Saving Israel

“Mass movements do not usually rise until the prevailing order has been discredited.” – (Eric Hoffer, “The True Believer”)

“The sky is falling.” –Chicken Little

In today’s era of social media activism, “likes” and “shares” are standards of truth. Judging from Facebook and the plethora of “hasbara warriors” on social media, it would be easy to identify the BDS movement as Israel’s greatest threat. Personally, I never kvetch about the BDS movement, the U.N.’s Jew-hatred, or the anti-Israel bias of the BBC. They are all transparent anti-Semites, and I expect their reactions the way I expect the rising sun. Don’t misunderstand me. I hate them with every fiber of my being. Yet I expect nothing less from them.

I do expect that a prime minister of Israel protect his people from the genocidal Arabs in our midst. I expect this from any prime minister, even one whose positions on most issues are contrary to mine. Protecting one’s people should transcend politics and religious ideology.  I believe that Benjamin Netanyahu’s policies of self-restraint and appeasement pose a far greater security threat to Israel than the most aggressive anti-Israel boycott movement. A leader’s failure to protect his citizens is the ultimate failure in leadership.

Israel’s political institutions present a greater threat to national safety than do the Arabs, since they negate the possibility of dealing with our enemies. Given strong leadership, Israel could easily defeat the Arabs. The problem stems from the system of government and its institutions, and the kinds of individuals who pursue political power. Being neither Jewish nor authentically democratic, Israel mirrors a totalitarianism system hiding behind a democratic façade. A genuine democracy provides people with a bill of rights. In Israel, the most law-abiding citizen has no such rights. The “right to bear arms” is surely a Jewish one, since it is a mitzvah to live-yet this proves difficult in the “Jewish State.” The most liberal state in America has stronger laws protecting the use of deadly force in self-defense than the ones we contend with in Israel. In Israel, one has to prove that a jagged rock hurled at one’s head presented a lethal threat.

I made Aliyah several years ago, DESPITE the reality of governance of Israel, not because of it. I came to Israel for reasons relating to my understanding of Halacha and hashkafa as it applies to residing in Israel and my perspective on Jewish governance in our age. I knew that living in a country so devoid of Torah influence, so detached from common sense would drive me to frustration. I knew it academically and I knew that living in Israel would only exacerbate and confirm it.

As I see it, the religious obligation is to try to change the system. The precise formula for doing so remains unclear to me and many other like-minded Jews, since the opportunity is historically unprecedented. Yet the obligation remains, theoretically at least, despite the seemingly impossible odds. What we see today masquerading as Torah Judaism, both in the charedi world and the various sections of the “religious Zionist” world, are false representations of Halachic Judaism, largely self-serving and perpetuating monolithic close-minded systems. Despite the growing demographic of religious Jews, disunity negates the possibility that religious Jews will drastically affect the country’s direction in the near future. Nor would an honest religious Jew desire to see a theocratic state run by many of these groups. Such a state would be “frum” in form only.

We live in a country where apparently, Jewish lives do not matter. The government tolerates the worst atrocities of Arabs against Jews. Every week we have an updated list of Jews murdered by all types of Arabs: Arab drivers, Arab “citizens,” Arab teenagers, and Arab “police officers.” The government response is as consistent and predictable as the growing Jewish body count. With every tragedy, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responds with eloquent speeches promising a strong response to the inevitable violence. Yet, the status quo persists. The die-hard Likudniks celebrate their leader, and rejoice at another an opportunity to mock the Likud’s hypocrisy on matters of national defense.

With every week, the truth becomes more glaring. The government will not protect us. It does not matter which party is in control. Not in war, and not in “peace.” It will not protect its soldiers, and our leaders will actually endanger them to satisfy the demands of the world who hate any manifestation of Jewish strength.

The only way to change the insanity is to expose it, by eschewing the role of “hasbara warrior,” and exposing the inept government of Israel and their cadre of career politicians. Self-respecting Jews should consider the following: rather than engaging in politically correct, respectable, hasbara by extolling all things great (real and imagined) in Israel, expose the ineptitude of Israel’s leaders and Israeli society in general, which sustains a dysfunctional status quo and prevents us from doing the most normal thing of all: LIVING!

Benjamin Netanyahu purports to carry on a legacy of strong nationalism. In truth, his policies today are far closer to Mapai’s tactical and ideological self-restraint, than anything exhibited by Avraham Stern, Trumpledor, Jabotinsky, David Raziel, and a thousand other Jewish heroes. The greatness of these men, none of them carbon copies of the other, relates to the fact that all were concerned with protecting Jews from Arab and British barbarism. There were no calculations of tolerable levels of murdered Jews. They bled when Jews bled. This is the greatest stain on Netanyahu’s leadership. Arab violence is a veritable virus, and by all accounts, it is getting worse. When a Jew makes a wrong turn in Jerusalem, he makes a deadly mistake.

Perhaps the most apparent example of our dysfunctional society relates to the culture of lawlessness that pervades Israel. Israel is country without a proper police force, or for that matter, even a cultural sense of what normal police officers should look like. The police are culled from societal defectives. Worse still, most Israelis do not even comprehend the problem, so we are nowhere near an age where we will see any change. How many examples do we require of police abuse and general ineptitude, which resulted in murdered Jews, either by Arab terrorists, or by homegrown Jewish sociopaths who thrive in a bully culture, which lacks a basic bill of rights?

A government, which refuses to protect us from local terror, from rioting Arab mobs with slings and knives, will never protect us from Iran. A normal country must be (if nothing else) self-respecting. A country, which believes it, has the right to exist and does not need to point out its technological achievements to assert itself. The Soviets had brilliant men and woman who accomplished much in the arts, medicine, technology, etc., yet despite their contributions, they were evil. Our reason for being, our moral Divine right is not contingent on talented Israelis.

Enough with the BDS hysterics! Netanyahu’s policies present a greater danger to Israel than the BDS movement. The endgame for both major parties and their aspiring counterparts in the small populist parties are the same. The only difference is that the Likud lulls the populace to sleep, while the prototypical left would hand the keys to Abbas overnight. The former deadens the will to fight back, since the illusion of a better option stifles any opportunity to rebel. The status quo is a temptress.

I ask all thoughtful Jews to assess Israel’s current inability to protect itself from the rampant Arab terror. Does anyone with common sense believe that Israel is technically unable to protect itself? It is very capable. It is unwilling. Moreover, because it lacks the will to fight the Arabs, our governments are complicit in the murder of Jews.

The system is sick. The supposed ability to change the system by working within the system is a lie. If they dislike your message, they will ban you. They will detain and torture you for fictitious crimes. The Knesset is a haven of the corrupt and the sick. Israel needs a new popular movement to expose everything that is wrong with Israel. The abuse of the innocent. The right solutions will arise when people ask the right questions.

The solution can only arise from a grassroots movement of the people. There are many problems in Israel. Foremost is the Arab problem, and it derives solely from Jewish weakness. The arrogant claim of Israeli strength is a lie. Our Prime Minister’s dominant trait is weakness. The same can be said for every politician who regurgitates tired populist talking points to retain their congregants.

It is not just about security. There are many economic and judicial abuses in Israel. All of it terrible, all of it so terribly unjewish. It stifles creativity and productivity and frequently punishes the innocent, and the vulnerable. Yet we cannot even begin to address these problems in the current climate, which denies Jews the most basic right of all. The ability to breathe and live without having your throat torn open by Arabs.

Tragically, we are nowhere near the point where the growth of such a movement is likely. Death has not personally affected enough people for them to see the truth. The time is not ripe. This does not justify inaction or apathy, or excuse us from fighting in some capacity. It simply reflects the blood pressure of the nation. Too many people are happy with “Israel” and proud of their country. Their Facebook statuses and posts reflect this. I see things differently. We need to be ashamed that a modern nation with the military capacity for protecting Jewish lives refuses to do so. We should be outraged that Jewish deaths are accepted, tolerated, and ignored, by governments who have a high tolerance for murdered Jews. We need to weep for the incarceration of innocent Jews whose “democratic” government treats them the way Jews were treated in Siberia not that long ago.

Proud of the government of Israel? Not I. I am ashamed that our leaders refuse to protect Jews from our Arab enemies. The most basic responsibility of even a flawed state of Israel would be in protecting Jewish lives. Since the government denies us the basic right to live, we need to use every effort to expose and discredit the internal players who ensure future Jewish tragedies. It starts with the charlatans of Likud who control the country today, who have long ago cast away any semblance of self-respect and Jewish identity, and who repeatedly choose an ill-qualified man to lead the nation. It starts with the masses who protect and support this inept party, who get away with the very same things that it accuses Labor of doing.

As long as the charade of a “Jewish State” as currently constituted exists, we will never have a truly Jewish one. Authentic Zionism must be based upon Torah. The alternative is a society of corruption, weakness, and eroded morals. The alternative is the Divine promise for failing to do so. A person who genuinely loves Eretz Yisroel and Am Yisrael must commit himself to exposing the deadly status-quo.

We need to attack the prevailing popular myths extolling Israel’s “morality” with facts that highlight real pressing problems which need to be rectified. Despite what many hasbara types would have you believe, self-restraint when dealing with enemies is not proof of one’s morality. It is evidence to the contrary. We need not worry about “airing our dirty laundry” for the world to see. The world sees a dirty Israel for all the wrong reasons. Let them condemn us for the right ones.

Beware The Guru Rabbis: Part II (video)

In this video, I elaborate on my recent condemnation of "Rabbi" Yosef Mizrachi, the latest wonder guru causing a Chillul Hashem.

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Beware The Guru "Rabbis"!

A version of this article can now be found in The Jewish Press: "Beware the Guru Rabbis"

Rabbinic ordination is not a license to say what you want. Nor is it a free ride to spout nonsense and lies, or exhibit baseless hatred for other Jews. When a known rav distorts Torah concepts, it only magnifies the Chillul Hashem, which in turn necessitates an even stronger response. Unfortunately, since authentic chochma is rare today, as is the public’s ability to discern it, the masses rarely appreciate genuine talmidei chachomim. Instead of heeding the call of Pirkei Avot and designating for themselves a rav, many choose for themselves flawed men who bottom feed on the ignorant. 

Too many Jews seek out the latest guru rabbis who periodically pop out of the rotten woodwork. Some years back, one Sephardic “rabbi” became popular with his patented shtick: playing on the emotional appeal of women who were having trouble conceiving. During his lectures, he promised secular women in the audience that if they agreed to start covering their hair, they would eventually conceive. The cultish, pagan spectacle of choosing this one obligation above all else, and using it as a fertility rite in a public forum, screams of distortions of Jewish thought, and presents a disturbingly immodest scene. This particular guru remains popular today. Such an individual is a symptom of an ignorant age, where Torah is plagued with superstition. In a learned society, such a man would be exposed, despite the trappings of his garb and “simanim” which add to the supposed authenticity.

Rabbi Yosef Mizrachi is the latest “wonder rabbi” on the magical kiruv circuit, and his popular videos inundate the internet. Like all Jewish gurus, he specializes in glib, general statements pertaining to some of the most intricate concepts in Judaism. Mizrachi believes that he knows it all, and he presents complicated issues to simple-minded people as if they were aleph bet. He focuses on controversial, halachically problematic ideas, such as the popular distorted perception of Kabbalah as magic, the purported actions of alleged kabbalists, belief in reincarnation, etc.  Gilgul is particularly critical in his magical world-view, since it forms the spine of his approach to s’char v’onesh. He is popular in chareidi Sephardi circles, but has broad based support among English speaking Ashkenazim in the frum world. 

More importantly, his teachings are reprehensible. It is not just about the recent outcry over his obscene holocaust statements, where he reported that the Nazis murdered fewer than one million halachic Jews. A diligent study of his career shows a history of dangerous teachings, which should have made him a pariah long ago. He has earned our unrelenting ire.

In the first video of  his that I ever subjected myself to, he was lecturing the audience about a supposed critical issue in Judaism, the concept of gilgul, better known as reincarnation, which appears nowhere in Tanach, Talmud, or Midrash, yet the superstitious treat it as a fundamental belief. His arrogance was apparent when he denigrated those who quote Saadya Gaon as a proof against the belief, since Rasag rejected the idea as stupidity in his classic treatise, “Beliefs and Opinions”. What was even more frightening was Mizrachi’s supposed proof for the existence of gilgul. He cited an example of an innocent baby dying, and saw this as proof of gilgul, since G-d’s justice would never allow such a thing.  The sheer arrogance of someone who creates a ridiculous “proof” to explain the age-old question of tsaddik v’ra lo which the greatest gaonim, rishonim, and acharonim could not answer. Somehow, Mizrachi discovered an answer to this greatest of perplexities by resorting to gilgul, which very likely was taken from pagan culture! It seems unlikely that Saadya Gaon would have been unaware of the concept if it existed or was fundamental to Jewish belief. To suggest otherwise is an absurdity.

Most people are aware of the recent outcry, when video footage surfaced where Mizrachi questioned the fact that 6 million Jews died in the holocaust, and asserted that fewer than 1 million Jews were murdered. Not only did he disgrace the legacy of 6 ½ million kedoshim murdered by Amalek, in doing so, he empowered the holocaust deniers of the world with evidence of a “rabbi’s” holocaust denial. His foolish estimate was based on his distorted, non-scholarly unfounded estimates of assimilation in Europe which he surmised meant that most of the 6 million would not have ben halachically Jewish. No academic study, no documentation has ever claimed likewise. No normal Jew, religious or otherwise would ever utter such perversity. To engage with this non-scholar would be akin to arguing with the holocaust denying David Irving.

How to Recognize a Guru

There are signs to identify a “guru.”

• The existence of a cult following comprised of the unlearned, and the psychologically troubled who know little if anything of Torah.
• The complex network enabling the mass distribution and marketing of the guru’s lectures in the form of videos, audio. Websites featuring an impossible number of lectures expose the guru’s unrelenting speaking tours to disseminate his message.
• The guru’s lectures invariably focus on questionable problematic notions that have become popular in Judaism, such as gilgul (reincarnation), magical segulos, demons, etc. The guru shares childish notions about complex Jewish subjects and makes outrageous generalizations that have no basic in Torah thought.
• Beneath the veneer of the sacred, one notices an obsession with sexuality, and one hears crude statements that no genuine man of Torah would utter. Many of these self-appointed prophets of morality in "the Torah camp" are obsessed with sex. The irony is that in their pursuit of the sacred, their sexual obsession exposes a sex-preoccupied personality. The most private issues and human challenges are delivered with frankness and simplicity that are undignified. Things best discussed with one's rabbi or religious mentor are thrown in our faces, in all their crudeness. It begs the question: Who are the perverts?
• The guru often displays a callous nature, and makes sweeping generalizations, which purport to understand all nuances of Divine justice. The sins (real or imagined) of the secular are emphasized, whereas outrages that occur in frum society (of which there are no dearth of) are ignored.

Mizrachi meets many of these criteria. One hears the frequent claims of his mass kiruv efforts to justify his legitimacy; claims which fall deaf on my ears. Kiruv? If a thousand pogo-ing mantra-spouting nutcases claim that a certain individual turned them into baalei teshuvah, I consider them AS religious as any group of inmates in an asylum. A kipah is hardly indicative of frumkeit. The same pertains to their teacher. This is not Jewish outreach. This is simply another version of being “off the derech.”

These gurus are a symptom of a sick age, where people are so detached from torah that they will latch onto anything. Magic men wear the cloak of Torah, but they are detached from chochmah. Moreover, their obsession with superstition show that they are as influenced by goyish culture as those they ridicule.

Mizrachis videos are a treasure chest of filth, including such outrageous statements as the following. Fortunately, many people are downloading and saving these videos, before they are removed from the internet. One could spend years dissecting the filth, but some of the more repugnant ones include the following:

• His now infamous claim that the Nazis (yemach shmo) murdered fewer than 1 million halachic Jews.
• His comparing “non-virgin women” to an opened bottle of coke. What Rabbi speaks this way?
• His disgraceful claim that Down syndrome children as well as those with autism are reincarnated spirits receiving punishment for a previous life.
• His perverse claim that religious woman hid their nakedness moments before the Nazis sent them to the furnaces, whereas the irreligious were immodest in the moment before their extermination. (When I saw this video, I nearly lost my mind.) What sick mind could see these terrible photos and even contemplate, let alone articulate, such a lunatic theory?  When I saw this footage, it crystalized for me the need to write an article.

Aseh l’chah rav. Chazal maintained that any reasonably intelligent, rational person with some knowledge of Torah had the ability to choose for himself a proper Rav. One who epitomizes Torah and chesed. The diligent Jew should ensure that they have a proper teacher of torah rather than a showman pop star who appeals to simpletons. Moreover, if one’s rabbi is obsessed with sex, sheidim, reincarnated spirits, or the supposed immodesty of Jewish korbanot ready to be gassed to death, find another rabbi. If the first thing your chosen rav finds imperative to articulate to the secular is not the knowledge of Hashem, ahavat yisroel, or chesed, but rather a hair covering (whose side benefit magically assists infertile women!) something is wrong with him. Any goyish shaman can do likewise with the same degree of success. The placebo effect works the same for all pagans. 

In the case of Mizrachi, thanks to YouTube, Facebook, and the general popularity of social media, his perverse teachings will outlast all of us. The essence of Chillul Hashem personified; since his lectures are now eternally archived in MP4 format. There is no way to undo his damage, save for an unrelenting campaign to expose him and others who share similar beliefs. 

In closing, I post one final video, which I just watched today. Outrageous and unbelievable. I watched the video from a Facebook page called “Exposing “Rabbi” Yosef Mizrachi.” Several of the links above connect to the corresponding YouTube channel. In this particular video, Mizrachi states that “secular” Israeli soldiers who die in combat have no share in the world to come. Moreover, he cites halachically prohibited séances as a proof! Evidently, he is unaware of the Halacha that a Jew who is murdered for being a Jew dies Al Kiddush Hashem. Not to mention that one who dies protecting Jews (even for a flawed army run by men who are far from Torah) is engaged in one of the greatest mitzvoth. The Chazon Ish stated clearly that most of the unaffiliated Jews of our times clearly fall under the category of “captured babies” rather than willful sinners. Yet Mizrachi in his arrogant hatred sees fit to damn them all to his goyish notion of hell. 

I have a message for Mizrachi’s apologists who insist that his words were taken out of context. There is no context to justify his pernicious views. His teachings are sick, and they expose a damaged soul. Those who defend such a man, whether overtly, or with the “devil’s advocate” method of apologetics and the undeserved “benefit of the doubt” say much about themselves. Let them do their research, and it will become evident that he really is THAT bad. In fact, he is worse. The fact that I need to write these things is perhaps the most tragic thing of all.

Return of the Hunt: Part II

“Justice, justice, shall you pursue, that you thrive and occupy the land that the L-rd your G-d is giving you. (Deuteronomy 16:20) JPS Hebrew-English Tanakh

Duma. Once upon a time, my only association with this unusual word was from a work of horror fiction from American novelist, Stephen King, Duma Key. That association is gone forever. Non-fiction replaces fiction. Other horrors, true nightmares in every sense of the word, now come to mind. The Arab town of Duma. Some words transcend a specific time, place, or geological location. Deir Yassin was one such place. Duma will become another. It will conjure up a terrible period in Jewish history. (Bear with me, sane reader. I have not lost my mind.)

Duma was a tragedy, but not for the reasons the Jewish liberal press would have you believe. There was no crime against Arabs, neither arson nor murder. The tragedy of Duma was in the form of a blood libel against true Jewish Maccabees, in the same manner that leftists once demonized good Jews for the murder of Arlosorov, and perpetuated the Arab myth of Jewish savagery in the murderous Arab town of Deir Yassin. 

Duma will conjure the worst examples of Jews committing grave injustices against other Jews. It will come to symbolize the true face of Jewish extremism. A face comprised of weak, evil, incompetent politicians who readily set their faceless, nameless, Shabbak thugs (who waste energy and resources that can be used to crush Arab terror!) to beat innocent Jewish children in dark rooms where only the walls hear the screams of forced confessions. Long ago, the clever Arabs discovered that leftist Jews would blame Jews when Arabs kill each other. Israel’s consistent knee-jerk reaction to such incidents have scandalized Israel’s leadership since the state’s inception. 

The second part of this terrible story involves the inevitable barbarism, which follows these blood libels. Some incidents in our modern history personify the willingness of Israeli leftists to brutalize other Jews. The Altalena was the deliberate slaughter of innocent Jewish warriors, orchestrated by Ben Gurion, and carried out in large measure by Rabin. In recent years, Yassamnikim thugs perpetrated a pogrom against helpless, defenseless Jews in Amona. Duma is the latest chapter. The common denominator is that the government always gets away with it.

Once again, the left took the lies of the Arab narrative of Duma (much like Deir Yassin long ago), and perpetrated a blood libel. In bold-faced type, they wrote the story: “Extremist Jews” set fire and murder Arabs in the Arab village of Duma. No evidence? The Shabak does not care.

The true synopsis of Duma: Arabs murder other Arabs during an ongoing war between rival families, and blame it on Jewish “settlers.” A weak criminal government uses the incident to perpetuate the story of Jewish extremism, to harass those deemed “Jewish extremists.” They utilize the brutal administrative detention to imprison and torture their targets. No one hears from them for weeks and months. They endure unimaginable horror and are made to confess.

Administrative detention: a euphemism for the abuse of Jews by Israel’s leaders where they detain Jews without cause for indefinite periods. The British once used this barbaric measure to punish Jewish heroes. Years ago, Israel’s leaders used it to incarcerate the gibor of our age, Rabbi Meir Kahane (may G-d avenge his blood.)Today, the Likud sinks even lower in their own filth by abusing this primitive, goyish, immoral act to target their Jewish detractors. It is the perfect vehicle for abuse, and contrary to the most rudimentary aspects of halachic justice. They do not require evidence of a crime. They merely have to crush your bones until you confess to one.

Several months ago, I wrote an article in The Jewish Press about this insidious crime (Return of the Hunt). More than four months have passed and the abomination continues. Thanks to the efforts of people like Attorney Itamar Ben Gvir who represents several of the incarcerated Duma “suspects,” we are now privy to details of horrific Shabak tortures against Jews ranging from physical beatings on vulnerable, sensitive spots on the body, sensory and sleep deprivation, and even sexual assault, possibly including sodomy. (ISA ‘sexually harassed’ Duma suspect.) If this doesn’t make you want to storm the barricades, nothing will.

(I would be remiss if I failed to mention the legal group HONENU who defend Jewish heroes from Israel’s repressive judicial process. They are also involved in this case, advocating for immediate justice.)

Several days ago, I expressed my concern and certainty that the Shabak was sexually assaulting these young men, since the Shabak needed to do something so terrible to them that would make them reticent to speak about it. Ben Gvir’s statements confirmed what I suspected to be true. I fear that we may never know the full extent of such actions.

Many leftists celebrate the imprisonment of kipah wearing, unruly “hilltop youth” with peyot. Yet the most abominable silence comes from Likudniks who will defend Bibi to their grave. Then we have the quislings of the respectable Habayit Hayehudi. Several months back, Habayit’s Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked jumped onto the bandwagon with their own perspective, which displayed that the loyalist “religious parties” take a back seat to no one when it comes to repugnant positions. The words “capital punishment” were thrown about. For those who hoped that he might have done teshuva, Bennett recently came out with a statement in support of the Shabak’s monstrous acts. It shows him to be a cruel and foolish man, more interested in Arab rights than Jewish lives. Those who worship these leaders should understand that Mapai once used these same KGB tactics against Bibi’s supposed ideological forebears.

A man cannot incriminate himself: a basic halachic concept. The Torah understood the dangers of forced confessions. Most liberal Jews misunderstand the Torah’s strict criteria for Halachic guilt. They view it through the distortion of an intellectual cataract, which they see as being the Torah’s reticence to administer harsh punishments for real crimes. How mistaken they are. The Torah intended to prevent a travesty to the Torah’s ideal of justice. To kill an innocent man is as obscene as the notion of a guilty man going free. It matters little even with the strict judicial criteria for say capital punishment, Jewish society had other measures to ensure that probable offenders were punished adequately while still retaining the halachic criteria. 

The Torah standards follow the reality of human nature and psychology. There is a breaking point for everyone, including the strongest of men. Evil men have always used strong-arm tactics to break people. The Shabak will do anything to a kipah wearing, peyot swinging “hilltop youth” to pin a crime on them. They will ignore Arab incitement and actual violence, but wage warfare to uncover the origins of supposed “price tag” attacks. Democracy for Arabs. Gestapo tactics for obstinate idealistic Jews. If anyone of these detainees “confessed”, it is because the Shabak broke their spirits, not to mention their bodies. 

Hasbara: The Backdrop of the Problem

One of the main impediments to exposing and eradicating the abuses of Israeli government towards other Jews is the modern day notion of public relations for Israel. Some advocates for Israel are terrified of highlighting examples of rampant institutional corruption in Israel, which harms the public in all spheres of life from economics to security. Others support such brutal measures either out of a sense of ideological commitment to their leaders and parties, or by actual approval of such measures against Jews.

Contemporary hasbara (PR) efforts are pandering, patronizing, and self- aggrandizing. They are often untrue or exaggerated. Frequently they celebrate things Torah observant Jews should not celebrate. There is a place for a proper, respectable form of hasbara. Current expressions do not meet the criteria for dignified hasbara.

One of the more popular ones is the oft mentioned, “Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East…..” Surely the most popular hasbara slogan among liberal Jews. From a Torah perspective, western democracy cannot be celebrated since all systems of government, including the best of them, cannot reach the theoretical perfection that only a truly Torah oriented society can provide. Yet in the absence of such a system, a flawed democracy is preferable to a government based upon the principles of Sodom. If it were so, such egregious abuses of personal liberty would never occur.

The fact that Tel Aviv is a gay mecca in the Middle East does not mean Israel is democratic. It means that Tel Aviv is a gay mecca. It means that while Sodom is gone, the legacy of Sodom and Gomorrah permeates the country. Neither high tech technology, nor Tel Aviv’s reputation for being a gay Middle Eastern mecca is our reason for being. The latter is a reason for not being. Israel’s democracy is a veneer. A tyranny with voting booths remains a haven of corruption. Even in the worst societies, there were often veneers of equality. Yet no one likes to vote at the other end of a shotgun.

Do you live in a democracy? If the answer to even one question is yes, then you do not live in a democracy.

• Does your government ban a popular Jewish party because they speak truths relating to the Arabs of Israel?
• Do the leaders of your country detain Jews for months without any charges and denying them legal representation? 
• Do government agents beat the living pulp out of such detainees? 
• Does the judicial arm of said country approve of and permit such abusive tactics while the same country demands that her doctors heal and feed Arab murderers? 
• Has your country recently eliminated an Arab who brutally murdered Jews in his youth, was captured by Israel and then released him to kill again? If the answer is YES, then you live in an asylum? 
• Do the military/police beat and bludgeon Jews but skirt any legal consequences?

As I have noted before, if the Shabak had any evidence against any of the detainees they would have charged them long ago. There is no way on earth that a group of young untrained men could fool Israel’s world-class forensics. They would need the equivalent knowledge of the experts to fool them. The idea is absurd. You can be certain that Israel used every modern tool to uncover evidence of wrongdoing. The only logical explanation is that they are trying to pin a crime on innocent Jews.

Netanyahu has the nerve to speak of Jewish extremism. He is the very model of a Jewish extremist, a man who believes himself King, and has no cognizance of a Creator. If he did, he could never permit such abuses against other Jews. 

One day, good men will recount the true story of our internal Jewish enemies. The tale of perfidy will make Ben Hecht’s famous entry, a mere chapter in a larger encyclopedia of injustice. The Likud will sit alongside Labor in the annals of Jewish criminality. In addition to the sin of spilled Jewish blood, the Likud will have to answer for the brutal terrorizing of Jews, which we now know included sexual assault. Fellow Jews, speak loudly and fearlessly on behalf of our modern day Maccabees. Our battered brothers cannot scream out for themselves. 

A final message to our leaders who are responsible for detaining and abusing our heroic Jewish brothers. And it starts with Netanyahu at the top: Release these heroic prisoners of Zion immediately. G-d will not forgive this enduring crime against the Jewish people. There will be justice.