Seraphic Secret

« March 2007 | Main | May 2007 »

April 30, 2007

Indictment, Part I

The Winograd Committee's interim report on the Second Lebanese War, the IDF, and the conduct of Prime Minister Olmert, Defense Minister Peretz, and former IDF Chief of Staff Dan Chalutz, is, to put it mildly, damning. Here is the initial report in English.

A few relevant passages, bold type by Seraphic Secret:

The IDF was not ready for this war. Among the many reasons for this we can mention a few: Some of the political and military elites in Israel have reached the conclusion that Israel is beyond the era of wars. It had enough military might and superiority to deter others from declaring war against her; these would also be sufficient to send a painful reminder to anyone who seemed to be undeterred; since Israel did not intend to initiate a war, the conclusion was that the main challenge facing the land forces would be low intensity asymmetrical conflicts.

Given these assumptions, the IDF did not need to be prepared for ‘real’ war. There was also no urgent need to update in a systematic and sophisticated way Israel’s overall security strategy and to consider how to mobilize and combine all its resources and sources of strength – political, economic, social, military, spiritual. cultural and scientific – to address the totality of the challenges it faces.

We believe that – beyond the important need to examine the failures of conducting the war and the preparation for it, beyond the need to identify the weaknesses (and strengths) in the decisions made in the war – these are the main questions raised by the Second Lebanon war. These are questions that go far beyond the mandate of this or that commission of inquiry; they are the questions that stand at the center of our existence here as a Jewish and democratic state. It would be a grave mistake to concentrate only on the flaws revealed in the war and not to address these basic issues.

Seraphic Secret has read the report just once, but we have been able to form some initial impressions.

The report goes further than indicting Olmert's inept government, it questions the mindset of the chattering classes in Israel who insist that weakness is strength, that diplomacy can replace warfare. It damns those who believe that war is a thing of the past.

The report also states, in no uncertain terms, that the Second Lebanon War was a direct result of Israel's unilateral withdrawl from Lebanon in May 2000.

Seraphic Secret believes that it is most urgent for this present Israeli government to be replaced with men and women who truly understand the current strategic and regional conflicts; Israel needs a government that will turn away from policies of appeasement and return to the confident Zionist ideals of her founders. The post-Zionist mind-set of Israel's cafe set is a recipe for national suicide.

A new Israeli government must deal with several brutal realities: the current leadership of the so-called Palestinian people, perhaps the world's most dysfunctional culture, will not and should not be appeased. They have made themselves what they are: a corrupt thugogracy; a death-loving cult; and they are quite lucky that Israel is their enemy. Any other foe would have wiped them off the face of the earth years ago—especially other Arabs.

Iran is a clear and present danger to Israel and to the entire region. Nuclear warheads are unthinkable in the hands of men who deny one Holocaust even as they threaten another.

Hizbullah is rebuilding on the Lebanese border. They are preparing for round #2. UNIFIL (the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, overwhelmingly French) and the Lebanese Army are scared to death of Hizbullah and their masters in Iran. It was irresponsible of Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni to negotiate a cease fire and agree to foreign mercenaries on Israel's borders, with the mission of disarming Hizbullah. Since when do French and Arab soldiers fight for Jews?

In fact, since when do French troops fight at all?

This stupid move by Livni made not only a mockery of the IDF, but of the entire notion of national sovereignty.

Livni too should resign in disgrace.

Syria, always a grave threat to Israel and Lebanon, must never be allowed to build up serious offensive capabilities. But Syria, with Iran's assistance, are now arming and training Hizbullah troops on the Golan border. There are now fortified Iwo Jima-like bunkers, and missles flow from Tehran. These bold military moves are a direct result of the Second Lebanon War. Israel cannot allow this build-up to continue. It is suicidal.

And so, the elites in Israel, dipped in self-righteous fury, turn on the Jews in Hebron and assist the Arabs in trying to create yet another Judenrein patch of land. Simultaneously, the Arabs continue their two-front offensive: the relentless media war against Jews and Israel, (where liberal Jews assist in the blackening Israel's name) and endless terrorist attacks on Israel's citizens. It is, as far as the Arabs are concerned, a winning formula, for it takes the long view: a hundred years? Fine. They are perfectly willing. But Israelis and their western counterparts are impatient; they do not understand 4th Generation Warfare. Worse, they do not understand the evil of jihad. They believe that if they make enough concessions the Arabs will be satisfied. This is naive and dangerous.

Seraphic Secret sincerely hopes that, whatever the shortcomings of this report, it will hasten the fall of the current disgraceful government and usher in a new and energized coalition that will seriously rebuild Israel's national defense and breathe new life into Israel's national will.

Am Yisroel Chai.

Caroline Glick comments on the interim Report. Essential reading.

An editorial in The Jerusalem Post calls for Olmert's resignation.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 01:04 PM | Comments (10)

Karen Does Not Gamble

“Remember that Chinese Auction I told you about?”
“Um, vaguely.”
“I bid on a vacuum cleaner.”
“Right, I wanted to bid on the Sony Camcorder.”
“Yeah, but I knew that we'd win if we bid on the vacuum cleaner.”

Karen is standing in the doorway of my office. A few weeks ago we received a mailing from Ariel's ZT'L post-high school, Yeshiva Ner Yisroel Rabbinic Academy, for their annual Chinese Auction. Always anxious to support this fine institution where Ariel spent three happy years, Karen leafed through the catalogue and laser-like zeroed in on a Miele vacuum cleaner. The color of a jelly bean, it has the look of some cool, Star Trek beam-me-up-prop. Hard to believe it's purpose is to, um, suck up schmutz.

“I like the Sony Camcorder,” I said. Hint. Hint. Hint.
“I'll win the vacuum cleaner,” said Karen with Vegas surety.

Now Karen steps into my office and says:
“We won.”
“Huh?”
“The vacuum cleaner. I told you we'd win—and we won. Ner Yisroel just called.”
“Oh man, we could have won the camcorder.”
“No, it had to be the vacuum cleaner. Because that's what I knew we'd win. It's like the best vacuum cleaner in the world.”
“What about in the universe?”

I look at Karen's face. She's got that little frown at the edges of her eyes. I know that look. I know it well.

“There's a but, I can feel it coming.”
“But, it's Ariel's yeshiva, right?”
“Right.”
“So I told them to see if they can return the vacuum cleaner—it costs $700.00—that way the Yeshiva can keep the money.”
“Naturally.”
“Was I wrong?”
“Of course not.”

Ten minutes later Ner Yisroel calls and informs us that they cannot return the vacuum cleaner; we have to take it.

Karen and I decide to send them another donation.

Karen says: “Ariel made sure that I'd win. I knew it right from the start.”

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 11:09 AM | Comments (10)

Guilt and Shame

In their frenzy for power and regaining the White House, the Democrats have outsourced their rational cognitive processes to their unconscious feelings and fears; they have closed their eyes to the unpleasant reality about the inevitable psychological consequences of their defeatist and appeasing appeasment and defeatist behavior; and are in the grip of a profound and near-suicidal psychological denial and projection, they can even pronounce their actions political "realism".

Such are the everyday delusions that arise from the interaction of the postmodern mindset with psychopaths like Ahmadinejad and all the religious fanatics of the Middle Eastern shame cultures.

An analysis of the "shame" cultures of the mideast and the "guilt" cultures of the west, and how postmodern liberals inevitably end up enabling the jihadists. A superb article by Dr. Sanity. Click here to read the entire post.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:41 AM | Comments (0)

Ariel Avrech ZT'L Memorial Lecture 2007

The Fourth Annual Ariel Avrech ZT'L Yahrtzeit Lecture will take place, AY”H, on Sunday June 17, 2007, at 10 AM at the Young Israel of Century City, to be followed by a brunch.

Young Israel of Century City
9317 West Pico Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90035
(310) 273 - 6954

We are pleased to announce that we have engaged Professor David Shatz to present this year’s lecture.

David Shatz is Professor of Philosophy at Yeshiva University, Adjunct Professor of Religion at Columbia University, editor of the Torah u-Madda Journal and series editor of MeOtzar HoRav; Selected Essays of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik. He has published eleven books and over fifty articles and reviews dealing with both general and Jewish philosophy.

Dr. Shatz received semicha, rabbinic ordination, from Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary and his Ph.D with distinction from Columbia University. He is a member of the Orthodox Forum Steering Committee, a board member of the Orthodox Caucus, a member of the Editorial Board of Tradition, and a Fellow of the Academy for Jewish Philosophy.

The title of Dr. Shatz’s lecture is: Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik on the Problem of Evil.

We look forward to seeing all our Seraphic Friends and relatives at the lecture. Learning Torah was Ariel's greatest joy. There is no better way of honoring Ariel's memory than by participating in this lecture series. We thank you all in advance.

May Ariel's neshama have an aliyah.

RSVP in the comments section of Seraphic Secret.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:20 AM | Comments (0)

April 29, 2007

Best of the Jewish Blogosphere #114

It's Sunday. You'e eating your bagel, sipping your morning coffee, and saying to yourself: Whatever am I going to do with myself today?

Anxiety.

Have no fear, Haval Haveilim #114 is here.

Thta's right, another excuse to plop yourself down at the computer and zone out for who knows how many hours. The lawn needs watering and mowing; fuggedabout it. The kids need to go to a soccer game? Give 'em the keys the mini-van; time for them to grow up already; so what if they're just four feet tall.

We'd like to thank Soccer Dad for including Seraphic Secret's Feeding the Beast, our thoughts on the mortal and national dangers of prisoner exchange.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:35 AM | Comments (4)

April 27, 2007

Love, Murder & Picket Fences

Eden lights a cigarette, the sleeve of her blouse rises and I glimpse thick white scars, like worms under her skin, testament to her former life as a junkie.

"Here's the thing, I'm not saying I wasn't responsible for what I did, I was. I was a bad person filled with sin and evil, but that's not who I am anymore. You understand what I'm trying to say?"

"Sure."

What Eden has just said is a vast improvement over what I have heard from the majority of the other inmates. Over and over again I hear them automatically regurgitate the language of the therapists who infest the prison like new age locust.

"I lack self-esteem."

"I am learning to love myself."

"I have to be less oppositional."

"I had no impulse control."

The inmates repeat these stock phrases like mantras, magic formulas without true emotional inflection. They tell me that they love their therapists because they "don't judge the crimes I committed."

This is an excerpt from Chapter 5 of my prison series, now being syndicated in Virtual Jerusalem.

Click here to read the entire piece.

If you want to read the full series:

Chapter 1, My Murdering Ladies

Chapter 2, Prison: Just like High School

Chapter 3, Jane Austen in Prison

Chapter 4, The Fatal Moment

The film I finally wrote: Within These Walls. It's pretty darn good; it got great ratings, fine reviews, and has brilliant performances by Ellen Burstyn and Laura Dern.

I am not an expert on crime, on criminals, or homicide. I'm just a Hollywood screenwriter. I research my stories with fanatical zeal because I know from years of experience that the tiniest of details can reap huge narrative rewards. I look for the key to a character, that magical trait, for in a movie characters have to be sketched accurately and with a terrible velocity.

Women who murder are not like you and me. They are not normal people who abruptly snap. Or at least that's the conclusion I came to after a few days in prison.

In these women who had murdered parents, boyfriends, husbands, and yes, children, I glimpsed something I had never seen before: a nothingness at the core. It was shocking; actually terrifying, because I was not prepared to see this moral vacuum in a woman.

I have never quite recovered from the experience.

Karen and I wish all our friends a lovely and meaningful Shabbos.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 01:22 PM | Comments (10)

Presidential Power & Terrorists

America’s criminal justice system is actually intended to give each citizen the maximum opportunity to fight the government and return to the streets. That’s why we have Miranda warnings, bail, the right to a speedy trial, the right to counsel, evidentiary exclusion, the rules of evidence, etc. Everything is meant to give a citizen a fighting chance against the government. Sentencing for all but the most heinous crimes is limited and specific. And, of course, there is our generous appeals process, which ensures those convicted repeated bites at the apple. Lastly, after people have served their time, they are then, at least in theory, invited to rejoin society as fully functioning members.

All of the above is the exact opposite of our goals with a captured fighter. It’s entirely irrelevant whether he was a lowly foot soldier, a crack sniper, or a bomb maker, just as it’s irrelevant whether he actually succeeded in killing or wounding Americans as he carried out those tasks. When considering prisoners of war, what really matters is that, for the duration of the war, they cannot return to the battlefield. After all, even if a POW’s IEDs didn’t work before, they may work in the future. Civil rights cannot apply when your sole purpose is to decrease your enemy’s strength. And before you get all bent out of shape about how it is so not fair to imprison someone indefinitely just because he had the misfortune to be caught fighting for his beliefs, keep in mind that this is vastly more civilized than the old system of dealing with captured enemy combatants — summary execution.

A superb article by Bookworm, to read the entire post please click here.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 01:09 PM | Comments (2)

Jane: On Human Evil

“There is, I believe, in every disposition a tendency to some particular evil, a natural defect, which not even the best education can overcome.”

—Pride and Prejudice, Chapter XI, Mr. Darcy to Elizabeth.

*******

Serapic Secret has been nominated for Best Personal Blog for the Jewish Israeli Blog Awards. Thanks so much for the nomination. Anyway, the first round of voting is taking place right now and if you feel like voting for us, well, we'd greatly appreciate it.

Click here to vote for Seraphic Secret for Best Personal Blog.

There are great blogs out there and no matter what, it's great to be nominated once again.

Karen and I thank all of you have voted for Seraphic Secret. We are deeply touched.

We'd also like to know who nominated us so we can send you a peronal note of thanks.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:15 AM | Comments (0)

The White Feather

For the first time in American history the House of Representatives has informed the military that it knows more than the Commander in Chief about conducting a war. In doing so this Congress also has notified the enemy in our ongoing war in Iraq when the enemy should expect us to begin pulling out troops and precisely how many months it will take for complete withdrawal.

If only the Congress had thought of this idea earlier - perhaps back in 1944 - we could have sent a telegram to the Germans that included the D-Day schedule. This certainly would have saved the United States Government a lot of money and saved the Nazis a lot of trouble!

To read the rest of Paul Weyrich's article, please click here.

And this via the Mighty Michelle Malkin:

The White Feather has been a symbol for cowardice. I suggest that white feathers be sent to the leaders of the Senate and House for the cowardly vote that abandons our soldiers around the world. I was in Vietnam the day that the 101st took "Hamburger Hill" -- the headline in the Stars and Stripes was Teddy Kennedy's statement to the effect that it was all such a waste. I am sure it raised the spirits of the folks on top of the hill -- I know it gave my morale a boost. Surely these leaders of our country will head out on a USO tour to encourage the troops further.

As far as I am concerned this is a Congress of Quislings.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:34 AM | Comments (6)

Is the War on Terror Over?

Do we still need to fight a war on terror?

The answer seems to be no for an increasing number in the West who are weary over Afghanistan and Iraq or complacent from the absence of a major attack on the scale of 9/11.

To read Victor Davis Hanson's entire article, please click here.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:21 AM | Comments (0)

Palestinian Failure

For American lawmakers of either party, tinkering with Social Security has long been considered the ‘third rail’ of American politics, a kind of kiss of death for any politician with higher aspirations.

Talk of renouncing violence is the ‘third rail’ of Palestinian lawmakers. For them, such talk is political suicide. Such talk is also considered traitorous and contrary to religious dogma.

To read Sigmund, Carl & Alfred's entire article, and you really should, please click here.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:35 AM | Comments (0)

April 26, 2007

The Media: Hizbullah's Best Friend

While the war between Israel and Hizbullah raged in Lebanon and Israel last summer, it became clear that media coverage had itself started to play an important role in determining the ultimate outcome of that war. It seemed clear that news coverage would affect the course of the conflict. And it quickly transpired that Hizbullah would become the beneficiary of the media's manipulation.

A close examination of the media's role during the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war in Lebanon comes now from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, in an analysis of the war published in a paper whose subtitle should give pause to journalists covering international conflict: "The Israeli-Hizbullah War of 2006: The Media as a Weapon in Assymetrical Conflict" by Marvin Kalb, of Harvard's Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, methodically traces the transformation of the media "from objective observer to fiery advocate." Kalb painstakingly details how Hizbullah exercised absolute control over how journalists portrayed its side of the conflict, while Israel became "victimized by its own openness."

Click here for the entire story.

And here's the report: The Israeli-Hizbullah War of 2006: The Media as a Weapon in Assymetrical Conflict by Marvin Kalb.

The mainstream media should hang their heads in shame, and then resign in mass. Disgraceful. Outrageous. But entirely predictable.

If these morally obtuse journalists were around during WWII, they would have enabled the Nazis and the Japanese.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 04:26 PM | Comments (4)

Romney in Yeshiva

"What Jimmy Carter fails to understand is what so many fail to understand: Whether it is Hamas or Hezbollah or al Qaeda, there is an overarching goal among the violent jihadists that transcends borders and boundaries," Romney says. "That goal is to replace all modern Islamic states with a caliphate, to destroy Israel, to cause the collapse of the West and the United States, and to conquer the world."

Mitt Romney at Yeshiva University, click here to read the entire article.

*******

We recently found out that Serapic Secret was nominated for Best Personal Blog for the Jewish Israeli Blog Awards. Thanks so much for the nomination. Anyway, the first round of voting is taking place right now and if you feel like voting for us, well, we'd greatly appreciate it.

Click here to vote for Seraphic Secret for Best Personal Blog.

There are great blogs out there and no matter what, it's lovely to be nominated once again.

Karen and I thank all of you have voted for Seraphic Secret. We are deeply touched.

We'd also like to know who nominated us so we can send you a peronal note of thanks.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 04:12 PM | Comments (2)

Desires of the Human Heart

People talk of an Army breaking under the strain, but while there remains a sliver of hope that Iraq might avoid conflagration into full-scale genocide, out here, where bones splinter and flesh really does burn, there is a kind of clarity. And on these empty streets, a practiced eye regards the slivers of hope that are strewn among all the chards of broken glass.

The latest group of professional soldiers I had the honor of accompanying was the 1-4 Cavalry from Fort Riley, Kansas. They opened their doors in Baghdad and wanted me to tell the people at home the good, the bad and the ugly. They didn’t hold back; they provided plenty of all three. In one neighborhood where residents have been subject to a methodical slaughter, our people found an abandoned Christian college that had already proved itself the proverbial island in the storm.

Our finest war correspondent, Michael Yon, once again heads into combat with our troops. Click here to read the entire photo/essay.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 03:16 PM | Comments (0)

No Yen for Yoga

“Get on the floor”
“Do I have to?”
“C'mon, just lie down for a minute.”
“I don't really wanna”
“Robert, can't you just do this one thing for me?”

Karen has just returned from her Wednesday evening Yoga Minyan, an all women's Yoga class she takes with several lovely Lubavitch ladies. Karen's got that adorable Audrey Hepburn thing going on in her black sweats, cheerleader hair-ribbon, a pink flush on her cheeks—but oh-oh, the love of my life wants to show me how relaxing the whole experience can be.

I don't know, I'm pretty relaxed sitting on the couch, watching America's Next Top Model and hurling insults at my TV screen, at the fashion industry, the pathetic non-models, the Nuremberg-like judges, and most of all at myself for wasting an hour of my life. I tell myself that the real reason I'm watching this dreck is because I'm in the industry and I have to know what the networks are programming.

Professional research.

Uh-huh.

Grumble, grumble. I tear myself away from the couch, rip my eyeballs away from a self-absorbed train-wreck who's whining about her self-esteem, and splay myself out on the floor.

Anything for Karen.

“Are you relaxed?”
“I'm lying on the floor. How can this be relaxing?
“Robert, cooperate.”

Sheesh. This Yoga thing brings out the drill sergeant in the love of my life.

Karen hovers over me, leans down, manipulates my neck. Hey, I've never seen Karen from this upside down POV. She's positively adorable. Maybe I can con her into giving me a massage—because wouldn't you know, every single muscle in my body has gone taut as a steel spring.

Karen presses down. Hard.

“Try and relax your shoulders so they press against the floor.”

I try, and fail, miserably.

“You're so tense,” Karen observes.

Well, yeah, I'm lying on the floor, and one of the contestants is crying her eyes out because her best friend just died of a drug overdose, and all the other girls are like sooooo mean to her, and for the next shoot Tyra wants them to pose as corpses—I kid you not—but still look all fashionable, sexy, and chock full of life.

Here's the thing: my self-esteem is fine, but I'm pretty sure my IQ is taking a fast downward spiral.

And do know this rule of television viewing: the more TV you watch the stupider you become.

Karen heaves a great sigh. The subtitle running under her chin reads: Hopeless.

Karen smiles tolerantly, but with affection, and indicates that the Yoga demonstration is definitely over.

I'm what's known in prison as "a hard-case."

I hop back on the couch, scrunch up into my little corner, and watch the models pose as really well-dressed dead girls. The photo shoot director yells: “I need more attitude, more energy, c'mon girls—you're dead.”

Now I'm relaxed.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:04 AM | Comments (25)

April 25, 2007

What About Bob?

The soldiers called him Bob, and for the past several weeks, until Tuesday morning, he was the biggest obstacle to the success of an important mission in a small but crucial corner of the Iraq war.

Great dispatch from Iraq, war up-close and personal, from writer David Finkel. Please click here to read the entire article.

*******

We recently found out that Serapic Secret was nominated for Best Personal Blog for the Jewish Israeli Blog Awards. Thanks so much for the nomination. Anyway, the first round of voting is taking place right now and if you feel like voting for us, well, we'd greatly appreciate it.

Click here to vote for Seraphic Secret for Best Personal Blog.

There are great blogs out there and no matter what, it's lovely to be nominated once again.

Karen and I thank all of you have voted for Seraphic Secret. We are deeply touched.

We'd also like to know who nominated us so we can send you a peronal note of thanks.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 03:24 PM | Comments (0)

Why We Fight

Why and when do Americans feel compelled to pick up arms and commit blood and treasury to war?

I have pondered this question for many years, studied American history and her wars, and there is one single overriding pattern that emerges.

Americans make war on oppressive empires, empires that make war on liberty and justice.

Before we were a nation, under British command, we fought the French and the Indians, and defeated a great empire.

After that, we fought our former allies, the British, not once, but twice, defeated them, and created this nation.

Mexico was next on our hit list. She too was an empire and we could not abide her borders eroding our independence.

Our Civil War was also a war against empire, an empire of slavery and landed Europen style gentry on our very own soil.

Know this: Americans cannot abide oligarchies and dictatorships. It's in our DNA to destroy them.

We dismembered the Spanish empire.

Next came the destruction of the Austro-Hungarian empires and the Ottoman empires.

Another German empire, the Third Reich, an evil genocidal machine, needed to be crushed and we did the job. The Italians made ugly and clumsy moves to be a world empire and we shut them down. The Japanese empire, truly merciless, was bombed into the stone age. The best thing that ever happened to that people.

Yes, even Viet-Nam was a war against empire, the empire of communist ideology.

Finally, through countless proxy wars, an arms race that liberals loudly and wrongly denounced, through superior values, which Liberals never tire of undermining, and through free-market economics, which Liberals don't seem to comprehend, we triumphed over the communist Soviet empire, an empire that Liberals equated morally with some vast American empire, a murky kingdom that exists only in the fevered Liberal imagination.

America is not a colonial power. We are not the French, the English, the Italians, the Germans, or the cruel Belgiums in the Congo. We do not covet land or foreign populations. We believe all men should be free. It's that simple, that complex.

Now we face another empire, perhaps the most challenging in our history: the jihadist Islamic ideology, an authentic empire of darkness and evil.

It is a world-wide movement with millions upon millions of fanatical adherents—and millions more who acquiesce through their merciless silence. This jihad, a call for some mythical caliphite, in reality a stone-age Taliban existence, is led by failed men, from failed tribes, from failed clans, from failed states. They are wed to a religion and culture of death for in the end they have nothing to offer but oblivion.

They cannot build skyscapers, they can only bring them down. They cannot build a state, so they chip away at the edges of successful states like Israel, America, England, Holland, Spain and France. Naturally, they cannot build decent universities, so they funnel petro-dollars to our Ivy League campuses and buy off liberal and leftist professors—the most useful idiots in world history.

Senate majority leader Harry Reid recently declared the war in Iraq lost.

The jihadists have taken note. They derive much succor from this statement and from the Democrats flight into appeasement and defeatism.

There are brutes who would slit the throats of our children and these Islamic barbarians must be killed. We cannot negotiate with the Islamic jihadists as the Democrats insist.

Nancy Pelosi can bat her eyelashes at the tyrant in Syria all she wants and Assad will continue to arm Hizbullah, assassinate political opponents in Lebanon, crush domestic oppostion, and move arms and terrorists from Tehran through Damascus, right into Iraq to kill our soldiers.

This is the simple calculus: jihadists do not fight for peace.

They fight only for destruction.

They do not fight because they have been oppressed or because of the "failure of a peace process." They make war because of their own miserable failures, the failures of their religion, of their broken civilization.

The American mission continues. History assures this.

*******

Is this a case of mind-meld? Seraphic Friends Sigmund, Carl & Alfred have posted another fine piece about the dysfunctional Arab world whose themes closely echo this post. Ah, great minds.

*******

We recently found out that Serapic Secret was nominated for Best Personal Blog for the Jewish Israeli Blog Awards. Thanks so much for the nomination. Anyway, the first round of voting is taking place right now and if you feel like voting for us, well, we'd greatly appreciate it.

Click here to vote for Seraphic Secret for Best Personal Blog.

There are great blogs out there and no matter what, it's lovely to be nominated once again.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:41 AM | Comments (12)

April 24, 2007

Israel is 59

Offspring #3 is studying at a seminary in Jerusalem this year. We speak on the phone, and with great excitement she tells me about all the programs for Yom Ha-Atzmaut, Israel Independence Day, her wonderful school has planned for the young ladies.

"We're going to go the park to have a humongous barbecue; then we'll sing and dance and celebrate... everything."

Everything.

The word hits my core.

Karen and I have taught our children that we must be grateful for all we have; we are blessed that we live in America, that we live in an age that has seen the rebirth of the Jewish State.

I tell Offspring #3 that I love her, and a sigh is trapped in my throat as she tells me that she misses me and loves me and cannot wait to fly home in June in time for her brother's memorial lecture.

After I holster the phone, I look through old pictures from Israel; 1973, it is mere days before The Yom Kippur War breaks out. I stare at the face of a young handsome soldier; he laughs in the glaring sun. Soon he will be calleded up to battle. He has no idea that he will fall in a terrible place called The Chinese Farm. This young man, and so many like him, have made the State of Israel possible.

My daughter celebrates everything.

We have taught her well.

May HaShem bless the people of Eretz Yisroel — and bring victory to the IDF over her enemies.

*******

I just found out that Serapic Secret was nominated for Best Personal Blog for the Jewish Israeli Blog Awards. Thanks so much for the nomination. Anyway, the first round of voting is taking place right now and if you feel like voting for us, well, we'd greatly appreciate it.

Click here to vote for Seraphic Secret for Best Personal Blog.

There are great blogs out there and no matter what, it's lovely to be nominated once again.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 05:35 PM | Comments (2)

In the Beginning Was the Word

cac·o·graph·ic
adj. badly written or spelled

dactylconomy
n. the art of counting on one's fingers

Hat Tip: Futility Closet

This is driving us crazy. Really. Karen and I have noticed that some people, perhaps in an effort to sound sophisticated, are pronouncing the silent T in the word often.

This is wrong.

The correct prononciation is: offen.

Please, for the love of G-d, stop the madness.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 02:19 PM | Comments (31)

Seraphic Secret Nominated

I just found out that Serapic Secret was nominated for Best Personal Blog for the Jewish Israeli Blog Awards. Thanks so much for the nomination. Anyway, the first round of voting is taking place right now and if you feel like voting for us, well, we'd greatly appreciate it.

Click here to vote for Seraphic Secret for Best Personal Blog.

There are great blogs out there and no matter what, it's lovely to be nominated once again.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:56 AM | Comments (15)

Bedlam Revisited

Why the Virginia Tech Shooter was not Committed

I was in graduate school, studying clinical psychology when they began shutting down the asylums. The place was California, the time was the early 1970s, and "they" were an unprecedented confederation of progressives, libertarians and fiscal conservatives.

To read the rest of this article by my friend Jonathan Kellerman, please click here.

Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, Kishke

On the same topic, an Orthodox shul in my neighborhood hands out food to homeless people once a week.

These unfortunate people are, for the most part, mentally ill. I see them wandering the streets of Pico-Robertson with their shopping carts, chattering away to invisible companions. They are deperately ill and should be given hospital care.

One day, and I can pretty much guarantee this, someone is going to get knifed at this shul.

The Rabbi and the members of this shul may get all warm and fuzzy about their lunch program, but in the end, their actions only add to the problem.

This is not a problem of the homeless, but of mental illness and caretaker irresponsibility.

Here's what our synagogue does with our surplus food: after every Shabbos we deliver boxes of delicious food to a local shelter.

This is how responsible and mature adults behave.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:27 AM | Comments (11)

April 23, 2007

Target: England

Al Queda leaders in Iraq are planning the first “large-scale” terrorist attacks on Britain and other western targets with the help of supporters in Iran, according to a leaked intelligence report.

Spy chiefs warn that one operative had said he was planning an attack on “a par with Hiroshima and Nagasaki” in an attempt to “shake the Roman throne”, a reference to the West.

Another plot could be timed to coincide with Tony Blair stepping down as prime minister, an event described by Al-Qaeda planners as a “change in the head of the company”.

The report, produced earlier this month and seen by The Sunday Times, appears to provide evidence that Al-Qaeda is active in Iran and has ambitions far beyond the improvised attacks it has been waging against British and American soldiers in Iraq.

To read the entire article , please click here.

This is a major story, and yet there is hardly any coverage in the mainstream media.

Threats made by terrorists should be taken with great seriousness. History has shown that jihadists often warn of their attacks months in advance, but for some reason western security services do not take these warnings at face value.

For too long England has played the appeasement card with foreign terrorists, terrorist states, and the thousands of homegrown terrorists who proudly preach jihad from mosques all over Britain.

The self-loathing leftists of the BBC and The Guardian have blamed America and Israel for the depredations of the Islamic jihadists in the hope that appeasement and Jew-hatred would, in the end, spare England from blood-letting.

But of course appeasement does no such thing.

Appeasement only invites slaughter.

The jihadists correctly interpret British appeasement as weakness, as cowardice, as disloyalty of the worst kind, and they understand that they have been given a green light to organize their Islamic shock troops and attack the very heart of the British state, for the British people and its government live in a world of denial.

Iran declared war aginst the west over 20 years ago, yet the west has declined to face the true gravity of this existential conflict.

Instead of fighting the evil of Iran, Iraq, the so-called Palestinians, and all the other tyrannical, intolerant, women-hating jihadists of the failed Arab world, Europe has chosen to demonize America and Israel—the only countries who have the moral compass and physical courage to stand up to the blood-crazed Islamic bullies.

Now England, France, Spain, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Germany the Netherlands, and all of Africa will pay the grim price of appeasement.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 04:58 PM | Comments (6)

Feeding the Beast

The Prisoners’ Committee of the Palestinian Legislative Council presented 10 suggestions for action “and the most prominent was the call for further kidnappings of Zionist soldiers as a solution to end the prisoners’ suffering,” according to a report by Hamas's Al-Aqsa Television.

The Hamas statements indicate that they see the kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who is still being held hostage, as effective policy, since Israel has already offered to release Palestinian terrorists from Israeli jails. However, due to Israel's insistence on releasing only a limited number of terrorists in exchange for the single soldier, Hamas believes that kidnapping more Israeli soldiers is necessary to release the thousands of imprisoned Palestinian terrorists. As Sa’id Siam, former interior minister, explained: “There were suggestions to repeat the kidnapping operations of other Israeli soldiers… the capture of the [single] soldier will not be [enough] cause for the release of over 10,000 prisoners.”

Click here to read the entire story and view the video.

Yesterday, Seraphic Secret pointed out a simple rule of psychology that applies to warfare: that which is rewarded is repeated.

The Arabs have, time and again, kidnapped Israeli soldiers (not to mention journalists and other civilains) and been rewarded for these crimes against humanity through prisoner exchanges.

These exchanges are profoundly dangerous; they make Israeli society less safe, and strengthen the hand of terrorists everywhere.

The Israeli government claims that the Arab prisoners who are exchanged for Israeli soldiers have "no blood on their hands."

This is patently false; a terrorist who provides logistical and financial support also has blood on his or her hands as an accesory. Making such fine distinctions will only serve to buttress the nihilistic reasoning of terrorists and their enablers in the west.

But more to the point, prisoner exchanges only serve to make targets of every single Israeli soldier and every Israeli civilian. Never forget that Israel is the canary in the coal mine as far as terrorism is concerned. The violence that begins and is tested in Israel, eventually spreads to the rest of the globe. The modern age of terrorism began with airline hijackings by so-called Palestinians. These terrorists were treated with kid gloves, they were celebrated instead of being killed. Of course, the consequences were blindingly obvious: soon, every thug with a petty grievance was hijacking planes and being labeled a "revolutionary" by the chattering classes.

We have been in the grip of Arab terrorists ever since.

Several airlines made under-the-table deals with Yasser Arafat, paying him hundreds of millions of dollars not to hijack their planes. The airlines should have fought back, like Israel's El Al Airlines, and increased security, creating corporate cultures that refuse to surrender to global terrorism. For in the end, the airlines have made us less safe with their foolish and short-sighted policies of cooperation and appeasement.

Homicide bombers first made an appearance on the streets of Jerusalem, and of course the apologists for jihad rushed to defend the indefensible. Now, homicide bombers are doing their bloody work in Iraq, Jordan, Algeria and Morocco. Terrorism is a virus, and once used and excused against Jews, well, you can be sure that justifications will be found to use the most vile forms of violence against the most innocent of people—with the most elegant of arguments.

These prisoner exchanges teach the terrorists that only through hideous violence will they achieve the incremental goals they openly preach: the eradication of the Jewish State.

Past prisoner exchanges ensure future kidnappings and worlds of misery for innocent families.

There is no absolute solution to terrorism and kidnappings. Violence will always be with us. History is quite clear on this matter. Our job is stand against evil and never let the terrorists be viewed as anything but a foul blight on humanity.

Finally, Israel must resist the impulse to take the easy way out and enter into a Faustian pact with the terrorists who run the so-called Palestinian territories, in truth, a corrupt, crime-ridden Soprano-like thugogracy.

A wise state should know enough not to feed the beast.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 12:55 PM | Comments (0)

I Miss the Blacklist

It is easier to blame films for these spree killings than guns. Guns have been a part of America since America began. I’m no sociologist but these school and workplace shootings appear to be a fairly new phenomenon of the last few decades — and it’s been in those years that guns have actually been harder to get because of gun control laws. However, access to film images of violent nihilsim and the glorification of the anti-hero seem to correlate with the rise of the spree killer. That could be a spurious correlation like the relation between between ice cream sales and rape, but it’s worth thinking about.

What’s troublesome about those who blast movies for their negative effect on society is their lack of intellectual honesty. If images can indeed alter behavior, why is it only the violent image that offends? In 2005 16,692 people were murdered in America. In that same year 45,669 people were diagnosed with AIDS, and over 17,000 died. Sex delivers a death sentence to more people in this country than violence and yet few of those lashing out at violent images seem to care about the hyper-sexualization of the motion picture that has risen along with rape, teen pregnancy, and unwed motherhood… Which brings me to the Imus flap.

To read Seraphic Friend Dirty Harry's entire article at Libertas, please click here.

Speaking of Hollywood blacklists, here's my article: Help, I'm a Hollywood Republican.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 11:00 AM | Comments (13)

Birth of a Nation

The creation of the State Of Israel could not be explained away, denied or hidden. As far the Arab world was concerned, the establishment of the Jewish state, in their neighborhood and on their watch, was indeed a catastrophic event. In fact, it was cataclysmic, because Israel was undeniable evidence that the rise and domination of the Islamic world, led by the Arabs was indeed over. Notwithstanding Arab failures for over a thousand years, the establishment of Israel was a truth that not even the Arab world could deny. That catastrophe worsened as Israel ascended into the first world and they fell even further behind. In the same way that Da Vinci and Galileo were to stun the church with scientific truths, Israel stunned the Arab world with the successes that could only serve to highlight a millennium of Arab failure and darkness. The divine law, given by God Himself, that gave Muslims dominion over all mankind was upended- and by Jews, no less. The magnitude of the event cannot be understated.

To read Sigmund, Carl & Alfred's entire post, please click here.

Israel is the only country in the world whose legitimacy is called into question by the so-called intellegencia. In truth, Iraq, Jordan, Libya, Saudia Arabia, Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, and almost every Arab state in the region is an artificial creation of the great colonial powers. These Arab states were created by British, French and German diplomats who carelessly drew lines on maps thus throwing together a fatal brew of populations that were to clash for generations in bloody religious, clan, tribal, border and state warfare.

Israel and the Jewish people is the one country, the one people, that have a true religious and historical claim to the very land to which they have returned.

The work that was started in Auschwitz was cut short, and many find this intolerable.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:44 AM | Comments (3)

April 22, 2007

They Fought Like Lions

It is time to remember fallen heroes.

As Israel's afternoon sun slowly sets over Jerusalem, we prepare to commemorate Israel's Memorial Day, "Yom HaZikaron" — the day we remember the approximately 22,500 who fell defending the Land of Israel since the 1860s when the Jewish people created the early neighborhoods outside the old city of Jerusalem.

To read the rest, click here to go to Jameel at The Muquata.

Meanwhile, David Bogner over at Treppenwitz provides a chilling analysis of the current Israeli government and citizen's understanding of the rules of engagement against an implacable and genocidal enemy. The current Israeli policy can only be termed: suicidal.

We have steadfastly refused to behave as a country at war, thinking that if we only provide a convincing illusion of peace it will hasten the arrival of the real thing. While we have forced our soldiers to act under the rules of engagement appropriate for suburban policemen and our civilians to behave like sheep, our enemies have broken every rule of civilized warfare and blurred erased any meaningful distinction between civilian and military targets.

To read the entire post, please click here.

Seraphic Secret would like to point out one simple rule of psychology.

That which is rewarded is repeated.

We hear a great deal about "proportional response." This is wrong. In fact, it is stupid and dangerous. When a nation is attacked the response must be overwhemingly disproportionate. This is the only way to punish the attackers, their host countries, financiers and cheerleaders. The response must be immediate, and absolutely overwhelming. Diplomacy must never be given a chance to put a nice face on terrorism. This has given a legitimacy to evil that has brought untold suffering to the world.

When Rome destroyed Carthage, she brought generations of peace to her empire. When Rome appeased the barbarian tribes, she collapsed. America dropped two Atomic bombs on Japan and the world has not had any trouble from the Japanese ever since. Nazi Germany was bombed backed into the stone age by the allies in WWII and now the Germans make very fine cars. These elementary lessons of warfare have been conveniently swept under the rug by our post-modern moralists—hence terrorists stalk the earth and enjoy rock star status.

For too long Israel has played a dangerous game of appeasement with the so-called Palestinians. In return Israel has seen the rise of Hamas and Hizbullah. Peace Now is a fifth column in the heart of Israel; the so-called disengagement has given new legitimacy to the Nuremberg ghetto laws, making whole swaths of land Judenrein; and the false G-d of international law is nothing but a replacement for good old fashiond Jew-hatred.

I lived in Israel during the Yom Kippur War. I lost several friends in combat. Not a day goes by when I do not remember them. I think about The Battle of the Chinese Farm—brutal close quarter combat. I recall brave young men who fought like lions. If not for their sacrifice, Israel might not have survived the two-pronged onslaught.

May their memories be a blessing.

Baruch Dayan Emet.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 04:20 PM | Comments (8)

Best of the Jewish Blogosphere

It's that time again, folks. Haveil Havelim #113 is up and as always, it's the best way of getting a feel for the wild and whacky Jewish blogosphere.

We'd like to thank Soccer Dad for including Seraphic Secret's: Time Capsule in this week's round-up.

We wonder: with Soccer Dad working so hard at Haveil Havalim, does he ever have time to be a truly good and dedicated, um, Soccer Dad?

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 03:57 PM | Comments (2)

April 20, 2007

Robert in Prison: The Meltdown

Cindy firmly grips my arm, pulls me behind her and whispers in my ear: "Do. Not. Move. Do. Not. Speak."

CO Cindy separates her words like bricks.

Eden says: "I forgot."

Josepha says: "You forgot, what you mean you forgot? Who you think you are, Princess?"

Rasssp!

CO Cindy draws her stick.

"Ladies, we don't wanna do this."

"Yeah, we do," says Josepha, her eyes still nailed to Eden. "Princess here think she too good to make the coffee.

"I forgot. I told ya."

"No, you're too busy with Mr. effin' Hollywood."

Oh boy.

CO Cindy moves close to Josepha. She does not raise the stick. Not yet. She trails it along the floor. It makes a hissing sound. Like a rattlesnake about to strike.

"Josepha, our guest's got nothing to do with this. You know that. You know that. There's history here. You do not wanna do this. I do not wanna do this. You're skull ain't that hard."

"I'll make the coffee," says Eden.

"I'll put it in your face," says Josepha. "Melt that pretty right off."

This is an excerpt form Part IV of my Prison Series, currently being serialized in Virtual Jerusalem.

Here's the fun part about being a screenwriter: you get to meet glamorous movie stars and travel to exotic far-a-way places.

Well, not me.

I get sent to a maximum security prison with several thousand really scary homicidal woman to research a film script.

At the end of each day at the prison I'd go back to my hotel room, call Karen and whimper for an hour or so. Karen would remind me that this was a job and I had to keep a professional distance from the inmates—a bunch of violent and manipulative sociopaths.

I'm always amazed that over-educated, over-bred do-gooders clamor to come into prison, set up incredibly sophisticated educational programs for murderers and sociopaths, and completely ignore the blue-collar Corrections Officers, hard-working chaplains, psychologists, and social workers, who labor in the underground world of our corrections system.

These peope struck me as being prisoners too.

They are amazing professionals, dedicated, criminally underpaid and no one that I am aware of, is spending any time giving them or their families a free college education.

For some reason, liberals find murderers and psychopaths incredibly attractive.

They have probably watched too many dopey Hollywood prison movies.

In any case, Corrections Officer Cindy is an amazing young woman, and she had my back the whole time I was on the yard.

If you want to catch up on the entire series:

Part I, My Murdering Ladies

Part II, Prison, Just Like High School

Part III, Jane Austen in Prison

Karen and I wish you all a lovely and meaningful Shabbos.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 02:31 PM | Comments (11)

Librescu Family Condolence Page

Chabad has set up a condolence page for Professor Librescu, a true hero from the Virginia Tech massacre. Please follow the link and leave a message for the family.

Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, Rachel Lipson

Sigmund, Carl & Alfred note that:

A quick survey of all the Arab world news outlets (up to the time of this writing) that have reported on the Virginia Tech massacre, have one curious omission in common. Despite the world wide coverage of the Holocaust survivor’s heroism in saving the lives of many students, not a single Arab world news source has reported on that reality.

Click here to read the entire article.

We should also like to point out that in Israel, the official title of Holocaust Memorial Day is: Holocaust and Heroes Memorial Day.

Heroes.

The State of Israel understood that enshrining only the victims was not quite right; those who fought, and those who maintained their dignity under inhuman conditions needed to be recognized as heroes.

Karen and I attended a fine lecture by Rabbi J.J. Schachter of Yeshiva University just the other night about this very topic. We thank him for a fascinating and enlightening shiur.

Professor Librescu was buried in Jerusalem today.

Here is the Wikipedia entry on Professor Librescu, a hero and a righteous Jew.

Baruch Dayan Emet.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 12:55 PM | Comments (4)

April 19, 2007

Crime and Terror

He committed no crime. He committed an act of terror.

NBC provided no answers; they did not handle the material with sensitivity as they claimed. They were after ratings, and they have enabled a mass murderer. Thus their conduct is depraved and corrupt. They have rewarded a mass murderer and set the stage for the next atrocity.

But Seraphic Friends Sigmund, Carl & Alfred actually do shed some light on the darkness of the killer. Click here to read the entire article. Prepare to be enlightened.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 05:11 PM | Comments (2)

The Killer and the Mainstream Media: A Love Story

I have no interest in looking at the images of the human monster who murdered 32 innocent men and women on the campus of Virginia Tech.

His self-absorbed ravings and his whiny excuses are just more proof of a marginal creep who, unable to take responsibility for his miserable life, for his actions, for his embrace of evil, uses every excuse to justify his merciless actions. He invokes class warfare; he blames liquor, trust funds, fancy cars. He compares himself to Jesus and Moses; his prose is overwrought and wretched.

Naturally, we made him do it.

He is, of course, the ultimate, narcissist, wallowing in too much self-esteem. Our sin? We did not recognize his greatness.

NBC has done a great disservice by acting as the killer's PR machine.

Now, every copy cat-killer in the world will know how to spread their message, virus-like, across the globe.

1. Prepare a slick DVD with sensational photos, preferably with lots of shots of guns and knives and a rambling, incoherent monologue.

2. Mail to mainstream media. Make sure to use correct zip code.

3. Find a gun-free zone; kill as many innocent people as possible.

4. Kill self. But have no fear, legend will live on thanks to the good folks at the mainstream media.

Here's how Seraphic Secret would hande the killer and his meaningless package.

1. Never say the killer's name.
2. Destroy every photo and recording the killer ever made.
3. For 30 days display photos and memoriams of those who were killed.
4. Grieve for a year. Be angry. Be sad. Don't heal. And do not forgive the killer.

If handled this way, I guarantee you will see an immediate decrease in these horrendous crimes.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 11:17 AM | Comments (23)

A Culture of Passivity

The students at Virginia Tech were grown women and — if you’ll forgive the expression — men. They would be regarded as adults by any other society in the history of our planet. Granted, we live in a selectively infantilized culture where twentysomethings are “children” if they’re serving in the Third Infantry Division in Ramadi but grown-ups making rational choices if they drop to the broadloom in President Clinton’s Oval Office. Nonetheless, it’s deeply damaging to portray fit fully formed adults as children who need to be protected. We should be raising them to understand that there will be moments in life when you need to protect yourself — and, in a “horrible” world, there may come moments when you have to choose between protecting yourself or others. It is a poor reflection on us that, in those first critical seconds where one has to make a decision, only an elderly Holocaust survivor, Professor Librescu, understood instinctively the obligation to act.

To read Mark Steyn's eloquent defense of self-defense, please click here.

Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, Moishe 3rd

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 11:03 AM | Comments (0)

Worst Massacre?

So why use the phrase "worst massacre in U.S. history" if it isn't true?

Sensationalism is reason number one. But as I have said, I do not see that such sensationalism helps the nation at all, and it certainly does not help the families and friends, the wounded, or the dead. But it helps the Mainstream Media, I suppose, and that's their bottom line.

Laziness is reason number two. The sensationalist impulse, coupled with a reluctance to do any real research, results in a-historical statements like these.

Reason number three is the one upon which I wish to focus, however, and that is ignorance as a result of revisionism. The tragedy at Virginia Tech was a major massacre in U.S. history, but there have been many others, including ones in which even more people had their lives taken from them.

The problem for the Mainstream Media and the left is that in nearly all the cases of massacres from U.S. history in which more people died, the perpetrators were Democrats, and the victims were the two groups the Democrats have reviled most in history: recently freed blacks and Republicans.

To read the entire article, please click here.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:07 AM | Comments (13)

Israeli Wins Pulitzer

Oded Balilty of The Associated Press has become the first Israeli photographer to win the Pulitzer Prize, for his image of a lone Jewish woman defying security forces during the evacuation of the Amona outpost in Samaria on February 1, 2006.

To read the rest of the article and to see the Pulitzer Prize winning photo, please click here.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:38 AM | Comments (2)

April 18, 2007

Ariel Avrech ZT'L Memorial Lecture 2007

The Fourth Annual Ariel Avrech ZT'L Yahrtzeit Lecture will take place, AY”H, on Sunday June 17, 2007, at 10 AM at the Young Israel of Century City, to be followed by a brunch.

Young Israel of Century City
9317 West Pico Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90035
(310) 273 - 6954

We are pleased to announce that we have engaged Professor David Shatz to present this year’s lecture.

David Shatz is Professor of Philosophy at Yeshiva University, Adjunct Professor of Religion at Columbia University, editor of the Torah u-Madda Journal and series editor of MeOtzar HoRav; Selected Essays of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik. He has published eleven books and over fifty articles and reviews dealing with both general and Jewish philosophy.

Dr. Shatz received semicha, rabbinic ordination, from Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary and his Ph.D with distinction from Columbia University. He is a member of the Orthodox Forum Steering Committee, a board member of the Orthodox Caucus, a member of the Editorial Board of Tradition, and a Fellow of the Academy for Jewish Philosophy.

The title of Dr. Shatz’s lecture is: Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik on the Problem of Evil.

We look forward to seeing all our Seraphic Friends and relatives at the lecture. Learning Torah was Ariel's greatest joy. There is no better way of honoring Ariel's memory than by participating in this lecture series. We thank you all in advance.

May Ariel's neshama have an aliyah.

RSVP in the comments section of Seraphic Secret.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 12:07 PM | Comments (29)

April 17, 2007

The Terrible Truth

For a parent, the most unnatural feeling is outliving your child. One is doomed to a spectral existence.

Now we are witness to an atrocity that thrusts far too many into this cruel state, and leaves so many parents asking the ultimate questions: why this, why my child, how did G-d allow this to happen?

It is impossible for us to view this atrocity dispassionately. Our son, our beloved Ariel Z'TL is forever a memory.

Debates about gun control are, we must admit, simply beyond the point.

We apologize for indulging in side issues.

Karen and I were and are good parents. We shower all our children with love and affection. We raise our children with strong Jewish values. We teach them right from wrong, good from evil, to fear and love G-d.

Yet there are no guarantees.

Ariel Z'TL was struck with cancer. He fought with incredible courage and refused to surrender to self-pity or lazy anger. Karen and I explored every medical avenue; we became expert in chemotherapy, radiation, and diet. Yet in the end we were defeated. Ariel's courage, and his will to live sustained him through many crises, but we ran out of miracles; G-d had a different plan.

We did the best we could, but sometimes we have to face our helplessness. Despite our research, our loving care and devotion, supervising the endless minutae of his medical care, ultimately, we were not in control.

We take comfort in knowing that courage counts, that our son's goodness lives on even after he is physically gone.

There is a very human impulse to fix, well, everything.

An evil man plans mass murder, and people rush forward with instant recipes to fix the problem: less guns, more guns, stricter campus security, and of course, the ultimate panacea: self-esteem classes.

Here's the terrible truth: bad things happen; evil crouches at the door. We cannot make a perfect world. Those who forge utopian societies end up mass murderers: witness communist Russia and the other socialist tyrannies who have engineered genocide on their own citizens.

We are meant to be imperfect.

We are terribly frail men and women.

We live , we rejoice, we suffer — and we endure.

Faced with the death of a child, of all children, we must admit: there are no easy answers.

These verses from Ariel's annotated copy of the Book of Isaiah, Chapter 45:

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.

May G-d comfort the families of those who were slain at Virginia Tech.

May G-d blot out the name and memory of the evil killer.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 03:02 PM | Comments (14)

Loss, Lessons, Life

In the aftermath of the Virginia Tech tragedy, a small congregation of mothers and fathers will have joined the select chorus and community that have buried their own children.

That club is an exclusive club. It seeks no new members. The club prays fervently that it die off, though in the heart of hearts of each member, they know better. With each new member, old wounds are reopened, and the heart ache that never really goes away, overwhelms again.

A luminous post by Seraphic Friends, Sigmund, Carl & Alfred, please click here to read the entire article.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 11:05 AM | Comments (1)

How to Prevent the Next Massacre

As my friend Larry Pratt, executive director of Gun Owners of America, points out, "Isn't it interesting that Utah and Oregon are the only two states that allow faculty to carry guns on campus. And isn't it interesting that you haven't read about any school or university shootings in Utah or Oregon? Why not? Because criminals don't like having their victims shoot back at them."

To read Joseph Farah's entire column, please click here.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:45 AM | Comments (10)

Holocaust Survivor Victim at Virginia Tech

One of the victims in the Virginia Tech shooting was a Senior Researcher and Lecturer, Professor Liviu Librescu of Israel. Professor Librescu was a Holocuast survivor, and he died on Holocaust Memorial Day.

Professor Librescu died a hero. He used his body to block the entrance to his classroom, and thereby allowed his students ample time to flee. The gunman shot through the door and killed this brave and fine man.

Baruch Dayan Emet.

Go to Neocon Express to read the full story.

Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, Jeramayakova

And this from The Jerusalem Post.

Excellent article by Dennis Prager, I'm Dead, You're Healing.

Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, Baruch Cohen

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:22 AM | Comments (5)

April 16, 2007

Massacre

There are 32 confirmed dead at Virginia Tech, 28 wounded.

We are not including the killer in this count, and we do not undertstand why some news sources include the murderer with his victims. This is the height of moral equivalence, and it makes us sick.

Some news sources are desribing this massacre as a tragedy.

It is an atrocity.

It seems to us that too many journalists, schooled in post-modern ethics, have so debased language they have no idea how to distinguish between a natural tragedy: a hurricane or a tsunami, and a massacre: an act planned and carried out by an evil man—thus a carefully engineered atrocity.

Words matter.

"Death and life lie in the power of the tongue." (Mishlei, Proverbs 18:21.)

Our most sincere condolences to the families of the dead and the wounded.

A few observations.

You will hear calls for more gun control, for more gun laws.

There are, of course, thousands of gun laws on the books already.

Among those who enthusiastically support gun control are, of course, criminals and killers, for it makes their bloody work that much easier.

And let us point out that there are laws against murder—yet murder still thrives all over the world. In fact, some cultures celebrate and honor murder.

It seems to us that, once again, this inevitable cry for gun control misses the point. This dreadful massacre was committed by an evil man who was intent on committing mass homicide. All the gun laws in the world would probably not have altered his dreadful trajectory.

In Cambodia, hundreds of thousands of innocent souls were snuffed out by the Khymer Rouge using plastic garbage bags. Bullets were considered too expensive and too impersonal a method of execution for the genocidal Pol Pot regime.

Bad people will acquire weapons—no matter what.

If you outlaw guns, you will only ensure that good people will be unable to defend themselves.

Besides, you cannot oulaw guns in America. Those who agitate for such measures live in a make-believe world. We prefer reality.

The reason so many shootings take place at schools is because evil men know that schools are gun-free zones. Students and faculty are helpless targets for merciless killers.

Let us point out that incidents like these never take place in Israel, for almost every citizen is armed and trained and a gunmen would be cut down very quickly.

In a mall in Salt Lake City several months ago, a shooter was killed when an armed, off-duty policeman shot him, and helped avoid a massacre.

Wherever and whenever law-abiding citizens are armed, crime and criminals flee.

Here's a case from 2002, in Virginia, where armed students stopped a gunmen.

Perhaps it is time for schools to train and arm selected faculty members so the monsters among us will no longer have the advantage.

That's why the Second Amendment exists.

Finally: evil exists. No matter how hard we try we cannot stop bad things from happening, not tragedies, nor atrocities; we do the best we can, but in the end we are oh so frail, oh so fallible, and there are no guarantees of safety—not for ourselves not for our children.

Baruch Dayan Emet.

For valuable information, please read this interview with John R. Lott Jr., author of More Guns, Less Crime.

The invaluable Debbie Schlussel has some important information about the shooting. It seems that there was a law introduced to allow students to carry weapons on the Virginia Tech campus for self-defense, but well, guess what happened?

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 03:47 PM | Comments (19)

Defining Terrorism Down

Defining terrorism down allows Fatah, — whose constitution declares as its first goal the "eradication of Zionist economic, political, military and cultural existence" and its "opposition to any political ... alternative to demolishing the Zionist occupation in Palestine," — to be seen as "moderate," at least in the eyes of its willfully degraded "peace process" partners. Defining terrorism down also eliminates a crucial line between "Us" and "Them."

Let the U.S. tax dollars flow. Instead of the dividing lines the first Bush term was known for, we now abide by something more like a big blur. Its amorphousness gives cover not just to parleys with Palestinian terror groups, but to negotiations with Iraqi terrorists (a major flopola), and even meet-and-greets with assorted terror-masters (think House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Syria's Assad, and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and the Muslim Brotherhood). Without traditional guidelines, we lose our bearings. Without words that mean what they say, we fail to realize we have done so.

To read the entire story by Diana West, please click here.

Hat Tip: A very depressed Seraphic Friend, Yonoson Fisgus, M.D.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:40 AM | Comments (0)

Brit Journalists for Jihad

From Debka.

Monday, April 16, the British National Union of Journalists voted to boycott Israeli goods as part of a protest against last year’s war in Lebanon. The vote, carried 66 to 54, read: “This ADM calls for a boycott of Israeli goods similar to those boycotts in the struggles against apartheid in South Africa. It also called for sanctions to be imposed on Israel by the British government and the United Nations.

After a show of hands twice failed to give a clear result, the conference room was closed for the final vote. The motion also called for the end of “Israeli aggression in Gaza and other occupied territories.”

DEBKAfile notes that no sanctions were proposed against the Palestinian kidnappers of the British journalists’ BBC colleague Alan Johnston [who claimed two days later to have killed him.] On the contrary; the NUJ’s national executive committee was instructed to support pro-Palestinian organizations.

DEBKAfile also reports a move to remove the Holocaust from the British schools curriculum on the grounds that the subject "offended" some members of the Muslim population, which claims it never occurred.

In 2006, the UK had the highest incidence of fast-rising anti-Semitic violence in the world, followed by France, Canada and Australia.

The figures were released by Tel Aviv University’s Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary Anti-Semitism and Racism on the occasion of the Day of Remembrance for victims of the Nazi Holocaust.

Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, Yonoson Fisgus, M.D.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:28 AM | Comments (0)

Family Pictures

This is the incredible story of a collection of 178 family pictures, which were hidden in the walls of a house in Poland just before the Holocaust, only to be found some 60 years later and be returned to their rightful owners.

Click here to read the entire story and to view the pictures.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:18 AM | Comments (2)

April 15, 2007

In Memoriam

Recently some schoolboards in the UK have removed The Holocaust from its school curriculum because it "offended" the Moslem population which claims it never occurred.

This is a frightening portent of the fear that is gripping the world and how easily each country is giving into it.

It is now more than 60 years after the Second World War in Europe ended.

This e-mail is being sent as a memorial chain, in memory of the six million Jews, 20 million Russians, 10 million Christians and 1,900 Catholic priests who were murdered, massacred, raped, burned, starved and humiliated with the German and Russian peoples looking the other way.

Now, more than ever, with Iran , among others, claiming the Holocaust to be "a myth," it is imperative to make sure the world never forgets.

This is also in memoriam for the United Kingdom—once known as Great Britain. R.I.P.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 11:24 AM | Comments (11)

Best of the Jewish Blogosphere #112

It's baaaack.

Yup, after taking a much needed Passover break, those hard-working folks at Haveil Havalim have returned with #112. Yid with Lid hosts this week and he appropriately labels this entry: This Time I WILL be Able to do Haveil Havalim.

I know how he feels.

Well, not really.

We'd like to thank Yid with Lid for including Seraphic Secret's Shul Dinner: 4th Generation Warfare in this cyber round-up.

Yid with Lid actually thinks that he attended my shul dinner.

Um, was he the nudge quizzing me about my latest screenplay?

He definitely wasn't the Frum Femme Fatale.

I soooo hope.

Seriously folks, if you want to know what's going on in the Jewish blogosphere, check out Haveil Havalim #112.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:55 AM | Comments (2)

April 13, 2007

The European Civil War

If I were to tell you that within twenty years Europe could find itself engaged in a civil war so bloody it made WWII look like a bun fight, you might logically consider me a candidate for the men in white coats. You would be wrong, however. Based on the demographic evidence collated for this article, such a scenario looks not merely possible, but inevitable.

Part One.

Part Two.

By British author Paul Weston. Essential Reading.

Karen and I wish all our readers a lovely and meaningful Shabbat.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 03:18 PM | Comments (5)

The French They are a Funny Race: Not

The French presidential campaign officially opened this week.

As you can tell, the French truly have their priorities straight.

PARIS, April 10 — Nicolas Sarkozy, the conservative candidate for president, suggests that pedophilia is most likely a genetic flaw; Ségolène Royal, the Socialist, does not seem to know that Taliban extremists are no longer running the government of Afghanistan; and Jean-Marie Le Pen, the ultrarightist, recommends masturbation instead of free condoms to meet young people’s sexual needs.

With 12 days to go before the first round of France’s presidential election, the campaign has entered a phase of improvisation and even silliness that reflects the absence of any single defining issue and a frenzied competition to win over the country’s large bloc of undecided voters. .

Click here to read the entire article.

Yup, let's pay attention to those sophisticated French.

Let us be clear: France is not a world power. She is a world-class appeaser, a decadent and weak nation that plays no great role on the world stage. In fact, Israel is far greater world power, financially, culturally, and militarily. In twenty-five years France will probably be an Islamic Republic, and of course Judenrein. France's decline is easy to chart. The day DeGaulle refused to join NATO sealed France's fate as a third rate nation.

Meanwhile, we received this "Letter From a French Jew" via Bruce Kessler.

Once again, the real news in France is conveniently not being reported as it should. To give you an idea of what's going on in France where there are now between 5 and 6 million Muslims and about 600,000 Jews, here is an email that comes from a Jew living in France.

Nowhere have the flames of anti-Semitism burned more furiously than in France: In Lyon, a car was rammed into a synagogue and set on fire. In Montpellier, the Jewish religious center was firebombed; so were synagogues in Strasbourg and Marseilles; so was a Jewish school in Creteil - all recently.

A Jewish sports club in Toulouse was attacked with Molotov cocktails, and on the statue of Alfred Dreyfus in Paris , the words "Dirty Jew" were painted. In Bondy, 15 men beat up members of a Jewish football team with sticks and metal bars. The bus that takes Jewish children to school in Aubervilliers has been attacked three times in the last 14 months.

According to the Police, metropolitan Paris has seen 10 to 12 anti-Jewish incidents PER DAY in the past 30 days.

Walls in Jewish neighborhoods have been defaced with slogans proclaiming "Jews to the gas chambers" and "Death to the Jews."

A gunman opened fire on a kosher butcher's shop (and, of course, the butcher) in Toulouse, France; a Jewish couple in their 20s were beaten up by five men in Villeurbanne, France. The woman was pregnant; a Jewish school was broken into and vandalized in Sarcelles, France. This was just in the past week.

So I call on you, whether you are a fellow Jew, a friend, or merely a person with the capacity and desire to distinguish decency from depravity, to do, at least, these three simple things: First, care enough to stay informed. Don't ever let yourself become deluded into thinking that this is not your fight. I remind you of what Pastor Neimoller said in World War II: "First they came for the Communists, and I didn't speak up, because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up, because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up, because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak up for me".

Second, boycott France and French products. Only the Arab countries are more toxically anti-Semitic and, unlike them, France exports more than just oil and hatred. So boycott their wines and their perfumes. Boycott their clothes and their foodstuffs. Boycott their movies. [With pleasure! RJA] Definitely boycott their shores. If we are resolved, we can exert amazing pressure and, whatever else we may know about the French, we most certainly know that they are like a cobweb in a hurricane in the face of well-directed pressure.

Third, send this along to your family, your friends, and your co-workers. Think of all of the people of good conscience that you know and let them know that you and the people that you care about need their help.

The number one best selling book in France is: "September 11: The Frightening Fraud," which argues that no plane ever hit the Pentagon.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 01:18 PM | Comments (12)

The British at War

They opened on us with massive small-arms fire from many directions, and RPGs. One RPG slammed into a British vehicle and exploded in the slot armor, but the vehicle took the hit, and the men inside continued to fight. The enemy pounded at one of the platoons with at least one large machine gun, possibly a 12.7 mm, which can blow a man in half and easily defeat British or American armor. But soldiers in that platoon responded with blistering fire, and silenced the gun.

The ensuing firefights were vigorous. As more enemy joined and the battle progressed, British elements maneuvered and fired, making adjustments to the plan to mold the fight. With no helicopters above to help develop ground awareness or to help shape the combat by engaging targets, British commanders directed their elements by map and ground-feel. Having no helicopters also left rooftops open to the enemy, adding another dimension to the combat. In addition to small arms, British soldiers used 7.62mm machineguns, grenades, and 30mm guns with deadly focus. As soldiers ran out of ammunition, they dropped back to reload, while other soldiers kept up the aimed shots.

The enemy was at times on both sides of us firing from many positions, on the ground and on rooftops. 5 Platoon and others continued answering heavy fire with accurate return fire. I saw a soldier fire his 40mm grenade launcher several times, arching explosive rounds into enemy positions. A British sniper fired four bullets. One 7.62 mm bullet struck an armed man on a rooftop in the chest. Another bullet stopped a gunman who was firing from a car.

Bullets popped into the walls of the vehicles. British planners had anticipated that JAM would by now have placed large IEDs on our egress routes, and the commanders’ plan to defeat this threat so far was working. At least one IED was in fact placed to get us, but exploded at the wrong time and missed a Bulldog.

As the firing began to wane, the day’s heat began to fade along with it. Dust wafted thick on the cooling air. The soldiers were still sweating when a light rain began to fall. Iraqi dust polluted the pure rain as it fell, forming mud drops that splattered onto man and machine.

In an operation that lasted over four hours, British forces killed 26-27 enemy and sustained no casualties. 5 Platoon fired more than 4,000 bullets before their guns began to cool, and about 15 of the enemy kills were accredited to 5 Platoon. Another platoon captured two enemy fighters, including one Iraqi policeman who might have been heeding al Sadr’s call for Iraqi Police and Army forces to turn on their Coalition partners.

We tend to forget that there are brave and disciplined allied forces also fighting in Iraq. Among them, these amazing British warriors who have not made it to the front pages of the MSM. Forget the Frightened Fifteen. Read about these courageous Brits.

Once again, our greatest war correspondent, Michael Yon is in the thick of it. Click here to read the entire photo essay. And make sure to leave a donation so Michael can continue his important work.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 12:59 PM | Comments (0)

War is Dead: Operations Live On

In his recent tome The Utility of Force, British Army general Rupert Smith proposes that traditional notions of war – uniformed armies squaring off in bloody but brief contests over land – are mostly extinct. Centuries of industrialization during which weapons became increasingly lethal, culminating in world-destroying nuclear arsenals, have made old-fashioned warfare effectively suicidal, he claims. War’s zenith occurred in 1945 just before the United States dropped atom bombs on Japan; ever since, conventional wars have gotten smaller and shorter while “operations other than war” – sanctions, interventions, occupations, peacekeeping, etc – have become more common, especially with the growing disparity between the developed world and the developing. Increasingly, conflict is about bridging the gap between the First World and the Last, for the ostensible benefit of both.

Interesting article about 4th Generation Warfare from the War is Boring blog. Click here to read the rest.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 11:24 AM | Comments (0)

The Film PBS Does Not Want You to See

"Islam vs. Islamists" focuses on the courageous Muslims in the United States, Canada and Western Europe who are challenging the power structure in virtually every democracy that has been established largely with Saudi money to advance worldwide the insidious ideology known as Islamofascism. In fact, thanks to the MacNeil-Lehrer film, the PBS audience will shortly be treated to an apparently fawning portrait of one of the most worrisome manifestations of that Saudi-backed organizational infrastructure in America: the Muslim Student Association (MSA). The MSA's efforts to recruit and radicalize students and suppress dissenting views on American campuses is a matter of record and alarming in the extreme.

In an exchange with me aired on National Public Radio last week, however, Robert MacNeil explained why he and his team had refused to air "Islam vs. Islamists," describing it as "alarmist" and "extremely one-sided." In other words, a documentary that compellingly portrays what happens to moderate Muslims when they dare to speak up for and participate in democracy, thus defying the Islamists and their champions, is not fit for public airwaves – even in a series specifically created to bring alternative perspectives to their audience.

To read the rest of this article by Frank J. Gaffney Jr., please click here.

In short, P.B.S feels that the filmmakers are being too hard... on the Jihadists.

And be sure to read Libertas on how the jihadist appeasers at P.B.S. are shutting down the voices of the moderate Muslims.

What else can one expect from people who readily travel to Damascus to chat, preen and pose with an assassin, a state sponsor of terrorism, but refuse to debate on Fox News. It's the same mind-set.

From Hollywood, those righteous Liberal souls who are always lecturing about free speech and endlessly reminding us about the blacklist, (with nary a word for the victims of Stalin's crimes, 50 million dead) perfect, progressive silence.

Well, of course, they're too busy buying gazillions of carbon credits, fighting the true evil: global warming.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:47 AM | Comments (4)

Arabs & Iran Ally Against Civilization

Last week’s Arab League summit in Riyadh will be looked on by future historians as a major turning point in the War on Jihad. Along with the Mecca Summit and the historic meeting between Iran's President Ahmadinejad and Saudi King Abdullah in Riyadh last month, it symbolized the failure of President Bush's Middle East policy and his efforts to enlist Sunni `allies' against Shiite Iran.

The Saudis, like Iran have taken note of the composition of the new Congress, the tilt towards appeasement and the votes to undercut President Bush's role as commander in chief as well as the West's feeble response to Iran's defiance of the UN and the seizure of British hostages at sea.

To read the rest of this short and very fine article by Joshuapundit, please click here.

Basically, the Iranians and the Arabs have agreed on a framework to aid the Palestinians in a War Against the Jews.

Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, Bookworm Room

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:33 AM | Comments (2)

Time Capsule: The Author

Karen wrote the note.

Karen's mother, the Lee Remick look-a-like, has been with us for Passover. As a surprise, she brought the note that Karen typed during the Six Day War.

When Karen showed me the aging piece of paper, tears puckered in my eyes. The creases are split so deeply the folds are barely holding together. The paper is more like some ancient papyrus.

Karen's explosions of emotion are witnessed in every youthful keystroke. The note to self, the urge to stand witness to history is a masterpiece of religious Zionisim, of youthful idealism, and a perfect fulfillment of the verse: If I forget thee O' Jerusalem.

After I dried my tears, I said: “Can I put this up on Seraphic Secret, huh, huh, huh?”
I can be really annoying.
Said Karen: “But there are so many typos. It's highly embarrassing.”
“Our readers will love you for it. You were so young.”
“Robert, I was sixteen years old!”
“Oh my gosh, I was so helplessly, hopelessly in love with you—typos and all.”

Congratulations to those who guessed correctly, and to those who did not. In a Seraphic contest it's impossible to lose, only to have a good time.

Karen Adds: In a lesser footnote to history, the uncorrected errors in this note indicate how backward technology was forty years ago. It was written on a mechanical typewriter. There was no liquid paper, let alone a delete function of word processing. In order to correct those errors I would have to use a correcting paper, which had to be inserted in the exact spot of the typo, retype the error so it would disappear, and then type the correction! This was way too much work for a teenager and in fact, way too much work for anyone of any age. I failed my typing course, and still reverse letters when I type - it's a neurological dysfunction that I can compensate for in this modern age

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 05:58 AM | Comments (8)

April 12, 2007

War & Peace

Si vis pacem, para bellum: "If you want peace, prepare for war."

Vegetius, Epitoma rei militaris

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 03:48 PM | Comments (6)

Note from a Time Capsule

This note, typed over 40 years ago, the paper now fragile and yellowing, was just recently discovered in the back of a desk drawer.

June 7, 1967

Today I feel I am libing momentous history. IN Three days Israel had crushed ger opposition. With G-d's heop the Israeli frorced through the Arab lines and captured the old city, parts of the Jordanian shore, and has taken over the Suez Canal. We have reached the wailing wllwall. Jews are praying at the wall!

Tomorrow there is a masss rally in Washington D.C. We await the settlement of peace. Pardon my typing, I had to get some of this down so I could read it years hence.

Who do you think wrote this note, Robert or Karen? The answer tomorrow.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 01:55 AM | Comments (16)

April 11, 2007

Being Vermeer

When Seraphic Secret is not re-reading Jane Austen, we are leafing through reproductions of paintings by Johannes Vermeer and wondering just how much of our Apple stock we would have to sell to purchase one of the Dutch master's luminous paintings.

More than we own.

More than Steve Jobs controls.

I think it's a fair bet to say that Vermeer's paintings are beyond the marketplace; they are, like the Mona Lisa, priceless.

So here's the next best thing. Why not paint your own Vermeer?

Who would have not wanted to look over Johannes Vermeer's shoulder while he was painting? Which materials and techniques did he use to create his masterpieces? Is it possible to emulate those methods today? HOW TO PAINT YOUR OWN VERMEER is a straightforward, practical guide on how to reproduce Vermeer's painting procedures for today's practicing painter. In the first section, each passage of Vermeer's method is thoroughly explained and framed in its historical context so that the reader may not only grasp the correct materials and procedures but comprehend the rationale behind established artistic and technical concepts of Dutch 17th-century painting. Grounding, underpainting, working-up, glazing, mediums, palette, brushes and mediums are just a few of the topics explored. The second section contains valuable insights into the crucial stylistic components which make a Vermeer a Vermeer, such as color, composition and perspective.

For more information and to order the book, please click here.

Here's a fine website, called, natch: Essential Vermeer. A bottomless source for all things Vermeer.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 03:32 PM | Comments (10)

The Jihadist Enablers at PBS

The producer of a tax-financed documentary on Islamic extremism claims his film has been dropped for political reasons from a television series that airs next week on more than 300 PBS stations nationwide.

Key portions of the documentary focus on Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser of Phoenix and his American Islamic Forum for Democracy, a non-profit organization of Muslim Americans who advocate patriotism, constitutional democracy and a separation of church and state.

Martyn Burke says that the Public Broadcasting Service and project managers at station WETA in Washington, D.C., excluded his documentary, Islam vs. Islamists, from the series America at a Crossroads after he refused to fire two co-producers affiliated with a conservative think tank.

"I was ordered to fire my two partners (who brought me into this project) on political grounds," Burke said in a complaint letter to PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which supplied funds for the films.

Burke wrote that his documentary depicts the plight of moderate Muslims who are silenced by Islamic extremists, adding, "Now it appears to be PBS and CPB who are silencing them."

To read the rest of this story, please click here.

Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, Jeremayakova

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 03:22 PM | Comments (0)

No Tenure for Finkelstein

Instead of engaging in reasonable and respectful debate, Dr. Finkelstein defames and demonizes scholars and others who disagree with him. In our opinion, Finkelstein's association with DePaul University will damage DePaul's reputation. DePaul will be seen as a school that fosters irresponsible scholarship, extremism and childish, hateful debate.

Please click here to sign the petition.

Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, Rachel Lipson

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 01:59 PM | Comments (2)

The Next Grand Bargain

Since last summer, the Olmert-Livni-Peretz government has taken no steps that would lead either the Palestinians or Hizbullah to view Schalit, Regev and Goldwasser's illegal captivity as a burden. Rather, like their bosses in Teheran, the terrorists have all benefited from their criminal behavior.

Because of the fecklessness of our leaders, we lost a war we should have won and our hostages, who soldiers like Nadav Baeloha heroically gave their lives to free, have remained in captivity.

As Hizbullah, Iran, Syria, and the Palestinians show daily with their escalating saber-rattling, our leaders' continued incompetence since the war has brought us ever closer to a new war.

Now, through their cowardly and unnecessary genuflections to our enemies, made under the preening cover of feigned concern for the lives of our hostages they have done nothing to free, Olmert and his associates place the lives of every one of us in danger.

To read Caroline Glick's entire article, please click here.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 11:09 AM | Comments (0)

The American Shallows

Don Imus is an idiot. He said something stupid, apologized, made a bigger ass of himself and apologized again. Unlike Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson, he apologized immediately.

Al Sharpton made racist comments, defended them and made more racist comments. Al Sharpton has yet to apologize for the Tawana Brawley (now Maryam Muhammad) debacle, nor has apologized to Steven Pagones, a Duchess County Assistant District Attorney who Sharpton publicly accused or rape and assault. With no evidence to substantiate his claim, Sharpton accused the entire NYPD and NY Governor Mario Cuomo of being involved in the ‘coverup.’

Two of Sharpton’s advisers and associates quit, acknowledging that Sharpton knew all along that the case was a hoax. To this day, Sharpton has never apologized for his behavior in the Brawley case.

Nor has he apologized for the racial slurs he made against Jews.

To read the rest of Sigmund, Carl, & Alfred's fine essay, please click here.<