Liars Abound Everywhere We Look

 

Let us start with Hezballah and their claims of destroying an IDF tank and killing or injuring the soldiers inside. Hezballah, seeking revenge for the Israeli strikes at their rocket and drone sites retaliating for a drone wave launched from Syria and Lebanon, launched several anti-tank missiles into the IDF base at the Avivim barracks where they were successful at striking an IDF vehicle. No, it was not a tank nor any other tracked vehicle, the vehicle Hezballah managed to destroy was an IDF military ambulance. Add to this the claims made by Hassan Nasrallah that Hezballah has no fear of Israel and will prove the victor when the next round of violence comes. Of course, he made the statement from his super-secret, secure bunker from which he rarely pops his head out. What has made things somewhat tense has been the recent string of threats coming from Hezballah, Iran and other Iranian assets including IRGC and Iranian army. These threats began a little over a month past when Hezballah spokespersons stated that Israel was preparing to start a major war against Lebanon and they vowed to protect Lebanon. This has been their stock statement made usually in advance of their launching rockets in numbers until Israel launches an attack to end the rocket assaults. Once Israel responds to their attacks, they call their friends in the media complaining of the Israeli aggressions. Once it gets reported in one paper claiming that Israel initiated the conflict as they cross the border into Lebanon, it gets picked up and reported in most news throughout the developed world. This is how Israel is always blamed for being the aggressor when in actuality the IDF actions are in response to days of rockets fired into Israel, but why allow facts to get in the way of a good story. Israel would like nothing more than peace and quiet without rockets and missiles being launched into any parts of Israel.

 

Hassan Nasrallah Threatens Israel in Speech from Within His Bunker

 

Next up is Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu who has been attacking the Yamina party led by Ayelet Shaked. He made special mention of some of the more colorful people on the party list for the Knesset inferring that they would take Israel to religious extremes. He knows full well that no single or group of Ministers are capable of such actions as the Prime Minister would be able to kill any such measure simply by instructing his own party, Likud, to not permit passage. But why allow the truth to interfere with one’s political campaign. He has also claimed that should the Blue-White Party receive more mandates than the Likud, then this would automatically lead to their forming a left-wing government bent on forcing the establishing of a Palestinian State along the Security Barrier with east Jerusalem as their capital. The thing is it is not the party with the most mandates who get to form the government but the party leader who is recommended by the most mandates, be they his party or another party supporting their quest to be Prime Minister who get that honor. Thus, it would be the combination of Likud and Yamina against Blue-White and their allied parties deciding who would be given first attempt at forming a government. Recent polls have shown that neither the right-wing nor the left-wing parties will have sufficient mandates to form a government unless the Arab parties decide to join the left-wing parties to form such a government. We doubt that such a government could survive the first vote of confidence.

 

Bibi Netanyahu, Yair Lapid and Benny Gantz

 

On another front, Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu has promised that should he be chosen to continue as Prime Minister, he will make sure that all the Israeli communities in Area C will have Israeli sovereignty extended to include them. Our question is what has prevented his doing this at any time in the past. As far that goes, what is preventing his doing so immediately as he is the government at this time where the Knesset was dissolved leaving him as the sole political power as far as legislative and administrative. Please excuse our cynicism believing that this is nothing more than fodder for the campaign and the likelihood of it coming to fruition are rather slim. This promise is designed to bring any Likud voters who decided to support Yamina to express their desire for the annexation of the communities back into the Likud fold. Bibi actually desires to be able to form a governing coalition with only Likud and thus he will try anything, even attempting to blow up the coalition of right-wing parties he insisted was necessary to get to his ideal Likud controlled government.

 

The last liar for this article is Mahmoud Abbas. He recently was visiting Germany in his pre-opening ceremonies for the General Assembly world tour where he seeks to hold a joint press conference with each leader he meets. German Chancellor Angela Merkel provided just such an opportunity recently. Abbas took his turn at the microphones to trash President Trump directly for having, “removed from the negotiating table the issue of Jerusalem, refugees, borders, settlements and security, and took steps that violate international legitimacy.” Left out of his diatribe was the simple fact that he was granted more than sufficient time to negotiate honestly before any of these actions had been taken, but instead Abbas refused to even consider any proposal from President Trump. Abbas further blamed President Trump and the American Administration for the lack of being able to reach any peaceful settlement. If only the world could see through Abbas, but that would require their having any desire to do so. Abbas has refused any and every peace proposal presented to him just as Yasser Arafat had done before him. They have a valid reason, in their minds and that of the anti-Semitic Israel haters, for refusing every offer thus far as they all had one major flaw, they left Israel as the Jewish State rather than award Abbas rule over all the lands west of the Jordan River, or as he states this, he just wants his 22% of the British Mandate lands. When one remembers that Jordan received 78% of the British Mandate lands, it becomes clear quite quickly what Abbas is demanding, the remainder of the British Mandate which is not Jordan, or simply put, all of Israel. So, who is making demands which they know will not be met and then blame everyone else for the lack of peace which they refuse to accept any offer while the Jews are permitted their homeland.

 

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Palestinian Authority Leader Mahmoud Abbas

 

Abbas is holding out understanding that the multi-trillion-dollar propaganda war which delegitimizes Israel, through the managing and supporting the Arab boycott of Israel which was internationalized as the BDS Movement, will eventually take hold as the end response of the ever-growing anti-Semitic hatred which appears to have infected much of the world and is growing eventually to reach a point where Israel will have nowhere to turn to find allies. Then Abbas will turn to the United Nations Security Council seeking their dissolving Israel and declaring it all to be the new Abbas ruled state. The Jews will attempt to flee but once again there will be no nation which will assist them and allow them to seek refuge within their borders. Jews of Israel mostly understand this reality with some having an exception believing the United States will always be an Israeli ally. This may not be true as we are going to see if what we have viewed already has not been sufficient. Abbas desires for an international conference to decide the fate of the Arab Palestinians and Israel knowing full well that such a conference will give him everything he desires and the vote will not even be close. A simply look at the usual anti-Israel votes taken in the General Assembly where Israel on a good day might receive a dozen votes while those opposing Israel usually receive over ten times that number.

 

We will leave things as they are and not list the media liars, political liars and the exaggerators as well as the nitpickers all for some other time or perhaps we will simply allow them to reveal themselves when they go one lie too far.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

The Threat Israel Cannot Defeat Alone

 

If Israel has a mortal weakness, it is that she cares too much for the protection of innocents even if those innocents are trying to destroy her. That is the most serious threat she currently refuses to face and which will do everything to destroy Israel if only to prove they are correct. The current cases are the numerous NGO’s and the Left wing American Jews who support these insidious organizations working to destroy Israel. The leftists within Israel are also contributing to this situation and the potential of ending the Jewish homelands. Part of the attack comes at the religious in Israel who are also the main answer to allowing Israel to defeat the demographic threats. One of the demands made by many on the left is that Israel must forsake Traditional Orthodox Judaism and instead become a purely secular democracy which favors no religion and allows that all peoples of all religions, and particularly no religion, to live within in harmony. The proof Israel can provide for accepting these demands are to first accept the Two State Solution giving over to the Palestinians all the lands beyond the Green Line and secondly permit those Palestinians in refugee camps permission to return to their homes even if those homes are theoretically within the Green Line and would lead to the Jews being outnumbered by Arab Muslims. When Israelis claim that would be the end of Israel, they are told that this is an unfair accusation as how can Israelis claim that this Arab population cannot also operate within a multicultural democracy if they have not given them any opportunity to do so? They do not accept Gaza as having been a fair example and demand Israel again make the sacrifices and accept their promises that the Arabs will work with the Jews in harmony. When asked what happens if this proves to not be the case, their response is that the Jews can come to the United States or they simply reprimand such as naysayers who have no faith in the powers of Democracy. This is especially true of those on the farthest leftist Jews, even more so those residing in the United States.

 

There are many things which separate the American leftist Jews and their brethren in Israel and much of that have led to numerous misunderstandings. The leftist Jews believe that because Israeli mainstream Judaism is a collection of different Traditional Orthodox forms of Judaism including many Haredi and Hasidic branches, Chabad, numerous Traditional Orthodox congregations and, this may shake any number of American Jews so we advise you be seated, numerous Conservative, Reform and other nonconventional congregations of Jews as well as a fair number of purely secular people of Jewish extraction. The main Rabbinate is selected from the majority and several forms of Orthodox Judaism. There is a reason behind having the Orthodoxy as the prevalent form of Judaism in Israel, and that is because it follows the traditional laws and all the Commandments of Torah, the exact ideas and ideals that even the socialist Zionist founders foresaw as the true future for the State of Israel mixed with Socialism. Israel, politically, still has too much socialism practiced by the government but that is slowly evolving to a more functioning entrepreneurial nation based on the start-up concept allowing for investments to spur the movement of capital and thus leading to a stronger economy and providing higher wages in the future. But the religious base will remain Traditional Orthodox while permitting every other form but retaining the controlling religious administration with the Traditional Orthodox. This is why all marriages and conversions are required to meet the strict Rabbinate restrictions. These religious restrictions are actually sensible in many ways which become more readily obvious once you come and actually live in Israel.

 

First off, a confession, at least one of us is a long time Zionist but spent much of their life completely divorced of any practicing of Judaism. Even when returning to Judaism after a tragedy in the family, still attempted first to join a Reform Synagogue but there were personality differences with the Rabbi so we tried the other Synagogue which was Conservative and that Rabbi was wonderful. What was curious was that the Conservative was very similar services wise to the Reform services remembered from childhood. If questions had been thrown at us back in the United States, we would have been just as confounded by the insistence on only the Orthodoxy having the main levers of power within Israel and been somewhat upset about many of these demands. So, the question is what do we now feel?

 

 

Since moving to our little corner in Israel we have found how much easier it is to be completely Jewish in Israel. Keeping Kosher is as easy as shopping at the food store and only a couple in town needs to be avoided. Many of the restaurants are certified Kosher. Services are easier to attend as there is almost a guarantee that you will discover one within four or five blocks, if not several. With this all taken care of, being Orthodox, Traditional Orthodox, becomes fairly simple requiring even less effort than being any kind of semi-observant Jews in the United States. Given another few generations and while Traditional and other forms of Orthodox Judaism will be prevalent in Israel, other than Orthodox Judaism, mostly Hasidic and Haredi, one will be hard pressed to find other congregations in the vast majority of the United States and all but gone from Europe. This will be due to the rampant intermarriage which will quicken the exodus of Jews from their religious upbringing, assuming they ever received a Jewish upbringing. One quick way of determining the accuracy of our dire prediction would be to simply ask the few Jews you may know who are not Orthodox whether they attended and partook of a Passover Seder and whether it was held in English or Hebrew. Do not be surprised if the answer shows a lack of Jewish participation. Then ask them what does Seder mean and pray they do not say dinner or story or other wrong answer. When they surrender, the actual translation of the Hebrew word Seder is Order, as in structured or delineated. The main defining part of the service is the reliving of the leading events to the Exodus of the Jews from Egypt and the initial part of the years in the wilderness.

 

Becoming a practicing Jew and following as much of the laws as possible, as we are still learning some of the rules as we go along, and some are likely obscure and will become obvious with time. One thing about Judaism is that everyone and everything is a work in progress, and some are going to take more time than others.

 

Finally, it is with sadness that we realize that once again so many of our brothers and sisters will become lost to us just as during the Exodus when it was claimed that a mere one-fourth, if that many, of the Jews from Egypt made the trip while the majority decided that they preferred remaining in relative safety and a life, though harsh, still did not require what the new life promised, challenges and the hard work of building a new land. Slavery was a hard life but the Egyptians provided for their food, shelter and other necessary needs. That is what life in the United States will promise, a land of plenty that is easy and there are very few threats in life while Israel is more of a challenge. Getting a job is more of a difficulty in Israel and as an American one need learn Hebrew, not the easiest language to learn. For the youth, there is IDF service which most American Jews would find as a threatening requirement. One of us did serve in the United States military in combat arms but very few of the Jewish kids we grew up with ever gave such the smallest consideration. Serve in the military, that was outside consideration and why so many Jews went to college. Yes, when drafted, they served and what is actually surprising is that Jews have almost always outperformed other peoples in their service in the military in the major wars in history. But the latest generation, such is not considered something a good Jewish boy or girl would want to do. So, having to move to Israel and face military service frightens many. Thankfully, and these youths are treasured and respected in Israel, there are Jewish kids from America who come to Israel with the intent of serving in the IDF and most desire to be placed into Combat Arms. These Zionist youths are a treasure.

 

Back to how to allow Israel to defeat their foes is easy. Step one; stop demanding that Israel surrender, conflicts are not won by the surrendering side. Israel must be permitted to be victorious and defeat every challenge and danger facing her and her people. Stop pretending that Israel need be more like the United States as Israel does not have Canada and Mexico as neighbors. Illegal immigrants in Israel are more likely to be terrorists aiming to murder Israelis than people seeking to make a better life and almost none are actual refugees. Step two; when Israel is forced to defend herself, kindly support her just as she supports the United States efforts in such conflicts. Finally, try to remember and understand that in Israel Judaism is not so much a religion as a way of life and Israel is the Jewish homelands where the religion, the people and society try to operate as one. Israel is also the only place where the Jewish people will be protected and cared for without question should any disaster or threat raise its ugly head threatening our fellow Jews. Israel is the Jewish safety fuse which will trip and give the Jewish People a home forever into the future. That should be sufficient reason for any Jew to do anything required to protect their safety valve. Lastly, whether they realize it or not, Israel is the homeland of the Jews and has been the Promised Land from over three-thousand years back and that only gets us back to King David, Abraham and Sarah were close to another thousand years further back. That is something which will never change.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Marine Le Pen and the Jews; Ours Will Be Different

 

We bet you have seen tons of articles with titles something like this. As the title says, ours will be different. First and Foremost, Jews are a smashing three-quarters of one percent at best and likely closer to, at best, one-half of one percent. One item which should be obvious is that the Jews are highly unlikely to decide the election unless it is death defying close. As Marine Le Pen has already made the majority of the Muslims likely to oppose her, and as they represent ten times the vote compared to the Jews, she has defined her candidacy for the mainstream French, the traditionalists and nationalists are her target constituency. The media has an interesting manner of delineating the two remaining candidates in the French elections. The easy and less biased manner might be to refer to Emmanuel Macron as the left leaning candidate and Marine Le Pen as the right leaning candidate. But, calling Macron as the Center-Left and Le Pen as Far Right is about as slanted and crying out to demand that Macron is acceptable and just like Mr. and Mrs. Normal and Le Pen is an extremist. But then the media across the entire world is so slanted to the left that they are driving on the shoulder of an eight-lane highway and teetering on the ditch beyond. We are not about to place Marine Le Pen as a centrist but then Macron is only a center anything when compared to the leftists the media originally favored and were so forlorn when they lost. We can only imagine the weeping and sobbing that went on at International New York Times, Le Monde, Libération and especially at L’Humanité and at least some glee at one paper, Le Figaro. You will notice there is a slight bulk of papers leaning to far left or even Communist and there is one sole paper which is a daily that leans, at that is merely, leans right. But that aside, we are not here to discuss the problems with media slant worldwide or even the distance each candidate is from dead center of the political spectrum, we are here to discuss Marine Le Pen and the Jews in the setting of the coming French elections.

 

Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron

 

One nice thing is that Marine Le Pen actually made it to the finals in the elections as for far too many years the choice for the French in their elections was between a “Center-Left” or pure Left candidate against a “Far-Left” or actual Communist candidate. There were not even single centrists in French elections, so this is a nice change. For the Jews, they were more than satisfied when the choices were what degree of left one desired in their President. Things have changed in France in the more recent past for the French Jews. Have they noticed these changes? Well, there will be an easy scale by which to measure. Those who have noticed will be voting for Marine Le Pen, those who already knew, a small, very small, segment of the Jews, will also vote for Le Pen. The remainder will vote as the Jews normally vote, for the furthest left candidate possible, which in this case is Emmanuel Macron. There are likely numerous Jews who are in some state of mourning over the loss by Socialist Party nominee Benoit Hamon leaving them with no true candidate to actually support, but they will still gladly rush out to vote against Le Pen. This is voting against their best interests, but Jews have been voting against their best interests for years across Europe as well as the United States. They will likely vote in numbers against their best interests in the upcoming French finals. The French Jews who truly understand what is coming in France and then across Europe have already voted with their feet. They have departed France and other places in Europe for the United States, and the smarter one for Israel.

 

Marine Le Pen would be the safest bet for the future of France and thus, if Jews are planning to remain in France, then Le Pen would be the best candidate. Across Europe the only candidates who show any plans for saving Europe from itself and the immigration waves from washing over the continent finally bringing on the Islamist dream of finally conquering Christianity and destroying Christian Europe are the nationalist right. Continuing to elect left wing candidates and hoping that things will change and all of a sudden a new left path to assimilating the coming millions of Muslims which they will continue to allow to stream into Europe from North Africa, Middle East and Turkey despite their past inability to show even a modicum of a plan, that would be plain insanity. Unfortunately, the one thing I can tell you with certainty from my years at services in the United States surrounded by leftist Jews, following the same people who promise the sun and the moon delivering only heartache election after election is something leftist are capable of believing is the best path to change and actually do repeat their mistake election after election. The Jews are probably right now discussing what horrors would befall them should Marine Le Pen win and they could not be further from the truth. Marine is the only hope the Jews, the remaining Christians and even the Secular Humanists have for bringing the inflow of Muslims to an end as she is the only candidate defining France as being French in its history and future instead of defining France as the leader of the new Europe and the fountain for change and the new Europe. There is no new Europe and there can only be an old Europe, or any Europe, if the flow of Asians, of Muslims from the entirety of the Muslim world is brought to a close, over, kaput, finis. Even if Marine were to win, a long shot kind of like Trump, only higher odds against her, that alone would not save Europe as only Europeans can make Europe great again.

 

The electing of Marine would be the first step and would show that the people of France, at least a good number of them, are ready to make a change of direction. Such a result would be the first step to taking on the real problems in France and all of Europe and even those same problems which are plaguing the United States. There is the need for an existential change to be undertaken by the people, the citizens of Europe. In this endeavor, the Jews of France and all Europe could take the lead and assist in showing the way forward. Of course, the Jews of France, of Europe, will need to first place themselves on the correct track. This would be easier for them than for the Secular Humanists, but they would first require the correct leadership which they might find closer than they think. The leadership they require is at their synagogue day and night, when there is a crowd on the High Holidays and when the Synagogue is locked up tight at night and nobody is there. Their best leadership is Torah as it teaches all they would need to know to assist helping Europe to heal itself and begin to return to a more healthy Europe. But without a Le Pen victory in the election, there might not be any Europe left to save, at least not any Europe which we might recognize from any Europe from her past. The reality is that Europe actually requires regaining a piece from her past in order to save her future. The past which the Europeans need to regain is having a future to live for. By a future, we do not mean tomorrow or next week or even next month or year, we mean next generation and generation after and make a point that every generation knows that it is the next generation and the generations beyond who are important, not the pleasures of today. There is no pleasure which can be had at the pleasure palaces of Europe which can equal a first step, a first word, their first school pageant, the first time they hold their infant sibling and the multitude of wondrous firsts and how each child shows the parent new things every day at every first. Each child brings new and varied surprises and grants their parents joys mixed with challenges which together make life more real and full of love beyond anything found in the cafes and clubs of Paris. Even more, children are what any European future requires and it currently is not being provided with sufficient children to last another two generations. Europe is dying from having a hedonistic population which is too busy chasing their own pleasure and being too unconcerned with the reality of where their running from one pleasure palace to the next is leading because their eyes are blurred with the moment clouding their vision from seeing the future they are denying themselves and the future of their country which they are wasting.

 

Marine Le Pen cannot save France from the lack of children; she can only give France the opportunity to try to save itself. France must first waken to the problem which they have developed through their living in the present and solely in the present without ever giving their future any consideration. By ignoring their future and even sacrificing their future so they could reside in the pleasures of the now, they have poisoned their society and mortally wounded a continent. Politicians such as Marine Le Pen understand the initial bleeding which must be checked before any more damage is done and then the root of the problem can be addressed. This is not solely a French problem but the solution can start as a French solution. The French were the first to prevent a Muslim takeover of the European Continent when Charles the Hammer Martel defeated the Moorish forces coming out of Spain at the Battle of Tours. France can once again take the lead and save Europe by leading the wave of European recovery. First Europe must recover her center and remember that religion is not about stifling life but about centering life and building futures through family. Futures depend on families and without healthy families with children there will be no future for Europe as her proud history has painted her. It is not too late to save Europe, but it will take an awakening within the Europeans themselves and nothing less will allow Europe to be renewed. Marine Le Pen can be the first step in that renewal but it will take more than an election, it will take an awakening.

 

Beyond the Cusp