Freedom of Speech and Religion

 

Bezalel Smotrich started a firestorm after he spoke with a receptive audience, “We all want the State of Israel to follow the law of the Torah,” Let’s be honest, if this had been the entirety of his statement, it still should not have elicited any rebuke nor should it have started what can only be decried as sheer panic while instigating what we can only describe as a vile and venomous hatred. His audience was largely, if not totally, in favor and accepting of what Bezalel Smotrich had stated before he added a little caveat, which, we are willing to bet, was seldom reported with anything near the hyperventilating hysteria as the introductory statement. The remainder of the critical section reads, “we just can’t because there are people who think differently and we need to get along with them.” Now that sounds like adding the honest assessment where the opposition to such a move is currently too strong and opposed to such a state. All Smotrich had consciously stated was his desire and the reason that such a desire need be checked before one enters the halls of power, the Knesset, simply because Israel, as she is currently populated with almost half the Jews not being particularly religious or not at all religious and along with the mainstream media make a loud cry of lament and agony merely at the mention of the Torah becoming the law of the land, are not to this point in their slowly evolving evolution moving inexorably towards a more religious nation. But Bezalel Smotrich did not claim that he was planning on introducing something which not only called for Torah observance but recognized that there exists far too much resistance to such an idea for such legislation to pass becoming law. But Smotrich could have stated something so benign such as, ‘the Torah has lessons from which we could all take benefit.’ There would have been those who would have yelled and screamed to an even higher level with the media making sure to use all their stored and ready hyperbole to drive the hysteria.

 

The insinuation that should Israel decide as an overwhelming majority that the time has arrived to prepare and work to establish the Messianic Age and hopefully make Israel prepared and deserving of the Messiach, that Israel would become a theocracy similar in its visions as Iran and is actually more preposterous than if one would claim that Israel, due to her relatively sizable population who favor socialism are taking Israel towards becoming an Atheist Communist nation similar to the USSR. What is amazing about most of the media in Israel is that were somebody to announce their desire to make Israel a socialist nation where the rich are burdened with exorbitant taxation in order to eliminate poverty, they would treat this news as an inspirational vision for the Israeli future and a step towards their desired goal. The media had a similar outbreak of hyperventilation when retired General Rafi Peretz made a favorable statement favoring religious Zionism when speaking to a Yeshiva. The leftist media is so vehemently against any and everything which has even the slightest taint of religiosity as if it is bringing on the End of Days. Their view of religion is that it no longer has any place in this modern world. What is beyond irony is that their Secular Humanist-Socialist world view is so solidly entrenched in their minds that religion is treated as an ancient set of rituals which have absolutely no place in their views of the modern world. What makes their anti-religious attitude is that even many physicists are approaching the view of whether or not there was (is) a creator is leading them to believe that there had to be an intelligence behind the evolution of the universe. Some physicists have found one means of proving that a creator is unnecessary by claiming that the reality is a Multiverse where every possible combination of properties possible all exist in at least one of the infinite universes which exist. This allows them to claim that we exist in this universe simply because the right formulae exist describing the forces and dimensions necessary to support our kind of life-form. They would need to accept that there exist infinite universes where life itself, as we know it, even including Tardigrades, is completely impossible. That implies a great waste of dimensions as in their models the vast majority of universes collapse in upon themselves or simply fly apart expanding faster than matter can be permitted to form still becoming a wisp of nothingness. Their model claims that our universe is special in that it has permitted not only life, but intelligent life, assuming that Homo Sapien is actually intelligent. All this theory is, is a means of eliminating the need for a creator and some intelligence behind the formation of our place in our universe. By the way, the media love these physicists as they give erudite backing to their idea that there is no Supreme Being or intelligence behind the formation of our universe. They, and the physicists who back them, will take any theory which removes Hashem from the equation. One could always postulate that Hashem created all of the universes of the Multiverse simply as a means to forming one which was special, our universe.

 

Is the Multiverse Real

 

This brings us to the crux of the situation in which we reside. Academia and the mainstream media along with most of the entertainment media and much of the society have decided that religion is something which was possibly necessary thousands of years ago, but in this modern and so sophisticated society, the most primary intelligence and the control of what is to come in our future comes from the efforts of man himself. They believe that humans are the supreme intelligence and are the means of all which is to come. They are adamantly entrenched in Secular Humanism and insist that socialist governance is the greatest means by which everybody receives that which they might need. When anybody suggests that capitalism or religion have a place in our future, the media and academia unite in denouncing the person who made the offending comments. The media will castigate anyone who deviates one iota from their ideas of a perfect world where mankind is the driving force and there is no higher entity and religion is simply a set of rituals from an era from which humanity has progressed beyond. These beliefs actually have a place out of history. The Hellenistic Greeks also believed that mankind was at the absolute pinnacle of evolution and there could be nothing more advanced or perfect than the human being. They worshiped the human form and believed that upon birth a person was deemed to be the coming of perfection. In ancient Greek society, were a child born with any defect physically, such a child was permitted the graces of death as they were not the perfect human form, the ultimate form in all of creation. This idea that humans are the ultimate form of creation and there is nothing beyond the human being is far from a new idea as the Greeks expounded such a belief and the Romans were close behind. Yes, sure they had their gods, as we are merely human and despite the almost unlimited abilities any human might have where they were considered almost equal to the gods, they still knew that a human was not omnipotent. The Jews at that time also believed that the human being was at the pinnacle of creation. The difference is that in Judaism there is a creator, Hashem, and we are but his chosen creation and everything around us is credited to Hashem. The Greeks and Romans had their gods for everything from fire to lightning to the sustenance they consumed but their gods were more human than noble. Judaism is different in that people, unless chosen as were the prophets, are nowhere near the level of Hashem, the creator of all that is. The Greeks, in particular, believed that many of the best amongst them were on such a level as to argue with their gods where in Judaism, with the possible exception of Moses during the Exodus, nobody was of sufficient power or ability to argue with Hashem. In Judaism, we look to Hashem to provide when we are unable and pray that we are worthy of his favor. Hashem reacted to the Jewish people in a manner directly connected to the ability and actual enactment of following Hashem’s commandments as expounded in Torah.

 

The Torah has been the foundation stone for the Jewish People for over three thousand years. But that is far from the end of the story of the Torah and that which it teaches. All of Judeo-Christianity is based entirely upon the commandments written in the Torah and upon many of the teachings of the prophets. Modern Western society had been based on the Judeo-Christian ethos for much of the last few thousand years. It remains the cornerstone of all that is the developed modern world. The problem which much of the developed world is currently facing is the lack of planning for the future. Those who have developed the concepts and defining ethos of the latest human belief system, Secular Humanism, is that the one, themselves, are the center and most important set of desires which need to be fulfilled. This egocentric set of values has had some serious consequences. The concept of the individual being the most important individual and that they should serve their own needs, desires and wants before they worry about other items. This view has the consequence in that there are no concerns, regards or obligations for the forming of the next generation. As a matter of fact, they see children as something unwanted and an undesirable imposition which would deny them of using all of their efforts and resources for their own pleasures and betterment. This has led to the situation where the people residing in these developed societies and whom are very often well-off not having any children. This is evidenced by the evidence of the swelling numbers of women having abortions. Between 1970 and 2015, the Center for Disease Control reports nearly 45.7 million legal induced abortions decreasing the numbers of births per woman to fall well below the required amount for replacement levels. This has led to the depopulating of Europe to such an extent that they are willing to import any and every potential immigrant as they require far more workers than they have produced through reproduction in order to support the otherwise aging population. This will be the epithet for Secular Humanity as a healthy option for a society proceeding into the future.

 

Offspring and a dedication to the following generations being a central pillar of Judeo-Christian society made for a far healthier society where the future was guaranteed. Some people have equated abortion with the idolatrous sacrifice of their children, often newborns, to Baal. That may be slightly overt but the reference is well understood. Certainly, late term abortions could easily be equated as such. One of the misconceptions when it comes to Judaism is that all abortions are forbidden. This is not true as Judaism does permit abortive procedures when the life of the mother is endangered. This makes sense when one remembers that half of the children birthed did not survive to age five, thus an adult woman was far more viable than any unborn fetus and thus the life of main concern. This is definitive threat to the life of the mother, not her mental health believing that a child would be an imposition to their life of seeking pleasure for themselves as is often the health condition used in the developed world. That is the main difference between modern atheist Secular Humanism and the traditional religions of Judeo-Christian religions where in Judeo-Christian beliefs are the desires, needs and requirements that children and future generations have the utmost importance while in Secular Humanism children are seen as an imposition interfering with the social lives of those who would otherwise be responsible for the establishing of the next generations. Secular Humanism is based on the now while Judeo-Christian belief is more focused on the future generations as well as a high standard of expectation on the individual to work to assist in the establishing of future generations.

 

In this little fact is the solution which is inevitable. Leftist Secular Humanism, and likely all forms of Secular Humanism regardless of their underpinnings, has one serious problem, they are dependent upon individuals who are disgruntled with religious life to repopulate their ranks as their reproductive rates across the Secular Humanist societies of less than one and a half children per woman, well below the necessary two to two and a quarter children per woman. On the other hand, the religious populations have reproductive rates well above necessary rates and thus they have growing populations. In time, the Secular Humanist population will dwindle while the religious population continues to increase. This sets the framing for the future in that religious populations and societies are at an advantage over those choosing the latest fads, namely Secular Humanism. In the interim, there will be a secular media and academia, but with time these too will be corrected and slowly become more religious and open to the religious dogma. For Europe this means that they will slowly fall under the influence of Islamic doctrine as the religious Muslims will reproduce while the indigenous European population which has largely adopted the Secular Humanist attitude and are not reproducing will be overrun by Islam as the Muslims reproduce at a far higher rate. The United States will fall to the Hispanic populations coming across the southern borders who are religious and have healthy reproductive rates while the former population which had fallen prey to Secular Humanism and lost their religious underpinnings and left the idea that having children is a healthy and necessary requirement of any society behind when they decided to follow the new age Secular Humanist philosophy and stopped having children. The religious, be they Christian, Jewish, Muslim or virtually any similar religion will become the fore of future societies while the new ideas which place the individual as the foremost individual whom one is to serve slowly become extinct. As Torah taught, the main responsibility for one to live a complete and proper life takes more than their obedience to Torah but also their responsibility to the society and its health is reproduction and the care of those youths born as they are your future and the continuation of the principles of the faith. Once again, this is a problem which will be self-repairing with religious thought continuing into the future as it has since years gone by while Secular Humanist self-centered viewpoint will lead to the end of their numbers over time. In the end, Bezalel Smotrich will be able to witness that Torah observant Israel providing he lives long enough for the future to unfold before him, as will the rest of us who are part of the religious Zionist movements.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

If Only We Would All Work Against Hate

 

Hate, generally, is not a normal state of mind for a person. In order to reach the stage where one hates, a great deal of energy needs to be extended over time to reach such a hostile state. We are talking the kind of hate that has driven some of the worst mass killing sprees of history. We are talking about the hatreds which had no rational beyond they are different and by their existence the world has a conscience and thus cannot partake of all pleasures without concerns and limitations. Oddly enough, it was Adolph Hitler who defined why this hatred began and where it would lead by defining the basic affect the existence of any Jew meant for the rest of the world, the existence of a single Jew meant the world had a conscience and knew there was a difference between goodness and evil. This is why the Jews have been treated so differently than any other race, religion, people or group. The Jews meant that mankind was not free to pillage, rape and bash their way through life. Of course, Hitler had little if any use for conscience and was going to eradicate the world’s conscience, the Jews. That was why six-million innocent Jews and another approximately six-million of the wretched, the broken, the insane, the Gypsies (Roma), Polish, Russian and all others defined as inferior were eradicated. Hitler was going to purify the human race. This begs the question; how many will remain once you are finished? Where do you stop? Martin Niemöller, a prominent Lutheran pastor in Germany framed the situation well when he stated, “First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.” That is the problem, eventually such a cleansing starts to run out of victims and by that point it is far too late.

 

 

Well, the world is racing into that cauldron of hate which starts with anti-Semitism, the one hate which it appears everyone can rally to with willing acceptance that this is a holy cleansing. The Christians only need reach back a few hundred years to when they believed that they had replaced the Jews before Hashem. The Jews had gone astray and were no longer righteous, actually they were anti-righteousness and so unholy that they had to be kept apart. They could be permitted to perform those professions which were forbidden or below their Christian betters. Now it is Islam who believe that they are the final words from Hashem except he is now Allah and he appears to have ordered the Muslims to cleanse the world of all unbelievers beginning with the Jews and then the idolaters followed by the Christians and finally any Muslims who are not enthusiastic enough in their devotion to Allah and Muhammad. Their Quran and Imams demand that they Muslims are destined to purify the world removing all those who are not meeting the Quranic standards as interpreted by the many disparate Imams who often do not agree on exactly what meets the Quranic standards. They all agree that anyone who is not a Muslim is defined as an unacceptable being who is imperfect and can only become perfect through conversion to Islam. The Jews are familiar with this position as it was the position of the Church and later most of the Protestant founders also insisted that the Jews were unacceptable and required conversion or death. With time and maturity, the Christians mostly began to accept the Jews. According to surveys, the majority of Americans have positive feelings for the Jews and for Israel. With the massive influx of ‘refugees’ from MENA (Middle East and North Africa) nations, this has begun to alter the perception of some native Europeans concerning Israel and lagging behind is coming the adversity towards Jews in general.

 

The Christians had what is referred to as a Reformation where the Churches became more open and no longer held to the belief that they had to save the Jews from their Judaism and instead they were to become accepting. This was also supposed to cover the numerous other beliefs which were similar to Christianity but were sufficiently separate that they initially suffered scorn, derision and even persecution. Some of these groups extend to the Mormons, Mennonites, Quakers and other offshoots and denominations. The problem became people leaving the faith and becoming the latest religion the developed world had invented for their new future, Secular Humanism. Secular Humanism either rejects the existence of a Supreme Being or accepts such an entity but does not have any faith in organized religion, mind you the Secular Humanist belief system does have certain precepts which one must accept. One is that people can fashion a society which will be good without the need for anything which is recognized as a religion. They are unaware, largely, that they have defined a religion complete with rules and a belief system. G.K. Chesterton commented on such stating, “When men choose not to believe in God, they do not thereafter believe in nothing, they then become capable of believing in anything.” We do not believe that this applies to everyone, but it is likely more truth than many would wish to believe. The proof is the numbers of Secular Humanists who will admit they agree to numerous, what to Jews are, Blood Libels. The numbers of those who follow Islam who agree with the Blood Libels is a far greater percentage when they are sampled. This is particularly true amongst these immigrants even to include those in the United States. In all honesty, two such were elected to the United States Congress, Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar. These two have taken to a tag team of attacking Jews and Israel.

 

The latest came from Rashida Tlaib was an interview with Seth Meyers where she again claimed unapologetically her false antisemitic version of history and falsely claimed that the Palestinian Arabs welcomed Jews to the Middle East when Palestinian leader Grand Mufti Haj Amin el Husseini was actually an ally of Adolph Hitler, and coordinated attacks that killed thousands of Jews many of whom were recent Holocaust survivors (video is below with her controversial statements). Her concept of history left out a few little events where her relatives, assuming they were living where she claims, may have joined in or at least watched the riotous actions of Arabs in Hevron and Jerusalem where the Arabs attacked the Jews in 1920, 1929, plus other history from this period and from 1936 through 1939, which peaked in the first and last years. These were riots often encouraged by the British who were working against the Jews establishing their state. The British worked with Arabs to move numerous Arabs into the region while refusing to permit Jews to enter the Holy Lands. This left the European Jews with no place to escape the coming elimination of European Jews by the Nazis. This was the welcome arranged for the Jews and once Israel finally was opened to Jews and the nation of Israel declared, six Arab armies and numerous other Arab units and forces with some commanded by British military veterans (and some claim also active duty British officers) mostly in Jordan and some Nazis which have not been verified though it was a logical effort for them to assist as the Mufti of Jerusalem worked with the Nazis organizing Islamic brigades in the Balkans and worked to organize Arabs to fight against the British in the MENA regions. This was the welcome which was launched on May 15, 1948 with the rising of the sun. The armies involved with the invasion of the nascent Israel were Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon. What she was forgetting also was that the Mufti of Jerusalem advised the Arabs to leave their homes and move to safety behind the Arab forces. He promised that after a few days when the Jews were all taken care of by the soon to be victorious armies, then they would share in the bounty of what had been the Jewish possessions. When the Arabs lost the war to exterminate the Jews, mistakenly called the Israeli War of Independence, the Arab nations forced these Arabs, who had fled obeying the Mufti, into camps where they have lived ever since as have their children and their children etc. This is the refugee problem which causes the world such consternation as they believe the Jews forced these people into camps. There are no Arab refugee camps in regions under Israeli civil control. What is amazing is there exist refugee camps within the Palestinian Authority ruled region and in Gaza ruled by Hamas. So Palestinian ruled lands have Palestinian refugees who they incarcerate in camps because they were refugees under Jordan and Egypt, thus they must remain refugees until the world forces them on Israel. That is the reality of how these refugees lost their homes and lands. Meanwhile, here is Rashida Tlaib and her slanted view of history.

 

 

Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a trio of freshman Congress-persons, have all but taken center stage for the Democrat Party. What has made this trio even more frightening has been the range and amount of support in defending them from any and all criticism. Leading the charge to rally forces around the mad trio has been Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer and other Democrats rallying at this latest outburst of the undefendable. Wait, we may have jumped the gun calling her comments anti-Semitic or controversial as there is another view one can take. What she stated was basically true, many Palestinian Arabs lost their homes. Where she goes off the reservation is blaming this on the Holocaust Jews being given Israel as a consolation prize after the horrors of World War II. The problem is two-fold. First is that the concepts and treaties plus conferences for establishing the Jewish State took place after World War I initiated by the San Remo Conference and on from there establishing the Mandate System. Further, Ms. Tlaib blames the wrong people for the Arabs who lost their homes and farms as those were the Arabs who obeyed the Mufti of Jerusalem and then were incarcerated by their own people in Lebanon, Syria, Egypt and elsewhere in the Arab world. There were a few Arab villages where the people were removed from their lands and sent behind the Arab lines, but these were the villages which permitted Arab forces to shelter and attack the Israelis from behind and with other ambushes. The Arabs who remained in their homes and were either neutral by not engaging in hostilities or fought alongside the Jews all today have Israeli citizenship and full rights just the same as every Israeli, Jewish, Christian, Muslim or any other religion.

 

There is one item which is becoming ever more interesting. That are the comments originating from Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez which will provide copious amounts to use as grist for the mill that is editorials and other commentaries including ours. Many of those who support Israel or are against hatreds such as anti-Semitism or support the Democrats but believe these three are harming the party all call for them to be far more calm and speak out less. We wish them to speak their minds and to repeat their messages loud and proud spreading their hatred of the Jews and/or Israel as far and wide as they are able. I want everybody to hear what they say and allow for their comments to force the world to have discussions and converse about this spiteful hate from Islam against Israel and the Jews. These anti-Semitic declarations and falsified history should be spread along with other people setting the records straight with a reality check. The only way to fight such lies are to place them out in the light of truth allowing for all to discover who are the haters and who are civil. Separating our world into those who hold Israel and/or the Jews with contempt, spite, hatred, malice, detestation, loathing, abhorrence or other excessively critical and negative assessments will allow us to define those who hold hatred which taints them and stands as a threat to all we hold precious in an open and civil society. These are people which will need our understanding and gentle nudging towards learning to accept others and shedding their hatreds. That is the service these individuals and the others who feel the same towards groups of those different from them provide by openly stating their hatred plainly and without reservations. We, as a civilized people, need to find out who those are who require being educated and taught acceptance over hatred and love over fear. Then there is the final item, the final challenge, will be to bring about a change in Islam which will allow for them to return to the Meccan Quran over the Medina Quran rather than using their rule of Abrogation which makes the Medina Quranic verses overruling those more peaceful verses from the Meccan Quranic verses. This would require changes in Islam which would refute their history up to the present reversing their decision that the violence written in the Medina Quran overrule the coexistence taught by the Meccan Quran. The Meccan Quranic verses were the first ones written after the revelations to Muhammad in the cave outside Mecca with the Medina written later at quite a distance from the cave and were instead inspired through Muhammad’s change in lifestyle and his stature and followings grew dramatically providing Muhammad with a large force with which he began caravan raiding. From this Muhammad also firmed his control over the region around Medina and then conquered Mecca and soon was unifying the entire Arabian Peninsula. His following rulers then broke out of the Arabian Peninsula and spread across MENA conquering Persia, the Holy Lands, Egypt and beyond to Spain and Morocco. Then they reached the decision that any lands which came under the control of Islam must never be permitted to revert to any other rule. This is at the center of the conflict with Israel as it goes directly against that rule. Changing Islam from the religion which is destined to rule the world and be the sole religion permitted with all other congregants who are not Islamic being put to the sword, being killed. Either this changes or the world either succumbs or completely defeats Islam forcing a change or facing being completely annihilated. These are our choices and the louder these anti-Israel and anti-Semites continue to speak, the more our societies will realize that there is a problem. Recognizing that there is a problem is the first step in finding a solution to said problem. We have yet to take the first step in solving these hatreds and currently we have most of one political party is defending these people and excusing their hates claiming that it is the problem of the rest of the people having unfounded fears of Islam. They even came up with a name for these people who have problems with the Islamic faith, Islamophobia. That technically would mean fear of Islam, but despite potentially being a possible person to accuse of suffering from Islamophobia, but I assure you that I am not in fear of Islam. I have concerns over Islam but also hold hope that they may soon realize that the world will not permit them to destroy their societies as they have developed over time. The Secular Humanists will definitely insist on retaining what they believe is their inherent right to retain their freedom of thought. Islam insists that the individual have no freedom under Islam and must surrender their entirety to Allah and do the best they are able to imitate the founder, Muhammad, and they demand they support Jihad. These are the beliefs which will eventually run the risk of causing conflict between Islam and the rest of the world. The question is how long before the world realizes the problem and addresses the problem once and for all.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Why are the Jews so Reviled?

 

Anti-Semitism, in all of its variations which include anti-Zionism plus anti-Israelism, have been around from prehistory, just as the Jewish People, originally the Hebrews, originated over four-thousand years ago in what many call prehistory. Their story begins with the sojourn of Abraham and his possessions from Mesopotamia to the Levant, specifically the region south of the Litani River, both sides of the Jordan River, Sea of Galilee and Dead Sea, to the Mediterranean Sea and south to the Wadi of Egypt. Abraham’s travels included a stay for some years in Egypt then returning to what would become Israel. The Jewish People’s lineage then continued through Isaak, Jacob and then the twelve sons of Jacob and his daughters with each son becoming the head of one of the tribes of Israel. The initial problem which the forerunners of the Jewish People, the Hebrews, faced was their growing too powerful in numbers that the Pharaoh of Egypt feared that they might ally with an invading force when it came upon the Land of Goshen, located in the eastern Nile delta near modern day Faqus, and help overthrow the Pharaoh. This was told in the Biblical story of Joseph managing food and supplies during the seven years of plenty which was then used to survive the seven years of famine both of which Joseph had also foretold when interpreting the dreams which were plaguing the Pharaoh of Egypt. This Pharaoh of Egypt treated the Jews with respect and as allies and friends of Egypt. It was his son, who rose to power after he died, who was cruel to the Jews and who was destroyed at the crossing of the Red Sea, as the Biblical story related. From there the Israelites (Hebrews) journeyed to the lands promised to Abraham and had the tragic story of the twelve spies, ten of which told stories which were frightening claiming they would never be able to conquer the walled cities inhabited by men of great proportions as if they were giants, while Caleb and Joshua who gave reports that the people in Canaan were deeply frightened and would flee from before them if they simply entered the lands. We will never know which story was the truth as Hashem had Moses lead the Children of Israel into the desert for forty years raising a new generation which did not suffer the meekness which had hold of the people who were slaves.

 

Land of Goshen Overlaid with Map of Egyptian Region and Nile Delta *

 

The Jews had their share of enemies which included but was not limited to the Hittites, Phoenicians, Philistines and Amorites. But all the ancient history cannot explain the anti-Semitism present in the world today. The reality is that there are two strains of anti-Semitism which each has its origins in religion. The Islamic world which stretches across the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) finds its anti-Semitism anchored in the Quran where it is claimed that Islam was the final revelation from Allah thus replacing both Christianity and Judaism. The Quran further instructs the followers of Islam that their Messiah cannot and will not come until the Muslims attack and destroy the Jews. Across Europe, the difficulty begins with their developing replacement philosophy where the Christians now hold the covenant with Hashem and the Jews have been forsaken and cast to the fiery pits of hell. This original casting of the Jews performing the work of the Devil led to such as the Inquisition where non-Christians were forced to convert or die. Across the MENA expanse of nations, there were also periods where non-Muslims were forced to convert or die. The Jews faced both and often, if forewarned, fled taking what little they could carry and went seeking a new home. These were the starting points of Modern anti-Semitism. These are the religious forces behind the defamations, infamies and degradations which became what are referred to as Blood Libels. These tropes are relatively well known and consist of such ideas that the Jews poisoned the wells causing the plague, used the blood of kidnapped children to bake Passover Matzoh, steal body parts from people in disaster regions where Israel fields a hospital so they can transplant them to waiting Jews in Israel, manipulate money on an international scale, control governments through too much influence, control the media such that Israel is never attacked, cause every war throughout history so they can sell weapons to both sides and get wealthy and so many others we do not have the time or room to list them all. For more definitions and examples see here and here.

 

Another reason the Jews are so hated is simple jealousy. This form of anti-Semitism claims that there must be something nefarious going on when the Jews who are so inferior in numbers to almost every other peoples, yet win such a high percentage of Nobel Prizes in the hard sciences, win so many awards of other kinds, are overly represented in award winning movies, plays, books, discoveries, theoretical sciences such as physics and mathematics, tending to be over-represented in elected offices and filling the top spots in business and other ventures compared to their numbers. The fact that Jews are notable at all as they make up 0.2%, that is one in every five-hundred people while for Christians it is 31% which comes to one out of every three and a quarter and Islam it is 24.3% which is one out of every four and between one fourth or one third. If one were to have a spaceship arriving from another star system and they picked randomly two-hundred human beings from planet Earth they would most likely end up with sixty-five Christians, forty-eight Muslims, thirty-one secular humanists (includes Agnostics, Atheists and non-religious), thirty Hindus, fourteen Buddhists, eleven Traditional Chinese (a mix of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism amongst other tribal faiths), one Sikh and very likely they would not nab themselves even a single Jew. Mark Twain may have put the wonder of the Jews into words when he wrote in his essay titled “Concerning the Jews.”

“If the statistics are right, the Jews constitute but one percent of the human race. It suggests a nebulous dim puff of star dust lost in the blaze of the Milky Way. Properly the Jew ought hardly to be heard of, but he is heard of, has always been heard of. He is as prominent on the planet as any other people, and his commercial importance is extravagantly out of proportion to the smallness of his bulk. His contributions to the world’s list of great names in literature, science, art, music, finance, medicine, and abstruse learning are also away out of proportion to the weakness of his numbers. He has made a marvellous fight in the world, in all the ages; and has done it with his hands tied behind him. He could be vain of himself, and be excused for it. The Egyptian, the Babylonian, and the Persian rose, filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded to dream-stuff and passed away; the Greek and the Roman followed, and made a vast noise, and they are gone; other peoples have sprung up and held their torch high for a time, but it burned out, and they sit in twilight now, or have vanished. The Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind. All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?”

 

This which Mark Twain stated in heaping praise upon the Jewish People has its validations in reality but there are also many Jews who are vulnerable and not made of these stalwart’s superiority but instead are weak and requiring twenty-four hour, seven days a week, fifty-two weeks a year care just to survive. These are the unseen Jews as the vast majorities are treated by their own family members who work shifts caring for them or hiring people skilled in such care to remain with them. Even most Jews seldom meet these severely handicapped Jews which is an area which needs some intense work to call attention to the needs of these Jews as there are very many Jews who could help in some means even if only funds to defer the costs of care. These are the Jews who are not going to wear wreaths of flowers at a dinner in their honor. These Jews are ignored largely by those who wish to castigate the Jews for taking too much of the world and molding it to their liking completely ignoring the society at large. That could not be any further from the truth, but it is central in the hatred of the Jewish People. It would not matter if the Jews did not win all the awards or figure so prominently in the arts, sciences, politics, medicine, acting and so many other fields. Despite the numbers of reporters who are from Jewish families and are Jewish by birth, many of these same Jews by birth write anti-Israel and anti-Zionist articles and editorials which are infuriating. There are articles such as this one from the Washington Post which blames Israel for the left leaning, leftist and extreme leftist Jews moving away from support for Israel. It also blames Prime Minister Netanyahu for ignoring this split and for supporting President Trump which the article claims is the root cause of the rising anti-Semitism witnessed in American society. The article does depict that Israeli Jews, Orthodox Jews and the most religious Jews generally are supportive of President Trump as well as Israel. This correlation is of little importance to the author as his bone to pick is that the Jews in Israel are becoming more religious and nationalist while the majority of American Jews are secular-humanist, irreligious and internationalist. To this writer, Dana Milbank, his fellow leftist Jews, ones born to a Jewish family with all the background, were being Bar Mitzvah, then dropping from the religion never to return. I know of this as I almost road this road to ruin leaving the faith for several decades. It was my deeply rooted Zionism which allowed me to return and find the wonders of the faith I had left for far too long. Unfortunately, most of the leftist Jews have no love for Israel and condition support for Israel on its acting exactly as they would being as vulnerable and surrendering never resorting to violence of any kind.

 

These Jews, with their hatred of firearms, thus condemning Israel and the IDF because they are willing and have used their weapons in defense of the country, is simply one of many areas where they claim it is Israel’s fault for not allowing them to run its government and make all the decisions. That is totally unacceptable to these leftist Jews and is exactly why they hate President Trump and loved Hillary Clinton, and Bernie Sanders even more as he represents the epitome of the leftist Jew. The far left Jews are perfect in every way and are so proud of their perfection that they can tell you about how wonderful the world would be if only they could run everything. This makes Israel their most despised of entities because it is full of Jews who are everything the leftist Jews are not. Things start to get interesting when we look at traditional anti-Semitism which is very separate from these Jews and their anti-Semitism, but there is a link. Traditional anti-Semitism originates and lives at the right end of the political spectrum, at least according to modern definitions. These are members of groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, Skinheads, Nazis and fascists. These groups by and large despise Israel but really despise leftist Jews along with their fellow travelers. These far right hate groups hold a begrudging respect for Israel simply because they stand and defend their nation and they even respect that the majority are proudly, if not defiantly, religious Jews who practice their religion and do so with pride.

 

Then there are the anti-Semites on the left which includes, so very unfortunately, a fair number of American and some Israeli Jews. These groups include Communists, Secular Humanists and a plethora of radical groups almost all of which have discarded any religious roots they may have had in their youth. These groups play political games and use intersectionality such that all of them will hold identical beliefs. This intersectionality means if you support Planned Parenthood, then you also must support the entirety of the eco-friendly save the planet from carbon and global climate change as well as BDS and a host of other groups just as long as you oppose the right concepts and ideas such as you must despise President Donald Trump and everybody attached to him, and oppose Israel instead supporting Palestine which we were informed this month must replace Israel entirely and what happens to the Israeli Jews is something people such as Marc Lamont Hill can readily inform us. Support for Israel is excluded from the intersectionality and thus on the outs with the leftists. The leftists hate religiousness and want to uproot all religious observance, well, except for their religion of secular humanism. They worship Gaia as their god and their shrine is the planet which they are going to repair as part of Tikkun Olam. They have adapted their former religion if they have not simply abandoned it making their concepts the definition of religion for all peoples. They deplore violence, unless it targets people who believe in the Judeo-Christian ethic, the set of concepts which they believe are responsible for all the damage done to Gaia and which they are the chosen ones to repair that damage. Their main hate is for organized religion which is outside of politics and especially the Judeo-Christian ethos which built Western Civilization, another item they claim must be torn asunder.

 

They hate Israel, as it is everything with which they wish to do away. It is very much the originating engine of the dreaded Judeo-Christianity. This is why they are cozying up to Islam which provides even another reason to despise Israel and religious Jews. What the Leftist Jews do not realize or are simply in denial is that when the time comes, they will be expendable, as the Jews, including these leftist Jews, will be targeted for eradication. They will be the first as they will be closest and known to be unarmed and so passive they will do whatever they are told, just as long as it is not a Jew or an Israeli telling them what to do. They believe that once they have routed all of those other Jews and the various Christians, they will be able to transform Islam making it fit their belief system. That would be enjoyable to watch as they fail miserably and instead they are targeted for being apostates who practice falsely.

 

One can only wonder what and how it gains anyone to have such deep-seated hatred for the Jews. We are such a minority that there are probably tens or even hundreds of thousands of people who have never met any Jews. I know that my presence lifted a number of such people off those roles as I more often than not resided well off the beaten path and far from my fellow Jews. I am not sure which group was more shocked, the members of the congregation or those who had never knowingly met a Jew. Despite this, the two phrases most often posed were, ‘you do not look Jewish’ and ‘you do not act Jewish.’ When I would respond with ‘how do you know as what is a Jew supposed to look like and act like? If I am the first Jew you have ever met, how do you know? These questions always were met with a sheepish grin and the lowering of one’s head in a form of shame at being outed as having expectations that Jews would be obviously recognizable from normal people. I was often amused when asked where my tail was, how uncomfortable was it to keep it hidden, and similarly what did I do about my horns. Those who asked these questions really got nervous about the entirety and I did what was possible to fend these accusations off with humor. I would tell them that we had hoops on the inside of our jeans where we run our tail on the inside and we file back our horns every morning and before going out at night. I would always end my reply with the start of a laugh such that if they chose to also laugh we could disregard their insensitivity. Much of anti-Semitism originates largely from ignorance which can run rampant when there are so few which have ever studied or read about the Jews and often only know through hearsay and tall tales where the Jews are portrayed as those behind the scene manipulators and perpetrators through which they control politics. Then there are the claims that the Jews have all the money, and I relied on asking them how they could explain my residing amongst them if I were so wealthy. They would slip and talk about the manipulative abilities which the Jews possessed. I would have to confess that most of those I met who had never knowingly met a Jew and who were so often just filled with questions, and this was sometimes entire groups would gather, almost as if they were expecting a class, an in-service on what makes up a Jew. Many people have limited forms of telepathy which they often are able to control but not in any larger measure than the numbers in the regular population. There is little difference between the Jews and the rest of the population in the world. Yes, Jews likely have higher than average reading capabilities as reading has been something every Jewish child has had to learn after their regular lessons, as Hebrew was the language of Torah. Figuring with numbers was another skill prioritized in Jewish homes and telling of our history was important, especially about the two seminal times, the Exodus out of Egypt and the far more recent Shoah or Holocaust. The other item taught by many Jews who are Zionist is the founding and defending of Israel from the Balfour Declaration to our declaration of Israeli statehood and the struggles, wars, renewing of the land and the cultivation of same.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

* Antique print ‘In the Land of Goshen – Evening’ (1912) Unsigned; from a painting by R. Talbot Kelly from “Egypt” Painted and Described by R. Talbot Kelly; Published by Adam & Charles Black, London.