Kind and good deeds (gemillut chasdim), introspection, repentance, hope, and faith in the loving kindness and faithfulness of G-d are essential to Judaism. These qualities are in the foreground at this time every year and merit appreciative discussion.

“Today is the birthday of the world” Jews sing toward the end of the series of soundings of the shofar on Rosh Hashanah, the day that commemorates the creation of humankind, Adam and Eve “in the shadow [b’tzeil] of G-d.” The primary purpose of the shofar blasts crying out to G-d is to proclaim His sovereignty, — the remembrance of His purposes, Promise and mercy.

The centrality and nature of mercy to and in Judaism is often unappreciated. The days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are perfectly timed to highlight some of its features. (more…)

Familiar from modern geopolitics and the mass media, the phrase “non-aligned nations” is a nasty fiction.

A “state” is a particular form and method of government in a particular territory. Keep that definition in mind; it is very different than that for “nation.” 

The so-called “non-aligned nations” are multi-textured lies. They are states, not nations; artificial states created in almost every case by western imperial powers during the past six or so decades. Few if any of them meet the criteria for a genuine nation, a mixture of people, time (history), consciousness and land capable of giving rise to a distinctive state. A nation is a distinct people unified by a language, religion, customs and laws, unique history, form of government and sense of their own distinctive identity over a lengthy period of time. As the definition makes clear, the so-called non-aligned nations are not nations, they are imperial puppet-states that bite the hands that feed and, in various ways, continue to direct them.

There are 118 of these meta-deceits scarring the face of God’s good earth like a demonic Russian doll, lie within lie within lie… Most of these “nations” do not even meet the criteria for a state for they lack coherent governing norms, methods and authority. They are post-colonial congeries of thugs making their own deals with various international financiers, intelligence – diplomatic and great power authorities. (more…)

In the long last act of Shakespeare’s King Lear, divine providence is invoked and demonstrated, as in most of Shakespeare’s greatest plays. A vicious, treacherous brother, whose power lust “disdains and spurns all rules of war,” morality and nobility finally is confronted by his brother Edgar, the true heir he had homicidally slandered and whose position, inheritance and name he had robbed. But the firstborn, legitimate son returns to assert his name, title and inheritance all of which he has earned by the faithful service he has done his father through a long dark night of persecution and assaults. When the usurper is slain in a duel at the very end of all events, he confesses that his punishment is just and that “the wheel comes full circle” (V.i.176).  

One thinks of the chapter of Ovadiah regarding the final judgment and destruction of Esau by Jacob, the wholesome brother he has mocked, robbed and all but crushed.

The same process is being worked out in the war on terror, not least as it relates to Israel and the Jewish people. Israel has been crushed into the mud; slandered, condemned, robbed and stripped, like Edgar, “brought near to beast” by poverty and affliction. In exile Israel often looks like a mad beggar or a hunger artist, shamed and pillaged by the merciless nations. But neither the logic of history nor the consequences of deeds are forgotten before the Throne; the truth will unfold. Accounts will be squared: “all friends shall taste the wages of their virtue and the evil drink the cup of their deserving” (KL 305-06); unfortunately, as in King Lear, many people who are guilty of no more than naiveté or ignorance are crushed in the meantime. This is the most terrible aspect of evil, — that not only the evil and their abettors suffer for their willful sins. (more…)

Once the shooting phase of operation “creating Lebanon” subsided, a remarkably varied, noxious and alarming cast of characters began descending upon Israel and America to accelerate the next phase of operation “crush the Jews.” A main feature of these surgical strikes is to create another jihadist state next to the Jewish ghetto demarked by the Road Map and its “security fence.”

The big wheels keep on turning… Read on and we will briefly examine the assault.

Mr. Mohammed Khatami, former President of Iran has been touring America and saying things meant to sound wonderful to most news grazers. Two days after applying for his visa he was here deploring 9/11. “It was a crime because civilians were killed and because it was done in the name of Islam,” he said. Those who struck the WTC, he asserted, “are not Muslims and will not go to heaven.”

We can assume this visit was choreographed with the State Department. Whoever is casting these characters wants to brighten the image called “Iran” for presentation to the world community. As for the specifics of Khatami’s remarks, President Bush himself said (June 2003) that “Islam is a religion of peace,” so there.

This bit of theatrics has two important purposes: (more…)

This essay seeks to outline and briefly discuss the plusses and negative results of Israel’s recent and unduly limited conflict with Iran in the Lebanon.

But the title is apposite: the main goal of the western powers and the perennial Labor-internationalist regime of Israel in the war, and a subsidiary goal for Hizballah and its Iranian commanders was to establish on a firm footing the artificial state of “Lebanon.” This Franco-British contraption (b.1945) whose very name is Hebrew denoting a region, “the Lebanon,” the three ridge lines of the Mountains of that name (based on the Hebrew lavan, “white” for the limestone that dominates there and root of levanon, the “moon” that illuminates it).

The fact that securing the artificial boundaries, and strengthening the dysfunctional, volatile “army”* of this fake state whose factionalism pervades it in every feature was near the top goals of the Israeli regime demonstrates its suicidal faithlessness and rejection of its own history, land and integrity.

So assessment of the positive and negative aspects of this conflict for Israel begins with recognizing the rack of lies to which the government bound the nation. The next assault is visible and hastening toward the Jewish people.

In detailing the good and bad of this bad business we will present a short list for we need to focus on essentials. The time of decision draws near… (more…)