Blood Spilled is the Same Crimson Color Wherever it Flows

 

The Paris attacks were a horrendous and heinous act of barbarity which will be added to the ever lengthening list of civility slaughtered by barbarity. These craven acts will never end until the world of civil nations has determined that enough is enough. The world where law rules over men and life is precious must respond with strength and vigor against the spreading evil. There is an ancient saying which bears acknowledgement during the discourse on this latest act and the thousands that preceded it that goes, “Whatever starts with the Jews never ends with the Jews.” The only difference is simply a matter of time. Examples are found throughout history as is the truth of another even older saying found in Genesis 12:3 states, “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you, I will curse. Through you every family on earth will be blessed.” One is a slanted interpretation of the other and must be taken together which leads to a very strange concept which has proven true even in our day. Read on, it gets clearer, I promise.

 

Those who have assisted Israel, stood with Israel and felt the pains of Israel are blessed as they are acting in a manner that blesses Israel. Those who have threatened Israel, not stood stridently with Israel or have ignored the plights inflicting Israel or are demanding Israel give away that which Hashem has granted to them as their eternal gift and Hashem stated covenant with Abraham where said in Genesis 13:14-16, “After Lot had departed, the LORD said to Abram, ‘Look from the place where you stand to the north, south, east, and west. I will give all the land that you see to you and your descendants forever. And I will make your descendants like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone is able to count the dust of the earth, then your descendants also can be counted.’” The lands which Abraham saw became the lands divided by the twelve tribes as the thirteenth tribe, some might say the first tribe, were the Levites and Cohans who lived amongst all the tribes and kept the Tabernacle and eventually the Temple in Jerusalem. The lands are pictured in the map below and show an Israel reaching from both sides of the Jordan River to the Sea and from the southern deserts to the Litani River in the north. The current borders of the State of Israel under that oft misused phrase often wielded at a weapon against Israel actually is no threat to Israel as ask any neutral legal authority who has studied and practiced International Law what the real current borders are of Israel and their answer would be that technically the Jordan River, the Negev/Sinai border, the border with Gaza, the Mediterranean Sea and the Blue Line with Lebanon. How does this differ from the map below? Well, the Blue Line is considerably short of the Litani River in Lebanon and it is doubtful they would desire to give us between a third to one half of their country. It is even more doubtful that Jordan would decide tomorrow to gift the lands east of the Jordan River containing the Reuben, Gad, Benjamin or East Manasseh. The odd thing is that Israel has no design on these lands and would welcome with simply the lands she liberated in June of 1967 in the Six Day War. As far as the Arabs, those willing to live in peace should remain and live in peace and the rest should be allowed to leave and even be financially assisted. Not so ridiculous, is it?

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile we are going to be struck for the next ten days to two weeks with wall to wall coverage of the Paris attacks as things play out and the terrorist perpetrators of this horrific waste of innocent lives and then it will slowly fade like reverberating echoes of a winding rock canyon. Within a half year, as long as no other attacks are perpetrated either in Paris or elsewhere in Europe as the authorities main interest and desire is not so much resolving the situation but rather appearing to have addressed the situation, shown the expected and responsible reactions and give the appearance of proper concern as well as be perceived as taking the proper remedial steps to address the future safety of all the citizens making Paris and other cities, especially in France, safe from such attacks be terror entities, be they Islamic State or Hamas or even forces trained by Iran’s special units of the IRGC (Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps). The quicker that everything can be allowed to return to normal, the faster the political leaders can go back to spending everybody else’s money on their reelection bid through government largess on projects onto which they can place their names or otherwise gain prestige in the electorates’ eyes and minds.

 

Of course the French have nothing which can compare to Israel when it comes to removing all signs of a terror attack in near nothing flat as Israel does with all too much consistent efficiency. Often after a terror assault in Israel every last drop of blood and every other vestige of the attack is cleansed and prepared for any potential end necessary, even if there were a resulting death requiring that the person’s corpse be made as whole as possible and every piece gathered at the scene is readied, identified and treated as required. A group of volunteers started the organization known as ZAKA (Hebrew: זק”א‎, abbreviation for Zihuy Korbanot Ason, Hebrew: זיהוי קרבנות אסון, literally: Disaster Victim Identification) who have since been recognized by the Israeli government. The members of ZAKA are religious, mostly Orthodox Jews, are volunteers doing some of the most difficult work imaginable and they do this extremely difficult and unfortunately all too necessary and potentially gruesome and made even worse as in at least one occasion some ZAKA volunteers have found they knew the victim and found they needed to stop performing their duty and gather their emotions and often decide or are told to take the rest of the duty day off in order to gather their thoughts, get a hold on their emotions, and do all that it takes to recover, though often many actually take their obligation to the deceased and the families of the deceased , injured and witnesses by also removing every sign that there had ever been a terror attack or even the slightest bloodletting as often the scene is cleaner and more, one might say holy, but not so much in any traditional aspect but more in an aesthetic or even spiritual as these members of ZAKA are doing a necessary and difficult service and doing so as volunteers.

 

 

Eiffel Tower Symbol for Peace Restored
to All France and the World

 

 

While comparing France and Israel, we would be remiss if we did not also mention the difference in the world’s reactions. As we pointed out earlier, what begins with the Jews never ends there. The Jews were slaves in Egypt and eventually slavery became a black mark in the Western World and partly thanks to the British navy, slave ships soon found themselves out of business and seeking more honorable cargo. This has been proven once more in too many instances as the terror which began in Israel, or actually well before Israel became a nation, there were terror attacks in 1929, 1936 and again in 1939 with these instigated before there was any Israel, before there could have been any occupied lands, before anything except Jews working the land and hoping to establish their state. Had there been no Arab terror attacks on the Jews or against the British, their arrangement, though very unofficial despite certain orders given by British commanders to their troops, then there might not have been a British so ready and almost glad that the United Nations took the Mandate and the forming of the State of Israel out of their hands as such had been nothing but a burden for them. The treatment received from the British almost might make one wish to quote to them their own Bard of Avon, William Shakespeare, who wrote Merchant of Venice where the character of the Jewish money-lender, the precursor of a modern bank and one of the few professions left open to Jews as it was uncustomary for Christians to make loans in that period, who made one of the most famous soliloquies which begged the adverse treatment of the Jew and the pleading for the recognition of the Jew as an equal member of society and also given the equal respect any other many, especially a Christian, would receive in the same position. Below is his famous retort to why he deserves justice, and equal justice at that.

SHYLOCK: To bait fish withal: if it will feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced me, and hindered me half a million; laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies; and what’s his reason? I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? Why, revenge. The villany you teach me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.

 

Israeli Flag

 

 

We could make a similar pleading before the United Nations or before the European Union which has voted to make certain Jewish products be labeled such as a sign against European citizens purchasing these items. In response to all the United Nations’ inequities and the European Union’s sanctioning Jewish products including some of the world’s most excellent wines, luscious fruits, high technology products and software (including some of the greatest personal computer protection software) and these industries are the largest employers of the Arab Palestinians, the European Union et al, paying them wages which rival the wages paid by the Palestinian Authority headed by Mahmoud Abbas to the terrorists imprisoned for their crimes in Israel, Israel has decided that instead of returning the sanctioning of select products, Israel will carry on business as usual. The reason, you ask? Because we are a light unto the nations and will treat others as we wish to be treated. Pretend our ancient lands are not ours. Are we to plead vainly before you? Were that to be of service, it would still demean us. Were we to shrink before our enemies, would that be sufficient to mollify you though you know as do we that our enemies cannot be mollified. When you single us out from amongst the world of nations for condemnations more deserved by others, are we not to decry the injustice. When you feed the hate of those who spread terror throughout our lands and you turn away, would we not be equally staid if we steeled our nerves and ignored your pain. But we did not any of these recourses. When terror licked your shores and sliced coldly through your metropolis we sent assistance and offered our hands to hold and help in your time of need. When you wronged us we cried out as who would not as to not decry such acts would prove us as inhuman as your actions have been inhumane. We have not dealt shame for shame nor have we turned our backs on those who have ignored our pain. When terrorists shoot our citizens, do they not bleed the crimson colored blood just as deep and red as your victims? And, when the blood had all been let, do our victims not die as had yours? Recognize that we are feeling humane beings and that our families cry salted tears as have yours. We also weep for your dead, could you at least not turn from ours? We will never change as you can read in our history that we once warred to take a land to have as our own almost thirty-five-hundred years ago, our known promised land. Since then our wars have been to defend those lands. We are not even demanding the entirety of that ancient lands so well described in the largest selling book on the planet and the stories are told, unlike other religions, with all the warts and pains and errant acts of even our most respected and beloved forefathers. We do not profess to be perfect or that our history has not always been as free of sin as we would have liked, but we still admire those who after their sin dropped to their knees and begged Hashem that they would not again commit that sin and they meant every syllable they uttered whether their acts measured up was for them and Hashem to recon. We claim a land which has stood unproductive for those who would hold it and it waited until we return to give up her fruits, not that it did not take a large and almost unimaginable amount of toil and large endeavors but Hashem smiled on these efforts and we have been rewarded with a land which once again flows with milk and honey. Those words, milk and honey, you probably remember those words and that means you remember Hashem made a covenant with Abraham and all his inherited line through Isaac, Jacob and then Joseph and his conniving brothers who all made their peace and settled their reckoning. We do not want that pound of flesh, we want just the portion which Hashem promised and we know our history, we know what the founders of our homeland said and what they were and the miracle which brought low the walls of Jericho and all else which Hashem blessed our ancestors with. We know of their failings and the exile in Egypt and the miracles when Hashem brought me out from bondage in Egypt and for many years my closing words at every Seder rang out like a clarion bell calling attention to our dream as a people, “Next year in Yerushalayim!” For me that dream has come true, and I live in my land that was promised me by the Covenant of Abraham. I endeavor to ever improve the parts I must hold to as Hashem had allowed me to return to my true home. And here is the strange part; I am more at home here than I ever believed was possible and my joys when I pray each morning at a house of prayer and the Sabbath when I make the effort to go to a synagogue in which I know I am appreciated as an equal despite my slight language problem as I am as far from literate in Hebrew as I am in French, as for my French speaking friends, I could never order fish in a French restaurant as my pronunciation would sound as if I might have ordered poison. My French speaking friends will understand. May we all reach out and make the world right for all to live in peace with dignity, mutual respect, love, tolerance, and most of all, forgiveness with understanding. Je Suis Paris et Je Suis Yisroel!

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Meandering Thoughts on the Israeli Front Lines

 

Let us start with the United Nations and before reporting on the predictably less wonderful reports refer to yesterday’s article which will be right below this or on the top of the next page and is titled Historic First Tashlich Observed at the United Nations which told about the using of a Jewish tradition for casting away sins by throwing bread upon the waters. The story related how a European Christian group called Forum for Cultural Diplomacy made all the arrangements which was something of a pleasant surprise. The service can be viewed at the article and is just under twelve minutes long. Of course this event was arranged very tactically to coincide with the opening ceremonies for the United Nations General Assembly and all the unbelievable garbage which will ensue. It is awful enough to hear Iranian President Rowhani give a speech calling for the rest of the world to support and join Iran in fighting terrorism across the globe. Never mind that Iran is or has been one of the main benefactors for Hamas and is the lifeline for Hezballah and Syrian Dictator Bashir Assad because these are not terrorists or evil dictators, they are necessary allies in fighting what is being billed as a greater terror threat, the Islamic State. Good parts of the effectiveness of the Islamic State are the weapons, particularly the Abrams heavy battle tanks and other armored vehicles and artillery and other weapons systems they were all but gifted when the Iraqi Army, and we use the word army loosely, simply dropped or disembarked from their equipment and vehicles and fled to try and remove their fatigues and melt into the civilian population. Now Russia has taken the initiative and will be the benefactor by saving the world from the Islamic State while rearming Hezballah and Assad and giving them top flight groups and front line units to assist if not carry the fight. Meanwhile President Obama is steadfastly sticking to his guns and demanding the Assad be dethroned if Russia expects the United States to assist while still maintaining that he has no coherent plan to fight the Islamic State. Maybe somebody should check with the Pentagon as I am quite sure they have a virtual plethora of plans on how to eradicate the Islamic State. Perhaps some brave soul might want to take President Obama across the Potomac River and assist him on finding that huge building which has four walls and a spare, the Pentagon; because it is obvious he has not consulted his General Staff Officers.

 

We will be hearing from Mahmoud Abbas who will talk about the hardships he suffers and how those mean Israelis will not surrender completely and that the entire world should assist his Fatah run Arab Palestinian Authority to murder the six-million plus Jews in Israel in order to have his whole State of Palestine built on the graves of the Israeli peoples, Christians, Jews, Baha’i, and potentially many Muslims as well. There will be the European delegates demanding financial and other assistance in handling their Muslim invaders who are not there due to anything beyond having the Quran swallow up the Bible and impose Sharia as soon as they have sufficient numbers in any area. If these Muslim ‘refugees’ can be located in various places in small numbers such that they do not have a sizeable percentage of any area in which they have been placed because if any nation takes the shorter route and simply places large numbers of these Muslims in a small area they will turn it into little Afghanistan or wee little Pakistan or even the corner that is like Syria and Libya and all of these areas will become Muslim only areas where even the police, ambulances and firefighters fear to tread. For those in the United States, do not fear because President Obama is considering taking a couple of hundreds of thousands of these displaced and destitute refugees and setting them up with their own communities outside or within any number of United States major cities. Further, we guess if they claim to be bring hundreds of thousands they will more than likely integrate anywhere from three to twenty million before President Obama leaves office and it will be done completely through the Immigration and Naturalization Service and a number of secret Executive Orders which President Obama will have sealed so they never see the light of day claiming they are of national importance and as such must not be released for general knowledge.

 

Then there will be the denunciation ceremonies where the United States and Israel are serially and solely sentenced for presumed serious crimes of not bending far enough thus allowing all freedoms to be abolished and many lives left unprotected from the purification of their societies by their enemies who hold a tyrannical majority in the General Assembly. The Israeli condemnations almost all have to do with findings from Human Rights NGOs and complaints from Mahmoud Abbas and the other Arab leadership of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Fatah and any others who desire jumping in. One can bet there will be a few suggestions from Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and potentially Jordan about the rioting on the Temple Mount, rioting by Muslim youths directed by Hamas leadership but Jordan wants Israel to just hand over the Temple Mount and East Jerusalem otherwise the violence will continue. But there will be nothing truly new about the attempt to dismember Israel by the cutthroats from the Arab world plus Iran and a few other Islamic fundamentalist leaders. Then there are the condemnations of the United States and as usual they will all pass just as the ones condemning Israel will all pass. My favorite is the denunciation of the United States embargo on Cuba which, according to the United Nations General Assembly, is the principle and driving force behind Cuba’s sagging economy, declining wealth, shortfalls in food production and every other conceivable ill of which Cuba is the shining example of a degraded and unfree dictatorial regressive regime such as the Castro’s apply with an iron fist. The passage of this motion was such a certainty that the vote to censure the United States embargo on Cuba passed on a vote of one-hundred-eighty-eight to two. It has been intimated in reports that President Obama will direct the United States Ambassador to the United Nations simply abstain as that, according to the President, will deny the motion of any merit. Even soon to be ex-Speaker John Boehner said about the president’s plan was to point out that President Obama has a “responsibility to defend US law and that’s what {he} should do.” We should fully expect that this year the vote will register as one-hundred-eighty-eight to one with one abstention. Just in case you are wondering who is that one who defends the honor of the United States and will very likely be the only nation to stand this year and was the sole supporter voting with the United States against the sanction last year is, you probably already guessed, it is Israel. The Associated Press reported on Monday, and some congressional leaders are aghast that President Obama would consider shirking his sovereign obligation. “It is unheard-of for a UN member state not to oppose resolutions critical of its own laws,” the Associated Press reported on Monday. Americans need look no further than that vote where the European Parliaments vote against the United States and it is only Israel who will stand for the righteousness of the United States and the principles behind the Cuban embargo as the only weapon one can wield which will have any effect.

 

Lastly I wish to report to my readers about a situation which has been ignored by the mainstream media as they have become complacent and it is partially the fault of the Israeli government and their plan to make something which is of great import, especially to the people living with this threat, but has become the run of the mill, every day experience which has simply become an acceptable level of violence and there is the presumed retribution, what more could one demand? What I am talking about is the drip, drip, drip Chinese water treatment which is a form of torture and in this case we replace the droplets of water with a rocket fired out of Gaza aimed at Israeli cities, though restricted pretty much to no further than Tel Aviv with an occasional rocket launched towards Jerusalem. The authorities believe and have come to expect that there will be the constant need for an Iron Dome battery to be placed where intelligence believes the next rocket will be targeting. The Israeli public, especially in Ashdod, one of the favorite targets for these rockets, are furious with the lack of resolve and the business as usual and they are expected to go about their lives relying on the Iron Dome to protect them and that not even every rocket is replied to with an Israeli airstrike or artillery fire striking an empty warehouse, somebody’s barn which had stored rocket parts or other such representative target which is pretty much guaranteed to not have anyone anywhere near the target when bombed. This is intolerable for the people under such a threat and is probably made all the worse by the alarms not being sounded when the rocket launch had been detected and the target assessed and if necessary shot out of the sky by the Iran Dome systems.

 

 

 

 

So why am I complaining about something which is apparently being addressed and the government is right on top of this situation and what do I really want, another Gaza War? I complain because the people of Ashdod are upset and have petitioned the government and the media to report and act on this plight, this curse which they must endure and be brave little citizens and soldier on, as one might have instructed the citizens of London during the blitz, but at least then their government was in a state of war, certainly you would not desire another War in Gaza. Those making this analogy are doing what President Obama did with the Iran agreement and amplifying greatly the alternative and refusing to allow for any mitigating and other paths to be compared, the debate was agreement or war. Here the Israeli government is implying that the only alternative to their current action of punishing Hamas or Islamic Jihad by exploding one of their weapons storage locations and only after assuring that nobody is at the target and if there is we wait until they depart. After all, the argument goes, these rockets are being intercepted and the people launching them may not actually be members of Hamas or Islamic Jihad and may be trying to exacerbate the situation and forcing Israel into another war where Israel wins the battle and damages the terror infrastructure. This is acceptable because the terrorists know that Iran and Saudi Arabia will build or send replacements for the destroyed infrastructure. Their actual aim is to make Israel pay such a price in the media with the pictures of Gazans whose homes were destroyed and their plight making the news, especially in left wing reports like the editorial board at Haaretz or the New York Times might write as there is always room for the human tragedy stories to pluck the world’s heartstrings and demonize Israel. The truth is there is a far more effective way to force an end to these rocket launches or at least have Hamas and Islamic Jihad leadership trying to be far more effective in preventing rockets being fired as there can be a real threat to their peace and quiet should these aggressions continue. I agree there is no real reason to open a war footage over three or four rockets fired into Israel every week, there are bigger fish to fry with the Temple Mount rioting being the tragedy du jour for which Israel has been the target of a lynching by the media. A little coverage on that in a moment. The way to end this Chinese rocket treatment with a constant drumbeat of launch-intercept, launch-intercept, launch-intercept such that three or four times every week this continues and can be brought to a halt simply by targeting the leadership of Islamic Jihad and Hamas. When we respond by bombing a shed where aluminum has been stored and reserved to make more rockets, they simply import more aluminum under the world sponsored with full European and American financing and protection and continue as if nothing happened and nothing was lost, as in reality it changed nothing. Hamas and Islamic Jihad do not care if the Israeli response is an unmanned and basically empty structure as that is an acceptable price that Hamas and Islamic Jihad have decided to absorb that punishment for the privilege of shooting rockets at Israel. Target the leadership and the rockets will truly be prevented by Hamas and Islamic Jihad as each reprisal actually costs the leaders dearly as each one is wiped from the equation as a real and effective form of reaction which will prevent the next rocket. If the world cries for the poor Hamas and Islamic Jihad being targeted in response for rockets fired at Israel, then we can simply let them cry and response that if they want the targeting of jihadist leaders, all they need do is convince Hamas and Islamic Jihad to actually prevent any, and we mean any, rocket from being fired into Israel as there would be a real cost to Hamas and friends.

 

 

 

 

The Temple Mount situation has become a war zone with actual barricades constructed to give the rioters a protected and armored area from which to launch pyrotechnics and hurl rocks and bricks and to sling good sized stones at police with many of these tactics causing severe injury to the police and security personnel. Meanwhile there has been little if any response to the accusations by Jordanian King and others blaming Israel for the violence. This is a similar form of blaming the victim for having the audacity to be where the crime against them is being committed as if to cry that if only they would never go out to places where such threats are, then the threats would stop. This demand is a demand for Israel to surrender the Temple Mount and allow the Muslim behavior, the Muslim rioters and their violence to succeed and chase the Jews from the Temple Mount so that it can be claimed that the Jews do not value the Temple Mount so it must not have any significance to them proving the two Temples never existed and are just fairy tales for children which makes them proud as if such events as in the Bible are at all true. The answer they should receive is that the Bible is accurate and true and you know the two Temples did indeed stand on the Temple Mount a good twenty-five-hundred years before Islam was even founded and the Jewish People have worshipped on those holy grounds which you desecrate not only with these rioting but whenever you play soccer or other games on the Temple Mount plaza and other actions one would never see done by the Israelis to any holy grounds.

 

 

 

There is no easy path to treat these rioters as they are being stirred up and led by some hardcore mercenaries who assist in arming and planning the violence to make it as photogenic as possible and even take the pictures we desire ourselves and have our own stringers sell our propaganda shots to the media which is hungrily eaten-up by the European mainstream media and even at time in the United States this story is told, that the poor and victimized, they have to be victims, have been denied their holy right for respect of their holy site which covers the entire Temple Mount and not just the area around the structure. Further, the only story which must be told is how the Islamic al-Aqsa Mosque is being desecrated as the pictures depict. That is true but their state of disrepair is a direct result of their using the al-Aqsa Mosque as an armory and a fortified fallback position from which one can still attempt to fire pyrotechnics at the police. The best part is the media has taken up the rioters cause and for a simple reason, the Israeli leadership is bankrupt when it comes to opposing the violence from the many terror groups and where there is no peace plan other than the Jews cutting their own throats and allowing the Arabs to overrun the entirety of Israel, that is the sole way to quell the riots, to simple cease to exist. The Hamas charter calls for Jihad until every Jew on planet Earth has been murdered. It cannot be stated any more clearly what is driving the violence; it is the existence of Israel and of Jews on the face of this Earth. The rioters’ desire is to prevent Jewish access to the Temple Mount through violent confrontations and rioting and the authorities granting them the exact situational reward they are rioting to create so they have a means to achieve no Jews visiting the Temple Mount as long as they riot. Simply allow Jews free access to the Temple Mount from any entrance, just as any Muslim is allowed, and permit Jewish prayers on the Temple Mount, both private and group prayers led by a Rabbi giving the Jews equal rights, nothing special, just equality. The Muslims are demanding they be granted superior rights by the denying the Jews their rights, this must not be permitted to succeed. The rioting will cease once all peoples, Jews, Druze, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Baha’I, Hindus and even atheists are permitted free access to the Temple Mount and everybody is permitted to pray, visit, marvel at the holy structures and even take pictures. There should be a limit that prevents desecration of any one sight by allowing each holy place to define who is permitted into their areas and finally not permitting the playing of soccer or other similar pursuits which would detract from the decorum which must be expected and enforced at this holiest of holy places.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Historic First Tashlich Observed at the United Nations

 

There should be joy simply that such a Jewish custom as Tashlich, which literally means to toss, was being observed with a ceremony at the United Nations attended by Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and United Nations Ambassadors from over ten countries and other dignitaries presided over by Rabbi Arthur Schneier of the Park East Synagogue. But there is so much more to find as a blessing than this event having taken place, and the bread cast into the East River may be a blessing to any fish sturdy enough to reside in these waters, as this idea was not a result of anything done by the Israeli United Nations staff or by the Jews of the United States but by a group of Europeans who call themselves the Forum for Cultural Diplomacy (F4CD). The ceremony was held in the resplendent Rose Garden of the UNHQ, and allegorically threw the bread of their “sins” into the East River, may the waters of the East River ever survive and recover from the shock of such a casting of sins. The real miracle is the Forum for Cultural Diplomacy which is a pro-Israel European Christian group and is wholly responsible for this miracle of so many dimensions. Probably the best ways to reveal the scope and breadth of this not so minor miracle might be to allow the video of the event speak for itself.

 

 

 

 

There were two founding members from the F4CD, Dr. Gregory Lafitte and Tomas Sandell, who spoke and told of their reasoning behind their initiative. Dr. Gregory Lafitte spoke clearly and succinctly demanding that, granting the Jewish People “Tolerance is not the answer. It is not enough to ‘tolerate’ the Jewish people, but we need to honor and celebrate their culture and their many contributions to mankind.” Dr. Lafitte went so far as to conclude his speech with a rendition of the Avinu Malkeinu prayer. It is nested here in the declaration by Dr. Lafitte that we come upon the miracle, the gem in the center of this entire event, the demand by Righteous European Christians for humankind to not simply tolerate the Jews but to thank them for the basis for so much of our modern society, the Jews contribution to not only justice but to justly work towards justice with no regard for wealth or lack thereof, position of importance or one of meager standing, king or pauper, man or woman, elder or the youngest amongst you, to justly apply justice with complete blindness to the petitioner or the petitioned, with only the inward seeking eye of fairness and impartiality, this amongst all the gifts societies have garnered from the Bible and its lessons. Dr. Lafitte also alluded to the rising groundswell of anti-Semitism sweeping Europe and that at the United Nations there is the “Isaiah Wall” featuring the verse from Isaiah, Chapter 2, prophesying a time when “swords will be turned into plowshares.”

 

Outgoing Israeli Ambassador Prosor addressed the gathering stating, “We are here today to participate in a unique tradition – Tashlich, which literally means to toss. It’s an opportunity to symbolically cast off the sins of the past and let the flowing water carry away the shortcomings of the previous year. As we mark the 70th anniversary of the United Nations this is an opportunity to reflect off this institution where it has fallen short and where we have not done enough to alleviate human suffering. Seventy years on, it is time for voices of reason, of tolerance and moderation to reclaim the public space.”

 

Rabbi Arthur Schneier stated, “The fact that we are gathering here at the UN shows the respect that the United Nations has for all faiths, their holidays and for their stress on human dignity. Day of Atonement means to be at one – at one with God and one with man.”

 

The reason this struck me as being so meaningful is because there is now a balance with the F4CD group of Christians in Europe added to groups such as CUFI (Christians United for Israel) in the United States that maybe the world will have finally found the track which will grant the Jewish People the respect for their existence, their homelands and their contributions which continue to this day in so many fields of endeavor contributing to the advancement of human knowledge that perhaps the waves of anti-Semitism can start to be turned back and not just contained but eliminated. I have known that even if the Jewish People were to stand with one voice and demand as proud and loud as possible for their being tolerated and given what is due them even if not respected in all manner of dealings; such would be as a whisper in the hurricane that is modern society. The Jews pleading their case is but a weak cry from deep within the wilderness, a sound which can never carry the fury to demand to be heard as we are barely one-fifth of one percent (0.2%) of the world’s population.

 

If the Jewish People are ever to be allowed to live even vaguely resembling normal lives treated as equals with guaranteed rights it will take voices supporting the Jewish People, and by extension, Israel, from outside the Jewish communities. It literally comes down to a game of numbers and in the world we Jews are far too few to make our own case without outside support, and it needs to be unwavering and unconditional support. With these Christian groups willing to stand with us, or almost basically for us, we then have one obligation which we owe these wonderful people willing at last to risk alienation and rejection to stand with us, to stand with the Jew, both as a people and as a nation, Israel, and that is to remain honorable, upright, caring and most of all deserving of their support. Yes there exists the need for those who have wronged the Jews throughout history, and that list is a virtual list of who’s who of nations and backgrounds stretching from one side of the globe through to the other, with hatred of Jews and by implication, Israel, almost the constant which ties the world as one and to be in the Jews corner at long last.

 

 

UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon celebrating Historic First Tashlich Observed at the United Nations and United Nations Ambassadors from over ten countries and other dignitaries presided over by Rabbi Arthur Schneier of the Park East Synagogue. The Forum for Cultural Diplomacy facilitated the ceremony which was held in the resplendent Rose Garden of the UNHQ where the diplomats and attendees cast their bread upon the water an thus rid themselves figuratively of their sins.

 

 

Having Christians willing to stand for Israel and for the Jewish People is a very healthy start and we can only pray that these groups gain in strength and numbers as those are the things which grease the skids upon which all civilization rests. The Jewish People, often as individuals, have contributed so much to the modern limited government concepts through the limitations placed on a King or other sovereign against their gathering unto themselves riches at the expense of their subjects and instead demanded of each sovereign to write their very own Torah Scroll such that their everyday is another lesson in humility and sacrifice for the betterment of the people. All too often Jewish and Israeli leadership has seemingly lost their way and thus lost their perspective and gathered themselves riches in direct contravention of the Biblical directives. This new group of friends needs to be cultivated and worked alongside with to provide them a clearer picture of the state of the world, the anti-Semitic, anti-Zionist and anti-Israel NGO, government or other grouping all of which can be competed against utilizing simple facts. These very same facts require our assistance in defining the areas where their assistance can produce the greatest return on their efforts.

 

These groups need be armed with facts and the reality and ramification of the San Remo Conference, the Mandate Systems, the Churchill White Papers, the occupation of Judea and Samaria by Jordan, the Golan Heights by Syria and Gaza by Egypt. The rightful demands of the Israelis need to be heard above the cacophonous din of lies, half-truths, innuendo and outright deceit spread far, wide and loudly. These allies will need to study research of the past in order to form an unbiased decision, one that is probably not going to rest well with those demanding that the Jews have no claim for visiting the Temple Mount or that there need be another nation called Palestine, let alone replacing Israel with such a state. Still, it is of paramount importance that Jews and Israel continue to cultivate acceptance where possible and true friendship with those who know Jewish history and support Israel in her struggles for peace, a just and true peace which will last forever. The reality is that in Europe, as in the rest of the world, Israel and the Jewish People have some very staunch supporters and a general support amongst those who understand the problems Israel faces daily and must find means of dealing with a very vocal minority in most instances whose incessant demands often in the form of the BDS movement such that they lose the support of those who still regard Jews as an evil blight to be wiped from the face of what they consider their planet. These are the flies in the ointment which must be isolated, something Prime Minister Netanyahu claims he can accomplish by speaking at the United Nations this week. If only his words were sufficient to drown out the raucous few who largely occupy the extreme ends of the political spectrum, both extreme right and left. If only his words would suffice.

 

Beyond the Cusp