An increasingly common claim these days is that male and female are one and the same. The denial that there are any real male-female differences rooted in biology has led to the astonishing belief that men and women are not born male or female – they are whatever gender they say they are. In this week’s video, author Ashley McGuire tackles this sensitive contemporary issue and explains who gets hurt when we deny one of life’s enduring realities.
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It always gets down to self-preservation and that means economics and money. (See 1 below.)
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The person we were due to visit and see their private art collection is having blood pressure issues so we will leave a lot later than we previously had planned so I am sending this last memo.
Meanwhile, I will post some articles pertaining to the sanctimonious.(See 2a below.)
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I am also waiting to do so because there is a speech Rabbi Lewis gave in Atlanta that must be included if I receive it in time. Very long but answers so many questions, particularly the later two pages. (See 3 below.)
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Finally, the anti-gun crowd always resurfaces when there is a tragedy.
The sick person who killed all those people in Las Vegas violated all the gun laws on the books so the problem must involve lack of enforcement.
If we enforce our laws, hello Chicago, and they prove ineffective then I suggest we must pass more laws that require the nut cases to obey the laws they break and then enforce these new laws.
That should work.
Since the solutions are simple, I do not understand why no one has thought of them. Just make sure all the bad people obey all the laws they generally tend to break.
For instance, we could search everyone's home for guns and if the guns found are illegal then we could arrest the home owner and burn their house down. I just do not understand why these easy solutions have not been enforced.
Of course, the nut case law breaker could hide the guns elsewhere, like in the garage,maybe bury them in the yard or store them in a storage facility. This would mean more people could be employed as gun locators and that could end the unemployment problem.
Why can't liberal anti-gun people think of these solutions? They are so simple.
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Dick
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1) If the U.S. Reimposes Sanctions on Iran, Allies Will Follow
“We will not be able to coerce Europe, Russia, and China into shunning Iran’s economy over policy interests that they do not share.”
— Adam Szubin, former director of the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control
“The United States would have to threaten all customers who buy Iranian crude. The response would be global outrage and resistance, especially from our allies.”
— Matthew Reed, vice president at Foreign Reports
In November 2011, Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk — with help from then-Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell — took the Obama White House by surprise, filing an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that imposed crippling sanctions on the Central Bank of Iran. Days later, Kirk and New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez forged a bipartisan compromise and a vote was scheduled.
The Obama administration was livid. In a closed-door meeting, then-Deputy National Security Advisor Denis McDonough, Deputy Secretary of State William Burns, and Deputy Secretary of Treasury Neal Wolin begged and pleaded with the Senators to withdraw their amendment. The United States would not be able to force its allies to go along with the plan, they said — the sanctions regime would fall apart, there would be global outrage and resistance, and gas prices will skyrocket.
Their pleas fell on deaf ears, as did a last-ditch letter of opposition from Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, which argued that the amendment threatened to “undermine the effective, carefully phased, and sustainable approach we have taken to build strong international pressure against Iran.” After a historic, 100-to-zero Senate vote, the Menendez-Kirk sanctions on the Central Bank of Iran changed the course of history.
Every European and Asian ally that had come to Capitol Hill to lobby against the amendment fully complied with it after it came into force. The measure was such a success that President Barack Obama claimed credit for it in his 2012 reelection campaign.
This wasn’t the first time that economic consultants, U.S. businesses, and both European and Asian allies opposed a unilateral congressional sanctions measure — and it wasn’t the last either. But every time, history proved them wrong.
Within days of the president signing the Central Bank sanctions into law, I was already hard at work on something new — figuring out how to force Europe to cut Iran off from the global financial network called SWIFT. Working with Mark Dubowitz at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, we recognized that U.S. leverage over the Belgium-based organization resided in its cooperative governance structure — that is, the people who run SWIFT are all global financial institutions that do business in U.S. dollars.
When I asked SWIFT’s lawyers if they would voluntarily cut off Iran from their network, they arrogantly refused. When the White House found out that I was drafting an amendment for an upcoming Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs markup, Szubin put on a full-court press to stop it. But once again, thanks to some bipartisan negotiating, the amendment was adopted by the committee and within hours SWIFT was working with the European Union to find a way to comply.
This story played out again and again — after passage of the Iran Threat Reduction Act, and of the Iran Freedom and Counter-Proliferation Act, which blacklisted whole sectors of Iran’s economy and cut off the flow of precious metals to the regime.
Today, we are seeing the same old opponents of tough sanctions on Iran come out of the woodwork to warn President Donald Trump against threatening to reimpose a global financial embargo on Iran. Despite Iran’s refusal to allow inspections at military sites, continued testing of advanced ballistic missiles, expansion of its terrorist proxy armies into Syria and Lebanon, and holding of American hostages, former Obama administration officials argue that the United States has no choice but to keep its most powerful sanctions options in a lockbox for fear of European and Asian noncompliance.
Their arguments ring as hollow today as they did in the past. European and Asian businesses will oppose the reimposition of sanctions on Iran right up until the point they are reimposed. And then their lawyers will force them to comply — choosing continued access to the $19 trillion American financial system over Iran’s $400 billion.
The left has all but conceded that Iran is not complying with the letter and spirit of the nuclear agreement. Many have finally conceded that the agreement was a bad deal for America. But the one argument they’re hanging onto is that the United States has no alternatives — that the threat of reimposing sanctions would not be effective and Iran would therefore win a race to the bomb.
History shows how wrong they are. Trump should decertify Iran’s compliance with the nuclear agreement and hold a sanctions Sword of Damocles over the Iranian economy: change your behavior or risk total economic collapse before you could ever reach the point of a nuclear weapon. Cry as they might along the way, no European or Asian corporation is going to choose a terrorist regime over access to the U.S. dollar.
Richard Goldberg worked on Capitol Hill from 2005 to 2014, serving as senior national security adviser to former U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk. He was a lead architect of several rounds of Congressionally enacted sanctions on Iran.
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2)
When Palestinian Arabs cry "Humiliation"
2)
Putin Is Filling the Middle East Power Vacuum
By BLOOMBERG, Henry Meyer and Donna Abu-Nasr
The Israelis and Turks, the Egyptians and Jordanians — they’re all beating a path to the Kremlin in the hope that Vladimir Putin, the new master of the Middle East, can secure their interests and fix their problems.
Putin and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
Photographer: Pavel Golovkin/AFP via Getty Images
Photographer: Pavel Golovkin/AFP via Getty Images
The latest in line is Saudi King Salman, who on Wednesday is due to become the first monarch of the oil-rich kingdom to visit Moscow. At the top of his agenda will be reining in Iran, a close Russian ally seen as a deadly foe by most Gulf Arab states.
Until very recently, Washington stood alone as the go-to destination for such leaders. Right now, American power in the region is perceptibly in retreat — testimony to the success of Russia’s military intervention in Syria, which shored up President Bashar al-Assad after years of U.S. insistence that he must go.
“It changed the reality, the balance of power on the ground,” said Dennis Ross, who was America’s chief Mideast peace negotiator and advised several presidents from George H. W. Bush to Barack Obama. “Putin has succeeded in making Russia a factor in the Middle East. That’s why you see a constant stream of Middle Eastern visitors going to Moscow.”
Success brings its own problems. As conflicting demands pile up, it’s not easy to send all those visitors home satisfied. “The more you try to adopt a position of dealing with all sides, the more you find that it’s hard to play that game,’’ Ross said.
Moscow was a major power in the Middle East during the Cold War, arming Arab states against Israel. Its influence collapsed along with communism. When the U.S. invaded Iraq to topple Saddam Hussein, Russia was a bystander, unable to do more than protest.
The tables began to turn in 2013, when the U.S. under Obama decided not to attack Assad. Two years later, Putin sent troops and planes to defend him.
Getting Results
For the most part, America’s local allies were firmly in the Assad-must-go camp. They were disillusioned when U.S. military might wasn’t deployed to force him out.
Russia’s clout in the region has grown “because Obama allowed it to,’’ said Khaled Batarfi, a professor at Alfaisal University’s branch in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. “Unfortunately he withdrew to a great extent from the Middle East.’’
That view is widespread. It was bluntly expressed last month by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who spent years urging American action against Assad. Talks with the U.S. “couldn’t get any results,’’ he said.
Turkey has now joined Russia and Iran in a plan to de-escalate the conflict. It’s “achieving a result,’’ Erdogan said. Two years ago, tensions between Putin and Erdogan had threatened to boil over, after the Turkish military shot down a Russian jet on the Syrian border. Last Friday, the Russian president flew to Ankara for dinner with his Turkish counterpart and “friend,’’ who’s agreed to buy Russian S-400 air defense missile systems, riling fellow NATO members.
‘Here’s the King’
Meanwhile the Saudis, who had financed rebels fighting against Assad, are cooperating with Russia in coaxing the opposition to unite for peace talks – which will likely cement the Syrian leader in power.
America’s Middle East allies mostly welcomed the change of U.S. president, and Donald Trump’s tough talk about challenging Iran. So far, though, he’s stuck close to his predecessor’s policy in Syria, concentrating on fighting Islamic State not Assad.
So, as the goal of regime-change in Syria recedes, priorities have shifted. The Saudis and other Arab Gulf powers are urging Russia to reduce Iran’s role in Syria, where Hezbollah and other Shiite militias supported by Tehran have provided shock troops for Assad’s offensive.
“Russia is better off not to be on one side of it. That’s the key message,’’ said Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, a U.A.E.-based political analyst. “Here is the king, representing Arab Gulf countries, representing a lot of geopolitical weight, coming to Russia. And Russia has to take that into consideration.’’
But Putin won’t shift his stance on Iran to accommodate Saudi wishes, according to a person close to the Kremlin.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has visited Russia four times in the past 18 months, has also found it hard to sway the Russian leader.
Putin and Netanyahu.
Photographer: Mikhail Klimentyev/AFP via Getty Images
Photographer: Mikhail Klimentyev/AFP via Getty Images
In August, Netanyahu told Putin that Iran’s growing foothold in Syria is “unacceptable.’’ In September he told CNN that the Iranians are trying to “colonize’’ Syria with the aim of “destroying us and conquering the Middle East.’’
Russia, though, refused his demand for a buffer zone inside Syria that would keep the forces of Iran and Hezbollah at least 60 kilometers (37 miles) from the Israeli border, a person familiar with the matter in Moscow said. Instead, Russia offered a 5-kilometer exclusion zone, the person said.
Russia also rejected a U.S. demand to make the Euphrates river a dividing line between Syrian government troops and U.S.-supported forces in eastern Syria. This has led to a race to capture territory from retreating Islamic State fighters in a strategic and oil-rich border region.
Yet Russia has succeeded in keeping open channels of communication to all sides, from Iran to Saudi Arabia and the Palestinian radical Islamist group Hamas to Israel, said Ayham Kamel, Middle East and North Africa director at Eurasia Group.
Putin and Tayyip Erdogan
Photographer: Alexander Zemlianichenko/AFP via Getty Images
While Russia didn’t give way on the buffer zone, it has a tacit understanding that permits Israel to carry out airstrikes against Hezbollah in Syria, said Andrey Kortunov, director general of the Russian International Affairs Council, a research group set up by the Kremlin.
It’s been mediating, along with Egypt, to end the decade-old inter-Palestinian rift between Fatah in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza. Putin invited rival Libyan factions to Moscow, after a series of peace efforts by other countries came to nothing. Russia has become a leading investor in oil-rich Iraqi Kurdistan, and was one of the few world powers to refrain from condemning its recent vote on independence.
In economic terms, the contest for influence looks like an unequal one – America’s GDP is 13 times Russia’s. That’s not always the decisive factor, said Alexander Zotov, Moscow’s ambassador to Syria from 1989 to 1994.
“Sometimes you have two boxers coming out to the ring, one is huge with bulging muscles and the other is smaller but nimble, and has a better technique,’’ he said.
Russia’s rise came as U.S. policy makers grew preoccupied with Asia, and the American public tired of Middle East wars – something both Obama and Trump acknowledged.
“Washington remains the indispensable power in the region,’’ said Eurasia’s Kamel. But its commitment to traditional alliances is weakening, he said, and that’s encouraged regional leaders to hedge their bets. “The Kremlin is on everyone’s mind.’’
With assistance by David Wainer, and Ilya Arkhipov
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2a)
| By Eli E. Hertz |
In addition to stabbings, car ramming and suicide bombings that have been frequently occurring at checkpoints, Palestinian Arabs claim they feel humiliated and harassed when Israeli authorities search them and their belongings; when they are prevented from traveling freely because of checkpoints, roadblocks, closures and curfews. They say they feel corralled behind security fences and ugly concrete walls.
Meanwhile in Israel, Israelis are searched numerous times during the course of a day. Israelis are asked to open their bags and purses for inspection. In most cases, they are subjected to body searches with a metal detector every time they enter a bank or a post office, pick up a bottle of milk at the supermarket, enter a mall or train station, or visit a hospital or medical clinic. As a matter of routine, Israelis' car trunks are searched every time they enter a well-trafficked parking lot.
Not one U.N. organ has protested the fact that, for years, an entire country has been harassed and humiliated.
Israelis are searched not only when they go out for a cup of coffee at the local Coffee-shop, but also when they go to the movies or the theater or a concert, where the term "dressed to kill" has an entirely different meaning.
These ordinary daily humiliations now extend to similar searches when Israelis go to weddings or bar mitzvahs. No one abroad talks about the humiliation Jews in Israel are subjected to, having to write at the bottom of wedding invitations and other life cycle events, "The site will be secured [by armed guards]" - to ensure relatives and friends will attend and share their joyous occasion.
To date, no one protests the fact that Jewish schoolchildren in Israel are surrounded by perimeter fences with armed guards at the schoolyard gates. Not one Arab village in Israel or the Territories has a perimeter fence around it. Guards are not required at Arabic shops, cafes, restaurants, movie theaters, wedding halls or schools - either in Israel or in the Territories. Palestinians also do not need armed guards to accompany every school trip, youth movement hike or campout. They are not targets of terrorism.
Israelis are told, in effect, to disguise themselves when traveling abroad - not to speak Hebrew in public and not to wear garments that reveal their Jewish/Israeli origins. On the other hand, Arabs who frequent Jewish cities and towns in Israel wear their traditional Arab headgear without fear of being attacked or harassed.
Even Israel's national airline - El Al - has been forced to remove its logo from the tails of its aircraft at certain airports, out of concern for the safety of its passengers. This followed several attempts to down Israeli civilian aircrafts with missiles - one of which blew up a Swissair flight in mid-air from Zurich to Tel Aviv in February 1970, killing all 47 passengers and crew aboard.
Strangely, no media outlets and not a single human rights organization has fully and objectively reported or protested the daily humiliation and harassment Israelis suffer because of the Palestinian Authority's 'factory of terror.'
Not one U.N. organ has protested the fact that, for years, an entire country has been harassed and humiliated.
All this begs the question: Who are the victims and who are the victimizers? Who are the ones being harassed and humiliated? Palestinians or Israelis?
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3) Rabbi Shalom Lewis Rosh Hashanah Day 2
Squaw is a Real World
The words I am about to share will be riddled with controversy. Some will squirm in their seats and I will squirm here on the bima but they are words I must express. I have never shied away from the truth, even if disturbing, even if risky, even if politically incorrect. Jeremiah many years ago lamented his prophetic appointment by crying out " ... vehaya b'libi ke'ish bo'eret atzur be'atzmotai...God's word was like a raging fire in my heart, shut up in my bonesl ••• "V'niglayti kalcheil, v'lo uchal...1 could not hold it in. I was helpless". Jeremiah's messages were blunt and harsh. He was beaten up by our ancestors and repeated attempts on his life were made but his words remain. Though no Jeremiah, I share his irrepressible passion for saying what needs to be said. , am also confident that you will be kinder to me then were the hostile and homicidal Jews of old to Jeremiah. , made a commitment to myself when I began the rabbinate that I would never talk down to my congregation, nor patronize them, nor treat them with disrespect from the bima. You have heard over the years sermons that many thought were hyperbolic, over the top, but we at Etz Chaim have always been ahead of the curve. I am proud of that. So please understand, it is the respect I have for you that compels me to say what must be said and what must be heard.
I had another sermon ready to go for today but two recent events convinced me to change topics. One was personal and the other was public. First the personal. Things happen to us all in the course of routine and easily slip away as life urges us on to what is next. But then, from seemingly out of nowhere we reach a tipping point, a weightless straw on the back of the camel, that sends us into a fury. We cry out 'Enough'. 'I've had it'. We see what has been in front of us all along but now we recognize it for what it is. Not a few seconds easily dismissed but a sinister warning easily overlooked. A tiny growth on what otherwise appears a healthy body.
I play Words with Friends and have about a dozen games going at anyone time. Most of my honorable opponents are here this morning. For the unaware, Words with Friends is scrabble played online. And so, a couple of weeks ago, in the midst of a game, I had a great word and a great spot. A Q that I could place on a triple letter that would reach a triple word square, giving me well over one hundred points. A very respectable score. And so, I punched in the word and it was rejected. I punched it in again and I am told 'Invalid Word'. I am puzzled. It's a legitimate word but maybe my iPhone is smarter than me. I looked it up in my Merriam-Webster Dictionary and sure enough, there was the word. Next, I went to the source of all knowledge, Google, and asked the question. "Why is, and I provided the word, why is this word not acceptable in Words with Friends?" The immediate response was 'The word is disparaging of women". I was stunned. What was the word? 'Squaw.' An Algonquin Indian loan word that is part of our vocabulary. It is in books. In movies. On TV shows and a proud Thanksgiving candle that burns on our festive table, next to a pilgrim and a turkey. It means an Indian woman. I exploded. I was not upset that I could not earn a lot of points. I was not upset that I could have won the game. I was enraged that some flip-flop wearing whippersnapper, sitting in Portland or Boulder or San Francisco was telling me what words are kosher and what words are treiff. This distant snit was censoring my vocabulary, our vocabulary, no less than what is done in China. In North Korea. In Cuba and beyond. Not a silly little game. Not the expression of sensitivity, but the pomposity of a dangerous rising class of self- righteous suppressors of the First Amendment. Where do these champions of compassion stop when Noah Webster says go? Should we eliminate from our vocabulary the words Alamo? Pueblo? Fritos? Because they might be offensive to Mexicans? Should we eliminate from our vocabulary the words cotton? Plantation? Ghetto? Because it might be offensive to Blacks? Should we eliminate from our vocabulary the words Cadillac? Cruise? Wallet? Because it might be offensive to the poor? Where does this lunacy end? Who makes the decisions?
The public event.
Charlottesville was an ugly weekend and a shameful event but it was a moment in time not a trend. Not a resurgence. The thugs were not goons sent by a sympathetic government but beer bellied, tattooed, seig heiling, sheet wearing, Neanderthals. There is no secret, massive network gathering, plotting in the dark the overthrow of America. Planning to bomb synagogues. Planning to lynch Blacks. Planning to round up gays and foreign speaking immigrants. Yes. These are evil people and given the opportunity would do hateful things but their numbers are insignificant when factored in to a population ofthree hundred and thirty million people. They are not surging in membership. The Nazis, the skin heads, the Klan, the white supremacists, are marginalized, are demonized, are ostracized, and pose no existential threat to our country nor to us. Period. To claim otherwise is simply untrue.
Curious, I Googled up Nazi marches and rallies in America . The search took me to Charlottesville in 2017, and then to Skokie in 1977. Forty years ago, yes, there were a few other episodes here and there but do any of us remember them? They were ridiculously inconsequential. 1977 and then this past August. Do we understand how far we have come from cross burnings and Bund rallies in Madison Square Garden? To over react to these incidents is to empower the corrupt, to inflate their influence, to magnify their numbers. They are not mythical creatures and every so often do emerge from the shadows to parade down Main Street, but the suppression of hate speech is the suppression of all speech. It is the price we pay for living in a free society where even the repulsive must be tolerated. Not so long ago there was panic and fear as scores of Jewish Community Centers and Jewish agencies were paralyzed by bomb threats. Jews were terrified. And then the truth. A disgruntled man trying to frame his ex- girlfriend and a crazy Jewish, Israeli hacker who lived in Ashkelon. There was no epidemic of hate. No outburst of anti- Semitism.
For forty years, I have walked to and from Shul every Friday night, Shabbos morning and yuntiff with a kippa perched proudly on my head. I did not seek quiet, untraveled routes, and shuffle down alley ways. I strolled along the major, well trafficked arteries of our community, an obvious Jew. Never once in all those years was I ever verbally taunted by a passer bye on the sidewalk nor by a bigoted hooligan in a speeding car. Our building, in thirty- five years, has never suffered anti- Semitic vandalism. No scrawled epithets of hate. No swastikas. No Jewish stars. Never. This is not Kristallnacht. This is not the state sponsored pogroms of Czarist Russia . This is not the Ukrainian massacres of Chemelniki nor the Spanish Inquisition. The police are on our side. The politicians are on our side. The government is on our side. The neighbors are on our side. America is the same after Charlottesville as she was before. The danger we face as Americans and as Jews is not coming from the Right. It is a diversion. It is a red herring. We need to look in the opposite direction.
As I venture into a place of possible controversy permit me a brief detour that I hope sets straight the record. In November, we had dismal options. To the shock of all, the underdog won and the slam dunk lost. Let me say it loudly, slowly and clearly, I am no enthusiastic fan of President Trump. There is no presidential presence in the oval office. He lacks dignity and has no filter when he speaks. He panders to his crowd and often falsehoods flow easily from his lips. His campaign rhetoric was inexcusable. His demeanor on the stump, a cringing embarrassment. He is morally inarticulate but that was no excuse for his confused, tepid words in Charlottesville but this is not 1933. There is no 'Night of the Long Knives'. No Nuremberg Laws. No consolidation of power. In the nine months of Trump's presidency he has passed no significant legislation. Hardly the sign of a ruthless dictator and yet, those in opposition call themselves the resistance. Forgive me but that term was used in the war against the Nazis and has no place in the vocabulary of political disputes in a functioning democracy any more then PETA's shameful 'Holocaust on your Plate' campaign. That being said, our president is deeply flawed but I do not believe that he is a bigot, a racist, a misogynist, an anti-Semite. Would I have preferred someone else in the White House? Most certainly. With that out of the way, let me proceed.
When I was in college, I had a professor for a course in Mexican history. She dressed in black, wore dark eye shadow and could best be described as Goth. When she began to teach, she would pull an ash tray out of her bag and place it on the desk. Next, she would light up a cigarette and begin her lecture. The moment the cigarette burned down, she lit another and then another. One day a fellow from the campus police passed by our room and noticed, through the glass panel on the side of the door, that our instructor was smoking. He knocked and slowly opened the door. He pointed to the No Smoking sign on the wall and respectfully said, "Professor. There is no smoking in the room". "0h." She responded, "I didn't realize. So, Sorry". She then snuffed out the cigarette in the ash tray. "Thank you, Ma'am. Have a good day." He smiled, turned and disappeared down the hall. The moment he was no longer viSible, she reached into her bag. Put a fresh Chesterfield to her lips, lit it up, made an obscene gesture and yelled, using the full expletive that I will not, "F. you cop". The entire class, including me, burst into enthusiastic applause at her defiance. As the years passed and I reflected on that incident' came to realize what infantile jerks we were and that our professor was not heroic but a crude, tobacco smelling, rule breaking boor. Yes, we were anti- establishment in the 1960s. We protested the war. Hated Nixon. But at some point, we grew up and chose to live in the real world of responsibility, consequences, virtue, rules and truth.
There is something rotten in Denmark but also something rotten in America and here is the uncomfortable truth. The painful, confusing, disturbing truth. The great threat that we face as Americans and as Jews comes not from the Alt Right but from the Alt Left. Some are violent, rampaging criminals, others wear suits and ties, jeans and t shirts. Some make no pretense of their disdain for America while others appear loyal citizens. Their tactics are different but their goals are the same. They do not understand America nor American exceptionalism We are a dangerously polarized society and have tumbled into a place of binary values that define who and what we are. This cultural divide will also define where we go as a nation. As Americans and as Jews we must pick a side. And though it should be an easy choice it is confusing because the Left claims the moral high ground, wrapped in what they define as tolerance, equality, sensitivity and decency when in truth, their agenda is intolerant, unequal, insensitive and indecent. 'We are the champions of all that is good' they cry out, when in fact they are on the wrong side of benevolence. They are the true bigots. The true oppressors. The true deniers of human rights. The true threat to authentic democracy. Let me provide a simple test to help us figure out what to do when our hearts take us in the direction of what we believe is tikkun olam, when we are motivated to march. To raise our voices. To donate resources in the hope of creating an improved society. There is no better way to distinguish between what is moral and what is immoral. What is good and what is corupt than in the Middle East impasse between Israel and the Palestinians. Though neither side is without blemish, the difference between the two is huge and provides us the definition of good and the definition of evil.
The Palestinians have steadfastly refused generous settlements from Israeli administrations, even the sharing of Jerusalem as capital. They still dream and chant of a homeland, 'From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free'. No compromise. The Palestinians provide tens of thousands of dollars to families of terrorists who were killed. They hold parades to honor terrorists who murdered innocent children. They name parks and streets after barbarians who slaughtered entire Jewish families. They have built playgrounds with rubber toys of Jewish body parts for their children to reenact terrorist attacks. And, a new strategy recently introduced. The Palestinian Education Ministry will give any student arrested for throwing Molotov cocktails at passing Israeli cars a passing grade in school.
Meanwhile, a few kilometers from Ramallah, what does apartheid, genocidal, ethnic cleansing Israel do? She has provided medical attention for countless numbers of wounded Arabs fleeing the bloodshed in Syria. Arabs are voting members of Kenesset. An Arab sits on the Supreme Court of Israel. In wars with ruthless enemies, Israel warns, as no other army does, of an impending attack so non- combatants can get out of the way. Arabs enjoy full civil rights. They worship as they wish. They shop alongside Israelis. They set up umbrellas on the beaches next to Israelis. They sit in buses next to Israelis. They are cared for in hospitals next Israelis. Contrast the two. One is enlightened and civilized. The other is depraved and primitive. And yet, who is vilified by the Left and who is celebrated? Who is demonized by the Left and who is embraced? It is a cliche we have all heard but it needs to be said here again. "1f the Arabs/Palestinians put down their weapons today, there would be peace tomorrow. If the Jews put down their weapons today, there would be no Israel tomorrow'. The Left likes the latter part of the quote and we who sing Hatikvah, eat felafal and go on birthright, don't get it.
We are good people and are always in the forefront of social action and liberal causes. It's in our DNA as Jews to feel empathy for the marginalized, the persecuted, the less fortunate. It's who we are and who we have been for millennia but I suggest that in the complexity of today we use the Israeli-Palestinian crisis as a moral litmus test. Whatever the cause. Whatever the protest. Whatever the rally, if we wish to show solidarity because it appears a righteous event, then we should drape ourselves in the Israeli flag, put on a blue and white kippa and wait to see what happens. Permit me to offer some clues in what the reaction would be in too many of today's civil and human rights venues. Let's connect some dots.
This past January many who are here today participated in The Woman's March. A world- wide protest to advocate for women's rights, worker's rights, racial equality and assorted reforms. Nice stuff for sure. Sounds good but the National Co-Chair of the Women's March was a woman, Linda Sarsour who claims that Zionists cannot be feminists ... that there is no room in the movement for people who support the state of Israel... that there is nothing creepier than Zionism. Would Golda Meir walk along- side Sarsour? How about, Gal Gadot, Wonder Woman? Sarsour supports the BDS campaign against Israel. Boycott. Divest. Sanctions. But where is her BDS outrage against real injustice in China? Iran? Cuba? North Korea? Venezuela? ISIS? Saudi Arabia? Sudan? Yemen? Syria? Gaza? There, the feminist Left, to its disgrace, is silent.
We participate in the Gay Rights Parade here in Atlanta and are a proudly inclusive community. One of the great moments of my career was bringing two women together in marriage under the chuppa in our chapel. Our credentials are unassailable. We are supporters of LGBTQ rights. Period. Several months back the lesbian community sponsored the "Chicago Dyke March' that exposed the progressives as not being so progressive. Three women who came to participate where thrown out of the event because they were carrying rainbow Pride flags that had Jewish stars in the center. When asked why they couldn't carry the flags that reflected their gay pride and their Jewish pride, they were told that their flag made people feel unsafe and that the march was anti- Zionist and pro- Palestinian and the organizers do not allow imperialistic flags. I am confused. Help me understand what middle east country has multiple gay pride parades? Gay Neighborhoods? Gay bars? Civil rights for gays? Is it Egypt? Iraq? Libya? Saudi Arabia? Syria? Lebanon? Iran? Gaza? The gay Left, to its disgrace, is silent.
Closer to home. Martin Luther King many years ago, boldly declared with eloquence and authority " ... you declare my friend that you do not hate the Jews, you are merely anti- Zionist. And I say, let the truth ring forth from the high mountain tops, let it echo through the valleys of God's green earth. When people criticize Zionism, they mean Jews. This is God's own truth ... the hatred of the Jews remains a blot on the soul of mankind ... So know this, anti- Zionism is ... anti- Semitic and ever will be so." Would MLK be a member of BLM? Would that great civil rights leader be a card- carrying member of Black Lives Matter? Judge for yourself. They accuse Israel of genocide and of apartheid. They support BDS and stand in solidarity with Palestine. Black lives matter but not if they come from Yemen and wear a kippa. Black lives matter but not if they come from Ethiopia and speak Hebrew. Jews were in the forefront of the civil rights movement. Jews were on the bridge in Montgomery. Jewish lives were lost fighting for black lives. But none of that matters to Black Lives Matter. Tyrants and tyranny across the planet. The Black Left, to its disgrace, is silent.
Womens' rights is a noble cause. Gay rights is a noble cause. Black rights is a noble cause but they all have been hijacked by a morally bankrupt Left. It's as confusing as having a beautiful, succulent brisket in front of us. It looks delicious. Smells fabulous, flowing gravy, smothered in onions but then someone comes along and spits on it. Do we still eat it? We are in Chelm, lost in a wicked place of sanctimonious piety. We have been betrayed by those who we thought were friends. We have been stabbed in the back by those who we thought were allies. We have been abandoned and yet refuse to accept the treachery as real.
A while back I had lunch with a local clergyman at Ted's Montana Grill. He is senior pastor of one of the largest churches in our community. The conversation was easy and pleasant. Retirement time tables. Theology. Biblical interpretations. We shared pulpit experiences, when we both looked at our watches and realized that hours had passed and we needed to get back to work. As I prepared to leave the pastor asked if I might answer one more question for him. "Sure" I replied. He said this is a question asked of him by his congregation more than any other. I looked at him and said "I know what that question is". He looked back and asked "How do you know what question my congregants most ask me?" I said again, "I know". He stared at me. Folded his arms. Sat back in the chair and said "OK What's the question?". I smiled and said with total confidence, "The question your congregants ask more than any other is .. .'Why are Jews Democrats?' His jaw dropped. He was dumbfounded. He laughed. "You're right. How did you know?" I responded, "Whenever I have a serious conversation with a non- Jew, that is the question they always ask". I understand why historically we gravitated to the Democratic party. It was comfortable. Its agenda was social justice. Minority rights. It stood for the prophetic and rabbinic dream of ' ... Ietakein olam bimalchut Shadai-to repair the world in Godly fashion'. We could never see ourselves sidling up to cigar smoking, pinky ring wearing, over fed corporate executives. The right was wrong. A Jewish Republican was a family embarrassment. Well friends, we now live in different times. I report. You decide.
In the 2012 Democratic National Convention, the insertion into the platform of, Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, met with resistance and loud opposition from delegates. Twice in two days it was brought up and twice it was yelled down. A voice vote was finally called and after three close votes the pro- Israel position was pushed through. When announced, it met with boos and jeers throughout the hall.
In the 2016 Democratic National Convention Israel fared no better. Or should I sayan authentic democracy fared no better against terrorist benefactors and celebrants. Inside the convention hall, delegates waved Palestinian flags to the cheers of many. Signs were waved reading "I support Palestinian human rights' and pro Palestinian positions were adopted at Israel's expense thanks to the progressive agenda of lansman Bernie Sanders.
One more piece. Keith Ellison, a Democratic congressman from Minnesota appeared a shoe in to chair the DNC this past year, effectively making him the senior ranking Democrat in the country. He was narrowly defeated in a nail biter but was made deputy DNC chairman as a gesture of Democratic unity and good will. I have no problem with Ellison because he is Black. I have no problem with Ellison because he is a Muslim. I have no problem with Ellison because he is a democrat. But I have a problem with Ellison, because when Hamas attacked Israel with Grad and Kassam rockets, Kaibar-1 and Fajr-S rockets rained down on half the country, he voted against Iron Dome. He did not just vote against rearming Israel with a defensive weapon but effectively voted in favor of allowing thousands of Hamas rockets to annihilate and kill Jewish children in playgrounds. Pregnant mothers taking a stroll. Families sun bathing on the beach. Seniors sipping tea . Jewish innocents who would be killed because they were unprotected, in the wrong place at the wrong time. An American congressman saying, Jewish Lives Don't Matter. This man was only thirty- five votes away from being the head of the Democratic party. Good Democratic Liberals who get it, are hanging on by their finger- tips but they are becoming an endangered species in an increasingly progressive Democratic party that has lost its way and is doubling down on the madness of the Left not the sanity of the center.
It is told that a Hasid once approached his master, confessing that he had problems dealing with a particular Talmudic text. liMy son" asked the rebbe, "ls your problem with the text that you have trouble believing in; is it that the existence of the world to come is real?" "No" replied the Hasid. liMy trouble is believing that this world is real."
The Greatest Generation had clarity and destroyed an enemy that threatened western values. There were no apologies for Dresden nor Hiroshima. They got the job done. Today, those magnificent values are once again under threat by forces that span the spectrum of the Left, from the masked Antifa fascists to Brooks Brothers radicals and an assortment of others in between who never, made it out of nursery school. By nature, I am an optimist but I am deeply unnerved by the inroads made by those who claim democratic principles but are redefining morality and freedom with the doublespeak of an Orwellian nightmare. It is no less sinister and disastrous then termites chomping away, until suddenly, everything comes crashing down.
Let me provide more dots and you decide if I am a paranoid Paul Revere with a yarmulkah or a legitimately alarmed American and Jew.
We are all familiar with the famous poem by German pastor Martin Niemoller.
First, they came for the Catholics and I did not speak out because I was not a Catholic.
Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me.
This was a powerful indictment of the craven Germans who ignored the rise of Nazi fascism. The poem, an eloquent warning of moral procrastination in the face of rising malevolence. Look away as many of us do. Ignore the facts as many of us do. Make excuses, as many of us do but we are all in the cross hairs of despotism. The founding fathers are holding their breath.
We must open our eyes to the dishonesty of the Left.
We must open our ears to their unholy rants.
We must open our minds and discredit their unprincipled, ruiness ideology.
With uncompromising courage, we must assert the real meaning of liberty not the nonsense peddled by an arrogant left. Let our voices be raised and let our fists pound, as we take back our country from these seditious villains.
Forgive the rambling screed but I must vent. Listen and connect the dots.
Window smashers. Car burners. Rioters. Highway blockers: You should be arrested, tried and thrown into prison. Kaepernick, stand up and thank America for making you a multi- millionaire for simply throwing a ball in a game.
Gray lady of Times Square, ISIS, AI Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, Boko Haram, Taliban are not militants nor freedom fighters, they are murderous, savage terrorists.
Lois Lerner, innocent bureaucrats do not plead the 5th Google, shame on you for firing James Damore for speaking the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
Sean Penn. Next time you get sick don't go to the Cleveland Clinic. Don't go to Johns Hopkins. Don't go to the Mayo Clinic. Check yourself in to a Cuban hospital.
Snow flakes and cream puffs be prepared to be crushed in the rea l world of competition.
Snowflakes and cream puffs be prepared to be traumatized in the real world that is not fair. Has trigger words and no safe places in which to cower and whimper.
HR, you are to hire employees based on talent and skill not gender not color not ethnicity.
Madonna. Johnny Depp. Kathy Griffin. Stick to singing. Stick to acting. Stick to screeching. You are unfit to be the moral conscience of America.
Yes, Stop and frisk profiles, but it works and protects your neighborhoods.
Stop whining and thank the boys in blue.
Don't preach the environmental danger of cheap fossil fuels to the poor in the midst of a shivering winter.
Don't claim to live a carbon free life as you fly in private jets to climate conferences.
University presidents and deans (present company excluded) grow a spine and expel the rioters and the occupiers from your campus.
Mr. Carter, you are cancer free, alive today because of Israeli medicine not because of Palestinian wonder drugs. You Tube, shame on you for restricting the video "Israel, the world's most moral army" claiming it is a sensitive topic not suitable for all audiences.
Don't preach that there are limits to what a person should earn and then take three point two million dollars for a 90-minute speech.
Fraternities, if you wish to host a Greek toga party, put on the togas, drink ouzo, dance the kalamantianos and tell the cultural appropriation police on campus that Zorba said it was ok. ESPN .
Robert Lee is a sportscaster. General Robert E Lee was a Confederate general. You are morons.
Stalin murdered 20 million. Mao murdered 45 million. Will you picket the embassies and demand their statues be torn down?
Salute the soldier. Salute the flag and thank God Almighty for a powerful American military.
Connect the dots. There is a pattern. A direction. An ugly revolution churning in this country.
America has done more uplifting of humanity and promotion of freedom than any other country in the history of this planet. We Jews have been blessed beyond our wildest fantasies, enjoying her gifts, her bounty, her grace but we must step away from what is happening and not be seduced by a deceitful, pandering mirage. The Left is not our friend, not as Americans and not as Jews.
Freedom courses through our blood. It throbs in our soul.
It is no accident that on the Liberty Bell are written the words from our Torah "Ukratem dror ba'aretz ... Prociaim liberty throughout the land and to all the inhabitants thereof'. The treasure that is America and the poetry that is Judaism joined together in a hallowed union that rang across spacious skies, fruited plains and majestic purple mountains.
We are good folks and must see beyond the moral bankruptcy, the hypocrisy, the lies, the hatred and the calamity of an ascendant left.
My friends, Charlottesville is the price of freedom and squaw is a real word.
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3) Rabbi Shalom Lewis Rosh Hashanah Day 2
Squaw is a Real World
The words I am about to share will be riddled with controversy. Some will squirm in their seats and I will squirm here on the bima but they are words I must express. I have never shied away from the truth, even if disturbing, even if risky, even if politically incorrect. Jeremiah many years ago lamented his prophetic appointment by crying out " ... vehaya b'libi ke'ish bo'eret atzur be'atzmotai...God's word was like a raging fire in my heart, shut up in my bonesl ••• "V'niglayti kalcheil, v'lo uchal...1 could not hold it in. I was helpless". Jeremiah's messages were blunt and harsh. He was beaten up by our ancestors and repeated attempts on his life were made but his words remain. Though no Jeremiah, I share his irrepressible passion for saying what needs to be said. , am also confident that you will be kinder to me then were the hostile and homicidal Jews of old to Jeremiah. , made a commitment to myself when I began the rabbinate that I would never talk down to my congregation, nor patronize them, nor treat them with disrespect from the bima. You have heard over the years sermons that many thought were hyperbolic, over the top, but we at Etz Chaim have always been ahead of the curve. I am proud of that. So please understand, it is the respect I have for you that compels me to say what must be said and what must be heard.
I had another sermon ready to go for today but two recent events convinced me to change topics. One was personal and the other was public. First the personal. Things happen to us all in the course of routine and easily slip away as life urges us on to what is next. But then, from seemingly out of nowhere we reach a tipping point, a weightless straw on the back of the camel, that sends us into a fury. We cry out 'Enough'. 'I've had it'. We see what has been in front of us all along but now we recognize it for what it is. Not a few seconds easily dismissed but a sinister warning easily overlooked. A tiny growth on what otherwise appears a healthy body.
I play Words with Friends and have about a dozen games going at anyone time. Most of my honorable opponents are here this morning. For the unaware, Words with Friends is scrabble played online. And so, a couple of weeks ago, in the midst of a game, I had a great word and a great spot. A Q that I could place on a triple letter that would reach a triple word square, giving me well over one hundred points. A very respectable score. And so, I punched in the word and it was rejected. I punched it in again and I am told 'Invalid Word'. I am puzzled. It's a legitimate word but maybe my iPhone is smarter than me. I looked it up in my Merriam-Webster Dictionary and sure enough, there was the word. Next, I went to the source of all knowledge, Google, and asked the question. "Why is, and I provided the word, why is this word not acceptable in Words with Friends?" The immediate response was 'The word is disparaging of women". I was stunned. What was the word? 'Squaw.' An Algonquin Indian loan word that is part of our vocabulary. It is in books. In movies. On TV shows and a proud Thanksgiving candle that burns on our festive table, next to a pilgrim and a turkey. It means an Indian woman. I exploded. I was not upset that I could not earn a lot of points. I was not upset that I could have won the game. I was enraged that some flip-flop wearing whippersnapper, sitting in Portland or Boulder or San Francisco was telling me what words are kosher and what words are treiff. This distant snit was censoring my vocabulary, our vocabulary, no less than what is done in China. In North Korea. In Cuba and beyond. Not a silly little game. Not the expression of sensitivity, but the pomposity of a dangerous rising class of self- righteous suppressors of the First Amendment. Where do these champions of compassion stop when Noah Webster says go? Should we eliminate from our vocabulary the words Alamo? Pueblo? Fritos? Because they might be offensive to Mexicans? Should we eliminate from our vocabulary the words cotton? Plantation? Ghetto? Because it might be offensive to Blacks? Should we eliminate from our vocabulary the words Cadillac? Cruise? Wallet? Because it might be offensive to the poor? Where does this lunacy end? Who makes the decisions?
The public event.
Charlottesville was an ugly weekend and a shameful event but it was a moment in time not a trend. Not a resurgence. The thugs were not goons sent by a sympathetic government but beer bellied, tattooed, seig heiling, sheet wearing, Neanderthals. There is no secret, massive network gathering, plotting in the dark the overthrow of America. Planning to bomb synagogues. Planning to lynch Blacks. Planning to round up gays and foreign speaking immigrants. Yes. These are evil people and given the opportunity would do hateful things but their numbers are insignificant when factored in to a population ofthree hundred and thirty million people. They are not surging in membership. The Nazis, the skin heads, the Klan, the white supremacists, are marginalized, are demonized, are ostracized, and pose no existential threat to our country nor to us. Period. To claim otherwise is simply untrue.
Curious, I Googled up Nazi marches and rallies in America . The search took me to Charlottesville in 2017, and then to Skokie in 1977. Forty years ago, yes, there were a few other episodes here and there but do any of us remember them? They were ridiculously inconsequential. 1977 and then this past August. Do we understand how far we have come from cross burnings and Bund rallies in Madison Square Garden? To over react to these incidents is to empower the corrupt, to inflate their influence, to magnify their numbers. They are not mythical creatures and every so often do emerge from the shadows to parade down Main Street, but the suppression of hate speech is the suppression of all speech. It is the price we pay for living in a free society where even the repulsive must be tolerated. Not so long ago there was panic and fear as scores of Jewish Community Centers and Jewish agencies were paralyzed by bomb threats. Jews were terrified. And then the truth. A disgruntled man trying to frame his ex- girlfriend and a crazy Jewish, Israeli hacker who lived in Ashkelon. There was no epidemic of hate. No outburst of anti- Semitism.
For forty years, I have walked to and from Shul every Friday night, Shabbos morning and yuntiff with a kippa perched proudly on my head. I did not seek quiet, untraveled routes, and shuffle down alley ways. I strolled along the major, well trafficked arteries of our community, an obvious Jew. Never once in all those years was I ever verbally taunted by a passer bye on the sidewalk nor by a bigoted hooligan in a speeding car. Our building, in thirty- five years, has never suffered anti- Semitic vandalism. No scrawled epithets of hate. No swastikas. No Jewish stars. Never. This is not Kristallnacht. This is not the state sponsored pogroms of Czarist Russia . This is not the Ukrainian massacres of Chemelniki nor the Spanish Inquisition. The police are on our side. The politicians are on our side. The government is on our side. The neighbors are on our side. America is the same after Charlottesville as she was before. The danger we face as Americans and as Jews is not coming from the Right. It is a diversion. It is a red herring. We need to look in the opposite direction.
As I venture into a place of possible controversy permit me a brief detour that I hope sets straight the record. In November, we had dismal options. To the shock of all, the underdog won and the slam dunk lost. Let me say it loudly, slowly and clearly, I am no enthusiastic fan of President Trump. There is no presidential presence in the oval office. He lacks dignity and has no filter when he speaks. He panders to his crowd and often falsehoods flow easily from his lips. His campaign rhetoric was inexcusable. His demeanor on the stump, a cringing embarrassment. He is morally inarticulate but that was no excuse for his confused, tepid words in Charlottesville but this is not 1933. There is no 'Night of the Long Knives'. No Nuremberg Laws. No consolidation of power. In the nine months of Trump's presidency he has passed no significant legislation. Hardly the sign of a ruthless dictator and yet, those in opposition call themselves the resistance. Forgive me but that term was used in the war against the Nazis and has no place in the vocabulary of political disputes in a functioning democracy any more then PETA's shameful 'Holocaust on your Plate' campaign. That being said, our president is deeply flawed but I do not believe that he is a bigot, a racist, a misogynist, an anti-Semite. Would I have preferred someone else in the White House? Most certainly. With that out of the way, let me proceed.
When I was in college, I had a professor for a course in Mexican history. She dressed in black, wore dark eye shadow and could best be described as Goth. When she began to teach, she would pull an ash tray out of her bag and place it on the desk. Next, she would light up a cigarette and begin her lecture. The moment the cigarette burned down, she lit another and then another. One day a fellow from the campus police passed by our room and noticed, through the glass panel on the side of the door, that our instructor was smoking. He knocked and slowly opened the door. He pointed to the No Smoking sign on the wall and respectfully said, "Professor. There is no smoking in the room". "0h." She responded, "I didn't realize. So, Sorry". She then snuffed out the cigarette in the ash tray. "Thank you, Ma'am. Have a good day." He smiled, turned and disappeared down the hall. The moment he was no longer viSible, she reached into her bag. Put a fresh Chesterfield to her lips, lit it up, made an obscene gesture and yelled, using the full expletive that I will not, "F. you cop". The entire class, including me, burst into enthusiastic applause at her defiance. As the years passed and I reflected on that incident' came to realize what infantile jerks we were and that our professor was not heroic but a crude, tobacco smelling, rule breaking boor. Yes, we were anti- establishment in the 1960s. We protested the war. Hated Nixon. But at some point, we grew up and chose to live in the real world of responsibility, consequences, virtue, rules and truth.
There is something rotten in Denmark but also something rotten in America and here is the uncomfortable truth. The painful, confusing, disturbing truth. The great threat that we face as Americans and as Jews comes not from the Alt Right but from the Alt Left. Some are violent, rampaging criminals, others wear suits and ties, jeans and t shirts. Some make no pretense of their disdain for America while others appear loyal citizens. Their tactics are different but their goals are the same. They do not understand America nor American exceptionalism We are a dangerously polarized society and have tumbled into a place of binary values that define who and what we are. This cultural divide will also define where we go as a nation. As Americans and as Jews we must pick a side. And though it should be an easy choice it is confusing because the Left claims the moral high ground, wrapped in what they define as tolerance, equality, sensitivity and decency when in truth, their agenda is intolerant, unequal, insensitive and indecent. 'We are the champions of all that is good' they cry out, when in fact they are on the wrong side of benevolence. They are the true bigots. The true oppressors. The true deniers of human rights. The true threat to authentic democracy. Let me provide a simple test to help us figure out what to do when our hearts take us in the direction of what we believe is tikkun olam, when we are motivated to march. To raise our voices. To donate resources in the hope of creating an improved society. There is no better way to distinguish between what is moral and what is immoral. What is good and what is corupt than in the Middle East impasse between Israel and the Palestinians. Though neither side is without blemish, the difference between the two is huge and provides us the definition of good and the definition of evil.
The Palestinians have steadfastly refused generous settlements from Israeli administrations, even the sharing of Jerusalem as capital. They still dream and chant of a homeland, 'From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free'. No compromise. The Palestinians provide tens of thousands of dollars to families of terrorists who were killed. They hold parades to honor terrorists who murdered innocent children. They name parks and streets after barbarians who slaughtered entire Jewish families. They have built playgrounds with rubber toys of Jewish body parts for their children to reenact terrorist attacks. And, a new strategy recently introduced. The Palestinian Education Ministry will give any student arrested for throwing Molotov cocktails at passing Israeli cars a passing grade in school.
Meanwhile, a few kilometers from Ramallah, what does apartheid, genocidal, ethnic cleansing Israel do? She has provided medical attention for countless numbers of wounded Arabs fleeing the bloodshed in Syria. Arabs are voting members of Kenesset. An Arab sits on the Supreme Court of Israel. In wars with ruthless enemies, Israel warns, as no other army does, of an impending attack so non- combatants can get out of the way. Arabs enjoy full civil rights. They worship as they wish. They shop alongside Israelis. They set up umbrellas on the beaches next to Israelis. They sit in buses next to Israelis. They are cared for in hospitals next Israelis. Contrast the two. One is enlightened and civilized. The other is depraved and primitive. And yet, who is vilified by the Left and who is celebrated? Who is demonized by the Left and who is embraced? It is a cliche we have all heard but it needs to be said here again. "1f the Arabs/Palestinians put down their weapons today, there would be peace tomorrow. If the Jews put down their weapons today, there would be no Israel tomorrow'. The Left likes the latter part of the quote and we who sing Hatikvah, eat felafal and go on birthright, don't get it.
We are good people and are always in the forefront of social action and liberal causes. It's in our DNA as Jews to feel empathy for the marginalized, the persecuted, the less fortunate. It's who we are and who we have been for millennia but I suggest that in the complexity of today we use the Israeli-Palestinian crisis as a moral litmus test. Whatever the cause. Whatever the protest. Whatever the rally, if we wish to show solidarity because it appears a righteous event, then we should drape ourselves in the Israeli flag, put on a blue and white kippa and wait to see what happens. Permit me to offer some clues in what the reaction would be in too many of today's civil and human rights venues. Let's connect some dots.
This past January many who are here today participated in The Woman's March. A world- wide protest to advocate for women's rights, worker's rights, racial equality and assorted reforms. Nice stuff for sure. Sounds good but the National Co-Chair of the Women's March was a woman, Linda Sarsour who claims that Zionists cannot be feminists ... that there is no room in the movement for people who support the state of Israel... that there is nothing creepier than Zionism. Would Golda Meir walk along- side Sarsour? How about, Gal Gadot, Wonder Woman? Sarsour supports the BDS campaign against Israel. Boycott. Divest. Sanctions. But where is her BDS outrage against real injustice in China? Iran? Cuba? North Korea? Venezuela? ISIS? Saudi Arabia? Sudan? Yemen? Syria? Gaza? There, the feminist Left, to its disgrace, is silent.
We participate in the Gay Rights Parade here in Atlanta and are a proudly inclusive community. One of the great moments of my career was bringing two women together in marriage under the chuppa in our chapel. Our credentials are unassailable. We are supporters of LGBTQ rights. Period. Several months back the lesbian community sponsored the "Chicago Dyke March' that exposed the progressives as not being so progressive. Three women who came to participate where thrown out of the event because they were carrying rainbow Pride flags that had Jewish stars in the center. When asked why they couldn't carry the flags that reflected their gay pride and their Jewish pride, they were told that their flag made people feel unsafe and that the march was anti- Zionist and pro- Palestinian and the organizers do not allow imperialistic flags. I am confused. Help me understand what middle east country has multiple gay pride parades? Gay Neighborhoods? Gay bars? Civil rights for gays? Is it Egypt? Iraq? Libya? Saudi Arabia? Syria? Lebanon? Iran? Gaza? The gay Left, to its disgrace, is silent.
Closer to home. Martin Luther King many years ago, boldly declared with eloquence and authority " ... you declare my friend that you do not hate the Jews, you are merely anti- Zionist. And I say, let the truth ring forth from the high mountain tops, let it echo through the valleys of God's green earth. When people criticize Zionism, they mean Jews. This is God's own truth ... the hatred of the Jews remains a blot on the soul of mankind ... So know this, anti- Zionism is ... anti- Semitic and ever will be so." Would MLK be a member of BLM? Would that great civil rights leader be a card- carrying member of Black Lives Matter? Judge for yourself. They accuse Israel of genocide and of apartheid. They support BDS and stand in solidarity with Palestine. Black lives matter but not if they come from Yemen and wear a kippa. Black lives matter but not if they come from Ethiopia and speak Hebrew. Jews were in the forefront of the civil rights movement. Jews were on the bridge in Montgomery. Jewish lives were lost fighting for black lives. But none of that matters to Black Lives Matter. Tyrants and tyranny across the planet. The Black Left, to its disgrace, is silent.
Womens' rights is a noble cause. Gay rights is a noble cause. Black rights is a noble cause but they all have been hijacked by a morally bankrupt Left. It's as confusing as having a beautiful, succulent brisket in front of us. It looks delicious. Smells fabulous, flowing gravy, smothered in onions but then someone comes along and spits on it. Do we still eat it? We are in Chelm, lost in a wicked place of sanctimonious piety. We have been betrayed by those who we thought were friends. We have been stabbed in the back by those who we thought were allies. We have been abandoned and yet refuse to accept the treachery as real.
A while back I had lunch with a local clergyman at Ted's Montana Grill. He is senior pastor of one of the largest churches in our community. The conversation was easy and pleasant. Retirement time tables. Theology. Biblical interpretations. We shared pulpit experiences, when we both looked at our watches and realized that hours had passed and we needed to get back to work. As I prepared to leave the pastor asked if I might answer one more question for him. "Sure" I replied. He said this is a question asked of him by his congregation more than any other. I looked at him and said "I know what that question is". He looked back and asked "How do you know what question my congregants most ask me?" I said again, "I know". He stared at me. Folded his arms. Sat back in the chair and said "OK What's the question?". I smiled and said with total confidence, "The question your congregants ask more than any other is .. .'Why are Jews Democrats?' His jaw dropped. He was dumbfounded. He laughed. "You're right. How did you know?" I responded, "Whenever I have a serious conversation with a non- Jew, that is the question they always ask". I understand why historically we gravitated to the Democratic party. It was comfortable. Its agenda was social justice. Minority rights. It stood for the prophetic and rabbinic dream of ' ... Ietakein olam bimalchut Shadai-to repair the world in Godly fashion'. We could never see ourselves sidling up to cigar smoking, pinky ring wearing, over fed corporate executives. The right was wrong. A Jewish Republican was a family embarrassment. Well friends, we now live in different times. I report. You decide.
In the 2012 Democratic National Convention, the insertion into the platform of, Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, met with resistance and loud opposition from delegates. Twice in two days it was brought up and twice it was yelled down. A voice vote was finally called and after three close votes the pro- Israel position was pushed through. When announced, it met with boos and jeers throughout the hall.
In the 2016 Democratic National Convention Israel fared no better. Or should I sayan authentic democracy fared no better against terrorist benefactors and celebrants. Inside the convention hall, delegates waved Palestinian flags to the cheers of many. Signs were waved reading "I support Palestinian human rights' and pro Palestinian positions were adopted at Israel's expense thanks to the progressive agenda of lansman Bernie Sanders.
One more piece. Keith Ellison, a Democratic congressman from Minnesota appeared a shoe in to chair the DNC this past year, effectively making him the senior ranking Democrat in the country. He was narrowly defeated in a nail biter but was made deputy DNC chairman as a gesture of Democratic unity and good will. I have no problem with Ellison because he is Black. I have no problem with Ellison because he is a Muslim. I have no problem with Ellison because he is a democrat. But I have a problem with Ellison, because when Hamas attacked Israel with Grad and Kassam rockets, Kaibar-1 and Fajr-S rockets rained down on half the country, he voted against Iron Dome. He did not just vote against rearming Israel with a defensive weapon but effectively voted in favor of allowing thousands of Hamas rockets to annihilate and kill Jewish children in playgrounds. Pregnant mothers taking a stroll. Families sun bathing on the beach. Seniors sipping tea . Jewish innocents who would be killed because they were unprotected, in the wrong place at the wrong time. An American congressman saying, Jewish Lives Don't Matter. This man was only thirty- five votes away from being the head of the Democratic party. Good Democratic Liberals who get it, are hanging on by their finger- tips but they are becoming an endangered species in an increasingly progressive Democratic party that has lost its way and is doubling down on the madness of the Left not the sanity of the center.
It is told that a Hasid once approached his master, confessing that he had problems dealing with a particular Talmudic text. liMy son" asked the rebbe, "ls your problem with the text that you have trouble believing in; is it that the existence of the world to come is real?" "No" replied the Hasid. liMy trouble is believing that this world is real."
The Greatest Generation had clarity and destroyed an enemy that threatened western values. There were no apologies for Dresden nor Hiroshima. They got the job done. Today, those magnificent values are once again under threat by forces that span the spectrum of the Left, from the masked Antifa fascists to Brooks Brothers radicals and an assortment of others in between who never, made it out of nursery school. By nature, I am an optimist but I am deeply unnerved by the inroads made by those who claim democratic principles but are redefining morality and freedom with the doublespeak of an Orwellian nightmare. It is no less sinister and disastrous then termites chomping away, until suddenly, everything comes crashing down.
Let me provide more dots and you decide if I am a paranoid Paul Revere with a yarmulkah or a legitimately alarmed American and Jew.
We are all familiar with the famous poem by German pastor Martin Niemoller.
First, they came for the Catholics and I did not speak out because I was not a Catholic.
Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me.
This was a powerful indictment of the craven Germans who ignored the rise of Nazi fascism. The poem, an eloquent warning of moral procrastination in the face of rising malevolence. Look away as many of us do. Ignore the facts as many of us do. Make excuses, as many of us do but we are all in the cross hairs of despotism. The founding fathers are holding their breath.
We must open our eyes to the dishonesty of the Left.
We must open our ears to their unholy rants.
We must open our minds and discredit their unprincipled, ruiness ideology.
With uncompromising courage, we must assert the real meaning of liberty not the nonsense peddled by an arrogant left. Let our voices be raised and let our fists pound, as we take back our country from these seditious villains.
Forgive the rambling screed but I must vent. Listen and connect the dots.
Window smashers. Car burners. Rioters. Highway blockers: You should be arrested, tried and thrown into prison. Kaepernick, stand up and thank America for making you a multi- millionaire for simply throwing a ball in a game.
Gray lady of Times Square, ISIS, AI Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, Boko Haram, Taliban are not militants nor freedom fighters, they are murderous, savage terrorists.
Lois Lerner, innocent bureaucrats do not plead the 5th Google, shame on you for firing James Damore for speaking the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
Sean Penn. Next time you get sick don't go to the Cleveland Clinic. Don't go to Johns Hopkins. Don't go to the Mayo Clinic. Check yourself in to a Cuban hospital.
Snow flakes and cream puffs be prepared to be crushed in the rea l world of competition.
Snowflakes and cream puffs be prepared to be traumatized in the real world that is not fair. Has trigger words and no safe places in which to cower and whimper.
HR, you are to hire employees based on talent and skill not gender not color not ethnicity.
Madonna. Johnny Depp. Kathy Griffin. Stick to singing. Stick to acting. Stick to screeching. You are unfit to be the moral conscience of America.
Yes, Stop and frisk profiles, but it works and protects your neighborhoods.
Stop whining and thank the boys in blue.
Don't preach the environmental danger of cheap fossil fuels to the poor in the midst of a shivering winter.
Don't claim to live a carbon free life as you fly in private jets to climate conferences.
University presidents and deans (present company excluded) grow a spine and expel the rioters and the occupiers from your campus.
Mr. Carter, you are cancer free, alive today because of Israeli medicine not because of Palestinian wonder drugs. You Tube, shame on you for restricting the video "Israel, the world's most moral army" claiming it is a sensitive topic not suitable for all audiences.
Don't preach that there are limits to what a person should earn and then take three point two million dollars for a 90-minute speech.
Fraternities, if you wish to host a Greek toga party, put on the togas, drink ouzo, dance the kalamantianos and tell the cultural appropriation police on campus that Zorba said it was ok. ESPN .
Robert Lee is a sportscaster. General Robert E Lee was a Confederate general. You are morons.
Stalin murdered 20 million. Mao murdered 45 million. Will you picket the embassies and demand their statues be torn down?
Salute the soldier. Salute the flag and thank God Almighty for a powerful American military.
Connect the dots. There is a pattern. A direction. An ugly revolution churning in this country.
America has done more uplifting of humanity and promotion of freedom than any other country in the history of this planet. We Jews have been blessed beyond our wildest fantasies, enjoying her gifts, her bounty, her grace but we must step away from what is happening and not be seduced by a deceitful, pandering mirage. The Left is not our friend, not as Americans and not as Jews.
Freedom courses through our blood. It throbs in our soul.
It is no accident that on the Liberty Bell are written the words from our Torah "Ukratem dror ba'aretz ... Prociaim liberty throughout the land and to all the inhabitants thereof'. The treasure that is America and the poetry that is Judaism joined together in a hallowed union that rang across spacious skies, fruited plains and majestic purple mountains.
We are good folks and must see beyond the moral bankruptcy, the hypocrisy, the lies, the hatred and the calamity of an ascendant left.
My friends, Charlottesville is the price of freedom and squaw is a real word.
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