Religious Zionism is Alive and Flourishing

 

Religious Zionism was claimed to be on its death bed according to Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz. His article is somewhat disingenuous as he makes it sound like he was born and still resides in Eretz Yisroel with his being younger man living in Efrat and having joined his brothers and sisters to create a human chain stretching from Jerusalem to Gaza. It is not until late in the article he mentions that he has left Eretz Yisroel and now is an Open Orthodox Rabbi living in the United States. His claims about the problems with the Religious Zionists in Eretz Yisroel are actually easily understood by any Olim who resided in the United States and because of their intense Zionism came to Eretz Yisroel to live. He has adapted to his new home and this has caused him to have clouded vision. Please allow us to explain using our experiences after having come here to our little nest in Eretz Yisroel. It is a story about having gone in the opposite direction from Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz.

 

The first confession we need to explain is that despite being Zionist, we had little connection to Judaism despite having been born into a Jewish home. This home went from Orthodox to Reform Judaism before we had reached Bar Mitzvah age. Our connection to Judaism was restarted due to a death in the family. Still, our return was to a Conservative Synagogue as that Synagogue’s Rabbi was a better fit from the Reform Synagogue. The odd thing is the Conservative Synagogue services were very similar to the Reform we knew in our teens. It was coming to Eretz Yisroel where we were actually introduced to Orthodox, a Traditional Sephardi Orthodox Synagogue. This Synagogue has a mix of every form of Judaism in the congregants from Ashkenazim to Sephardim to Jews from India and throughout the Middle East, North Africa, Europe and North America with the main numbers from Romania. Needless to say, we found a flourishing and very colorful mix of Judaism and Jews and we are all friends and as a family. We still have much to learn about Judaism and Torah and the other major writings from the Rabbis over the ages. This experience has strengthened our Zionism and we have joined a political party which supports religious Zionism and every form of Zionism is practiced by the party members, again a mixture of every kind of Jew from every corner of the globe. For one of us it feels so much like home as their mother was an Iraqi Jew raised in Bombay, India and father was a British Jew from London, England with Ukrainian and Prussian ancestry. Yes, we have a rich mixture there as well.

 

May the Temple be Rebuilt Speedily in Our Days

 

Where our making Aliyah was due solely to Zionism, the religious part of our beliefs has truly begun since arriving in Eretz Yisroel. Can we yet claim to be Religious Zionists, well, probably not yet. Are we working in that direction, yes. But Rabbi Yanklowitz makes complaints with which we are very familiar. His complaints are purely leftist American centric complaints. His complaints center around the central tenets of the far left of the Democrat Party. This is to be expected from one who practices Open Orthodoxy which is actually another way of saying Reform Judaism, as their beliefs are very much similar. These Jews follow the socialist wealth redistribution and the minority rights over everybody else’s rights. They believe that borders are not real lines between nations and sacred as they want anybody crossing any border to have full rights in their new nation. This was exemplified by his problem with Israel’s desire to deport the illegal immigrants from Africa who only came to Israel for economic reasons. But as Israel is a wealthy nation, Rabbi Yanklowitz believes that anyone who arrives from a poor nation has an economic right to the better life in the wealthier country no matter the problems and threats to their presumed new nation they may pose. The only thing we would like to tell the good Rabbi is, if you desire the leftist utopia which you envision and likely find the United States currently lacking with President Trump, perhaps you would be best to live in a real socialist utopia like Cuba, Venezuela or North Korea.

 

But you probably are too attached to your wealthy life in the United States where you can criticize Israel of not being that socialist utopia you envision will ultimately save the world. We know the crime Israel has committed is choosing to move from its socialist roots to a capitalist economic model and make it work. Let us set your mind at rest on one subject, the people of Israel give more to the needy than can be measured as most of this assistance is given by one Israeli to another without any need for the government to enact welfare and other forced charity. The charity in Israel is beyond measure because there is no need for the government to take from one Israeli and give to another because the Israelis are perfectly capable of performing this deed on their own. Until you decide to leave your comfortable palaces in the United States, and we realize here in Israel our homes are necessarily smaller and we adapted, and return to Eretz Yisroel, then work to make the United States that perfect land as you have stated that the Diaspora should be the great place for the Jewish People. We disagree and we further promise not to tell the United States how to run their business and you can promise not to attempt to foist your politics upon us. And what we realize from your other writings is that you do not view the Temple as a positive thing while we see the building of the Third Temple as probably the greatest event we have yet to undertake. As our text translates in our morning prayers, “May it be the will before you, Hashem, our G0d and the G0d of our forefathers, that rebuilt shall the Holy Temple be speedily in our days.” We would like to thankyou for your impatience.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Border Threats in the United States and Israel

 

Let us talk about the less threatening border. This is not to lessen the magnitude of the walking threat approaching the southern border of the United States. The caravan of over a thousand “undocumented marchers” who intend to mostly cross into the United States will officially become criminal entrants crossing the southern border within the month if their pace continues as it has since entering Mexico from Guatemala. Commentary over a BuzzFeed article written for Townhall by Timothy Meads was our source for this article and can be read here. Obviously, these soon to be “undocumented immigrants,” alias illegal aliens, as they cross the Mexico-American border whether they attempt to cross at an monitored border requesting asylum, as some have expressed their intentions, or if they attempt to cross clandestinely avoiding detection and making it to one of the many sanctuary cities or if a large group attempts to overwhelm a crossing point by rushing the border, any case will pose some form of challenge for the Trump administration. As the latest spending omnibus bill which again spent far more money than any responsible budget would have permitted, still did not decide to budget for the completion or even building a fair portion of President Trump’s Secure Border Wall, the border wall will not be erected by the time this caravan of people reaches the American border. One wonders if perhaps they will take a page from the Hamas Gaza confrontation manual and all rush the border at a single point in an attempt to overwhelm any Border Guards stationed at that point. How will the United States Border Guards react if they face a thousand people rushing their post on the border? Would they shoot the leading few in hopes to have the rest stop out of fear? Would they act as the Mexican Border Agent described in the article?

Taking a drag from her cigarette, a Mexican immigration agent looked out toward a caravan of migrants that grew larger with each step they took on the two-lane highway.
When the agent, who’d covered her uniform with an orange and white shawl, learned that the Central American migrants heading her way numbered more than 1,000, she took off for the restaurant across the street.
“I’m going to have a relaxing Coke,” she told BuzzFeed News.

We have to grant her that in her case as a Mexican border agent knowing that these migrants are headed for the United States, she figured it was none of her or Mexico’s business. The reality is that the United States neighbors to the south reaching far beyond Mexico to include numerous other nations, they all gladly have members of families to leave and make the long trek to the United States knowing full well that they will send back money to their family which works as another form of unfettered United States foreign aid which is free of any government controls such as financial pressures applied by the State Department. Some nations find the relatives sending back money to families back home often these funds accumulate to be in excess of direct American foreign aid. Still, President Trump had campaigned taking a strong position for ending the free and open border policies of the previous administration. President Trump campaigned on building an impassable wall and placing thousands more Border Agents securing the border. Well, President Trump, your first border challenge approaches.

 

Huge Caravan Of Central Americans Heading for American Border

 

Fortunately, President Trump’s Border Police will not be facing armed enemy approaching the border with intents of infiltration. The immigrant caravan will not be hurling large stones, Molotov cocktails, pipe bombs and other explosives at the Border Police as the Hamas “peaceful” demonstrators have from Gaza. The caravan of immigrants will not be hiding numerous members with AK-47s who will hide and attempt to shoot the United States Border Agents like Hamas terrorists did with the IDF soldiers (Israeli Defense Force) during the recent border clashes. From what we read, the majority of those in the immigrant caravan are planning on peaceably crossing the border, turning themselves over to Border Patrol and the American authorities hoping to take advantage of what they believe is American hospitality and liberal refugee qualifications allowing them to receive some form of amnesty as seekers of political or other asylum. Still, the whole confrontation, and that is what this is by any definition you choose, the whole thing could turn horribly wrong with the simplest of misunderstandings or if some of the immigrants in the convoy decide they prefer a confrontation. A single firearm discharge could cause a hail of bullets in response no matter who fired the first bullet. We can hope, and more than likely the Border Agents are well enough trained, that even a firearm discharge would not become a hail of bullets, but it would make everything very tense until the source of the discharge was found and addressed with appropriate actions. The problem an event such as a firearm discharge creates a situation where what happens in the immediate moments afterward can be very confusing and thus complicated. We can only hope the crossing of those in the immigrant caravan goes without incident.

 

In Israel along the Gaza border, the situation is very different. Here we based our commentary on a number of articles about the events from last Friday, March 30, 2018, and on this Arutz Sheva article. We have already seen from the continuation of the violent Hamas sponsored protests duped as March of Return that Hamas is intent on building the pressure. Where the continuing protests have been comparatively less violent than last Friday, but come this Friday, April 6, 2018, will be ramped up to at least if not a higher pitch with more violence. The reason we know that this is coming is because the Friday sermons are usually attended by more people as many shops close on Friday afternoons. This provides the Imams with a higher than usual emotional level for their sermons and these often are used by Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Palestinian authority, the PLO and many other groups including across much of the Arab world and Iran, to inflame their sermons with calls for violence against their enemies. In Iran, these sermons result in the great numbers of crowds gathering to chant “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” as well as sometimes “Death to the Jews.” In Gaza and the areas under the Palestinian Authority, these sermons result in rioting, attacks and increased terrorism. This added to the already continuing violence on the border is why we expect the rioting along the Gaza border to be more violent and threatening than the initial violence from last Friday. The media will be advised where to stand when reporting from Gaza as to where to stand to get the best shots of the peaceful protests and then their photos and stories will be edited and checked by Hamas moderators before they are filed. Any media not following Hamas protocols will have their permissions to report from Gaza revoked, if they are fortunate, and possibly worse. But what is the final goal of Hamas and Islamic Jihad with these protests and the ramping of violence as time progresses? That is a good question which requires an answer.

 

This is where the information in the Arutz Sheva article was helpful as it validated something we feared. Hamas reacted just as horrifically, if not more so, to President Trump announcing the moving of the American Embassy to Jerusalem and recognizing Jerusalem as the capital city of Israel. We agree with the Arutz Sheva security source that Hamas could easily intend to continue to ramp the violence forcing a new war upon Israel. Hamas and Islamic Jihad have been rearmed to a level well above their levels of armaments they had at the start of the war in 2014 or 2012. Iran has also promised to keep Hamas armed to a level necessary for a full confrontation with Israel should they use any munitions in actions against Israel or other opponents. Apparently, the thinking is Hamas might initiate border violations with armed terrorists using tunnels and by crashing the fence using masses of bodies largely civilians allowing the armed terrorists to be concealed within the mass. The impression is that Hamas will make the great push forcing a potential war on May 14, 2018, to coincide with and overshadow the news of the American Embassy officially being moved to Jerusalem. This is where we come to a slightly different conclusion than the experts and Arutz Sheva.

 

Our date which Hamas and Islamic Jihad will use to initiate another war with Israel, if this is their intent, will be Friday, May 11, 2018. This date being a Friday will coincide with a natural day of increased activity and thus provide the numbers of civilians which they can utilize to facilitate their invading southern Israel. The reason behind our reasoning goes beyond just it being a Friday, there is more to it than just that one fairly large reason. By starting a war the Friday before the announcing of the moving of the American embassy could possibly force President Trump, we guarantee under advisement of the State Department, to postpone the announcement until a more appropriate and peaceful time when there isn’t any war ongoing. We can also guarantee that there will be one gentleman who will fight against the State Department demanding that President Trump complete the transfer of the embassy as scheduled, and that will be his new Security Advisor, John Bolton. Should Hamas and allies make such a mistake, we can only hope that the IDF is permitted to perform a cleansing of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and all the other terror and criminal elements and remove the oppressive rulers from over the people of Gaza. Then, once they have been removed and sent into exile or prison, then the people of Gaza will be free to leave and restart their lives wherever they choose. As reported in the Jerusalem Post, “More than 90 percent of Gaza Strip residents want to leave because of Hamas, Fatah spokesman Osama Qawassmeh said on Wednesday.” We are somewhat less enthusiastic as we believe it would be merely three out of five, or sixty percent at a minimum. Should Hamas press the violence to a level where Israel has no other alternative but to completely decapitate the leadership and remove those who have been oppressing the people under their heel, we can only hope that President Trump sticks to his schedule and that Israel manages to complete their operations and liberate the Arabs from their oppressors within the weekend allowing for full media coverage of the American embassy move. Hopefully, Israeli forces can restrict any success that the terrorist entities attempt along the border to such an extent that any infiltration will be limited and caught ending any threats these border threats may bring. They recently prevented an attack with a Kornet missile planned by Hamas to sink an Israeli Naval vessel. Reports of this arrest and preventions were covered by Haaretz, Jerusalem Post, Times of Israel and, of course, Arutz Sheva. We like reporting good news and hope that the American embassy move goes smoothly and on schedule and that, any attempts Hamas intends will be thwarted and the people of Gaza will soon be freed from their oppressive governance.

 

We intend to end on an up note, so here below is a quote from another Arutz Sheva article, this time by the respected Dr. Mordechai Kedar who has contacts and resources we can only dream about. The title of his article is, “Are there Arabs who like Israel? The answer is a resounding yes.” The article is full of interesting facts and decently good news.

I am going to tell just one story. Every few weeks a group of 3-4 people phone me from somewhere in the Gaza Strip and beg me to tell Israel to re-conquer the region, because their lives are Hell since the day in 2007 when Hamas pushed out the PA to take control of Gaza. In the past they had worked in Israel, earned decent wages and provided for their families. Israel as a state and the Israeli people treated them well, showed them respect and usually paid them fair wages for their work.

 

Beyond the Cusp

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Racism in Opposition to Deporting Illegal Immigrants

 

It does not matter if it is in the United States, Europe or Israel; the people who are claiming it is inhuman to deport illegal immigrants are steeped in racism. I know their main argument is the deportation is racist at its heart. The truth is it is not racist to deport illegal immigrants if the sole delineating reason in choosing those to be deported is to deport those who came into the country illegally back to the country from which they originated providing they will not be automatically imprisoned or worse. If their originating nation may be problematic and there is a third nation willing to give them refuge from their originating area of the world, then this is also permitted. Thusfar, the main nations in the Developed World who are currently in the process to deport illegal immigrants, not refugees as they are claimed to be by those opposing the action often for political reasons, such as if these people were to become citizens with the right to vote they would support their party; the UNHRC has approved these deportations. But there is one argument which is very vicious and in bad taste, that sending them back to the nation, or even continent, will lead to their being oppressed and suffering because these nations are cruel or the governance is unfit and thus makes their return impossible. These arguments have little if any evidence and are made boldly swiping entire areas as being unfit in which to live simply because of their supposed indecency to one another.

 

Taking such a swipe at the developing world is basically racist as it takes entire regions and claims that because of their populations and the governments they choose and their ways of life are so substandard that they are unfit for life. Swiping Africa, South America or the Islamic world as being unfit place to live and defining life there as torturous for their citizens, does not mean that every nation in the developed world must automatically grant economic asylum to anybody who originated from these areas and have managed to enter the nation in question by any means. Such an argument, if carried to the ultimate, would mean that if somebody from Greece or Italy took a trip to Canada, Britain or Germany they should be permitted to live and work there and become citizens because they came from a nation which was economically less well off. Such an argument carried to the logical conclusion, the entire world would be on their way to Germany, the United States, Britain and Israel and even some locations in China and the remainder of the world would become depopulated. Why not take people and move them to places where their lives would be easier? Well, because it would not take long before the migration was complete, the nations which had been economically well off would become third world nations as they would not be capable of employing or handling the invasion of immigrants. There are reasons that nations need and must be permitted to control the immigrants who enter across their borders. The days of uncontrolled immigration ended with the onset of the industrial revolution as this produces a more skilled workforce with specialized skills and required a more structured and intensive education.

 

It does not do the immigrant any favors to place them in a nation which has a considerably better economic environment if they are not skilled or sufficiently educated to take advantage of the presumed opportunities. If the immigrant is only capable of taking is menial jobs which pay minimal level salary their life may end up less rewarding and with less advantages than they would have had in their native country. There exists a similar example with the dark side of affirmative action in higher education. Too often a minority student who is quite capable of excelling at their State University are admitted to an Ivy League University filling their affirmative action quota, and it really is a quota system, will not succeed and end up failing and once they have failed, finding a university which will accept them becomes more difficult and thus even the State University where they would have excelled will now no longer admit them, or at least not for three or more years. This is described in the book “Please Stop Helping Us” which is summarized in this article by Thomas Sowell. The book also covers such actions with other areas including foreign aid being counterproductive especially when the aid is agricultural products being sent to a nation which had an agrarian economy.

 

The describing the originating nations and continents where these immigrants originate as being so inferior and backwards that even existence in these places should be considered torture is unbelievably racist. Many of these nations are making great strides towards modernity and their standard of living is approaching European standards and exceeding the standard of living in a number of European countries. One can only wonder why it is that these supposed pro-immigrant individuals who are really only pro-illegal-immigrant as they would be against illegal immigrants say from France or Italy being permitted to live despite being illegal in Sweden or the United States. They even are against European immigration to the United States and demand that all immigrants be from Third World as European immigrants are unworthy and do not need the advantage of moving to the United States. They only scream when illegal immigrants are to be returned to their nation of origin or neighboring country willing to take them. A perfect example is in Israel where thirty-thousand illegal immigrants are to be returned either to their nation of origin or a third country willing to accept them as immigrants. The nation which is willing to accept them has a higher-level economy than their nation of origin. Israel is not deporting those who are married, women, children, their parents and those from Darfur. Those being deported are being awarded approximately the equivalent of three-thousand dollars to facilitate their relocation. Still, there are people from the left politically who are demanding these illegal immigrants be permitted to remain in Israel. Some have also made the claim that Israel should be open to any such refugees from Africa or Asia in any numbers which would prefer living in Israel. What these people are actually proposing is the death of Israel and the Jewish Homeland.

 

Those desiring making Israel simply a democracy where anybody in any number be permitted to enter the nation to take advantage of the better economy simply want to end the idea of a Jewish State. We would bet that they would not make the same demand if the nation in question were Japan. The requirements to become a citizen of Japan are:

1) Continuous residence in Japan for five years or more
2) At least 20 years old and otherwise legally competent
3) History of good behavior generally, and no past history of seditious behavior
4) Sufficient capital or skills, either personally or within family, to support oneself
5) Stateless or willing to renounce foreign citizenship

Requirement number three precludes citizenship for illegal immigrant. So, should Japan be required to make an exception and permit citizenship for illegal immigrants from economically challenged nations as is being demanded of European countries, Israel and the United States? Imagine thirteen million Chinese peasant farmers, one tenth the population of Japan’s one-hundred-twenty-seven-million, made their way to Japan, should they offer them citizenship? It should be mentioned that Japan discourages those not of Japanese heritage, even if married to a Japanese spouse, to try to become a citizen. Japan desires to remain the homeland of the Japanese people. Israel has merely eight and a half million citizens, seven percent the population of Japan. Japan has a total area of three-hundred-seventy-eight thousand square kilometers and Israel has a mere twenty-one thousand square kilometers which is five and a half percent. Israel has just over four-hundred citizens per square kilometer and Japan has just over three-hundred-thirty-five citizens per square kilometer.

 

Map of Japan with Israel Imposed to Scale

 

So, if you thought that Japan should not be required as, like most people, you believed Japan to be overcrowded already, well, Israel has a slightly higher population density than Japan. What this comes back to is one of our least favorite but consistent threat, those who desire to erase the Jewish State by any means possible. Forcing Israel to accept any and all illegal immigrants who cross their border would be a guaranteed method which is probably why a five judge panel of the usually leftist Israel Supreme Court ruled against the complaint filed demanding that these illegal immigrants be granted refugee status due to economic reasons. This infuriated many leftist NGO’s, mostly those who despite registering as Israeli are funded and have their main operations and financing from outside Israel along with American and European NGOs whose main area is targeting Israel for complaints and court actions have now decided to raise as much noise and negative publicity as they possibly are capable. This racket is manufactured and actually has little actual support with Israelis. Many of the people protesting are in Israel on a protest vacation, and why not as Israel is a nice place to vacation and they are actually here for the Tel Aviv nightlife, so daytime protests can be accommodated providing they are not too early in the day. There are some who are protesting online or from their home location. It is all simply noise which is much ado about nothing as the decisions have been made, the arrangements completed, and everybody is being tight lipped about everything. Why allow for additional aggravation or allow the busybodies more targets. Israel has wisely decided to be the only target while not letting on where these illegal immigrants are destined until it is too late to pressure that nation. But at least Israel, and likely the United States as well, are used to receiving grief for anything and everything the government does with demonstrations and court actions. At least this time the Supreme Court of Israel actually made a good decision for the preservation of the state.

 

Beyond the Cusp