An open, albeit brief, letter to New Zealand’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations, New York, United States:
Dearest Ladies and Gentlemen,
I see where, after second thoughts on the part of Mr. al Sisi of Egypt (especially in light of his cooperative venture with the State of Israel in seeking to eradicate Daesh operations in the Sinai), YOUR Permanent Mission re-introduced the latest U.N. Resolution condemning the State of Israel for not acting to establish Judea & Samaria as Jüdenrein.
Furthermore, I see where the Glorious Sun King of the Potomac has subsequently withheld his veto, consistent with his & the United Nations’ utter abhorrence for even minimal probity.
Thereafter, your vaunted body has passed said Resolution.
1 Then his son Judas, who was called Maccabeus, took his place.
2 All his brothers and all who had joined his father supported him, and they gladly carried on Israel’s war.
3 He spread abroad the glory of his people, and put on his breastplate like a giant. He armed himself with weapons of war; he fought battles and protected the camp with his sword.
4 In his deeds he was like a lion, like a young lion roaring for prey.
5 He pursued the lawless, hunting them out, and those who troubled his people he destroyed by fire.
6 The lawless were cowed by fear of him, and all evildoers were dismayed. By his hand deliverance was happily achieved,
7 and he afflicted many kings. He gave joy to Jacob by his deeds, and his memory is blessed forever.
8 He went about the cities of Judah destroying the renegades there. He turned away wrath from Israel,
9 was renowned to the ends of the earth; and gathered together those who were perishing.
10 Then Apollonius* gathered together the Gentiles, along with a large army from Samaria, to fight against Israel.
11 When Judas learned of it, he went out to meet him and struck and killed him. Many fell wounded, and the rest fled.
12 They took their spoils, and Judas took the sword of Apollonius and fought with it the rest of his life.
13 But Seron, commander of the Syrian army, heard that Judas had mustered an assembly of faithful men ready for war.
14 So he said, “I will make a name for myself and win honor in the kingdom. I will wage war against Judas and his followers, who have despised the king’s command.”
15 And again a large company of renegades advanced with him to help him take revenge on the Israelites.
16 When he reached the ascent of Beth-horon,* Judas went out to meet him with a few men.
17 But when they saw the army coming against them, they said to Judas: “How can we, few as we are, fight such a strong host as this? Besides, we are weak since we have not eaten today.”
18 But Judas said: “Many are easily hemmed in by a few; in the sight of Heaven there is no difference between deliverance by many or by few;
19 for victory in war does not depend upon the size of the army, but on strength that comes from Heaven.
20 With great presumption and lawlessness they come against us to destroy us and our wives and children and to despoil us;
21 but we are fighting for our lives and our laws.
22 He* will crush them before us; so do not fear them.”
23 When he finished speaking, he rushed suddenly upon Seron and his army, who were crushed before him.
24 He pursued Seron down the descent of Beth-horon into the plain. About eight hundred* of their men fell, and the rest fled to the land of the Philistines.
25 Then Judas and his brothers began to be feared, and dread fell upon the Gentiles about them.
26 His fame reached the king, and the Gentiles talked about the battles of Judas.
I’ll be honest, I love Hanukkah. I didn’t grow up loving it, but once I understood it, and what it meant, I fell in love with the Maccabees. The real ones, the real meaning of Hanukkah. The one Y.B. wrote about. The Hanukkah that makes me realize in every and all generations we must safeguard those things that we hold most dear. Judah knew what was at stake, he assumed command after his father Mattathias died, he and his brothers had been with Mattathias as he began the fight to save the Hebrews from the orders of Antiochus that were meant to eradicate the practice and knowledge of Judaism. To restore the land and the people to a way of live they were meant to live. But they had to survive the soldiers to do that. Judah didn’t just pray and hope for the best.
Verse 3, “He armed himself with weapons of war; he fought battles and protected the camp with his sword.”
Weapons of war was not a “bad” phrase, or a “hate speech” or used in a denigrating way. It was a fact of life. You want to live? Be prepared, because there are bad evil people out there, they do not care if you’re a pacifist or not. This phrase always makes me pause. A couple years ago I was in Tel Aviv and I was a woman with a mission. I wanted to find a model of a Centurion tank circa 1973 Yom Kippur war. I went in a toy store and looked around and a clerk, a young man, came up and asked if he could help me. They had a model battleship, and some airplanes, I couldn’t find the tanks. I explained as best as I could what I wanted. He finally got it and had a shocked and appalled look on his face. “You mean a weapon of WAR??” he exclaimed horrified. Yes, I want a tank. “We do not want weapons of war in this store!” he informed me self-righteously. I shot a sidelong glance at the battleship. Uh huh. I was pissed but it wasn’t worth the argument and I didn’t know enough good words then. I thought to myself, buddy, if it weren’t for those “weapons of war” and some of the people that knew how to wield them you’d have been in a world of hurt more than once. It was a couple weeks after that Hama$$ began firing rockets into Israel again from Gaza, the prototype of how the two state solution will work. Weapons of war can be an excellent thing you have to defend your camp.
13 But Seron, commander of the Syrian army, heard that Judas had mustered an assembly of faithful men ready for war.
14 So he said, “I will make a name for myself and win honor in the kingdom. I will wage war against Judas and his followers, who have despised the king’s command.”
15 And again a large company of renegades advanced with him to help him take revenge on the Israelites.
16 When he reached the ascent of Beth-horon,* Judas went out to meet him with a few men.
17 But when they saw the army coming against them, they said to Judas: “How can we, few as we are, fight such a strong host as this? Besides, we are weak since we have not eaten today.”
18 But Judas said: “Many are easily hemmed in by a few; in the sight of Heaven there is no difference between deliverance by many or by few;
19 for victory in war does not depend upon the size of the army, but on strength that comes from Heaven.
The Maccabees, my partisan heroes. The Warsaw ghetto partisans, the partisans of the forests, the hills, the caves. Small but determined groups that were willing to fight and risk all for freedom. Because what they fought for was what they treasured. Just as Judah knew and told us, deliverance comes from Heaven. To G-d deliverance from a few or from many is all the same. 1967, 1973 and for the Maccabees G-d does not respect political correctness or numbers and no task is too much for G-d. He’s in the miracle business and he’s very good at it. Do I know why he hasn’t granted miracles every time I think there should have been one? No. But maybe someday I will understand, or ask him. Zelmans Partisans may be a small group, but we are a small group of determined people who know what we are about and are tenacious as wolverines. We understand what we fight for.
The Maccabees were having none of this compromise our rights, compromise our Torah, our feasts our way of life, our Shabbat. No. Compromising on “evil black rifles” “high capacity (adequate capacity) magazines is the same folly. We can follow “man’s” “king’s” laws to the death, or we can live by G-d’s commands.
I was talking with a friend about wars, Israel and history. I was told that today Israel doesn’t fight to win. Not really. They fight a little. Enough to keep things at bay, enough to keep the status quo. Yes, yes, I suppose that is right. Fight that battle and get it done. Fight it fast and hard and keep the knowledge of what you are fighting for in the front of your mind. Fight to win. If you have to fight, no halfway measures.
The Maccabees didn’t fight for sufganyot or latkas, not even the yummy jalapeno cheddar ones. They fought to live as G-d commanded them. And the things that we hold most precious, most dear are the things we must be willing to fight for. I suppose one could evaluate what really is most dear to them by looking at the things they really are willing to fight for.
I have seen miracles, this time of year. I don’t believe they are limited to this time of year at all, but I have seen some rather amazing things happen this time of year. I believe G-d is still in the miracle business. And so I pray for my much loved teammates and for our members and readers a season blessed with miracles.
If I were a Reform rabbi; if I were a leader of the establishment whose money and prestige have succeeded in capturing for himself the leadership and voice of American Jewry; if I were one of the members of the Israeli Government’s ruling group; if I were an enlightened sophisticated, modern Jewish intellectual, I would climb the barricades and join in battle against that most dangerous of all Jewish holidays – Chanukah.
It is a measure of the total ignorance of the world Jewish community that there is no holiday that is more universally celebrated than the “Festival of Lights,” and it is an equal measure of the intellectual dishonesty and hypocrisy of Jewish leadership that it plays along with the lie. For if ever there was a holiday that stands for everything that the masses of world Jewry and their leadership has rejected – it is this one. If one would find an event that is truly rooted in everything that Jews of our times and their leaders have rejected and, indeed, attacked – it is this one. If there is any holiday that is more “un-Jewish” in the sense of our modern beliefs and practices – I do not know of it.
The Chanukah that has erupted unto the world Jewish scene in all its childishness, asininity, shallowness, ignorance and fraud is not the Chanukah of reality. The Chanukah that came into vogue because Jewish parents – in their vapidness needed something to counteract Christmas; that exploded in a show of “we-have-lights-just-as-our-goyisha-neighbors” and in an effort to reward our spoiled children with eight gifts instead of the poor Christian one; the Chanukah that the Temple, under its captive Rabbi, turned into a school pageant so that the beaming parents might think that the Religious School is really successful instead of the tragic joke and waste that it really is; the Chanukah that speaks of Jewish Patrick Henrys giving-me-liberty-or-death and that pictures the Maccabees as great liberal saviors who fought so that the kibbutzim might continue to be free to preach their Marx and eat their ham, that the split-level dwellers of suburbia might be allowed to violate their Sabbath in perfect freedom and the Reform and Conservative Temples continue to fight for civil rights for Blacks, Puerto Ricans and Jane Fonda, is not remotely connected with reality.
This is not the Chanukah of our ancestors, of the generations of Jews of Eastern Europe and Yemen and Morocco and Spain and Babylon. It is surely not the Chanukah for which the Maccabees themselves died. Truly, could those whom we honor so munificently, return and see what Chanukah has become, they might very well begin a second Maccabean revolt. For the life that we Jews lead today was the very cause, the real reason for the revolt of the Jews “in those days in our times.”
What happened in that era more than 2000 years ago? What led a handful of Jews to rise up in violence against the enemy? And precisely who was the enemy? What were they fighting for and who were they fighting against? For years the people of Judea had been the vassals of Greece. True independence as a state had been unknown for all those decades and, yet the Jews did not rise in revolt. It was only when the Greek policy shifted from mere political control to one that attempted to suppress the Jewish religion that the revolt erupted in all its bloodiness. It was not mere liberty that led to the Maccabean uprising that we so passionately applaud. What we are really cheering is a brave group of Jews who fought and plunged Judea into a bloodbath for the right to observe the Sabbath, to follow the laws of kashrut, to obey the laws of the Torah. In a word everything about Chanukah that we commemorate and teach our children to commemorate are things we consider to be outmoded, medieval, and childish!
At best, then, those who fought and died for Chanukah were naive and obscurantist. Had we lived in those days we would certainly not have done what they did for everyone knows that the laws of the Torah are not really Divine but only the products of evolution and men (do not the Reform, Reconstructionist, and large parts of the Conservative movements write this daily?) Surely we would not have fought for that which we violate every day of our lives. No, at best Chanukah emerges as a needless holiday if not a foolish one. Poor Hannah and her seven children; poor Mattathias and Judah; poor well meaning chaps all — but hopelessly backward and utterly unnecessary sacrifices.
But there is more. Not only is Chanukah really a foolish and unnecessary holiday, it is also one that is dangerously fanatical and illiberal. The first act of rebellion, the first enemy who fell at the hands of the brave Jewish heroes whom our delightful children portray so cleverly in their Sunday and religious school pageants, was not a Greek. He was a Jew. When the enemy sent his troops into Modin to set up an idol and demand its worship, it was a Jew who decided to exercise his freedom of pagan worship and who approached the altar to worship Zeus (after all, what business was it of anyone what this fellow worshiped?) And it was this Jew, this apostate, this religious traitor who was struck down by the brave, glorious, courageous, (are these not the words all our Sunday schools use to describe him?) Mattathias, as he shouted: “Whoever is for G-d, follow me!”
What have we here? What kind of religious intolerance and bigotry? What kind of a man is this for the anti-religious Ha’shomer Ha’tzair, the graceful temples of suburbia, the sophisticated intellectuals, the liberal, open-minded Jews and all the drones who have wearied us unto death with the concept of Judaism as a humanistic, open-minded, undogmatic, liberal, universalist (if not Marxist) religion, to honor? What kind of nationalism is this for Shimon Peres (he who rejects the ‘Galut’ and speaks of the proud, free Jew of ancient Judea and Israel)?
And to crush us even more (we who know that Judaism is a faith of peace which deplores violence), what kind of Jews were these who reacted to oppression with force? Surely we who so properly have deplored Jewish violence as fascistic, immoral and (above all) un-Jewish, stand in horror as we contemplate Jews who declined to picket the Syrian Greeks to death and who rejected quiet diplomacy for the sword, spear and arrow (had there been bombs in those days, who can tell what they might have done?) and “descended to the level of ‘evil” thus rejecting the ethical and moral concepts of Judaism.
Is this the kind of a holiday we wish to propagate? Are these the kinds of men we want our moral and humanistic children to honor? Is this the kind of Judaism that we wish to observe and pass on to our children? Where shall we find the man of courage, the lone voice in the wilderness, to cry out against Chanukah and the Judaism that it represents – the Judaism of our grandparents and ancestors?
Where shall we find the man of honesty and integrity to attack the Judaism of medievalism and outdated foolishness; the Judaism of bigotry that strikes down Jews who refuse to observe the Law; the Judaism of violence that calls for Jewish force and might against the enemy? When shall we find the courage to proudly eat our Chinese food and violate our Sabbaths and reject all the separateness, nationalism and religious maximalism that Chanukah so ignobly represents? Down with Chanukah! It is a regressive holiday that merely symbolizes the Judaism that always was; the Judaism that was handed down to us from Sinai; the Judaism that made our ancestors ready to give their lives for the L-rd; the Judaism that young people instinctively know is true and great and real. Such a Judaism is dangerous for us and our leaders. We must do all in our power to bury it.
We’re a little over a week out from Hanukkah. I love Hanukkah, absolutely love it. I think Christians should pay a lot more attention to Hanukkah than some do. A short synopsis is that Antiochus IV didn’t want Judaism to continue as well, Judaism. He wanted HELLENIZED Judaism, Judaism “lite”. In other words, not Judaism. The penalties for actually being Jewish AND living Jewish were very severe. Women and infants were not excepted from the bloodshed. Shabbat and festival observance, forbidden. Possession of the Torah, forbidden. And he burned all the copies he could find. Circumcision, forbidden. Ritual sacrifice, forbidden. In other words, he might, maybe let you live, but not as a Jew. Not a real one, not a Torah observant one. Going along with this was the progressives know as Hellenistic Jews. They were evil then, they are evil now. Antiochus IV did his best to eradicate Judaism and Jews from the land of Israel. He failed. He failed because of a family living in Modi-in מוֹדִיעִין
The Maccabees. The Maccabees had a Southern girl kind of attitude. Someone showed up on their farm and told them they were going to sacrifice a pig to a pagan god. They said “HELLenized NO, Judah, get the shotgun!”. From there the Maccabees opened up a can of “whoopbutt” and in the end, not only did G-d work through the Maccabees to ensure the continuation of Judaism as it was written, but they retook the Holy Temple, cleaned it out, literally, and restored and rededicated it. And Torah continued to be taught, people continued to learn it, and Jews continued to live as Jews in the land of Israel.
I’m sure my hero Judah Maccabee is absolutely astonished to find out that part of Modi-in is not in Israel. According to the PeeeeUEU, they think part of it is Jordanianishish.
These types of misunderstandings seem to be a common occurrence in Israel.
Let’s look briefly at Judea and Samaria. Biblical history, and archeological history show us Jews lived there for thousands of years. They didn’t leave on their own, they were conquered and forced to leave. When the one Jewish state in the whole world was established the arabs were offered a two state solution. They rejected it and went to war. Israel, the tiny one day old nation, won. In 1950 Jordan illegally annexed Judea and Samaria. The outrage from the UN was heard round the world. Just kidding. You know who was outraged? The annexation was regarded as illegal and void by the Arab League and others. Huh. Of course Jordan also controlled Har Habayit, the Temple Mount. And while they controlled it, it was SO important to arabs it was left to decay pretty much. Egypt occupied the Gaza strip. Israel and Jordan signed an agreement, sort of a land for peace deal. In it Israelis were to be allowed access to their holy places. From the same link:
A Special Committee was to be formed to make arrangements for safe movement of traffic between Jerusalem and Mount Scopus campus of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, along the Latrun-Jerusalem Highway, free access to the Holy Places, and other matters. The committee was never formed, and access to the Holy Places was denied to Israelis throughout the Jordanian occupation. The remainder of the area designated as part of an Arab state under the UN Partition Plan was partly occupied by Egypt (Gaza Strip), partly occupied and annexed by Israel (West Negev, West Galilee, Jaffa). The intended international enclave of Jerusalem was divided between Israel and Jordan. The Jordanians immediately expelled all the Jewish residents of East Jerusalem. All but one of the 35 synagogues in the Old City were destroyed over the course of the next 19 years, either razed or used as stables and chicken coops. Many other historic and religiously significant buildings were replaced by modern structures. The ancient Jewish cemetery on Mount of Olives was desecrated, and the tombstones were used for construction, paving roads and lining latrines; the highway to the Intercontinental Hotel was built on top of the site.
In other words, it worked out as well as all Israel’s land for peace deals have. It didn’t.
So Jordan had control of Judea and Samaria on the West Bank of the Jordan River, until 1967. When G-d gave it back to Israel along with Har Habayit. As we all know by now, Moshe Dayan promptly gave that back. In 1967 tiny Israel won back large amounts of land. But unlike any other country that won land in a defensive war, they tried trading it back to the attacking countries for peace.
But this is about Judea and Samaria and the Jordanians. While the land was under Jordanian control, Jordan awarded land to people, to have arab names listed as owners. They did not purchase the land, they have not lived on the land, they have not cultivated the land, nor have they payed taxes on it. I’m sure somewhere in Israel in a nice rural area there is a farm with my name on the title. One with a lovely horse barn and indoor riding arena. I have memories of it, I’m sure. Yes, it’s kind of like that. The “owners” in fact, may not even know they own it.
Which brings me to Amona. Amona is a little town in one of those areas. It was built with the knowledge of the Israeli government. The permits to run water and electricity were provided by the Israeli government. Established in 1995 Amona has seen her share of sorrow. More than her share. In 2006 it was decided that part of the homes there were on “private falestinian land” and they were demolished. This sentence doesn’t even BEGIN to describe what took place. Effie Eitam is actually a friend of a friend of mine, and former MK Eitam called it as a pogrom. The video story in the “Eitam” link is fascinating if you have a few minutes, but it’s not about Amona.
But the houses that weren’t demolished, were allowed to stay, all is well. Carry on, nothing to see here. Until now. Now it’s been decided due to a activist high court and the help of some anti-Israel left wing activists that Amona must go. The homes will be torn down, just like 10 years ago. Families will be displaced, just like 10 years ago. Will people die just like 10 years ago? I don’t know, please G-d no.
It’s not like things like this have never happened in the United States for political reasons. They have. During the civil war, or the War of Northern Aggression, depending, there was General order #11. A truly horrific thing of which the Lone Jack Historical Society stated:
Order #11 was the most heinous order ever issued during the Civil War. It depopulated Jackson, Cass, Bates, & part of Vernon Counties and reduced this area to ashes. It wasthe first time in America’s history that a United States president endorsed such a violentact against citizens within his own country.
This order was issued, not in retaliation of Quantrill’s burning of Lawrence as so many believe, but to quell a rebellion within the state that was gaining momentum, one that the Federal Government was powerless to control.
People were evicted based on where they lived, if it was a mile outside of certain areas. And all your grain and crops were taken. Pretty much along with everything else.
And, it’s not like it couldn’t happen again what with barry’s Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing, another frog in pot barry scheme. I heard Stanley Kurtz talking about this on the radio last year.
AFFH is easily one of President Obama’s most radical initiatives, on a par with Obamacare in its transformative potential. In effect, AFFH gives the federal government a lever to re-engineer nearly every American neighborhood — imposing a preferred racial and ethnic composition, densifying housing, transportation, and business development in suburb and city alike, and weakening or casting aside the authority of local governments over core responsibilities, from zoning to transportation to education. Not only the policy but the political implications are immense — at the presidential, congressional, state, and local levels.
So yes, some poor day we could find ourselves in the same predicament as Amona. And for about as sensible a reason. To fulfill some left-wing political loons vision. The high court of Israel? Left-wing. The “human rights” groups that help the poor falestinians that didn’t know they owned land or pay taxes on it to destroy a village, left-wing. The AFFH? Oh yeah, left-wing lunacy. A very potent reminder of why we don’t need or want a left-wing dominated Supreme Court.
And when is this destruction to take place in Amona? When are the people suppose to be evacuated or the government will send the troops and police to remove them? A mission that some of the police and troops have publicly said they want no part of? At the end of Shabbat, the 24th of Kislev, December 24th. The first night of Hanukkah. In Amona, there will be no joyful lighting of the hanukkiyah. No families gathering around to enjoy latkas and sufganiyot. Because a G-dless left-wing high court doesn’t even FLIPPING KNOW when Hanukkah IS??!! The holiday that celebrates Jews being allowed to live as Jews in Israel, and celebrates the miracle of the return of sanctity to the Temple. Har Habayit was AGAIN returned to the Jews in 1967 when they also won control of Judea and Samaria. But like the Maccabees of old, the current Maccabees fighting to retain control of the Jewish villages in Judea and Samaria face the Hellenized Jews of today who are more than willing to bow down and lick the feet of the EU and John Kerry and a world that will never believe that Jews belong in Israel until they themselves believe it.
So חג חנוכה שמחHappy Hanukkah Amona. Now grab you hanukkiyah and get out. Judah? Are you still around?
My anger aside, if you care to, would you please pray for Amona?
When will it end?
The killings on December 14, 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary School will be forever remembered as a monumental failure of otherwise law-abiding gun owners to take responsibility for their freedoms.
I don’t know when it will end. But it seems highly unlikely that it will completely end until overly-emotive nonthinkers like Mr. Nehring base their victim disarmament decisions on reality rather than fantasy.
Let’s talk about the “failures” of law-abiding gun owner Mrs. Lanza.
Her son had mental problems. She spent years trying to address them.
She bought firearms through licensed dealers, going through background checks.
She reportedly kept most of her firearms locked up, some reports indicating specifically to keep them out of her son’s hands.
So what was her failure; what allowed her deranged son to get those guns and murder those people?
She fell asleep.
Yes, for those with no long-term memory, like Nehring, Mrs. Lanza’s son murdered her in her sleep so that he could steal the guns he would take to the school.
Many vocal gun owners refuse to acknowledge that with their freedoms come responsibility. Instead they try to sweep this tragic result under the rug.
I suppose in Nehring’s deranged world, he has a point. The right to sleep without being murdered is not specifically enumerated in the Bill of Rights.
Ever since the end of World War II, Europeans have had a fixation in some variation of “hate speech”. It may be something as overt as legally banning neoNazi or neoFascist organizations. It may be prosecuting “revisionist” authors and speakers. Or it may be the general growth, supported by leftist political and academic leaders, of condemning anything not approved as “racism”.
Sadly, rather than directly confront these ideas, and dispose of them by shining a light of critical analysis thereon, and perhaps socially shunning their adherents as dangerous fools or thugs, they instead use the force of government to determine which ideas and advocacy is permissible.
Generally, even deprecating humor, like used so skillfully by, say, Mel Brooks, is set aside for ineffectual forms of censorship. Censorship which only serves to enhance the uncritical mystique of these organizations, authors, movements, and ideas. Worse, the various governments, their abiding elites, and usually, a lick-spittle media, fall in lockstep, with this program.
The convergence of inexorable demographic, economic, and political realities and the growing, militant, and insidious, dependent, underclass presented by the so-called “Syrian Refugee” is creating a huge rift between the native populations of Europe, and their respective governments. Most are not from Syria at all, and most are not, as the term is commonly understood, “refugees”, but why dwell on these little details, right?
This rift has grown to invigorate and legitimize a broad range of “nationalistic” movements, to the horror of the paralyzed establishment organs. The establishment desperately repeats the condemnations of popular sentiments, by labeling them as “racist”, when as often as not, they are nothing of the sort.
Witness the threats and machinations in the face of weakening the idiotic supra-governmental European Union, via “Brexit”. The fact is that this organization, (really, like any government) only serves as a broker to victimizing the stronger and more responsible peoples to the benefit of those less so… with a hefty skim off the top, for good measure.
An important bellwether of this farce is the changing status of the European Jew. Those few Jews who remain in Europe, are increasingly split in two camps:
One; the secular. As in all other lands and ages of the last 3500 years or so, they inexorably fade from history’s stage, via low reproduction, assimilation, andintermarriage. Until they are, simply… gone.
Two; the (at least somewhat) observant. Just as in America, (and Israel, for that matter) they adhere to the principles that make them (to the revulsion of many) “eternal”. They reproduce. They marry among their people. They survive, as a people.
Post-war Europe, out of a sense of guilt, mixed with a desperate need for adaptable, smart, productive, citizens, hitched their wagons to, among others, the few remaining (and, as it happens, largely secular) Jews.
Most of the surviving Jews had left for new lives in America or Israel. The only exception were those held captive by Communism, and ground away mercilessly, in the Soviet Union and its satellites.
Now, with the twin prongs of the “Refugee’s” often violent, and savage, worldview, and the utter ineptitude & hostility, of their governments to address it, made worse by those few legitimate threats within “nationalist” movements, the smart Jews are packing up, and leaving.
Those that remain hide their Jewishness from the public eye, withdraw their children from public schools, avoid synagogue attendance, and often re-double efforts to assimilate into multi-culti, generic, Europeans.
In exchange for this loss, Europe is gaining a huge body of young Jihadis, and welfare recipients, with highly suspect ages – backgrounds – intentions. Sweden has become the Rape Capital of Europe. Denmark is barely better. France and Germany are subject to a wide variety of terror attacks by their new “Culture Enrichers”. Ask the British man on the street about Rotherham.
After two thousand years of abusing Jews, as with the First Muslim Conquests, Europe is receiving a very harsh lesson. And there is little sign that they have learned a thing in all that time.
Although America is not Europe, it shares some of its frailties. Our elites frequently ape the Europeans cultural & political fads. Will we make the same kind of mistakes, as well? Will we also arrange deck-chairs, while _our_ ship slips below the waves?
To create fire, you need a formula. Oxygen+Heat+fuel or combustible material=Fire. Tonight it’s pretty cold where I am, and the fire heating the house sure does make it more comfortable. In fact, I’d be pretty miserable without it. I remember when I was young and my family would go camping. We had one of those old Puma pop up campers, Dad and I could set it up in 5 minutes or less. Sometimes of an evening for a treat, we had a little campfire and roasted marshmallows and made s’mores. They sure did help us keep warm on some of the cool evenings. And I must say, they’re part of some lovely memories for me now.
But sometimes fires can get out of control, destroying homes, businesses, land and lives. If you have the proper tool, sometimes you can intervene while waiting for the fire department to show up and save your ____________________. Please pick applicable noun.
To do this intervention, you must first have the proper tool, which means you must know what tool to use in which circumstance. You can not treat a wood fire like you do an electrical fire or grease fire. No no. That turns out badly.
So let’s look at what type of tool to use for what type of fire.
Isn’t it interesting how there is no “one size fits all” approach to handling the same problem “fire”? But you also need to know how to use the fire extinguisher. It does no good at all to stand there holding it in your hands reading the directions as family photos passed down for years go up in flames. No, you need to have that bit sorted ahead of time. It’s as though you almost need to train to handle emergencies. Here’s a handy acronym I was taught.
P—Point
A—Aim
S—Squeeze
S—Sweep
Point the nozzle of the extinguisher at the BASE of the fire, aim to direct your spray of chemical and squeeze the handle sweeping the nozzle from side to side at the base of the flames.
So what’s with the Johnny Gage and Roy DeSoto impersonations?
…I haven’t seen a single call for banning the private possession of fire extinguishers. No one has screamed that zoning laws and building codes didn’t work (and apparently were actively ignored by authorities) and should be repealed.
No one raises an eyebrow over having different types of fire extinguishers, or being set up to handle different types of fire. Or even having the knowledge that there are different types of fire. When it comes to having a shotgun for hunting or killing varmints in the barn or chicken house, a rifle for killing them in the pasture and no matter how much I love those two, they will not fit in my purse, so a handgun for self defense? Why, to those in the mainstream media, or NYC that there is one of those so called “arsenals”. Who could possibly need all those guns, three of them? Well, three types. But I feel I need the three types for different situations, just like different fire extinguishers are needed for different fires. Different threats, different tools.
Just as it is not the tool, the gun itself, that is a threat, but who holds the gun, the lovely s’more generating fire that gives us a tasty family treat, can also destroy and kill. In fact, it can be used as a weapon of mass destruction.
In addition to the Oakland fire, there has been one in Tennessee. This resulted in 14 deaths in the Gatlinburg area and damage to over 1,700 structures. 700 homes and businesses were destroyed or damaged, including 300 inside the Gatlinburg city limits. The fires were spurred by dry conditions and high winds. More than 14,000 residents were displaced as the fires burned and more than 15,000 acres were incinerated.
Two juveniles were arrested. No names have been given. They were not from the Gatlinburg area, but they are from Tennessee. So I got curious. There is apparently an islamic guest house in Gatlinburg. Who’d a thunk it? But they aren’t from that area. I wonder if they are from Murfreesboro? Two hundred and four miles away, in case you wondered. Reading some of the comments under some of the articles I saw that some of the other readers had the same thoughts go through their heads.
But why would I have such thoughts? Well, it’s most likely because of what happened in Israel last week. Something called the “Fire Intifada”. The cost has been fearful for the small Jewish state.
More than two hundred fires were sparked in Israel. Part of the problem is that it has been dry and was windy, and that did help spread the fires. One hundred thousand Israelis had to flee their homes, and while there were no deaths, one hundred and twenty-two were treated for injuries. Seven hundred homes were damaged or destroyed in the one thousand seven hundred seventy three fires, twenty of which were major. Thirty-two thousand acres burned, twenty-eight thousand acres in Haifa alone. Four of the fires burning Haifa started in different parts of the city at the same time. I’m sure this was on the news nightly, right? Actually if the failing networks known as cnn and mslsd had covered it, it would have been something along the lines of “Cruel Israeli police and military stop arab youth from starting campfire to make s’mores and keep warm”.
But it did have a big coverage of twitter. The hashtag Israel is burning was very popular. That was the tag used by the gleeful arabs praying for Israel and the Zionists to burn to the ground. An iman in Canada was publicly asking allah to burn all of Israel to the ground. Deputy Defense Minister Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan believed that part of the fires were arson. Israeli police have arrested thirty-seven suspects in the fire intifada, some of which are Israeli arabs. A former Shin Bet heads, Israeli Hasson remarked this was the first time Falestinians had used a “weapon of mass destruction.”
During the fires, many countries sent firefighting crews and equipment to help the beleaguered Israeli crews. PM Netanyahu requested of Russia’s President Putin aid, and Putin responded he would immediately send giant planes to help. Greece, Italy, Croatia, Russia, Cyprus, and Turkey also sent aid to help in the battle. Even the Falestinian Authority sent crews to help. As one radio host pointed out, that was only fair since Falestinians set some of them. Notice who is not on the list? Right, the U.S. I howled on Twitter for a couple days that I could not believe we had nothing we could send that would help. As it turned out I was right, we did send a supertanker a few days into the firestorm. What I believe is different about the American aid sent, is that it came with a price tag. obama charged Israel one and a half million dollars for the use of the supertanker. Which is disgusting as whenever there is a disaster that strikes anywhere in the world Israel is one of the first to respond to offer aid and show up.
There are efforts underway to help Israelis replant the trees lost in the conflagration through the efforts of Zo Artzeinu. There is a little movie on the web site showing some footage shot by them during the fire, and the resulting damage. And yes, I’m getting trees.
It seems that what happens in Israel, is reflected in the US later. Sometimes not much later at all. That is partly why I wonder about the genesis of the fire in Tennessee. That and the fact Al Qaeda urged them to unleash hell with fires. Admittedly an old article, but that doesn’t mean that it will be forgotten or ignored.
Something else I head in the radio program was pretty interesting to me as well. In the Tanakh there is a section called Kings or מלכים or M’lakhim. I’ll give you a short story from M’lakhim 3:16-28. It’s a story of two prostitutes, each who had a baby boy. One of the babies died in the night and that mother switched her dead baby with the living baby of the other woman. The two women came before King Solomon for him to settle the dispute. The King’s response? Bring him a sword, he was going to divide the live baby and give each woman half. The real mother cried out not to kill the baby, but instead give him to the other woman. The woman who claimed the baby but had no actual love for him was fine with this solution and said go ahead. With that the wise king gave the baby to the first woman.
Because the woman claimed the child as hers but had no actual love for him, she was willing to see him put to death and burned to the ground killing all living things in the land, and trying to kill the land itself. Trees, vineyards, groves of fruit trees, innocent animals and people. Those lives had no meaning to her.
But to the woman who’s child it really was? Who bore the child, nursed it and loved it? She was willing to do anything to save it’s life. Including giving her to the other woman, calling President Putin and asking for help and paying barry one and a half million dollars for a supertanker that would have been given freely to any arab country that would have asked for it. She would do anything to save it because she loved it just that much.
Those with a vested interest in a disarmed, helpless populace would have us believe that a good guy with a gun stopping something bad is a myth. They carefully maintain that false narrative by ignoring numerous cases of exactly that. Or, worse, pretending the bad guy had a gun and no one else did. Every case of some asshole managing to do bad things — no matter how transiently — is viewed as proof that us “should-be” serfs must be unarmed for the common “good” (presumably the “good” of violent criminals who have a right to a safe workplace).
But how things change. In last week’s Oakland warehouse fire, in which…
the structure was being used as a multi-dwelling residence
the building lacked required fire alarms
the building lacked required fire sprinklers
unapproved wooden structures had been erected within
“rooms” were created by hanging flammable curtains
…I haven’t seen a single call for banning the private possession of fire extinguishers. No one has screamed that zoning laws and building codes didn’t work (and apparently were actively ignored by authorities) and should be repealed.
In fact, crappy fire inspections seem to be a known problem in Oakland.
Let’s compare. Some asshole attacks a dozen people with car and blade, and if a private citizen doesn’t stop him with a gun, that’s a failure of our lax gun laws, and clearly proves that Evil Black Rifles should be banned.
But dozens die when the city fails to enforce its own rules, leaving the mess to firefighters on the ground, and…
-crickets-
I sense a double standard here.
Ed. note: This commentary appeared first in TZP’s weekly email alert. If you would like to be among the first to see new commentary (as well as to get notice of new polls and recaps of recent posts), please sign up for our alert list. (See sidebar or, if you’re on a mobile device, scroll down). Be sure to respond when you receive your activation email!
Before I start, let me get a couple of things out of the way. First, I did not vote for Mr. Trump. Second, I am not in favor of a “Wall”, either actual or metaphoric, for a variety of reasons. Third, I do not fit comfortably in either the “Conservative” or Liberal” political camp in America. Okay, here we go…
Over the weekend a video has been flying about on social media. The original poster says he was in the community room / common area of his apartment or condo complex and it shows two others, a man and a woman berating him continuously for over ten minutes over his “wall” shirt, and ultimately everything about him.
He keeps his cool. He does a poor job (about what most of us would actually do, given the inevitable stifled emotions) verbally defending himself. He repeatedly asks the female to stop touching him, and asks them both repeatedly to leave him alone. To no avail.
If this had happened to me, I might have kept my composure through the first two or three minutes. Ten minutes of this? No way. Sadly, no way. I’m not proud of this, but, ten minutes of this crap?
I also would have gone silent after less than a minute. I would like to think that I’d have the presence of mind to simply call the landlord’s security team and ask for assistance. If that did not scatter them, I probably would have quietly closed up my computer, packed my stuff, and then drug those two people out of the building, saying simply, “Learn when to shut your mouth”.
Lots of discussion has centered on this episode (typically labeled as Liberals accosting a Conservative in California) with the usual “us vs. them” elements, and most notably, the anticipated “An armed society is a polite society”, assertion.
One discussion I was in on addressed the “Armed society” aspect, albeit poorly. It is this idea which I’d like to comment on.
It has been my experience that parts of the country one might describe as “Western” are often as not in the West, geographically. Yet, one aspect common to these areas, and the people who inhabit them, is a far more refined sense of the line between being neighborly, and butting into someone else’s business.
Like it or not, humans both want to live in social settings, and yet have a large degree of autonomy. When that balance is struck, we do well together. When not, excuses for creating or strengthening institutions like the State, start to gain credibility. To everyone’s detriment.
The episode in the video above comes about when there is an imbalance between the freedom to act and having to experience the consequences of that act. If those two expressed their displeasure at the shirt (even vigorously) and then went on with their lives, it would amount to nothing.
The problem is that they felt free to harangue him without limit. And they were correct in that risk analysis. The risk of experiencing harsh consequences for their verbal assault, then and there, were nill. The law, if present, would quite possibly go after him. At least they would draw moral equivalence between the bullies and their target.
The presence of guns is not the cause of a “polite society”. It is an emblem of one. It says, especially if carried openly, “I am ready and willing to live as a free man or woman, accept the consequences, and refuse to shunt off my responsibilities on others.”
Personally, and socially, the further we stray away from that, the more likely it is that the scales will be balanced with, often over-reaching, violence.
Recently there was a stabbing attack at the Ohio State University.
One RFV (I’m not giving his name, it should rot in hell with him) and his family presumably fled the violence of Somalia to Pakistan, or as barry says it Pah kee stohn in 2007. From Pakistan, the family came to America in 2014 where they were granted permanent legal status. Since then RFV has attended Columbus State and until a couple days ago, Ohio State University. I just find that interesting. I don’t think college tuition is cheap.
The refugee from violence (RFV) was so upset when he first arrived at OSU because he was a member of the religion of pieces and said there was no place for him to pray. Well, actually, there were three prayer rooms for people of the religion of pieces to pray, but hey he was new. I haven’t found mention in any of the reports how many rooms were set aside for Jewish and Christian students to go pray.
One of the statements he made was he felt uncertain how he would be received as a muslim and felt unsafe.
This is my first day. This place is huge, and I don’t even know where to pray. I wanted to pray in the open, but I was kind of scared with everything going on in the media. I’m a Muslim, it’s not what the media portrays me to be.
It’s been a interesting week for me on Twitter. Someone sent me a homemade video of a young boy, probably late teens holding a Bic pen. One of the ballpoint ones that you take the cap off. And he holds it in various positions, wearing different clothing, standing different places all the while saying “This is a knife”. He goes below camera angle so you only see his arm holding the pen and says “This is a knife”. He give statistics on how low terrorist attacks were in the US. Sadly he gave statistics ending around 2007. I inquired if he had any more recent statistics, say, oh from 2008-present. I have not yet heard back. But he ends his video with saying we see him as a threat because the media has portrayed him I such. I have yet to see any of the terrorists victims attacked with a Bic pen. But I didn’t say that, I thought obama’s term isn’t over, and that might be tempting fate. I would maintain that the media does everything it can to cover for the religion of pieces, including a cnn propaganda news reader suggesting women wear headscarves in solidarity with muslims a few hours before RFV commenced his non violent political protest by mowing down his fellow students with a borrowed car.
That raises a whole set of questions for me. Did the person that loaned the car do a background check on the RFV? Wasn’t there some kind of cooling off period before the RFV could borrow the potential weapon of mass murder? Will the person who loaned the car face criminal charges? Will the manufacture of the potential weapon of mass murder? I haven’t heard the answer to these troubling questions.
So the 18, 19 or 20 year old student, depending on which site you’re reading wounded 11 people, one of them critically as they evacuated one of the buildings in response to the fire alarm going off.
The same night I learned on twitter that the reason people are fearful of seeing muslims with Bic ballpoints is that we are fearful of being stabbed, I also learned I am an anti-Semite. I am an anti-Semite because I am a pro-Israel Zionist. I also learned that the Jews in Israel have nothing to do with the ancient Hebrews that lived there centuries ago. I gotta tell you, I have some friends that are going to be down right shocked to hear this. I am an anti-Semite? I think I just stepped into an alternative universe. Sort of like Orwell’s 1984. The reason the muslims are attacking U.S. is because
We’re now bombing seven Arab counties for the Greater Israel project. It hasn’t made them more America friendly though.
“Greater Israel”, hmmm, does that, like = evil Zionist?
I said sorry, I was busy grieving for the victims of the attack at OSU. He informed me no one died. Huh? 11 people rammed with a car then attacked with a butcher knife, but HEY, no one died. Well, guess it’s all okay then. But one is in critical condition, so is THAT maybe close enough to mattering?
So I have learned Jews in Israel aren’t related to Hebrews. I already knew I was a Zionist. Damn skippy. Oh, and I learned gab.ai is where white supremacists and evil Zionists go. Huh, who knew? All that came about because one of my favorite people Shim was suspended at twitter. Shim has always just rebutted crap with humor and facts. Shlomi was suspended because he said something about the children being brainwashed to kill and that apparently violated Twitter’s delicate community standards sensibilities. Canary Mission was suspended. Milo was suspended. I asked Aussie Dave about Canary Mission’s suspension, I guess some liberal didn’t like having what he/she said repeated and quoted in a public forum. Liberals, hating facts since they were first used.
There is just something so familiar about this. It’s like I’ve seen this movie before. I just can’t seem to put my finger on what’s familiar about it.
Ram with a car, chop with a cleaver or a knife. Apparently this is the isis playbook. Which should give one a good clue who’s behind the pieceful Falestinian attacks.
But there is a big difference in the second one. It was stopped very quickly. An armed citizen intervened. The one on campus was stopped very quickly as well, but only because the hero police officer was in the area due to a reported gas leak. My view is G-d was merciful. In the gun-free zone, GFZ, called OSU one of the few people allowed with a gun, a police officer, happened to be near-by that day. Had there not been a gas leak, I’m not sure what the response time would have been for the students being butchered alive.
The call was reported as a “shooting” and a “shooter” initially. So students did as they’ve been trained to do, run, hide and if all options are gone, fight. Not sure with what, maybe their Bic ballpoint. So students hid in bathrooms and wherever, thinking it was a shooting going on. I wonder, what would have happened had their been a second assailant with a knife roaming the halls. Would students have felt it was safe to be out in the halls since they heard no gun shots?
Predictably, the anti-self-defense crowd came swarming out from under their rocks calling for more gun control.
Former VP candidate Sen. Tim Kaine tweeted his angst (dodged a bullet on that one, having Kaine as a VP)
Demoncratic VP candidate Kaine
As did shannonrtwatts.
The ever confused Shannon
And some unknown odd person.
Some strange people chimed in.
So the only gun used was the one that stopped the car and knife attack and you want more gun control?
Perhaps like Britain, where soldier Lee Rigby was beheaded in public by the religion of pieces and they had to wait for “special” police officers who are allowed to be armed to get there. The usual officer on the street being disarmed. Unarmed police arrived 9 minutes after the call for help was placed, it was another 5 minute wait for armed police to respond.
Kind of interesting looking at the history of Columbus lately
