The Lynching of Elor Azaria

"I'd rather be judged by 12 than carried by 6"- Ed Parker

As so many of us feared and expected from a judicial system that often mirrors Sodom rather than Sinai, Sergeant Elor Azaria was convicted of manslaughter. To put it bluntly, a Jewish hero may sit and rot his finest years in prison, possibly twenty years. It is a monumental disgrace, a travesty of injustices to rival anything this country has thrown at decent Jews in the past. Even if Elor is pardoned, the shame of the verdict, of the Bolshevik investigation and kangaroo court which tarred and feathered him from day one, these will never be erased.

In a time when the word Maccabee is thrown around with glibness, often attributed to those who deserve it least, the State of Israel, indeed, the Army of Israel itself, publicly lynched a genuine Maccabee. Today is a dark day in Jewish history. Yet another nail in the coffin containing the remains of Jewish dignity and self-respect. 

Today’s guilty verdict for Elor Azaria, a heroic soldier who ended the life of an Arab terrorist, is a stain upon the nation. A stain upon the heads of every Hellenized politician who wants Israel to act humane to the most evil people on earth. A stain upon heads of army and heads of State, including former Minister of Defense Moshe Ya’alon who fed the flames against Azaria from the onset. Among other perverse statements was the following:

"Gentlemen, what do you want here? An army that becomes bestial? An army that lost its moral backbone? I am proud that the company commander indicated that it was an anomalous incident.”

A stain upon Prime Minister Netanyahu for not rising sooner in defense of a valiant soldier of Israel. The fact that Netanyahu is now calling for him to be pardoned is certainly good to hear. But it stinks of political expediency, since the masses are infuriated with the betrayal of a young Jewish soldier, and Netanyahu could have stifled the witch-hunt earlier. You will recall his statement months back:

"What happened in Hevron does not represent the values of the IDF. The IDF expects its soldiers to act with self-control and in accordance with the open-fire regulations."

In any event, as shameful as the conviction is, the most important thing is to ensure that Azaria never sits a day of this perverse prison sentence.

Bestial? Antithetical to IDF values? What of Torah values? The most noble thing on earth is to put a bullet in the head of a terrorist who just tried to murder Jews.  Whether upright or twitching and bleeding on the ground. Imprisoning these beasts is immoral. In Judaism, we destroy our enemies. We certainly don’t warehouse them, educate them, and then release them to murder other Jews, as so many other terrorists have been in the past. And without a doubt, some future unprincipled craven Israeli government would have released this beast, by stating that he had no blood on his hands. Having failed in his first attempt, this Amalekite would have gone out and ensured that he was successful the next time around. So even if this creature wasn’t laden with explosives, even if Azaria wasn’t concerned with this possibility, his actions were supremely Jewish. Matityahu would have been proud of him.

Those who would persecute such a young man are not Maccabees. Maccabees don’t feed their own soldiers to the fire of world opinion. The world loves to incinerate us, yet the Jew who would feed the fire himself, is a judenrat. In a previous article, I noted the following:

In Israel, the uncompromising warrior is often treated like a fiend, or a lawless vigilante. A soldier such as Elor Azaria who kills an Arab terrorist is a hero, and any "Jewish" government that punishes such a warrior is reprehensible. I don't care if the creature was trussed up like a Thanksgiving Turkey. Or whether the ghoul had an explosive. A bullet to the head is the Jewish response. You can bet your last shekel that King David would have agreed. The witch-hunt against Azaria shrieks of Jewish degradation. Such actions are the antidote to Jewish funerals.

This is nothing new in a country where soldiers are increasingly afraid to use their weapons against genuine Arab threats, or in more extreme lunatic situations, are given standing orders to retreat in the face of murderous Arab violence. Where soldiers are indoctrinated with the accursed self-restraint “ethic” which permeates every normative party in Israel, and stands as an ideal in the hearts of so many military men. Sometimes the decision is to be murdered or maimed, or do the right thing by putting a bullet (or several) in the fiend’s cranium. And then face the real danger of prison sentence.

As my good friend, Moshe pointed out, Secretary of State John Kerry’s recent statement mirrored the unintended action of the evil Balaam’s curse. Kerry intended to demonize and vilify Israel by arguing the incompatibility of a Jewish State or democracy. His intention and desire was certainly malevolent, a vindictive expression of Obama’s (and his own) Jew hatred and a desire to alienate and isolate Israel. And yet unlike the belief of too many Jews on both sides of the spectrum, that his assertion was false and that a marriage of the two is workable, without even realizing his statement, John Kerry was correct. The great Rabbi Meir Kahane (may G-d avenge his blood) often stated the exact thing, and unlike Kerry he knew precisely what he was talking about. The most rudimentary definition of democracy would be the majority opinion or will of what the populace believes to be true or desires. Torah deems the majority opinion of the great halachic minds to be the ideal.

Democracy accepts the possibility of an Arab majority, or Arab interests superseding those of Jews. A Jewish state cannot without endangering and ultimately compromising its existence. Even a secular “Jewish” state cannot abide this possibility for reasons of logic. From a halachic statement, the question of who can even be in the country has rigid rules and requirements. Certainly, the Halacha denies even the noble resident stranger (and today’s gentiles in Israel are certainly not) from having any say on matters of State.

In Israel today, the leadership behaves towards Jews in a manner that is neither Jewish nor democratic. It is tragic that we are so far from a true expression of Halacha in the State of Israel. We will surely bleed because of it. But neither do we have a functional democracy, since witch-hunts, administrative detention, and the immoral torturing of innocents are anathema to the former. And a country that punishes her own soldiers for terminating an evil enemy who intended to create orphans and widows, expose their worship of a modern-day Baal on the world stage. The Baal of moral relativism and pacifism.

Where are the Maccabees today? Hard to say, since our times are exceedingly unromantic. Your average middle aged 30-year-old has no chance to pick up a gun in defense of country, despite his desire to do so. We have a repressive government acting within the well-constructed veneer of democracy. Zealotry lacks the catalyst in the contemporary scene. Unless the roof caves in, a revolution seems unlikely at this point until the inferno gets out of control. There may be a tipping point in the future, as there was once upon a time in the town of Modi’in. On that day, a zealous warrior decided that he had enough of the perversion and he started a Torah revolution. In the meantime, we know of at least one such Maccabee in Israel today. Stg. Elor Azaria is a Maccabee in the truest sense of the word. May he be freed soon enough.

#FreeElorAzariaNow

# MaccabeeRising

President Donald Trump: A Jewish Perspective

For the record, I am ecstatic that President Elect Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton, that corrupt power-crazed chameleon who wears as many duplicitous faces as she does ill-fitting pant-suits. It was aggravating enough to see American society erode under eight grueling years of Obama's reign of tyranny. While Obama should have been protecting America from Islamic terror and black supremacists,he was too busy destroying America's medical care, ramming gay marriage upon an unwilling populace, and continuing his “rainbow” crusade to allow transsexuals into the ladies’ room. In her quest for power, the unprincipled Hillary would have pandered to every degeneracy by continuing Obama's legacy, and the American Republic would have been doomed. Fortunately, eight years of hell didn't become twelve. Reason enough to celebrate.

It is good to see the downfall of corrupt arrogant people.

I confess that it is more than good. It is a JOY to see deranged liberals losing their minds over the results of a lawful election. Furthermore, the liberal media was shamed for their biases, as Hillary’s litany of crimes were exposed every day like  a broken sewer pipe, spewing its raw filth upon an increasingly nauseated public. As so many others, I was sick of reading about Clinton’s negligent behavior as Secretary of State which cost American lives, her culture of corruption, the criminal enterprises of the “Clinton Foundation”, and a slew of other scandals. Throw in her general vindictiveness and anti-antisemitism, and one needn’t wonder why the American public flexed it's collective might and said NO MORE. For a further look at Hillary Clinton, check out: “President Hillary Clinton: Definition of a Nightmare”. 

Trump’s victory offers America an opportunity to right a sinking ship, and turn back the clock on eight-years of Bolshevism. If nothing else, it means that Hillary Clinton isn’t president, and that Islam won’t triple its numbers in America and continue to grow as a fifth column. Nevertheless, it is not merely an example of addition by subtraction. With his genuine talents and patented chutzpah, Donald Trump can indeed accomplish great things for America. 

So I am very pleased with the results. But I am less ecstatic by the extremes of Jewish expression on both ends of the spectrum, which as I see it, have no place in a Torah perspective. On the one hand, we have the cookie-cutter Jewish liberals, who swallowed the leftist Kool-Aid and deem Donald Trump and his associates as Jew haters, bigots, etc. In the absence of any evidence, they readily resort to the standard slurs of the left: vitriol and defamation. The Bnai Brith’s Anti-Defamation League comes to mind, with their recent witch-hunt against Breitbart's Stephen Bannon, which they have since had to backtrack on. Ironic how the ADL ignores Obama’s anti-Semitism, but saw fit to slander a man who supports Israel, exposes Islamic barbarism, and has a disproportionate number of Jews working with him. And lest we forget, Andrew Breitbart was himself a Jew.

Those who were once accused of drinking blood (and still are in Arab countries), would be well to remember the sin of false accusations. No honest individual denies that there are white racists in the United states, but I would venture to say that they are fewer in number than the black Ku Klux Klan of the BLM movement, which has a wider base of support from the lib media, academia, and politicians, than any white racist ever could. The ADL should give equal attention to black supremacy. 

Liberalism is a world-wide pandemic, and the infected rarely recover. Look at the maniacs screeching over President Elect Donald Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton. Bedlam unleashed in the streets. “Safe zones” on college campuses for the intellectually deprived, who want to curl up in a fetal position because Hillary didn’t win. People who equate law and order with racism. And these are the non-violent ones. The savages who resort to violence represent the darker side of this story, the veritable lynch mobs attacking people for voting Trump.

The Jewish liberal will always contribute to this infection, since in the absence of Torah, one will invariably worship some version of Baal. Today’s paganism is liberal thought, so contrary to the notion of free will and the intellect. As far as the elections go, even if one doesn’t like Trump, he is better than the corrupt Hillary. One may find Trump coarse and brazen, but what of the Clintonian perversions and crimes which are so apparent?

The charges of racism from the liberal federations, the Bnai Brith’s Anti-Defamation League, and the self-loathing American Jewish rags are as predictable as the morning sun. They tar innocent people while tolerating genuine anti-Semites who comprise the inner circle of Obama and of Hillary. Blood libels are the lefts tool. And when a Jew hurls a blood libel against Jew or gentile, it is an ironic perversity.

The Left are supremely intolerant of dissent. In response to an alternative viewpoint, they hurl invective. We see this all the time in Israel, most recently, when Zionist Union Opposition leader, Isaac Herzog referred to “settlers” as viruses. If a politician or pundit on the right used such inflammatory language about leftists, the Shabak would pay him a night-time visit.

Viruses? 

This is the language a prominent Israeli leftist politician used to describe noble Jews who chose to live in the "liberated" areas of our biblical Homeland. The demonization and subsequent dehumanization of fellow Jews (who act as a buffer from the terrorists in our heartland) is a vulgarity that will go unpunished, since Herzog is a leader of the elitist untouchable Left. As an aside, it should be noted that the only virus in this situation is one who would use the term to tar other Jews for the crime  of living in their own land.

Similarly, the demonization of Donald Trump and his advisers by Jews is a grotesque mischaracterization, and yet it is to be expected, since Jewish liberals mirror their non-Jewish counterparts. All too often, liberal Jews choose misguided notions of naive, universalism to assuage guilt and self-loathing. But the repercussions of such a distorted viewpoint are exposed on a grand stage when Jewish groups make public pronouncements which have no basis in truth.

The Folly of the Right

As a religious Jew living in Israel, I have no expectations of any President when it comes to Israel. After all, when Israeli PM’s speak of “peace talks” and peace partners, what can one expect of any president, even a decent man?

The reaction of many right-wing Jews in America and abroad is equally un-Jewish. The distorted and silly association of Trump as a messiah of sorts. For some this takes the form of misguided expectations and a delusional desire to read prophetic import into his election. This is the path of the guru and the self-styled mystic. For others, they seek out supposed proofs to show that Trump’s ascension has some cosmic implications.

Both extremes are foreign to Jewish thought. The desire to demonize Trump, and the desire to deify him. From a Jewish perspective, Donald Trump is infinitely better than the nightmarish alternative. But less us not make more of it than we should. He will be much better for America. His mandate includes a promise to secure the border, fix the US economy, and deal with Muslim terror. While we certainly don’t know G-d’s ways on this matter, surely caution and discretion is the prudent path, since broad baseless predictions are not the Torah way.

The ADL represents one extreme, and they are a caricature of sorts. One expects of them what one expects from Haaretz or a Herzog. An un-Jewish anti-Torah perspective which mimics western liberalism. But the religious Jew and the proud self-identifying Jew must guard himself. Donald Trump is surely no devil and we should excoriate those leftist Jews who desire to paint him as such. But we should refrain from the irrational messianic inclinations, particularly in relation to Israel’s destiny, and the desire to want to see salvation in his presidency. Unlike America, our Jewish destiny is spelled out in the shema. And if we follow the formula, neither the current occupant in the White House nor the future one have any impact on what happens in Eretz Yisroel. They have democracy. We have Divine Intervention.

The left and the right: both groups are clueless, because both have a distorted framework. The former has relativism as their moral compass and so we shouldn’t wonder why the ethics of Sodom express themselves. But the religious Jew who shirks responsible analysis and resorts to populist pandering is also a tragedy. It’s all over Facebook. Good Jews reading into Trump and portraying him as something he is not. He is not the Messiah. From Israel’s perspective, we should expect disappointment from every president, since the worldview of even the most righteous of men, will invariably be different from the ideal image of an authentically Jewish State of Israel.

I wish all the best to President Elect Donald Trump, with the hope that he follows the moral path, directs America onto a path of decency and strength, treats Israel with respect and respects our sovereignty, and thus merits the eternal promise of Abraham. These are reasonable things to hope for. But we should not assume that our lofty expectations will be met.

In the meantime, there is merit in celebrating Hillary Clinton’s defeat. The occasion is certainly worthy of making a l’chaim or two with quality schnapps. In the absence of gallows for Hillary’s documented treason, which the Founding Fathers would have surely deemed appropriate for the occasion, here’s to the hope that she will soon be fitted with shackles and an ill fitting orange uniform.

Monsters Exist: Judaism’s Cognizance of Evil

“To most of us nothing is so invisible as an unpleasant truth. Though it is held before our eyes, pushed under our noses, rammed down our throats-we know it not.”-Eric Hoffer, “The Passionate State of Mind, and Other Aphorisms (1955)

“The soul that has conceived one wickedness, can nurse no good thereafter.”-Sophocles

The Moral Lies We Tell

Torah is truth personified. Yet some truths cannot be said. We recognize that lying is odious. Yet some lies are permitted, such as the lies we tell to shield people from embarrassment or to protect the innocent. When we occasionally lie to our children to insulate them from things that no child should know about, we do so with a clear conscience. Lies of omission, lies of calculation. All for the good of the child.

To assuage their fears when they are very young, we assure them that there are no such things as childhood monsters with horns, fur, and teeth. In time, we teach them that while there are indeed wild creatures in this world with teeth and hearty appetites, civilized societies don’t have predatory animals roaming about. But what about the true monsters in this world, the human monsters who exist? How do we broach these topics?

We don’t. We avoid the question of those products of nature and nurture who commit acts as terrifying as any imaginary construct. The developing child approaches us with their ever expanding brains and the consequential concerns. We counter their inquiries. They bring it to us. No normal rational parent introduces these concepts.

Children first have a notion of robbers, and this often becomes the first anxiety relating to the real world. The killers, the rapists, the human predators, these are extensions of the first fear. The man who enters the home. The man who creeps about in the night while we sleep. When this first fear is articulated, we evade difficult questions with comforting solutions, to assure them of their safety, and help them mature into functional people, without the handicap of excessive anxiety. We pray to G-d that they will never meet such people, neither in childhood nor their adult lives. We tell them lies. We protect them as best we can. But life can be ugly.

Monsters in Our Midst

“You gave me a present and now I am returning it to you.”-Hallel’s mother Rena Ariel; at her murdered daughter’s funeral

A teenage girl’s bedroom should be the safest place in the world for her, a haven of privacy and seclusion. And in the normal world, it usually is. But not in Kiryat Arba, where the Jewish populace is surrounded by Arab barbarians. Home may be a man’s castle in his mind, but unguarded castles are easily stormed. Even within the illusion of gated communities, and electronic fences, and security patrols, these measures are only as good as the people maintaining them.

And when the mythology of security is shattered it is devastating. An insane image, impossible to fathom: a child’s bedroom drenched in her own blood. Portrait of Hallel Yaffa Ariel’s bedroom on June 30, 2016, courtesy of a 17-year-old Arab monster named Muhammad Tarayrah, who climbed through her bedroom window and stabbed her to death as she slept.

May G-d avenge Hallel’s blood. And may Hashem teach the Arabs of Kiryat Arba, the environs, and of Greater Israel the justice of the ancient city of Shchem.

Outside the realm of hasbara fantasy, most Israelis are unarmed and vulnerable, and although many people oppose the draconian laws which permit only the elite to obtain a legal weapon to protect themselves, many are not even bothered. In such a society, the terminally enlightened concern themselves with “restraint,” the rights of murderers, and perpetuating the system of apprehending terrorists. Such a society breeds weakness, because it denies the common man the most basic right of all, the right to live. The kind of society where the worst of humankind terrorize the innocent.

Whether maimed or murdered, or damned to witness the former, when people encounter human monsters their lives are ruined. In the same way that no one who survived the Holocaust can truly ever be “normal,” how can one who saw his parents gunned down or stabbed to death or hacked to bits, ever know normalcy? Can a society forced to endure endless Arab atrocities even appreciate the concept of normalcy?

There is no dearth of monsters in Israel. Man-beasts who resemble man but act less human than carnivores. Men who cast away their humanity and choose the evil. Arabs nursed on ideations of suicide/homicide martyrdom and are given every opportunity to actualize their madness. Arabs who stab babies in cribs and detonate themselves in the marketplace to attain said “martyrdom” and the depraved fantasies of Islam’s sexual pathology. Those Arab “passion-plays”, obscene Arabs theater featuring school children who reenact the slaughter of Jews. And Arabs who stab teenage girls in their bedrooms.

And still the left and clueless governments continue to perpetuate the myth of good Arabs. Of reasonable Arabs. Of Arabs who want to live in peace with Jews. These same politicians have the nerve to attend Jewish funerals and pay shiva calls. They speak of protecting Jews and yet Jews are sitting ducks in Israel. On many roads, Jews are targets for Arab snipers or cinder blocks. Or firebombs to burn his wife and children to death or destroy a little girl’s face. Even crossing the street in Jerusalem or buying milk can become an ordeal, should the Arab knife frenzy return, or the Arabs rediscover their predilection for crushing Jews with automobiles.

The government never calls for vengeance. Social media outlets for military and government speak of the murdered “of blessed memory”, the tamest of words suggesting that a murdered Jew slipped away in the night from old age. “May G-d avenge her blood” is considered the refrain of extremists. Netanyahu blasts Abbas and the “PA” for incitement. If as the sages of old taught us, the wise man is one who foresees the future, then the fool pokes out his own eyes and sees nothing. What on G-d’s earth did Bibi think he would accomplish? Compel Abbas to repent?

Thank G-d the latest Arab terror attack in Jerusalem was thwarted. But in Israel, the positive is laced with negative. Averted bloodshed doesn’t preclude the possibility of future bloodshed. On the contrary. Israel’s ethic of “do-the-least harm was on display. The terrorist was apprehended rather than having his head blown off. He will sit for a time, and as sure as the day is long, he will be part of a future prisoner release, as one with ‘no blood on his hands’. And when he is released, he will attempt to rectify his failure.

In Israel, the uncompromising warrior is often treated like a fiend, or a lawless vigilante. A soldier such as Elor Azaria who kills an Arab terrorist is a hero, and any "Jewish" government that punishes such a warrior is reprehensible. I don't care if the creature was trussed up like a Thanksgiving Turkey. Or whether or not the ghoul had an explosive. A bullet to the head is the Jewish response. You can bet your last shekel that King David would have agreed. The witch-hunt against Azaria shrieks of Jewish degradation. Such actions are the antidote to Jewish funerals.

The double standard is jarring. The Left gets away with incitement to murder. Academics, journalists, activists, etc. They can say anything on twitter, Facebook or in a prominent paper. Military men can compare Israeli society to the society that birthed the disease of Nazism. Without any consequence. All during a “right-wing” government. Several months ago, the morally defective leftist editor of Walla News Roy Baharir Perl called for Arab terrorists to attack a “right-wing” Jewish concert. While this incitement was spread all over social media, our government tortured and imprisoned innocent Jews, on a witch-hunt to seek out supposed "Jewish terrorists". If Perl was a right-winger, he would have been hanging upside down within the hour while Shabak agents pummeled him.

A government who refuses to protect the Nation and imprisons those who do, sends a message that 1) Jewish lives aren’t valued. 2) Jewish deaths are acceptable if the threshold of “acceptable losses” doesn’t remarkably change the status quo. 3) that Rabin’s perverse notion of “karbanot” for an impossible peace is pragmatic. A government and a society which spurns the gift of Jewish strength and holds its fire has blood on its hands. Jewish history will recall these sins born of weakness and self-loathing, whose consequences destroy lives and those of the survivors. Orphans and widows and parents who bury their young. Of sons and daughters who shriek “Abba”, as their beloved father is interred into the earth. Of a mother who one day drove her girl to dance class, and the next day spills tears stands over her murdered corpse.

Given Israel’s torturous form of government where a hodgepodge of groups usually forms a coalition, the question remains: How precisely to coordinate and implement the proper framework for genuine change? There are no easy answers, since yesterday’s best tactics are not necessarily feasible and today's are useless. We need to use the best resources of our age. However, short of an undeserved miracle, nothing short of mass civil disobedience will make a dent in the government's armor. When society wakes up and takes to the streets in unprecedented numbers, we will see the possibility for change. Articles and videos will not bring about change, no matter how provocative, powerful, or reasoned. They may cause people to think. They may inspire people, but nothing short of authentic societal grassroots effort on the ground, can rehabilitate our collective Jewish soul.

The pernicious effect of havlaga can only be cleansed with Jewish strength and unrelenting power. There is no place on earth for mercy with the Arabs. Truly, they are the Am Lak-a nation that laps Jewish blood. The company of man-eating lions is preferable. When Arabs kill Jews it is perverse to celebrate our humanity with assurances that “we love while they hate”. Of course we are not like them. And that is precisely why the Torah demands that we destroy the wicked. The failure to do so, results in OUR slaughter. It is time to scream and demand that our government deals with the Arabs once and for all, before the next round of Jewish funerals.

Those terrible funerals. Those horrifying images of parents clinging and shrieking over the small inanimate bodies of their children all dressed in shrouds, awaiting the final journey. I prefer the funerals of my enemies. And every Arab funeral where the blood-crazed jinn celebrate their shahid is a G-d given opportunity to bomb them to smithereens. Whole villages of Arab terror can be obliterated this way.

When Moshiach arrives, he will be pressed to identify Amalek. I am convinced that this most noble of men (may we see the redemption in our times) will open his eyes wide with puzzlement: “Are you serious”, he will say? “They are all around you!”

“Pour out YOUR wrath against the nations, who know YOU not.” During the joy of the Passover seder, we call for vengeance against the evil nations. Some distorted modern commentaries try to minimize the significance of this powerful refrain in the Haggadah. It is significant and provocative. Unabashed and unapologetic. The wicked deserve punishment, and unlike petty revenge against a fellow Jew which is forbidden, this is something we long to see. Jewish outrage as a counter to apathy and indifference. Strength and dignity to repair the degradation, and self-respect for Torah and Halacha, rather than a systematic attempt to explain away halachic obligations. With such a mindset, we can finally deal with the Arabs.

We need more of the teachings of torat Moshe Rabbeinu, and less of the arrogance of Moshe Dayan. More of the glory of King David and less of David Ben Gurion’s Ghandi-esque havlaga. And truth be told, we need more of Shimon and Levi whose righteous zeal for their sister brought the city of Shchem to its knees. And lastly, we need more of Shimshon Hagibor, who terrified and terrorized the Philistine enemy.