Of Papers and Glass Paperweights and Prices in Stone

 

Often the proof is in ancient writings found imbedded in the clay pottery shards which are on display currently in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem starting Tuesday, April 12, 2016. These are a collection of military orders written in ancient Hebrew dated to the end of the First Temple period which were unearthed in an excavation of a fort in Arad, Israel, and dated to about 600 B.C. shortly before Nebuchadnezzar’s destruction of Jerusalem, and were uncovered in the Negev Desert (see image below). The fact that military orders found were written by multiple individuals has been used, along with biblical writings from the same period, in order to be effective implied that literacy was rather common amongst the area known as Judea. These writings, published Monday in the US Journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, make it possible for the earliest books of the bible to have been written before the exile and during the First Temple period. According to Tel Aviv University archaeology professor Israel Finkelstein, “There’s a heated discussion regarding the timing of the composition of a critical mass of biblical texts.” Finkelstein, who led the team of researchers together with physics professor Eliezer Piasetzky reported, “But to answer this, one must ask a broader question: What were the literacy rates in Judah at the end of the First Temple period? And what were the literacy rates later on, under Persian rule?” The writings were discovered in the ruin of an ancient Judahite military fortress near the Negev city. Such evidence of higher rates of literacy existing throughout the military infers similarly high rates amongst the peoples themselves. Finkelstein, however, said he has long believed those texts were written in the late 7th century BC in Jerusalem, before the siege. He said the study offers support for that theory. “It’s the first time we have something empirical in our hands,” said Finkelstein. It was the fact that these orders were of a nature to have been disseminated through the entire chain of command which can be used to infer high rates of literacy.

 

 

Inscriptions in ancient Hebrew dating
back 2,500 years discovered near Arad.
(Tel Aviv University/Michael Kordonsky,
Israel Antiquities Authority)

 

 

Shmuel Ahituv, an Israeli bible scholar who did not participate in the study, also believes literacy in ancient Judah was widespread before 586 BC and that the biblical texts in question were written before the siege of Jerusalem. He said he believes this is apparent through a literary analysis of the biblical texts alone. “I don’t need algorithms,” Ahituv chuckled referring to the algorithms used to reconstruct the missives other than those he had studied.

 

There was an additional discovery this week of the oldest glass manufactory found thusfar in the holy lands. This glass foundry dates back to approximately 400 A.D. The remains of the kiln used to produce large scale glass was discovered as construction of a road being built at the initiative of the Netivei Israel Company as part of the Jezreel Valley Railway Project between Ha-‘Emeril Junction and Yagur Junction. The oldest glass kilns ever discovered in Israel were unearthed at the foot of Mount Carmel near Haifa – exposing an ancient, global glass-production center which serviced the entire Roman Empire (see video below). These kilns are roughly 1,600 years old (dating to the Late Roman period), and indicate that the Land of Israel was one of the foremost centers for glass production in the ancient world. The other main glass producer was near Alexandria, Egypt. Glassworks and glass manufacturing sites had been found previously which dated to the eighth and ninth century which made this find all the more exciting and important as it predates the others by almost five centuries. This validates another find from Rome where a price edict was circulated by the Roman emperor Diocletian in the early fourth century describing and setting the prices for two kinds of glass. The first was known as Judean glass which presumably was manufactured in the Land of Israel while the second was Alexandrian glass from Egypt. Judean glass was a light green color and less expensive than Egyptian glass. What makes this edict so important is that it had been written in stone, well, chiseled in stone and was displayed at glassware shops making for fair trade standardized throughout the Empire.

 

 

 

 

This discovery has attracted glass experts who specialize in ancient glass manufacturing from around the globe who have all come to inspect the find and test the glass which was found amongst the ashes and stones from the hearths. This solves the question as to what glass much glassware was made from as this site was a serious large manufacturing industrial site. It was in these kilns where it was estimated that large glass blocks were produced using sand cleaned and transported from the beaches and salt which would have been melted together at a temperature of approximately 1,200oC in order to make the glass. The glass manufactured here would have had a soft green tint and blocks weighing as much as ten tons per casting. After the kiln had been permitted to cool and the glass removed it would have been broken into more manageable size pieces and carted off to be sold to glassware and other manufacturers where the pieces would be smelted again to form glassware products. Glassware was found throughout the Roman Empire as glassblowing had been discovered as a method for producing glassware on an industrial scale which is what made the need for production facilities such as the one found here and others which have been located dating years later. It is the earlier dating of this site which has sparked so much interest. Below is a picture of samples of the glass embedded in rocks found at the base of the hearth.

 

 

Fragments of glass discovered at the site Photo:
Assaf Peretz, courtesy of Israel Antiquities Authority.

 

 

This glass is another example of what we discussed in yesterday’s article titled Thoughts on the World on This Day where we pointed out that “Israel is still being accused of colonialism by the conquerors of their homeland from in the early seventh century. The Arabs were simply the last of a whole host of colonial enterprises all attempting to dislodge the Jewish People (the Israelites) from their native ground and capital city of Jerusalem.” This glass production site in conjunction with the Roman edict written in stone setting the price of “Judean glass” proves that the area even after the change of the region name still referred to the products as Judean. They did not call it Arab glass or Palestinian glass or any other peoples’ name in the reference; it was Judean glass from Judean manufacturing and proved that the Jews (Israelites) remained and ran a thriving industrial glass production. There have been wine and oil presses found dating to the same time frame and through the years preceding and afterwards all making Judean products. The Roman edict setting the price for Judean glass alongside Alexandrian glass displayed the two main centers for glassmaking which provided the raw glass used throughout the Roman Empire where the first known use of price controls is evidenced in stone and refers to Judea as a glass manufacturing area and the Jews residing in Judea as the makers. Sometimes the proof just pops up and settles things so simply. One might say the answer is as clear as glass, slightly tinted green as was the Judean glass.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Should ISIS Replace Hamas in Gaza; So What?

 

There has been a news story running around loose that ISIS is causing ripples of violence and is intending to replace Hamas as the governing body in Gaza. Should this actually come to pass, what difference it would make has not been explained in the stories I have seen and I am pretty sure I know why, the truth would be too revealing. The other reason this story has had the emphasis given it is so that the world will see such an event as something horrific and of causing a sea of change probably for the worse. This is true only if your name happens to be Ismail Haniyeh and Khaled Mashal of Hamas or Ramadan Shalah and Abd Al Aziz Awda of Islamic Jihad and potentially some of the other top echelon commanders such as Hamas Military Commander Muhammad Deif. The terrorist members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad have been complimented by the lead members of ISIS in Gaza as far back as last summer’s Operation Protective Edge though you would be hard pressed to find many, if any, news stories mentioning such, especially outside of Israel. Even within the Israeli media the subject was barely ever breached for reasons that escape me for their logic. The most news that mentioned Hamas and ISIS in the same breath was those quoting Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and a few other Israeli politicians and top security officers in the IDF and Shin Bet who were making the point publically that there was really no discernible difference between Hamas and ISIS despite what the world media cared to report. The actual discernible difference should both Hamas and Islamic Jihad along with the remaining Fatah and Palestinian Authority individuals all be supplanted by ISIS would be that Ismail Haniyeh and Khaled Mashal of Hamas as well as Ramadan Shalah and Abd Al Aziz Awda of Islamic Jihad and perhaps some of the secondary commanders who were seen as not sufficiently bold in their efforts against Israel as that would be the level of the majority of the change. I am fairly sure that the topmost leaders of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Fatah, al-Qaeda of Gaza and any other top commanders who have been getting excessively wealthy usurping funds off the top for personal gain, better known as greed, then you have something to fear as such activities are not pure and will deserve punishment by the leaders of ISIS. The top people with the most profit from their positions such as the billionaires of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh and Khaled Mashal who are both worth many billions of dollars, will simply be spending a lot more time at their mansions in Qatar and as time passes less and less time anywhere near Gaza, Mashal has not visited Gaza except for that occasional photo-op just to validate his credentials and to raise morale amongst the troops. The main loss to these leaders is that the gravy train will stop running and they will just have to suffer a serious financial setback and need to spend very carefully such that they do not spend through their billions of dollars too quickly.

 

In Gaza the difference will be minimal until ISIS has attained what they consider a critical mass such that they have the troops and equipment in place and everything ready for their assault on Israel. They will tell their forces that the day when the Zionist entity will pay dearly and no longer be in possession of the stolen Muslim lands and their fellow Muslims who are pure in their practice and intentions will finally celebrate their victory over the much hated enemies of Allah. Needless to point out but if you happen to be an Arab, Muslim or not, resident in Israel and ISIS were to even temporarily for some few hours gain control of your area of residence then you would be best served to be elsewhere during that period as any Israel Arab, especially the Muslims, will be treated according to Quranic texts and their most violent and strictest of interpretations. This means that those who are followers of Islam will have to explain to deaf ears why they had not risen up and destroyed Israel from the inside and were instead living so peaceably with the Jews. After said testimony, which will be interpreted to be more of a confession of guilt, these Muslims will be declared apostate and appropriately murdered, most likely burned alive as has been the lot for the Shia captured by ISIS. The best off will be the Arab Christians who will be permitted to live after paying the Jiyza, the tax especially levied against Christians and other non-Muslims under which their Muslim leadership will protect them until the next payment comes due, but be warned that sooner rather than later you will either not have the funds to pay the Jiyza or will be given the final choice between adopting Islam or death, and conversion will not necessarily save you as your forced conversion may be determined not to have been spiritually uplifting and you would then meet the fate of an apostate, burned alive.

 

After Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the rest of the terrorist forces in Gaza would necessarily come under the control of ISIS the sea change would barely be more noticeable than a ripple added to the surf pounding the coast; simply put it would produce negligible change. The changes would mostly be cosmetic as while the production of rockets would be increased with the rockets being stored for intense use in support of the eventual ISIS assault to eliminate Israel and liberate the stolen lands which they as the next Caliphate should rule over all the lands that were ever under Islamic rule and that includes all of Israel. The reality would likely be very different as ISIS has a much larger and more important foe than Israel which has been under attack for some time using Gaza as a safe haven and supply depot. The other dirty little secret that the news media have not reported about is that ISIS presence in Gaza is mostly to operate as their liaison with Hamas who manage the supplies and provisions so as to have ISIS in the Sinai Peninsula provided with the appropriate weaponry and ammunition for their attacks on Egyptian forces as their intent is to be able to take possession of sufficient amounts, all or the vast majority, of the entirety of the Sinai Peninsula and have successfully pushed all Egyptian forces from the field of battle and be capable of announcing their great victory and spread into the Sinai Peninsula and declared it as a part of the Islamic State being founded by ISIS. Such an accomplishment would necessarily demand an Egyptian counter-offensive to retake control over the entirety of the Sinai Peninsula using solely Egyptian forces so as not to need Israeli assistance of any note as such would arm ISIS with a propaganda battering-ram with which to unseat President Sisi and the Egyptian government and replace such rule over all of Egypt claiming it for the Islamic State’s Caliphate, just another jewel in their turban and another loss for the Arab Muslims desiring peace under which they can continue their lives.

 

Once ISIS has managed to wrest the Sinai Peninsula from Egyptian control, then ISIS would turn their attention on capturing Cairo and Alexandria, Egypt and then annex the remainder of the country setting to purify the Egyptian population by testing the people on their levels of devotion and knowledge of the Quran and Muslim Law, the Sharia. Should ISIS have the capability of defeating the Egyptian military, not only would such a victory be impressive adding greatly to their reputation, it would serve as another reason proving they are in fact and deed the Caliphate they have declared themselves to be and thus would attract even larger numbers of disenfranchised youth from Western nations as well as across the Muslim world. Such a victory would make any plans to defeat ISIS close to impossible, especially utilizing solely the Iranian forces, even were there to be provided airstrikes as required in support of ground operations to defeat ISIS or seemingly to stop their incremental advances creeping across the landscape. Such a gain would also connect ISIS forces in Libya to the rest of ISIS as well as placing ISIS that much closer to uniting with Boko Haram in western Africa and based in Nigeria. Adding the weapons systems and fighter aircraft to the ISIS arsenals would also be augmented by providing safe zones in which ISIS could train their own pilots providing them with a force multiplier, air support and bombing targets in order to soften them for the ensuing ground assault, something carried out currently by suicide bombers. Such gains made by ISIS would pose a direct threat to the entirety of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and place increased fears in Europe, particularly the southern nations bordering the Mediterranean Sea. One might suspect that such gains and the accompanying threats would provide sufficient threats that the United States would act in a more forceful manner beyond limited airstrikes, but it is our conjecture that until, at the earliest, mid-January 2017 the world can pretty much rule out any increase in their commitment than to provide minimal air support of a few sorties on an active day. One reason that President Obama would not escalate the situation with ISIS would be due to any expansion westwards across northern Africa poses no imminent threat to Iran. In such a case, western movement would take the focus off Iran allowing them to better prepare for their inevitable conflict with ISIS for as long as ISIS exists, the Shia Muslims will not be safe anymore than Jews, Christians and others who do not bow to Allah.

 

The current efforts by ISIS are bringing more forces to bear in the Sinai Peninsula and it appears they will simply be cementing their gains in Iraq for the time being while continuing their efforts in Syria while striking in the Sinai in an effort to overwhelm the Egyptian forces currently holding the area. This is a natural fit for ISIS to open its next expansion as they already have a resupply base where they are able to keep supplies safely and a place they can hide away from the warfront retreating and enjoying relative peace in which to lick their wounds and plan for their next strike. The ISIS strategy is to strike hard with as many forces across as many fronts of the area of operations causing confusion and high casualty counts on their enemy attempting to overrun their checkpoints and other positions. This is the first time ISIS is fighting a national armed forces as until now they were fighting the remnants of a the Syrian Army and militias such as the Kurdish Peshmerga forces and the Sunni and Shia militias in Iraq and some of Iranian IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) forces which have continued to hold Baghdad and stymying further advances. This has forced ISIS to open a new front from which to make headway and continue to project their strong horse imagery and their invincible forces. Their raid this week assaulted multiple targets striking checkpoints and guard positions across the Sinai Peninsula. These strikes met with varying levels of defense but by the end of the day the Egyptian army had regrouped and pushed ISIS from all the positions they had taken earlier in the day. This was accomplished using assets wisely. The coordinated fight was conducted using forces including the Egyptian Air Force, armored units and those ground forces already deployed in the Sinai Peninsula. ISIS actually brought supplies out of Gaza prompting one Egyptian military leader to breach the subject of Gaza claiming that Egypt held the option of their forces going into Gaza and striking hard at any opposition units that may be; including Hamas, Islamic Jihad or other terror forces they find in Gaza. Initial results have shown that ISIS can push the Egyptian forces from their positions but they have thus far been unable to retain the grounds gained and are forced back into hiding. This may prove to be a war of attrition which would favor ISIS as they are gaining strength as the Western Powers, particularly the United States, appear reticent as they refuse to commit ground troops and actually fight against ISIS. Their anxiousness might be due to their having a plan for one great rout of the United States forces reminiscent of the Tet Offensive in Viet Nam. What that taught the leaders who have studied the History of the United States, particularly their innovative abilities to adapt to their situation and implement strategic options changing their tactics and adopting new and innovative tactics to fit that situation but that as long as the enemy can claim a victory and have produced large numbers of casualties that the media will reside with the isolationist reporting the offensive as have created a new and perilous situation where the forces fighting the United States are described as valiant while the United States military are cast as murderous and treacherous and any other derogatory terms and cast as losing the war or at best not winning. Once the American public has been bombarded with such news reports they demand the troops be brought home and from that point forward the United States has lost and their enemies need only keep up a modicum of effort as a constant reminder and to continue the nightly body count at the opening of every newscast. This was what defeated the United States in Viet Nan, in Afghanistan, and in Iraq once already and the one strength the terror forces have is they have nowhere to run to so they will fight to the last man, woman and child. That sort of determination takes an amount of steady and constant levels of ruthlessness in order to not only defeat them in every battle but to break their spirit and prove to them beyond any doubt that their cause is useless and, in this case, Allah does not favor them being deserving of victory and has handed victory to their sworn enemies. The only question is once the coming war begins, will the American people have the stamina and stomach for completing the fight or will they simply first surrender to the coming propaganda and then inevitably face the final surrender, surrendering to Allah and becoming Muslim and all that does entail.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Israel’s Jewish Problem and Other Ramblings

 

This past week United States President Barack Obama went to great lengths to establish his argument for his not holding any shred of anti-Semitism and then transgressed his own standard. His definition for one being an anti-Semite included people denying such items as recognizing that Jews have had a difficult history, been plagued by hatreds of all varieties, have an ancient and valid claim to their lands where the historic lands of the Israelites existed and one last and special quality of holding Israel to a different standard than one holds other nations. As Carolyn Glick stated in her article Barack Obama’s anti-Semitism test “As Obama reads Israeli history, the state’s founders didn’t only seek to build a Jewish state. They set out to build Utopia.” This alone might lead one to ponder how any person could be so deeply compartmentalized in their thinking processes that they could clearly see Israel and her governance intending to build a Utopian society and still treat them as they would any other nation, or does President Barack Obama view every nation as setting out to build a Utopia. One might be capable of arguing that every nation set out and has attempted to build their nation to be a utopia even if that utopian vision does not wander too far from the ruling elite. That would permit the leaders of a nation to sentence the entirety of the previous government to death after taking power by force and not the voting will of the people, or even with the voting power of the people. Utopia can be interpreted in many and varied ways. Still, claiming a nation is going all-out to build a Utopian Nation one could then hold that nation to your perceived notion of how a utopian society would act and not view them as a nation acting solely in their own best interest but instead seeking where they might sacrifice for the benefit of others even to the point of placing their nation in peril.

 

That is exactly what President Barack Obama did when addressing the Adas Israel congregation, a Jewish congregation following the Conservative branch of Judaism, located conveniently in Washington D.C. where most of the congregants are either liberal Democrats or extremely liberal Democrats, but their being in Washington D.C. makes noting their liberal bend to be repetitive. When President Barack Obama explained his views and definitions on anti-Semitism the attending congregants were enthused. When he then proceeded to state that as an Utopian State Israel would, in his judgement and from what he learned and what formed his view of Israel and the heart and soul of the nation from “Moshe Dayan, and Golda Meir, and the sense that not only are we creating a safe Jewish homeland, but also we are remaking the world. We’re repairing it. We are going to do it the right way. We are going to make sure that the lessons we’ve learned from our hardships and our persecutions are applied to how we govern and how we treat others.” He subsequently added the altruistic view and concern he believed Israeli leaders should consider, “The rights of the Jewish people… compel me to think about a Palestinian child in Ramallah that feels trapped without opportunity. That’s what Jewish values teach me.” This led President Barack Obama to believe that in order to make a Utopian offer and placing the Palestinians’ needs above their own, Israel should pull back completely within the Green Line, the 67 lines, the 1949 Armistice Line also labeled the Auschwitz Borders as Abba Eban spelled out for the United Nations as quoted by the Jerusalem Post of August 18, 1995 by columnist Moshe Kohn:

“We have openly said that the map will never again be the same as on June 4, 1967. For us, this is a matter of security and of principles. The June map is for us equivalent to insecurity and danger. I do not exaggerate when I say that it has for us something of a memory of Auschwitz. We shudder when we think of what would have awaited us in the circumstances of June, 1967, if we had been defeated; with Syrians on the mountain and we in the valley, with the Jordanian army in sight of the sea, with the Egyptians who hold our throat in their hands in Gaza. This is a situation which will never be repeated in history.”

My thoughts upon reading in several articles what President Barack Obama had stated both as his definition for anti-Semitism and then on all items concerning Israel he made assessments and judgments which placed Israel at the maximum disadvantage, facing the utmost threats and claiming all these compromises and surrenders were to be forced out of Israel in order to allow Israel to repair the world. From what President Barack Obama stated he must be reasoning that the existence of Israel is the greatest problem thus the Israeli government must take all steps possible and allow the empowerment of even Israel’s worst enemies while forcing Israel into the most vulnerable position possible. If that is not a duality of treatment and expectations then I have no idea what one might call it.

 

Here is a quick review across the board on items concerning Israel and the Obama response and what we think Israel should do within legal structures by treaty and other binding international agreements.
Boundaries and expectations for the state of Israel, President Obama’s Ideas versus Our Responses.
President Barack Obama: President Obama insists that Israel be forced to pull back to the boundary lines from before the Six Day War and establish a terror state armed to the teeth on the high grounds overlooking the most vital and densely packed areas in Israel and also perched to cut Israel in half by a simple nine to twelve mile advance anywhere on a front which runs one third the length of Israel and perfectly centered on Tel Aviv.

BTC: If Israel desires to survive and have strategic advantages on the ground then Israel must retain the Judean Heights which run one third the length of Israel making all of Israel vulnerable. Israel must have control over the entirety of the Jordan River where it meets their current positions in all of Judea and Samaria. Finally, the Arabs claiming to be Palestinians should be granted their own autonomous zone where they provide the police and govern their areas completely but Israel maintains control of these lands in case of an attack and the autonomous Arab entity will not be permitted heavy weapons or other tools of war and if there should be terror attacks, the autonomous region may be dissolved by a vote in the Knesset.
President Barack Obama: President Obama has a grand plan which lasts ten, twelve, twenty, twenty-five, and forever all depending on which clause one is addressing. This plan will prevent Iran from actually producing nuclear weapons though they may continue all efforts to design and improve the nuclear weapons they might potentially build in the future but not for at least ten, twelve, well, depends on how you define nuclear weapon. The agreement promises that Iran will not build any nuclear weapons for ten years and there is no possibility they might break the treaty and produce weapons in secret and away from the agreed imposed inspections.

BTC: Again, should Israel intend to survive beyond the ten, twelve, whatever number of years your cumbersomely structured agreement leaves most everything open to several different interpretations. Technically Iran could produce all the required parts to form a nuclear warhead or bomb and simply not fully assemble them and have instant nuclear warheads after minor assembly. Even ten or twelve years is not all that long and the Iranian leadership will not leave willingly and thus all the treaty actually does is place certain steps as outside the agreement and Iran could be all ready to assemble the first of numerous nuclear weapons within a few hours after informing the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) that they are no longer bound by the agreement with the United States as President Obama made this deal and is no longer the President so the deal is now worthless as we did not get the word from the new President as to whether he would meet the United States obligations.

 

All this aside, there is a deeper problem for Israel, the average American Jew defines their Jewishness by their support for the Democrat Party because that is what liberals do. It does not matter if the Democrat is anti-Israel or anti-Zionist or even anti-Semite because these Jews believe that if the time returned for the Jews to be rounded up for the slaughter that surely they are of particular value and will thus be spared. These are the ‘It cannot happen in my country’ and ‘even if it does, I will be excepted as I am assimilated and value being a good little democrat than I do Israel or Judaism.’ The bad news is not only can it happen again, and happen in your country or spread to your country, but is already starting to happen. The BDS boycott divestment and sanction protesters are having such an influence in the United States that some of the Bible Belt states, counties, cities and municipalities are invoking new laws to expressly refuse to give contracts or have any business which supports the BDS aggregation and their demands while in some of the largest cities certain retailers now refuse not only products which may have come from a factory in Judea or Samaria but just to be safe, they stopped carrying anything Israeli. What is so ridiculous about the BDS craze is that for many Arab Palestinians, their employment despite working in the same enterprise and often sharing work space with Israeli Jews, they actually love their jobs and working conditions as they are superior to anything else available to them and the insurance and salaries are vastly superior and these are the companies and factories the BDS crazed and glazed eyed useful idiots are trying to destroy. The leaders of some of the BDS chapters, if you can credit them with that much organization, are actually Jews who are through and through pro-Arab Palestinian and tout the Israel as the colonial oppressor of the indigenous Arab population who have a written and proven history as the mythical nation of Palestine. Then there is the lobbying groups J Street headed by Jeremy Ben Ami who is a Jewish self-hater who despises everything that makes Israel the Jewish state. His drive is to flood Israel with as many as five or even ten million refugees with at their core is a sizeable group who entertains any demand or concession the Israelis could possibly make and additionally they desire to allow the right of return of five or maybe ten millions of Arabs into Israel within the Green Line and not simply into the Arab entity making Israel a binational state which will set to repairing that situation and taking Israel on a wholly, or should we say unholy, future with the eradication of those Jews unable or clueless enough to remain in Israel for any longer than the first elections, or should we say the truthful term of last election, especially if the new citizens forced Israel along with the world, including if not led by Jews living outside of Israel, the right to vote. As soon as they get organized, that will spell the end of Israel and with that the end of Judaism within our lifetimes.

 

There was a time when it could have been claimed and evidence provided that many Jews voted with a concern for Israel that was or rivalled their most dearly held political beliefs. The vast majorities of those Jews no longer vote in their former nation’s elections as they became Israeli citizens and viewed voting as such in their previous nation to be fraudulent. Even if these Jews were to vote in their former nation’s elections they would hardly make much of a difference. The last two elections for United States President had the highest total of formerly American Jews living permanently in Israel and being Israeli citizens, but are able to vote as dual-citizenship between Israel and the United States is recognized, voted in the Presidential election and voted well above 80% against President Obama. That should give anybody a hint as to how President Barack Obama is viewed here. In the United States the Jewish vote was 70% give or take a little for President Barack Obama. That plainly tells one of the differences between the views of these disparate sets of Jewish populations. The American Jews often support financially groups which work directly against Israel but have a devious manner where they use catch phrases such as “justice”, “fairness”, equality”, “equal opportunity” and “Tikkun Olam” which they interpret as “repair the world” which is accomplished, in their minds, as supporting every leftist cause, the more extreme the better. They give donations to the New Israel Fund which they defend by questioning accusingly how you could ever doubt their sincerity when it comes to supporting Israel as after all the New Israel Fund helps many groups and there are very supportive groups and they can usually list at least three or four. When anyone brings up that the New Israel Fund or J Street and numerous other charitable or political action groups and criticizes these groups the chorus is almost dutifully the same almost singing their response where they claim that these groups support Tikkun Olam, which they conveniently define as repairing the world and that means taking an active role and even trying pathways and making the hard choices required to repair the world and make the world more peaceful and diverse, never mind if diverse does not include Israel. One would never last ten seconds in a discussion should they point out that Tikkun Olam is not a banner one waves to forgive and forget what they were supporting as it is the supporting that is important, not to whom you give support as long as they claim to be for peace, the two state solution, respecting the dignity of the Palestinian cause and opposing that dreadful Prime Minister who oppresses Arabs, destroys their homes, refuses to enforce the law and arrest those Jews who destroyed olive trees during the harvest when the trees are cut back to a point where they appear dead but is necessary to have them produce fruit more rapidly and a better grade of olives and then there is the constant use of the IDF destroying homes and lives in Gaza so often. These are people who are truly Israel’s friends according to their assessment, after all they read the New York Times which is owned by a prominent Jewish family and they read Haaretz which they renew their subscription every year so they are getting all the real news. That is their closing argument and it works because hearing this given in such a condescending way as if to dismiss anything you say as invalid as it has never appeared on the front page of either the New York Times or Haaretz therefore it does not exist. As has been said before, with friends like these, who needs enemies?

 

The problem is Israel has more than sufficient enemies or nations who would actually celebrate if Israel was ever defeated. This was made obvious during the Yom Kippur War which had it started from the borders currently being demanded there would be no Israel today. There were no calls for the Arab forces to stop their advance at a certain spot and not go further than the Green Line. Fortunately Israel still held the Sinai Peninsula which allowed just barely enough time as those troops placed on the eastern side of the Suez Canal bought Israel the necessary time with their lives. They knew that every minute they held their ground that gave many troops the needed gathering time which was made more complicated as many soldiers were in synagogue and not near their home phones as this was well before cell phones were even in use so they had to go from synagogue to synagogue and interrupt the service and announce the general call up as a war had been launched on Israel. The world saw an almost defenseless Israel and nobody lifted a finger while they watched news broadcast after news broadcast waiting for the fateful news that the Egyptians had taken Tel Aviv and were well on their way to devouring Israel erasing it from the map. There was not a single attempt to prevent Israel being overrun, something which appeared inevitable in the first hours of the war but Israel regrouped, got her aircraft into the air and their tanks rolling and soon the tide changed and the Israelis not only thwarted their attack but had chased the Egyptian army back across the Suez Canal and were heading straight for Alexandria and Cairo when the world let loose with a mighty clamor demanding that this horrific assault by Israel stop immediately, not try to reach any major city nor advance any further and for the Israeli troops and armor be returned to the east bank of the Suez Canal. Egypt overrunning Israel, good for them according to the civilized world out there but have Israel routing Egyptian units and crossing the Suez Canal, horrific war crime, stop and retreat immediately, how dare Israel think they can be permitted to advance on Cairo or Alexandria.

 

It is no different today as the Arabs can riot and even murder Israelis, men, women, children, the elderly and even the three month old Hadas Fogel who had her throat slashed and her chest stabbed and opened removing her heart which was never found. She was brutalized along with almost the whole family with Rabbi Udi Fogel age 36, Ruth Fogel age 35, Yoav Fogel age 11, and Elad Fogel age 4. The father and infant Hadas were found by the terrorist Arab cousins asleep so they first slit the Father throat and finished killing him before he could react and then initially leaving the infant but one of the cousins returned after they had left the house to kill baby Hadas and brutalizing her corpse in an inhuman mutilation. Thanks to threats from across all of Europe as well as the United Nations and the United States, Israel is the only place on the planet where policies have been enacted and enforced sometimes up front and outwardly so the population of Israel understands these restrictions on the Jews and some quietly, almost silently so nobody will be upset. Some of the worst of these are that Jews may not build a house to live or even add a deck to their existing home as all building must cease or else. Jews are not permitted to defend themselves any further than the minimal amount required to escape as Jews when confronted are expected to surrender and run away. Jews are not permitted to pray on the Temple Mount. It is a law passed by a Muslim council and enforced by Israeli police. Jews are forbidden the right to pray at the holiest of all places upon this planet for Jews, the place where the First Temple and Second Temple stood. What can be ever so absurd as Jews being forbidden to pray not only in Israel but at the holiest of sites to Jews anywhere on Earth and Jews are forbidden even to move their lips as that might be payer, not allowed to bend their knees too much and especially both at the same time while stopped as that might be an act of prayer, not permitted to read from a book as they might be praying, and every group of Jews, sometimes every individual Jew will be accompanied by an Arab representative of the Waqf, the committee which forbade Jewish prayer within Israel on their holiest of sites, who makes judgements as to if one is perceived as praying and should this official claim you attempted prayer there is an Israeli police officer present to arrest them for praying. I think if I ever get a chance to visit the Temple Mount I am going to get arrested and there will little doubt as to whether or not I was praying as I will likely pray out loud, not loudly, simply out loud.

 

Beyond the Cusp