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March 30, 2007
Our Friends, The Saudis
On 9/11, 15 of the 19 hijackers came from Saudi Arabia. The special relationship between Saudi Arabia and America was jolted and potentially in danger from the al Qaeda attack. By now, most Americans who have been paying attention know that al Qaeda represents the apotheosis of Sunni Muslim fanaticism and has been supported with manpower and money by Saudi Arabia since its inception. The Saudis have always played a very clever game to protect their interests. They are weak militarily and rely on Western (ie, American) power to protect the Royal family form threats, yet have also bought off their internal opponents by funding the most violent of the Jihadi groups, the Wahhabi sect of Islam, and directed their hate and violence outward, toward Westerners, especially Jews and Americans.
To read this fascinating and accurate article by Seraphic Friend Shrinkwrapped, please click here.
Karen and I wish you all a lovely and meaningful Shabbat.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 11:59 AM | Comments (0)
Odd Inclinations
a·cer·se·com·ic
n. a person whose hair has never been cut
e·loz·ab·le
adj. amenable to flattery
gy·no·ti·ko·lo·bo·mass·o·phi·li·a
n. a proclivity for nibbling on women's earlobes
Hat Tip: Futility Closet
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 11:33 AM | Comments (4)
March 29, 2007
UN to the Rescue
After days of tortuous debate the UN has finally spoken out on the Iranian kidnapping of the British sailors.
Here it is: The UN have expressed grave concern over the incident.
They will not, however, deplore the incident.
Um, hellooo, it's not an incident. It's an act of war. Just thought we should clear that up for the moral cowards at the UN.
Anyway, that's the language the UN have been debating for the past few days.
Whew.
Strong stuff.
Okay, now the UN can get back to what it does best: passing Jew-hating resolutions against Israel.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 07:03 PM | Comments (2)
British Hostage Crisis in Detail
Verum Serum analyzes the British hostage crisis in detail. The Iranians can't even tell a convincing lie. Superb.
The Mainstream Media, who get all excited about Gitmo, don't seem terribly indignant as the Persians parade kidnapped Leading Seaman Faye Turney on TV. It's like: Oh, doesn't she look fashionable with her head wrapped like that. And: She says the barbarians are treating her really well so it must be true; And: She did admit that the Brits were in Iranian waters so that must also be true.
Of course, she wasn't tortured, or threatended with torture, right?
And look, it is, technically a violation of the Geneva Conventions, but, well, it's their culture and at least we know the sailors are alive, so really, the Persians are acting compassionately.
Thus goes the thinking of our chattering classes.
Here's the bottom line: The Iranians committed an act of piracy. Yes, piracy. They should be hunted down and hung like the cowardly dogs they are.
You do not negotiate with pirates.
You kill them.
Anything less will only open the door to another, bigger act of piracy.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 04:15 PM | Comments (11)
How to Win & Lose
How to Win in Iraq by Arthur Herman.
Here's a sample:
To most Americans, the nearest example of a failed war is Vietnam. As in Iraq today, we came up against a guerrilla-type insurrectionary force led by ideological extremists; in the end, we were forced to withdraw and surrender the country of South Vietnam to the aggressors. But an even more striking parallel to our present situation exists in the French experience in Algeria almost exactly 50 years ago. There, French troops and a beleaguered local government faced an insurgency mounted by Muslim extremists who had managed to gain the upper hand. In response, the leadership of the French army had to figure out, almost from scratch, how to fight unconventional wars of this kind--with results that have influenced the thinking of counterinsurgency experts ever since.
The armed insurrection against French rule in Algeria began in November 1954. The insurgent force, the National Liberation Front (FLN), was a direct prototype of today's al Qaeda and the insurgent forces in Iraq. Its leaders were motivated less by nationalism than by virulent anti-Western (and, not incidentally, anti-Jewish) ideologies. Their goal was not military victory, which they knew was impossible in the face of French conventional force. Instead, they set out to provoke reprisals against Muslims by Algeria's whites in order to trigger an all-out civil war. To this end they employed terror bombings, torture and the savage murder of Muslim moderates and Algeria's professional class. "One corpse in a suit," an FLN leader was quoted as saying, "is worth 20 in uniform." All the while, the main audience they were trying to reach and influence was not in Algeria; it was in France itself. As the American counterinsurgency expert Bruce Hoffman has written, the Algerian rebels "were counting on the fatigue and disenchantment of the French to help turn the tide if the war lasted long enough."
It was a brilliant plan. Like American troops in Iraq today, French troops in Algeria found themselves reacting to one crisis after another, while a succession of commanders, strategies and resources were rotated into the effort in piecemeal fashion. Even with 140,000 soldiers on the ground, in a country with less than half the population of Iraq in 2007, the French government found itself helpless to reverse the course of events. The rapidly deteriorating situation prompted Algeria's white population to turn against its government. By late 1956, when terror bombings in the capital city of Algiers killed 49 people and maimed many more, the overstressed, overstretched French police and army were ready to throw in the towel.
As you can see, this is a fine article and well worth your time. I also recommend Herman's book: To Rule the Waves
Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, Daniel Wohlgelernter, M.D.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 03:45 PM | Comments (2)
Iwo Jima in Lebanon
Inside Hizballah's Hidden Bunkers
The elaborate network of bunkers and fortified firing positions built over a six-year period in sealed-off valleys and hilltops throughout south Lebanon was key to Hizballah's ability to survive Israel's onslaught during last summer's month-long war. Israeli soldiers spoke of Hizballah fighters bursting out of the ground to loose off a rocket-propelled grenade before disappearing into the earth again. Israeli air crews hunted, often in vain, for the sources of Katyusha rocket fire, sometimes emanating from within a few hundred yards of the border. One bunker complex discovered and dynamited by Israeli troops a week after the cease-fire reportedly covered more than a square mile and was fitted with hot and cold running water and air conditioning.
To read the entire story, please click here.
It is important to note that just as on Iwo Jima, air power alone cannot root out, nor destroy sophisticated bunkers filled with terrorists who are there expressly to die. It is only a solid and well-planned ground offensive, with seasoned troops, that can annihilate such an enemy.
Make no mistake about it, Round #2 between Iran (Hizbullah) and Israel is coming soon. Let us hope and pray that Ehud Olmert, Tzipi Livni and the rest of the incompetents of this shameful government will be soon gone, and true warriors, committed to total victory over the Iranian lapdogs in Southern Lebanon, are firmly in office.
A replay of last summer's fiasco will be disastrous for Israel, and for Western civilization.
Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, Jake Novak.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 12:21 PM | Comments (5)
Allies in War
"We shall not fail or falter; we shall not weaken or tire. Neither the sudden shock of battle, not the long-drawn trials of vigilance and exertion will wear us down. Give us the tools, and we will finish the job."
"You name them. I'll shoot them."
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 11:46 AM | Comments (6)
March 28, 2007
Shadow War
The very public diplomatic game going on among England, Iran, and America, masks a deadly covert war that does not make the front pages of your newspapers.
Why have the Iranians chosen this moment in time to kidnap these British troops?
First and foremost, Iran's economy is in shambles. The mullahs are desperate to divert restless public attention from domestic troubles: lack of basic services, food and gas — to the "foreign devil." It's a reliable Communist ploy that the Islamic tyrants find most useful. Hence, all the sound and fury regarding Holocaust denial in Tehran. It's the oldest playbook in the world: scapegoat the evil Jooz!
Plus: The surge is starting to work in Iraq. General Petraeus is bad news for the mullahs.
Though the Democrats have, on The Hill, created their own surge—for Iran. This warms the heart of every jihadist and mullah in the Middle East. In the words of Dennis Miller: “The Democrats want to slap an expiration date on wars.”
Now all the jihadists have to do is sit and wait. They know in advance when the Americans will surrender.
Let the throat-slitting begin — the day after.
In addition, an intense covert war has been taking place between Persia and the West. This public kidnapping, an Iranian specialty, is an attempt to halt the covert war in its tracks, bring Western liberals on-board as jihadist water-carriers, and thereby assure a continuous flow of cash to Iran. And, of course, the ultimate goal, guarantee the nuclear build-up—to an Islamic bomb—from which Iran can dominate the region, and annihilate Israel—her stated goal.
Several weeks ago, to slow the march of this genocidal plan, Israel's Mossad assassinated an Iranian nuclear scientist.
In retaliation, in Paris, David Dahan, head of the Israeli Defense Ministry Mission to Europe, was assassinated by Iranian agents, the MOIS. The Israelis put out the cover story that Dahan committed suicide, but it is quite clear that this was a MOIS hit. Dahan died in service to his country. Baruch Dayan Emet.
Ali Reza Asghari, a former Iranian deputy defense minister, defected to the West while visiting Turkey. He is now being questioned by US intelligence. Asghari is a most valuable asset. The West will use his information to analyze the Iranian nuclear defense capabilities.
This is a tremendous threat to Iran's nuclear establishment. You can be sure that Israeli and American pilots are, at this very moment, punching in new coordinates, and flying practice missions with ferocious bunker-busting payloads that are just right for their newly acquired targets.
It is against these and other, even more secretive covert actions, that the Iranian's have acted. It seems clear that, among wider regional considerations, the Iranians are determined to use the unfortunate British personnel as bargaining chips in a large and quite deadly game.
It would be well for the British and the Americans to remember the lessons of the Carter administration—an appallingly inept group of whiners and appeasers.
We must not allow an entire civilization be held hostage.
There must be an appropriate military response.
The Persian kidnapping of the British troops was an act of war. The British and her allies should begin by bombing the Iranian oil refineries.
Nothing else will be heard or understood.
Now, more than ever, a firm hand is needed to deal with Iranians—once and for all.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 01:53 PM | Comments (22)
Guess Who's Going to Deport Palestinians?
Libya's leader Muammar Gaddafi has decided to boycott the Arab League's summit, set to be held in Riyadh at the end of March, in response to what he considers as the Arab leaders' plan to "sacrifice" the refugee issue in order to please Israel.
Gaddafi is worried that in the framework of the Saudi peace initiative, Arab leaders would concede the refugees' right of return, and agree to have them naturalized in their countries of residence, in a bid to encourage Israel's cooperation with the peace plan.
Libyan newspaper al-Jamahiriya reported this week that Libya may begin deporting Palestinian refugees soon, in protest of the Arab plan.
To read the rest of this story, please click here.
Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, Jake Novak
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 12:05 PM | Comments (0)
The John Doe Manifesto
Earlier this month, six publicity-seeking imams filed a federal lawsuit against US Airways and the Metropolitan Airports Commission in Minneapolis/St. Paul. The Muslim clerics were removed from their flight last November and questioned for several hours after their suspicious behavior alarmed both passengers and crew members. Minneapolis Star Tribune columnist Katherine Kersten reported last week that the imams, advised by the grievance-mongers at the Council on American-Islamic Relations, also plan to sue "John Does" -- innocent bystanders who alerted the authorities about their security concerns. Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., has introduced legislation to protect John Does who report suspicious behavior from legal liability. The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty; talk show host Michael Reagan; Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, who heads the American Islamic Forum for Democracy; and Minnesota lawyer Gerry Nolting have all stepped forward to offer free representation to the imams' targets.
To read the rest of the mighty Michelle Malkin's John Doe Manifesto, please click here.
Hey, I have an idea: Elect Caroline Glick Prime Minister of Israel, Michelle Malkin President of the United States, and we'll finally have leaders who will not hesitate to put down the jihadists who threaten America, Israel, and Western civilization.
You want John Doe buttons and stuff? You can buy 'em here.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:48 AM | Comments (0)
Embracing Jihadist "Peace"
In an open act of war, Iran Friday kidnapped 15 British soldiers in the Persian Gulf. Iran's act of aggression occurred just as the British voted in favor of a UN Security Council resolution imposing increased sanctions against Teheran for its illicit nuclear weapons program.
Several theories have been raised to explain Iran's behavior. Some say that the Iranians acted against the British in the hope that Britain would respond by abandoning its alliance with the US and swiftly pulling its forces out of Iraq.
Another theory is that in kidnapping the sailors the Iranians are seeking to reenact their ploy from last summer. Then, Iran ordered its Lebanese proxy Hizbullah to kidnap IDF soldiers in order to divert the international community's attention away from Iran's nuclear program. As is the case with the British servicemen, so last summer's attack on the IDF took place as the Security Council was expected to convene and discuss sanctions against Iran for its pursuit of nuclear weapons.
Yet another theory has it that Iran kidnapped the sailors to use as a bargaining chip to force the US military to release Iranian operatives who the US has arrested in Iraq in recent months. Whatever the case may be, it is absolutely clear that the Iranians intentionally fomented this international crisis with the expectation that their aggression would in some way be rewarded.
To read the rest of Caroline Glick's article, please click here.
Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, Yonason Fisgus M.D.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:03 AM | Comments (3)
UN: Human Rights Nightmare
The UN's Human Rights Commission has been told it is a hypocritical and prejudiced body which does nothing to help millions of people in need, due to its obsessive focus on demonizing Israel.
In a speech given during a session of the Human Rights Commission on March 23rd, Hillel Neuer, Director of UN Watch, delivered a scathing attack on the commission's track record, describing it as a "human rights nightmare."
Responding to the speech, the Council President Luis Alfonso De Alba said Neuer's speech fell short of "minimum proper conduct," adding that Neuer's comments were "inadmissible."
Click here to watch the video of Neuer's wonderful speech and De Alba's infamous response.
Let's look at just some of the UN's recent and bloody track record: Genocide in Rwanda. Genocide in the Sudan. Four million dead in the Congo. Mass murder in Sierra Leone. And dictator Robert Mugabe has led Zimbabwe into economic and social collapse.
The list is endless.
The UN, at best, is an enabler of despots and genocidiers.
Whenever I hear the phrase "the international community" I know that I am dealing with a moral idiot, or a Jew and American-hater.
Have you noticed how the two hatreds now flow together? Those who hate Jews will, you can bet your bottom dollar, hate America, and by the way, hate pious Christians.
Know that the UN is financed overwhelmingly with American tax dollars. Those dollars are spent, time and again, on resolutions condemning Israel. Resolutions that are passed by iron-fisted Islamic dictatorships against a transparent and free Jewish democracy.
Hunger is never alleviated by the doltish machinery of the UN.
Misery is never reduced by the maddeningly inefficient UN.
In fact, the only machinery that runs smoothly at the UN is the culture of corruption.
In fact, it can be shown that the UN increases human suffering by building cultures of dependency, by erecting vast and self-perpetuating bureacracies of corruption. Witness the so-called Palestinians: the biggest welfare witches in the history of the planet. They have received zillions of dollars in aide and what do they have to show for it?
Ten billion Kalachnikovs.
Well, they do have their priorities, don't they?
The world would be a better place if that vile building in Turtle Bay were torn down, the earth salted, and a Synagogue and Yeshiva built on that land. Then, and only then, would the space the UN occupies serve any useful purpose.
Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, Kishke.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 07:27 AM | Comments (4)
March 27, 2007
Robert Steps Out
The Mission
"I need a manual can opener."
Karen mimes a leveraging motion in the air: wrist held aloft, then a downward motion, like an oil derrick: pump, pump, pump.
"Not electric, Robert, got it?"
I rip a post-it and carefully scrawl: man can opnr.
"We also need dishtowels, two red, two blue, one large bathtowel, and one colander."
On the post it, I add: dsh twls bl, rd, 1 bth twl, 1 ?
"What's a colander?"
Karen yanks open a kichen drawer, hauls out a bowl that has lots of holes in it.
On the post-it I write: clndr: prfctly gd bwl thts bn prfrtd by AK-47.
"Got it?"
"Uh-huh."
"I head to the door."
"Robert, where you you going?"
"Um..."
"You know where your gun shop is?"
"You have to ask?"
"Okay, the store is parallel to your gun shop, so just take Pico, make a left on Beverly Glen, then a left on Olympic, go straight on Olympic and you'll see it on your right in about two miles. Can't miss it."
The Gadget Wall
I don't get out much. When I step into the store I halt in my tracks. I am simply overwhelmed by the hustle and bustle, not to mention the zillions of products for sale.
I reach for my post-it. Grasp it in my grubby paw, and hold on for dear life.
Just to show that I mean business, I grab a shopping cart. Naturally the front right wheel wobbles and makes this weird little horror movie sound.
I have never seen so many garbage cans in all my life. So many ways of disposing of life's trash. Up and down the aisles, I wander. I'm looking at these weird little desk fans. Hmm, maybe I should get one for Offspring #3 when she hits Stern College. It gets awfully hot and muggy in New York. And look, this one comes in pink. Isn't that cute. And here's one desk fan that has this fuzzy thingee all over it. It actually looks like a Tribble from that great Star Trek episode.
Screeech.
I hit the brakes.
I grab a salesman.
"Excuse me, I need a can opener."
"Over there, aisle 12, The Gadget Wall."
He actually says it with capitals.
The scale of The Gadget Wall is enormous. I'm talking El Cap. I stand at the base of The Gadget Wall, craning my neck as I look up. I get dizzy, like Jimmy Stewart in Vertigo.
They have gadgets piled twelve deep. After about five minutes I manage to locate the can opener section.
Guess what?
Of the ten dozen can openers, not one is manual. Every single can opener is electric.
I wander around, my post-it still in my fist, and manage to grab hold of another salesman.
"Excuse me, I need a manual can opener."
I realize that I sound disturbingly like a drug addict saying: I need a fix.
He looks at me, confused, "Wha?"
I do what Karen did. Make that little leveraging motion in the air. Wrist held aloft, the downward motion, pump, pump, pump.
"Manual. Can. Opener." I repeat.
Salesman walks me over to the Gadget Wall. Grabs an electric can opener.
"These are better."
"Karen wants manual."
"Who's Karen?"
"My wife."
Salesman grins.
"You tell Karen this much better."
Oh boy.
I think there's a definite cultural divide here.
"Listen, I'm not gonna tell Karen this is better. Karen wants a manual can opener."
Salesman challenges: "How come?"
Smiling: "I didn't ask. She's my wife. You know how it is, right?"
"I guess."
"And your job is to help the customer, right?
He shrugs. He's not sure.
We just stand there.
Finally, he has an idea. "Lemme get my Floor Manager."
The Actress, Sorta
Two minutes later, Salesman returns with a tall, black-eyed woman. She must have tons of authority for she carries a clip-board. I'm impressed as heck. She's like a Color War General in Camp Morasha. She's thin as a whisp of smoke, and she's got blue/black hair the color of a Colt single action .45. Floor Manager has the unmistakable look of an out-of-work actress. She is radiant—but hard. Think: Maria Montez meets The Great Texas Dynamite Chase. I'm something of an authority on this embittered Hollywood look. I've been observing it for over twenty-five years.
"Can I help you sir?"
"I need a manual can opener."
She just gazes at me with those bottomless, flinty eyes. Man, I would cast her as a killer babe in no time at all. She doesn't have to act; she has presence.
I do it again. Miming the action: pump, pump, pump. I'm turning into a regular Marcel Marceau. Which, if you think about it, is absolutely pathetic.
I hate mimes.
The Salesman adds: "Karen wants it."
The Floor Manager asks: "Who is Karen?"
The Salesman says: "The Mrs."
The Floor Manager says: "Got to be manual?"
I say: "That's what my wife wants."
The Floor Manager goes: "Gotcha."
We just stand there. This store is about 14 million square feet stuffed with every product on the face of the earth (except guns!) and we three adults are in a, ahem, Mexican/Jewish stand-off.
The Floor Manager says: "Lemme see what we got in back-stock."
She disappears.
Salesman shuffles merchandise from one rack to the next.
"You think she'll come back?" I ask.
He shrugs.
Ten minutes pass. The Salesman drifts away.
I hum to myself.
People gaze at me. Everyone is shopping. They have a purpose in life. I, on the other hand, am just standing and humming: "Oh Say Can You See, By the Stars Early Light..." etc.
It hits me: I have been cruelly abandoned.
I manage to find a really soft bath towel, four great dish towels that are super absorbent, and just the right shades of red and blue. The colors are very Barnett Newman.
Colander. This is a bit more difficult. Karen should have warned me that there are about one-hundred different brands and shapes of colanders. There are big colanders and little colanders. There are round colanders and triangular colanders. There are plastic colanders and aluminum colanders. And I don't even want to get into the various holes that the manufacturers drill into colanders. It is seizure inducing.
Here's what I always do in such situations, I follow the advice of Maimonides, The Rambam. In Hilchos Dayos, Rambam tells us that in life it's always wise to follow Derech ha-emtzai, the middle path.
I do not buy the most expensive, I do not buy the cheapest. I buy somewhere in the middle.
Okay, mission almost accomplished. So I didn't get the manual can opener. Karen will understand.
Front wheel screeching and wobbling, I make my way to the cash registers. Suddenly, the hard-eyed Store Manager falls into step beside me. She holds out a dust-covered little plastic package.
"Here you go."
"Wow, where'd you find it?"
"In the back. Last manual can opener in Los Angeles. Look at the price. Dollar ninety-five. Bargain."
"I thought you ran out on me."
"Nah. You shopping for your wife like that. It's like so sweet."
"Thank you."
"You're welcome."
"Hey, hope you don't mind me asking; you an actress?"
The Floor Manager giggles. She doesn't look so hard-eyed any longer. In fact, she looks like what she is: a sweet, generous Los Angelino.
"You kidding? I'm studying to be a paralegal."
Sheesh, so much for my twenty-five years of so-called expertise.
She flashes me a brilliant smile, bops back to work.
I should get out more often.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 07:12 AM | Comments (44)
March 26, 2007
The Persian Plan
The capture of British Navy servicemen by Iranian forces is not simply an incident over sea sovereignty in the Persian Gulf. It is a calculated move on behalf of Teheran's Jihadi chess players to provoke a "projected" counter move by London and its American allies. It is all happening in a regional context, carefully engineered by the Mullahs strategic planners. Here is how:
To read the rest of Walid Phare's analysis, please click here.
And this from Strategy Page:
A French court has accused former (1989-97) Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani of accepting (between 1996 and 2003) over $80 million in bribes, from French oil company Total, to insure French success in gaining oil contracts in Iran. President Ahmadinejad wants to crack down on this sort of corruption, but most of the senior conservative clerics are on the take, and don't want to lose this lucrative source of income.
The French.
And they accuse America of invading Iraq for oil.
Disgraceful.
It is time for America to realign and understand that France is not an ally, not quite an enemy—but an ally to our enemies. As they were during World War II.
Vichy to the core.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 12:30 PM | Comments (6)
Prison: Just like High School
Seraphic Disclaimer: This post contains some language that is a bit, actually, a lot more graphic than is normally found in Seraphic Secret. So if you are young, under 18, religiously modest, or secularly modest, the following, which deals with life in a women's prison, might not be appropriate reading matter for you.
“We figured you're like this Hollywood scumbag liberal.”
I'm sitting with a CO, a female Corrections Officer, outside, on the yard, at one of the picnic tables. The yard is teeming with hundreds of female inmates. Some are playing basketball and they are quite good. Later I learn that they have two "crack" shooting forwards who were high school stars—brought low by "bad men and badder drugs." Women pump iron too, and I actually have to squint to assure myself that the women are, ahem, women. Their bodies are so buffed they appear as if chiseled by a Renaissance artist.
So begins Part II of my prison series, Prison: Just like High School.
A few years ago, researching a film, I spent a fair amount of time in a women's prison. It was a life-changing event. I wrote a seven part series and published it here in Seraphic Press about a year ago. I've polished the copy, rewritten many sections and now it's being published in Virtual Jerusalem on a weekly basis.
In case you missed it, here's Part I: My Murdering Ladies
Anyway, it's yours truly and one thousand violent women.
Sigh. My glamourous Hollywood life.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:06 AM | Comments (4)
March 25, 2007
Quick Cuts
Here are some books I've read in the past few days that I'd like to recommend. As you can see, they run the gamut:
Wisdom from the Batcave: How to Live a Super, Heroic Life by Cary A. Friedman. This is Batman as mussar, ethics. A slim and lovely volume that goes to the core of why we love this crime-fighter. Rabbi Friedman does a superb job of teasing moral lessons from the darkly lit Batcave.
The Essential Writings of Abraham Isaac Kook, Edited, Translated and Introduced by Ben Zion Bokser. This fine book consists of letters, aphorisms and excerpts from larger essays and other writings selected to provide a wide-ranging introduction to the thought and writings of Rav Kook, one of the great Jewish thinkers of the Twentieth Century.
The Golden West, by Daniel Fuchs. This might be one of the best books ever written about Hollywood by a working screenwriter. Fuchs wrote three well-received novels. They did not sell. He was brought out to Hollywood in 1939, and he stayed. He was not bitter. He was not angry. He was grateful for the sunshine, for the opportunity to make a good living. Fuchs understood the business and he also understood that the men and women who made the movies were a special breed inventing a new kind of culture. If you care about the real Hollywood, do not miss this book. There's also a fine introduction by John Updike.
On the Reliability of the Old Testament by K.A Kitchen Hey kids, guess what, the Torah is, uh, reliable. Actually, this is an extremely serious and scholarly refutation of the "minimalist school" by a Professor of Archeology, Classics, and Oriental Studies, University of Liverpool, England. My father has another name for the minimalists: Jew-haters.
A War Like No Other by Victor Davis Hanson. How Athens and Sparta fought on land and sea. It's all here: tactics, torture, targeted assasinations, terrorism. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Every page drips with lessons for our war on terror. Hanson is our Clausewitz, our greatest philosopher on war.
I'm Just Here for the Food by Alton Brown. Okay, I've finally learned how to crack an egg without getting eggshell in my omelette. Alton Brown is the Clausewitz of the kitchen; a warrior with a spatula.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 03:14 PM | Comments (10)
Best of the Jewish Blogosphere #111
Here we go, Haveil Havalim #111 has hit cyberspace, and this is the Daf Edition. Compiled by Daf Notes, our Cyber Chavrusha does a great job of digging his thumb into the cyber Beis Midrash and coming up with the best of the Jewish blogosphere.
Daf Notes even prefaces with a nice D'var Torah, and appropriately in the wake of Cathy Seipp's z'l tragic and untimely death, it is a Daf, a page, from the gemara, the Talmud, about avelut, mourning.
Yasher Koach, Daf Notes. Now I know where to go when I'm too lazy, er, when my alarm clock doesn't go off in time for me to get to Daf Yomi.
We would like to thank Daf Notes for including Seraphic Secret's Hollywood Ponders 300.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:31 AM | Comments (4)
March 23, 2007
Cathy Seipp's Funeral
The funeral for Cathy Seipp was well attended, and for all, deeply moving.
We spoke to Cathy's 17-year old daughter Maia, and offered some measure of nechama, comfort. It was difficult and tragic beyond words.
Cathy's friend, Greg Critser, spoke beautifully and appropriately. He discussed death, he spoke of the bottomless grief the great Jewish sage Rambam, Maimonides suffered after his brother David drowned at sea.
I went over to Greg at Cathy's graveside and thanked him for his lovely hesped, eulogy.
We helped shovel earth over Cathy's grave, as tradition requires.
After washing our hands, we drove home to prepare for Shabbat.
Baruch Dayan Emet.
Karen and I wish you all a lovely and meaningful Shabbat.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 12:21 PM | Comments (1)
March 22, 2007
Cathy Seipp
Our friend Cathy Seipp passed away yesterday after a long battle with lung cancer.
Here is the obituary from the Los Angeles Times, a paper she fearlessly critiqued.
Over the years, Cathy and I used to meet at Farmer's Market, for Cathy loved its old Los Angeles ambience. We would sit and schmooze for hours.
Cathy was a ferociously opinionated and intelligent woman. Often she would ask what I thought about some great, or small, question of the day. I'd venture some dopey opinon. Cathy would lean forward and say: "Oh, Robert, that's all wrong." And she'd patiently explain why I simply had to change my mind. And I usually would. She was that smart.
A Democrat for most of her life, Cathy became a Republican, she explained to me, once she became involved in local school-board politics. "When I saw Democrats in action on the local level, well, there was no way I could stick with the program."
For in the end, Cathy was a lioness when it came to her daughter Maia, and the local school-boards and their squishy, politically correct politics were simply too appalling for Cathy to deny or ignore. Cathy had to protect her daughter, all children, from the perceived barbarians at the gates.
Laughing, Cathy described herself as the only Republican in Silver Lake.
Cathy was endlessly curious about Orthodox Judaism. It wasn't for her, she freely admitted, but she was always respectfully machine-gunning questions at me. Cathy kept me on my toes. Around Cathy, I could never be intellectually lazy about my Judaism, and that was refreshing.
When she and her daughter Maia and our good friend Jackie Danicki came to Offspring #2's wedding a year ago, Cathy told me how grateful she was to attend.
Though ill at the time, Cathy looked positively radiant.
There is a moment that will always stay with me.
We were in the Farmer's Market, the sun was setting and shards of golden light were nesting in her white blond hair. We had been talking about children, the joys, the sorrows, mostly how it is our job, our most important job as parents, to see them grow up to become good people, people with strong values.
Cathy said:
"I can understand how you and Karen feel about losing Ariel at such a young age."
I looked at her.
"I'm going to die before Maia really grows up. That is just unbearable."
Baruch Dayan Emet
Services will be held at 10 a.m. Friday at Mt. Sinai Hollywood Hills, 5950 Forest Lawn Drive, Los Angeles.
Instead of flowers, Cathy has requested that people make donations to the Humane Society.
Michelle Malkin has a fine entry on Cathy.
A unique group of bloggers and friends write straight from their broken hearts about Cathy; put together by the invaluable LA Observed.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 07:35 AM | Comments (37)
March 21, 2007
Shul Dinner: 4th Generation Conflict
SCENE ONE: Find Your Gun Shop
"You know where your gun-shop is?"
"Uh-huh."
"Drive to your gun-shop. But do not stop and buy any weapons, Robert.
"Okey-dokey."
"Keep going along Washington Boulevard, not Washington Place, drive for about a mile-and-half and then you'll come right to the hotel. Make a left, and pull right in."
My shul is having it's annual dinner and Karen is making sure I do not end up in Orange County. Or the Mojave Desert. I have, um, cartography issues.
I have to attend all by my lonesome. Karen is still in the eleven month period of avelut, mourning for her father ZT'l.
Thank heavens for my trusty gun shop. To get me where I need to go, all Karen has to do is reference its location and then I can easily orient my way around greater Los Angeles. I'm telling you, rip my eyes out with red-hot poker and I'm pretty sure I'd still be able to find my gun shop.
Mapquest? The biggest fraud in the universe. They send you, literally, to Beirut, in order to get to the other side of town. Karen hates Mapquest the way I hate Hizbullah. Never believe their directions. Ever.
I'm driving towards my gun shop. My palms start to sweat. I pump the break. But I only slow down to about 15, 10, okay, 5 mph. I imagine the new Springfield Armory Enhanced Micro Pistol .9mm that I'm dying to own. Do I park, enter, and schmooze with my buddy Carl the ex-Marine sniper? Do I casually try on the new Springfield for size?
I do not.
I call on a Higher Power for I know that I have no control over my life. I press pedal to metal, and blow past my gun shop—and right past a red light.
Whoops.
SCENE TWO: Chinese Farm
At what point did Orthodox shuls decide to go baaaaad?
The music, and I use the term loosely, hits my stomach like Jack Bruce's lowest bass register. A deep, very uncomfortable thruuuuummm.
I feel vaguely nauseous.
Men who have been in war know the feeling. You're about to land in a combat zone, jump out of a freezing cold helicopter with absolutely no idea how much steel-rain awaits you. You also know that the intel you've been given is absolutely wrong. It always is. So your gut is churning because whatever is out there in the LZ is going to be ten times worse than your imagination could ever conjure.
Anyway, that's what it's like stepping into the smorgasbord.
There's a DJ in a dopey, hip/cool/whatever 50's hat, spinning so-called music. Speakers are set up every ten feet, so there is absolutely no escape from the gosh-awful racket. The corridor is submarine narrow, and the food tables are double-trailer wide. The guests, dozens of ravenous people, are packed six or seven deep.
There was an important battle in the Yom Kippur War, the Battle of the Chinese Farm. Perhaps the most furious, most bloody, most awful battle fought in that awful war. It was hand-to-hand combat, it was, according to friends who survived, according to men who I interviewed, "the end of the world."
Anyway, I'm not in the Chinese Farm. Obviously. But for some perverse reason, I'm strongly flashing on that bloody field.
I don't do well in crowds.
People have to shout to in order to be heard above the so-called music. And there's just no room to manuever. Basically, people have to shove in order to walk a few paces.
I'm telling you, ordinary life easily turns into low-intensity conflict.
Phone Call #1
Me: Hello?
Karen: Robert?
Me: Hey.
Karen: You get there okay?
Me: Uh-huh.
Karen: Good. How is it?
Me: Loud.
Karen: Come home early.
Me: I will. But I have to, y'know, make sure the Rabbi sees me, and the honorees, once I find out who they are.
Karen: You okay?
Me: I miss you.
Karen: You'll be fine.
SCENE THREE: You Destroyed My Novel
I tuck myself into a corner. Nibble on a carrot. A friend from shul approaches, and I gird myself for a few months ago he asked me to read his novel and give him some "honest feedback."
I did.
I am an idiot.
"Hey Robert, how you doing?"
"Okay, how about you?"
"Well, ever since you destroyed, pulverized, pounded my novel into the earth—okay, I guess."
Long pause.
I nibble my carrot. Whoops. No more carrot. I'm actually gnawing my index finger.
"You, um, didn't have a main character." Once again, I point out the obvious.
"True. True. You were right. And I appreciate your criticism. Really I do."
"So, are you rewriting?"
"Yes, it's much better now."
Silence.
Do I offer to read the new, improved draft?
I do not.
It's official: my friend hates me.
SCENE FOUR: What're Ya Workin' On?
I make my way to the far end of the room. Why? Because it's there. The crowd has thickened. The volume of the so-called music has risen to a decibel level that could be used to extract valuable information from terrorists. I think I'm losing some hearing. Sheesh, all those hours on the shooting range with my .45 and it's the shul's annual dinner that ends up blowing my eardrums. I'm gonna write a letter to the NRA and tell them about this. File it under i-r-o-n-y.
"Robert."
"Moshe." (Not his real name)
"Where's Karen?"
"She's in avelut."
"Ah, forgot."
"That's okay."
"So, Mr. Screenplaywriter, what're ya workin' on?"
"Oh, you know, this and that."
"What kinda story?"
Moshe wears a black hat, his tzitzis, fringes, hang outside his pants, and he always makes a point of telling me that he does not go to the movies because he's way too religious. Which is fine.
So, why all the questions about my corrupt Hollywood career?
"Moshe, I actually don't really like talking about my screenplays while I'm working on them.
"No, how come?"
"I don't know, I guess I'm kind of superstitious."
"That's avodah zarah, (idol worship) you know."
Moshe is the kind of guy I really hated in high school.
"Strike superstitious. Let's do: eccentric."
Phone Call #2
Me: Hello?
Karen: Robert?
Me: Yup.
Karen: Where you up to?
Me: Just about to go into dinner.
Karen: Half-way home.
Me: I don't know most of the people here.
Karen: What else is new.
Me: The perfume is overwhelmiing.
Karen: If you feel a migraine aura, come right home.
Me: And I'm talking about the perfume on the men.
Karen: Keep me informed.
SCENE FIVE: My Cholent Buddy
Speeches. Awards. Chinese Auction. The waiter spins round the table pouring wine. Everyone says, "Puh-leese." Just look at them put it away. And I thought Jews didn't drink.
Boy, if this keeps up I'm gonna have to be the designated driver for my entire table.
The waiter comes to your humble scribe, and I shake my head from side-to-side: "No thank you."
And guess what, everyone is staring at me.
The guy next to me says: "Don't drink, Robert?"
"Nope."
He continues gazing at me.
"I understand," he says.
"You do?"
"Uh-huh."
It takes me a moment to puzzle this out. Then it hits me.
Robert does not drink
Robert is a Hollywood screenwriter.
Thus: Robert is an alcoholic.
"I'm allergic," I practically shout to the table. "I get migraines from wine and liquor. Heck, I even get migraines from perfume."
They just look at me with pity.
Obviously, I'm in denial.
I give up.
I actually feel like having a drink now.
Hey, look at that, My Cholent Buddy from the early minyan is wearing a tux, and he's schlepping a violin. Wonder what's going on?
Now, he's being called up to the podium. They flash a picture of My Cholent Buddy from one of the major Israeli newspapers. He's sitting on an IDF Merkava tank with a violin, about to enter Lebanon last summer.
My Cholent Buddy is introduced with a resume that's way beyond cholent. Turns out My Cholent Buddy attended all these music schools in Israel, and hoo-ha conservatories in Europe that have these pain-in-the-neck compound Germanic names that just never seem to end.
Who knew?
Anyway, My Cholent Buddy's playing his violin.
Oh
My
Gosh
I know nothing about music and even I can tell that My Cholent Buddy is a genius.
And I just thought that he was tall, and liked his cholent really hot.
SCENE SIX: FFF
I step outside to call Karen and tell her all about My Cholent Buddy.
Just as I'm about to dial, a woman I do not recognize boldly walks up to me.
INTERPOLATION:
A few years ago, I was working on a film and the genius Costume Designer explained to me his theory of how he gets to the core of a woman's character through wardrobe:
"It's all about footwear, Robert. Show me what shoes a woman wears and I'll tell you everything about that woman's character—from her soul to her flesh."
"Everything?"
"Everything."
The secrets yours truly learns on location. It is mind-boggling.
END INTERPOLATION:
Anywhoo.
This woman is wearing, I kid you not, the latest Manolo Blahnik lizard stiletto pumps which, I believe retail for a cool $750.000.
She's also wearing an outfit that, ahem, modestly sheath her shoulders and knees—frum in word—but it's Azzedine Alaia tight. Which is to say: her skirt and jacket look like they have been spray-painted on.
This is a new phenomenon. The FFF: The Frum Femme Fatale.
Does this woman actually go to my shul? She looks way too dangerous.
"Are you Robert J. Avrech?"
"Um..."
"You are. I know you are."
She sounds like Joan Crawford—after about ten vodkas.
"You wrote Body Double."
I have been scolded for this film so many times in the Orthodox community that I've come up with this really clever answer.
Pay close attention:
"No, actually that was the other Robert J. Avrech."
She licks her lips and smiles like a Black Widow who has just eaten her young. Wow, the lip gloss she uses really kicks light. I should ask what brand she uses. Karen would definitely like to know.
FFF leans in close, puts a hand very lightly on my shoulder. Her nails are lacquered red as a Chinese vase, they're sharp as daggers.
She whispers: "I adore your film. I've seen it like twenty times. It. Is. Awesome."
Striding away, she shivers as she walks; high heels like ice-picks.
Phone Call #3
Me: Hello?
Karen: Robert?
Me: I'm in the car, on my way home.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 07:03 AM | Comments (42)
March 20, 2007
Hollywood Ponders 300
I meet with some Hollywood movers and shakers. We are here to discuss a script that I have written and how to get it off the ground, but invariably the conversation has turned to the huge and "unexpected" box-office success of 300.
A powerful Hollywood Agent says: “My girlfriend dragged me to see it 'cause all the guys are so buff.”
“That was so totally an 'Ab Filter', and lazily applied,” chimes in a Studio Suit, “didn't you notice, all the six-packs are exactly the same.”
A Powerful Producer theorizes: “My kids say it's like the greatest video game ever.”
Powerful Producer's Finicky Assistant points out: “The Queen's almost-see-through outfits, the little leather straps. May I just say: Fab-u-lous.”
Says a sleek Network Executive. “Actually, it's totally gay porn, all those piercings, so kinky, are you kidding me?” She's clad in an extremely tight Gaultier leather outfit — corseted by a hellishly complicated set of criss-crossing silver buckles. I have no idea how she draws breath.
I should keep my mouth shut.
Do I?
I do not.
“I think audiences are responding to the timeless themes that give meaning to the battle of Thermopylae: the courage of the few against the many; the refusal to submit to tyranny; brave and loyal warriors willing to sacrifice, to die for their country.”
Everyone looks at me like I'm the biggest moron in the world.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 06:57 AM | Comments (43)
March 19, 2007
Best of the Jewish Blogosphere # 110
Okaaay! It's here. The Best of the Jewish Blogosphere AKA Haveil Havalim #110, hosted by Soccer Dad, and he calls it "The Lesson Edition."
It's a great read.
Soccer Dad was kind enough to include Seraphic Secret's Jew Hatred at Montreal's Concordia U.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 04:10 PM | Comments (0)
The Coming War with Islam
Our conversation soon turned to the present situation in the Middle East, about Hamas winning the elections, the situation of the Israeli Arabs, and the last Lebanese war against Hezbollah. “As Christians we are in a difficult situation here in Israel. Unfortunately, the Moslems and especially the extreme Islamist section, are giving the tone here. My family who lived in Bethlehem probably since the Crusaders, had to flee for their life. The Moslems have been forcing us out, by threats and even murder. Bethlehem that was once predominantly Christian is now predominantly Moslem. Very little is written about it even in the Israeli press.”
He sipped his coffee and gave me a long look. He seemed like someone who wasn’t quite sure whether to say what he was about to say. I gave him an encouraging nod.
“I have to tell you something which very few of you seem to comprehend.” He continued, “Your bungling war against a few thousand Hezbollah fighters which you should have crushed no matter what, considering the importance of the outcome, has created a completely new situation, not only for this area, but globally. Your inept leadership totally misunderstood the importance of winning this war."
“As a matter of fact, the whole Moslem world, not only the Arabs, simply couldn’t believe that the mighty Israeli Army that defeated the combined Arab forces in six days in 1967, and almost captured Cairo and Damascus in 1973, couldn’t defeat a small army of Hezbollah men. As usual the Moslems see things the way they want to see things. Most think that the present generation of Israelis have gone soft and can be defeated."
“The American bungling of the war in Iraq only added to their conviction that victory not only over Israel but also over the West is not only possible, but certain. The ramifications of these two bungling wars may bring an Islamic bloody Tsunami all over the West, not only in Israel. The sharks smell blood and these two wars gave them the green light to attack sooner than they had in mind. Your problem is that you are on the defensive and they have the option to choose the time and the places when and where to attack and there is nothing much you can do about it. When will you Westerners realize that half measures don’t work with people who are willing to die by the thousands for Allah to achieve their goal? In their eyes the Western World is simply an abomination on earth that has to be wiped out.”
To read the entire article by Solly Ganor, please click here.
Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, Kishke
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 12:08 PM | Comments (8)
Jane Austen Quiz: The Answers
Last week we posted this:
Here's a little Pride and Prejudice quiz from So You Think You Know Jane Austen?
1. What first begins to attract Darcy to Elizabeth?
2. What bond forges an immediate friendship between the aristocratic Darcy and the mercantile Mr. Gardiner?
3. What are the implications of Darcy's remark "I cannot comprehend the neglect of a family library in such days as these"?
4. Why does Mr. Bennet tease and tantalize his wife so?
As promised, here are the answers:
1. Her fine dark eyes and her brilliant complexion (usually a primary attraction in Jane Austen heroine's).
2. Angling. There are trout in the stream that runs through the Pemberley grounds. Mr. Gardiner, presumably, fishes along the Thames. Darcy offers to supply him with some tackle.
3. During the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, tourism to the Continent was curtailed. A gentleman turned to his books.
4. Because, in his way, he is a domestic tyrant. Teasing also seems the means by which he controls his irritation at her stupidity (and his own stupidity for having married her).
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:31 AM | Comments (0)
March 18, 2007
All These Things
This Shabbat, Shabbat HaChodesh, with the double Parsha of Vayakhel/Pekudei, was the Bar Mitzvah parsha of our son Ariel Chaim ZT'L. It is exactly thirteen years since his Bar Mitzvah.
Every day, every hour, our son's cruel absence gnaws away at me. I avoid philosophical discussions of why bad things happen to good people, or why G-d allows such things to happen.
This is a world of good and evil, joy and tragedy.
There are no easy answers.
When a child dies, there are no answers at all.
I have no patience for the clever explanations—invariably shot-through with flawed theological and halachic holes—that Rebbeim and amateur theologians offer. At best they come off as well-intentioned. Often, I'm sorry to say, they are aggressively self-righteous and pitifully clueless.
After coming home from shul, I stepped into Ariel's room and just took one breath after another. I looked at his books. In the last year of his life, Ariel studied Sefer Yeshayahu, Isaiah, by himself. Our very best yeshivas emphasize advance Talmud study, and the Nevi'im, the Prophets, are tragically neglected. But Ariel loved the sublime poetry of our Prophets, felt the power of their warnings for the children of Israel to return to Torah. And so Ariel learned Isaiah with the same dedication and scholarly diligence that he brought to the study of Talmud.
I pulled down Ariel's copy of sefer Yeshayahu, opened it at random, and found myself reading from Chapter 45. Here are the verses that jumped out at me as I sat on the edge of Ariel's childhood bed.
7. I form light and create darkness,
I make peace and create evil,
I am G-d, I do all these things.
9. Woe to the man who strives with his maker,
Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth.
Shall the clay say to him that fashions it,
“What are you making?”
Or shall it say
“Your work has no place?”
10. Woe to the man who says to his father,
“Why have you conceived me?”
or to his mother
“Why did you bear me?”
15. Surely, You are a G-d who hides,
the G-d of Israel,
the One who saves.
And so: with the image, the memory—almost an hallucination now—of Ariel in his room, blithely ignoring his illness, patiently learning Sefer Yeshayahu, and deeply imbibing verses like these—
—I endure.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 12:10 AM | Comments (35)
March 16, 2007
The Heart of Yocheved
By Dan Dzindzihashvili
Dan Dzindzihashvili, a Seraphic Friend, has been a faithful reader for many years. Dan is a baal teshuva, born in Israel, and raised in Queens. He received his MFA from NYU where he studied with Tony Kushner. His plays have been presented at various off-off broadway venues, such as Soho Rep, HERE, Immigrants Theatre Project, and Ensemble Studio Theatre. His short play "True Confessions" has been published in an anthology by Stage and Screen, edited by Daniel Aukin. He currently does kiruv with his beautiful wife Tami and learns gemara at Chofetz Chaim Yeshiva in the evenings.
My wife and I just returned from Israel yesterday morning.
It was her first time there in seven years and my first time in sixteen years.
Coincidentally, we were there at the same time as our Rabbi, Aharon Chein and his family.
The vacation ended in tragedy.
On Friday, March 9, 2007, Rabbi Chein’s wife, Yocheved Chein and her mother Rachel Tzedek Schneerson were killed in a rear end collision. Rabbi Aharon Chein survived with many broken ribs and a broken heart. It turns out that there were seventeen car accidents that day.
My wife and I are close friends of the Chein family. My wife is especially close to the Chein's two daughters as they are the same age.
A few weeks ago we were visiting the Chein's after Shabbat meal on Saturday afternoon. It was then and there that my wife and I decided to go to Israel. Rabbi Chein and his wife were also going to be there for the yahrzeit of the Rebbetzin’s father, Rabbi Shmuel zt’l. Also, it was going to be Rabbi Chein’s niece’s bat mitzvah.
We had a scheduled wonderful experiences in Israel for that whole week covering every area we could in a short period of time, including going to the Dead Sea, Haifa, Yaffo, the graves of the tzadikim in Tiberias, Tzfat, and Meron, etc. On Friday afternoon, March 9, 2007 we were supposed to meet the Cheins for a quick pizza in Jerusalem at 10:30AM.
We got a call on our cell phone from their daughter that the meeting was cancelled and she hung up. She called an hour later and said that her grandmother was killed in a car accident.
Then she called another hour later and said that her mother passed away on the operating table in Kaplan Hospital in Rechovot.
My wife and I were supposed to spend Shabbat in Jerusalem in the neighborhood of Mea Shearim at the home of another Georgian couple who had made aliyah. Instead, my wife and I spent Shabbat in Kaplan Hospital with Rabbi Chein. Tzippie Traimen was there with us too as her husband had to stay in Beth El with their two beautiful children.
It turns out that Rabbi Chein and his wife and his mother-in-law were on the way to the cemetery to visit the grave of Rabbi Shmuel zt’l. Rabbi Aharon had rented a car that week. He was the driver and the front seat passenger was his mother-in-law. Yocheved was in the back. They were at a full stop for a red light when a truck driven by another Jew, rear-ended their vehicle. Based on the pictures in the media, the car looked like an accordion. Rabbi Aharon’s mother-in-law passed away on the spot. Rabbi Aharon and Yocheved were taken to a hospital in Rechovot.
Alex dropped us off at the central bus station in Jerusalem so that we could take the next bus to Rechovot before Shabbat. My wife and Tzippie read Tehillim and intercepted various frantic calls coming from NYC on their cell phones.
It turns out that the only organ still working in Yocheved was her heart. The doctors asked if they should still continue trying to save her. The answer from her children was, “Hell, yeah!” Some time later the news came and Rabbi Aharon cried. The last time I saw him cry was during services of Yom Kippur as he was giving it his all for the refuah of his ill father.
I received a call from my aunt in Or Yehuda asking if I wanted to spend Shabbat with her. I told her it’s my Rabbi. He needs us. Luckily, Kaplan hospital has a special lounge with couches in separate rooms for men and women whose relatives are patients and need a place to stay as those folks staying are assumed to be shomer Shabbat.
So many striking images come to mind as I recall that Shabbat in Rechovot.
First of all, there was a brit milah in NYC on the morning of March 1, 2007. An acquaintance had her grandson’s brit milah that morning. I was late, but still able to catch the father of the baby to say mazel tov. There was no meal served, as that was the day of the Fast of Esther. As I was exiting the synagogue, Yocheved, who also happened to be there (her flight would be the following Monday night) blessed me for a safe trip and that she’d see us there. Then she quickly handed me $2 so that I could give that money as tzedakah as well as a segulah to fulfill my mission as a messenger, etc.
Once a month Yocheved would make cholent for the youth minyan of our shul as an attempt for kiruv. Now, there is no one to make cholent.
Her eldest daughter, Nechama Dina, was relating a story of how her mother didn’t want to come on this trip. Though she eventually went on this sojourn, she was resistant in going to the cemetery. It turns out that her father, Rabbi Shmuel zt’l was 44-years old when he passed away on the 19th of Adar 23 years ago. March 9, 2007 was also the 19th of Adar. Yocheved was also 44-years old. Now the family observes three yarztzeits on the 19th of Adar. Rabbi Aharon said little during our stay in the hospital. He quoted something from the gemara, which says that when a person reaches the same age as the age that one of his or her parents passed away, that that person should be especially careful that year. Furthermore, it turns out that Yocheved’s mother, Rachel, had a dream in which she saw the end of her days.
Also, the night before, it turns out that Yocheved called her four sons in the U.S. She called many other people. It turns out she called everyone close to her – a cryptic good-bye?
Two nights before, Wednesday night, was the bat mitzvah. Yocheved took pictures with practically everyone there. There’s one picture, a group picture, where Yocheved is standing outside the group smiling at everyone.
Pesach is coming and it turns out that Yocheved was almost finished in with her cleaning for chometz. In her home in Queens, she took out all of her clothes and laid them on top of her bed and covered them with a white sheet. Common sense would say that she wanted to prevent dust from gathering on the clothes. From a spiritual perspective, one could see that she made everything easy for everyone.
As we spent Shabbat in the hospital, our concern was for Rabbi Aharon. He needed help moving around and was told to walk as much as possible to prevent an infection of the lungs from the broken ribs. Helping him walk was easy. Keeping his spirits up was difficult.
The Lubavitcher Rebbe had many personal photographers. One of them was Mr. Eli Yonah. He walked 2.5 hours to visit Rabbi Aharon Shabbat afternoon. I sat in the room with Mr. Yohah and Moti, a young friend of the family. Moti is the son of a prominent Georgian Rabbi in Kiryat Atta. Moti also has a beautiful voice. We sat there singing Shabbat and Chabad nigguns. We all knew that you have to be happy on Shabbat, no matter what.
Earlier in the afternoon, it turns out that the other daughter, Devorah Leah, had approached one of the nurses about seeing Yocheved’s body. He was agreeable on the condition that we caused no balagan, no chaos. We were escorted to another side of the hospital where the corpses are held in refrigerators. Yocheved was in box number 6. I could not believe my eyes as the nurse unzipped the body bag. Yocheved had a smile on her face. I thought that she’d wake up and ask us to keep the noise down.
We left the room and washed our hands. We stood outside dividing and assigning chapters of Tehillim.
Shabbat passed and numerous calls came along with many visitors. Nothing could take away Rabbi Aharon’s pain.
On Sunday, at the levaya in Kiryay Malachi, there were 2,800 people gathered. There were many prominent Chabad Rabbis there. All of them mentioned Yocheved’s big heart, her love of the Rebbe, her zest for life, love, and mitzvot, as well as all Jews. Sometimes in our community, there are still some events with mixed dancing. Yocheved would grab the kallah and try to get at least fifteen minutes of separate dancing. Who can fill her shoes now?
It was a dramatic moment at the levaya as the remainder of her children grabbed the first plane out of NYC on motzei Shabbat. They arrived in Kiryat Malachi towards the end of the levaya. The crying from those attending the funeral was overwhelming. This was no movie. This was true pain. The procession took her body to Jerusalem’s Mount of Olives. Yocheved’s mother, Mrs. Rachel Tzedek Schneerson, was buried on Friday, two days earlier.
Yocheved is the mother of six children. Two are married. One is close to obtaining a smicha. Now she won’t be there to dance at the simchas for her other children. But, I do know that she’ll be there in spirit, smiling. That’s the last image I will have of her – smiling and at peace.
I also have to acknowledge just how important Yocheved was to my wife and I. It was Yocheved who went with my wife to purchase her first hair covering. It’s because of Rabbi Aharon that I started to wear Rabbeinu Tam tefillin.
Yocheved was also an inspiration. Yocheved enrolled in an undergraduate institution in Queens where she would be a double major – English and computers. This past semester, she had 3 A’s and one A-. It gave her such pleasure to learn to communicate with her children via e-mail.
What about her special salad dressing that she was famous for? This may sound silly, but that was a part of my oneg Shabbat.
Why do bad things happen to good people?
I’ve attended many funerals and being emotionally moved. However, this is the first funeral where I cried a running sink of tears.
I recall a lecture I attended that Ohr Sameach hosted. The esteemed talmid chacham, Rabbi Berel Wein was one of the speakers. He has a special speaking style and one thing he said was, “We want Mashiach now? What chutzpah?! Hashem decides when Mashiach will come!” I have to disagree. We as a Jewish nation have to demand his coming right away. The pain in this galut has to end.
There are times we can all recall Yocheved saying something in Georgian to many people as a point of encouragement. She’d scream, “Wake up, you ostriches. Mashiach is coming!”
Dan's pain and his emunah are deeply affecting. Baruch Dayan Emet.
Here is Kumah, the aliyah organization Dan is involved with.
Karen and I wish all our Seraphic Friends a lovely and meaningful Shabbos.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:36 AM | Comments (12)
The Annotated Jane
Well, it looks like I'm going to have to buy another edition of Pride and Prejudice.
According to an article in today's NY Times by William Grimes, The Annotated Pride & Prejudice is quite a source book for Jane Austen fans.
Mr. Shapard explains absolutely everything. He restores the proper contemporary meanings to word like "condescending" (polite to inferiors) and "vicious" (inclined to vice). "Fun," it turns out, was a vogue word, the "awesome" of its day, which is why the flighty Lydia Bennet—the foolish sister who runs away with the despicable George Wickham—uses it a lot. Mr. Shapard sorts out the differences among a phaeton, a gig, a chaise and a curricle, distinctions as clear to Austen readers as the difference between a Volvo and a Porche is to us.
All the details of day-to-day English life around 1796 come under inspection: currency, card games, fashions, dance steps, etiquette, mealtimes, and the subtle gradations of social class.
Here are some other interesting Jane Austen books mentioned in the same article:
Jane Austen: The World of her Novels
So You Think You Know Jane Austen?
What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew
And here's a little Pride and Prejudice quiz from So You Think You Know Jane Austen?
1. What first begins to attract Darcy to Elizabeth?
2. What bond forges an immediate friendship between the aristocratic Darcy and the mercantile Mr. Gardiner?
3. What are the implications of Darcy's remark "I cannot comprehend the neglect of a family library in such days as these"?
4. Why does Mr. Bennet tease and tantalize his wife so?
Answers after Shabbos.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 07:57 AM | Comments (6)
March 15, 2007
Jew-Hatred at Montreal's Concordia U.
In September 2002, Little Green Footballs covered the story of the violent demonstrations at Montreal’s Concordia University that forced the cancellation of a speech by former Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu. Today IDF Dave emailed a link to a documentary on this event; and it’s absolutely shocking. This shows the thuggish, extreme nature of the Saudi-funded Muslim Student Association in a way that hasn’t been exposed before; they believed they had the upper hand, and they had utter contempt for the Canadian authorities. It was a little intifada, right in the middle of Montreal.
Click here to watch this shocking video—and beware you might need a barf bag.
The next Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, has some fine words at the close of this video.
It is beyond belief that these Muslim students and their vile fellow western travelers, were not arrested and then expelled from Concordia. They are Nazi-like Jew-haters, clearly anti-Democratic in thought and deed, and incited a violent riot. They are also a fifth column in America, and it is only a matter of time before many of them are involved in far more serious terrorist activities which will kill and maim innocent Americans.
This, I guarantee.
Concordia University is administered by a bunch of cowards and terrorist appeasers. They will sow what they have reaped when these Muslim students feel emboldened enough to burn down this disgraceful University.
Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend: Kishke
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 07:06 PM | Comments (10)
Ernie is Dead
Machine guns and rifles will fire until they become so hot they glow. When big machine guns fire too long their barrels will begin to melt and droop. Lubricant evaporates and leaves the weapons dry, signaled to soldiers when the odor of hot weapons mixed with smoke and dust fills their nostrils and lungs. When the weapons fall silent, the air percolates with metallic clicks, tics and tinks, the sounds of parts cooling. During the silence the soldiers redistribute ammunition and check each other for holes. Sometimes the wounded do not know they are the wounded until someone tells them.
Some of the soldiers streaming into Iraq are raw and new to battle. Others are serving their second, third and fourth combat tours, having fought across Afghanistan, or down in Africa, or in some corner in a secret fight, on a special team of some sort, killing men in jungle camps in South America, in wars few people have heard about. Around the world, dangerous American soldiers will close in on men tonight and kill them in small battles that will never be spoken of. Al Qaeda turned it on, but is powerless to turn it off.
Terrorists started this war with killing, and now are suing for peace with more killing, lashing out at schoolyards, marketplaces, and soccer matches, blowing up kids, women, and men on their way to work or worship. All to win the battle for headlines, which they are certain to get; the greater the savagery, the bigger the font.
Blockquote>Our soldiers, meaning the soldiers from countries like the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Germany, yes France, and the United States, are better in all aspects but one: The terrorists somehow manage to beat us all in our respective medias. We may own the air, but terrorists own the airwaves.
To read the rest of the magnificent Michael Yon's photo essay, please click here.
Michael Yon is, hands-down, the best war correspondent we have. If you want to understand what's happening in Iraq, you must read Michael's work. That he has not been awarded a Pulitzer Prize is a disgrace. Or, perhaps, a huge compliment. In any case, we should all support Michael's work. He is that rare professional: a tenacious, truth-telling journalist. I stand in awe of this brave man.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 03:03 PM | Comments (2)
Pastor John Hagee's Torah Way
By Fern Sidman
As the three day 2007 AIPAC policy conference held in Washington, DC came to a close yesterday, the nation's most powerful Israeli lobby sent a clear message to Washington, Iran and the world. "Tighten the screws on Iran" was the call of the day, as the Iranian nuclear buildup dominated the agenda of the 5500 member conference.
AIPAC activists from around the country engaged in some five-hundred meetings with members of Congress and their staffs, and pushed for the passage of new legislation tightening US sanctions on Iran in an effort to thwart its nuclear program. The bill, sponsored by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Lantos (D.) of California, would expand the types of investment subject to sanctions, eliminate the president's ability to waive sanctions for foreign oil companies and end all imports from Iran, among other measures.
AIPAC members also sought support for two letters—one circulating among senators to be sent to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the other drafted by representatives for EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana—holding a firm line against the new Palestinian unity government. Both letters call for the continued suspension of aid to the Palestinian Authority so long as the planned Hamas-Fatah government fails to adhere to the three international demands of recognizing Israel, renouncing violence and accepting previous agreements.
Vice-President Dick Cheney addressed the AIPAC conference in the cavernous halls of the Washington Convention Center and called on American Jewish support for a continued American military presence in Iraq. He intimated that calls on Washington to take an aggressive lead in challenging the bellicose rhetoric directed at Israel by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the buildup of his nuclear arsenal could only be implemented if the pro-Israel lobby threw their complete support behind the Bush administration's policy of remaining militarily engaged in Iraq.
Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu also addressed the conference and called on American companies to divest from Iranian interests. He also warned that Ahmadinejad was preparing the ground for a second genocide of the Jewish people. According to a report by Arutz Sheva news service of 3/13/07, Netanyahu said, "The key is genocide. Do we want to mobilize the world against Iran? The answer is yes, just as we should have mobilized the world against Hitler in the previous century."
Other Israeli and American officials addressed the conference as well and spoke of the Iranian threat, yet the real shining star of AIPAC 2007, was Baptist Evangelical Pastor John Hagee who brought the house down in his fire and brimstone appeal for support for Israel.
During the course of his speech, Pastor Hagee received a number of standing ovations as he issued a clear and personal warning to President Ahmadinejad not to threaten America or Israel. He told the audience that 50 million Christian Zionists are stalwart supporters of Israel and would stand behind her.
Pastor Hagee was one of the few speakers that actually mentioned G-d and the Bible in his speech and drew Biblical parallels to those who sought to annihilate the Jewish people, but who in the end were destroyed by the hand of G-d.
Speaking of Pharaoh in Egypt he said that he "became fish food in the Red Sea" when he attempted to pursue the Jews who had just been liberated from Egypt after hundreds of years of bondage.
Pastor Hagee also made reference to Haman in Persia which he said was modern day Iran and how his nefarious plot to have Mordechai hanged on the gallows turned right back around at him and it was Haman who in the end would be hanged. He warned all those enemies of the Jewish people to think twice before attempting to obliterate G-d's chosen people.
Despite the fact that Pastor Hagee's speech was met with an enthusiastic reception by the AIPAC membership, when the Pastor said that there is "the Torah way and then the wrong way", that remark only drew a mild and at best lukewarm response from the audience.
It appears that Pastor Hagee was one of the few people at the conference that actually embraced the teachings of the Torah. He then led the audience in a rousing chant of "Israel Lives" and promised the AIPAC members that Israel and the Jewish people would never be alone.
It is clear that Pastor Hagee was the shining star at the AIPAC convention. This is a man who is not afraid to intone the name of G-d, to boldly and courageously call the enemies of the Jewish people, evil.
This is a man who embraces G-d's word and reveres the Torah.
The AIPAC membership and the Jewish people can learn a most valuable and important lesson from Pastor Hagee.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 12:21 PM | Comments (15)
Isn't it Nice Your Mommy Killed Jews?
Hey kids, let's watch a little TV this morniing. Something cute. Something all warm and fuzzy. How about, drum roll please: "Aren't You Proud That You're Mommy Killed Jooz?"
Yup, it's time for Romper Room, Palestinian style.
You know, maybe they should show this at the UCLA Hillel, y'know so the Jewish kids have some notion of reality. Oh, wait, but the Hillel "Rabbi" Chaim Seidler-Feller objects to such material because, y'know, he'll probably say it's “a way to transfer the Middle East conflict to the campus, to promote hostility.”
Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend: Lance Fogel
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:48 AM | Comments (10)
March 14, 2007
Reform Jews Demand Appeasement
Lest Seraphic Secret Readers think that we only point out the madness of the Neturei Karta, please note that we now also give equal time to the radical leadership of the Reform branch of Judaism, who seem less interested in religion and more invested in advancing a radical secular social agenda. Ironically, they often historically justify their behavior and decisions through some pretty whacky cherry-pickings from the Torah.
Anyway, their main interest, let's be honest, is not Torah, and definitely not Mesorah. Most distressing is that the Reform leadership uses Torah as a fig-leaf for their fashionable political obsessions, which, at the moment are: supporting the Democratic Party, the ACLU, tons and tons of abortion. Adoption? What the heck is that? Anti-gun legislation. Hey, let's make sure only the criminals have access to weapons! So-called global warming. Al Gore is actually Reb Gore. Same-sex marriage. Didn't you know, it's in the Gemara! Vigorously opposing terrorist profiling. They rarely fly El-Al, so they're totally clueless. Anti-war marches, any just-war waged by freedom loving Democracies. Though kissing up to dictators like Castro, Aminadijad, Chavez, Hamas, Assad and other tyrants and mass murderers seems to be a "progressive idea."
Anywhoo!
Seraphic Secret has quite a few Reform readers who are closet Conservatives. These are good and thoughtful people who vehemently disagree with the official positions of the URJ. These Crypto Conservatives have to hide their political beliefs for fear of being ostrasized by their "liberal" congregations and friends.
Sound familiar?
Their Yiddishkeit, deeply impressive and truly learned, is also at odds with the so-called Reform leadership, and we at Seraphic Secret applaud their quiet courage and hope that sometime in the future they will be able to publicly voice their beliefs and opinions.
Unfortunately, like most liberal organizations the URJ seems to be a singularly intolerant leftist organization dedicated to a frightening one-thought world-view, verging on the Orwellian.
Here's a fine and thoughtful blog, Adam's Reform Judaism Homepage, who opposes his movements radical leftist world-view. Yasher Koach. Come to my shul, we'll give you an aliyah, shlishi, and then positively stuff you with cholent at the kiddush after shul.
Finally, let us just say this: We have many friends who are members of Reform congregations. We, in no way, are attacking Reform Judaism. We are attacking the the leadership of the URJ. We believe that this inbred group of "leaders" is bad for Judaism, bad for Israel, bad for America—and singularly good for the jihadists.
The Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) expresses its disappointment in the passage of a resolution by the Union of Reform Judaism's Executive Committee regarding the war in Iraq.
The URJ resolution, which opposes President Bush's troop escalation plan and calls on the President to begin a phased withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, sends the wrong message, according to RJC Executive Director Matt Brooks.
"This resolution sends the wrong message to our troops fighting for freedom and stability in Iraq, telling them that there is a lack of support at home for their efforts. It's a defeatist message that tells our allies and our adversaries that the US lacks resolve regarding the war on terror and the war in Iraq."
"We are disappointed that the URJ has publicly called for the US to get out Iraq before the job there is done," Brooks said, "because pulling out of Iraq now would result in chaos and increased danger for the US, Israel, and the region."
About the Republican Jewish Coalition:
The Republican Jewish Coalition is a grassroots organization based in Washington, DC, with 43 chapters and over 25,000 members, whose mission is to foster and enhance ties between the American Jewish community and Republican decision makers.
Website: Republican Jewish Coalition
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:40 AM | Comments (9)
March 13, 2007
Robert Goes to Prison — With One Thousand Women
The best part about being a screenwriter is all the Hollywood glamour. You know, decadent parties, fast Italian cars, even faster beautiful women.
Uh-huh.
Anyway, speaking of fast women, yours truly goes the distance for his craft, and voluntarily enrolls in one of the toughest prisons in the country, with one thousand homicidal women—in order to research a movie.
I published this seven-part series about a year ago, but maniac rewriter that I am, I've done quite a bit of polishing and tightening, and Virtual Jerusalem is now running the series on a weekly basis.
I feel just like Charles Dickens.
My time in prison was a turning point in my life. I have never quite been the same ever again.
"I killed him by mistake," she says.
"Mistake, what kind of mistake?"
Josepha, in for Murder One, serving a life sentence, is known to be one of the most violent and unpredictable women in a society of violent and unpredictable women. She stares at me with gray eyes that are surprisingly warm and endearing.
I have to be careful, very careful. I've been in this women's prison for three days and I don't understand the social rules that make this place go round. I'm terrified of saying something really dumb, seeing my insides, well, outside.
I have already witnessed one fight, and the CO's, the Correction Officers, had to whisk me away before I got hurt.
They do not want the blood of a Hollywood screenwriter on their hands. Bad publicity.
Me, I just want to go home to Karen and the kids. The sooner the better.
Prison. One thing I've learned about the inmates: they lie. Whatever they tell you, you have to read between the lines to discover the truth.
I'm doing research for a film. This is the best part about being a screenwriter. You get to go to glamorous far-a-way places, meet beautiful, fashionable women.
Click here to read the rest of Part One.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 03:14 PM | Comments (11)
How to Get an Aliyah in Shul
Okaaaaaay!
I'm gonna post this already.
Do you know how many Seraphic Friends have sent me this story?
Lots.
Let us just say this: Seraphic Secret does not condone extrajudicial violence—even against the Rodfim of the Neturei Karta.
We're just reporting the news:
Yehuda Meshi-Zahav, chairman of ZAKA and former operations officer for the Ultra-Orthodox community, hit the Jewish man who kissed Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, it was reported on Monday.
The violent incident occurred last Friday in Poland during a mass visit of Orthodox Jews to the country in order to honor Hassidic Rabbi Elimelech of Lizhensk.
When the visitors arrived at Lizhensk on Friday morning, they heard that Moshe Arye Freedman, a member of the fanatic anti-Israel group Neturei Karta, was present as well. Freedman recently made headlines when he was photographed kissing Ahmadinejad during the Holocaust denial conference in Teheran three months ago.
Meshi-Zahav, along with another ZAKA member, quickly located Freedman and set upon him, punching the man, kicking him and breaking his glasses.
The fight was dispersed when local police arrived at the scene.
As an act of appreciation, Meshi-Zahav was called up to read the Torah in synagogue.[ital. via Seraphic Secret.]
Click here for the original story and picture.
Hat Tip: Seraphic Friends: Kishke, Ari Kinsberg, Lance Fogel, and countless others.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:06 AM | Comments (16)
March 12, 2007
Shmatte Chic: The Rise of Jewish Fashion
At Fashion Week in New York last month, Brazilian designer Alexandre Herchcovitch didn't so much unveil a collection as veil one. His aggressively modest looks included below-the-knee skirts, billowing silhouettes, and, most conspicuously, hats. Lots of elaborate, distinctly undainty hats, which bore a striking resemblance to, of all things, those worn by fashionable Orthodox Jewish women on holy days—making Herchcovitch's runway seem less like a Saturday at the Shows than Sabbath in certain synagogues. This followed on the heels of his summer 2007 men's collection show, in which models were draped in oversized Star of David necklaces, and more than a few others dressed in pants and belts that plainly recalled zizit, the ritual fringes worn by Orthodox Jewish men.
To zuk the rest of this story by Alana Newhouse, please click here
Hat Tip: Seraphic Offspring #2
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 01:14 PM | Comments (6)
The Democrats Blacklist Fox
So let me get this straight. According to the Democrats, Israel is supposed to sit down and chat with Hamas, a terrorist gang dedicated to Israel's annihilation.
According to the Democrats Israel is also supposed to sit down and "dialogue with Iran," a country that denies the Holocaust, even as it promises a new Holocaust.
Also, according to the Democrats, America is supposed to shmooze with the North Koreans, a country that has systematically murdered over 3 million of its own citizens.
Why? Well, because you "talk to your enemies."
But the Democrats refuse to take part in a debate sponsored by Fox Cable Network because, y'know, Fox is too right wing.
Got that?
I'd like to thank the Democratic Presidential candidates: Edwards, Obama, & Clinton for being so publicly willing to reveal their cowardice. They're terrified of Fox journalists armed with Mont Blan pens. Imagine how they'd stand up to the surging jihadist threat.
Not a good scenario.
I'd especially like to thank Moveon.org and The Daily Kos who helped spearhead this blacklist, this anti-Democratic movement; by pushing the candidates to reject the Fox debate, they have revealed the Democratic Party for what it really is: a far left political organization afraid of true and open debate.
Ask yourselves, what would happen if Republican presidential candidates refused to appear on CBS, ABC, NBC or CNN because those networks are too left wing, what would happen?
You know what would happen.
They would be publicly lynched in the pages of every liberal newspaper in America.
But for liberals, this is is just business as usual.
But the American people are not gullible, and will not be fooled. They understand that the greatest threat to free speech in America comes from liberals, from progressives, whatever they are calling themselves this season—from the Democratic Party.
And it's no longer any use making believe that Moveon.org and The Daily Kos are just fringe elements—let's not forget all the Jew hatred, and venemous anti-Israel rhetoric that sprouts on their websites—these organizations are the grass roots of the Democratic Party, and growing more powerful every day.
So: I personally am glad for this tremendously revealing development. The mask is off. The Democrats are in full hysterical bloom. Americans understand that this is not a party of adults, a party that cannot be trusted in the White House, and especially a political party that cannot be trusted with National Security. All that remains is for the Republicans to organize, stay smart, debate respectfully—and let the Democrats commit political suicide—as their anti-Democratic impulses rise to the surface.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:39 AM | Comments (8)
March 11, 2007
Best of the Jewish Blogosphere #109
I love when this round-up arrives. Haveil Havelim #109, Double Mega Edition! compiled by Life in Israel. My Setting the Shabbos Table article has been included. For this, my Shabbos table and I thank you.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:14 AM | Comments (0)
March 09, 2007
Hollywood's Quislings
That superb Conservative Hollywood blog, Libertas, reports that Colonel Austin Bay attended a fundraiser for Rudy Giuliani here in La-La Land. Not surprisingly, Colonel Bay had some fairly biting observations to make about the Hollywood community.
INTERPOLATION
If the good Colonel only knew the pathetic intellectual footprint (carbon and otherwise) of this town. I cannot count how many meetings I've gone to where President Bush has beeen compared to Herr Hitler.
What's most amazing is that these people speak so openly, so contemptuously of the President, the entire administration, of all Republicans, Conservatives and oh yes, people of faith, unless of course they happen to be Muslim. Listen, Hollywood people have no desire to get their heads chopped off. They know that Jewish physicians and accountants pose little physical threat; and Christian Evangelicals are, well, just nice non-violent people. Nope, these Hollywood folk just loftily assume that everyone in the room shares their ignorant and depraved opinions.
It never occurs to one of these fashionable and arrogant lefties that there could possibly be a dissenting opinion in the room. They are far too overeduacted, and overbred for such nuanced thinking.
A Republican?
Impossible.
Thye have horns, don't they?
Little do they know that the jihadists hate Hollywood people more than anyone on planet earth.
Let us count the ways.
1. Jews control Hollywood. Don't even try and argue. These people are insane.
2. Hollywood movies spread American culture, which is just pure filth. We call it entertainment. Ah, multi-culturalism.
3. Hollywood movies promote female freedom and licentiousness. Hey, I'm not even gonna go there, I wrote Body Double.
4. Hollywood movies are pornography. The jihadists confirm this by watching them over and over and over again.
5. Hollywood is part of the Zionist world conspiracy. Gee, Exodus was made almost 50 years ago. That's a true conspiracy. Way to go, Hollywood Jews!
6. See #1.
Hollywood figures that as long as they go hard left, vigorously oppose the war in Iraq, make anti-war, anti-Marine, anti-movie-movies like Jarhead, and pro-homicide bombing flicks like Syriana, the jihadists will leave them alone.
Wrong.
It's the exact opposite.
Hollywood has shown the barbarians that they are scared, that they are petrified, thus they signal that they are ready to assume the role of a Quisling.
But Hollywood should take a step back, and give this submissive posture some serious thought: Consider the train bombing in Spain, the subway bombing in London. There have been lethal bombings in Kenya, Indonesia, Jordan, India, Pakistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and a Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires. These are countries that are not in the forefront of the war on terror. In fact, some of these contries are quite terror-friendly.
The lesson is simple. The more you appease, the more the jihadists demand. The grievances of the jihadists are endless and truly unspeakable. In the end, they want you and your children to live in a 7th century caliphite. If you refuse, you die. No more Judaism, no more Christianity, no more Buddhism, no more secular humanism. There will only be some mad form of Islam. And naturally, no more Democracy.
Ladies, say goodbye to your beloved Ralph Lauren, D&G, Prada, and Gaultier. Memo from Footwear Hell: Jimmy Choo and Manolo Blahniks will be Strictly Forbidden. If that doesn't put the fear of G-d into you Hollywood Ladies, I don't know what will. No, your wardrobe is gonna get kinda basic: It's gonna be that shmatta that looks like an L.L. Bean family tent: the burqua; it is basic black, true, but still do you really want to look like a sack of Idaho potatoes? And listen, if you don't get with the program, your pretty little head will be carefully placed on the chopping block, and it will happen in some vast public arena, with pious crowds cheering while chomping down shwarma, and praising Allah, and whack! No more worries about global warming.
Have I mentioned clitoridectomies?
Oh yeah, no more movies. Folks, you are out of your j-o-b-s.
You think this is some wild fantasy?
It happened in a few weeks time in Afghanistan. And England and Europe are slowly making small consessions to the "moderate" Muslim councils every day of the week. And you know what happens when you make endless small concessions? Well, the big concessions just roll right over you before you know what's happened.
It happened to Europe in the 30's. And by the end of the war there were over 75 million dead. And it all started with small concessions to Hitler, who, by the way, started with 12 thugs in a beer hall.
These people are starting with several million true believers all over the world. Several million of them are right here in America. Right here in Los Angeles. In your corner Mosque.
And let me tell you, the jihadists are even more dangerous that the Nazis.
Did you ever hear of a Nazi homicide bomber?
To fight the jihadists one must assume a vigorous and disciplined world-wide offensive posture.
You want to fight the jihadists overseas, not inside the gates of the Hollywood studios. Believe me, if Hollywood continues its blind path of surrender and appeasement, the next explosions will not be special effects.
For no one is safe.
END INTERPOLATION
Anywhoooo!
Here's Colonel Austin Bay:
Hollywood has failed to show up for the War on Terror. By “Hollywood” I mean America’s information and media industry, the various Disney, Dreamworks and Madison Avenue image makers and story tellers that thrive on America’s creative liberty and creative energy. The Bedouin misogynists of Al Qaeda and the motley tinpot tyrants that terrorize Earth’s saddest corners have an information warfare edge. By in large global media give the terrorists and tyrants a pass. It’s bitterly ironic. Media elites whose careers and lives depend on the defense and expansion of individual liberty hammer America with the harshest criticism, strangely equating American inadequacies with the terrorists’ and tyrants’ depravities. In a hundred years –as they survey The War on Terror– historians will ask why America’s most creative and able communicators at best reluctantly engaged in the global battle against the tribal and oligarchic killers who threatened the great political experiment which gave them the chance to create without fear.
For the rest of Colonel Bay's article, please click here.
Karen and I wish all our Seraphic Friends a lovely and meaningful Shabbat.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 12:18 PM | Comments (8)
Jane Chooses Her Own Time
“It is safer to leave people to their own devices… Everybody likes to go their own way—to choose their own time and manner of devotion.”
Harris Bigg-Wither, heir to the great Mandydown House and a large fortune, was the one man we know for certain who proposed marriage to Jane Austen.
Bigg-Wither had three sisters who were close friends of Jane and Cassandra.
Jane wrote to Cassandra, two years before the proposal: “Harris seems still in a poor way, from his bad habit of body; his hand bled again the other day.”
In 1802, when Jane was twenty-seven years old, she and Cassandra visited Mandydown. There, Bigg-Wither, five years her junior, proposed to Jane.
Jane accepted his offer of marriage.
The future seemed bright. Jane would marry into a wealthy family; she would become mistress of a large estate, and she would assure financial security for her entire family.
After approximately twelve hours of excruciating inner turmoil—for she did not love Bigg-Wither— Jane rescinded her acceptance of Bigg-Wither's offer.
Jane Austen made the exact opposite choice that Charlotte Lucas makes in Pride and Prejudice: marrying for financial security.
That morning, Jane and Cassandra hastily left Mandydown.
Why Jane rejected Bigg-Wither's proposal are pure theory. If Jane wrote any letters explaining her choice, they were destroyed.
Big-Withers, two years after Jane refused him, married an heiress. Eventually they had ten children and he lived the life of a country squire.
For Jane, there were other suitors.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:28 AM | Comments (13)
March 08, 2007
My Hollywood Gun, Redux
Los Angeles is burning.
Karen and I lock every door in the house, shut tight the windows, switch off all the lights.
Gazing from our bedroom window, we watch orange flames licking at the darkness, pillars of black smoke climbing into the sky. We can actually smell the burning.
"Look how close they are," says Karen.
"That's just past La Cienega. Maybe eight blocks away."
Karen gives me a long penetrating gaze and asks:
"What do we do if they come here?"
"After this is all over," I say to Karen, "I'm going to go out and buy a pistol."
Karen says: "How about a shotgun?"
Virtual Jerusalem is running my series on the LA Riots of April 29, 1992. I've done some rewriting and polishing so if you've read the original versions, you might want to read these dispatches from hell once again.
My Hollywood Gun, Part I: The Burning
My Hollywood Gun, Part II: The Get-a-Way
My Hollywood Gun, Part III: The Gauntlet
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 04:12 PM | Comments (4)
The Gall of the Hashemites
If one were to distill 110% wrongheadedness and then distill it again a second, third, and fourth time, one couldn't come up with a speech as purely wrongheaded as the one that the Hashemite king, Abdullah II, delivered yesterday to a joint meeting of Congress. The king's aim amounted to blaming Israel for all the world's problems. "The wellspring of regional division, the source of resentment and frustration far beyond, is the denial of justice and peace in Palestine," the king said. "This is the core issue. And this core issue is not only producing severe consequences for our region, it is producing severe consequences for our world."
Balderdash is the kindest way to describe it. It doesn't track with the actions of the violent terrorists, and it doesn't track with their statements. If the terrorists are upset about Israel's treatment of the Palestinians, why are they setting off bombs in Indonesia and Spain and Saudi Arabia and Iraq, which are hardly in the vanguard of support for Israel? Given that the terrorists state publicly that their end goal is to make all of Europe and America subject to Islamic law, why should we believe that in fact they have the far more modest goal of merely seizing land belonging to the Jewish state?
In a speech on American soil, Abdullah incredibly snubbed his own country and his own family when he referred to "Sixty years of Palestinian dispossession." Why, his family knows all about Palestinian Arab dispossession. The gall of the son of King Hussein, who perpetrated what the Arabs call Black September, fetching up in the Congress to lecture the Americans on Palestinian Arab dispossession is astounding. Abdullah well knows that Jordan controlled the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem between 1948 and 1967. If the Palestinian Arabs were dispossessed during that period it was no one's fault but the Hashemites', who didn't exactly use those decades, or the years after, to race to establish a Palestinian Arab state.
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Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, Mordechai Schiller.
A few simple facts about Jordan.
1. Jordan is the Palestinian state.
2. Nevertheless, the Jordanians have killed more Palestinians in less time than the Israelis have ever dreamed of. Just say: Black September. Or as the Arab world calls it: "The Era of Regrettable Events." Y'gotta love the way they label mass murder.
3. Over 85% of Jordan's population are Palestinian. The Hashemites don't provide any official census figures because they are terrified of discovering that the actual figure is probably closer to 95%.
4. Jordan is, what a shock, Judenrein.
5. Israel protects Jordan from most every crackpot Arab dictator in the neighborhood. If not for the IDF and the Mossad, Jordan would now be run by Fatah or the loonies from the Muslim Brotherhood.
6. Jordan's population has polled as being the most anti-Semitic in the Middleast. That is quite an accomplishment, for in the Arab world rabid Jew-hatred is imbibed with mother's milk.
7. Jordan was created by Winston Churchill. Jordan has about as much historical legitimacy as, oh, Saudi Arabia, which is to say, none. In fact the ruling Hashemites were chased out of the territory now known as Saudia Arabia by the fanatical Wahaabist Ibn Saud because the Hashemites were considered decadent and weak.
By the way, Ibn Saud, in establishing Saudi Arabia, murdered approxiamtely 300,000 people, and enslaved countless women and children. But hey, that's their culture, right?
Anywhoo! Churchill had to give the Hashemites something, so he plopped them down on an ocean of sand and dubbed it: Transjordan. Back in the early 60's the Transjordanians realized that the Trans part sounded