For Holocaust Remembrance Day

The photo is self-explanatory to all decent human beings out there.

We can never let evil rule the day.

Good people must stand up and speak out for good.

Never again!

(Source Photo: Sent to me by Minna Blumenthal)

For Holocaust Remembrance Day

When They Say They Want To Kill You, Do You Think They Might Mean It?

We tried out a new large conservative synagogue in Rockville today. 

And they had an interesting speech this Shabbat by scholar in residence, Tal Becker.

He spoke about how as a Jewish people traumatized post Holocaust, we tend to view threats to us as existential or the possibility of them escalating to that. 

And of course, many of the threats out there are or could be--like the Iranian Ballistic Nukes or terrorism combined with WMD!

But in terms of overall Jewish security, normalcy, and exceptionalism--with two thriving Jewish communities in Israel and in America--we are probably doing better than at any time in recent history. 

It's a paradox, he mentioned, that in America, the Jews are a minority but amidst all the freedom, they may at times feel like a majority, while in Israel, the Jews are a majority, but amidst the dangerous neighborhood they live in, they can feel like a minority. 

Unfortunately, there is still quite a lot of hatred and anti-Semitism out there whether in America or the Middle East. 

Just this week, we saw numerous terror attacks in Israel and Turkey that left several Israelis dead or wounded again. And in America, not only did we have Palestinian protests on college campuses painting Jews as the occupiers and Apartheidists (rather than as the victims of daily Palestinians terror and intransigence toward a two-state solution living side-by-side with Israel in peace), but also Microsoft having to take down their AI Bot after users taught it to spew anti-Semitic remarks like "Jews deserve death" and holocaust-denial posts in social media.

So as wonderful as it is to be Jewish, there is typically not a day that goes by when we are not somehow reminded of those that reject us, hate us, and may want to kill Jews. 

The truth is that Jews (as Mark Twain pointed out)--despite having a pretty large and impressive footprint--are a very small minority of the people out there, and they have endured unbelievably difficult times from slavery to the destruction of the temple and exile (twice), forced conversions, tortured inquisitions, expulsions, pogroms, and genocide...so it is hard not to be a little touchy about people saying or implying that they  don't like you and want to kill you...someone may take that as an existential threat and it wouldn't even have to be a bad day at that. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

When They Say They Want To Kill You, Do You Think They Might Mean It?

The Great Apartheid Ruse

What a shame the hatred and anti-Semitism on college campuses and in political theater now under the guise of Israeli Apartheid Week and the Boycott, Divestiture, and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Israel is no more apartheid that any country or society in the world that has guards and erected walls to secure their inhabitants--from armed bandits, illegal immigrants, marauding armies, and dangerous terrorists.

From the castles across the European landscape to the wall around Vatican City, the U.S. border fence, and even the Great Wall of China--every country seeks border and homeland security!

Keeping out bad people who seek to inflict harm on others is not segregation, but appropriate and common sense self-defense, especially in Israel's case where Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and other avowed terrorist organizations and their sponsors seek not peaceful coexistence, but the annihilation of the Jewish people and Israel.

From the Iranian building of nuclear ballistic missiles to Hezbollah and Hamas raining missiles on Israeli population centers, from the building of terror tunnels to abduct and attack Israelis, from homicide bombings in discotheques and on buses to shootings, knifings, and vehicular rammings, the crazed hatred and genocidal ambitions of the anti-Semites does not end.

Nothing would make every Jew in the world happier than a genuine and secure peace with their neighbors, but when every peace deal that shares between the peoples is rejected by those that seek not compromise and living side-by-side in peace, but rather to throw every last Jew into the Sea then the Free Palestine movement under all it's guises is nothing more than a very deadly wolf in sheep's clothing.

- Listen to their chants of "From the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea, Palestine Will be Free."

- Read their signs that say, "Our revenge will be the laughter of our children."

- Watch their actions: teaching little children to utterly hate and arbitrarily kill Jews.

That NOT an anti-apartheid movement and a desire for peaceful coexistence, but rather maniacal ambitions to maim, murder, and take everything bar none.

Those who march, chant, and support Free Palestine, Israel Apartheid Week and the BDS Movement have shown themselves the true haters and supporters of terrorism, and usurping a mantel of legitimacy from those who have really struggled for freedom and peace is the lie and ruse of the century, but very reminiscent of murderous Jew-haters from Amalek, Haman, and Adolf Hitler from the days of old to our times. ;-)

(Source Photo: here with attribution to Care2)

The Great Apartheid Ruse

Hate, Discrimination, and Violence...But We're One

As we live day-to-day in near endless and escalating cycles of hate, discrimination and violence along national, religious, racial, gender and other divides...

It is nice and refreshing to see someone wearing a t-shirt this morning that says:

"One World, One Dream"

I don't know what the Asian characters above it say...but hopefully, it's more hopefullness!

Unfortunately, without a common enemy--whether disasters, plague or alien invasion--what divides us normally seems stronger than what holds us together.

Hence, routine murders, maimings, abductions, rapes, enslavement, and harrassment of one neighbor against the other. 

We behave like little children fighting for the toys in the sandbox except with consequences that can elevate all the way to genocide or WMD. 

As we squabble with each other, perhaps there are moments when we can have the self-awareness and strength of character to actually look in the mirror with some shame for how low we'll stoop to get our share in a world of divine comedy. 

Wouldn't it be nice for humanity to change ways and instead have compassion on each other (children of G-d), share the toys, and end the miserable hate. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Hate, Discrimination, and Violence...But We're One

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)

Responding To Foolish Holocaust Denial

Bigotry Reveals Her Stripes

OPEN LETTER TO THE EDITOR OF THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

What an outrageous article in the Daily News by morally-bankrupt journalist, Linda Stasi (yeah, like the repressive secret East German police in the Cold War). 

Ms. Stasi calls out as deserving of death, the single Jewish victim of terror in the latest terror attack in San Bernardino that killed 14 and injured 21, where according to Stasi only "13 innocent people are dead", because the one "Born Again Christian/Messianic Jew" was what she judges as a bigot. 

Stasi tries to create some sort of ridiculous moral equivalency between mass murdering terrorists who pledged allegiance to ISIS and mowed down dozens of municipal employees in California with the Jewish guy who posted some stuff on Facebook. 

Vehemently anti-Republican, Stasi, lashes out at conservative, Mr. Thalasinos with posts that were supportive of  conservative political commentator, Ann Coulter and "pro-NRA" and "anti-Planned Parenthood" -- neither of which are bigoted things, but are conservative political views in America!

Similarly, Stasi accuses the victim, Thalasinos of being "anti-government" for questioning things like whether politicians are "bought and paid for" or are "moron[s]" -- when Stasi should be aware that approval ratings for politicians (e.g. Congress) has slipped to a dismal 11%.

Finally, Stasi goes after Thalasinos for an inappropriate negative comment about a Muslim Million Man march and for saying G-d should destroy, Axis of Evil, Iran that has repeatedly threatened to Annihilate friend and Ally, Israel as well as threatens the entire Western world. 

Apparently, Stasi is quite hateful of many many people as she is neither concerned about Iranian threats of Jewish Genocide, dishonoring victims of terror (which she has a history of doing such as with Charlie Hebdo), or accepting those with opposing political views to hers (i.e. Conservatives). 

She has defamed the memory of the dead victim of terror, Mr. Thalasinos, and the Daily News owes it to itself and its readers to immediately dismiss the one true hateful bigot in this story, Ms. Linda Stasi.

(Source Photo: here with attribution to Blake Emrys)

Bigotry Reveals Her Stripes

Amazing Chanukah Photo

A colleague at work showed me this photo: front and back. 

In it, the Chanukah candles in the window defy the evil Nazi banner in front of their headquarters in Germany and foretelling of the impending Jewish genocide and world war.

On the back on the photo is written:

"Chanukah 5692 [1931]. Judea dies says the banner. Judea will live forever responds the lights."

As we are once again living in a time of brutal terrorist violence and a moral black hole in civilization, we must again turn to Hashem and the Menorah to light up the darkness of our times. 

May G-d have mercy on His people and bless them in peace. ;-)

Amazing Chanukah Photo

Silence In the Face of Ongoing Terror And Murder

In the recent wave of terror attacks in Israel, in less than 3 months (Oct 1- Nov 23), there have been:

- 21 Murdered 

- 184 Wounded (20 critically)

Through:

- 74 Stabbings

- 10 Shootings

- 11 Car Rammings

The murdered include Ezra Schwartz, an 18-year old American citizen from Massachusetts. 

Despite the terrorism and the death of an American citizen along with so many other innocent Jews, the superpower country of the world is silent--not calling it reprehensible or deplorable or condemning it or demanding the terrorism stop immediately. 

- Silence, despite about the murder of Jews and even its own U.S. citizen in Israel on November 19.

- Silence, yet signing nuke deals with "Axis Of Evil" Iran--the #1 state sponsor of terrorism (undiminished in 2015) and top abuser of human rights.

- Silence in the face of terror attacks against Jews elsewhere abroad, like the Jewish teacher stabbed and killed in Paris last week by three assailants shouting anti-Semitic insults? 

- Silence through a "no-show" at the Solidarity Rally in Paris with 40 other heads of state in January to denounce the terror attack on Charlie Hebdo and on the Jewish grocery store that killed 17 innocent people. 

Could this perhaps be payback time to one of it's closest friends and allies for: 

- Continuing settlements for an expanding Israeli population who are surrounded by hostile neighbors that want to throw them into the Mediterranean Sea. 

- For a peace deal with the Palestinians that didn't materialize without a peace parter that would recognize the Jews States' right to even exist.

- For Netanyahu's objection to the Iranian nuke deal that put's Israel in the crosshairs of a sprouting nuclear regime that threatens annihilation against it. 

Regardless of why, it is abundantly clear that the killing of Jews in Israel and abroad is tacitly being given the green light to continue--and so it's an open field day for terror and murder of Jews!

Even the generally harsh critic of Israel, Amnesty International, has come out calling the terror against Israel "reprehensible and unjustified" and "a clear contempt for human life."

The appalling indifference to the murder of Jews by top administration officials, just 70-years after the Holocaust, is being heard loud and clear around the world.   

- It is a sanctioning of terrorism and murder, period. 

- It is reprehensible, period. 

- It is cementing a legacy of blind hatred and blatant discrimination and anti-Semitism that will go down in history, period. 

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Silence In the Face of Ongoing Terror And Murder

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. ;-)

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

Imagining The Unimaginable

So today, I am imagining the unimaginable, and thinking the unthinkable. 

What if extremists in Iran stopped hating Israel and the United States, and instead liked or even loved us?

Not because of the recent agreement on nukes and lifting of sanctions, but actually in spite of it--because as the Ayatollah has said, he prohibits any further negotiations and often refers to the U.S. as it's enemy (the only thing missing is the usual Iranian chants of "Death to America!").

But today, I saw the Iranian family again the I referred to in a Sept. 27 blog post, where the father had a stroke and the son comes on the weekends from Texas to help his father with physical and occupational therapy to recuperate. 

Well today, I saw the daughter too, and both she and the son where in the pool trying to help the father in every way to move and walk again. They swarmed around him in such loving-kindness, I couldn't believe the amazing display of love and devotion to any parent or disabled person. They were all there for him!

And my heart opened up, and I couldn't help thinking what if the Iranian leadership could be moderated by average normal people who just want to care for their families, earn a living, and worship and live in freedom? 

What if the Iranian leadership could learn to forgive and love again those who they have hated for so long and so much--the USA and Israel?

If the U.S. can forgive Iran for the hostage crisis that took 52 American diplomats and citizens hostage for 444 long days and the bombing of the Beirut barracks that killed 241 marines, and Israel can forgive the endless Hezbollah terror attacks, the bombing of the Argentinian Jewish Center that killed 29 and wounded 250, the Holocaust denial, and threats of maniacal genocide...then surely, Iran can forgive the U.S.'s role in the 1953 coup that brought the Shah to power and can forgive Israel for merely existing!

As a son of Holocaust survivors, I am a die-hard for the defense and security of the Jewish people, so maybe today I am just being naive, foolish, or letting my imagination run wild. 

But I feel that Hashem is putting the words on the screen through my fingertips...what if Esau can stop hating Jacob? What if Iran can stop hating the USA and Israel and there can be peace and not war?

This is a fantasy, but perhaps it can become a reality.

Instead of the cycle of hate, the sponsorship of terror, the secret building of nukes, and aggression escalating until ultimately major devastating military strikes...instead imagine abandoning the old hateful and belligerent ways...imagine forgiveness for the past transgressions and affronts...imagine peace!

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Imagining The Unimaginable

David And Goliath - It's Biblical!

There are 22 Arab Countries versus 1 Jewish State of Israel.

The Arabs Countries far outnumber Israel with 64 times as many people, 760 times as much land, and 10 times as much GDP. 

Overall the world's Muslim population is even so much larger with 50 majority-Muslim countries and 1.6 billion Muslims. 

Some moderate Muslim or Arab countries are friendlier and have peace treaties with Israel, such as Egypt and Jordan, and others like Saudi Arabia are cooperating with Israel against a common Iranian threat. 

However, it is no secret that many other Arab nations and especially Iran would like to see Israel wiped off the map with a total genocide of the Jewish people (just 70 years since the Holocaust).

This last week alone in Israel there were over 150 terrorist attacks (including shootings, stabbings, stonings, firebombs, and more)!

To the west, just last year in 2014, there were over 4,500 missiles fired by Hamas-controlled Gaza indiscriminately into Israel. 

To the north, Hezbollah is estimated to have 100,000 rockets pointed at Israel. 

To the northeast, ISIS is menacing Israel with possible chemical weapons and even nukes if they get their hands on them. 

To the east, Iran is threatening Israel with ongoing development of nukes and ballistic missiles.

Many Christians and Jews clearly see the Biblical underpinnings for the threats to Israel and want to protect the Holy Land. 

One Central American, Christian lady told me today that she and all the people in her church love Israel and want it to be protected. 

She said many, many people are dissatisfied with the current state of pullback from the Middle East and what was always the iron-clad support for Israel. 

Further, the United Nations has been swayed by the numbers against Israel for decades--just last year alone, there were 20 resolutions singling out Israel versus 1 resolution against Syria, even though the war in Syria in the last 4 years has killed more than 10 times the number of those killed in the entire Israel-Palestinian conflict.

While many extremists falsely try to portray themselves as the underdog in this fight against Israel, the facts speak for themselves, and the Bible is clear--in the end, David does beat Goliath. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

David And Goliath - It's Biblical!

Remnants Of The Holocaust

So I had coffee with a wonderful gentleman this week.

And he--like myself--is a child of Holocaust survivors. 

Two quick stories he told me:

- His father, a survivor of the notorious concentrations camps that killed millions, had a number tattooed on his arm by the cursed Nazis. As the years past and his father worked to resume a normal life, what did he do with that number to try and help forget all the atrocities he went through? Get this...he used the number on his arm as the code for garage door opener. As he told his son, this way, I will never forget the code to open it.

- As a child, my new friend wanted to go to summer camp, he once asked his father, "Dad, when you were my age did you go to camp?" And his father replied, "Yes, I went to concentration camp!" Indeed, a very different sort of experience for a child. These days our children run, play, and swim in the beautiful outdoors at summer camp, but in our parents time, as Jews, they were hauled in cattle cars to suffer at the hands of the Nazis in slave labor, starvation, disease, beatings, torture, and in extermination camps behind razor-sharp barbed wire, attack dogs, and watch towers with machine guns.

How on Earth did these atrocities and genocide occur just 70 years ago--in the 20th century?

As much as I have learned, I am still dumbfounded by it: people (really more like vicious animals or Zombie devils) brutalizing other people, human beings--men, women, children, old people, the sick and disabled--and exterminating millions in the most horrific and brutal ways.

Now, the victims, their children, and grandchildren are left to go on and rebuild, where a tattooed number by the Nazis in the infamous concentration camps becomes a reminder for the everyday garage door opener in what we try to make of a normal life once again. ;-)

(Source Photo: here with attribution to HolocaustSurvivors.org)

Remnants Of The Holocaust

Hmm...A Nuke Deal With Iran--Just Ask Why?

Here are 10 simple points any reasonable person would ask about a Nuke deal with Iran:

HATRED OF AMERICA--THEIR ENEMY #1:

1) Iran, of the Axis Of Evil, considers "The Great Satan" (as they call America) their "number one enemy", they chant "Death to America," and even hang our President in effigy.

MURDERING AND THREATENING TO RAIN DEATH AND DESTRUCTION ON AMERICANS:

2) Iran threatened brutal attacks on America as well as on the President's family, and Iranian military documents endorse a devastating EMP attack on the United States. 
3) Iran says it will destroy the U.S. Navy, and destroyed a mock U.S. aircraft carrier in February!
4) Iran held our diplomats hostage for 444 days. 
5) Iran through it's proxy Hezbolah killed 241 U.S. Marines in the Lebanon suicide attack.

DENYING THE HOLOCAUST AND THREATENING ANNIHILATION OF ISRAEL:

6) Iran threatens to annihilate Israel.
7) Iran is a leading denier of the Holocaust, where 6 million Jews were murdered just 70 years ago. 

THE WORLD'S LEADING SPONSOR OF TERRORISM AND HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES:

8) Iran is the leading state sponsor of terrorism worldwide.
9) Iran is the worst human rights offender in the world today.

ONGOING DEFIANCE OF THE WORLD ON NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION ACTIVITIES:

10) Iran continues to hide their dangerous nuclear activites from International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), even as they profess cooperation, seek a lifting of sanctions and legitimacy for their nuke program. 

(All opinions my own)

(Source Photo: here with attribution to MEMRI via Fox News)

Hmm...A Nuke Deal With Iran--Just Ask Why?

What's Behind The Iran Deal?

The U.S. is driving forward toward a looming deadline for a deal with Iran, so they don't go nuclear (on us).

But with this deal, Iran does go nuclear!

The question then is who is this non-deal of a deal for?

Usually one makes a deal that is good for you, your team, your allies, your friends, your community--that's why you're making the deal...otherwise why bother?

In this case, no one has more to lose with a (very) bad deal than Iran's neighbors in the Middle East, so they are actually very good judges as to whether this is a good deal or not, right?

If it's a good deal that safeguards them, the region, and us--wouldn't they all be jumping up and down doing the Horah?

But they're not--and far from it!

PM Netanyahu was extremely clear and got 23 standing ovations in just a 40 minute speech explaining how kicking the thermonuclear can down the road ten years does not a non-proliferation agreement make with a homicidal terrorist regime like Iran. 

Similar, today again it is reported that "America's other key allies across the Middle East--such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates--are just as distraught."

And the same reason that they don't like this deal is why we shouldn't like this deal--because it doesn't accomplish the goal of safety and security for this region of the world or for us from dangerous Iran. 

In this case, where a no-nuke Iran was what was committed to, instead we are getting, at best, a temporary deal with Iran that leaves them their nuke infrastructure and capabilities, as well as the legitimacy to ultimately have their nukes and make us eat it too!

So perhaps it is understandable why Netanyahu came here to speak to the U.S. Congress about what this dangerous deal is turning into and means to the very country that has been threatened by Iran with extermination. 

And why a prominent Emirati political commentator said, "A lot of the Gulf countries [our traditional U.S. allies] feel they are being thrown under the bus."

Hmm, perhaps rather than playing right side/left side of the aisle politics, we should be asking some common sense questions:

1) Why would anyone and why would we in particular want a deal that doesn't accomplish the goal of stopping the terrorist Iranian regime from getting nuclear weapons of mass destruction?

2) Why would we desperately seek a deal that doesn't safeguard us, and our allies, and where the common refrain is that no deal is better than this deal?

3) Why would we be pushing to lift sanctions on Iran that has threatened us and our allies with everything from raping the President's daughter to sinking the U.S. Navy to annihilating Israel instead of clamping down on these terrorists?

You know the famous saying that when something smells fishy, it usually is.  

This deal makes no sense--and our allies in the Middle East know it, Congress knows it, and if you don't let partisan politics get in the way, we all know it. 

That means that as Iran is now aggressively spreading it's influence and forces across a contingent land sphere including Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon, there is some ulterior motive at play here--should I draw you a map? ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

What's Behind The Iran Deal?

Sifting Through The Beef Stew

Many of the negative nellies who either didn't attend PM Netanyahu's critical speech to Congress or who were simply circling the wagons came across pretty darn pathetic yesterday.

A smidgon of their very shakey arguments:

1) THIS IS POLITICAL, PERSONAL, MACHO, DISRESPECTFUL, CONDESCENDING, AND MADE ME CRY

FALSE. Actually, with great alarm and dismay, we have been watching for many months, the name-calling and discrediting coming right here from bipartisan Washington...this, rather than supporting the only true democracy, friend, and ally in the middle east. For the Jewish people, this is a mater of survival from genocide, plain and simple--and only 70 years after the Holocaust.

2) THIS IS TO CHANGE THE ELECTION

FALSE. This was at the invitation of Congress to come speak, and at its timetable. The timing does not necessarily help or hurt the PM's election chances; these are matters for individual voters at the polls to decide.

3) THERE'S NO ALTERNATIVES

FALSE. The alternative is plain, simple, and common sense--keep the sanctions in place and the pressure on Iran, and NOT settle for a deal that proflierates dangerous nukes to a threatening Iranian regime. Those advocating otherwise will find themselves on the wrong side of the historical nuclear aftermath...won't that leave them a wonderful legacy!

4) WE CAN SURVEIL AND VERIFY ALL NUCLEAR ACTIVITIES

FALSE. The IAEA has repeatedly declared that they have NOT been able to verify Iran's nuclear activies or the facilities used to build and house them. Moreover, repeated agreements with North Korea turned out to be unverifiable and ended up in their attaining dangerous nuclear weapons that we are still contending with.

5) NO DEAL WILL BE ACCEPTABLE

FALSE. A (very) bad deal is not acceptable. A deal that KEEPS nukes--weapons of mass destruction--out of the hands of the world's premier sponsor of terrorism and human rights abuses--Iran--for an phased-in easing of sanctions is a good deal.

6) YOU CAN'T STOP USE OF NUCLEAR KNOWLEDGE

FALSE. You can deny Iran the infrastructure and legitimacy to use that knowledge, period. Maybe you can't put it back in the can, but you can take away the can, shaped like an ICBM, itself.

7) WRONG ON IRAQ AND WRONG AGAIN

FALSE.  When the world was passive in the face of nuclear proliferation in Iraq, Israel was spot on when it destroyed their nearly completed nuclear reactor in 1981. Unfortunately, we were wrong about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction capability as reported by the Presidential Commission that investigated this post our 2003 invasion of Iraq. 

8) NOTHING NEW HERE

FALSE. PM Netanyahu made clear that this is NOT partisan, that he has the highest respect for the President(cy), that he is most grateful to America, that our bounds are unbreakable, that the enemy (IRAN) of our enemy (ISIS) is not our friend (both seeking radical dominion over the middle east and globally), and that proliferation of nuclear weapons of mass destruction is not acceptable--now or in ten years. And maybe most inspiringly and underpinning many of our common bonds and values is that there is a picture of Moses over the door of Capital!  ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Sifting Through The Beef Stew

Purim All Over Again

Last night my wife received an email from a very holy woman from our synagogue telling us to pray for G-d to save the Jewish people.

This at a time when Iran is on the verge of nuclear breakout capability and has for more than a decade threatened Israel with genocide. 

As Prime Minister Netanyahu said yesterday, the threat from a nuclear-armed Iran is a security issue to the U.S. (which has been threatened by Iran, including unbelievably threats to President Obama's family), but is a survival issue to Israel.

The holy lady from the shule reminded us that this is the week we celebrate Purim.

This holiday commerates when the Jewish people were miraculously saved almost 2,500 years ago from an evil plot to destroy all the Jews in ancient Persia (and yes, what is now related to modern day Iran).

The threat: "To destroy, kill, and annihilate all the Jews, young and old, infants and women, in a single day."

But for a miracle from G-d through Mordechai and Queen Esther were the Jewish people saved from annihilation. 

It is not lost of any of us that now Iran wants to exterminate the Jews once again, in a single day, in a single nuclear strike on the holy land. 

The Jerusalem Post astutely points out today that Prime Minister Netanyahu is like Mordechai who recognized the threat of the evil Haman who sought the Jews' destruction, as well as Queen Esther who spoke truth to this to King Ahasuerus. 

Both my mother and my wife are named after the beautiful Queen Esther and so this holiday has enormous personal meaning for me, especially since my family are also survivors of the Holocaust. 

Today, we are all praying for another miracle when Netanyahu addresses the U.S. Congress that the Jews should once again be saved from historical enemies old and new. ;-)

(Source Photo: here with attribution to pixgood)

Purim All Over Again

Is This A Genuine Partner For WMD Peace?

Everyone was speculating why Iran was building a 202 meter long life-size replica of a Nimitz Class U.S. Aircraft Carrier in the Persian Gulf.

Well today (as we are hear of "progress" with Iranian nuclear talks), we got our answer, as the Iranian military took the opportunity and blew the mock U.S. aircraft carrier to smithereens!

The commander of Iran's Navy stated: "The Americans, and the entire world, knows that the American Navy is one of our targets and it will take us 50 seconds to destroy every US warship."

At the same time, Iran is mulling over the purchase of a powerful anti-aircraft missile system from Russia.

So now Iran is going toward an agreement for a possible lifting of western financial sanctions and a 10-year nuke capability, and we are trusting them that it is for peaceful purposes?

Many of our major Middle East allies are concerned including Israel, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey, and more, and so much so that an Iranian nuke capability may "spark a nuclear arms race."

Hmm...why the desperation for a deal with "Axis of Evil," Iran amidst ongoing hostility and threats from Iran towards "The Great Satan," America, and all the express concerns of our longtime friends and allies? 

Now we won't just have deadly terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda and ISIS to contend with across the region, but also a nuclear armed Iran--amidst regular threats to sink the U.S. Navy and annihilate Israel (and just 70 years after the Holocaust killed 6 million Jewish men, women, and children!).  

What have we learned about appeasement of dangerous foes and the unimaginable risks to millions of innocent lives around the world? ;-)

Is This A Genuine Partner For WMD Peace?

Noticeably Absent From Auschwitz Liberation Memorial

So yesterday was the 70th anniversary memorial of the liberation of the Auschwitz Death Camp,

More than 1.1 million Jews and 100,000 other POWs and ethnic minorities were EXTERMINATED there.

There was forced labor, beatings, torture, starvation, the gas chambers and crematoria, the electrified barbed wire and attacks dogs, the human experimentation, and every cruelty known to mankind. 

At yesterdays memorial at Auschwitz 50 countries sent delegations "with heads of state leading those from:" 

- Germany
- Austria
- Belgium
- Bulgaria
- Croatia
- Lithuania
- France
- Netherlands
- Poland 
- Switzerland
- Ukraine (even though they are currently fighting a war with Russia!)

And even Russian President Putin "marks day at the Jewish Museum in Moscow."

It is quite mysterious, why like with the recent Unity Rally in France after the terror attacks there on Charlie Hebdo Magazine and a Jewish grocery store that left 17 dead, that the head of state for the United States was once again noticeably absent.

This time, a meeting in Saudi Arabia took precendence--why of course.

At least, the million plus murdered at Auschwitz got a (prepared) statement to mark their tragic deaths.

What does all this say about our commitment to human rights and fighting blind hatred, discrimination, racism, Islamist terorrism, and outright genocide?  

(Source Photo: here with attribution to Ricardo Francesconi)

Noticeably Absent From Auschwitz Liberation Memorial

To Be A Free People

This week we saw an absolutely horrific terroristic attack on a synagogue in Jerusalem.

Two Palestinian cousins brutally hacked and stabbed to death 4 Rabbis's (3 American citizens) while at prayer and killed a policeman trying to stop them. 

I read  how one Rabbi actually had his arm wrapped in the holy Tefillin (phylacteries) completely severed from off his body. 

By the time the attack was done, the synagogue was filled with pools of blood of those in the middle of prayer to the Almighty G-d. 

I thought to myself of the Israel anthem, the Hatikvah, that speaks to the Jewish hope of being a free people in the land of Zion and Jerusalem (where this attack and many others have been happening):

"As long as the Jewish spirit is yearning deep in the heart, 

With eyes turned toward the East, looking toward Zion,

Then our hope - the two-thousand-year-old hope - will not be lost:

To be a free people in our land,

The land of Zion and Jerusalem."

I wondered where is the yearned for "freedom" of our people post slavery; jailings and torture; destruction, rape, murder, and exile; from Crusades to Auto-da-fes, Pogroms, and Holocaust.

Indeed, our history is not only punctuated by discrimination, blind hatred and anti-semitism, but also by extermination and genocide.

Now in a beautiful Middle East democracy called the State of Israel--where the deserts bloom and technological innovation thrives, where people of three major religions worship in their Holy places, how can so much terror still exist:

- Tens of thousands of missiles targeting population centers
- Tunnels streaming with terrorists trying to kidnap and murder the innocent
- Suicide bombers striking buses, cafes, pizzerias, and more.
- Terrorists driving into crowds of pedestrians, stabbing people with screwdrivers, hitting them with lead pipes, throwing stones and firebombs, slitting the throats of babies, taking and murdering children from the bus stops, and hacking to death Rabbis at prayer...
- Moreover, with Iran, there is a stated existential threat from them to annihilate Israel [via Nukes]...the clock is ticking down.

No nation on Earth would live with this, and neither should the Jewish people!

Israel cannot have Hamas, Hezbollah, and Islamic Jihad as well as nation state terrorists striking at their heart from near, far, and from within. 

The immediate response should be a declaration of Jerusalem as the united Capital of Israel, period.

Subsequent decisions of borders, boundaries, and terms to be decided by the State of Israel to meet their security needs. 

Freedom to live, work, play, and worship without terror, non-negotiable. 

Peace underwritten with security by G-d's promise to the Jewish people...end of discussion. 

Finally, as to Iran (and others) who openly threaten Israel with WMD--Israel and the U.S. must preempt and hit them staggeringly hard--the best defense is an striking offense.

The terror must end here and now, once and for all. 

O' Lord, give us freedom from bigotry, hatred, and terror--O' Lord, give us peace. 

(Source Photo: here with attribution to zeevveez)

To Be A Free People

Iran: Engagement or Containment

As the deadline for the now 2nd round of current negotiations with the dangerous Iranian mullahs fast approaches on November 24, we need to remember who we are dealing with over there.

Despite nearly endless negotiations that have gone on since 2002 (or for almost 13 years ), including yet another round of new talks that began 14 months ago and which were extended already once again...

Just this week, no less than Iran's Foreign Minister and lead negotiator made clear their position on nukes, and it is not favorable to coming to any real agreement:

Here in his own words:

• Iran insists that the U.S. must bow to Iran's "Inalienable Nuclear Rights."

• Despite our wanting to believe that a deal is possible, he states, "Some [Western] countries have fallen prey to miscalculations [about Iran's position] due to wrong analysis."

• He goes on to say, "U.S. sanctions against Iran "have left no impact" on their position. 

While our goal may be for a peaceful Iran without nuclear WMD, "a goal without a [genuine] plan is just a wish!"

Hmm...is this a real partner for peace?

It is recognized that:

1) Iran has one of the world's worst records of human right abuses of their own people! 

2) "Iran is the single largest state sponsor of terrorism in the world."

3) Iran threatens "annihilation" and Genocide to their neighbors in the West. 

We cannot fool ourselves anymore that Iran will ever voluntarily give up their desire or pursuit of The Bomb!

Enough rewarding Iran with billions of dollars in incentives just for coming to the table with no meaningful results. 

Yes ideally, we would all love to celebrate this Thanksgiving with a REAL deal for peace.

However, we don't need a bogus agreement or another meaningless extension that gets the Iranians that much closer to nuclear breakout capability and the world to the next major regional or even global war. 

Albert Einstein said, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

Perhaps it's time to change the playbook then...

Engagement is an excellent opportunity with a partner that is willing to seriously negotiate, but containment and ultimately military intervention is necessary when talks are simply a long-running ruse or sham to dangerous nuclear WMD and world terror. 

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Iran: Engagement or Containment