Showing posts with label Scapegoat. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Scapegoat. Show all posts

April 23, 2022

Jude in America

Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called "Jude in America."
What was shocking was that despite the professional environment, this was a climate where they actually felt “safe” expressing their Antisemitism and hate. In this case, these high-level, powerful, “educated” people working in the heart of our nation’s capital should know better, much better than to harass someone because she is a Jew, an Israeli, a woman or all three.
It is unfortunate that there still are individuals that hate out there: that lash out questioning our faith, our people, and our intentions. Good people see the common humanity and good in others, and bad people are infatuated with imaginary intolerable differences, especially of minorities, and enjoy scapegoating them, goading others to join their hate, and even violently preying on them.

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

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May 30, 2021

The UNHRC is a Bloody Joke

Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called "The UNHRC is a Bloody Joke."
While the UNHRC has an incredibly important and noble mission to promote and protect human rights around the world, in reality, the UNHRC, conducts itself like its anti-Semitic parent, the United Nations (UN) which regularly condemns Israel at every turn of world events. Made up of a variety of despots, dictators, terrorists, and rotten-to-the core human rights violators, the UNHRC refuses to condemn the incessant attacks and terrorism against Israel, but rather they defend those that want to “throw the Jews into the sea” and in turn use anti-Semitic attacks on Israel to hide their own fraud, waste, abuse, and corruption at home.
Unfortunately, while the UN “Commission” on Human Rights was replaced primarily in name only by a UN Human Rights “Council,” nothing much else changed in their wanton display of corruption, anti-Semitism, and human rights violations. To this day, the leaders of these countries use Israel and the Jews as an object of hatred and for persecution to deflect and hide the repression and atrocities that they routinely and wantonly do to their very own people.

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

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March 21, 2021

Sheep No More

Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called, Sheep No More

In thinking about sacrifices as animal substitution for consequences to man, we can also reverse this logic to explore what sacrifices can teach us about consequences to man in their relationship to the Jewish people. In this particular case, I am thinking about Jewish responses to those who desire to be our friends and want to build kind and productive relationships with us or the opposite, to our enemies, who seek to persecute, attack us, and make the Jews their korban, victims.
In short, traditional korbanot in the Temple can teach us not only about how animals can substitute for people in our sacrifices to G-d for thanksgiving, communion, and acknowledging of consequences and teshuva (repentance) for our wrongdoing, but also how the Jewish people can relate to the nations of the world in everything from full peace, positive engagement, acts of guilt and sin against us, and even full-fledged war. Sacrifices teach us that while peace is always the desired state and fiery war a last resort in our self-defense and preservation, we know that after thousands of years of anti-Semitism, persecution, and Holocaust, we are no longer the sacrificial lamb on anyone’s Temple altar.

(Source Photo: Pixabay Free Image)

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July 17, 2018

From Mouth To Friendship

So it's amazing how people are so willing to throw away friendship. 

They get angry about something having nothing even to do with you.

They say things they probably don't even mean, and in turn you may say things you don't even mean. 

Often you say things just to bring the other person to their senses. 

But sometimes they don't come to their senses. 

They need to let out on someone and you're the convenient scapegoat. 

Before you know it, they throw your friendship under a bus. 

Personally, I'm not one to make friends that easily or quickly--there needs to be some real chemistry and the building of trust--but then I am one who is an eternally loyal friend. 

Yet, I see others, they kiss and hug and say you're like family, but then when they get angry, oh boy, you are gone like the wind. 

Maybe that's not what real friendship is. 

To me, friendship surpasses dumb deeds and words and stupid fights, it's about being there through thick and thin.

Take the false teeth out and put some permanent ones in--they last much longer. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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August 14, 2017

A Very Dirty Swiss Hotel

This was one of the anti-Semitic signs posted at the Aparthaus Paradies hotel in Switzerland:
"To our Jewish Guests
Women, Men and Children
Please take a shower before you go swimming and although after swimming.
If you break the rules, I'm forced to close the swimming pool to you.
Thank you for understanding: Ruth Thomann"
Wow, more blatant anti-Semitism in Europe.

What a darn shame that after only 72 years since Hitler (may his evil name be erased) that this disgusting hatred of Jews rears its ugly head again.

- What killing 6,000,000 Jews in the Holocaust wasn't enough for you???

- Or maybe you preferred the blood libels, pogroms, Crusades, Spanish Inquisition, auto-da-fe, and expulsions of Jews???

Good people of Europe and their elected governments: Please speak out and shut down this sick, hateful hotel establishment. 

Do you believe in G-d?  Do you think he's watching what you do now? 

Europe and the rest of the world--wake up and cure what ails you--it's not the Jews, but the evil in your bigoted hearts. 

(Source Photo: Facebook)
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May 13, 2017

Love For Every Reason

So in synagogue, there was a bat-mitzvah today.

And the 12-year old girl spoke to the congregation. 

She quoted from Rabbi Nachman of Breslov and said:


"If you can hate for no reason, 
then why not love for no reason."

This seemed like a very smart idea to me--we have a choice between hate and love, so why not choose love!

Later at the luncheon after services, I sat and made a new friend with this very nice person who happened to be an Evangelical Christian preacher. 

I asked about his faith and learned more about the Evangelical belief in the strict words of the Old Testament/Torah. 

This wonderful man had taught in a Jewish school in South America, been to the Holy Land, was friends with our Rabbi, and spoke so highly of the Jewish People, Israel, and his faith in G-d. 

I asked about the differences from his perspective between the different sects of Christianity, and he told me a bit of the history of the movements.

But what was also really interesting was that in contrast to the Evangelical's strong support for Israel, he explained that there still to this day was some anti-Semitic remnants in the Catholic Church, even though the Pope, himself, has called it "wrong and unjust"

I asked why some still then blame the Jews for the murder of Jesus (who was Jewish himself), when it was the Romans that actually tortured and killed him and also, why the historical animus to the Jews if Jesus died for the sins of all mankind and this was his divine mission?

He explained that it was wrong and unfair, and that it was misguided scapegoat thinking that "someone had to take the blame."

He then went on to tell me about this great shirt that he liked that had a chart of all the various nation empires of the world that had risen against the Jewish people (from the Egyptians to the Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, and Nazi's) and next to each one it said, GONE!  And then it said, Iran with a TBD--Yep! 

And even Venezuela's, hateful Hugo Chavez, who in 2009 said, "I want to condemn from the bottom of my soul, from the bottom of my guts, damn you State of Israel," and then by 2013 he was dead from stomach (gut) cancer!

So from their day until ours, the One G-d of Hosts continues to looks after Israel and manages the destiny of man--and this is evident throughout the Bible and the prophecies. 

I was so impressed how he was emphatic about the strong Judeo-Christian shared values, beliefs, and faith and that this was the true future for Christianity.

It was understood from the conversation that in all religions, we share more in love of G-d and of each other, and in doing good then in hate, bias, bigotry, and discrimination...and together, we can make it a better world. 

Together, love can conquer. ;-)

(Source Photo: Twitter)
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March 22, 2017

UN Is Plagued With JEWPHOBIA


IT'S AN EPIDEMIC AT THE UNITED NATIONS.

It's a most evil disease of the mind, body, and soul. 

And it's called--Jewphobia!

And it's taken many forms throughout history...

- Hateful Anti-Israel Resolutions

- Terrorism

- Wars

- Boycotts, Divestitures, and Sanctions

- Genocidal Holocaust

- Death Camps

- Crematoria

- Gas Chambers

- Forced Labor

- Human Medical Experiments

- Kristillnacht

- Iron Curtains

- Persecutions

- Pogroms

- Discrimination

- Blood Libels

- Torture Chambers

- Inquisition

- Expulsions

- Occupations

- Destruction of the Temple (2x)

- Plundering

- Masacres

- Sieges

- Infanticide

- Slavery

WHEN IS THE HATE AND JEWPHOBIA GOING TO STOP?

(Source Graphic: Andy Blumenthal with source background photo here)
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January 11, 2017

Standing With Our Ally, Israel



Everyone knows we need to stand with Israel, our ally and friend, and the Holy Land!

Enjoy the video by Diamond and Silk!
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September 20, 2016

United Nations UNjust

Now I understand what the UN (as in United Nations) really stands for...

It's predominantly UNjust and corrupt!

The United Nations Secretary once again today called out Israel for it's "occupation that grinds into its 50th year."

This builds on the other 2,342 times that the UN General Assembly has called out this "occupation" of land that Israel acquired when it's neighbors (Egypt, Jordan, and Syria) went to war against it in 1967 (after the prior wars of annihilation against Israel in 1948 and 1956).  

And yet as of June 2015, the UN Human Rights Council has condemned Israel 61 times--more than all other nations on this planet combined!

It's not only UNjust and hypocritical, but underlying it is the core of anti-Semitism for this body that is supposed to be based on equal rights, self-determination, and universal peace.

Ultimately, it's not an occupation that the UN is trying to deal with, but a preoccupation to deflect how wholly ineffective it is in every genuine major conflict in the world.  

Here are just some examples of the gross inaction by the esteemed UN when it comes to these occupations/militarizations (again, just to name a few):

1) Russia in Georgia and Ukraine

2) China in the South China Sea

3) India in Kashmir

4) Turkey in Cyprus

Moreover, just to put all this in perspective, where is the UN (or the prior League of Nations or other world leadership) when it comes to the hosts of genocides and ethnic cleansing estimates at below: (and this list doesn't even include the horrifying death tolls from the countless unjust wars, dictatorships, political unrest, purges, repressions and slavery):

Nazi Holocaust 11.0M

Ukraine 4.6M

Cambodia 2.1M

Bangladesh 1.7M

Armenia 1.1M

Rwanda 1.2M

Indian Partition .6M

Syria .5M

Greek .5M

Brazil .4M

Croatia .4M

Darfur .3M

Cambodia .2M

Pogroms .1M

It seems like the United Nations, if in the habit of shameful occupation name-calling and prejudiced resolutions, has missed the boat on millions being slaughtered and occupied around the world. 

Maybe it's time for the UN to stop picking on the minority, Jewish people (.2% of the world's population and with the Holy Land state the size of New Jersey), and start dealing with the real big problems in this world or maybe they just can't handle that. 

(Source Photo: here with attribution to United Nations)

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January 29, 2016

Responding To Foolish Holocaust Denial

So I just watched a video where the radical Muslim speaker tries to explain how it is not the Earth that rotates around the Sun, but rather how really the Earth is fixed in space, and it is the Sun which rotates around it. 

His logic and proofs include things like the following:

- If the Earth was really moving, and you tried to fly to China, the plane shouldn't have to move, since China would just come to the plane. 

- Also, if the Earth was moving in the same direction as the plane, and you were flying to China, then you would never get there, because you'd just be chasing a moving China. 

This is how people's inner darkness, ignorance, and evil can attempt to extinguish the light. 

Similarly, this past week, the "leader" of Iran took the opportunity on International Holocaust Remembrance Day (Jan. 27)--of all days --to once again express his vile denial of the Holocaust.

Khamenei declaring: "It's not clear if the Holocaust is a reality or not."

And calling for the "dear people of Iran" to "stand up to the ignorance" of the West.

Wow, who is calling whom ignorant and trying to brainwash the good people of Iran. 

It's funny, but there are so many nice people from Iran that I've had the opportunity to meet and befriend, and one of them is an elderly man who is a swimming buddy of mine-- and he is such a nice person--I really enjoy talking with him (despite some of our differences of opinion). 

The point is that when the leadership is corrupt, evil, and insecure, then they try to extinguish the good in the masses of the people, so that the people stay in the dark, blinded by scare tactics, scapegoats, and hatred--this is how they stay in power

When it comes to Holocaust denial though, I think this is definitely going way too far, and I imagine the souls of the Six Million righteous who perished in the Holocaust--under the worst genocide the world has ever known--that they are watching and they are listening. 

And Khamenei and his cohorts of evil doers will most certainly have to contend with all these very real martyred righteous souls. 

So in their warped ignorance, foolishness, and hatred--where the sun rotates around the earth and with utter darkness they attempt to extinguish the light of the good people--I imagine with the strongest and most vivid of images and sounds that certainly Heaven does not await them...but a very fiery Hell of their own making indeed. 

(Source Photo: here with attribution to slgckgc)
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October 18, 2015

The United Nations -- As Silent As It Is Anti-Semitic


Another truly lovely (not) rally of hatred and violence by our "peace partners" in the Middle East. 

Check out the size of this guys' butcher knives for killing Jews with. 


Where is the United Nations? 


According to the UN Charter, the #1 purpose for its existence is: "To maintain international peace and security." 


But of the 193 member countries in the United Nations--more than a quarter of them--50 are majority-Muslim nations, comprising 1.6 billion people! 


But there is only 1 Jewish Country, Israel, the size of New Jersey


Knowing the historical anti-Semitism of the UN, it's probably about time for another anti-Israel resolution


Incredibly, there were 20 of these just last year alone (versus 3 on the rest of the world)!


Yet, the United Nations is consistently deadly silent in the daily face of:


- Knifings, 

- Shootings, 
- Bombings, 
- Abductions, 
- Terrorizing, 
- Destruction of Jewish holy sites and places of worship, and 
- Threats of annihilation to Jews. 

Only 70 years since the Holocaust wiped 6 million Jews--a sick and evil genocide of a full third of the world's Jewish population--blind hatred, discrimination, and violence against Jews is okay by UN standards. 


What a wholesome failure and disgrace on the United Nations--a body that is supposed to represent peace, security, and justice.


Where is the peace, security, and justice from the UN for the small, minority Jewish people, numbering just 14 million men, women, and children?


The United Nations--as silent as it is Anti-Semitic. ;-)

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August 29, 2014

From Holocaust To Nation State

This is a really beautiful representation of the historical developments of the Jewish nation.

Where the Jewish people went from the fiery depths of the Holocaust to the rise of a modern democratic nation state of Israel. 

We are the same sons and daughters of Israel, but no longer exiled from the Holy Land and paraded like sheep to the slaughter from the hate mongers de jour. 

On the right are represented generations, who with the rise of every crazy demagogue that needed to blame their religious, political, social, and economic problems on a scapegoat, the Jewish people suffered at their bloody hands, discriminatory expropriation and expulsion, tax and torture, rape, pogrom, and slaughter.

On the left are shown the Jews from a free democratic State of Israel who are proud to seek a life of peace and security from persecution and who can chart their own course for their people and be a light unto nations for doing what is right and moral and contributing to the world in every significant development and advance of humankind. 

As the Jews went from slavery to freedom many thousands of years ago with the Exodus from Egypt and settlement of the land of Israel, so too today, we can count on the miraculous transition from exile to promised homeland and from persecution to self-determination. ;-)

(Source Photo: here with attribution to Eliyokim Cohen)
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April 5, 2011

Beyond The Blame Game


Blame-game



It's funny, when things go well everyone seemingly wants to step up and take the credit, but when things go badly, therein starts the blame game.


Harvard Business Review (April 2011) presents three categories of people that react dysfunctionally to failure (to which it attributes the responses of 70% of the U.S. population!)


- Blame Others: look for someone to scapegoat, so they don't have to take responsibility themselves.


- Blame Yourself: judge yourself overly harshly or imagine failure where none exist.


- Deny Blame: "deny that failure has occurred or deny their own role in it."


A fourth category, I believe is when people:


- Blame G-d: they ask "why me?" somehow implying an unfairness, injustice, or randomness in the failure.


In all these reactions to failure, there are in my opinion a number of mistakes being made and ways to improve upon them:


- Focus - Instead of concentration on mission success, people may erroneously overemphasize attribution. However, rather than worry about who to blame, think about how to "right the ship;" there are people in the field depending on you!

- Balance - Blaming implies that you are focused on the failure, but usually there are some things that were done right and some things that were done wrong. There is usually more of a balance to every situation that blame does not lend itself to.

- Ownership - When we blame others, G-d, or even ourselves, we basically are throwing up our hands and abrogating control of the situation, when instead we need to take appropriate levels of responsibility and accountability for what we did and did not do (or as they say "sins of commission" and "sins of omission").

-
Learning - Blame is a dead-end--it leads to hard feelings and possibly even despair. The way out is to acknowledge mistakes usually to degrees by all involved and LEARN FROM THEM. A failure can be turned into opportunities for future success, but learning valuable lessons on how to do things better the next time around.

To be honest, we all make mistakes.

In fact, I would worry about someone who seems so perfect on the outside--because I would imagine that they are likely or probably a powder keg, ready to blow on the inside (ever hear of someone "going postal" or the star who seems to have it all--looks, fame and fortune--and then they overdose or drive off a cliff or something?)

No one has it all. No one is perfect. We are all human.

It's not about blame. It is about accountability and responsibility--making things right where we can.

Every day we learn and grow--that is our test and our trust.


(Cartoon Credit: Tandberg)

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