Two Jewish Activists Try to Stop Trafficking of Blood Diamonds

Roughly speaking , there are two types of diamonds: those that are produced ethically and those that are not, the latter termed blood diamonds. Blood diamonds are those diamonds mined in areas of conflict or dictatorships, the revenues used to mine armies, insurgents, dictators or warlords, most commonly in Angola, the Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe and the Central African Republic.  Ethically produced diamonds are those diamonds produced in mines in Canada, Namibia, Batswana, South Africa and precious stones like sapphire in Australia and Malawi.2

The problem that exists, therefore, is stopping the flow of blood diamonds and although the world has adopted the Kimberly Process Certification Scheme (2000) in order to block sales of blood diamonds, also known as conflict diamonds, the actual ability to know the point of origin of a diamond, and whether it was ethically produced or not, is a bit difficult. Further, the Kimberly Certification has recently allowed for the purchase of blood diamonds from countries such as Zimbabwe, even though it is clear that these diamonds are not ethically produced. Economic and political pressures have won the day.

The problem is further exasperated. Once Antwerp had been the major cutting and polishing center for diamonds, and would not have imported Zimbabwe’s diamonds no matter the hypocrisy of the Kimberly Certification (the United States and some other countries ban Zimbabwe diamonds despite the Kimberly Certification). Other countries like India do not ban the export of Zimbabwe diamonds. Interestingly, the diamond business of Antwerp, almost an exclusively Orthodox Jewish establishment, has been largely taken over in recent years by non-Jewish immigrants from India.

As such, the Indians today control much of the diamond industry, being strategically situated in Antwerp and Surat, with open trade routes to New York, Hong Kong and Dubai, the largest centers of diamond commerce in the world.

Surat, India, has become the largest diamond cutting and polishing center in the world. The city is regulation free, full of cheap child labor, and takes no responsibility for the illness known as “diamond lung” or other respiratory illnesses stemming from the inhalation of very small diamond particles. It is estimated that over 500,000 thousand people in Surat work in the diamond cutting and polishing stages of the diamond preparation process. Worse, once these diamonds have been strategically cut and polished, it is almost impossible to know their point of origin; as such, it is entirely possible that blood diamonds make their way to the American market in great numbers.  As the Brilliant Earth website explains, Surat has become the place “where blood diamonds go to forget their past”.

Enter two Stanford University graduates, Beth Gerstein and Eric Grossberg. In 2004 they established Brilliant Earth, a company that designs and produces jewelry made from diamonds that are only ethically produced. In addition, they recycle gold and platinum for their use in their jewelry. Some of the Brilliant Earth diamonds are processed in Israel as well. According to industry sources, Brilliant Earth has shaped the diamond purchase landscape in important ways, leading as well to a greater level of consumer sensitivity to the issue of conflict versus ethically produced diamonds. JCK magazine, a leading diamond industry publication, named Eric Grossberg as one of the young and influential industry entrepreneurs.

Furthermore, the company actually donates five percent of its profits to aid those impoverished by decades of cruelty, war and slavery in the very areas where blood diamonds are produced.

Further, as the diamond industry is a multi-billion dollar business, it is highly probably that blood diamonds are regularly traded with the disguised blessings of the industry. Brilliant Earth painstakingly goes against the grain to assure that its diamonds or precious stones are tainted in any way by the oppression of others.  Actually, they are most vociferous in their stance. One of their managers, Greg Krauss, has published an important and fascinating article about the realities of the diamond industry and how Brilliant Earth disassociates themselves from practices that may be legal, but are absolutely unethical.

Brilliant Earth has centers for land restoration and medical aid in Sierra Leone, community centers and activist groups for the prevention of child labor in the Congo, and has established avenues for human rights education in Angola. These are only a few of their projects. By empowering communities from the bottom up, they believe that they can make a difference.

As Gerstein says, her goal is to “transform the jewelry industry by demonstrating transparency, responsibility and compassion.” Quoting Margaret Mead, Gerstein adds, “Never doubt that a thoughtful, committed group of citizens could change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

My Personal Journey to Judaism

I was raised in a nominally Catholic family in New Bedford, MA. At the age of 7 or 8, I heard the priest say, from the pulpit, that the Jews were Christ-killers, and I had an immediate visceral reaction in my gut. I wanted to leave the Church at the age of 16, but my parents said I had to do as they wanted me to do until 18 years of age, and then I could do whatever I wanted to do. After my 18th birthday 1965, I formally left the Catholic Church and religion and never looked back. That was also the year of the 2nd Vatican Council and “Nostra Aetate” – but for me it was too little and too late (thank GD). From then on, I was a devoted “agnostic”. While my older brother had became an atheist. For 20 years I did not step foot in a Catholic church, and during my college years I took courses in comparative religion, and read books like Hal Lindsey’s “Late, Great Planet Earth”. In that book he made a statement that said of all the prophets in the world (including Nostradamus, Edgar Cayce, etc.) the only ones with a 100% track record were the Biblical prophets. So this thought intrigued me and I started to study the Christian so-called Old Testament with a focus on the Biblical Prophets. Exactly 20 years later I was in a Catholic Church for the wedding of a good friend, and while there feeling edgy and uncomfortable, I thought about it and realized that it had been a full 20 years since I had attended anything in a Christian Church.

In the year 1985, 20 years after leaving the Christian Church, which was the year my father died from complications related to Alzheimer’s, I had gotten very sick and I had almost died. I had started to pray to GD (to me it was simply talking to this entity in my mind) and based on my reading the stories in the Bible I could only address this entity as “the GD of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob”. In 1992 I decided to go to Israel on a Holy Land tour, and I chose a Hal Lindsey tour because I felt he was an excellent Bible teacher and he would be able to make the places in Israel come alive with stories from the Bible. Now as women go, I am not much of a crying type of person. I had developed into a stoic, like my father, and took most things in the world with calm acceptance and not too emotionally. The plane landed at Ben Gurion airport, and we walked down the stairs (there was no terminal like there is now). When my feet hit the tarmac, I began to weep uncontrollably and I had no understanding of why. I had traveled somewhat before this trip – but no where on earth was I affected as much as in Israel. The people, the language, the culture, the food, the atmosphere – everything affected me very deeply and I didn’t understand why.

I returned to Israel on my own, by myself, without knowing a soul there, in 1993 for Pesach. I stayed at what was then called the Sheraton Plaza (across from the Great Synagogue) on King George Street, and celebrated the Passover Seder in a public ceremony. I returned later that same year, on my own and by myself, for Sukkot. I came back again in 1994 for Shavuot. Each visit lasted from 10-14 days. During this trip in ‘94, I remember being at the Kotel, and speaking to GD in my mind, and troubled because I wanted to learn more (especially about Judaism) but I didn’t know how to go about it. I knew that if I went to any Rabbi, they would ask me if I wanted to convert, and I’d have to answer in all honestly that I didn’t know if I wanted that. I just wanted to learn! Being that I was a professional educator and group facilitator in the business world, the idea came to me “if you want to study, you’ll teach”. So that year I returned home, and started a weekly study group with a handful of people in Warwick R.I. (just outside of Providence) right after Rosh HaShanah of that year. I had bought a Stone Edition of the Chumash. And each week we would read the portion of the week, and the commentaries and discuss. We held these discussion groups of the weekly parasha for an entire year.

At this time I was also going to Christian conferences in Boston and other places, and had a booth in the exhibit area that was pro-Israel. The Israeli flag would be hung on the wall behind me, and I would have a small T.V. there running videos about tourism to Israel, and had books on the table to buy about Israel, and about the “theology of contempt” and anti-Semitism of the Christian world. I also had a Davidic Harp (from the Harraris) on display and I would play the harp loudly, and draw a large crowd, and educate about the Harp of King David. I met many pro-Israel Christians at those conferences and had not a few arguments with some of the anti-Semitic ones.

One of the people I had met at these conferences was a man who owned several Christian Radio stations in New England. Later I developed an idea for a live talk radio broadcast that would educate about the Five Books of Moses from a Jewish perspective, trying to promote peace and understanding between Christians and Jews. So one day I called up this man in the radio broadcasting business, and asked if I could obtain his advice about my ideas for this live talk radio show. I had written a 5-6 page proposal about it. He said yes and invited me to come see him at his office to discuss. He quickly read through the proposal, said he liked the idea very much and said I could do the broadcast on two of his radio stations. He wanted me to begin the broadcast during the time I had scheduled myself for my 5th trip to Israel. So he suggested that I pre-tape the first two broadcasts, and announce on air that the program would be a live call-in radio show as soon as I returned from my trip. That’s exactly what we did.

During my trip to Israel in 1995 (10 years after I had started to talk to GD) during Tisha B’av, I was introduced to a man from the World Jewish Congress. An acquaintance of mine apparently thought I might have some Jewish ancestry, but he did not tell me this. He simply encouraged me to meet with this man from the WJC. During that meeting, the man asked me why I was in Israel on this trip. He said that people coming in the summer time was rare, and the holy day being observed was not a happy one, but a very somber one. I said I understood, and that is exactly why I wanted to come. I said that I wanted to mourn at the Kotel for the destruction of both Temples and for all the terrible things that had happened to the Jewish people, to “your people” I said to him, for the past 2,000 years. He said “but why?” and I said I didn’t know. So he asked about my father’s ancestry. And then he asked about my mother’s ancestry. I told him my mother’s family had come to the USA from the Portuguese colony of the Azores Islands, and his reply was “AHA!” I said “AHA?” That’s when he explained to me all about the story of the Portuguese Jews. See, I had always heard that the Inquisition was a “Spanish Inquisition”, and I had never heard that there was a Portuguese side of the story.

This man was the first person to explain to me that in 1492, when the Jews were expelled from Spain, about half of them went over the border into Portugal. And 5 years later, the Portuguese King Manuel wanted to marry the daughter of the Spanish monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella. So they told him, if he wanted to marry their daughter he would have to get rid of his Jews (in Portugal) like they did (in Spain). So, he issued an expulsion edict in 1497, giving the Jews of Portugal 10 months to leave the country. But at the end of the 10 months, those who were still in the country were gathered into the Plazas, and en mass converted against their will by the sprinkling of holy water into the air. They were given a few years grace period, and after that a very brutal active Inquisition existed in Portugal for anyone secretly practicing Judaism. It was called Judaizing and was considered to be a heresy within the Catholic Church. This active inquisition lasted for 350 years (16th, 17th, 18th and half of the 19th centuries). My great grandmother was born in the Azores towards the middle of the 19th century, right at the end of this active Inquisition.

{{{ Note: In my family, my great grandmother never went to Church in America, we were raised with great fear of “outsiders” and were told there was no such thing as “friends” – and to trust no one outside of the family. We were also not allowed to eat anywhere except at my mother’s table, or that of cousins in my mother’s family. Meat was soaked in a salt brine, we had to check raw eggs for a spot of blood, blood clots and blood veins in cooked chicken were not to be eaten at all, pork was said to be “unclean”, all mirrors were covered in a house of mourning, spring cleaning was done every year to “remove every crumb” from the house, etc. But we never knew, and were never told, anything about Jewish customs and traditions and we didn’t know any Jewish people. }}}

I was, of course, stunned with all of this new information. I asked this man at the WJC how could I continue to learn more about all this. And he said I was living in a great part of the country, near Brown University (in Rhode Island) where there existed a professor and a scholar about this history of Spanish and Portuguese Jews and Crypto-Judaism. I contacted this scholar upon my return, and even interviewed him for my radio broadcast. He also directed me to resources on the Internet about the Crypto-Jews, and after reading lots of material I finally had some questions that I could ask my mother. And she confirmed many family customs and traditions that, unbeknownst to us, were Jewish customs and traditions (many of which were from Oral Law not Written Law).

One of the most impactful things that happened was at my mother’s birthday party that September of 1995, where she had most of her side of the family present. Now my mother’s grandmother was the person who had come to the USA circa 1915 (yes, 100 years ago this year) with one son and six daughters, her eldest daughter was married already and she was my mother’s mother. So my great grandmother’s son’s grandson was my 2nd cousin. And during my mother’s birthday party, I took that 2nd cousin aside, and I said to him (trying to be very gentle and discreet) … “Joe, did you know that OUR great grandmother might have been Jewish?” He said, “well yeah!” And I said “well yeah?” And he said that in his family, she was known as “Judios” – which is how we say Jewish in Portuguese. So apparently, on the male line, the Jewish identity was passed down. Whereas on the female line, the customs and traditions were passed down but at some point the Jewish identity had stopped being passed down verbally.

So that fall, of 1995, I had begun in earnest to research the customs and traditions in my mother’s family. My mother was very dubious about my newfound interest in this thing called Judaism, but later she happily attended Pesach Seders with me and always enjoyed Friday night dinners. Friday nights I would do all the cooking for us and then light Shabbat candles and find a way to warm cooked food for Saturday lunches. One week, early on during my family research, a friend of mine (also researching his family customs and traditions) called and told me his aunt said that the women would soak a turkey in a salt brine. I shared that news with my mother, and she said that in her family the women soaked all the meat in a salt brine. And I said “BINGO!” She said “What do you mean, BINGO?” Then I explained to her about the Jewish custom of kashering meat, to remove blood. And Friday night of that very week (for the first time) she asked me if I had any extra candles, so that she could light.

Over the next few years, I met many Rabbis and started to more formally learn and practice Judaism. I really didn’t know if it would be proper to call myself a “Jew”, so I referred to myself as a “practicing Hebrew” during those early years. And it was fascinating to see the reaction of people. For my Christian friends and acquaintances, it was all about “beliefs”, so they would ask me if I believed in you know who as messiah and/or as GD, etc. and so forth. For my Jewish friends and acquaintances, it was all about my lifestyle and “practices”. So they would ask me if I observed Shabbat, ate Kosher, observed the holy days, etc. But by the end of 1995, I had decided to take my mother’s family name of daCosta. I announced this publicly on the radio broadcast and at a lecture I gave at the University of Mass at South Dartmouth (with my mother sitting in the front row, beaming with pride). I also announced that I was going to move to Dallas TX in Jan of 1996 to work with the descendants of the Anousim (Crypto-Jews) in the American southwest (which I did, trying to help others to research their roots). I also had moved the radio broadcast to a Christian talk radio station in Dallas, TX and it was on air for about a year. I also met, in 1996, Vendyl Jones (due to the radio broadcast I was doing and a mutual acquaintance Professor Dr. James Tabor). And later, that year, I began to teach Torah to Bnei Noach at the Vendyl Jones Research Institute. All this time I was still doing research and searching of my own Jewish Roots.

I continued my learning Torah/Mitzvot in Dallas TX and I also had an mtDNA test done with www.familytreeDNA.com. My older brother has a PhD in high energy physics, and he said to me, “Don’t talk to me about this unless you can show me the science”. He was the one who told me about mtDNA. And after 4 years of learning and practicing in a Jewish community, I finally found an Orthodox Rabbi and Beit Din in NYC that would accept me as a descendant from the Crypto-Jews (a.k.a. Anousim). I presented to them the following evidences: 1) all the family customs and traditions passed down in my mother’s family, by the women, 2) country of origin my mother’s ancestors in the Azores, 3) names in my mother’s family and 4) mtDNA results (which was considered supplemental) and all of which the Beit Din accepted. In 2000 I went into their NYC mikveh “bli bracha” (i.e. without the blessing of a convert), as a demonstration of my commitment to Judaism and to living according to Torah and halacha. And the Beit Din gave me a “return certificate” … that is according to the letter by HaRav Mordechai Eliyahu (of blessed memory) as documented by him with a sample “return certificate” to be used for returning descendants of the Anousim. These documents are still available today on the Internet.

I made aliya to Israel on that same “return certificate” in 2004. And I married in a religious ceremony in 2008 in Jerusalem, as approved by the Beit Din of Jerusalem. I’ve worked with other people, who have this ancestry of the Spanish & Portuguese Crypto-Jews, for the past 15+ years as a coach and advisor and helping them to find communities where they can learn and grow in Torah and halacha on their own path of “return” or conversion to Judaism. I have also coached them to help them regarding the trauma from terrible experiences some of them have had with Jewish people, in not accepting them as Jews, and in saying horrible and hurtful things to them (e.g. that your ancestors MUST have been mamzerim). I will update this story later, on Facebook, with the 2 erroneous myths that, unfortunately, some Jewish people have about the Crypto-Jews. And it seems these myths prevent them from being more accepting and compassionate to the people of this/my ancestry.

The Jewish Narrative

(The following is an adaption of a speech presenting the “Jewish Narrative” at the NEW GENERATION NEW CONVERSATION Alternative Peace Conference in Jerusalem)

I could choose to speak about the blood of my brothers being spilled in the streets of Jerusalem. But I won’t. Not because I am silent. I’m not silent about the blood of my brothers; I cry and ache over every single drop spilled. Rather, I choose to transcend, not the pain or the suffering, but the mentality of victimhood and that alone, as a means to reaching the goals of my people. Therefore, I define my goal as not to win your sympathy but to share my people’s side of the story as a step towards finding a solution for both peoples. In order to do so, I ask you to temporarily liberate yourselves from any previously solidified perceptions of identity, of narratives and of the conflict, and momentarily enter my world, in order to understand the story of the people I am part of.

My name is Hila. I live here, in Israel, and the fact that I am native to this land has always been something I have taken for granted. The reason I know myself as native to this land is not because I was born here, although I was, but rather because this is the ancestral homeland of the people I am part of. This is the land in which my people had two kingdoms and centuries of political sovereignty, it is the land of our national origin, our indigenous culture, language, and the only land we have ever called home.

Indeed, it was only due to a series of historic injustices committed against us by Assyrian, Babylonian, and Roman Empires, that our land was ravished and our people dispossessed. And it was only due to the colonization of our land, that our people were forced to preserve our Semitic Hebrew culture in the cold winters of Europe or in other lands foreign to our native way of life.

Both sides of my family – those who returned from Morocco and those who returned from Romania, participated in the process of the in-gathering of the exiles when the fragments of our scattered tribes returned back and reunited on our native soil. But the return to the land was not a simple task. Both sides of my family had to fight their way in.

My mother’s family, a very wealthy family from Morocco, chose to abandon all of their wealth and belongings, golden bracelets and other treasures, and endangered their own safety smuggling their way in through France, all for the hopes of reaching Zion. They were not driven out of Morocco but rather risked their lives and sacrificed their possessions for the opportunity to finally come home. My father’s family returning home to Palestine from Romania were intercepted, captured, and deported to Cyprus by the British occupier upon their arrival on our shores. The two sides of my family each represent clear examples of the Jewish struggle to return home against British imperialists, preventing my people from entering our land.

But our fight was not just the fight of individual Jews to enter the land, but a national fight to liberate it from British occupation. While our ancestors failed in liberating our land from foreign rule, we succeeded. Motivated by the ancient tribal yearnings of an entire nation, and led by the instinctive emotional impulses of an indigenous people, Jewish freedom fighters gave their lives to free our homeland from British rule. They did not fight to occupy a foreign land but to decolonize and liberate their own land from foreign occupation. And so finally the British left, and we declared independence on our land for the first time in nearly two thousand years.

For us, that meant the beginning of a correction of an historic injustice, that for so long not only inflicted upon us much suffering, but stood in the way of us achieving self-determination, that held us back from fulfilling our collective mission and national aspirations.

And so these are the essentials of the story of my people: We lived here as a sovereign people, we lost our sovereignty, scattered, many of us assimilated, but the descendants of those of us who held on to our culture with whatever remnants of strength we were able to dig out from the despair, returned home, fought and bled to liberate our land.

However, in recent years, our narrative has been corrupted. Our story has been completely turned upside down. According to the international community and to other voices across the world, I am somehow a colonialist in my own land.

I am a Jew, I was born in Israel, not on April but on Adar Bet (a leap year on the Hebrew calendar), I maternally descend from the tribe of Levi (my maternal great grandfather, Saba Refael, was a Levite), the males in my family still wrap t’fillin identical to the ancient second Temple t’fillin found in Qumran, like the ones used by our ancestors, and every year I celebrate the Judean revolt for independence in our historic homeland on Hanukkah, which has been for us a national festival for over two thousand years. Even after hearing it for the millionth time, I cringe every time a Jew refers to our beloved Judean soil – soaked with the blood, sweat, and tears of my people for thousands of years – as the “West Bank” and I can literally burst into tears when hearing the unbearable words “a divided Jerusalem.” And yet despite all this, I am regarded by the international community as a white colonial occupier, a western foreign settler… have I missed any other words?

But the reality is that the notion of us being foreign to our land is so strange to us that most Israelis are not even aware that this claim is being raised. And those who are aware of it find it too ridiculous to even address. So we talk about security and Israeli innovation and forget to state the obvious because we assume everybody is on board with us – of course this is our land, we’re Jews and this Judea.

In fact it is noteworthy to mention, that this instinctive indigenous self-identification our people possess so naturally is not only the real reason we were able to force out the British and to liberate so many parts of our homeland in 67, but also why Hamas and other terrorist organizations are so unsuccessful with their tactics. Terrorism, which is an anti-colonial tactic used to drive away real colonialists, doesn’t work on indigenous peoples. In fact, when anti-colonial tactics are used against natives, it generally achieves the very opposite results. When indigenous people feel threatened, feel they are getting pushed off their land, feel themselves under attack, they only fight harder. This can be seen in every part of Israeli society as we speak. Our love for and connection to a sense of belonging here transforms the shadows of threat and fear into a passion for our homeland and an urgency to set out into battle.

Furthermore, the anti-Israeli accusations depicting me and my people as colonialists are not only ridiculous, they are deeply offensive. Nobody has the right to call me a foreigner in the land of my forefathers. Nobody has to redefine my people’s ancient identity for political or theological reasons. Nobody has the right to tell me not to live, breath, walk and if I have to – fight and bleed for Yerushalayim. And I will fight and bleed for Yerushalayim if I have to.

We, of course, know who we are. We know our history and we are collectively as focused on our national missions and aspirations as ever. And so the denial of our narrative does not make us flinch. It does, however, further inflict suffering on both sides and furthers us from our goals, including the goal of peace. Indeed, peace is impossible when the other side refuses to acknowledge at least how we see ourselves.

And so we should clarify to all those that are still in doubt: This is our ancestral homeland. It’s simple. It’s clear. We are its natural inhabitants. We are Semites and not Europeans, Hebrews and not whites, Middle Easterners and not Westerners, we are a people and not a religion. We are indigenous to Judea and to Jerusalem and not to Germany or Sweden. We have a right, an unapologetic right, a proud right, and a just right, to live in all parts of our ancient homeland – especially in places like Hebron, Shkhem and Beit El, places where every grain of dirt tells the story of our people.

We are a nation, and like every nation we are entitled to self-determination in our ancestral homeland. We cannot and will not give up that right.

(This article was originally published in The Times of Israel)

What is True Jewish Leadership?

Leadership has played – and continues to play – an essential role in the life of the Hebrew Nation. While Israel has at times been blessed with great shepherds who have brought our people to incredible heights, poor leadership has too often resulted in disaster for our people. This week’s Torah portion of VAYAKHEL offers a glimpse of improper Jewish leadership, from which we can discern the attributes a true leader should possess.

“The leaders brought the shoham stones and the stones for the settings for the Ephod and the Breastplate; the spice and the oil, for illumination and for the anointment oil and the incense spices.” (SHEMOT 35:27-28)

Rashi cites Rabbi Natan on this verse, noting that the word “leaders” (Nesi’im) is spelled without the two yuds the word would normally include. He explains the defective spelling of their title as an implied rebuke for having not brought their gifts until everything else had been contributed. Assuming that the general contributions would not be enough, the tribal chiefs waited to see what would be lacking so that they themselves could step forward and provide it. Because the national response was so generous, however, there was almost nothing left for the leadership to contribute.

The Talmud states that “G-D cries over three things each day… one of these is a leader who behaves arrogantly towards the public” (Talmud Ḥagigah 5b). Rabeinu Baḥyah teaches on this that “For it is the way of leaders to look down upon the rest of the people… and thus leaders brought the stones that rested on Aharon’s heart, in order to atone for the arrogance of their hearts. These leaders had been lowly slaves in Egypt and were now princes of Israel. Upon receiving their high appointment, they immediately began to look down upon their brothers.”

Because Israel’s tribal chiefs were idle in their participation, the Torah spells their title defectively. Had their exhilaration over the Mishkan been equal to that of the masses, they would have immediately joined in the national spirit of generosity. But influential people often view themselves as superior to their public and are unwilling to compromise their status in society. This contemptuous attitude is precisely what leads people in positions of responsibility to harm the national welfare in favor of advancing personal agendas.

The Maharal of Prague teaches in Netivot Olam that a leader who relates to his public with arrogance can easily begin to rule through coercion and brute force. He can become a tyrannical dictator, persecuting any who stand in the way of his ambitions. Throughout history, this type of leadership has resulted in calamity for the Children of Israel. An attitude of false superiority can often cause a person to neglect what is best for his people in favor of personal success or political gains. Such arrogance can even drive a leader to sacrifice innocent lives in exchange for the fleeting approval of foreign rulers.

The ideal Torah concept of melekh (generally translated into English as “king”) differs greatly from the monarchs who rule over other peoples. A melekh is the concentrated expression of the collective Israeli soul – Knesset Yisrael – that manifests itself in our world through millions of bodies revealed in space and time as individual Jews. The melekh does not actually rule over Israel but rather embodies the mission and aspirations of his nation to the extent that he becomes a microcosm of the entire Jewish people and his personal identity is absorbed into Israel’s collective national identity.

Unlike the tribal chiefs who demonstrated less enthusiasm than their people for the Mishkan, a true leader of Israel leads his nation by displaying even greater passion and fervor in serving HaShem. This is clearly exhibited in the behavior of David.

“David danced with all [his] strength before HaShem; David was girded in a linen tunic. David and the entire House of Israel brought up the Ark of HaShem with loud, joyous sound, and the sound of theshofar.” (SHMUEL II 6:14-15)

David remains the paradigm of the ideal melekh, setting the ultimate standard for all future Jewish leadership.

“His [the melekh’s] heart is the heart of the entire congregation of Israel.” (Hilkhot Melakhim 3:6)

Like the heart, which is one of the smallest organs of a body yet provides for that body’s entire energy and life force, a melekh generates and directs the character and vitality of the entire Hebrew Nation. In this vein, the Midrash states that “The leader of the generation [represents] the entire generation.” (Bamidbar Rabbah19:28)

To assist our leaders in properly fulfilling their roles, the Torah offers statutes to promote an attitude of responsibility, such as the commandment for a melekh to write for himself two copies of the Torah.

“It shall be that when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself two copies of this Torah in a book, from before the Kohanim, the Levi’im. It shall be with him, and he shall read from it all the days of his life, so that he will learn to fear HaShem, his G-D, to observe all the words of this Torah and these decrees, to perform them, so that his heart not become haughty over his brethren and not turn from the commandment right or left, so that he will prolong years over his kingdom, he and his sons amid Israel.” (DEVARIM 17:18-20)

A melekh is commanded to write and read his own Torah in order to prevent his position of leadership from creating within him a feeling of arrogance toward his brothers. By delving into the deeper secrets of Torah, a melekh can gain a higher awareness that although we may each play unique roles in Israel’s national life, we are all in fact parts of a greater whole and no man can truly reign supreme over others. Even learning the Torah on a surface level enables a leader to understand the past failures of his people in order that he personally strive to correct these shortcomings and lead the Jewish people in fulfilling our historic destiny.

Genuine Hebrew leadership is the higher calling to unite and inspire Israel towards reaching our full potential as the nation that manifests HaShem’s Ideal in all spheres of life. This national mission is the essence of what a king must fully absorb into himself so that he may place Israel’s honor and well-being before his own. Such leadership is vital for Israel to succeed in bringing about history’s ultimate goal – that the Divine Ideal be seen, felt and perceived in everything that exists so that all may understand themselves as active participants in the greater story of mankind. It is the deterministic blueprint of human development that all peoples unify behind Jerusalem’s leadership in ushering in a world of total goodness and perfection – a world where each people fully expresses itself as an essential organ of a greater body with Israel serving as the heart.

Jewish Pirates That Punished the Spanish and Portuguese

Revenge was sweet. In the centuries following the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions of the Holy Roman Empire, there were Jews that took to the high seas to punish with vengeance those that had betrayed them and their families.

Sinan Reis (Ciphat Sinan) – known as the Great Jew – was one such avenger.  After being forced out of Spain, his family relocated to Smyrna,Turkey, his birthplace. As a young man carrying the wounded pride of his displaced family, Ciphut Sinan joined forces with the Ottoman Empire and with Barbary Coast buccaneers that savaged the navies of Spain’s Charles I, the Holy Roman Emperor. Endearing himself to the famous Ottoman admiral Barbarossa, Sinao O Judeo, as the Portuguese called him, led the Ottoman’s to victory over the Spanish through cunning and often brilliant military strategy.  When operating out of Algiers in 1538, Sinan destroyed most of Spain’s naval fleet off the port of Pleveza, in Greece. Significantly, Ciphut Sinan led his ship under the flag of the Seal of Solomon, similar in appearance to the Star of David.

The Great Jew was to be properly rewarded by Barbarossa for his efforts. In 1540, Emperor Charles’ forces captured Sinan’s son and had him baptized by the Lord of Elba. Barbarossa would have none of that, and after several failed negotiations for the boy’s release, landed his forces at Piombino, he ransacked the town and blew up the fort. At the time of his son’s release by the beleaguered Holy Roman Emperor enemy, Sinan was in the Suez on the Red Sea, preparing an Indian force to attack the Portuguese.

Decades later, brothers Abraham and Moses Cohen Henriques, of Portuguese  Sephardic origin, would rule the high seas of the Caribbean and later the Brazilian coast. Moses Cohen would fearlessly capture over 500 Iberian ships; during the Eighty Years War, the Dutch fight for autonomy from Phillip II of Spain, the brothers came to the aid of the Dutch West Indies Company in one of the greatest heists in history, capturing the Spanish treasure fleet in the Battle of the Bay of Mantazas,  in Cuba. Moses Cohen Henriques, perhaps the most famous Jewish pirate in history, eventually went on to establish his own pirate island off the coast of Brazil.

The strange case of Yaakov Koriel betrays the confusion that reigned during the Inquistion, when Jewish families were ripped apart, some accepting Christianity in the full, others taking their beliefs underground to live outwardly as Christians, but secretly as Jews; the latter were known as Marranos, Conversos, or in Hebrew, Anusim.

Koriel was a Marrano that had sailed with the Spanish Fleet until his true identity was revealed. As a captive of the Holy Roman Empire, he was secretly shown a route to escape by his fellow sailors, many of whom were Marranos as well.

After that, revenge on the Spanish became his sole purpose in life. Fleeing to the Caribbean, he eventually commanded three pirate ships that would incessantly attack the Spanish Fleet marauders that robbed the locals of their gold and silver riches. Many of the pirates that served Koriel were openly religious Jews seeking to avenge the humiliation and suffering at the hands of the Spanish Inquisitors. Ironically, one of Koriel’s brothers, Francisco, became a Catholic Inquisitor himself, later taking the role of the first Archbishop of Mexico.

Years later, Koriel would make a full return to his Judaism, abandoning piracy and traveling to the Land of Israel, to the Galilean hills of Safed. There, in the serene beauty of the pastoral settings, so different from the incessant warring on the seas of the Bermuda Triangle, he became a student of Rabbi Hayim Vital, the foremost student of the Holy Ari, founder of the most prominent Kabbalistic school in Judaism.

Jewish Pirate Gravestone
Skull and crossbones on a Jewish pirate’s grave

Koriel was buried near his masters in Safed, while many of his cronies that fought with him as pirates avenging their heritage, were buried with a skull and crossbones on their tombs in the Portuguese Jewish Cemetery in Ouderkerk, near Amsterdam. Many prominent Sephardic Jews are buried in this cemetery, not only pirates. Among the interred are Rabbi Menasseh Ben Israel, Con Samuel Palache (famous more for his diplomacy than for his short exploits as a pirate) and the renegade philosopher Baruch Spinoza .

As it seems, the appearance of the skull and crossbones on these Jewish graves is not meant in any way to be a mark of derision, but rather a mark of pride – Jewish pride; Jewish pride and Jewish revenge of the brutal and often sadistic Inquisitors that visited upon the Jews and all “infidels” the wrath of their fury.

Thus, this is a sadly forgotten story of Jewish patriotism. As it seems, most of the monies wrested from the Spanish and Portuguese was taken by those that were aided by the Jewish pirates, be it the Ottomans or the Dutch. For the Jews, revenge was sweet enough.

The Day Dachau was Liberated by Native Americans

Located in Oklahoma City, the 45th Infantry Division, disbanded in 1968, was originally a part of the Oklahoma National Guard and saw action in both World War II and the Korean War. Composed of soldiers from New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and Oklahoma the 45th was established in the early 1920s; its soldiers were natural fighters, marksmen and people of the land. Some of them were Native Americans whose families had come to the region from Tennessee and the Carolinas in the brutal Trail of Tears.

Ironically, the 45th Infantry Division in 1924 chose the Swastika as their symbol. The Swastika was a Native American symbol. In 1939, with the rise of Nationalist Socialism in Germany, members of the 45th Infantry Division replaced their insignia with a Thunderbird, another Native American symbol, designed by Oklahoma native Woody Big Bow.

During World War II, the division engaged in heavy fighting against the Nazis in Italy, displaying great bravery and resolve, despite serious losses. They would be the first Allied troops to reach the Vatican. After Italy, they entered into France and Germany, capturing several key cities and eventually crossing the Danube River. On April 29th, 1945 the 45th was sent to liberate the Dachau Concentration Camp.

Upon witnessing the horrors of Dachau, soldiers of the 45th mowed down Nazi soldiers who had already surrendered, Cherokee Indian 1st Lieutenant Jack Bushyhead personally ordering the execution of almost 400 SS troops. In the eyes of the Native American soldiers of the U.S. Army, Nazi soldiers in concentration camps were not ordinary enemy soldiers deserving of protection as prisoners of war; they were simply murderers. Those liberated Jewish inmates that still had enough strength to take vengeance joined the 45th in this act. Jews, White and Black Americans and American Indians taking revenge together on Nazis is something that binds. The Jews also killed some kapos. This was not the direct business of the American soldiers, but they did help.

Lt. Jack Bushyhead
Lt. Jack Bushyhead (left) at the Liberation of Dachau, 1945.

Immediately before entering the Dachau Concentration Camp, the soldiers of the 45th found thirty nine railroad boxcars containing two thousand skeletal corpses and brain tissue scattered about from smashed in skulls. According to eyewitness reports, the battle toughened soldiers were not at all prepared for the sight and, in concert with the stench of decaying corpses, could not hold their emotions back. They vomited, cried and entered a state of rage that cannot be understood by those that have never experienced such horrors.

At that point Nazi tower guardsmen started to shoot on the American soldiers and the fighting resumed, but not in full force. It seems that many of the SS guards, the camp commander and others had fled the camp just before its liberation, leaving hundreds more strewn and tortured bodies for the 45th Infantry Division liberators to find. Still, the Nazis had 560 SS soldiers left in the compound, many of them Hungarian Waffen SS troops, others were inmates of the SS conscripted prison system which was also housed in Dachau.

There is much dispute as to what really happened at the camp, how many Nazi Soldiers were actually killed and under what circumstances. In his 1986 book, Dachau: The Day of the Avenger, an Eyewitness Account, first lieutenant and medical corps office Howard Buechner writes that U.S. forces killed 520 Nazi soldiers, 346 on the orders of the Cherokee Indian, Jack Bushyhead. Other eyewitnesses dispute this and still others confirm.

Alleged execution of SS troops in a coal yard in the area of the Dachau concentration camp during its liberation. April 29, 1945
Alleged execution of SS troops in a coal yard in the area of the Dachau concentration camp during its liberation. April 29, 1945

After the liberation, accusations of war crimes were hurled at the American forces. As such, getting to the truth of the episode is difficult. No matter the true number of executed Nazis, during a United States Army investigation into the occurrences, General George S. Patton dismissed the charges. Deputy Judge Advocate, Colonel Charles L. Decker, wrote: “in the light of the conditions which greeted the eyes of the first combat troops, it is not believed that justice or equity demand that the difficult and perhaps impossible task of fixing individual responsibility now be undertaken.”

What is not denied is that the American soldiers gave guns and tools to the Jewish inmates that still had strength enough to take revenge on the Nazi soldiers still in the complex. And take revenge they did, killing and butchering several Nazis as well as Jewish kapos.

Jewish Inmate Beating SS Guard
Dachau inmate prepares to beat a guard to death with a shovel

These occurrences, of course, of Jewish inmates taking revenge on Nazi soldiers were never considered immoral or wrong. They were understandable to all, probably to the Nazi soldiers as well as the Jewish kapos themselves.

The question then must be asked. Is it not enough to see and to internalize or must one actually fall victim first? The Cherokee Jack Bushyhead knew oppression and the murdering of innocents in his family from the Trail of Tears, the mid nineteenth century forced walk of several Indian tribes and Black Americans from the Southeastern United States to the Oklahoma territory. It is estimated that approximately 2000-6000 Cherokee Indians died on the vicious and brutal journey.

Having internalized his own people’s narrative, this Native American hero was perhaps doubly moved to act on the pledge: Never Again.

The Biology of Terror

While the world scrambles to deal with the continually growing threat of radical Islam, the true underlying causes of this phenomenon are grossly ignored. Governments – local, federal and international – are considering various strategies to contend with this unprecedented danger in various ways: militarily, politically, criminally and culturally, all the time ignoring the biological root cause of Islamic terrorism. The world runs the risk of continued peril if it does not quickly come to terms with the following politically incorrect fact: radical Islamic culture, in its various fanatic forms, leads to severe mental and emotional impairment. The conclusion, even more politically incorrect than the hypothesis, is that the culture of radical Islam must be shut down in all countries that believe in human freedom and mental health. A further conclusion is that political or cultural arrangements that allow for the preservation of this deranged culture can only lead to disaster.

Several important researchers, such as John Crayton, Jerrold Post and Richard Pearlstein, take the “terrorist as mentally ill” approach in trying to make sense of the phenomenon of individual acts of terror. Post asserts that individuals drawn to terrorism rely on the psychological mechanisms of ‘externilization’ and ‘splitting’. These psychological mechanisms are, according to Post, found in “individuals with narcissistic and borderline personality disturbances”, disturbances that usually occur during childhood and early adulthood. The ability to healthily integrate the good and bad sides of one’s personality is lost and thus their split personalities are split into “me” and “not me”, the one capable of inflicting violent damage on the other, including suicides that destroy their surroundings as well.

Is it not only possible, but rather probable, that societies that raise their young under a constant atmosphere of violence, rape, fear, jealousy, disciplinary stringency, an erased and even deprecated sense of the feminine self, may just be a breeding ground for violent fanaticism?

For instance, female genital mutilation, a practice common to much of Islamic society, can result in severe bleeding, neurogenic shock, haemorrhagic shock, severe pain, shame and trauma; it goes without saying, all this without the requisite medical and psychological help given to the victim. Honor killings have risen greatly as of late amongst Arab societies with horrendous affects not only for the hapless woman, but for family as well. A Palestinian reported that after a woman was killed for suspected adultery, her children were left “for two weeks, incapable of sleep, crying for their mother.”

Child rape, both male and female, and by both mother and father, is common in many segments of Muslim society, and now it has spread to those that would respect the religious and cultural mores of their Muslim immigrants. In a 2014 BBC report on the Muslim immigrant population, it was reported that “at least 1,400 children were subjected to appalling sexual exploitation in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013…..children as young as 11 were raped by multiple perpetrators, abducted, trafficked to other cities in England, beaten and intimidated.”

Domestic violence against women, according to many but not all scholars of Muslim jurisprudence, is allowed and not subject to punishment. Add to this the roaring role of the Imam in the mosque and the constant message of violence against the infidel, the total and utter lack of sensitivity in the killing of animals for consumption (compare  Jewish ritual slaughter or Western government-approved slaughter with Halal slaughter), children and women being made to stand in front of their men as protection, and an entire list of similar atrocities. It seems a pretty good bet that if we examined these segments of Muslim populations  psychologically, we would see a large segment of this population suffering from ‘externalization’ and ‘splitting’. In biological terms, we would see different patterns of brain region activation, epigenetic negative influence on normal gene expression and even anatomical differences caused by trauma on the developing brain.

Can solving this problem really be seen as something that has to do with good will and multiculturalism? Can any political deal made with these people really produce something longer lasting than the ink on the document? Is it any wonder that so many non-Muslim grown psychopaths are finding their way to radical Islam (perhaps radical Islam represents to them one form of “not me” that they can easily identify with)?

In a 2012 paper entitled “Dynamic Epigenetic Responses To Childhood Exposure to Violence”,  Jonathan Mill writes, “Of note, changes in DNA methylation following early life stress have been associated with long-term changes in gene expression and behavior and may contribute to both psychiatric disorders and physiological disturbances later in life.” He provides evidence of altered gene expression due to juvenile violence.

British researchers found significant differences between the brains of psychopaths and normal people, specifically in the uncinate fasciculus, while earlier studies have shown similar differences in the emotional and violence regulating center – the amygdala – and the orbitofrontal cortex, an area important for decision making. Lead researcher, Dr. Michael Craig states, “The suggestion of a clear structural deficit in the brains of psychopaths has profound implications for clinicians, research scientists and the criminal justice system.”

Dr. Craig should have noted as well that the implications for politicians and social scientists are no less important. Viewing Muslim terror in this way reveals, for instance, the utter futility and even great danger of ideas such as the Two State Solution between Israel and the Palestinians. Taking from Israel the ability to militarily patrol this breeding ground of psychopaths is insane.  It will never work. Psychopathic societies are never satiated (need we mention Global Jihad and the Global Caliphate?). Will the Muslims in Pakistan ever stop their murderous fury against the Hindus? I doubt it – unless they stop following radical Islam.

The world can help with this and put an end to radical Islam. But it must be understood that this is a problem for the World Health Organization, not for the UN proper; radical interpretations of Sharia Law as a global health problem. The very many Islamic apologists, Barack Hussein Obama included, must understand that if they desire to protect any vestige of goodwill towards Islam, they must help to eradicate those very many biological aspects that lead to gross mental regression. This means, first and foremost, reigning in Sharia Law. It is time to tame radical Islam, which means not only ISIS, but also a score of political movements that create this sickened and dark reality – Hamas and Boko Haram as just two examples.

There can be no political negotiations with the deranged. For Europe and America, there can be no cultural respect for those that lead their own down the slippery slope of mental illness.

Most importantly, it behooves those Muslims that reject the methods and ideologies of the radical Islamists to create strong societal borders even within their own communities, to not only theoretically reject but to functionally halt this growing plague. Should they not do so, the boundaries between radical Islam and Islam will be understandably blurred by outsiders in the Western world and the consequences that even the moderate Muslims suffer will be completely of their own making.

 

For Gush Katif, a Memorial is all that Stands

It has been over ten years since the destruction and erasure of Gush Katif. Many of the families have moved on after years of homelessness.  Families have broken apart.  Kids have grown up with a distaste for the state. This should not be a surprise, after all their childhood was ruined by the very state sworn to protect them.

Ten years later and the government has finally given the people of Gush Katif something in return for their misery. Today a memorial statue has been placed in the Eastern entrance to the Knesset.

“It is only fitting that the Knesset, which decided [to evacuate the Gush Katif communities], will remember, and remind those who visit it of the communities of Gush Katif and northern Samaria – the [building of settlements], the agriculture and the settlers themselves. I hope this work of art will generate interest among the visitors of the Knesset,” Yuli Edelstein, the Speaker of the Knesset said at an unveiling today for the memorial statue.

Gush Katif is but a memory.  The pioneers and young families will be a few sentences in the history books.  Kids will be taught that there was a time when the State’s leaders were really the warriors of old. However, as these leaders grew older they turned their backs on the very ideology and land that nurtured their development.

When the slogan Never Again was made about the Holocaust, the point is not about not letting another Holocaust take place.  This is obvious.  The means to prevent a repeat of history is to say Never Again to being an exile minded Jew. Israel is meant to be more than memorial statues.  It is meant to be an engine that builds our redemption.

No one lost their lives or sacrificed to settle barren dunes to be rewarded a memorial statue. That is what a nation who wants to sacrifice its future on the alter of world acceptance does. Israel is not about abandoning the past. It is about tying our covenant and the Land that was given to us by the Almighty together in order to give a full expression to our prophetic charge of being a light unto the nations.

One day the memorial statue will be taken down.  Not because we don’t want to remember, but because one day the people of Gush Katif will return and liberate their stolen land.  They will no longer be a mere memory for the youth, but once again Gush Katif will exist in the present.  The Land of Israel nurtures its children. We in turn must be strong enough in faith to see our part of the covenant through.

I have Borne You on the Wings of Eagles

“‘You have seen what I did to Egypt, and I have borne you on the wings of eagles and brought you to Me. And now, if you hearken well to Me and observe My Covenant, you shall be to Me a Segula of all nations, for Mine is the entire world. You shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the Children of Israel.” (SHEMOT 19:4-6)

Before bestowing upon Israel the Torah at Sinai, HaShem commands Moshe to relate these instructions to the entire Hebrew Nation. Awareness of Israel’s national mission is a prerequisite for receiving the Torah because only through understanding our historic purpose and the Divine Ideal our nation is meant to manifest can we hope to fully grasp the significance of the individual mitzvotthrough which that greater ideal is expressed.

The national mission of the Jewish people in history is achieved through that which can best be described as “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” Israel is tasked with bringing all of humanity to the conscious awareness of HaShem as the timeless ultimate Reality without end that creates all, sustains all, empowers all and loves all. And in order for Israel to achieve this lofty goal, we must first constitute a healthy nation in our homeland that manifests the Divine Ideal in all spheres of national life. Our society must encompass scholars, doctors, farmers, pilots, accountants, lawmakers, firefighters and sanitation workers, all serving HaShem and working in unison to build His kingdom in our physical world – a kingdom that will provide material expression to all of our Torah’s highest spiritual values. Not as a “religion” or philosophy but rather as a living reality – a kingdom who’s very life force and national culture is the Divine Ideal being fully expressed in every field of human endeavor. A kingdom of priests and holy nation – where even the bus drivers drive their buses and the merchants sell their wares in such a way that manifests HaShem’s Ideal in their specific spheres of life – is the way in which Israel brings the world to know HaShem.

Rabbi Avraham Yitzḥak HaKohen Kook writes at length on the topic of Israel’s Segula. In Letter 555, he explains that the holiness and Divine connection ofAm Yisrael is made up of two main components – the Segula and free will. TheSegula is our nation’s absolute inner essence that transcends the behavior or personal consciousness of any individual Jew. It is the eternal national Covenant between the Kadosh Barukh Hu and Israel and the intrinsic kedushainfused into the nature of Knesset Yisrael – Israel’s collective soul – that cannot be altered or negated, thereby upholding the Mishnaic teaching that all Israel have a share in the world to come. Just by virtue of being substantially linked to the Divine, every Hebrew enjoys an eternal connection to HaShem.

Despite the objective kedusha of Israel’s inner Segula independent of the thoughts or deeds of individuals, its expression is generally revealed only to the extent that a Jew’s free will facilitates. Its manifestation is therefore normally dependent on a person’s conscious relationship with HaShem, emersion in Torah and fulfillment of mitzvot.

Because Israel possesses this consecrated Segula and the potential to bring great blessing to the world, we must strive to express it through our individual and collective conduct. The Hebrew Nation was created with the ability to shine a tremendous light to the world that will elevate Creation to its loftiest ideal state. While all Jews possess this unique Segula regardless of whether or not we ever actualize our potential, a healthy person who understands this responsibility will naturally strive to live up to his true self. The more we appreciate our national mission and connection to HaShem, the more we desire to reveal the Segula in our lives. This manifestation of Divine energy and blessing is essentially accomplished through the performance of the mitzvot.

Although Rabbi Kook teaches that there are historic periods in which theSegula is able to override personal choice and subconsciously propel Israel forward (such as the Zionist movement’s initial stages), the role of Israel’s free will is to recognize and reveal the Segula’s innate kedusha by conducting our personal lives and national life in accordance with the statutes of our Torah. By properly utilizing our power of choice, we open valves that bring Divine content into our world. Each mitzvah performed in Eretz Yisrael is a finite vehicle that infuses immense light into our reality, like a faucet connected to a pipe full of blessing that enters the world through each precept carried out. This Divine energy then raises the world to a higher plane of existence, measurably improving and illuminating it through the Jewish people properly expressing our inner essence. Every time a Jew learns a verse of Torah, gives money to the needy or plants a tree in his homeland, a surge of Divine blessing enters the world, causing the forces of evil and human suffering to be diminished.

For much of the time that Jews were in exile from our homeland, the world was trapped in what is often referred to as “dark ages.” Advancement in the fields of medicine, culture and technology was halted as senseless violence and disease plagued civilization. But as soon as the Hebrew Nation began to trickle home to our native soil, a world of wisdom and idealism began to open up and flourish. Science and technology began to rapidly advance as mankind’s sensibilities grew increasingly more humane. For the first time in history, warfare – rather than glorified – became viewed as a negative (although often necessary) historic occurrence. Mass movements were formed and revolutions took place geared towards rectifying the ills of human civilization.

History’s ultimate goal of universal fulfillment and total blessing necessitates exposing the Divine Ideal that manifests itself through Israel’s national life ofkedusha. While the Segula of Israel is eternal and unchangeable, the Hebrew mission is to reveal it on the highest level possible in order to drive humanity closer to achieving a perfect world.

The Torah is not a “religion” relegated to the houses of study or prayer. Nor is it a set of rules meant to coercively modify human behavior. The Torah is the Divine Ideal from before Creation lowered into our world in order to guide Israel in successfully exposing our inner Segula and actualizing our potential of bringing humankind to the awareness of its unique relationship with the infinite Whole we call HaShem. Each word and precept found within our Torah only serves to instruct us in properly revealing our inherent kedusha and behaving according to our authentic nature.

The Torah ideal of Israel becoming “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” necessitates the sanctification of every element of nationhood, from commerce and social services to warfare and diplomacy. This is the Divine Ideal – revealed to us even before the Ten Commandments – that constitutes the essence of Israel’s spiritual composition and illustrates the perfection of the Torah as our constitution. The Kingdom of Israel, now advancing towards fulfillment, will revolutionize human values and shine blessing to mankind as we establish a model society that will set an example of Divine perfection and bring history to its ultimate goal.

Yes Orly, We Do Care About Dead Palestinians

[dropcap]C[/dropcap]ommentator and Left wing activist Orly Noy of the far Left 972 Mag wrote an article entitled: When do Israelis care about dead Palestinians? She asserts that the current outrage against far Left Agitator Ezra Nawi over his bragging of getting Palestinians killed by the PA over their property sales is pure politics. She compares this to the lack of outrage over hunger striking Muhammad al-Qiq a Palestinian journalist arrested by Israel on behalf of the Palestinian Authority because he criticized PA policies.

Orly says the following: “All of a sudden the entire country has come together, concerned about the possible wrongdoing to a Palestinian from the occupied territories. All of a sudden Abu Khalil’s life — and death — have become meaningful for Israelis. All of a sudden the Israeli public cares about a dead Palestinian.”

Israeli society is outraged about what occurred with Ezra Nawi, because it is at its core hypocritical. There is one thing to say you support Palestinian rights . I may disagree with that, but it is part of discourse. Yet, using your stature as a Palestinian rights activist to turn trusting Palestinians over to an abusive leadership simply because one disagrees with Jewish Land purchases is patently hypocritical and sick.

Orly is right though, the Israeli government should stop working to prop up the Ramallah regime.  The only difference between Orly and myself is what should replace it.  Land of Israel activists believe the best and most humane solution is to annex Judea and Samaria, which will end the occupation.  The result of this would actually give the Palestinian Arabs that are law abiding the chance to have a far better life as part of the Israeli civil society.

Something tells me Orly Noy would disagree.