Convenient moral blindness

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Moral blindness in the face of evil is depravity. But in the upside-down moral universe of our world today, moral blindness has become a badge of honor. If you refuse to call evil by its name, then you are a moderate. And if you stand up to evil, you are yourself an extremist.

The embrace of moral blindness as an emblem of sophistication is nowhere more apparent than among American Jews. Take recent events on US college campuses. This week the Washington Times reported that a large and vocal group of Brandeis University students are organizing to protest the university’s decision to invite Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren to give this year’s commencement address.

In a Facebook initiative led by a student named Jonathan Sussman, several hundred students have joined the demand to disinvite Oren. Sussman claims that by inviting him, Brandeis is siding with “a rogue state apologist, a defender of (among other things) the war crimes and human rights abuses of the war on Gaza.”

 

Sussman gained notoriety earlier this year when he sought to organize students to disrupt former UN ambassador Dore Gold in a debate the university hosted between Gold and Richard Goldstone. Sussman, a self-proclaimed Communist is a member of the anti-American Students for Democratic Society.

 

For their part, pro-Israel students have defended the administration’s decision to invite Oren on technical grounds. In a dedicated Facebook page, Brandeis student Nathan Mizrachi wrote that protesting Oren is a “waste of time.” While allowing that Oren is controversial, Mizrachi argued against protesting his speech by claiming, “anyone who is consistently contributing to our worldview in a dignified, widely respected manner – instead of idiots like Michael Moore or Fox News – is someone who merits our attention.”

Mizrachi couldn’t bring himself to argue that Brandeis was right to invite Oren. He couldn’t be bothered to note that everything Sussman wrote is a lie. The most ringing endorsement of Oren’s appearance that Mizrachi could muster in response to Sussman’s latest attack was to say that it was a waste of time to protest his appearance and that  it “would truly be a disgrace to our university,” if protesters were to shout Oren down at commencement.

No offense to Mizrachi but his Facebook counteroffensive is not exactly what most people would call a particularly heroic defense of Oren, Brandeis or Israel.

Unfortunately, this is more often than not what passes as a pro-Israel message these days in the US Jewish circles. Following the example communicated by the US Jewish leadership, supporters of Israel often act as if shouting down Israel advocates is wrong only because doing so is an assault on freedom of speech. It isn’t that Israel is in the right and the Palestinians are in the wrong. It isn’t that Israel is a just and moral society. It isn’t that the IDF fights justly and morally and only in self-defense. It isn’t that the Palestinians have taken all the lands Israel has given them and transformed them into terrorist enclaves or that they democratically elected Hamas – a genocidal terrorist organization — to lead them. It isn’t that there is not now and never was a Palestinian leadership willing to accept Israel’s right to exist.

It’s just that it isn’t right to silence Israel advocates. It’s against the First Amendment. Zionists have a right to express themselves too. 

 

But then, not all Zionists. And not too many of them. Take the Jerusalem Post’s Khaled Abu Toameh for example. Abu Toameh was scheduled to speak at Tufts University last month. His talk, sponsored by Honest Reporting and CAMERA, was supposed to be held under the auspices of Tufts Friends of Israel. At the last minute, Friends of Israel cancelled his lecture. Abu Toameh was informed that the pro-Israel student group cancelled his talk as a preemptive move to avoid criticism from campus Arab groups. Tufts Hillel Director Rabbi Jeffrey Summit later wrote him claiming that the talk was cancelled due to an overabundance of pro-Israel speakers on campus.

The situation at Tufts and Brandeis, where pro-Israel students can’t figure out why Israel should be defended and don’t want to overload themselves with too many speakers defending Israel is downright wonderful in comparison to the situation at Berkeley. There Jewish students and faculty were galvanizing forces behind the divestment from Israel drive that passed overwhelmingly in the Berkeley student senate in March.

The divestment initiative, which called on the university administration to divest from General Electric and United Technologies for their joint projects with the IDF, was vetoed by the senate president. His veto was narrowly sustained in a later vote last week. In the meantime, the divestment drive has expanded to UC San Diego.

In an article published last month on the American Thinker website, UC Santa Cruz and UCLA professors Tammi Rossman-Benjamin and Leila Beckwith wrote that the divestment campaigns and the overwhelmingly anti-Israel atmosphere on campuses has made life extremely difficult and often frightening for Jewish students on campuses.

And yet, there has been no divestment of major Jewish donors from these institutions. There has been no demand that Hillel replace ineffective or anti-Israel administrators. There has been no demand that campuses fire professors like Berkeley Hebrew Professor Ruth Adler or Talmud Professor Daniel Boyarin who force their students to undergo anti-Zionist indoctrination in their classrooms.

Again and again, the official Jewish community and pro-Israel students’ response to anti-Israel campaigns and often violent onslaughts is to mumble out a protest against their infringement on the freedom of expression. That is, for many US Jewish leaders and Jewish campus activists, the biggest problem with the Red-Green alliance of leftists and Muslims is that they deny pro-Israel students and speakers the right to express themselves.

The mendacity of the Red-Green alliance’s claims against Israel, the bigotry of their increasingly open calls for Israel’s destruction, their denial of the Jewish people’s right to self-determination or even our right to define ourselves as a people all goes unopposed.

This is not a sustainable line of defense. This is not even the beginning of a defense – of Israel or of the rights of American Jews. But this state of affairs does explain very well why according to recent polling data, a half of American Jews under 35 would be okay with a world without Israel.

 

Some argue that what happens on the campuses is not important. What really matters is what happens in the grown-up world. Unfortunately, today we see that the depraved moral blindness of the classroom has brought about a situation where political leaders cannot recognize the moral depravity of the international community. And sophisticated grownups – and particularly American Jewish grownups — cannot or will not make their leaders pay a price for their depraved support for evil.

Take Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s decision to travel to New York this week to participate in the UN’s Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference. It is clear that Ahmadinejad’s purpose in travelling to New York is to ensure that the conference is a circus. Ahmadinejad means to make certain that to the extent a distinction is made between Iran’s nuclear weapons program and Israel’s purported nuclear arsenal, the distinction will claim that whereas Israel’s alleged nuclear arsenal needs to be destroyed, Iran’s interest in nuclear weapons is a justified response to Israeli badness.

Apparently anticipating his move, according to the Wall Street Journal US President Barack Obama has been discussing Israel’s alleged nuclear arsenal with Egypt. According to the newspaper’s account, the US is discussing Egypt’s demand that the Middle East become a nuclear-free zone. A senior US official claimed, “We’ve made a proposal to them [Egypt] that goes beyond what the US has been willing to do before.”

Some US Jewish groups have called for a protest of Ahmadinejad outside the UN building. Others have called on state delegations to stage a mass walkout during his speech.

But none have attacked the administration for agreeing to the false moral equivalence between Iran’s nuclear program and Israel’s nuclear program. None have condemned Obama for discussing Israel’s purported nuclear program at a time when Iran — that has declared its intention to destroy Israel — is racing towards the nuclear finish line.

Then too, the American Jewish community is silent as Obama strong arms Israel into indirect, Obama administration-mediated talks with the Palestinians. It is silent even as it is widely reported that Obama has threatened Israel that if the Jewish state builds homes for Jews in Jerusalem or refuses to accept a Palestinians state by next year, Obama will impose his own “peace plan,” on Israel. That is, the American Jewish community is all but mute as Obama does to Israel what Berkeley is doing to Israel.

The fact of the matter is that defending Israel against its enemies isn’t a freedom of speech issue. It is an issue of right vs. wrong. Israel is the state of the Jewish people. It is a great ally of the US. Judea and Samaria and Jerusalem were legally allocated to the Jewish people by the League of Nations Mandate in 1922 and that allocation has never been cancelled or superseded. Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria and neighborhoods in united Jerusalem are not illegal. The IDF did not commit war crimes in Gaza or anywhere else. Arabs are full citizens in Israel. When Israel fights, it fights to defend itself from aggression.

The aggression launched against Israel is conducted by societies and states that refuse to recognize Israel’s right to exist. It is launched by societies and states that ignore the laws of war, that refuse to respect even the most basic human rights of their own citizens let alone of Israelis. The Palestinians have yet to find even one leader who is willing to accept Israel’s right to exist or the Jewish people’s right to self-determination in our land.

This is the truth. This is where the defense of Israel begins. And it is the absence of this truth and this defense from the lexicon of Jewish American students and community leaders in recent years that has brought about a situation where the only reason not to attack Israel is because it is “a waste of time.”

It is the absence of this truth and this defense that has enabled a situation where the President of the United States can maintain the support of the American Jewish community while allowing others to equate Israel’s alleged nuclear arsenal with Iran’s nuclear program, and while treating Israel as if it were the root of all the pathologies of the Arab world.

And if the truth about Israel continues to be ignored by American Jews, not only will Israel be imperiled. The sustainability of their own community — that has embraced moral blindness in the name of moderation and sophistication — will be called into question.

 

Originally published in The Jerusalem Post.

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30 Comments

  • yuval 05/04/2010 at 6:00

    You cannot expect American jews to be more Zionist than Israeli Jews in Tel Aviv, Hebrew, Haifa and BenGurion universities. The fallacies of moral equivalence put forward by antisemitic american jews pale in comparison to the main-stream media in Israel. american jews hve chosen both galuth and assimilation, and Israel has become an affront to their choices

    Reply
  • beryy 05/04/2010 at 6:28

    caroline u are a breath of fresh logic in a world mired in confusion and warped ideals

    Reply
  • Marcel 05/04/2010 at 9:49

    Israel’s King Uzziah sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the visions of God: and as long as he sought the LORD, God made him to prosper.And he went forth and warred against the Philistines, and brake down the wall of Gath, and the wall of Jabneh, and the wall of Ashdod, and built cities about Ashdod, and among the Philistine…
    2 Chronicles 26
    It’s very easy to see why Israel is in dire straits in relation to it’s ‘friends’ and it’s enemies.
    With the cult of death Islam and their false god allah they are not ashamed to proclaim their lies.
    The Jews everywhere never make mention of their God except for whispered,empty lip service and use their own failed,worthless strength to fight Israel’s enemies and they are losing everywhere from the empty suit Netanyahu on down.
    Sadly Israel today is cowardly and fearful of Islam and there is no one standing up against thei evil forcefully and openly.
    it’s not politically suicidal and therefore deemed unacceptable.
    Israel has shunned the Truth,embracING AND compromisING with lies because her fasle god America has told her to do so.
    Israel dances with the devil to pleace her treacherosu masters on the Potomac.
    A PATH THAT IS DOOMED TO FAIL.
    How is it that all of Israel was fearful and in hiding and young David (before he became King of Israel) spoke against the giant Goliath in the name of the God of Israel and yet you and 99.9% of Israel are ashamed to mention Him ?
    Muslims are not ashamed of the lie they serve and follow and Israel has the Only true God and is ashamed to mention his name.
    Too faithless, too proud,too arrogant,too trusting in their own vain efforts to invite the Holy one of Israel into the picture.
    That is your problem Israel,you would rather grovel and run to your false god America than to follow in the only path to victory.
    “as long as he sought the LORD, God made him to prosper”
    You have to come to the end of your own (FAILED) strength and the Lord you ignore is your only hope.

    Reply
  • Steve 05/04/2010 at 10:01

    The moral blindness continues into the highest leadership within AIPAC and somewhat with the ADL where one also has to be oh so tactful with the anti-Semite in the White House in order to maintain contacts. Let’s not rock the boat – so what if another Jewish community gets exterminated, we don’t want it to happen here; Let’s not give any sort of offense by defending ourselves to even the most rabid anti-Semite – after all he has rights and feelings and he may even be right sometimes too.
    Bibi the Dhimmi has been bringing the same moral blindness from America to Israel. He talks tough about defending Jews in the Diaspora but when a French Jew gets tear gassed by Arab hooligans or another French Jew gets beaten up he remains silent. When Jews in the “occupied” areas of Jerusalem want to peacefully demonstrate, he tries to persuade the police to stop them. When a Jew tries to repair his home where Bibi the Dhimmi plans to be part of Arab Palestine, he has that home demolished but he lets Arabs continue their illegal building anywhere undiminished and of course he will never insist that any Jewish resident of the future Palestinian State be accorded the same civil rights as his Arab neighbours – the Jew will only have the right to be expelled.
    Bibi the Dhimmi also remains silent when in the new Charm Offensive the US demands Israel give up its nuclear arms and plays towards a moral equivalence with Iranian possession of nuclear arms. He also has to be oh so tactful, after all the rabid anti-Semite in the White House might be insulted and Bibi the Dhimmi might have to apologize again. Bibi the Dhimmi only got active when campaigning against maintaining a long held democratic process in the Likud. He has successfully prevented Likud MKs from being in a position to demand moral clarity and accountability from him and now the predominant majority in the Likud leadership is just as morally blind.

    Reply
  • US citizen 05/04/2010 at 10:03

    In my book there is a line about humans judging humans when we are done here but there is only one in charge of sentencing and He will have mercy on whom He will have mercy as we are all guilty of violating the law whether we can admit it to ourselves or not or whether we even understand how we have violated it. What humans think/believe is irrelevant. Man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of The Creator. How many humans agree with us or disagree means nothing. Only what we profess that agrees with The Word avails any of us a reward in heaven. What we do avails us nothing because if we do any good whatsoever it is God that works in us to will and to do and to Him alone is the glory for great things He has done.

    Reply
  • John 05/04/2010 at 10:58

    Caroline,
    I am getting a very, very, very sinking feeling. Your rock solid interpretations only lend to this feeling, unfortunately. I think I know what many people were feeling during the 1930s during the rise/acceptance of the Nazis and communism among many of the “intellectuals” of the west -especially among the students. This in the face of all actual data staring them in the face, and a century of FAILED statist experiments.
    I know not where this leads, but it cannot be to a good place. Obama and his “fundamental transformations” looks VERY familiar.
    I am 65 years old, and very sad. Was my age the last and brightest?
    John

    Reply
  • Marc Handelsman, USA 05/04/2010 at 12:50

    This convenient moral blindness is driven by fear of persecution. Most American Jews are too young to remember when their great-grandparents were denied jobs and promotions due to being too Jewish. Now a new generation of Islamic-driven, Jew-hatred has gradually moved onto campuses under the guise of so-called free speech. Jewish students feel threatened on campuses because professors are afraid to confront the evil of Anti-Zionism. The truth is: that as long as we allow fear to prevent us from taking strong moral stands, we will eventually lose our freedom.

    Reply
  • naomir 05/04/2010 at 13:30

    As always Caroline you tell it as it is. Have we become so complacent that we don’t realize the danger we are facing? Are American parents so afraid of stressing their little darlings that they cannot tell them the truth? I tremble at the thought that many of these young Jews are our future leaders. G-d help us all.

    Reply
  • Arius 05/04/2010 at 13:47

    John (above) wrote what I was thinking while reading your excellent article. Ours is a time of ferment very much like the 1930’s, a time of realignment and preparation for the cathartic explosion of violence and upheaval that will soon be upon us. It is now too late to divert history from that horrible purging. Israel must realize that Obama is what the US has become, and that it cannot depend on the US for its security.

    Reply
  • James 05/04/2010 at 14:02

    what have the Palestinians ever done for peace

    Reply
  • Steve 05/04/2010 at 14:08

    Marcel – we Jews historically have not had the luxury of worshiping publicly because of oppressors like you who demand we worship another God. Instead we generally invoke God privately in our Synagogues and homes.
    Except for a few actual philo-Semites, Christian Zionists are no more our friends than the Charm Offensive. Instead they hope that that if Jews suffer enough, especially if another Holocaust hopefully happens, what’s left of the Jews will bow down and worship their God Jesus otherwise Jews will go to Hell.

    Reply
  • https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawn2ueLZZP9lP1KVThPqwhHh94iGUGF-PcA 05/04/2010 at 14:58

    There do seem to be problems ahead, but Israel will survive and thrive. Eventually, I think they will all recognize that these weak defenses do them no good. Let’s hope. We here in the USA are guilty of the same thing and with the BHO administration in place, it’s only getting worse.

    Reply
  • Avi Sion 05/04/2010 at 15:46

    The way things are going, I sometimes fear that one day soon, if we are not careful and we do not react energetically to this new war against the Jews, the world as a whole will conspire to erase our race from this planet.
    The United Nations will vote to annihilate us, using all sorts of pious arguments to give themselves a good conscience about it. They will say it is a necessity for the sake of world peace and international progress. Everyone will be relieved and happy at last; a sense of unity and common purpose will pervade the world.
    An agency will be created and funded to overview the complex operation. Employment will increase and the economy will be stimulated. The Red Cross and Red Crescent will be appointed to ensure that humanitarian standards are maintained in this worthy cause. They will visit the construction sites of modern, computerized killing factories, and certify their painlessness and hygiene. If some of the Jews dare object or rebel, Amnesty International and Peace Now will brand them as terrorists. Other registered NGOs will make sure that, to be fair, all Jews are included in this Final Solution, and none are allowed to convert to other religions or to plead to have been Israel-bashing atheists. It will all be done cleanly and efficiently, putting Hitler and other predecessors to shame.
    This is I hope an extreme, nightmare scenario – but who would have imagined the Shoah humanly conceivable a few years before it happened?

    Reply
  • Devin 05/04/2010 at 16:32

    For decades Israel’s leaders have merely respond to the latest Arab liable, usually in apologetic tones, while refusing to state, in clear and consistent terms, their own case for historic Jewish rights in the Land of Israel. Israeli leaders have routinely used the term “occupation” and former foreign minister Zippi Livni stated that Israel has no legitimacy without a Palestinian state. The moral confusion of Jews everywhere is the inevitable result of Israel’s lack of moral clarity, leadership and failure to state her case and stand her ground.

    Reply
  • Carol 05/04/2010 at 16:54

    I feel as John expressed. Every day it is surreal, as I realize I am living through a transition into hell. I often find myself hoping I will die before I live to see the worst of it, or perhaps the worst of it will be what kills me. It’s disturbing beyond words, very difficult to live day-to-day, taking care of the little things in life, feeling happy or carefree, having old concerns. Now the new concerns are enormous and I know not what to do. It feels like a tsunami, so huge and powerful and without the powers that be doing the right thing, we all are left at the shore waiting to be washed away. I hate to be so bleak and I don’t think anyone should become passive. But I am painfully aware that this is a problem on a scale above and beyond what enlightened citizens can address – at least not without growing our numbers quickly. I believe we’ve passed a tipping point and now it is inevitability. Only a matter of time. I never thought I’d see the day.

    Reply
  • Marcel 05/04/2010 at 17:03

    This is what the God of the Jews says about their vain pursuit of peace by way of their Washington Pimps.
    Therefore hear the word of the LORD, you scornful men,
    Who rule this people who are in Jerusalem,
    Because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death,
    And with Sheol we are in agreement.
    When the overflowing scourge passes through,
    It will not come to us,
    For we have made lies our refuge,
    And under falsehood we have hidden ourselves.”…
    Your covenant with death will be annulled,
    And your agreement with Sheol will not stand;
    When the overflowing scourge passes through,
    Then you will be trampled down by it.
    Isaiah 28
    Steve wrote;
    ‘we Jews historically have not had the luxury of worshiping publicly because of oppressors like you who demand we worship another God.’
    Steve,
    I question your pitiful excuse for Israel’s plight.
    The God of Israel nevers gives us more than we are due.
    Marc and a few others have zeroed in on the problem.
    Fear which is evidence of the faithless grasshopper syndrome that infect the majority of Israel.
    I have never demanded that you worship another God.
    That makes you a false accuser and you do know the end for all false accusers ?
    I do rebuke Israel for ignoring God and putting Washington above God since Oslo.
    You wrote;
    ‘Instead they hope that that if Jews suffer enough, especially if another Holocaust hopefully happens’
    You bring your new holocaust by ignoring God and trusting Washington for peace.
    I’ve been warning proud,stubborn Israel of that since 1993.
    How is it that I know the Holy One of Israel’s peace plan and the majority of Israel does not and instead follow delusions and lies of peace with religious fervency ?
    ‘I will send My fear before you, I will cause confusion among all the people to whom you come, and will make all your enemies turn their backs to you. And I will send hornets before you, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite from before you. I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the beasts of the field become too numerous for you. Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased, and you inherit the land. And I will set your bounds from the Red Sea to the sea, Philistia, and from the desert to the River For I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you shall drive them out before you. You shall make no covenant with them, nor with their gods. They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against Me. For if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.”Exodus 23’
    You chose to ignore His way and follow your pimp’s way and with pride of heart and no humility you blame me.
    My hands are clean and your pride will be humbled by the Holy One of Israel, Steve.

    Reply
  • Anonymous 05/04/2010 at 17:10

    Since I started living with college students of UCLA a few months ago I noticed a big issue that they have with believing that they have to also care about the Palestinians while being pro Israel since there liberal ways make them believe thats that is there obligation even though the Palestinians themselves care nothing about liberty or freedom of any kind.
    The students are also afraid to fight back with posing resolutions on campus that go against countries like Iran, Sudan, Syria or Lebanon for whats going on there against there own people and there continued actions against Israel fearing that any attempt to eve bring up the issues of other countries will end up backfiring against Israel because the idea was brought up by a jewish group on campus or a “pro Israel” group.
    Even though at UCLA which is a campus that none seem to really care about politics that go beyond there school work the Hillel groups are much bigger in there pro Israel campaigns then the pro Palestinians are. But there they still have the issue of not wanting to go to far in how pro Israel they are so they won’t create a controversy on campus.
    During the apartheid week here or “Palestinian awareness week” aka Israel hate week the pro Israel group on campus decided to protest against what was going on so they can be heard. There main issue was where do they draw the line in there protest ? who do they go against so they it will be okay for both sides? They chose Hamas as the target and completely ignoring the other issues that we have with the Palestinians making it seem like Hamas is the only evil preventing peace in the region. They didn’t want to protest against the PA or Fatah since they are considered “moderates” and are accepted by the government. They also didn’t want to show any protests of the issues with education in the PA and the lack of freedom of press with are also which are big issues preventing any possibility for change in the future because it would be to much for the other side and they weren’t there to create that kind of awareness but just to protest against Hamas and say that Israel wants peace.
    There has to be a way to change this so that students will stop fearing being truly pro Israel and thinking that pro Israel puts you on the far right wing part of politics but the question is how?

    Reply
  • Walter 05/04/2010 at 19:33

    By Steve on May 4, 2010 2:08 PM
    “Marcel – we Jews historically have not had the luxury of worshiping publicly because of oppressors like you who demand we worship another God. Instead we generally invoke God privately in our Synagogues and homes.
    Except for a few actual philo-Semites, Christian Zionists are no more our friends than the Charm Offensive. Instead they hope that that if Jews suffer enough, especially if another Holocaust hopefully happens, what’s left of the Jews will bow down and worship their God Jesus otherwise Jews will go to Hell.”
    +++
    “[Christians Zionists] hope that that if Jews suffer enough, [that] Jews will bow down and worship their God Jesus”
    Steve,
    You are mistaken.
    I don’t want the Jewish people to suffer.
    I want the Jewish people to be blessed – BY THEIR GOD.
    Your God requires that you [as a covenant Jew] embrace him, and his law [not the sacrifices instituted by Moses, but embrace God’s law].
    Why?
    Because the law of God, is the righteousness of God, to bless the children Israel.
    Why can’t the Jewish people understand that today?
    If the covenant people turn away from their God, and turn away from God’s law, they will reap the curse.
    Read the Song of Moses,
    Deuteronomy 31:14 to Deuteronomy 32:47
    Isaiah 42:24
    Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to the robbers? did not the LORD, he against whom we have sinned? for they would not walk in his ways, neither were they obedient unto his law.
    The covenant people are cursed.
    They themselves, have *chosen* a curse!
    Because instead of embracing the righteousness of their God [his law], they turn away from God, and do what is right in their own eyes. [as *all men* do!]
    Will the Jewish people [God’s people] forever, remain a [symbolic] ‘scapegoat’ [Lev. 16], wandering in the wilderness [the world], *banished* [un-redeemed], *separated* from God’s [holy] presence?
    Leviticus 16 was meant to be instructive to the covenant people.
    A warning to the covenant people.
    That they should seize the ‘land’!!, **in righteousness!!**, or be cursed by their [self willed] unrighteousness [to wander the ‘wilderness’], until God [himself] redeems them.
    Deuteronomy 11:1
    Therefore thou shalt love the LORD thy God, and keep his charge, and his statutes, and his judgments, and his commandments, alway.

    8 Therefore shall ye keep all the commandments which I command you this day, that ye may be strong, and go in and possess the land, whither ye go to possess it;

    22 For if ye shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you, to do them, to love the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, and to cleave unto him;
    23 Then will the LORD drive out all these nations from before you, and ye shall possess greater nations and mightier than yourselves.
    24 Every place whereon the soles of your feet shall tread shall be yours: from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even unto the uttermost sea shall your coast be.
    25 There shall no man be able to stand before you: for the LORD your God shall lay the fear of you and the dread of you upon all the land that ye shall tread upon, as he hath said unto you.
    88888888
    26 Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse;
    88888888
    27 A blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you this day:
    28 And a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the LORD your God…

    Reply
  • Anonymous 05/04/2010 at 21:04

    Ms. Glick,
    Your commentary rings true to this rare Zionist American Jew.
    I am open to your suggestions as to how I might convince my fellows that hiding from the truths you outlined is unhelpful. I don’t understand how attitudes have so drastically shifted in my demographic over the past couple of decades, but I do think it hasn’t affected my family because we are religious.
    Isn’t that something? It used to be the secular majority ripped apart the “ultra-” Orthodox because we weren’t Zionist enough. My how times have changed.

    Reply
  • Sue 05/04/2010 at 23:50

    Steve, there are many Bible believing Christians around the world who love Israel and pray for her daily…and who do NOT believe there will be a second Holocaust. The God of Israel is not bringing His people Israel home to the land to see them destroyed. It is an understatement to say that He is active and watchful, that He has His hand on Israel to protect and preserve her, that He longs for Israel to depend on Him alone. I believe He is truly boiling mad at the nations that put such pressure on Israel to acquiese to enemies who have no interest in anything other than her destruction. God is on Israel’s side. He is lining the nations up against her to show in mighty and visible ways that He exists and that Israel- and Jerusalem- are forever His. He will bring His people back to Him and He will lead Israel to her place at the head of the nations. It is we Gentiles who are heading for trouble. In your quiet place away from us, pray for us that God will be merciful in judgement. Forgive us.

    Reply
  • Dymphna 05/05/2010 at 1:43

    I am fearful for Israel’s future. When Obama treated Netanyahu so disgracefully during his White House visit in March, it was almost too appalling to take in. Like Mark H, in a comment above, I have a sick, sinking feeling about Israel’s fate if it is in the hands of a man who seems to hate with a fine, laser-like intensity.
    The bit of good news I gleaned recently is that the Christian factions in Lebanon have put aside their internecine fighting since Hezbollah got those SCUD missles. If they can somehow implode or distract Hezbollah from its determination to fire those missles on Israel this summer, things may not be so black.
    The anti-Semitism in Europe, always latent, is being forced into renewal by the massive immigrations into the Continent. Malmo Sweden will be Judenrein soon — maybe by the end of the year. Then the Muslims can turn their full attention to the remaining ethnic Swedes.

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  • Anonymous 05/05/2010 at 2:35

    My parents tell me that when Hitler was rounding up Jews in Europe, the Jews in the US wre afraid to speak out, because they feared it would imperil their own situation as loyal Americam citizens, as though they wished to push the US into a war that was “only” to save fellow Jews – so most were silent. I am proud that my parents were not. But we all moved to Israel eventually to complete the job of speaking out for Jews. I fear that the Jews who stayed back in America with the excuse of being more useful to Israel from there have totally lost all credibility. Where are they now? Why don’t they speak out!? If they truly fear for their lives, let them come to Israel. I suspect they fear for their comfortable lives more.

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  • Marcel 05/05/2010 at 7:58

    The LORD is known by the judgment which he executeth: the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. Higgaion. Selah. The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God. For the needy shall not always be forgotten: the expectation of the poor shall not perish for ever
    Psalm 9
    I remember the first time I went to Israel in 1977.It was a different country.No drugs to be found,crime and sexual perversion was practically non existent,rapes,murders and the left was not yet madly insane.
    Today we can see how well Israel has imitated the god the serve and run to for peace.
    Sin,wickedness,Transgressions have reached their full in Israel and America and severe judgment is coming very,very soon.
    You wasted valuable time trying to please the nations and look where it got you.
    In futility you worked hard to be like them,all the while ignoring God’s commands.
    Israel’s God has raise up Iran,Hezbollah,Hamas to remove wickedness from the land of Israel.
    He made Israel’s leaders too stupid to defeat Hizbollah in 2006 and Hamas in 2009.
    A people who forget God and chase after idols and their false peace are stupid.
    Thak God for His mercy to those who cry out to Him.
    He will keep His faithful remnant who fear Him.
    He will destroy wicked,perverted,arrogant America along with it’s wicked inhabitants and save a small remnant who fear Him.
    After this He will defeat all of Israel’s enemies so that the world will know that the God of Israel is God alone.
    No more Islam.Jew and Arab will live in true lasting peace.
    The mental disorder of liberalism has poisoned Judiasm.
    Ignorance is endemic with the Jewish people today ,they elected their hangman in the US and they outdo Chamberlain in appeaseing the new Nazi’s,they keep electing worthless,secular losers who at best prove to be lap dogs.
    The humility of Daniel’s prayer, fasting,sack cloth and ash is no where to be found.
    God will humble his people Israel.
    It starts here for the survivors.
    In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the lineage of the Medes, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans— in the first year of his reign I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years specified by the word of the LORD through Jeremiah the prophet, that He would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.
    Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. And I prayed to the LORD my God, and made confession, and said, “O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments, 5 we have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments. 6 Neither have we heeded Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings and our princes, to our fathers and all the people of the land. 7 O Lord, righteousness belongs to You, but to us shame of face, as it is this day—to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, those near and those far off in all the countries to which You have driven them, because of the unfaithfulness which they have committed against You.
    8 “O Lord, to us belongs shame of face, to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, because we have sinned against You. 9 To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against Him. 10 We have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God, to walk in His laws, which He set before us by His servants the prophets. 11 Yes, all Israel has transgressed Your law, and has departed so as not to obey Your voice; therefore the curse and the oath written in the Law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against Him. 12 And He has confirmed His words, which He spoke against us and against our judges who judged us, by bringing upon us a great disaster; for under the whole heaven such has never been done as what has been done to Jerusalem.
    13 “As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us; yet we have not made our prayer before the LORD our God, that we might turn from our iniquities and understand Your truth. 14 Therefore the LORD has kept the disaster in mind, and brought it upon us; for the LORD our God is righteous in all the works which He does, though we have not obeyed His voice. 15 And now, O Lord our God, who brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and made Yourself a name, as it is this day—we have sinned, we have done wickedly!
    16 “O Lord, according to all Your righteousness, I pray, let Your anger and Your fury be turned away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people are a reproach to all those around us. 17 Now therefore, our God, hear the prayer of Your servant, and his supplications, and for the Lord’s sake cause Your face to shine on Your sanctuary, which is desolate. 18 O my God, incline Your ear and hear; open Your eyes and see our desolations, and the city which is called by Your name; for we do not present our supplications before You because of our righteous deeds, but because of Your great mercies. 19 O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and act! Do not delay for Your own sake, my God, for Your city and Your people are called by Your name.”
    DANIEL 9

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  • Ron Grandinetti 05/05/2010 at 9:23

    Caroline unfortunately the Jonathan Sussmans and Nathan Mizrachi’s of the world are products of the liberal left ideology contaminating our colleges and universities. All are part of the secular progressive movement.
    What is truly sad is it’s not a science to determine right from wrong, just a little investigating to recognize the good guys from the bad guys, and be able to distinguish the truth from the lies.
    I find it disturbing for any American Jew not to understand the lies and hatred directed at Israel by the anti-Semitics of the world.
    Jonathan and Nathan unknowingly have become the poster boys and cheerleaders for anti-Semitism.
    Self-hating Jews at best, shame on them.

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  • US citizen 05/05/2010 at 12:47

    If you tell me The Creator of the universe is unable to create and inhabit a vessel of flesh in the womb of a maiden, first makes me believe that you have not studied to understand as we have the same guide up to the New Testament and secondly I must resign myself to the belief that you will continue to believe that He didn’t and that Jesus is an other god than the one you consider God.
    The Creator is my only hope. He created and He is able to bring us forth again as He did Lazarus and as the One seated at His right hand is.
    Whether this avails anything or not I am compelled to make the attempt. As human I am example for no one but I have studied and sought The Creator and am grateful for His presence. I do not write to offend. I’ve got enough fight with my household to want more from others. We are all just trying to make it and we will all make it until we don’t.

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  • Sue 05/05/2010 at 17:48

    Oh Marcel, don’t you remember, it was for you and me and all Gentiles that the God of Israel put up a veil between Him and His people, for a time, so that we might no longer be without hope, so that we who believe in Him might share in Israel’s spiritual heritage with the God of Israel (share, and not for a single moment replace). He did it and He will end it and bring Israel back to Him. That time is nearly here. We all need to grow humility and thankfulness and lose our pride, we owe the Jewish people more than words can say. Your words are so fierce, where is the love?

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  • rebecca 05/06/2010 at 0:37

    Thank you Caroline for an excellent article (as always). Don’t forget that the people who run universities are the aging liberals of the 70s. Most students just want to get through their studies and stay away from politics. I am a religious Jew and a strong supporter of Israel, but I avoided confrontations on campus with those crazies. Thank you to all the christians for supporting us, Jews. As the world is turning gloomier by the day we we will need as much support and encouragment as possible.

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  • Steve 05/06/2010 at 9:08

    Sue – thank you, pray without ceasing.
    If an American bastard accuses me of dual loyalty I’ll tell him what he can do with his shitty big country but ahavas yisrael is a better motive for making aliyah.

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  • To Devin 05/06/2010 at 15:46

    Devin,
    You are right that American Jews are confused and unable to be supportive of Israel when they follow the lead of Israeli officials who are themselves not supportive of Israel.
    I’d argue that the problem is rooted more deeply in Jews’ failure to determine right from wrong in accordance with their traditional religious values. To the extent Israeli leaders are focusing on pleasing Barak Obama instead of their god, they’re going to continue to pursue unfortunate policies. Ditto American Jews who follow Israeli politicians’ leads instead of their rabbis’.
    The whole “post-religious” thing isn’t working out that well for Europe (where the exploding Muslim population–no pun intended–considers religion pretty important), and it certainly won’t accrue to the benefit of a state like Israel whose entire raison d’etre is defined by its religion.

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  • Bill K. 05/07/2010 at 1:19

    Do you want to know what powers the moral blindness you rightfully denounce? It is the moral code of altruism that Ayn Rand has fully exposed:
    “What is the moral code of altruism? The basic principle of altruism is that man has no right to exist for his own sake, that service to others is the only justification of his existence, and that self-sacrifice is his highest moral duty, virtue and value.
    Do not confuse altruism with kindness, good will or respect for the rights of others. These are not primaries, but consequences, which, in fact, altruism makes impossible. The irreducible primary of altruism, the basic absolute, is self-sacrifice—which means; self-immolation, self-abnegation, self-denial, self-destruction—which means: the self as a standard of evil, the selfless as a standard of the good. “
    “The injunction “don’t judge” is the ultimate climax of the altruist morality which, today, can be seen in its naked essence. When men plead for forgiveness, for the nameless, cosmic forgiveness of an unconfessed evil, when they react with instantaneous compassion to any guilt, to the perpetrators of any atrocity, while turning away indifferently from the bleeding bodies of the victims and the innocent—one may see the actual purpose, motive and psychological appeal of the altruist code. When these same compassionate men turn with snarling hatred upon anyone who pronounces moral judgments, when they scream that the only evil is the determination to fight against evil—one may see the kind of moral blank check that the altruist morality hands out.”
    http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/altruism.html
    The morality of altruism permeates the West today. The United States, Europe and Israel are paying the price for the lack of moral clarity or as Rand describes it “pronouncing moral judgment“. The United States and Europe cannot face the menace of militant Islam because they will not condemn the practitioners of the “religion of peace”. Israel engages a sham “peace process” with the Palestinians instead of denouncing them as primitive tribalists that need to renounce violence and to reform their society.
    Given these examples is it any wonder that American Jews are morally blind?

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