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September 30, 2009
The Obama Afghanistan Option: Nuanced Surrender
While campaigning for the Presidency, Barack Hussein Obama stated that the war in Iraq is a distraction. The real war—“a war of necessity”—claimed Obama, is actually in Afghanistan. He charged that President Bush had taken his eye off the ball, and was not even successful in eliminating Usama Bin Laden.
This from the man who assured the American people that the surge in Iraq would not only fail, but make the situation in Iraq worse.
I guess community organizers are not schooled in military tactics. Just tax evasion and underage brothels.
I did not take Obama's Afghan war talk seriously.
The Democrats have not yet seen a war they support, much less have the spine to win.
Besides, winning is so yesterday.
It took the British 12-long years to defeat the Communist insurgency in Malaysia. The Brits had grit and resolve.
The only resolve Obama has displayed is in his war against the CIA.
Obama's war of necessity is now, uh, not so much.
Sort of like Obama's solemn pledge never to opt out of public financing for his Presidential campaign, and then he dropped that vow pronto.
Sort of like Obama's deadlines to the Iranians that are made of dust.
Post-Modern Democrats have stamped expiration dates on Americas wars of liberation. If the conflict goes on longer than, say, World War II, well, the war either can't be won, or it's not worth the effort.
Obama hand-picked General McChrystal.
But McChrystal did not serve up the report Obama wanted.
No wonder Obama's spent more time with David Letterman than with General McChrystal.
Priorities, folks.
Thus, Obama and his Democrat allies will twist language like a pretzel; declare surrender and betrayal as victory and gradually withdraw our troops from Afghanistan. The Taliban will rule the land and its people—most of whom hate the Taliban—under a barbaric 7th century caliphite dedicated to repression, and making transnational Islamic terrorism its main export—along with opium.
Under the Talibam women who want to get an education will have acid flung in their faces, and child rape will become the norm.
Hey, they can hire Roman Polanski to give seminars.
The Democrats will do all this because according to the liberal mind, only Western liberals deserve freedom. Afghans, Iraqis—backward dusky people—have their cultural norms and gee willikers, who are we to interfere with all those icky yet traditional beheadings.
Meanwhile, I know that the world has been turned upside down when I agree with the French. Sarkozy believes that Obama is incredibly naive and so grossly egotistical that his naivete cannot be shaken. Concludes President Sarkozy, the West is in danger with Obama as leader of the free world.
Next thing you know I'll be watching French films.
Just kidding.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 07:54 AM | Comments (9)
September 29, 2009
Esther Ralston: Why Do All My Husbands Want To Kill Me? Part II
Esther Ralston at the height of her fame, 1920's.
To read Part I of this series, please click here.
Blessed with a lovely, melodic voice, it’s something of a puzzle why Paramount dropped Esther Ralston’s option in 1929. Esther was a rising star who, between 1924 and 1929, starred or co-starred in twenty-five films. She would seem a natural for talkies.
But the mystery is soon cleared up as Esther explains:
Since I had only a year to go on my Paramount contract, the studio sent me a new contract with a talkie clause to sign. Knowing I had been brought up in the theater before going into pictures, George decided I should ask for a hundred thousand dollars to sign this talkie clause. He sent me alone to talk to Mr. Lasky and Mr. Zukor. They were courteous as always, but explained that the new talkie panic had them worried and they didn’t feel they should have to increase my salary until they were sure I would be adequate in talkies.
Once again, the destructive Svengali-Trilby relationship asserts itself as the guiding principle for Esther and George.
To read my entire profile of Esther Ralston—this chapter tells the tale of Esther and the Anti-Semites—please head on over to Big Hollywood.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:16 AM | Comments (4)
September 25, 2009
Before Yom Kippur...
Before every major Jewish holiday, Karen and I visit our son, Ariel's ZT'L, grave.
Yom Kippur begins Sunday night and so, in advance of this most holy of days, we made sure to set aside time and drive to the cemetery in Simi Valley, about forty minutes from our home in Los Angeles.
The afternoon was so hot—over 100 degrees—that Ariel's granite headstone burned to the touch. I worried that the blinding heat was just too much for our son.
That's what happens to my mind, my sense of reason, when caught in the whirlwind of this unfathomable loss.
After reciting Psalms, Karen and I placed two stones on Ariel's headstone, an ancient Jewish tradition indicating visitors at the grave.
The Hebrew inscription reads:
“Avrech, a father in wisdom, but young in years.”
(In Hebrew Av means father, and Rach means tender or young.)
He endeavored and labored in the study of Torah.
He was conscientious in the observance of the Mitzvot.
His heart was filled with the love of life and the fear of G-d.
Karen and I wish all our friends and relatives a profoundly spiritual Shabbat Shuvah, and a meaningful Yom Kippur.
May you all be sealed in the Book of Life for a good and sweet year.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:02 AM | Comments (21)
September 24, 2009
Netanyahu to U.N. Have You No Shame?
Bibi rips the rogues, tyrants, Jew-haters and genociders of the U.N. The disgusting institution that Obama seeks to elevate, and continue to support with our tax dollars. Remember, Obama made a point of reminding this odious body that the U.S. has paid up all outstanding dues. More important, Obama promised to run American foreign policy through the U.N.
I have a better idea. Disband this vile bureaucracy that enables tyrants, then destroy the U.N. building, salt the earth, and build a synagogue.
Part I:
"The man who called the Holocaust a lie spoke at this podium. To those who refused to come and to those who left in protest, I commend you. You stood up for moral clarity and you brought honor to your countries. But to those who gave this Holocaust denier a hearing, I say on behalf of my people, the Jewish people, and decent people everywhere — have you no shame? Have you no decency?"
This is the address that should have been given to the world in 1938.
This is the speech that Obama should have delivered.
Netanyahu is now the world spokesman for Western values, whereas Obama speaks for moral equivalency and the rights of Jew-haters and Socialist tyrants.
Part 2:
Part 3:
Part 4:
Thanks to Bookworm Room for locating the entire speech.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 12:50 PM | Comments (14)
Zelaya: Obama's Jew Hating Ally
Please submit your caption for this photo to the comments section.
Manuel Zelaya was legally ousted by the Honduran Supreme Court because he was seeking a second term, a clear violation of the Honduran constitution.
Obama's White House labeled this a “military coup.”
Thus, the United States backed a hard-line Marxist, a friend of tyrant Hugo Chavez—who is fomenting Jew-hatred in Venezuela—against a legal and freedom loving people.
How is this possible?
What motivates Obama to prop up Zelaya?
Well, gee, what a shock, turns out that Zelaya is a classic Marxist Jew-hater.
It's been 89 days since Manuel Zelaya was booted from power. He's sleeping on chairs, and he claims his throat is sore from toxic gases and "Israeli mercenaries" are torturing him with high-frequency radiation.
"We are being threatened with death,'' he said in an interview with The Miami Herald, adding that mercenaries were likely to storm the embassy where he has been holed up since Monday and assassinate him.
Zelaya was deposed at gunpoint on June 28 and slipped back into his country on Monday, just two days before he was scheduled to speak before the United Nations. He sought refuge at the Brazilian Embassy, where Zelaya said he is being subjected to toxic gases and radiation that alter his physical and mental state.
Full story here.
President Obama has a real soft spot for tyrants, better yet, Jew-hating tyrants. His foreign policy seems to be pretty simple: screw America's Democratic allies, and cozy up to any and all tyrants, with special attention lavished upon Jew-haters.
Rich Lowry analyzes President Obama's high school Model U.N. speech yesterday and concludes that Obama comes across as a gullible sap.
Three more years of Obama?
Cartoon by Hugh MacLeod.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:06 AM | Comments (12)
September 23, 2009
Bolton: Obama Has Put Israel on the Chopping Block
Ambassador John Bolton analyzes Obama's U.N. speech.
No wonder Qaddafi wants Obama to be President for Life.
Is it really possible that we have to endure three more years of the Dear Leader.
I actually feel a migraine coming on.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 02:56 PM | Comments (7)
Obama and the Politics of Concession
World leaders prepare for summits with other heads of state by, among other things, studying in-depth psychological profiles prepared by analysts in their security divisions. If authored by skillful psy-op analysts, these profiles are predictive of likely future behavior.
The Mossad dossiers are famous for containing deep information that other services have missed. For instance, the Mossad's file on Bill Clinton contains detailed transcripts of phone conversations with Monica Lewinsky that are, basically, um, phone sex.
International files on Obama are, to be sure, filled with details of his close friendship with Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn, Michael Pfleger, Tony Rezsko, and Rashid Khalidi. Which points to a supreme opportunist who is quite comfortable in the company of radicals who despise America, and hate Jews.
This profile must be deeply useful to our enemies for it indicates a POTUS who is ideologically weak, psychologically torn, inexperienced, and at best, naive about military and world affairs
The Russian Obama profile, no doubt, predicts a U.S. President who will fold in negotiations over missile defense in Europe. Hence the Russians played hardball and were able to get exactly what they want while giving nothing in return.
In Israel, Mossad's dossier—probably filled with electronic intercepts that would have buried Obama's campaign in the first two weeks—informs Netanyahu that Obama will take a hard line against the Jewish state—it's Obama's default ideology—and then stutter as resistance and reality intrudes.
The great novelist Mark Helprin profiles Obama's politics of concessions with an emphasis on Russia and Iran.
During last year's campaign, Sen. Joe Biden famously remarked that, if his ticket won, it wouldn't be long before "the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy" on foreign affairs. Last week, President Obama, brilliantly wielding the powers of his office, managed to fail that test not just once but twice, buckling in the face of Russian pressure and taking a giant wooden nickel from Iran.
With both a collapsing economy and natural gas reserves sufficient to produce 270 years of electricity, the surplus of which it exports, Iran does not need nuclear electrical generation at a cost many times that of its gas-fired plants. It does, however, have every reason, according to its own lights, to seek nuclear weapons—to deter American intervention; to insure against a resurgent Iraq; to provide some offset to nearby nuclear powers Pakistan, Russia and Israel; to move toward hegemony in the Persian Gulf and address the embarrassment of a more militarily capable Saudi Arabia; to rid the Islamic world of Western domination; to neutralize Israel's nuclear capacity while simultaneously creating the opportunity to destroy it with one shot; and, pertinent to last week's events, by nuclear intimidation to turn Europe entirely against American interests in the Middle East.
Some security analysts may comfort themselves with the illusion that soon-to-be nuclear Iran is a rational actor, but no country gripped so intensely by a cult of martyrdom and death that to clear minefields it marched its own children across them can be deemed rational. Even the United States, twice employing nuclear weapons in World War II, seriously contemplated doing so again in Korea and then in Vietnam.
To read the complete article, please click here.
Meanwhile, Barry Rubin explains why Obama's Mideast policies are an utter failure as France rejects his call for sanctions against Iran.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 07:54 AM | Comments (2)
September 22, 2009
The Jewish Jew Haters
“Awesome. Daddy is letting me attend the J Street Conference.”
Jewish history, from time immemorial, is littered with Jewish Jew-haters. Sometimes they come in the guise of religious reformers, Korach's revolt is a prime example.
At other times, Jewish Jew-haters are more forthright, claiming that Torah Judaism is a fossil that must be discarded in favor of a more, ahem, enlightened, secular culture. The rebellion of the Maccabees was aimed as much at Hellenized Jews as it was against the oppressive Greek-Assyrians.
The most notorious of the Jewish Jew-haters were the Judenrat, Jewish councils put in place by the Nazis to help carry out the genocide of the Jewish people. Members of the Judenrat always justified their treason by claiming that, in the end, they were in service to the Jewish people. Of course, they were in service to their own selfish needs and they simply enabled the machinery of genocide to proceed unimpeded.
Communism was—and still is, Hugo Chavez is a classic Marxist Jew-hater—a magnet for Jew-hating Jews. The Bolsheviks boasted scores of high-level Jews who willingly persecuted their Jewish brethren in the name of international Communism. Trotsky's real name was Lev Davidovich Bronstein, and he was one of the most ruthless of murderers. Of course, even as Stalin made Jew-hatred state policy in the Soviet Union, American Jewish Communists continued to support this genocider.
Read the works of Jewish writer Isaac Babel as he rides with Red Cavalry gangs as they gleefully commit pogroms against defenseless Jews. In clinical detail, Babel describes the beheadings of rabbis, the mass rape of Jewish women, Jewish babies disemboweled, but Babel never protests, even to himself. In fact, Babel's contempt for the Jewish martyrs simmers beneath the oh-so-elegant prose. Ultimately, Stalin declared Babel a a saboteur—code for Jew—and had him tortured and murdered in the notorious Butyrka prison.
Jews who turn against Jews—for the good of the Jews, natch—in the hope of being accepted by the persecutors always end up dangling from the hangman's noose. It's an immutable law of Jew-hatred. After the Judenrat were done sending Jews to Auschwitz, they were rewarded with, well, Auschwitz.
With the advent of the modern Zionism, the Jewish Jew-haters—most notably in academia, Jew-hatred as sophisticated political thought—turned their attention to delegitimizing Israel, the first step in wiping Israel off the face of the earth.
Certainly, the most insidious group to attack Israel—in the name of Israel advocacy—is J Street, a group of Democrat Obama radicals who, using the Orwellian tactic of inverting language—hatred is love—are mounting the latest campaign against Jews and Israel.
Referring to J Street as a pro-Israel lobby is like calling ACORN a child protection agency.
In fact, J Street is more anti-Israel than Israel's sworn enemies.
Morton Klein confronts their rabid duplicity:
Is J Street a pro-Israel group? The lobbying organization never tires of claiming it is.
Yet what pro-Israel group would invite a man to speak at its forthcoming conference who has called for Israel's destruction, stating that "the establishment by force, violence and terrorism of a Jewish state in Palestine in 1948" was "unjust" and "a crime," and vowed to "work to overturn the injustice"?
The man who signed this Sept. 17, 1993 statement by the Muslim Public Affairs Council was its executive director, Salam Al-Marayati, who will be speaking next month at J Street's Oct. 25-28 conference.
Full story at The Jewish Press.
It is no secret that Obama favors the Arab Muslim funded J Street. What would you expect from the most anti-Israel U.S. President in memory?
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:28 AM | Comments (10)
September 21, 2009
Breaking Scandal: National Endowment for the Arts in Service to Obama
Soviet Realism celebrated the cult of mass murderer Joseph Stalin
Art in service to the state is not art but propaganda.
The role of art is to steep the viewer in a transcendent space.
Propaganda aims at buttressing a narrow political and social agenda.
Totalitarian regimes always follow a strategy of using art to spread their ideological message in order to soften the landscape for radical social programs.
The twentieth century affords us three classic examples of totalitarian regimes that harnessed the arts in an effort to influence the private sphere: Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Soviet Union, and Mao's China.
Each regime was a socialist movement whose programs were designed to maximize state control over its citizens.
Artists in Germany, The Soviet Union and China who complied with the state were richly rewarded. Those artists who did not go along with the program were denied funding, made outcasts, and often declared criminals, deserving the harshest penalties.
The Soviet Gulag was filled with artists who refused to become tools of the state.
Nazi Germany used concentration camps to punish degenerate—code for Jew—artists.
Mao “reeducated” and murdered millions; we will never know how many dissident Chinese artists were massacred.
Currently, the Arab world is awash in state supported art that is steeped in Jew-hatred and Holocaust denial.
In a cartoon from Oman, Jews are depicted as blood thirsty Nazis.
The state art produced under these regimes is at best junk, at its worst, propaganda aimed at justifying oppression and genocide.
I have always been suspicious of the NEA.
Why does the state support artists?
Why not plumbers or carpenters?
The Obama administration, in its drive to achieve maximum control over our lives, is spreading its tentacles over an all too willing and compliant arts community.
Right before Rosh Hashana, I was informed by my good friend, John Note, Editor-in-Chief of Big Hollywood, that an important story would be breaking at Big Hollywood and Big Government, both the brainchild of Andrew Breitbart.
It is now unfolding and you should be aware of it.
Look, this NEA scandal does not have the sexy veneer of the ACORN story, but make no mistake about it, Obama's attempted partnership with the arts is an arrogant overreach of government power that a free society must not tolerate.
Click here for the story.
American Democrat-Socialist Art, in service to the cult of Barack Obama.
Better late than never, here's the Slow-Fast Edition of Haveil Havalim.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:53 AM | Comments (11)
September 18, 2009
Friday Flickers: Sadie McKee
Earlier this week we published a profile of Hollywood star Esther Ralston. So beautiful was Esther, she was dubbed The American Venus, after the film of the same name in which she starred.
Sadly, Esther had a weakness for bad men and her career was seriously derailed by three failed marriages to: an emotionally unstable gambler, an emotionally unstable drunk, and an emotionally unstable ladies man.
In 1933, Esther was placed under contract to MGM. Unfortunately, Louis B. Mayer had a school boy crush on Esther and expected her to reciprocate, um, favors.
Now, Esther may have had bad taste in husbands, but she was a faithful wife and a deeply moral woman, hence she spurned Mayer's advance.
Furious, Mayer vowed that Esther's career would languish at MGM, and so he loaned her out to other studios for a series of mediocre projects.
But MGM director Clarence Brown—Garbo's frequent helmer—insisted on casting Esther in Sadie McKee, 1934, a fine Joan Crawford vehicle.
Here's a brief clip of Esther Ralston singing I Looked In Your Eyes with Gene Raymond. As you can see, she is lovely with a pearl-toned voice. As Dolly Merrick, Esther plays a vaudeville femme fatale who steals Barry from good girl Crawford. Sadie McKee is not one of Crawford's best known vehicles, but it happens to be one of my favorites. And Esther's presence is one of the reasons this film has such appeal for yours truly.
As we move into Shabbat and Rosh HaShanah, Karen and I wish all our friends and relatives a sweet and lovely new year.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:05 AM | Comments (7)
September 17, 2009
ACORN To, um, “Organize” Child Sex Slaves in Mexico
Want to open up a brothel staffed by underage girls smuggled in from Mexico?
No problem.
Juan Carlos, a community organizer from the San Diego branch of ACORN will help with housing, and taxes.
And to show just how open and diverse they are, ACORN helpfully suggests opening the brothel in Tijuana—to avoid American law all together.
“Trust the Mexican people,” Carlos assures O'Keefe and Giles.
Luckily, ACORN's Carlos has contacts in Tijuana, so he can make this happen, pronto.
Even better, Carlos wants to partner up on the brothel, get a piece of the action.
Grass roots activism in action.
When President Obama was candidate Obama and his work as a “community organizer” was touted by his supporters as the gold standard of public service, Seraphic Secret pointed out on numerous occasions that community organizer was, in fact, code for a Marxist activist.
We were wrong.
Community organizer is code for Marxist racketeer.
In this latest tape from journalists James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles, ACORN, San Diego, offers useful advice in establishing a brothel staffed by underage sex slaves.
And then the ACORN employee propositions Hannah.
Or maybe he was he just trying to organize the undercover prostitute for, um, better wages.
It's important to note that O'Keefe and Giles were not turned away from one single ACORN office.
The alleged pimp and prostitute were welcomed and enthusiastically aided in every ACORN office they visited. Mark Lamont, radial leftist tool, lied on Bill O'Reilly , charging that O'Keefe and Giles were turned away from “hundreds of ACORN offices.”
Why would Lamont tell such a bold lie?
Simple, ACORN is an arm of the Democrat party, thus, hard-core leftists will defend this moral sinkhole at all costs.
Okay, so what's the ACORN scam? What's at the root of this nationwide criminal enterprise?
Bret Robinson explains ACORN's Taxpayer scheme.
Via: Big Government
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:11 AM | Comments (6)
September 16, 2009
Jon Stewart Blasts Dinosaur Media for Ignoring ACORN Story.
Barack Obama brainstorms with his ACORN friends.
Jon Stewart, by any standard, a Hollywood Liberal, is, thankfully, outraged at ACORN and the dinosaur media:
“You mean to tell me that two kids from the cast of “High School Musical III” broke this story with a video camera and their grandmother's chinchilla coat and you've got nothing.”
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| The Audacity of Hos | ||||
| ||||
Hey, kids, let's take a look at Obama's ties to the criminal enterprise ACORN.
Or is that racist?
1) In 1992 Obama, a community organizer, worked with ACORN.
2) Obama trained ACORN employees.
3) As a lawyer, Obama represented ACORN in court.
4) The Obama campaign donated $800,000 to ACORN in 2008 for voter registration. Which means registering dead people to the Democrat roles.
5) ACORN canvassed for Obama in 2008.
H/T Gateway Pundit.
And from The Wall Street Journal: We're just community organizers, just like the president used to be.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:04 AM | Comments (8)
September 15, 2009
ACORN Investigation Reaches San Bernadino
Behold, another ACORN community organizer in action: Offering to help set up housing for a brothel for underage, illegal, immigrant girls from El Salvador.
ACORN was slated to receive 8 billion—not million, BILLION!—dollars in stimulus funds.
Here's more undercover work by journalists James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles, whose national ACORN expose is being featured on Andrew Breitbart's Big Government, an adjunct to my home away from home Big Hollywood.
This cheery ACORN worker, Tresa Kaelke, boasts that she murdered her husband—after first setting up a defense—and ran an escort service.
Chirps the community organizer, “Heidi Fleiss is my idol!”
Tresa Kaelke is open-minded, inclusive, tolerant, totally non-judgmental. Thus tax evasion, money laundering and child prostitution are cool.
There's a grim, laugh out loud moment when Kaelke explains that if you are a Liberal you would support prostitution. It's only narrow-minded right wingers who oppose prostitution and by implication, child prostitution.
Obviously, not true, but it is a glimpse into the moral sewer that is ACORN culture.
Bold Journalists like O'Keefe and Giles are in the process of burying the state run media.
Barack Obama's good friend and supporter, ACORN, is a radical leftist gang of corrupt, debased thieves who should be viewed and treated as a branch of organized crime.
Note: ACORN is a tax supported organization. This means that our tax dollars prop up this criminal conspiracy.
Big shockeroo, Barack Obama was an ACORN lawyer years before he was elected POTUS. In short, he was sort of like one of those mob lawyers who, using and abusing the justice system, clean up their client's crimes.
And hey, let's give a shout-out to the state run media for their amazing follow-up on the ACORN story.
Just kidding.
The state run media have consciously decided that Obama's presidency is too historically important to be punctured by this particular truth—just one of many—that is corrupt, criminal and devastatingly sleazy.
And how does ACORN react to this abyss of filth?
Amy Shur, head organizer—a female Trotsky, she organizes the organizers—for ACORN, California, charges that “...this is not legitimate news.”
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 02:38 PM | Comments (2)
Obama: ACORN Will Help Shape My Policy
Back in 2007, when Barack Obama was still a faithful member of Jeremiah Wright's Jew-hating church, when he was BFF with American terrorists Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, when he was doing lunch with Palestinian Jew-hater Khalid Rashidi, he was also—big shock—sucking up to ACORN. In this video, Presidential candidate Barack Obama solemnly vows to include the corrupt, radical leftist group in his future policy-making decisions.
Roll the videotape:
I don't know how you were raised, but when I was growing up my parents taught me that you are judged by the company you keep.
Via: Weasel Zippers
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:12 AM | Comments (2)
September 14, 2009
Esther Ralston: Why Do All My Husbands Want to Kill Me?
Esther Ralston at the height of her Hollywood stardom in the 1920's.
They called her: The American Venus.
She lived in a Hollywood mansion with a staff of servants. Her chauffeur drove her around in a limited edition limousine.
But she ended her days in an upscale trailer park in Ventura, California.
One of the enduring mysteries—for yours truly—are the scores of Hollywood starlets, innocent young women, who are attracted to bad men: drunks, gamblers, liars, tinsel town sociopaths.
Esther Ralston (1902-1994) is a prime example of an early Hollywood star who showed great promise as an actress—she played drama and comedy with equal craft—but three ill-considered marriages effectively derailed Ralston’s career and drained away her considerable fortune.
To read my complete profile of Esther Ralston, head on over to Big Hollywood.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:41 AM | Comments (2)
September 13, 2009
Best of the Jewish Blogosphere
The Reform Shuckle* (great name!) presents the latest Haveil Havalim.
And let's not forget Jewish photography: Check out the latest Jpix, presented by Me-Ander.
Shuckle: Yiddish, swaying while in prayer.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 01:19 PM | Comments (5)
September 11, 2009
9-11: Not a Tragedy
Offspring#2 steps into our bedroom and says:
“Do you know what's going on in New York?”
Puzzled, Karen and I look at each other.
“Better turn on the TV,” says Offspring#2.
Black smoke is rising from one of the Twin Towers. A newscaster tells us that a passenger jet airliner has hit the World Trade Center.
Ariel, our son, senses that something is happening. He tears himself away from learning Talmud and steps into our bedroom, gazes at the TV screen.
“How many people work there?” Ariel asks.
“Thousands, tens of thousands, it's an entire world.”
Ariel is home from Ner Israel Rabbinical Academy. Recently, he recovered from a brain tumor, from years of massive chemotherapy and radiation. It's so good to have him home. Karen and I are thankful for every moment with our sweet and pious son.
And then the second plane hits. There is a terrible bloom of fire and I realize that jet fuel has probably incinerated hundreds of human beings.
We are blown into a horrific new age.
There is no doubt in my mind that Arab terror has finally come to the American mainland.
I say to myself: Now maybe Americans will understand what Israel endures on a daily basis.
I grip Ariel's hand.
“Too tight, Dad.”
“Sorry.”
Ariel recites Tehillim.
The Twin Towers look like a post-modern Vesuvias. Abruptly, one after the next, they collapse — flatten like toys.
We watch endless replays.
And then it happens, the very first signs that some Americans cannot, do not, will not understand.
Newscasters refer to the Twin Towers attacks as a "tragedy."
Ariel says: “Daddy, this isn't a tragedy, it's an atrocity.”
I nod my head in agreement.
“Why do they call it a tragedy?”
“Because they don't understand evil.”
Ariel died two years after 9-11—the effects of the chemotherapy ravaged his lungs—at the tender age of twenty-two.
Flood, fires, and plagues are tragedies.
Our son's death was a tragedy.
We could not control it. Fighting the cancer, the effects of the chemotherapy and the radiation, was a battle against a force of nature.
Ariel was right; 9/11 was no tragedy, it was an atrocity, and if you cannot recognize evil, well, how can you fight it?
Unfortunately, there are many Americans who are clueless about evil, and so they have no idea how to properly memorialize those who were slaughtered on 9/11. And the most fitting memorial for those who were so cruelly murdered in the air and on the ground is never to forget, and to relentlessly strike back at our Islamist enemies wherever they are — until they are but dust and ashes.
Crossposted on Big Hollywood.
The Third Jihad, is a must-see for 9-11.
The Third Jihad (regularly priced at $19.95) now available for free streaming in its entirety from Wednesday, September 9 through Tuesday, September 15.
Watch this important movie and forward it to 10 people.
The film features exclusive interviews with politicians, experts on Islam, and even former terrorists, as well as never-before-seen footage from Islamic media channels.
Click here to screen The Third Jihad.
Karen and I wish all our friends and relatives a restful and meaningful Shabbat.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:16 AM | Comments (11)
September 10, 2009
Dore Gold: The Rise of Nuclear Iran
Ambassador Dore Gold.
Photo: Copyright © Robert J. Avrech
Last week, I was invited by One Jerusalem, to attend a private briefing by Ambassador Dore Gold, whose important new book, The Rise of Nuclear Iran: How Tehran Defies the West, has just been published.
There were about fifteen of us—bloggers mostly, including my good friend Omri Ceren—gathered in the Montage Hotel in Beverly Hills.
Ambassador Gold, looking like a sleepy walrus, spoke in measured, diplomatic tones. But he was fiercely passionate and knowledgeable about Iranian history, culture, and diplomacy, past and present.
Point by point, Gold emphasized his main thesis: The Iranian nuclear threat is not just a danger to Israel and the Mid East, but to the West.
International complacency, as the Iranians reach the nuclear finish line, warned Gold, is deeply disturbing. This is a subject that should be in the headlines every single day, instead we are confronted with quietism, and yawns expressing an attitude of:
“So what?”
The international community, explained Gold, points to Pakistan and North Korea as unstable regimes that possess nuclear weapons and yet they have been contained. Thus, why not view Iran in the same light?
The weakness of this argument reflects a misreading of Iran's long term strategic goals.
Neither Pakistan nor North Korea are attempting regional supremacy. Pakistan is focused on its bottomless conflict with India, and North Korea has no plans to conquer Japan; the Norks, in fact, are focused on maintaining their iron grip on the reins of power.
Iran, on the other hand, is an expansionist Islamic theocracy seeking to export their Shia revolution.
For instance, the Mullahs consider Bahrain to be a lost Persian province, and they also lay claim to slices of Iraq that are home to a Shia majority, including the holy cities of Nadjaf and Karballah.
And of course, Iran has threatened, numerous times, to wipe Israel off the map.
Further, unlike Pakistan or North Korea, there is no deterrence with Iran.
The mullahs are prepared to sacrifice millions in order to achieve their expansionist aims. This was proven during the bloody eight year war with Iraq. The Iranians recovered territory snatched by Iraq after just two years of war, but chose to continue warfare for six long years at the cost of hundreds of thousands of Iranian lives. The Revolutionary Guard used children—wearing plastic keys to heaven around their necks—as human minesweepers. A regime that so callously murders its own young—martyrdom operations—is, by definition, capable of anything in the name of Allah.
Hence, the calculus of Cold War deterrence—Mutual Assured Destruction—no longer applies.
“Remember,” said Ambassador Gold, “there were no Communist suicide bombers.” Contrast this to the Arab Muslim world where suicide bombers and their families enjoy enormous status.
Iran, emphasized Ambassador Gold, is the world's greatest exporter of terror. Through various, well-funded proxy armies—Hizbullah, Hamas, etc.—the Iranians have been kidnapping, torturing and killing Americans and Israelis since Ayatollah Khomenei's Islamic revolution in 1979.
And the West has never punished the Iranians for their murderous behavior. Thus the Iranians are encouraged to keep killing for there is never any payback.
The West consistently views Iranian behavior and intentions through the prism of Western values.
This is a mistake the West repeats over and over again, refusing to learn from past experience.
Gold's book is filled with footnoted facts about countless Iranian outrages.
Ambassador Gold emphasized that, contrary to popular opinion, every American administration, from Carter to Obama—including George Bush—has engaged Iran in vigorous diplomacy. And every single administration has been snookered by the Iranians, who consider it perfectly acceptable to lie to the enemy. The Islamic religious doctrine of taquia, elevates this behavior to a religious duty.
And make no mistake about it, the Iranians are intractable in their belief that the West, Christians and Jews, are the eternal enemy.
Time and again, the Iranians have skillfully used dialog and diplomacy to buy time in order to achieve their regional ambitions.
Ambassador Gold would not comment on Israeli military plans for Iran.
Nor would he be drawn into commenting on American military cooperation with Israel.
But Gold was quite adamant on two points:
1. Iran is determined to cross the nuclear finish line.
2. Sanctions cannot work.
On my notepad, I wrote one word in bold script at the very end of the briefing: Sobering.
I have always believed that military action is the only option that will be effective against the mullahs. It's not a pretty option, but it's far better than allowing this cruel state to achieve nuclear breakout.
Ponder this thought: if Iran has the bomb, transnational Islamic terrorism will be sheltered by a nuclear umbrella, a rock solid deterrence—military and diplomatic—that will shield them from any consequences of their terrorist outrages.
Further, nuclear weapons—suitcase dirty bombs—will proliferate among non-state Islamic terrorists, and nuclear blackmail will become coin of the realm.
This scenario could easily tip the balance of world power in favor of the Islamist radicals who are determined to subjugate the West and bring about a barbaric 7th century Caliphite.
The laughter you hear in the background are the Iranians snickering at the credulity of the West.
Currently, the Iranians mock Obama, correctly sensing an administration whose only strategy is: “More talk.”
The Europeans, gutless appeasers, have turned a blind eye.
The Russians and the Chinese enable the Iranians at most every turn.
So once again, as with Iraq's Osirik nuclear reactor, it's up to Israel.
Here's Ambassador Gold speaking to the Heritage Foundation about The Rise of Nuclear Iran. As I said: sobering.
Oh yeah, Obama's loooong speech last night, I watched Cecil B. De Mille's amazing silent film The Godless Girl, 1929, instead. I mean, why bother, it was just the same attempt to sell ice to Eskimos that we've heard a zillion times. Power Line provides a thoughtful and factual analysis.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 06:20 AM | Comments (5)
September 09, 2009
The Myth of the Two State Solution
The Arab Israeli conflict is not about land or refugees. It's about the Arab Muslim world's rejection of a Jewish state.
Okay, kids, pop the popcorn, sink into your Barcalounger and pay attention to the ferociously articulate and learned Caroline Glick as she explains why the so-called two-state solution is a chimera, a tediously foolish bumper sticker in the guise of real politik, whose strategic end is, in fact, a Final Solution.
Really, you should watch this vid, it's invaluable.
H/T Joshua Pundit.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:38 AM | Comments (6)
September 08, 2009
Jew-hatred: The New Cool
Cartoon by Hugh MacLeod.
As the Van Jones scandal broke—on the blogosphere via Gateway Pundit, and on Fox's Glenn Beck—I turned to Karen and said:
“Guaranteed, this guy is also a gold-played Jew-hater.”
Not a hard call.
As you move leftward on the political scale so does the level and tolerance of Jew-hatred.
This oldest of hatreds is dressed up in the Orwellian language of human rights, social justice, and support for the Palestinian people. But it's the same gutter-level Jew-hatred that gripped Nazi Germany, and which now animates the entire Arab Muslim world.
Jew-hatred comes in many guises.
Human Rights Watch, as my friend Omri Ceren has just uncovered, employs a Nazi fan boy to investigate Israel.
Jimmy Carter, Desmond Tutu and Mary Robinson—calling themselves The Elders, because Jew-hatred is the new wisdom—travel around Israel and self-righteously cluck about the evil Israelis.
Question: Why aren't they in Iran, Congo, Libya, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Syria, Saudi Arabia, where murder, torture and rape are sport?
Answer: Because there are no Jews in these blighted Lands.
Van Jones: ignored by ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, The New York Times, the entire MSM. But now that this loathsome creature, a 9-11 truther, is gone, the MSM are piling on, defending a self-confessed Communist and now revealed, a Jew-hater.
Here's Van Jones ranting about Israel:
I came to the holy land to get a view of the human rights situation. I was totally unprepared. THE WORST RACIAL PRACTICES OF THE LAST CENTURY ARE PRESENT HERE, IN SHOCKING COMBINATION. Arab citizens under a pass situation like apartheid... about the harassment of an Arab American in our group at the airport... people in the U.S. don't have a clear view of what is going on.. like 'settlements'... 30,000 people in massive cities, with Burger Kings and malls, and defended with the whole might of the Israeli army... wholesale demolition of Palestinian homes... the US supporting the whole mess.. to see it... to see what it means for Arab people is really really distressing.
I came over here very concerned about Israeli children living in fear... nobody is winning here. WHAT I'VE SEEN HERE GOES FAR BEYOND WHAT COULD BE CONSIDERED FOR SAFETY. ABSOLUTE HOUSE ARREST FOR EVERY SINGLE PERSON IN A CITY... 24/7 FOR WEEKS AT A TIME... NONE OF THIS COULD RATIONALLY BE CONCEIVED OF AS DEFENSE... I HAVE BEEN A LIFELONG OPPONENT OF ANTI-SEMITISM. NOW NOT TO SPEAK OUT HERE IS ANTI-SEMITIC. WE OWE IT TO THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL. AND PALESTINE TO PUT AN END TO THESE KIND OF ABUSES. THERE IS NO DIVISION BETWEEN US POLICY TOWARD IRAQ AND TOWARD ISRAEL-PALESTINE. THE U.S. GOVERNMENT ON THE WRONG SIDE OF SANITY. to push Iraq into a corner and threaten it with massive war. We need new leadership in Tel Aviv and Washington.. let's link all these situations together... boldly speaking the truth... I went to the funeral of a young Palestinian boy shot by Israeli soldier... I saw his bloody body being placed into the ground... since I've been here four children killed by soldiers... not being reported by the media... but being recorded in the hearts and minds of the mothers and fathers here.
Entirely predictable: dressing up his Jew-hatred as someone who is an opponent of Jew-hatred. The left has perfected this black flag strategy.
The entire, lunatic transcript is here.
Van Jones is just one in a long line of Obama associates, friends and, ahem, spiritual mentors, who hate America, Israel/Jews.
Here's Charles Krauthammer drawing a line from Jeremiah Wright to Van Jones. “It's a reflection of the boss.”
But of course, to the Democrats, Van Jones is a hero:
How many of Obama's Czars will be revealed—by the blogosphere and Fox News—as left wing radicals completely out of step with America and American values?
Update #1: Our friend Jake Novak, senior producer at Fox Business News draws our attention to John Holdren, Obama's Science Czar—and a genuine moon bat.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:07 AM | Comments (15)
September 07, 2009
Wide-Angle: Toronto Film Festival Jew-Haters
Yesterday we asked: Why Are Jews Liberals?
Today we observe that the left is a comfortable home for Jew-hatred.
I know the defense: these creatures are not really Jew-haters, they are, ahem, “nuanced thinkers,” protesting the policies of the state of Israel.
Yeah, the way Iran, Hamas and Hizbullah protest.
Look, 50,000 people die in the Congo every month from murder, forced starvation and disease. Mass rape is sport in that blighted land. There are 1.2 million refugees from the Congo living in the most deplorable conditions.
But these, uh, artists, choose to beat up on Israel.
And Tel-Aviv is a problem?
Huh?
Tel Aviv was sand dunes—not an Arab village—until Jews built it into a great city. But the Arab Muslim world considers all Israel to be occupied land.
Thus it's clear that these celebrity boycotters are really protesting Israel's existence.
Or, maybe they are just ill-informed idiots.
One of the great ironies of this protest is that John Greyson, one of the boycotters, makes gay-themed films. Now, let me ask a simple question:
What country in the Middle east would allow Greyson to screen his films?
Israel, of course.
If he tried to show his films in Gaza, Iran, Libya, Algeria, Egypt, Syria, etc. he would be lynched in the public square. Saudi Arabia would behead Greyson.
And of course, Danny Glover has cozied up to Hugo Chavez, a tyrant who is leading a policy of repression against Venezuela's Jews.
Jane Fonda should have been prosecuted for sedition back when she posed with her North Vietnamese buddies by an anti-aircraft installation. But she was a Hollywood celebrity, thus hands-off.
The Hebrew reads: Don't Tread on Me. via: Joshua Pundit
Make no mistake about it, this is Jew-hatred disguised as “mere anti-Zionism.” These people are the fashionable lap dogs of the PLO, Hamas and Hizbullah, self-confessed Jew-hating terrorists who boast that their long-term strategy is to eradicate Israel and Jews from the face of the earth.
Some 50 celebrities, artists and filmmakers, including actors Jane Fonda and Danny Glover, musician David Byrne and filmmaker Ken Loach, have accused the Toronto International Film Festival of "complicity with the Israeli propaganda machine" over its spotlight this year on Tel Aviv.
The 2009 festival will present 10 films by local filmmakers on the Israeli metropolis, for its City to City program, which each year focuses its lens on a different city.
The choice led to protests that the film festival was "staging a propaganda campaign" on Israel's behalf, given "the absence of Palestinian filmmakers in the program," said an open letter to festival organizers, AFP reported.
Full story here.
My good friend, two-time Oscar winner, Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, blasted everyone who signed the letter.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:47 AM | Comments (13)
September 06, 2009
Why Are Jews Liberals?
The question most often posed to me by my Christian Conservative friends is: Why do a majority of American Jews continue to support Liberal policies and the Democrat party when it is clear that the Democrats are overwhelmingly hostile to Israel and to Judaism? President Barack Obama—demonstrably anti-Israel with a host of Jew hating friends and associations—is the Democrat party writ large.
My answer is two-fold:
1. Jews are traditionally lever-pulling Democrats and breaking this self-destructive habit is a lot like kicking crack or heroin.
2. Most American Jews—fanatic secularists—have replaced authentic Judaism with the false idols of the liberalism.
A few months ago I was having lunch—at Pico Kosher Deli—with David Horowitz. We discussed this issue at length. David, savoring his matzo ball soup, pointed out that American Jews were the only demographic in the U.S. who consistently vote against their own self-interest.
“Why do you think that is?” I asked.
David chuckled: “Because it makes them feel noble, and self-righteous.”
In the latest issue of Commentary Magazine, Norman Podhoretz asked a a group of articulate and very bright people to comment on this very question.
Here's a selection from Jeff Jacoby's analysis:
Most American Jews, on the other hand, seem to have learned from an early age that to be Jewish is to be a liberal Democrat, no matter what. No matter that anti-Semitism today makes its home primarily on the Left, while in most quarters of the Right, hostility toward Jews has been anathematized. No matter that Israel's worst enemies congregate with leftists, while its staunchest defenders tend to be resolute conservatives. No matter that Republicans support the Jewish state by far larger margins than Democrats do. No matter that on a host of issues — homosexuality, abortion, capital punishment, racial preferences, public prayer — the "Torah" of contemporary liberalism, as Podhoretz calls it, diverges sharply from the Torah of Judaism. As Why Are Jews Liberals? convincingly and depressingly demonstrates, the loyalty of American Jews to the left has been unaffected by the failure of the left to reciprocate that loyalty.Here are further responses from: David Wolpe, Jonathan D. Sarna, Michael Medved, William Kristol, Jeff Jacoby, and David Gelernter
Norman Podhoretz's book Why Are Jews Liberal? has just been published and it looks fascinating.
My friend Joshua Pundit—back home, and thank G-d, safe from the wildfires—hosts Haveil Havalim #233, excellent reading for this Labor Day Weekend.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:08 AM | Comments (15)
September 04, 2009
Friday Fotos: My Beautiful Neighborhood
Yours truly, c., 1958, Prospect Park, Brooklyn, with my very first camera, the legendary Kodak Brownie.
Just a few blocks from Casa Avrech these colorful ceramic tiles are embedded in the sidewalk. Usually, Mexican tiles are found in the stairways and patios of Spanish style California homes. I've asked, but nobody seems to know their history. They are just beautiful. And I'm amazed that they have not been stolen or vandalized.
Unlike New York, Los Angeles was built to accommodate automobiles. Every business and home is zoned for a garage or parking area. I love wandering around and observing the unique and creative ways people personalize their parking spots. I dunno, call me a snob, but this physician does not send out a vibe that inspires confidence.
Factor's Famous Deli is a well known “kosher-style” restaurant—translation: the food is not kosher, but the Jews who eat there feel, um, linguistically connected to kashrut—on Pico Blvd. This parking sign really had me puzzled. By the way, Pico Kosher Deli, just a few blocks east of Factor's, is the best kosher deli in the known universe. Not even Nu Yoik has a kosher deli that rivals the quality or ambiance of PKD.
Cheescake parking. Totally L.A. I saw this sign and just smiled. Who can resist the dopey pun, or the great Betty Grable pose that inspired millions of American servicemen during World War II? Can you guess what store boasts this great sign?
I head over to Toys R' Us to buy a gift for Ma'ayan Ariel. My eyes immediately fasten on this long yellow stripe—Barnett Newman would have called it a zip—in front of the store. Looking for the right angle, I finally plop down on my belly and snap away. After a moment I hear someone say: “Whatchou doin'?” I look up and there's a young lady in a Toys R' Us uniform. She's an Hispanic teenager with a very worried expression on her face. “I'm taking pictures,” I reply. “You can't do that, sir.” “Why not?” She sighs wearily: “Because sir, Toys R' Us cannot be responsible.” “Responsible for what?” She shrugs and goes: “Wha-ever. Look, sir, my manager tol' me to warn you, so please, like I don' need no hassles.” I spring to my feet and tell her not to worry. I don't want to cause her any trouble. As we head inside she says: “You a photographer?” I'm like, “I take pictures.” She goes: “I like to be a model, look soooo cool.” I tell her that she should try out for America's Next Top Model. She's like: “Aw, whatchou say.” She helps me find the little Dora couch I want for Ma'ayan and as I pay she asks me if I meant it about America's Next Top Model. I assure her that I do. She smiles hugely and hands me a receipt.
Karen and I wish all our friends and relatives a restful and joyous Shabbat.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 07:52 AM | Comments (20)
September 03, 2009
Speak Memory
Our son, Ariel Chaim ZT'L, loved Jewish music and one of his favorite performers was Mordechai ben David.
I caught this video on Israel Matzav—Carl from Jerusalem was one of the first people to offer support when Ariel became ill—and I was immediately hit with a Proustian sense-memory of stepping into Ariel's room, hearing this song from his CD player and lingering in the doorway, sharing a precious moment with our beloved son.
The song is called “Shiru Lamelech,” which means, Sing for the King, HaShem.
This was filmed on the roof of an apartment building in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City in Jerusalem.
Enjoy.
Here are the lyrics:
Shiru Lamelech
And now the children will sing the King...
Ve'ata banim shiru shiru
And now the children sing, sing...
Ve'ata banim shiru La'Melech
And now the children will sing the King...
Ve'ata banim shiru shiru shiru La'Melech
And now the children will sing, sing, sing to HaShem, The King
Betiferet mefoar
With magnificent glory
Ve'ashrei avadav oy avadav
And blissful are those servants of him, who praise him aloud
Hamashmi'im bekol shivcha
Anyone who proclaims with voice, a voice of praise
Ve'ata banim shiru shiru shiru La'Melech
And now the children will sing, sing To HaShem, The King
Shiru shiru La'Melech
Sing, sing to the King...
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:36 AM | Comments (11)
September 02, 2009
Inevitable: Global Warming Causes Wildfires
The other day I reported on the California wildfires.
In the comments section, I pointed out the obvious: the California wildfires occur more frequently and with increasing ferocity because forest and brush are not properly thinned, thereby providing fuel for blazes.
And the villains in this disaster are eco-fanatics who intimidate the U.S. Forest Service with threats of litigation.
I ended my post with this prediction:
I'm waiting for some nitwit to blame the fires on, ahem, climate change, or maybe they'll just point accusing fingers at George Bush and Dick Cheney, reliably safe and PC targets for, well, everything.
Well, the nitwit has stepped forward:
Rep. Linda Sanchez, the Democratic congresswoman from California’s 39th Congressional District, appeared on MSNBC’s Sept. 1 “Andrea Mitchell Reports” and did just that. She told the show’s fill-in host Tamron Hall that these wildfires have increased in “magnitude” over the years. And she knew why.
“Yeah, it’s really interesting because I’m a native Californian, born and raised here and periodically we would have fought wildfires when I was younger, but nothing of the magnitude that we’ve seen in the last several years,” Sanchez said. “And, obviously, a big contributing factor to that is that we’re in drought condition. We don’t, we aren’t receiving the amount of rainfall that we should or, quite frankly, that in years past we did.”
But Sanchez blamed this lack of rainfall on changing weather patterns made possible by global warming for her perception that wildfires that there has been an increase in wildfires.
“I think that also is a signal that our weather patterns are changing and I think that that is further evidence that, you know global warming and the need to do something about it is going to affect us sooner rather than later and I can’t think of a better example than the fact that we’ve had now these habitual wildfires just about every year,” Sanchez said.
Okay, that's one nitwit down.
Waiting for nitwit #2 to blame Bush and Cheney.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 07:01 AM | Comments (9)
September 01, 2009
The Eternal Mystery of Goodness
Women and children waiting in a small wooded area near Crematorium IV.
Yad Vashem: The Auschwitz Album
We are surrounded by evil.
New reports boil over with tales of depravity, murder, and rape.
And of course, evil is enabled by those who claim the mantle of human rights.
A young couple in Knoxville Tennessee are hijacked, tortured, murdered, and their bodies mutilated. And the human monsters who committed the crime do not get the death penalty. Evil compounded.
Jaycee Dugard, kidnapped when she was 11-years old and kept as a sex slave for eighteen years.
Children are held hostage, raped and then massacred by Islamo Nazis.
The British and Scottish governments release the Lockerbie mass murderer in exchange for favorable oil leases. This is truly a case of blood for oil—a charge gleefully hurled at President George Bush by the self-righteous left.
People ask:
How can this happen?
People look for explanations, root-causes. In screenplays we try and provide motivation.
Prime excuses are:
1. Bad childhood.
2. Poverty.
3. Joblessness.
4. In short, victims of: fill-in-the blank.
Ignored in this post-modern world is the simplest and most authentic explanation:
Evil.
Evil exists and the failure to recognize and deal with it makes not for a more compassionate society, but a society that excuses, tolerates and enables evil. A society that devalues life and justice.
Among the chattering classes, the existence of evil is denied. Moral equivalence posits that there is no way to measure goodness or evil for in their favorite mantra: “One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.”
In this degraded philosophical stance totalitarians like Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez are elevated to heroic status, and Israel/Jews are regularly demonized by the oh-so-fashionable left.
There are 613 positive and negative mitzvot—commandments—in the Torah. Judaism regulates behavior because the Torah recognizes that evil is seductive.
Evil is, well, an easy option.
More mysterious is goodness.
Last night, I picked up Karen at LAX. A close friend, on the same flight, needed a ride home.
As we drove through the streets—I take the scenic route, bypassing the freeway—our friend told us a compelling story.
A story about goodness.
During the war, her father-in-law was imprisoned in a labor camp. Food was scarce. Giving food and shelter to a Jew was a crime whose penalty was torture and execution. Informers were everywhere for the typical Polish peasant imbibed Jew-hatred in his mother's milk.
“There was a Polish woman,” said our friend, ”who used to sneak up to the wall and press food through a small crack in the bricks. In this way, feeding my father-in-law. She did this for years. Kept him alive. After the war, my father and mother-in-law returned to Poland. They only knew her name, Olecza Strelaka, but sure enough they found her.”
“I guess they thanked her, helped her out financially?”
“They brought her back to America to live with them.”
“For how long?”
“Forty years.”
I almost lost control of the car.
Karen said: ”She lived with your in-laws her entire life?”
“Yes, until she died.”
Karen said: “Did you ever ask her why she did what she did?”
“I couldn't. She only spoke Polish.”
“She never acculturated?” Karen asks.
“No, not at all. Thank G-d she was recognized by Yad Vashem as a Righteous Among the Nations.”
“Was she a religious Catholic?” The screenwriter in me looking for, you know, motivation.
“No, not really. I don't think she went to Church very often.”
Later, as Karen and I discussed Olecza Strelaka, a supremely righteous woman, I offered this:
“I'll bet if you asked her why she brought food to the labor camp she would probably shrug her shoulders and mumble something about it being the right thing to do. No big deal.”
But it is a big deal.
In a world where murder, rape, torture, corruption and genocide are the norm, goodness remains the greatest mystery of all.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:31 AM | Comments (22)