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Fundamentally Freud is Fundamentally Wrong

Michael Freund is a very sincere guy and his organization Shavei Israel has traveled around the world seeking out lost Jews. But the lost Jews he seeks are rarely Jews. They are on occasion may have a Jewish many times Great-Grandfather somewhere down the line, but that does not make them Jewish. Now Michael Freund is outraged because the conversion of the so-called Bnei Menashe has been aborted by the government. "This is an immoral decision, motivated by ignorance and based on post-Zionist and racist considerations," Freund said. This is as stupid a comment as was ever uttered by someone on the right. It's worse than Post-Zionist to import thousands of non-Jews to Israel and convert them. It's Post-Jewish. It's what the Jewish Agency did and thanks to them we now have Neo-Nazi attacks taking place inside Israel itself. As for racist-- the only possible racism as applied by Jews can be to converts. Jews cannot be racist to other Jews because Jews are a single...

Parshas Lech Lecha - The Secret of Possession

Avraham begins Parshas Lech Lecha as the wanderer, indeed the Parsha itself is named after the act of exile. Thus far both preceding Parshas, Bereishis and Noach, involved a forced exile, Adam from Gan Eden and Noach from the earth itself. Yet Avraham's exile is unique for it foreshadows a new sort of exile, not from a better place to a worse one as with Adam and not a salvation from destruction to dispossession as with Noach, but an exile from a worse place to a better one, thus reversing the path of mankind up until that day. That long exile that his descendants, the Jewish people would suffer, is still that exile with a final return to a better place than the one we left. No matter what travails we suffer in the journey, we are still Avraham's children traveling through foreign lands on the way home. Avraham's travails however usher in new problems. When Avraham reaches Egypt, he passes off Sarah as his sister, which leaves her under the authority of Pharaoh. He then acc...

Friday Afternoon Roundup - Muslim Hollywood, Temple Mount in Congress, Children's Rule and Light in Darkness

The week wears on and comes to an end. And thus it goes. - Paradise Now director Hany Abu-Assad, the Palestinian Arab whose movie finished with a suicide bombing, goes Hollywood with a major project starring Nicholas Cage as a father searching for his son who converted to Islam. This follows this weekend's opening of Rendition, basically a big screen version of HBO's Strip Search bemoaning how America tortures innocent Muslims. Meanwhile on the small screen, Aliens in America features its main Muslim exchange student character lecturing an American girl on "cheapening herself." No wonder the Muslim world doesn't have much of a movie industry, they don't need it because Hollywood is happy to do its work for them. - Ann Coulter continues her idiocy tour delivering gems like this, "Jews don't accept the New Testament, so, you know, as long as we're playing this new sport of 'he who is offended first wins,' if anyone's going to...

Before All Else Blame the Jews

The current bestseller book in Turkey is "The Children of Moses," which claims that Islamist Prime Minister Erdogan and his Islamist party are really Jews and a front for a Zionist agenda meant to transform Turkey from a secular state into an Islamic one. How turning a secular ally state into an enemy Muslim state would help Zionism is unclear but that hasn't stopped the book from selling 520,000 copies. Meanwhile of course Islamists in Turkey had been claiming for some time that Kemal Aturk and the Young Turks were actually Donmeh, Jewish converts to Islam, and that a secular Turkey was actually a Zionist plot. (A point the Washington Post neglects in its article which is a love letter to Turkey's Islamists). Turkey's frustrated nationalists are accusing their Islamist enemies of being Jewish and Turkey's Islamists are accusing the secular nationalists of being Jewish. This is just a microscopic example of a global trend. In Russia Jews are accused of being ...

Israel's Survival is Not Assured

If you must remember one thing in the coming days, remember that. The survival of the Jewish people is assured, the survival of this current incarnation of Medinat Yisrael is not. We have reclaimed Israel before only to lose it. Lag Baomer contains the remnants of the original Yom Yerushalayim, the bows and torches are all that remain of the day the Jewish people took back the holy city from Rome. If Yerushalayim falls again, what will remain of this era's Yom Yerushalayim? The attempts to take back Israel did not end with Bar Kochba and Betar, though that is what most are taught. We tried again in the 3rd century and were slaughtered. In the 6th century we allied together with the Persian Empire and reclaimed parts of Israel and Yerushalayim for half a year before the Byzantine Empire retook it again. Each time Israel fell it did not merely fall because of the enemy's superior force, it fell because of treachery from within, it fell because of infighting, it fell because we w...

The Turkey Mess Stews on America's Burner

While we're talking a lot about Iran these days, Turkey is causing plenty of real headaches. The former bastion of secularism is looking more and more like Pakistan these days with a religious government right down to the new President, hate-filled propaganda, Al-Queda operating freely in Turkey and now a showdown with the Armenians and the Kurds. Like Iran, Turkey is built on the oppression of indigenous minorities. In Iran it's the Azeris who make up much of Iran but have few rights compared to the ruling Persian minority. In Turkey it's a laundry list of ethic and religious minorities, topped by the Armenians and the Kurds. And right now the Armenian genocide bill is headed to the White House. The Bush Administration rightly points out that it will create a national security disaster with Turkey while Nancy Pelosi rightly points out that she doesn't care because anything that goes wrong for the White House can only help the Democrats. Not that it really matters thoug...

Greater Than the Sins of War Are the Sins of Peace

Greater Than the Sins of War Are the Sins of Peace For in War Terrible Things are Done to the Enemy But in the Pursuit of Peace, Things Twice Terrible Are Done To the Nation and to One's Brethren Once again the planes take off, not for war but for peace. Conferences are carried on behind closed doors, secret proposals are put on the table and portions of them are leaked to test for the public's reaction. Phony surveys are commission that declare that %42 of Israelis are prepared to give up Gaza, Yehuda, Shomron, Yerushalayim, Israel and their own lives in exchange for peace. Another %5 percent are undecided. We have seen this show before. The actors change, the gallery shifts uneasily, the curtain rises on rubble and burned bodies, on wreaths of peace and international awards. We have seen the show before it never seems to end but plays on in this theater of the damned. It is always well received by the world's press which immediately comments that the final solution is nea...

Offense and Defense - Ann Coulter and Richard Dawkins

In the world where unimportant things are considered important, Ann Coulter's comments about Jews are eliciting heaps of outrage from Liberal Jews. The very same people who can barely be bothered to yawn when Iran plots genocide and Hamas continues its terror, are deeply upset because a pundit expressed what a great many Christians believe, both Republican and Democrat. I'm not defending Ann Coulter's words or beliefs, but if all Muslims did was made snide remarks about the inferiority of Judaism on television, that would be a vast improvement. If Islam made that same improvement, we wouldn't be looking at cemeteries filled with dead Jewish children. What I find far more offensive than Ann Coulter are those liberal Jews who couldn't care less when rockets rain down on Sderot who suddenly become "Jews' when it's time to play their role as token minorities for the Democratic party. Be offended by Obama's racist church? Never. Be offended by Al Sharpto...

Friday Afternoon Roundup - Coulter, Dawkins, Sunrise and Sunset

Another week has gone, Rosh Chodesh is here and as we celebrate the new month, which is also a sort of Yom Kippur Kattan because this is a leap year, we pray for forgiveness and for a better month. May those prayers come true and be heard. Meanwhile in the world where unimportant things are considered important, Ann Coulter's comments about Jews are eliciting heaps of outrage from Liberal Jews. The very same people who can barely be bothered to yawn when Iran plots genocide and Hamas continues its terror, are deeply upset because a pundit expressed what virtually all Christians believe, both Republican and Democrat. Meanwhile Richard Dawkins, patron saint of atheists, revealed that he thinks Jews run America. Because of course just because you're a rationalist and secular humanist, doesn't mean you can't offensively stereotype Jews and lend credence to bigotry. But then again Richard Dawkins has been taking shots at Jewish beliefs and practices for a while now while his...

Im Eskachech Yerushalayim Tiskach Yemini in the Knesset

On Sunday Shas Minister Eli Yishai barred Jewish workers from working on Shabbat during the renovation of the runways at Ben Gurion airport. Shas however has not barred its MK's from sitting in the Olmert led coalition that is preparing to hand over much of Israel to Arab terrorists... including Yerushalayim. Which one wonders is the worse sin, chillul Shabbat by working on an airport runway or the destruction of the land of Israel and the murder of Jews. Like Esav, Eli Yishai discusses taking Maaser from salt while his hands are red with blood. The Right Wing and Haredi parties, Ashkenazi and Sefardi, which continue to maintain this government while fussing over the niceties of Halacha are nothing more than pig's feet stretched out to the public. Look we wear beards, we don't work on Shabbat, see how Kosher we are. Yet as Pirkei Avot says, their tables are laden with vomit. Their hands are bloodied with the blood of their brothers though as Kayin they proclaim a thousand ...

The Peace of Israel, the Darkness and the Light

"This is an opportunity we cannot miss" "Israel today has the chance for peace" "What we are setting in motion is a final solution" Hear the echoes over the years, the lies and the liars, the long nightmare of a decade and a half coming to fruition. Peace. Peace in our time. The peace of the bullet and the treaty of the shell writ over a mountain of our own dead. For a decade and a half those dedicated to the expedient course, the traitors of the House of Israel, have told the same lie again and again. Arafat is a man of peace. Abbas is a man of peace. They are all men of peace even as they are killing us. " I am determined to make brave but inevitable decisions that will mean foregoing the full achievement of dreams that fueled our national ethos for years ," Olmert proclaims to the Knesset . Yes indeed and so many have bravely made the decision to give away other people's homes and expose other people to shell and mortar. Bravely they have ...

The Dying of the West: Of Squirrels and Men

There is a particular bitter irony to the West's preoccupation with extinction among animals even as the West itself is slowly becoming extinct. The animal lowers and the conservationists of America and Europe build habitats for endangered creatures, monitor their numbers, worry over their low birth rates and never give a thought to the fact that some higher being might well look down on the men and women of the West and see no more than endangered animals, eagles, bears, badgers and wolves in business suits with headphones on their ears and low birth rates shrinking away into the darkness of final extinction. On that note is an entertaining little article in the New York Times called The Squirrel Wars about the struggle England and the rest of the UK is having with the extinction of the red squirrel because of the invasion of the gray squirrel. The British are of course upset. Generally though not upset enough to do anything useful about the problem. The article follows a Liberal...

Rodef, Cowardice and Treason

It is interesting to note that in Sotah we learn that in a time of war, strong men of courage were appointed in front of the army to rally the troops and men behind them with orders to kill anyone who fled the fighting. On the surface this seems harsh and brutal. The legal halachic justification for such an act was that a deserter was considered a Rodef, his cowardice doesn't just involve dodging his own responsibilities but by fleeing in the face of battle, he encourages others to panic and flee creating a domino effect leading to mass panic and desertion followed by the enemy slaughtering the retreating troops and the residents of the towns they overrun. And indeed battles were more often won or lost when one side or the other retreated or deserted. For example the American side was considered to have won the Battle of Bunker Hill despite suffering more casualties because they held their ground. By contrast the Continental Army lost New York after a series of battles that ended i...

How the Loss of Meaning Endangers America and Freedom

The transformation of language is the opening shot to the transformation of society. It is interesting to note that so many of the arguments made in defense of Ahmadinejad's appearance at Columbia involved free speech. Few seemed to realize that free speech was a guarantee to Americans as a right the government could not tamper with. To extend free speech as a justification to a foreign dictator who does not permit it on his own soil is obscene. To use free speech as an argument for why a private university should provide a forum to him demonstrates a complete ignorance of what free speech is. The problem as always begins with a distortion of language and meaning. We are repeatedly told of the importance of tolerance and warned against prejudice and discrimination. Discrimination used to mean being able to tell good from bad. A discriminating man or woman was a person of good judgment. Today the primary meaning of discrimination is a bad trait. A discriminating person lacks toleran...

1931 to 2007 - A Passage of Fallacies

Due to a busy holiday schedule, today's post will be an op ed by Anabella Hutchkins and Hermann Stupek... currently living in 1931. A minor variation of this editorial recently ran in The Michigan Daily in 2007. Viewpoint: Reconsidering Germany - April 12, 1931 Let's all take a deep breath on the issue of Germany, please. Recently, there have been a lot of reports about the dangers Germany poses to America. Many of these stories have contained the same talking points and have revolved around the personality of German Chancellor Adolf Hitler. It is easy to criticize Hitler. There is no question that some of his statements have been thoughtless, even hateful. There are enough real reasons to condemn him, but by inflating his rhetoric and his power, critics attempt to increase their audiences' hostility toward Germany without providing an accurate picture of that country's complex politics. Presenting Germany and Hitler as bigger threats than they actually are is not help...