The State Versus Religion and Family

 

In the most recent times there has seemingly been a war waged over who is responsible for raising children. This battle was best epitomized when Hillary Clinton came out and stated at the 1996 Democrat National Convention as if it were established fact, “It takes a village to raise a child,” (Full Speech Below). The entire speech may have been her best presentation despite her almost Al Gore like metered cadence throughout the entire speech though once in a while she appeared almost attached to or excited by what she was proposing and her meter increased briefly. But the advice that the village, a euphemism for the government, is vitally interested in the raising of the child is a direct threat to the stability and autonomy of the family. This has become the watchword for the school teachers who receive additional training through approved courses which instruct that the teachers and school nurse or other medical officer and the principal are the first line of defense against improper ideas and concepts from being introduced to children because parents have been known to introduce archaic religious “indoctrination,” their phrasing, not ours, which must be instead replaced with the new age socialized concepts where the whole society teaches that which is beneficial to the society instead and above that which is beneficial to the family. The society is known by another name, another reference and that is government. But before we can even address the war against parents and government as the first parent of every child, we must first look back at an earlier conflict between science and religion which morphed into a battle between government and religion and has brought us to the world we have today.

 

 

The first concept required is to realize that all relationships whether private, public, familiar, governmental, religious and whatever; can be studied as living entities where the healthy and most adaptable grows in scope, influence and power and the lesser entities wither and eventually die. The earliest times in human existence, even before Homo Sapiens appeared, the basic unit was the family. This was because most of the groupings were clan based and one could tell your stature, standing, history and almost everything else about you by your name as it was an indicator of to what clan from which you arose. Different clans would have cooperative agreements often sealed with the exchange of women to show good faith and create and actual binding between the two families. This also served genetic diversity thus avoiding to some extent the genetic failings such as hemophilia and other disorders. With time clans merged to forge stronger and more capable collections which would supersede the family or clan unit. These groups were the first tribes which granted greater genetic diversity. All of this arose before the first modern man but was instrumental to development of complex society. The tribes grew to include numerous clans with some better at hunting and others at gathering knowing what was and was not edible while still others showed aptitude for healing and tending the young. In these more primitive conditions there were those whose task was the care of the youngest children but as they grew they would be trained in the skill they showed the best attributes by others such as a huntsman would train the young hunters, the gatherers would train the next generation of gatherers and so on. Tribes also began the concept of history, then simply known as the story. The story was one which was uplifting and always made the hunters as great warriors defending the tribe and the gatherer who risked life regularly trying new untested fruits and vegetables and if they survived and approved the tribe would add another plant to their diet which could have allowed the tribe to use previously unexplored lands. Such a person who would live to old age was likely rare but one who had along with the oldest hunters who reached an age where their use became telling of the stories. These positions evolved to become the job of an entire group who were to be the first priests who would eventually weave a set of codes which made the first religions.

 

With the onset of herding and farming, the time of city-states appeared and by now the tribal leaders were chosen by some method of testing or perhaps a single family’s eldest surviving son at the time of their father’s demise became the next ruler and the age of government had begun. It is important to note that the family was the initial and earliest defined obligation followed by clan and then tribe. With tribe we had the loosest governmental forms but religion grew into an actual class with priests who may have also been a warrior class which led the defense or assaults taken on by the tribe. Finally, about the time of the first cities, which would soon become city-states, did actual government take root amongst mankind. This was the first time that there would be actual laws enforced with proscribed punishment or at least delegating the one who proscribed the punishment for a particular crime. There came formalizations with religion already having led the way in this and they were followed by government. There came positions assigned with likely the first being the close guards who protected the ruling figure, then the ranking members of an enforcement group, the forerunners of modern police and judicial system. Often times the judicial system was also run by the clerical priest class as they were also the most learned class. This started the initial conflict between religion and government, even when a wise leader tied religion and government, blurring the difference and thus granting themselves the highest position in governance and religion. This was exactly what the Pharaohs of Egypt did when they proscribed for themselves a godly aura and was closely imitated by the Caesars of Rome.

 

There were a few exceptions to the basic complete authority of the governing leader or even the governing and clerical leaders which we have discussed a few times before, and that was the Torah which was the founding document for the Israelites who became over time today’s Jews. The rules given approximately three-thousand to three-thousand-five-hundred years ago were the framing of some of the ideas used by the Founding Fathers when drafting the United States Constitution leading to the proposed tight restraints on the Presidency. Such restrictions such as a President being withheld from granting themselves property or wealth derived from their knowledge of government workings nor could they simply invent and apply laws without the consent of Congress and were made answerable to both the Congress or the Supreme Court should they stray from the defined limitations of their office. These concepts along with the right of a state to leave the Union if they would so choose and do so in a prescribed manner and other limitations on a President were badly damaged or destroyed by Abraham Lincoln who basically became the government during the Civil War as he all but declared formally a State of Emergency permitting the President all but unopposable powers. Still, the limitations which were first set in Torah, the laws given at Mount Sinai in the book of Deuteronomy 17:14-17 which found their way even presumably to the present day in limits on the President of the United States and were placed as the very first laws limiting the powers and impositions of Kings where it read:

14  When you have come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say, “I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me,”
15  you may indeed set over you a king whom the Lord your God will choose. One of your own communities you may set as king over you; you are not permitted to put a foreigner over you, who are not of your own community.
16  Even so, he must not acquire many horses for himself, or return the people to Egypt in order to acquire more horses, since the Lord has said to you, “You must never return that way again.”
17  And he must not acquire many wives for himself, or else his heart will turn away; also silver and gold he must not acquire in great quantity for himself.

 

Meanwhile, somewhere between the gathering at Mount Sinai where the Israelites responded to the coming giving of “The Law” said, according to many translations, “We will obey and we will listen,” and today in much of Europe and the developed world where the people would not even listen to the religious codes and laws, let alone obey them as religion has been supplanted by government and the new priests are the lawyers who believe themselves the ultimate interpreters and applicators of the law twisting it to their will and whim. At some point around the rise of Persia and the rise of Rome religion and government became permanently separated in what would become Europe and much of the rest which came under either Greek or Roman rule. This began the contest between the two main centers of power outside the family unit. At that time the two still crossed boundaries with government infringing on religion for their advantage and religion infringing on government very much to their advantage. A sign of both comes as part of the Inquisition. Where it was an obvious usurpation of prosecutorial powers taken into the hand of the Church striping that power for the priest class who acted as judge, jury and often executioner, their prosecutions were also abused by government to destroy adversaries or other challenges to the throne or regional power structures. At the same time King Philip II of Spain used the purification edicts from the Church in Spain to raise and launch the famous invasion fleet of the Spanish Armada against England and Queen Elizabeth I which ran afoul of vicious storms and the fleet of English gunboats which were smaller, faster and more maneuverable capable of passing between the huge troop carrying Armada frigates who when firing at the English fleet had their shot pass over the top of the low slung English ships and simply blasted the other Armada ships in their own fleet. Almost all of the Spanish ships sunk and the remainder limped home and that ended this threat to England and its Church of England, a Protestant Church closely tied to the Tudors after being created by Henry VIII. The creation of the Church of England was another perfect example of religion out of the needs of the ruling monarch. Henry VIII needed a divorce which the Pope refused him; so he made his own Church after he went home.

 

Spanish Armada of Giant Frigates Holding Hundreds of Troops
and Cannon Ports Only capable of Shooting Over the English
Fleets Comprised of Sleeker and Low Slung Ships with
Deck Cannons and by the Hand of G0d Seen as the Weather

 

Over the ensuing years as science explains more and more of the unknowns and all appears to be explainable, the place of religion has diminished in the developed world. The need for religion to explain those things we did not understand had been greatly diminished but the final understanding is just as far out of the grasp of science now as it has ever been. The question surrounding the why, what and who caused the explosion which science has named the Big Bang is unknown and seemingly will remain unknown for the foreseeable future. Using Einstein’s equation of E=MC2 where ‘C’ is the speed of light which is times itself and multiplied just by the weight of the objects in our own little solar system and one gets a very large number and should that computation be done for all of the presumed objects just in our galaxy, the Milky Way, and that number almost becomes unimaginable and finally, if we add the viewable estimated number of Galaxies which the Ultra Deep Field Hubble Telescope took of a postage stamp piece of the sky thought to be virtually empty by all previous observations and that number is unimaginable by the average physicist, let alone the rest of us (see image below).

 

Ultra Deep Field Hubble Telescope Picture
Each Smudge and Pinprick of Light is an Entire Galaxy

 

Using science as a weapon of ultimate destruction, government in the developed world has assailed religion attempting to make any religious belief or system presumably archaic, its practices the equivalence of a rain dance, the prayers comparable to a voice at a séance, and its commandments, covenants, decrees or other rulings as the equivalence to Ouija board revelations. Concurrently government has replaced religion as the determiner of right and wrong, the provider of charity, the reason for a Sabbath renamed weekend, collector of alms as an integral portion of taxes and slowly rendered any expression of religious observance unacceptable in public. About the only suppressive action government has yet to take concerning religion has been to make religion illegal. The reason is likely because should they actually make religion illegal, religion would likely make a comeback just because it was outlawed. Especially any reference to Judaeo-Christian ethics,codes, holidays, prayer, deity, prophet or Bible passage, the government put the final clasp subduing even the slightest religious thought from the marketplace of ideas. Meanwhile, ignoring the dangers, those in governments are permitting Islamic religious teachings claiming that it is study of culture and comparison of governance and civics. This plus an extra-judicial importance placed on a statistically insignificant threat posed by anti-Islamic acts which have remained relatively constant since 2002 after a noticeable rise in the second half of 2001 while anti-Semitism acts are rising in some locations many folds but these acts are minimized or completely ignored. There have been those who have theorized the governments’ in the developed world preferences for Islam stem from the Islamic anti-Semitic and anti-Christian ethos and actions. This may also be behind the initial rush for European and developed nations taking in of “Syrian refugees” while not considering taking in Christian refugees facing persecutions in the Sudan and other nations in the Middle East and North Africa.

 

Finally we get to the family and the initial start of governmental infringements on the family unit. One of the initial assaults on the family used the equality for women fight to weaken any male claim of being better suited at any particular field of employment due to the differences which were previously thought to differentiate men and women. The most ridiculous of the denied differentiations was the strength requirement as it was agreed that strength requirements for men had to be restructured for women such that they required a similar percentile for women to be passed. One of the first to be altered was the strength testing to be a firefighter. The requirement for men to carry a full body double along with his fire suppression and breathing gear including wearing the mask down two flights of stairs and out of a building under fire simulated conditions had to be scalable. They had to take the weight of the dummy and scale it to meet the same percentile as women as it took for men to pass as well as scaled gear weight and so forth. This required new sized dummies and smaller breathing apparatus and other expenses just to train and test women applicants. The argument made by one Fire and Rescue company in court that in an actual fire the size of the person who may need be carried would not be scalable was rejected when they had a number of fire squad captains admit that they often set an order of people entering a building or if inside chose the largest and strongest to be tasked with such carries and thus the test really was not about actually carrying a real person from the building but actually a strength test and thus would meet those requirements for scalable testing. This argument was also the initial scaling of military combat arms testing including for Ranger, Green Beret, Seal and other special forces testing and training. The real aim was just as much blurring differences between men and women and removing any male dominated jobs from having such as their label. This blurring has continued that there exist work environments where the surname for all employees has been simplified to the unisex denotation using the letter ‘M’ for both genders. Then came the real punch to the gut, when some schools began to use a new picture book titled “Heather Has Two Mommies,” to depict that a family was not the conventional one of a Mom and one Dad. Such attacks were later continued with any combination which desired the status of a ‘family’ to be so denoted.

 

The gender wars and war on conventional definitions continued and we even saw women enter the military training at all levels until today women have been cleared to serve in any combat role even in actual combat condition, though this has not been tested to the best of our knowledge, not even in Europe where such equanimous ideas go to be tested. There was the court challenge against the classical definition of the family in a number of states establishing the right for other than heterosexual couples to adopt children. Eventually, we suspect, that multi-coupled relations will also seek equal rights in adoption as well as tax codes dealing with deductions for married couples where communal communities will be permitted treatment as what will likely be referred to as a ‘greater family’ or a ‘communal family’ and demand they receive treatment equal to a traditionally defined family. Eventually, through whatever means are required, the definition of what constitutes a family will be so weakened such that a person suffering from having multiple personalities will be able to be granted status as a family. Then, as with religion, the government will claim that they are the ultimate family and thus children will be raised by a licensed individual who will soon become a government employee much in the manner that teachers are now government employees. In an age gone-by, some name it the frontier age but really was anywhere a town was small enough and in an unpopulated area where there is no overseeing governance, when the citizens, particularly parents, desired a teacher who was knowledgeable in what was called the three ‘R’s (Reading, wRiting and aRithmatic, they were very adaptable) the wealthy peoples or person would hire a teacher and the one-room schoolhouse would be erected by the townsfolk and that was how early schooling was accomplished. Eventually the town would grow where grades by age groups, usually the young, middle and advanced groups, and multiple teachers were required, where in some fortunate places the wealthy people still provided the salary for the required teachers but eventually the entire community would jointly provide the teachers’ salaries with each parent paying their share according to the number of children they placed in school. This would eventually become some form of taxation collected by the governing body who also hired teachers and this will eventually become the department of child-rearing with the law eventually requiring all children to be raised from birth by the government.

 

Caring, educating and making every individual dependent on the state for everything from birth to death, cradle to grave care, thus makes everyone completely comfortable with doing exactly what the governing bodies demand. Just pray that by that time some overseeing the governing has been taken over by a self-repairing computer system and not by very fallible human politicians such as the wonderful and kind imbeciles who are elected or appointed in far too many societies for such to become all-powerful. Still, it is the nature of any organism, be it an individual organism, a collection of similar organisms, a collection of differing mutually beneficial organisms, a collection of balanced organisms, a collection of prey and hunter organisms, an organism composed of a collection of organ or any other imaginable system of organisms as such as today’s political class where they are dependent on others on which they prey (we are somewhat unsure which class they fall into to be honest) which exist in the many strata which we find defined in our modern society. The government grows by replacing existing and often very functional systems by meddling and regulating until they have subsumed the entire system and then they start to lower the expectations such that they are able to claim by the lowered standards how government run programs are superior. They will always point to the area where by their own defined criteria they prove to be superior. Often the criteria they point to first is inclusion as they will find groups which was at the margins or preferably outside the margins of the private run systems were capable of including and claim superiority due to the sheer numbers served. This has been evident most often with schooling where minorities of students are able to afford private school and the public education system serves all including those who would be unable to afford private school at the current cost. What they hide is that should they give parents a voucher which can only be used for attending private schools, that the very students they point to would easily be able to afford private school education. The truth is that there would be an entire market of schools which would educate children for less. The same would very likely be true in other government run institutions, but government has two basic advantages; first is they accomplish the assigned tasks with the minimal amount of effort from the people served and, even more importantly, they can make their providing of the assigned services required to be provided by government trained and licensed individuals thus making only government the sole provider by law/regulation.

 

The last thing which is an evil by which government grows and makes the government the beginning and the end in all places government desires to control is the power of laws made by fiat and without review by elected officials. The Federal Government is the most guilty of this intrusion and dictation over the people without review by the people’s elected representatives. This mechanism is known as regulations. The House of Representatives and the Senate will all too often pass legislation which sets goals and not mechanisms and then assign the flushing out of the how to accomplish these goals to a cabinet or department within the government to figure out who, what, where, when and how these goals will be defined and met. They do this without any input beyond the vague and often amorphous set of goals even leaving the final definitions of the goals and then formulate regulations. http://hls.harvard.edu/faculty/directory/10871/Sunstein/ target=blank>Cass Sunstein was appointed by President Obama to be his Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Regulatory Affairs and assigned to review existing Federal Laws and find those laws which would allow for new and varied regulations to be fashioned in order to complete desired acts, actions, positions and requirements desired by President Obama and his team of Czars so that they could accomplish policy goals without involving Congress. Many of the regulations which Cass Sunstein wrote will lay waiting for complimenting laws and regulations to be passed or written and then they will also be applied. Very few if anyone other than the President and his former Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs actually know all of what was found, written and sitting waiting for the appropriate time that these regulations will be required for government to accomplish another expansion of its powers. The regulatory route is what is most vital for government to grow and expand into new and various areas.

 

Sometimes one is required to look back centuries and research deeply into cultures and societies in order to see that which has changed. One area where this is particularly true is printing. There have been some radical advances in printing made because of computers but that is more in preparation as when printing mass numbers of items such as newspapers and books, the methods used have remained very constant since the invention of moveable type which was where each letter of the alphabet and each number from 0 to 9 along with spacers and punctuation were made on individual pieces as blocks and thus could be arranged in any order. With enough of each particular block one could print many pages of the same letters very quickly. Before that invention printing was done by a specialist carving out a master copy reversed often in wood and it would be used but had a limit on how long they lasted. Additionally, the letters carved into the master were permanently in place and could not be used in another page. A whole new master would need to be made. Before this method, things were even slower as the only people making books were a few crafts-people known as calligraphers and specialist Monks trained in calligraphy. Books in these times as well as anything else we would print today and requiring more than one copy were all made each copy by hand individually. The Monks trained in calligraphy would spend their entire lives on one book if many, many copies were required and those who had the finest styling and abilities would be permitted to make copies of the Bible. Making a Bible was the highest form of calligraphy. There are still some who are studied in this art who are hired to make such books and these books are rare, often one of a kind, and are extremely expensive, some priceless. There are still books and scrolls made today by hand. Torah scrolls are one such example and are written by trained Rabbis who often spend years making a special Torah scroll and months making normal Torahs. Just for the record, the government used to hire private companies to make their respective printed material such as pamphlets, maps, tourist informational material, records of Congressional actions and other necessary items. Today most of these are printed by the government with a vast number done at their Pueblo, Colorado printing facility. Of course all money is printed by the government at the mint. Thus far, schoolbooks are written and printed by private companies often following set guidelines set by, you guessed it, regulations. These regulations are changed at intervals as the government, the Department of Education, change their requirements or decide to emphasize different concepts. From some of the most recent textbooks we have read, it appears that much of what we were required to learn in school has changed drastically and not necessarily for the better. Concepts such as whole word recognition which replaced phonics and sounding out worlds, new math or newer new math, and history as well as civics texts have changed drastically. There is a reason so many college educated students know so little about history and government which may make for great fun on the Lettermen Show but is less funny when these same people vote. The lack of making informed choices was made, if one follows the news, obvious to many ‘informed experts’ by the two choices made as the candidates for President by the two major parties. We believe it could have been worse, but it might have been better. Our closing remark is a quote from Thomas Jefferson. It may be a reference to Jefferson’s comment to his nephew Peter Carr, “State a moral case to a ploughman and a professor. The former will decide it as well, and often better than the latter, because he has not been led astray by artificial rules.” As noted in Jefferson to Peter Carr, Paris, August 10, 1787, in Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 12:15.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

How Democracy Dies in Israel

 

Though we had discussed thoughts of this nature we could only obliquely refer to our suspicions but thanks to Caroline B. Glick for her article which is the meat of our commentary and worth reading as her manner and ability to cut to the bone and serve the meat on any subject is particularly poignant and we would feel as if we had deprived our readers of every morsel and fact within her article The Fruits of Subversion which we read in Jewish World Review which is one of many places where Carolyn Glick can be found. The discussion we will attempt will be to delve into some of the ramifications; both the potential, and the other simply dread and hopefully never come to pass. Needless to point out, adding to a Caroline B. Glick article is not a task for the queasy and in this endeavor failure is not only an option but even a probability. I guess by now we can simply assume that Caroline B. Glick is a reporter and editorialist extraordinaire whom we hold in high esteem. Now let us proceed and try and tackle this not so simple task and hope for the best.

 

There has been a shadow government operating in concert with the administration of a foreign power, that of President Barack Obama and the United States Department of State. This government has taken upon itself the pursuit of an agenda which is completely the opposite of that of the elected government. These individuals have taken upon themselves to assist the aims of President Barack Obama and report to the State department, administration appointees and even the Secretary of State or the Director of Central Intelligence Agency any deviations from the presumptive and United States approved policy potentially taken or in the plans of the government in Israel. Examples from the article included reporting the plans for a strike on the Iranian nuclear sites and we might discern that other such treasonous revelations granted the United States and Obama Administration would include any objections or arguments which Prime Minister Netanyahu might have regarding any peace and concessions and any resistance to of President Obama’s carefully laid out agenda which he and his tools in Israel believed to be superior and a better path for Israel going into the future and against the will of the voters and their elected governance. The problem is that this infection had spread throughout much of the highest ranks including the general staff as well as the intelligence community. Caroline Glick mentioned some names but we suspect, as does she more than likely, that the disease is rotting through many institutions who see their job description to include preserving the democracy their politics support, the people be damned, as what do the people know about the realities of the world and the best of paths for the state of Israel. Another place where this rot had held sway since the beginning of the state of Israel and through the same process of self-appointing replacements and choosing those of identical political philosophies while punishing those who hold contrary opinions even to the point of demotions or forced retirement from serving the country is the Supreme Court and likely the entire legal and judicial system.

 

Perhaps this might be a good time to confess that we did not vote for Likud and much of the reasoning was a dislike and distrust of Prime Minister Netanyahu and wished that there was some way of either limiting the number of total years or terms a Prime Minister is permitted to serve and after that set period of time they would need to set aside their leadership of the nation and allow another to be the representative of their party as Prime Minister even if they continued to lead the party. Such an example might be that Prime Minister Netanyahu after serving, say, a decade holding the office of Prime Minister he would need appoint another from the party, or better yet, have the party choose the new Prime Minister designate to represent that position for example it might be Gilad Erdan, Yuli Edelstein, Yerael Kats or any other Likud member in good standing. Perhaps with such a limitation allowing for fresh leadership even if the same party remains as leading the government year after year after year which might prevent the self-appointed demi-gods from perverting the elective process and the choices of the people and destroying the democracy in order, in their minds, to preserve the democracy.

 

Part of the problem, as we estimate the situation, is that due to sclerotic and often paralytic political power structure which retains a small group of leadership holding all of the positions including Prime Minister and his Cabinet that stresses the top positions in the military, courts, intelligence and other political and security positions which are not elected directly or indirectly by the people into using their privileged positions and access to the decisions, plans and other intelligence including both external, internal and even secretive plans which only the very highest military position and heads of intelligence have privilege to acquire and who are trusted by the people not to overstep their boundaries and serve the people and its government. What is even more disturbing is the seeming support these paragons of perfect knowledge, or at least self-perceived as such, have abused their positions and forfeited the trust of the people and the government they are presumably serving have been celebrated and even granted privileged acceptance and praises from their political allies who are leaning on these people of rank to allow for their political goals and views to be implemented through abuse of force and forfeiting the votes of millions of their nation’s citizenry. The actions of the previous Director of the Mossad, Maj. Gen. Meir Dagan, and commanders such as Deputy Chief of General Staff Maj.-Gen. Yair Gola, compared Israeli society to the Nazis on Holocaust Remembrance Day; the General Staff’s vilification of Sgt. Elor Azaria, for killing a wounded terrorist in Hebron; and the drumming from his position as a commander of an Infantry Company of Lt. Col. Shalom Eisner for striking a European leftist instigator who had earlier broken a number of Eisner’s fingers and caused other equally painful injuries which required medical treatment.

 

Ya’alon and General Staff

 

The general policy being empowered by these paragons of democracy, well, at least in their own minds, and that of the extreme leftists, the defeatists, the leftist media which is to say the majority of the mainstream media, the European Union, United Nations, European government and media, and worst of all the anti-Zionist, anti-Israeli Administration of President Barack Obama is one duly leftist in its approach to all policies and completely placating and forgiving empowering the Arab Palestinians and the terror infrastructure and support systems all in the name of peace at any price even to include the complete compromise of the freedom and identity of Israel as the Jewish State. The obvious question is why these generals are not simply forced from service and replaced with other senior officers who hold more reasonable understandings of the power and responsibility of the military to serve the governance elected by the people. One reason is that it is very likely that the Supreme Court would intervene and return these general staff officers and likely find some choice names of officers who are approaching senior positions and blame them for attempting to overthrow the general staff and they themselves would find themselves drummed from service and potentially incarcerated, thus is the established leftist shadow governance. As far as removing such generals from the IDF, such a move would necessarily require the support of the Defense Minister and MK Ya’alon leans left himself and would likely defend these generals and may be partly the reason that Ya’alon was chosen for the position such as to have a person who could work with the generals the IDF offered and not one to shake things up and rock the boat. The entirety of the system of unelected policy experts who are pursuing their own agenda is an echo chamber which amplifies the problem which will take a brave and ready to fall on their political swords for the nation and its people.

 

The final item we will attempt to cover is why it may be time to find a new Prime Minister to replace Netanyahu, from Likud if necessary. The nation needs a bold leader who is willing to take whatever steps are required to enforce the will of the people. Such a person would be, by necessity, somebody with an almost careless outlook and one who does not prefer the limelight and instead simply desires sacrificing to serve the nation and its people. Unfortunately such a person is unlikely as a parliamentary system is not usually capable of taking dire steps even when many see it as necessary. A Parliamentary system most often places a party functionary who has the right pedigree often the result of years of steady service to the party as a dedicated soldier. This is how Ya’alon became Defense Minister as did the rest of the Prime Minister’s inner cabinet. One of the complaints we have often heard was that there was such a seeming dearth of politicians who would be worthy of being the next Prime Minister. Even when other parties are added to the discussion with their presumed additional candidates there are still very few if any additional candidates who might excite the people, or at least none of us here. We did have one we would have hoped would offer themselves as a challenger for the office of Prime Minister as the lead of their party but they made a couple of defeatist comments, one in particular which displayed a serious deficiency which displayed they were not ready for prime time, let alone Prime Minister. If anyone has any ideas on a viable challenger, please encourage them as Israel cannot long survive these closed systems and their ruinous effect acting against the will of the people. The leaders in the legal systems, military, intelligence and law enforcement systems are presumed and designed to serve the people and the government and to implement the desires and policies of same, not take it upon themselves to be gods and rule taking power upon themselves simply because they see themselves as superior to the elected governance. Such is a closed system free of outside forces for change thus not reflecting the will of the people as they serve and should not be placing themselves above the people and their welfare, which is also against Torah.

 

Thank you all,

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

European Anti-Semitism Could Destroy the IDF

 

One can tell much from the way a society regards, honors and protects the remains of those passed away. Often it is the first heartbreak for Jewish communities and a sign that their welcome has worn thin and the end is coming and coming fast if steps are not taken to turn the malodorous intents of hatred growing more vehement or even violent against their Jewish neighbors. The stench of Jew hatred is currently running rampant across Europe to such an extent that even the United States State Department, not exactly the best friend of Jews worldwide, especially those in Israel, has assigned additional staffers to assist United States Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism Ira Forman in her efforts to combat and bring attention to the growing problem. This recognition has been made most evident with the destruction and defacing of Jewish graves and entire cemeteries. When repair or restoration of these cemeteries is ignored, or worse, refused, then the reality needs be addressed by the world. When these same hatreds which wreak havoc and destruction of memorials to those souls who have passed is transferred to the living with demands for judgement before facts are even investigated by the world’s stage, then it is an entirely different matter. That places actual lives not only of the accused in danger and under threat but extends to the entire public should such cause pause in acting in difficult and potentially deadly situations where a simply hesitation can result in deaths and permanent injury. But Israel as the Jewish State is held to such a different set of standards that a soldier’s future freedom is of less value than the use the leaders can derive from grandstanding on this soldier’s freedom and life just for some public relations seeking approval from the Europeans who engineered the entire set of events to get just that result. The reality that the Europeans just desire turning Jew against Jew and are willing to pour millions upon millions of Euros just to turn the government loose grinding a soldier for a momentary reaction within the gears greased by a European funded NGO and its video manipulation following an organized provocation filmed start to finish in the hope the video can be edited to destroy the reputation of the IDF, its soldiers and the government overseeing them. The destruction of cemeteries is insufficient when they can destroy living Jews, especially Israeli Jews and even more so its protectors, the IDF. Let us first establish the destruction perpetrated in European nations against Jews long dead and buried simply because they were Jews no matter how distantly in the past they committed the sin of being Jewish. Their rest must be marred by violence against which they are not about to rise up and protest and soon there may be no Jews left in Europe to protect and protest such defamations. Below are visuals of two separate but equally insulting desecrations against Jews past after which we will discuss a case of destruction of a Jew in the present using Jews and the Jewish State’s leadership, a sad situation where the government and people are on vastly different tracks. The people think less of European praise and could not care less about European scorn, deserved or not. The world has done all it could and as we have returned home we are done with walking with heads hung low refusing to look those who claimed to be our betters eye to eye, Simply put, Never Again!

 

 

Jewish Section of European Cemetery
Emblazoned with Swastikas Painted
on Every Last Jewish Gravestone

 

 

Destroyed Jewish Cemetery in Poland, Europe

 

 

Elor Azariya is the soldier who has been turned into a media circus and the latest sacrifice by those who care less about this young man or the truth. One item ignored was the entire event was a provocation be the NGO named B’Tselem. B’Tselem is registered as Israeli NGO due to vulnerability in Israeli law which allows for foreign financed organizations to register as domestic in origin. This is something not permitted by any other democratic government or nation anywhere on the planet. When similar laws are introduced in Israel, the uproar would make one believe this was an unimaginable offense to have NGOs who are predominantly foreign financed register as such. The caterwauling from mostly European hypocrites claiming that making foreign funded NGOs register as foreign financed or reveal such financing will destroy democracy in Israel. What they are protesting is losing their fifth front implanted within Israel by European government and the European Union in order to destroy Israel and her credibility through pretending that these are native NGOs and not foreign entities financing the miniscule extreme leftist minority making them giants through largess from Europe. B’Tselem is one such NGO and has been at the center of this entire fiasco which may destroy one soldier’s life who, at worst, may have made a judgement which might at worst be judged as a mistake but not a conspiracy or heinous miscarriage of justice and prejudicial killing of an innocent. Perhaps we should cover the entirety of the story from the very beginning, the beginning ignored by virtually every news service as proving racist attitudes in Israel is just too juicy a morsel to allow for honest reporting free of prejudging the case and sacrificing a young soldier simply to skewer Israel and press her political class against true justice and the will of the people. So, who are the real murderers of Israeli democracy now?

 

The event took place in and around Hevron where terror attacks including shootings, stabbings, firebombing, rock throwing often utilizing slings and even suicide bombings of patrols and checkpoints. This day a checkpoint was assaulted by a pair of Palestinians under the direction of instigators from B’Tselem with it not having been determined if the team from the foreign funded NGO which specialized in provocations claiming that their use of Palestinians to attack, harass, and press soldiers in whatever manner might produce what could be filmed and edited to give an appearance of wrongdoing. Then once the video taken from these confrontations have been carefully edited, they are placed on the internet where they receive reposting, likes and whatever any other push it may require to force it into a viral rating thus initiating an inflated viewing using chains of fellow travelers using numerous accounts. B’Tselem claims to be a human rights organization whose aim is to improve IDF human rights training but as they have never taken a single instance to assist training IDF soldiers but instead use provocations to paint the IDF as fierce and unprincipled murderers. Their acts do nothing to improve human rights, better training or even assisting in improving conditions and relations between the IDF forces and the Palestinians. The biggest successes of B’Tselem and their fellow extreme leftist European NGOs which are still registered as Israeli has been getting two combat unit commanders removed from their commands and one even forced into early retirement. One such command officer reacted to having his hand grabbed and at least one finger bent back to the point of breaking the digit and then was pushed and spat upon numerous times. When he attempted to step between leftist Europeans who were intent on blocking a major roadway and his beleaguered soldiers he was again struck and lost his temper and struck the lead European instigator and soon after another assault by the European group leader again struck the officer who defended himself. Needless to point out the video showed little of the provocation but placed the officer’s reactions in full and glorious coverage. About the only thing left out was a slow motion replay of the officer attacking the European instigator. These events which placed Elor Azariya (pictured below) at the center of this firestorm of political correctness was manufactured to fit compliance with European dictats. Another item which requires consideration is there exists a state of war between the Palestinian Authority and Israel as far as their government and society are concerned. This war is an anything for the cause being part and parcel of this conflict.

 

 

Elor Azariya

 

 

This day brought the B’Tselem team replete with photographers who filmed most of the entire instigation from several different angles so as to miss little if any actions. They were escorting two Arabs armed with knives who at a sign set upon the soldiers with knives in an attempt to murder them. After they relatively seriously wounded one of the soldiers and were continuing their assault on the remaining soldiers as well as, the injured soldier who was possibly unable to defend himself adequately led the remaining soldiers to open fire. They struck both terrorist assailants killing one outright and disabling the other as their action had removed his knife. The terrorist was wearing a heavy coat on a very warm day making such an obvious danger of the terrorist attacker having a bomb belt strapped to his body. To this point the soldier under investigation and being tried for manslaughter (he was originally charged with murder but that was quickly realized not prosecutable) had not arrived on scene. Once Elor Azariya did arrive on scene it was known that the terrorist had yet to be searched and nobody had checked or knew what was, if anything, concealed under the heavy coat which was very loose fitting. The MDA (Magen David Adom) medics were standing off waiting for the terrorist to be searched and the heavy coat to be at least opened and confirmed not to be concealing a bomb belt or other explosives. MDA rules do not allow their medics to treat or even approach any terrorist who has yet to be searched due to concerns and the potential for their personnel’s health and safety. Elor Azariya reached this scene and quickly realized that the terrorist and the other dead terrorist, had both been injured with the one having died of his wounds and the other injured and presumably pacified. What is important is pacified does not mean rendered completely threat free as he had yet to be searched as the other soldiers were busy attending to their injured brother in arms. This was the initial scene from which the series of events would proceed.

 

The remainder we will describe here is the best scenario we are able to piece together with a few commentaries to put everything into prospective. At some point soon after the arrival by Elor Azariya the terrorist moved his hands from over his head and appeared to start to reach inside or under his coat which caused Elor Azariya to fire one shot striking the terrorist in the head killing him instantly. The fact the shot was to the terrorist’s head is important as IDF soldiers spend a great amount of time training to shoot terrorists in places which will render them unable to continue any attack while not necessarily fatally wounding them unless they are a direct threat to life and that is the only effective choice. Obviously when firing to end a confrontation the likelihood that a terrorist will receive fatal injuries is far higher. The IDF soldiers are particularly good at aiming their weapons and striking exactly what and where they aimed which has left many a terrorist alive and able to eventually be released in some exchange of a thousand terrorists for a single soldier or as a bribe to allow Abbas to shake the Israeli Prime Minister’s hand at a photo op often with an American President or his representative. There is one time when the IDF soldiers are trained to take a head shot which is when any injury which allows the terrorist even a few seconds of life before passing from their wounds could result in the death or injury of others including soldiers by the terrorist’s next action. Pressing a detonator on a bomb belt is very high on said list of times a soldier is permitted to take a head shot. The terrorist had not been approached or checked for explosives as every testimony has proven. Perhaps soldiers’ ranking officer had decided to wait for trained bomb disposal experts so as to limit vulnerability of his men. Whatever the reason, the terrorist had not been checked and very well may have possessed explosives and have been reaching for the detonation button which would have killed or wounded most soldiers, medics and potentially civilians watching; this soldier had good, solid reason to take that fateful head shot. He also deserves support, not a circus to amuse and please the Europeans who will never accept Israel or her leaders. This all backs Elor Azariya and the story given by the MDA medics, other soldiers and commander of the units at the checkpoint that the terrorist appeared to be reaching for a detonator under his coat. Even the military investigator backed the story line that all actions appeared to have coincided with the scenario of a terrorist wearing a bomb belt. This has weakened what has been an establishment lynching of an IDF soldier on the altar of European political correctness. All else is hearsay and barracks braggadocio is worthless as actual evidence. The main evidence which will be ignored is the soldier took a head shot as per his training when facing a potential bombing is imminent.

 

Another attack last week occurred in Aleppo, Syria where the hospital was struck along with the living quarters next door used as a dormitory for personnel, particularly those from Doctors Without Borders, killed the sole existing pediatric physician for hundreds of miles as well as other physicians and nurses. There has been no call for those responsible to be brought up on charges. The numerous bombings and mistaken shootings in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Libya and elsewhere in the modern post-World War II world have resulted in extraordinary little prosecutions. Then there was the entirety of World War II and the bombings of cities into rubble and then bombed the rubble until a firestorm was ignited and which claimed millions of lives in European theater alone. The loss of life in Japan was horrific in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and even greater carnage was committed by the firebombing of Tokyo and in all of these there were no trials for these bombings. There have been seldom and far between prosecutions even if mistaken identities resulting in noncombatant deaths. In Israel this past week one security patrol member shot dead a terrorist who acted in a suspicious manner causing the security officer to suspect the existence and imminent detonation of a bomb belt so they shot the terrorist dead and this individual may be receiving a medal for their quick actions which may have saved lives. We could continue and the list would grow longer and reading more tedious so let us just agree that mistakes are made and nobody is brought up on charges of murder or manslaughter as during times of war violence often goes too far. Yes, we realize this is Israel where one side is held to an impossibly high set of expectations while the other side can shove children in front of a speeding train and claim the conductor intentionally ran the child down and an investigation would be launched and politicians would be apologizing from the outset before the investigation could be organized while seeking somebody to try on charges to prove how noble they are.

 

That is exactly what happened in the case involving Elor Azariya and his shooting of the terrorist. Another item we need remember is this individual terrorist had also attempted and may have assisted in the stabbing of an IDF soldier and had to be shot and bleeding before he was prevented from continuing his stabbing spree. His cohort was shot and killed to end his killing spree. This terrorist had already proven he would do anything he could to kill IDF soldiers and that is the starting point in this fiasco. Defense Minister Ya’alon from the get-go had tried this young soldier and was prepared to throw him to the alligators in the swamp. Recent surveys have shown the Israeli public supporting the soldier from the low end two-to-one to the higher end of three-to-one and likely to grow even higher as more information is leaks out to the public. The Prime Minister was equally hurried in joining in condemning the soldier demanding the investigation be hurriedly put together and the politically correct verdict be found and the facts subsequently arranged in support. Everywhere there were politicians from presumably both sides of the aisle attempting to condemn this soldier and sacrifice him on the alter of political correctness for the purpose of placating the Europeans who will refuse to be placated for as long as Jews are permitted their own nation. Perhaps the best would be to quote a presumed random sample of individuals from this editorial here.

From a young soldier: “In our unit we are all completely ashamed of how this soldier is being treated. Of course he should have shot the terrorist dead. If this is the way he is treated why are we in the army at all?”

From a mother: “I do not want my children to go into the army if that is how one soldier is being treated.”

From a grandmother: “It is all the Supreme Court’s fault. They set the tone. They are pro-Arab and do not care what happens to us. It has always been like that.”

From a male voter: The rule of law is important. What will the world think if we don’t appear to be just?

From his wife: When you are dealing with such an enemy you can’t afford to pander to world opinion. Do you really think that they cared that we were moral during the Holocaust or any of the wars against us?

From a bank manager: The media are partly responsible for fanning flames on behalf of the terrorists which enables further murders. Where are our censors in this time of actual war?

 

There very well could be a cleansing of the Knesset and a huge turn around against Bibi Netanyahu to the point that the Likud Party may best be served by his stepping aside and allowing one of the more nationalistic members such as Moshe Feiglin or Danny Danon to step up and lead the party onward . If Bibi refuses to step aside while the people of Israel are this upset and agitated, then he is far more tone deaf when it comes to ruling than many believed and perhaps all he really cared about was remaining the leader of the country. From the limited number of people we have interacted with, support for Elor Azariya is very strong with those who follow events and these are the people in our community who are the leadership. The next elections may be coming far sooner than most believe and another sacrificing of one of our brave young men before the idol of Ba’al. Elections may come immediately as we want nothing to do with idolaters, especially those making sacrifices in the hopes of placating the Europeans who want nothing less than every Israeli shipped to America or dead and nothing in between as that would place some Jews in Europe. They have made their fateful choice which has ended any hopes of Jews being accepted back. Europe is gone and we in Israel would be wise to remember that reality.

 

Beyond the Cusp