Jews Know How To Fight?

By Findalis

Chanukah Day 1

Jews fight?  That was asked when I was a child.  Right!  They can't fight their way out of a paper bag.  Jews don't know how to fight.  That is why the Nazis were able to kill them.

But the reality is that Jews were known for their fighting prowess for thousands of years.

The miracle of Hanukkah wasn’t performed by G-d alone. The Maccabees played a crucial role in defeating the Syrian Greeks on the battlefields. It was a partnership of human courage and Divine guidance. Matisyahu and his sons prevailed because they were wise enough to recognize that although Jews revere peace, we acknowledge that there may be a time that demands we go to war.

And that was not an easy thing for our people to admit – neither then, nor today.

Psychologists tell us there are basically two ways in which we can cope with the world: fight or flight. Encountering any difficulty, one can either attempt to cope, grapple and wrestle with an issue and overcome it, or one can flee and give up at the outset.

Some may rationalize flight as the correct religious response. Let me not do anything, and if G-d really desires a certain outcome, let Him handle it to His satisfaction.

As I heard Rabbi Soleveichik once explain it, this was the way of Jacob, even from the time he was in the womb. Jacob had actually been conceived first. He should’ve been the one to be born before his brother. Technically, he was the eldest, with all the attendant privileges of primogeniture. His brother Esau, however, pushed himself forward and forced himself over Jacob. “And after that came forth his brother and his hand had hold on Esau’s heel and his name was called Jacob” [Genesis 25:26] . The very name Jacob comes from the Hebrew word related to heel. Jacob was holding on to his brother’s heel; he begins his life being trampled upon, unfairly deprived by force of his rights.

Jacob’s life continued to unfold, guided by the unspoken philosophy that “nice Jewish boys don’t fight.” His twin brother Esau fooled father Isaac into thinking that he was the more pious and deserving son - and were it not for the intervention of his mother, Jacob would not have said a word in the face of this injustice.

When Jacob fell in love with Rachel only to have his father-in-law switch brides and trick him into a marriage with Leah, his response was to quietly accept the obligation to work for yet another seven years in order to earn the hand of the woman that was already rightly his.

Passivity in the face of evil and the silent acceptance of ill treatment defined Jacob’s theology. Jacob eventually realized his error in the dramatic story that so altered his perception that it was responsible for a change of name, a change that acknowledged that his newfound insight literally turned him into a new person.

Left totally alone and attacked by a mysterious assailant the commentators identify as the evil representative of Esau, Jacob realizes he has no alternative but to fight. At the end of a long night of battle, Jacob is left limping but nonetheless receives a blessing. He is now no longer the stepped-upon Jacob, but from this time forward is Israel – “because you have striven with G-d and with men and have prevailed” [Genesis 32:29].

Jacob may have suffered a blow, but he won the greater battle – the battle over his unwillingness previously to engage in combat. Jacob won the greatest victory of all – he finally managed to conquer himself.

And, explain the commentators, if he was left limping, what of it? That would simply mean he would never again be able to run away from anyone or any place, not even from himself.

The name change of Jacob to Israel differs from that of Abram to Abraham. Once Abram became Abraham he would never again be called by his original name. Abraham identified his new mission as “the father of many nations,” the first one to bring monotheism to the consciousness of the world. That name change was exclusive.

However even after Jacob became Israel, when the pacifist became the fighter, we still find him at times referred to by his earlier name. The reason is obvious. It is what was stated so beautifully by Solomon in the book of Ecclesiastes: “There is a time for peace and there is a time for war.” Both names are to be used, both modalities are to be employed.

Peace is the ultimate goal. But until the messianic era, war remains an unfortunate necessity.

We wish we would only have to imitate the way of Jacob who sat peacefully in his tent dedicating his life to study. But as long as there remain those like Esau who threaten our existence we know we must assume the identity of Israel and do battle with our enemies.

The Maccabees understood this. While they surely would have preferred to lead the peaceful life of priests, they recognized the responsibility placed upon them by the threat of a Greek-Syrian army bent on their destruction.

Of course nice Jewish boys don’t want to fight. That is not our way. But the world needs to know that we are the nation of Israel, defending the land of Israel. And like our forefather Israel, we will fight for survival. Like the Maccabees, Israel will go to war when it’s necessary. That’s because we love peace so much that we are ready to fight for it.

And that is one of the contemporary messages of Chanukah.

Source

The people of Israel don't ask for war.  They prepare for war, they train for war, they pray for peace.  Yet their neighbors demand that they leave their ancient, ancestral land.  A land that they fought for.  Not just in the past, but for the last 65 years.  And we will NOT just leave the land over a piece of paper.  Will will NOT tear a city in 2 to appease Obama.  And we will NOT give up our weapons to appease a world more concerned with finishing the job Hitler did, then allow the children of the Holocaust survive.  Nor will we trust an enemy who for decades has threaten to wipe us off the planet.

For this first night I did not choose a Chanukah video, but I do believe that this song says the meaning of Chanukah and the Jewish people more than any other could.

Andy Williams Sings "The Exodus Song (This Land Is Mine)"


Click here if the video doesn't load.

Happy Chanukah!!

Would Jew Believe This? The Story Of Passover.

By Findalis
Monkey in the Middle

For my regular readers:

I have been in the hospital for the last 5 days, missed the first Seder night, and haven't been able to post in all that time.  So I'm posting these old posts for the holiday of Passover.

*************************************************************************

A young boy returned home from Hebrew school, washed his hands and sat down to dinner.

His father asked him what he learned that day in school.

The boy replied that the Rabbi told his class the most amazing story of how the Jews were rescued from the Land of Egypt and brought to the Land of Israel.

His father smiled and asked his son to relate the story the Rabbi told them.

"Sure Dad," the boy said.  "Now this story happened a long time ago, before the time of CNN.  Before the time of computers, and cell phones.  Before even TV.  I think it was in the 1920s or so it happened.

"Egypt was ruled by this guy named Pharaoh.  I think it means "Nasty Egyptian". And we Jews were his slaves. We didn't like being slaves and prayed to G-d to set us free. G-d heard our prayers and sent us a miracle.

"G-d  sent the IDF back in time to rescue the Children of Israel (I think they rescued the parents too.).  The Commandos diverted the Egyptian Army while the Children and their parents fled to the Red Sea (It was red because G-d turned the water to blood like in Zombie Killers 3.).  There the IDF built Pontoon bridges across the Red Sea for the people to go across.  When the Egypt Army tried to follow, the IDF blew up the bridges.

"Then this guy named Moshe Dayan (He is the head of the IDF, I think. Rabbi said he was G-d's greatest profits.) lead the Children of Israel (and their parents) to Mount Sinai where Moshe lays down the law, destroys the Golden Calf and leads them to Israel.

"But it took them 40 years because nobody had a GPS and Moshe would not ask for directions."

His father had a look upon his face that was a cross between total astonishment and WTF.  "Is this what the Rabbi taught you?"

"No Dad,"  the boy said.  "But you wouldn't believe the crazy story he did tell."

***********************************************************************

Actually I'm not sure that is not the correct story.  It could be giving that a certain Time Lord, his TARDIS and a few units of the IDF could have pulled it off.

But perhaps G-d did it this way:

From Chabad

After many decades of slavery to the Egyptian pharaohs, during which time the Israelites were subjected to backbreaking labor and unbearable horrors, G‑d saw the people's distress and sent Moses to Pharaoh with a message: "Send forth My people, so that they may serve Me." But despite numerous warnings, Pharaoh refused to heed G‑d's command. G‑d then sent upon Egypt ten devastating plagues, afflicting them and destroying everything from their livestock to their crops.

At the stroke of midnight of 15 Nissan in the year 2448 from creation (1313 BCE), G‑d visited the last of the ten plagues on the Egyptians, killing all their firstborn. While doing so, G‑d spared the Children of Israel, "passing over" their homes-hence the name of the holiday. Pharaoh's resistance was broken, and he virtually chased his former slaves out of the land. The Israelites left in such a hurry, in fact, that the bread they baked as provisions for the way did not have time to rise. Six hundred thousand adult males, plus many more women and children, left Egypt on that day, and began the trek to Mount Sinai and their birth as G‑d's chosen people.

*********************************************************************

Or maybe not.  Any way that G-d performed the miracle of the Passover was the correct story. 

64 + 3500 And Counting

By Findalis

64 years ago today David Ben-Gurion watch the last of the British Garrison leave the Palestinian Mandate and that evening at the Tel Aviv Museum he spoke the following words:

ERETZ-ISRAEL [(Hebrew) - the Land of Israel, Palestine] was the birthplace of the Jewish people. Here their spiritual, religious and political identity was shaped. Here they first attained to statehood, created cultural values of national and universal significance and gave to the world the eternal Book of Books.

After being forcibly exiled from their land, the people kept faith with it throughout their Dispersion and never ceased to pray and hope for their return to it and for the restoration in it of their political freedom.

Impelled by this historic and traditional attachment, Jews strove in every successive generation to re-establish themselves in their ancient homeland. In recent decades they returned in their masses. Pioneers, ma'pilim [(Hebrew) - immigrants coming to Eretz-Israel in defiance of restrictive legislation] and defenders, they made deserts bloom, revived the Hebrew language, built villages and towns, and created a thriving community controlling its own economy and culture, loving peace but knowing how to defend itself, bringing the blessings of progress to all the country's inhabitants, and aspiring towards independent nationhood.

In the year 5657 (1897), at the summons of the spiritual father of the Jewish State, Theodore Herzl, the First Zionist Congress convened and proclaimed the right of the Jewish people to national rebirth in its own country.

This right was recognized in the Balfour Declaration of the 2nd November, 1917, and re-affirmed in the Mandate of the League of Nations which, in particular, gave international sanction to the historic connection between the Jewish people and Eretz-Israel and to the right of the Jewish people to rebuild its National Home.

The catastrophe which recently befell the Jewish people - the massacre of millions of Jews in Europe - was another clear demonstration of the urgency of solving the problem of its homelessness by re-establishing in Eretz-Israel the Jewish State, which would open the gates of the homeland wide to every Jew and confer upon the Jewish people the status of a fully privileged member of the comity of nations.

Survivors of the Nazi holocaust in Europe, as well as Jews from other parts of the world, continued to migrate to Eretz-Israel, undaunted by difficulties, restrictions and dangers, and never ceased to assert their right to a life of dignity, freedom and honest toil in their national homeland.

In the Second World War, the Jewish community of this country contributed its full share to the struggle of the freedom- and peace-loving nations against the forces of Nazi wickedness and, by the blood of its soldiers and its war effort, gained the right to be reckoned among the peoples who founded the United Nations.

On the 29th November, 1947, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution calling for the establishment of a Jewish State in Eretz-Israel; the General Assembly required the inhabitants of Eretz-Israel to take such steps as were necessary on their part for the implementation of that resolution. This recognition by the United Nations of the right of the Jewish people to establish their State is irrevocable.

This right is the natural right of the Jewish people to be masters of their own fate, like all other nations, in their own sovereign State.

ACCORDINGLY WE, MEMBERS OF THE PEOPLE'S COUNCIL, REPRESENTATIVES OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF ERETZ-ISRAEL AND OF THE ZIONIST MOVEMENT, ARE HERE ASSEMBLED ON THE DAY OF THE TERMINATION OF THE BRITISH MANDATE OVER ERETZ-ISRAEL AND, BY VIRTUE OF OUR NATURAL AND HISTORIC RIGHT AND ON THE STRENGTH OF THE RESOLUTION OF THE UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY, HEREBY DECLARE THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A JEWISH STATE IN ERETZ-ISRAEL, TO BE KNOWN AS THE STATE OF ISRAEL.

WE DECLARE that, with effect from the moment of the termination of the Mandate being tonight, the eve of Sabbath, the 6th Iyar, 5708 (15th May, 1948), until the establishment of the elected, regular authorities of the State in accordance with the Constitution which shall be adopted by the Elected Constituent Assembly not later than the 1st October 1948, the People's Council shall act as a Provisional Council of State, and its executive organ, the People's Administration, shall be the Provisional Government of the Jewish State, to be called "Israel".

THE STATE OF ISRAEL will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles; it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.

THE STATE OF ISRAEL is prepared to cooperate with the agencies and representatives of the United Nations in implementing the resolution of the General Assembly of the 29th November, 1947, and will take steps to bring about the economic union of the whole of Eretz-Israel.

WE APPEAL to the United Nations to assist the Jewish people in the building-up of its State and to receive the State of Israel into the comity of nations.

WE APPEAL - in the very midst of the onslaught launched against us now for months - to the Arab inhabitants of the State of Israel to preserve peace and participate in the upbuilding of the State on the basis of full and equal citizenship and due representation in all its provisional and permanent institutions.

WE EXTEND our hand to all neighboring states and their peoples in an offer of peace and good neighborliness, and appeal to them to establish bonds of cooperation and mutual help with the sovereign Jewish people settled in its own land. The State of Israel is prepared to do its share in a common effort for the advancement of the entire Middle East.

WE APPEAL to the Jewish people throughout the Diaspora to rally round the Jews of Eretz-Israel in the tasks of immigration and upbuilding and to stand by them in the great struggle for the realization of the age-old dream - the redemption of Israel.

PLACING OUR TRUST IN THE "ROCK OF ISRAEL", WE AFFIX OUR SIGNATURES TO THIS PROCLAMATION AT THIS SESSION OF THE PROVISIONAL COUNCIL OF STATE, ON THE SOIL OF THE HOMELAND, IN THE CITY OF TEL-AVIV, ON THIS SABBATH EVE, THE 5TH DAY OF IYAR, 5708 (14TH MAY,1948).

11 minutes later the following telegram was sent to Israel by the United States:

This Government has been informed that a Jewish state has been proclaimed in Palestine, and recognition has been requested by the provisional government thereof.

The United States recognizes the provisional government as the de facto authority of the State of Israel.

Signed;

Harry S. Truman

The United States was the first nation to recognize the State of Israel.  It was followed by by Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi's Iran, Guatemala, Iceland, Nicaragua, Romania, and Uruguay.  And the armies of Egypt, Trans-Jordan, Iraq, Libya, Sudan, Lebanon, and Syria invaded Israel.  Israel was given only 10 days before there would be a massacre of every man, woman, child.  But A MIRACLE OCCURRED THERE!  They won their Independence with no weapons, no army, no navy, and no air force.  The "experts" said that the nation will not last, could not last.  But it has been 64 years.

Israel is still here!

Israel 64 + 3500 years and counting!

6 Million Dead!

By Findalis of Monkey in the Middle

Today is the day we remember and mourn those who were murdered by the Nazis and their allies.

We have to remember it wasn't just Germans who worked in the camps, but volunteers from EVERY country the Nazis conquered.  These volunteers were often more impassioned with their horrid task, bringing an enthusiasm to the job that often the regular SS didn't share.

We can safely assume that the men and women who worked in the Concentration Camps were defective in their moral fiber.  Whether from birth, disease or upbringing, this defect of character added to the horror those interned there faced on a daily basis.

If there were no proof of the horror caused by these defective people then I would be at fault. I submit the following as partial proof of the horror they caused.

None of the horror would have been possible if the people of Germany first, then the occupied nations would have stood up and screamed NO!  Instead they were silent, or worse they collaborated with the murderers.  After all these were only Jews. And their church taught them to hate the Jews from birth.

Those who did not speak up, or try to save one life are as guilty of the murder of 6 million Jews as those who worked and ran the Camps.  An thought to remember on this Yom HaShoah.

NEVER AGAIN!!!!!!

Too Horrible To Contemplate!

By Findalis of Monkey in the Middle

I received this via an e-mail and did some checking up on the facts I am about to present to you.  Most of this I have been able to confirm through my own sources.

Earlier today I posted about the warning Maj. Gen. Paul Vallely issued about the grave danger Israel is in. Following that, I received this from a colleague who has close friends in Israel. Here’s what she wrote:

I have just received this: from my friend in Israel who moves in high circles there.

No attribution possible. It’s from a very trustworthy source who was himself the recipient and knows these people. They send him information clandestinely and they remain incognito, so that they can safely inform Americans of what is actually happening. I’m sure that they would be pleased to have the information disseminated.

Incidentally, in my opinion, this is what appears to be happening. Obama has made secret deals with the Iranian mullahcracy to facilitate the weakening of both the USA and Israel, even the planned destruction of Israel, in exchange for promises from Iran and now the Turkish leadership that ‘all they want’ – à la Munich, 1938 – is their individual MidEast Sudentenland, each of them.

Turkey and Iran have decided to split the ME between them – East and West. Turkey will recreate a new Sunni-controlled Ottoman Empire, and Iran will be allowed its own ‘greater Iran’ hegemony…i.e. a new Shiite Caliphate stretching beyond its current borders.

Obama, who is a Muslim, agrees with this plan and has pledged to help throw Israel – along with all American national security interests – to the wolves.

This appears to me to be what is currently happening, and Americans had better awaken to this reality long before November, 2012, or we won’t have a country, or an Israel, to save any longer.

***

Tonight Clive and I heard very disturbing information – we heard it from a consultant to the United States who meets once a month with the President in the White house. He is in the know. This is what actually has happened with the relationship with Israel and the USA and it is not pretty:

1. Israel during the Bush and Clinton Administrations – had landing rights in Turkey, and in the USA bases in the middle east and more recently under George Bush, in Iraq. This was in case they were invaded by Iran , or Saudi or any other Arab country. Obama has withdrawn those landing rights. Israel now has nowhere to refuel in the Middle East.

2. Netanyahu was instructed to come to the White House for a meeting. He was brought in through a servants entrance – the only head of state ever in US history to be given that disgraceful treatment. He was not offered even a cup of tea – but was lectured to by Obama who told him that he is not permitted to attack Iran and that he has to withdraw all forces from the West Bank and may not build any more settlements ( neighborhoods) in East Jerusalem.

3. Israel found out that there were four terrorists meeting in Dubai . As they have done for the past 62 years, they informed the US of that and said that these terrorists had to be dealt with. Obama said under no circumstances. Israel decided to go ahead. They killed the one terrorist who showed up. However the CIA was sent there to film the entire event by Obama – and then a concerted PR campaign was waged by the White house to discredit Israel and what they did – this kind of action has taken place with US support for the past 62 years since we have common enemies.

4. Obama has refused to oppose Syria’s rearming of Hezbollah and Hamas – Israel now sits in imminent danger from the amounts of missiles that can be sent into her territory.

5. Israel will never tell the US again of its plans – since they cannot trust us.

6. Israel intends to attack Iran –there are over 30 installations of which 4 have underground bunkers that contain nuclear weapons. Israel cannot wait any longer. The US is no longer supporting Israel ’s self defense.

7. This is the same man that gave the White House a full file on the 9.11 attack – his warnings and proof were laughed at.

8. He believes that the next attacks in the USA will be mass transportation – subways and malls – especially the largest malls where the most people can be killed – and that Vegas and wherever there are conventions of employees will be a huge target. We are not prepared and are naive in our lack thereof.

9. Once Israel attacks Iran , every Jew and Jewish institution will be at risk – temples, religious schools etc. We must be prepared.

10. This kept a room of 200 people spellbound. It is not fiction. It is fact.

What can be done?

It is essential that everyone who doesn’t know yet, now understands that the protection and survival of Israel is not on Obama’s list – and he is now taking ACTUAL steps to move all protections away – no more landing rights, negotiating with Iran and Syria, making nice to the Muslim World in the face of allies of long standing and he is no friend of the Jewish people and Israel.

We must be sure that we elect politicians who protect Israel as well as the USA – our interests are intertwined. Please forward to everyone you know.

I was able to verify through my own sources every one of the 10 points cited here. Yet Barack Hussein Obama is sending his Kapos

With this happening, no wonder Netanyahu is on edge!

Something for all of us to remember:

On this date, 5 Sivan 5741 (June 7, 1981), Israel bombed and destroyed the Iraqi nuclear reactor in Baghdad. Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had pronounced himself as the reincarnation of Babylonian tyrant Nebuchadnezzar, and named the nuclear reactor "Tammuz" -- the name of the calamitous Jewish month when Nebuchadnezzar's troops laid siege on Jerusalem 2,500 years earlier. Ilan Ramon (later to become Israel's first astronaut, who died in the explosion of the Space Shuttle Columbia) and seven other pilots executed the daring raid -- flying over enemy Arab territory for hours, and avoiding detection with their tight formation that emitted a radar signal resembling a commercial airliner. However, even as Israel celebrated the successful raid, condemnation was nearly universal. One prominent U.S. senator called it "one of the most provocative, ill-timed and internationally illegal actions taken in that nation's history." Two decades later, as the world feared Saddam's weapons of mass destruction, the Israeli action was vindicated.

Operation Opera

Israel will do what is necessary to survive regardless of what Barack Hussein Obama want them to do, even if it costs them funding and/or support.