.

Only by denying those associated with the UN the prestige that confers to an institution legitimized by democrat and autocrat alike can the incoming Trump administration rebuild America’s reputation and power.

It is not surprising that Obama is carrying out the final act of his presidency at the UN. Obama has made no attempt to hide his desire to eliminate America’s independence of action. By elevating the post of UN ambassador to a cabinet level position at the outset of his presidency, Obama signaled his conviction that this corrupt institution is the equal of the US government.

This early signal was transformed into an open policy when Obama used the Security Council as a means to bypass the US Senate in implementing his nuclear deal with Iran.

Now, by ignoring the near consensus position of both parties that the US should block anti-Israel resolutions from being adopted at the Security Council and plotting further action against Israel at the Security Council in his final weeks in office, Obama has made clear his position and his aim.

Obama is not leading the war against Israel at the Security Council simply to advance the PLO’s war for the annihilation of Israel. He is acting in this manner to undermine the legitimacy of American power.

Obama’s strategic campaign against his country can only be defeated by a counter campaign by his successor.

Luckily, by eschewing multilateral entanglements in favor of bilateral partnerships during his presidential campaign, President-elect Donald Trump has demonstrated that he understands the threat and will adopt the only possible means of countering it. To reassert and rebuild the rationale for American power, the Trump administration must permanently defund the UN and reject its legitimacy as an institution of global governance.

Originally published in The Jerusalem Post. 

[huge_it_share]

 

Posted on

Is the F-35 Deal a Dud for Israel?

Despite the fanfare put on by the Israeli government upon the delivery of the first F-35s this past week, the plane itself may not be the deal the Israeli cabinet made it out to be. Since the beginning of the plan’s production in 2001. In the most extreme, critics call it the “million-dollar disaster,” while more moderate views claim it is over-hyped and far too expensive.

Below are some statements from notable industry experts:

“Even before the downgrades, some analysts questioned the F-35′s ability to defeat newer Sukhoi and Shenyang jets.”

-David Axe, military correspondent.

“It’s as if Detroit suddenly put out a car with lighter fluid in the radiator and gasoline in the hydraulic brake lines: That’s how unsafe this plane is…”

-Pierre Spray

In a report by POGO, a government oversight committee, Winslow Wheeler Director (2002-2014), Straus Military Reform quoted various pilots about the F-35:

There are additional problems for detecting threats in the all-important visual mode: the ejection seat headrest and canopy “bow” (where the canopy meets the fuselage) are designed in such a way as to impede seeing aircraft to the rear: one pilot commented “A pilot will find it nearly impossible to check [their six o’clock position{to the rear}] under g.” Another commented, “The head rest is too large and will impede aft visibility and survivability during surface and air engagements,” and “Aft visibility will get the pilot gunned [down] every time,” referring to close-range combat. (p. 18.)

Indeed, DOT&E stated explicitly “The out-of-cockpit visibility in the F-35 is less than other Air Force fighter aircraft.” (p. 17.)

To summarize in different words, the helmet-mounted display and the F-35 system does not present an enhanced, clearer view of the outside world, targets and threats to the pilot; instead, they present a distorted and/or obstructed view.  This is one of the most serious backward steps that the entire F-35 system takes, and it presents an even greater threat to the survivability of the F-35 and its pilot than the astounding evidence of the flammability of the F-35 (all versions) in the recent analysis of another DOT&E report by military analyst Lee Gaillard at Counterpunch.

In the event of the pilot needing to escape from the aircraft, there are also some incompletely explained problems with the ejection seat in “off-normal” situations, i.e. those that can occur in combat or even real training. (p. 43.)

If this plane is so bad, then why did the Israeli government go for the deal?  One word: IRAN. Everyone agrees the F-35 is expensive, but except for its most extreme detractors, most would also agree it has one redeeming quality, excellent stealth capabilities. Given the fact that its slower speeds are specifically built for precision attacks on multiple targets, it is not a surprise that Israel Air force Industries and the government toook a chance on the F-35 as long they would be able to override the American computer codes and enhance them.

The MiGFlug Blog says the following:

The F-35 is not mainly built for high speeds, it is built as an attack aircraft (as well), like the A-10 Thunderbolt II and therefore needs low speeds to be able to shoot at the enemy on the ground for longer times before passing it. The radar cross section is one of the world’s smallest even in a clean loadout, not to mention when the others start loading weapons on their wings which further increases the radar cross section of them compared to the F-35. It does not have the best dog fight capabilities due to its big size (Sprey calls it “fat”) and the big engine fan behind the cockpit which limits the sight backwards, but modern air-to-air battles are supposed to be mainly BVR (beyond visual range) engagements which means that all fighters will depend on their radar- and IR missiles rather than they depend on their dogfighting skills.

With Bibi’s visit to Azerbaijan, the F-35 fits tightly into Israel’s potential Iran attack strategy if Trump tears up the nuclear accords upon entering office. It may have been a pork barrel project in terms of the American tax payer and not live up to industry hype, but if used correctly by Israel it may be the the right kind of tool to be used to knock out Iran’s nuclear program.

[huge_it_share]

Posted on

“A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand”

“A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become lawful in all the States, old as well as new — North as well as South.”

-Abraham Lincoln, 1858

No matter who wins today, it is clear that by all accounts America is heading towards the 21st Century version of 1860.  True there is no longer chattel slavery, yet the feeling of deep divisions within the country can no longer be ignored or dismissed.

Millions of Americans feel the federal government is too involved with personal decisions.  These same people see an economy that only works for the 1%. Factories have closed, skills are outdated, and new jobs pay far less than before. Blue collar workers, inner cities, and millennials feel disenfranchised.

As a dual American/Israeli citizen who grew up in the USA, worked in politics,traversed the country and now lives in Israel’s biblical heartland, I look at the country where I was born and grew up in from a different vantage point.  For me looking in from the outside, America is a radically different place. It has strayed far from the compass that the Founders built for it.

It is true the United States has been on the edge before, but there were always external forces that unified the nation or a cause that empowered one side to over take the other.  With nothing of the sort, America heads for a long era of division and social disintegration.

Yet, despite all of this, the ideals  of the Founding Fathers and a moral electorate live on.  Perhaps not within the confines of a single country, but rather in those individuals seeking to strive for a better world through personal freedom based on biblical roots.

The way forward as America and the West transitions into unchartered and dangerous waters is to cling to the Creator and his light.

lev-haolam-international-pressure

[huge_it_share]

Posted on

Bibi Netanyahu: Our Relationship with the USA Will Further Strengthen

Below are Bibi’s remarks at the beginning of the weekly cabinet meeting.  The Prime Minister clearly states he views the relationship with the USA as special and expects it to strengthen no matter who wins the White House. He also believes and hopes that America will continue to insist that any solution to the Israel-Palestinian dispute will be dealt with in direct negotiations with no pre-conditions rather than international forums.

Bibi then listed three countries that Israel has growing bi-lateral relations with:

  • China
  • Russia
  • India

Two of these three are in a current trajectory to be in direct conflict with the United States, especially if Hillary Clinton wins. In a growing multi-polar world that is shredding up the globalist dream of a new world order, Israel may cherish its special relationship to the United States, but is ensuring that it is on good footing with three of the rising powers to its North and East.

Watch the full address below:

Break the BDS

[huge_it_share]

Posted on

Noach, Avraham, Moshe Rabbeinu, and the Power to Nullify Racism

As a Haitian-American woman, I have been in many life intersections.  Am I African-American or not?  The White people who say, “You’re not like the others!” were they trying to compliment me or divide and conquer? Can one have pride in being a Haitian or is it as horrific as the media says? 

Although my parents tried to shield me from many things, among them racism, the brutal gentrification of our neighborhood was quite obvious.  My brothers were frisked frequently, people were pulled over if they didn’t move fast enough when the light turned green.  This brought in a new slew of racism questions.  Why are Black people hated so much?  In the case of my neighborhood it was mostly Puerto Ricans.  Why is there so much negativity directed at Black and Brown?  Although I had since moved to Israel, my concern for the Black/Brown world is still in my heart.  That and a pocket full of questions.

I never found anyone to really answer these questions for me.  Not, until, I came to Judaism.  In Judaism I learned about three pillars, three people who were real game changers.  Noach, Avraham, and Moshe.  And with these game changers, I was able to make sense out of the whole thing.

The way I see it at this point, in a depraved society — when everyone is corrupt and is out to outdo the next fellow in corruption, at these times, the racist seems like the most righteous person out there.  When everyone is looking out for number 1 – themselves, the only one who’s actually trying to bind two or more people in kindness or caring or even love is the racist.  It’s not necessarily racism, any us versus them by default entails an “us” which means more than one person is to be concerned for.

In Noach’s society, that was exactly what happened.  Everyone had become corrupt, stealing from one another, the courts were a farce, etc.  So Noach was given the task of building the ark and saving only his family and the animals.  He did try to warn the rest of humanity.  Once.  But after that he went on about his business knowing full well that everyone would die in the flood.  And yet he is considered righteous – for that time.

This is also what I see today in America. With so much corruption going on, sex scandals, corrupt politicians, even dishonest business men, the name of the game is to make a buck any which way you can — whether it’s exploiting people’s woes in reality shows to scamming hard-working people with bad mortgages. Everyone is out for number 1.  Themselves.  As a result, the police can shoot Black men dead in the streets for the most minor of reasons and get away with it — or get rewarded paid vacation leave.  But everyone is too busy protecting their asset to fight against it.  Or when people actually do fight against it, it’s mainly other Black people.  Even though injustice is a threat to the whole fabric of a society, no one seems bothered except the “us.”  That is truly a depraved society.

Then comes a slightly higher level.  The level of Avraham — in this stage society can pretty much figure out what’s right and what’s wrong, what’s beneficial and what’s detrimental.  They understand that goodness and trust is needed in a society in order for it to function.  However, they do not dismantle the status quo (established by the Noach level).  The ones kicked stay kicked; the elite stay elite.

This was the case with Avraham.  He was full of kindness and was ready to preach the “good word” to anyone who would be his guest.  But he didn’t uplift anyone (nor down grade anyone).  If they were considered an outcast, so outcast they remained.  Such was the case with his faithful servant Eliezer.  Eliezer had a daughter he wanted to match with Avraham’s son, Isaac.  But Isaac refused because Eliezer was from the bad stock.  Never mind that according to some, Eliezer was so holy that he went to heaven literally — he didn’t die.  Even then because his status was what it was, Avraham would not associate with him.

This was a bit how I saw many Jews today.  They are very kind.  Willing to share the Torah and have a great time.  But at the end of the day, you must stay in your lane.  Not all Jews are like this, but they are out there.

It was awesome that Operation Solomon happened and Operation Moshe and the many other operations that helped to bring the Ethiopians Jews to be with their brothers in Israel.  But it is also heartbreaking to hear them complain about the racism they’ve experienced there.  A few have even gone back to Ethiopia.

Stay in your lane.

I know even as a Black Jew, some people are hesitant to call upon a Black Jew to come to the Torah or would use a Black person in their advertisement when they want to represent the typical “goy.”

 And then there’s the Moshe Rabbeinu level (Moses).  Moshe was like a bull in a china store!  He crashed through all the taboos and social mores.  Whereas the Jewish people were punished for trying to emulate the Egyptians, Moshe lived right inside the Pharaoh’s palace learning their ways.  Whereas the Jews avoid those who worshiped idols or like in Avraham’s story, distanced themselves from those considered lower status, Moshe later married Midianite woman, the daughter of the high priest of Midian no less. Previously he married an Ethiopian woman as well.  Whereas most prophets had to go into a sort of trance to receive heavenly messages, Moshe was said to receive them while he was in his regular conscious state.  Whereas most scorn the Egyptians and considered them vile, Moshe brought some of the Egyptians that had been turning to Judaism (probably since Yosef’s time), to come and receive the Torah as well.  He totally put the people ahead of himself.

Interestingly, it was this one who crossed and crashed through so many social mores who was the one to bring the Torah laws to the Jewish people.

This makes me think of all the times in history when the law was on the evil’s side.  The holocaust was legal, slavery was legal, so many horrific things can be made legal, but it’s the bull in the china store that can bring down the true, goodly laws. The Rosa Parks. 

This makes me think of the imminent redemption and nullification of racism.  Can it be that only when we are willing to charge ahead like a bull in a China store will we bring down laws that are in pleasant places?  Only when we carve our own paths? Thought schema? Our own Torah understandings?

Nevertheless, we must be cautious not to let things get too depraved otherwise the highest point we will be able to see is to just huddle together in an “us” versus “them” dichotomy

At any rate, the goal to strive for is the Moshe Rabbeinu level. It’s great to call upon the G-d of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  But maybe, just maybe we should be calling upon the G-d of Moses (that facet of G-d)?

[huge_it_share]

 

Posted on

US Begins Airstrikes in Libya Against ISIS Targets

Responding to the UN backed government in Libya’s request for help against ISIS, the US began bombing strategic areas in Libya.

Ironically the core stronghold of ISIS is the hometown of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. Sirte is extra important to ISIS as it is a Mediterranean coastal city across the sea from Europe. This makes the second most important conquest outside of Syria and Iraq.

The US bombing campaign is focused mainly on pushing the ISIS militants from Sirte in order to allow the Libyan government to go in and take over.

Posted on

[podcast] With America Fraying at the Seams, Israel has become a Beacon of Light in a Changing World

I discuss the disparities facing African American youth and the rest of America and how it is an example of the decay and lack of movement in a country that is facing a changing world. The chaos the West is experiencing is juxtaposed against a rising East, ascendent Russia, and an Israel changing the world technologically, morally, and spiritually.

Duration: 15:55