May 20
 
 

Government against God

The Pesach-2008 saw a tremendous hypocrisy contest in Israel. A secular court in the holy city of Jerusalem lifted the punishments imposed on several sellers of leavened bread (hametz) the previous Pesach. In effect, the court made it unpunishable and therefore legal to sell leavened bread on Pesach.

The commandment prohibiting leavened bread on Pesach is among the most prominent in Judaism. The commandment is equally binding on Jews and non-Jews alike in the Land of Israel, and its violation is punishable with death. Judaism is neither liberal nor individual; its rules are enforced throughout the Land of Israel.

Israeli state retained the paraphernalia of Judaism, and the Pesach is its national holiday. The state, however, dropped the Pesach’s two major commandments: the Temple service and non-leavened bread. While a modicum of political justification is advanced against rebuilding the Temple, the permission to sell leavened bread on Pesach is entirely voluntary. The state of Israel chose its secular character over the Jewish identity.

Israeli government against God

Israeli religious parties decried the court’s verdict a bit too late. After the sixty years of atheist brainwashing in Israeli schools, after the government’s ban on Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount, after the announced decisions to abandon Judea and Jerusalem to Arabs, the permission to sell hametz on Pesach is really not unexpected. And it is a relatively minor thing compared to the government’s other offenses against Judaism. But for ultra-Orthodox Jews, symbolism long outweighs the substance. They murder Judaism with a death of a thousand rites; they replace the Jewish life, Jewish wars, Jewish statehood with Shabbat elevators.

There is nothing technically wrong with the Jerusalem court which decided on hametz. The court merely acted upon the laws of the state. If Israel is a liberal democracy, then it cannot enforce religious rules on unwilling subjects. Imagine an outcry if Russia or Greece enforced religious rules concerning the Christian Passover, a forty-day partial fast, for example.

The court was only happy to apply the law straightforwardly in order to further its own anti-Semitism, a time-honored self-hatred of Jews who happily eradicate Jewishness of others. Israeli left applauded the court’s decision not because of liberalism. Israeli leftists are anything but liberal; they are some of the worst totalitarians who keep political opponents, even teenage girls, in jail. The verdict signified the left’s triumph over their main enemies, religious Jews.

There is no way to reconcile a secular and a Jewish state.

 
 
 
 
Israel wants F-35 the US doesn’t want

Lockheed Martin developed F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jet so expensive that even the US Air Force slashed its initial order to a token quantity. The fighter jet is just too expensive to risk it in combat. Though Israel estimates the price around $80 million, the current cost of F-35 is close to $250 million.
F-35 lacks a combat opponent. Russian MIG jets don’t come close, but cost many times less than F-35 JSF.
It is not inconceivable that Lockheed Martin bribed Israel’s Minister of Defense Barak to purchase the aircraft which the USAF refused.
Israel’s enemies Syrian and Iran, in the meanwhile, buy very good Russian MIG fighter jets and S300 antiaircraft missiles for a fraction of cost of the American weapons.



Karni Corssing goes hot

Thousands of Arabs gathered at Karni Crossing, ready to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza. IDF troops fired at the crowd, causing some casualties.
The policy of blockade has failed, it didn’t bring about Hamas downfall, but Israeli government clings to that useless strategy for lack of the political will to re-occupy Gaza and evict the terrorists.
Gazans rally behind Hamas and now seem ready to attempt breaking the border into Israel. Hamas successfully staged the broder breach with Egypt, and has no reason to refrain from a similar action regarding Israel.

Truck bomb intercepted at Eretz Crossing

with Gaza, laden with 4 tons of explosives, detonated on the Gazan side of the border. The Jewish state continues dutifully supplying Gaza with water, fuel, and electricity.

Knesset contemplates a most absurd law

The bill, passed in the first reading, requires a prime minister under criminal investigation to resign. Such a law makes leftist attorney general of Israel a kingmaker, able to remove any prime minister at whim.

Almost all Jews against giveaway of the Golan Heights

Polls show today 65-70% of Israel’s residents reject exchanging the Golan Heights for peace treaty with Syria. That’s about the entire Jewish population of Israel.

Homes for territories

Shas is prepared to stay in the government despite the talks on Judea, Samaria, and the Golan Heights. In exchange, Olmert approved another 288 housing units for Shas voters in Betar Illit township. Other settlements see no new construction.

 
 
 
 
Israek woos Syria away from Iran

Israel, Syria resumed negotiations through the good offices of Turkey. Syrians announced Israeli government accepted full withdrawal from the Golan Heights. Olmert’s office said essentially the same, but in weasel words: that it understands what should be done for peace with Syria.
Israel is represented by Olmert’s chief of staff, a decidedly unofficial position.
Just days ago, Turkey announced failure of the negotiations. The current spike of activity is probably an Israel’s attempt to neutralize Syria during the attack on Iran. Bound by the promising peace talks, Syria is not expected to unleash its hundreds of missiles on Israel as part of its mutual defense with Iran.
It remains unclear why do we need peace with Syria or expect normalization even if we have a peace treaty. Suppose Syria would promise to abandon Hamas and Hezbollah, sign a peace treaty with Israel, and then resume its support of terrorists. Israel won’t break the peace over this little issue, just as she now refrains from canceling peace treaty with Egypt over its support of Hamas. With Egypt and Jordan’s peace treaties, the US sort of guaranteed their relatively decent behavior. In the absence of such guarantor for Syria, peace is unlikely.



Demjanyuk will be extradited

Three decades ago, the mad Supreme Court of Israel acquitted Ivan Demjanyuk, ruling that he is not “Ivan the Terrible,” an infamous sadistic Ukrainian guard of Treblinka death camp. The acquittal hinged on earlier recollections by an escapee from Treblinka surmising that he had killed Ivan during the escape. The court took for testimony what was obviously wishful thinking, even though survivors recognized Ivan.
Since then, Demjanyuk returned to the US where the Supreme Court decided now to extradite him as war criminal.
It is a shame for all Jews that no one yet tortured that scum to death, but extradition to Poland or Ukraine might make the task of good Jews even easier.

Prosecution: Olmert is cheap

During today’s hearing on Olmert-Talansky affair, state attorney accused Olmert of accepting “envelops with cash” from Talansky. Therefore, only trivial amounts of money are in question. Never mind that every politician, in Israel and abroad, accepts unregistered donations; they are not elected to be saints.

Arab suicide bomber killed at road block

near Schem, one of those whose removal Condi Rice demands. The terrorist was betrayed by wires hanging from below his clothes.

Orthodox Jews against California liberalism

The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America lambasted the landmark decision by California’s Supreme Court which declared legal restrictions on same-sex “marriage” unconstitutional. The court’s decision came out even though a majority of Californians voted against homosexual “marriage.” California is a national tend-setter in the US, and the court’s decision will trigger a wave of similar rulings in other states.
Judaism, which mandates execution or banishment of practicing homosexuals, would look very odd in the society where homosexual “marriage” is legal. Israel legalized homosexual unions long ago.

Abbas: Negotiations with Israel failed

Al Hayat reports the “president” of the Palestinian non-state prepares a formal announcement - which, presumably, would kick out the third intifada. Abbas is reportedly frustrated with the US abandoning its pressure on Israel in favor of the suicidal peace process. If so, well and good. We need the Arabs to revolt in order to expel them from Judea and Samaria into Jordan.

Sarkozy talks to Hamas

French FM confirmed informal talks with Hamas.

 
 
 
 
Oil price sets new record

of $129 per barrel. When Osama bin Laden announced a decade ago that Muslim terrorists would jack the oil price to $115, everyone derided him as madman.
Thanks to the US invasion of Iraq, the oil price predictably keeps rising. There is no economic reason for the oil price hike: Iraq’s official output is stable, black market shipments from Kurdistan are on the rise, and world’s demand is not soaring. The increase of oil price is entirely attributable to speculators who exploit popular uncertainty over Iraq and Iran.
America’s clients: Kuwait, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia do nothing to stem the skyrocketing oil price. Instead, they enjoy immense profits - and spend them for American weapons. US oil corporations - Bush’s greatest friends - also enjoy windfall profits. As long as rising oil price does not threaten recession in America, Republicans need not fear voters’ anger.
All of this makes the US attack on Iran still more likely, as it can easily double the oil price.



Saudi Arabia accuses US speculators of oil price hikes

The Saudi princeling refused Bush’s request to increase the oil production in order to stem the price hike. According to Saudi king, his country supplies all the oil the customers ask for and there is no unfulfilled demand. That statement is technically wrong, as oil demand might dwindle in response to rising prices, and so Saudi Arabia would always face the exact demand it is willing to supply.
Presently, however, there are no signs of dwindling demand. Modern economy is much more energy-efficient than in 1970s and weathers the rising oil prices well.
Russian oil supply increased considerably over the years. Iraq is nominally pumping approximately the pre-war volume, but really much more as black market supply goes out from Kurdistan. The oil hike price is entirely attributable to commodity speculators who profit from the irrelevant instability in Iraq.
In the crazy post-modern world, corporate fascism and liberalism work for the same goals: oil corporations profit immensely from the rising prices, and liberals protest imposition of the “colonial” supply requirements onto Iraq and Kuwait, ostensibly liberated and surely controlled by the US, and on Saudi Arabia which the US protects from Iran.

Bush goes to Riyadh

Israel’s best friend and a great peacemaker (just like Jimmy Carter was) finished celebrating Israel’s Independence Day and now flies to Saudi Arabia, the prime sponsor of Wahhabite Islam and terrorism worldwide, a sponsor for the Pakistani nuclear program. Bush will spend a day at the royal horse farm near Riyadh with the horse owner.

Good Muslims bomb Christian school in Gaza

early in the morning, with no children present. The school is messianic, caters to Muslims. Hamas vowed to investigate.

Barak: The time is not right for Sderot to live

The Defense Minister Ehud Barak announced he curtails his urge to attack Gaza and waits for the proper time to attack Hamas. It remains unclear why the time was not proper two years ago or now, or what Hamas has to do with PIJ and PRC attacks on Israel.
Ehud Barak promised the end to rocket attacks from Gaza within several months. It seems the army prepares for the confrontation with Iran, and don’t want to be bogged down in Gaza but relies on ending the Iranian support for the Palestinian guerrillas.

In fake video, Osama Bin Laden thrashes Israel

The tape sports a voice which doesn’t sound like Bin Laden’s old tapes, and a still picture dating back some years. Of course, if Al Qaeda wanted to post Osama’s speech, a normal video would have been prepared.
The fake Osama lashed at length at Israel for oppressing the poor Palestinian terrorists and vowed to defend every inch of the land the Palestinians consider theirs.

Peres, Jewish rich set to destroy the Dead Sea

Shimon Peres finally arranged private financing for his Red Sea - Dead Sea channel from Jewish billionaires. Ex-Soviet Jews readily recognize the communist mega-projects of turning the rivers backwards and connecting the seas.
A multibillion-dollar project spells ecological catastrophe for the Dead Sea and creates up to a million jobs primarily for Jordanians.

Blair: Ever better training for Palestinian guerrillas

The Quartet envoy praised the excellent skills of the Fatah “police” which they will unleash on Hamas - or on Israel.

100,000 Russian Israelis gather for abomination

of visiting Russian pop-singers in Tel Aviv. Sort of a Jewish identity.

 
 
December 9
 
 

It’s okay to be Jewish

Islam is relatively tolerant. It accepts Christians at least as dhimmi. Judaism absolutely forbids any foreign worship in the Land of Israel: no altars, temples, or places of prayer. Islam tolerates churches. Judaism, if it ever again takes hold of the Land of Israel, would demolish churches here.

Judaism is the very opposite of tolerance. Judaism is about purity, and purity is oh so intolerant of what it sees as impurity. “Live and let live” is antithetical to Judaism in the Land of Israel. “Let live” applies to Gentiles elsewhere: God gave them the seven moral laws of Noah, but otherwise they can live as they please. Judaism carved for itself a patch of land and applied to it zoning regulations. This land must be absolutely pure: an island of purity among the sea of anything.

Purity is about doing; tolerance – refraining from action. Tolerance is individual; any individual can be tolerant. Purity is necessarily collective: the finest person cannot remain pure in the evil environment. Even Lot had to leave Sodom. Modern people cannot hide in their apartments and engage in subsistence farming like Lot probably did; the continuous interaction with wickedness leaves purity no chance.

The Torah established the ultimately collective religion. Every major commandment is addressed to “thou.” Every Jew is responsible for everything that happens in his habitat. Recall the words we repeat every Shabbat: “Thou shall do no work on that day, neither thou nor thine son nor thine daughter nor thine servants, men or women, nor thine animals nor the stranger who lives with thou.” Animals are not subject to commandments; their owners are. Every single Jew is responsible for what happens around him: just as his animals must not work, so everyone in his sphere of influence, from the direct “your servants” to the remotest “stranger who lives in your land” must obey the commandments. Just as the Jews must punish thieves and murderers who have done no harm to them personally, so we must punish other transgressors even though their offenses are private and non-violent.

The concept of moral zoning is commonly accepted. Tolerant Americans banish non-violent striptease bars to the outskirts of their towns or downtown areas. Europeans won’t imagine homosexual gatherings in the government-owned cathedrals. Parental controls block the neutral, in libertarian terms, programming: there’s nothing objectively wrong in showing children sex scenes. Societies ban polygamy, a totally innocuous behavior.

Jews, too, commonly accept the responsibility for each other. Thus, for example, Neturei Karta is largely right in its criticism of the Zionist state. Neturei Karta’s speaker at the Iranian Holocaust Conference took a principled stand and refuted the revisionist attempts. Still, Neturei Karta was condemned for its cooperation with the enemies of Zionists, even if the Zionist government itself is an enemy of Jews. The common fate of Jews takes precedence over the Neturei Karta’s freedom of expression. Religion always takes precedence over personal freedoms. Any organization requires its members to submit to its charter. If conscripts submit to the army’s procedures even while disagreeing with policies, how much more Jews must submit to our religion?

Judaism doesn’t claim for itself the entire world or continents, but a tiny speck of land to set a morally exemplary society on. Those of different opinions can live on in Damascus or Toronto.

Those left must be forced to the moderate Judaism.

 
 
November 5
 
 

Blood libel is no libel

Al Dura is a Palestinian boy allegedly shot by the IDF in the 2000. The IDF has killed many young Arabs both before and after the event, some of them deliberately as in Kfar Qasem. Al Dura’s case was made different by graphic TV footage. It appears likely that al Dura was shot by his compatriots either accidentally in the gunfight with the IDF, or deliberately to stage the footage. That won’t be exceptional, too: Arabs murder young girls as a matter of family honor, and young Arabs are killed accidentally in clashes between Palestinian factions. Israeli propaganda officials overestimate the importance of al Dura. Muslims and European anti-Semites needed a symbol to rally around against Israel, and al Dura’s death made for just such a symbol. Short of it, any other face would do. Dir Yassin made a focal point of anti-Israeli agenda for decades.

Israel kept silence on al Dura’s case for years despite the fact that the IDF investigation established that al Dura was shot from the Arab side. Barak closed the investigation and effectively made the IDF to absorb the blame. Years later, a Jewish activist accused the French TV channel of misleadingly editing the footage, the channel sued back, and Israel was forced to support the activist. Still, many Israeli and the Diaspora officials denounce the efforts the clean the IDF’s image. Theirs is a typical Judenrat attitude that it’s okay for the Jews to be blamed and suffer for imaginable crimes, but not to disrupt the quiet by protesting loudly. They embody the suicidal position that Jews should be nice, no matter what. In personal life, they drag minor offenders to court and scream over property issues, but on the communal level they have nothing to defend since they don’t identify with Jews. In their own eyes, they are shepherds or owners of Jewish human cattle, and the cattle cannot be insulted.

The case of al Dura brings us back to Zhabotinsky’s position on Beilis, a Russian version of Dreifus. At the height of pogrom attitudes in Russia, Zhabotinsky argued that Jews should not rush to clear themselves from the allegations, but proudly ignore them. Zhabotinsky’s position makes sense when dealing with the mobs who only seek rationalization for their hatred of Jews. It is a waste of time to prove to Muslims or European anti-Semites that Jews don’t normally target Arab kids. Just like the Americans were condemned for an isolated My Lai incident, so were the Jews for al Dura. People cannot stand someone of higher morality than they are. Muslims and Europeans who kill millions of their own and have the greatest fun killing Jews, desperately need to prove that Jews are also detestable murderers. When the murder of Jesus doesn’t do, al Dura kicks in.

But there are others: decent Americans, honest Europeans, well wishing Christians. They won’t think badly of Israel even if the IDF killed al Dura; they know that wars kill. They, however, are entitled to know the truth. The IDF personnel are also entitled to be cleared of murder. Zhabotinsky was right that the hysterical campaign to defend Beilis actually defamed the Jews. In al Dura’s case, Israel only needs to present good evidence of Arabs killing him. If such evidence is unavailable, Israel can still comment that killing is the nature of war. There is no need to whitewash ourselves hysterically, but telling the facts is a right thing to do.

 
 
October 3
 
 

Real Exile, fictional mentality

Jewish Exile mentality is fiction. Jews of Exile were strong and arrogant. They spitted when passing the churches, traded on dangerous routs, made loans and claimed the debts through magistrates, maintained many synagogues, religious schools, and libraries, and often fought pogrom mobs courageously. Incredibly poor Russian Jews enjoyed their life. Contemporary literature, such as Sholom Aleichem’s, picture wholesome, joyful communities.

Exile mentality is a product of assimilation. Jewish communities abandoned traditional isolation and opened to the outside world. Jews confused equality with similarity, attempted to become similar to Gentiles, realized that’s impossible, abandoned Jewish identity in the process – and became desperate. Faithless Jewish leaders invented the Exile mentality to gloss over the real cause of Jewish moral failure – desperation. Assimilated leaders want to assimilate the Jews so that the leaders’ moral bankruptcy won’t be that evident. To condemn the desperation was to condemn the leadership and its goals.

Some desperate, exasperated, morally exhausted Jews died sheepishly in twentieth-century Ukrainian massacres and Holocaust, while others support Israel's suicidal policies. Humans are not only bodies, but also souls. Jewish idea is a soul of the nation. When that soul was destroyed, Jews lost the source of dignity, the reason and the will to live. Thus the observed Exile mentality.

real exile, fictional mentality

 
 
August 3
 
 

The bloodletting

For the past century, Jewish nation is being annihilated. Starting with the Ukrainian genocide around 1920, through the Holocaust and into the total assimilation in the Diaspora, the Jewish nation is ruthlessly, systematically annihilated.
The Jews experienced the destruction of similar magnitude during Babylon’s conquest, the bubonic plague genocide in the 14th-century Europe, and possibly several other times. The current annihilation is rare, but not exceptional by historical standards – the bubonic plague pogroms reportedly left just ten percent of European Jews alive.

Ben Gurion described Eastern European Jewry as human waste – the words abominable, but with a kernel of truth. A lot is written about American and Russian POWs breaking down in the harsh environment of German and Japanese internment camps, but their dehumanization came nowhere close to that of Jews most of whom truly behaved as submissive human cattle. Imagine six million of them entering Israel before the 1948. The War of Independence would end up in the Holocaust rather than al-Naqba.

Centuries of submission to Christian persecution twisted Jewish mentality no less than the four centuries of Egyptian bondage. Most ghetto Jews were no more religious than the Hebrews who molted the Golden Calf; synagogues were their clubs. The ghetto Jews, like the generation of the Exodus, were barred from the Promised Land.

Social systems grow old and die. Shortly before a society’s death, the last enterprising members escape. When Judea became a typically corrupt and despotic Middle Eastern country, many Jews settled into vibrantly Jewish communities of the Diaspora. Rome sprouted Constantinople. The last enterprising Europeans colonized America before Europe decayed into the welfare socialism. Likewise, Jews with the minimal sense of self-esteem and self-preservation fled tsarist Russia for America. Those who left behind mostly perished.

Jews bred on cosmopolitan American consumerism and Russian communalism are destined for the mill of assimilation. Rare individuals fortunate to meet decent rabbis or nationalist leaders will survive as Jews, but most will cease. They think in the terms of being a good person, international friendship, and political correctness instead of the rogue Jewish terms: choosiness, purity, and isolation. Few can be converted back to Jewishness in arduous one-on-one discussions, but most will never understand why it is unacceptable to marry a nice, ethical Gentile who doesn’t strive to join the People of Israel.

Annihilation is another side of purification. Jewish nation grew old, heavy with people who need not their Jewishness. But Jewishness is not about ethnicity; it’s about zeal. Only zealots can maintain a pure society, be proudly different from others without sliding into jingoism. The Jews who leave the Jewish nation – the nation is happy to divest of them.

As in the old prophecies, blind guides arise to lead the blind astray. Jewish leaders laughed at Zhabotinsky for begging the shtetl Jews to flee the burning Europe. American Jewish organizations denounced Hillel Kook’s group which abandoned political correctness to help their Jewish brethren exterminated in Europe. The same organizations decried Meir Kahane’s push for freeing the Soviet Jews. Israeli leaders abandon Judea and welcome the Arabs to live in the Jewish state.

America was a state for pioneers, not all Europeans. Pleasure-seeking immigrants are alien to the US pioneer identity. Canaan was a place not for all Jews; those fearful to fight for it died out in the Sinai. Modern Israel was intended and Judea could become the state of Jewish pioneers; she doesn’t need all Jews.

The birth rate among the atheist Israeli Jews is hardly positive and among the Diaspora Jews is negative. Only religious Jews breed well, while others are assimilating and dying out. If this trend continues, in a generation or two the Jews will only be religious. A small number of Gentile spouses determined to bring up their children Jewish will bring new blood into the nation. Jewish people, “refined as silver,” will again stand up ready for the divine service.

And if not? It’s God’s business; let him care. We just do our part.

 
 
July 9
 
 

Practically Jewish

Many Jews are atheists: more in the Diaspora, much less in Israel. A religious definition of Jewishness makes little sense to them. Is there a secular alternative?

Secular nationalist Jews often define Jewishness as Jewish descent. That only makes the problem recursive. Who are the Jewish ancestors but the ones who adhered to Judaism? Defining secular Jewishness as a descent from adherents to Judaism makes little sense. If we’re so proud of our religious ancestors that we build our nationalism upon them, then why don’t we perpetuate the very attitude that makes us proud? If proudly defining ourselves as descendants of those who practiced Judaism, why don’t we practice it ourselves? If Judaism was good for three thousand years but recently became outmoded, wasn’t the Jewishness outmoded along with it?

A wise rabbi defined a Jew as the one whose grandchildren will be Jewish. A less beautiful, more practical definition is, someone who strives at raising his children as good Jews. If, however, Jewishness is a matter of descent, personal efforts don’t matter.
What do we do about the children who only have some Jewish ancestors? Logically, they could identify themselves as both Jewish and Christian, or Jewish and Ukrainian. A definition so flexible is unworkable. There are tens of millions of Americans with Irish blood, but barely a few dozen of them joined in Ireland’s fight against British occupation. Nor did the American Japanese help their ancient motherland during WWII. Respect for one’s ancestors is a matter merely of curiosity, insufficient to develop a strong attachment. Ancestor-based nationalism is hardly distinguishable from many other "relevant" attachments: to a school, a football club, a country of residence, etc. A working definition of nationalism has to be relevant to current events rather than to long-gone ancestors.

Judaism provides a relevant definition of Jewishness, actionable at every moment through religious observance. Israeli nationalism is actionable, too – through military service and taxation – but it fails as a definition of Jewishness. Many people of undisputable Jewishness live outside of Israel. They don’t pay taxes in Israel, serve in the IDF, or run the security risks of living in a Jewish state; although Jews, they have no share in Israeli nationalism. And on the contrary, living in Israel and, theoretically, paying taxes doesn’t make Arabs Jews; even if Arabs start vehemently supporting Israel and serving in the IDF, they still won’t become Jews. Israeli nationalism cannot be equated with Jewishness.

Religious beliefs by themselves do not form nations. There are many religious groups that span continents but don’t claim nationhood; Catholics are spread among many nations, but do not form a nation of their own. Sunday mass does not define behavior. Adherents to Judaism were traditionally recognized as a nation because of their peculiar routine actions. Jews were Jews not only for two hours on the weekend, but every minute of their existence. Here is the defining characteristic of a nation: a distinctiveness of lifestyle. Nations are defined by what they are not, by how they are different from their neighbors. Totalitarian states make a shortcut to nation-building by defining their nations through common enemies; fear of capitalist aggression united the Soviet people.

Nationalism has to be actionable, but religion is not the only possible action. A person of Jewish descent who fights for Israel and votes for right-wingers is clearly a Jew even though he eats pork. A Jew’s Slavic spouse who serves in the IDF and sends his children to the army is more of a Jew than some ultra-Orthodox person from Neturei Karta who insists on separating sidewalks for men and women but opposes the existence of Israel. People are Jews if they identify themselves with Jews and prove that identification by their actions. The degree of required proof depends on the doubt about their Jewishness. A person with both Jewish parents most likely truly identifies with the Jewish people, and need not bring additional proof. Someone with remote descent or no Jewish blood at all has a higher burden of proof of his attachment to the Jewish people. Though the proof can be any, including IDF service and continuous donations to Israel, observance of the explicit Torah commandments is a simple and clear criterion.

Reform and Orthodox each undermine the religious criterion of Jewishness. For the Reformed, Judaism involves no mandatory rules: a Reform synagogue would accept a gay person married to a Gentile, eating pork and working on Sabbaths as a Jew. Orthodox demands range from maternal lineage (in contradistinction to the historically accepted paternal lineage) to tearing toilet paper in advance of Shabbat. Israel, nominally a liberal (secular) democracy, could not keep determining Jewishness by Orthodox standards. Concessions to Reform “Judaism” will follow, and eventually Israel will have to adopt a secular definition of Jewishness. Pressing assimilation will prompt the Israeli government to embrace children of Jewish fathers and Gentile mothers as Jews.

Israel can check the Reform dilution of Jewish values by setting minimum standards of observance for converts. The institutional preference for Orthodoxy against Reformism is untenable; Israel will have to give it up. The state’s minimum standards of religious observance, unrelated to Orthodoxy, would de-legitimize the Reform policy of ignoring violations of any commandment, and would provide the State of Israel with a degree of religious credibility. The state cannot take sectarian sides, but needs to maintain a degree of religiosity in order to call itself a Jewish state.

Jewishness cannot be legislated. Sadducees did not marry Pharisees, and Orthodox Jews resent marrying Reformed, let alone Reform converts. There can be no commonly acceptable definition of Jewishness. Rather, communities and spouses have to determine whether someone’s actions are sufficiently Jewish for them. Some groups, notably the Reform movement, will assimilate. Others, such as fringe ultra-Orthodox, might prove utterly uncompetitive and evaporate. Societal evolution will determine the groups whose definition of Jewishness is both cohesive (the group’s self-identification precludes assimilation) and socially competitive (members don’t run away). We’ll see whose grandchildren remain Jewish. My guess is that pork-eating nationalist Jews will eventually adopt at least the basic tenets of Judaism as their ideological platform.

Israeli citizenship requirements, on the other hand, have to be uniform. All Israelis should pay taxes, serve in the IDF (some, okay, in religious units), be loyal to the Jews, and have close Jewish relatives.

In practical terms, these requirements amount to being a Jew.

 
 
July 3
 
 

Voting is stupid

Normalcy is a bad goal for the Jews. The neurotic Jews with their pervasive case of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) produce an unusual number of geniuses. The intellectual difference between Jews and Gentiles resembles that between men and women: the Jews’ Bell curve is lower. Men’s intellectual abilities tend to be a bit more to the edges of the curve while women are more average. In other words, about 10% more men than women have non-average intellectual abilities. Of those, the majority is incredibly stupid, but some are incredibly smart. Women are a bit smarter than men on average, but entirely lack geniuses. Whether that has to do with evolution, biology, or Providence is a matter of one’s degree of atheism.

The Jews oscillated between extreme danger and windows of opportunity, the highest religious mission and the lowest temporary existence, self-righteousness and persecution. Relative to Gentiles, the Jews developed an enterprising spirit resembling the one that men possess compared to women.

Do we want a normal nation of macho Jews or a people possessed with OCD, but sprouting geniuses? The answer is clear: there are many normal nations around, and the world doesn’t need another such nation. Luckily, a besieged existence in the embattled state of Israel creates ghetto-like pressure on Jews and produces the requisite number of mental disorders. Out of non-average people, most are stupid. The Jewish nation produces many very smart people, but a hundred times more morons. From Zhabotinsky to those who visited the Israeli FSU embassies in the late 1980s, many were shocked by the massive number of Jews from small-town ghettos who hardly resembled human beings. This mass of sillier-than-average Jews is the price our nation pays for producing geniuses. Today, that mass goes to the polling booths after receiving an injection of brainwashing propaganda. That mass votes.

It votes the Jewish state out of existence.

 
 
June 19
 
 

A beacon doesn't rush

It is normal for people to praise their own nation. Russians are fixated on Slavic soul, Americans – on the beacon of democracy, and so on. People frequently discuss their ethnic and cultural roots and compare themselves favorably to other nations. I receive, however, tons of hate mail condemning my expression of Jewish nationalism. The thing is, Jews consider themselves better than others. Not inherently better but as a result of a special mission. Americans seem to be similarly proud of their role as the beacon of democracy. The Jews survived for millennia due to their feeling of ethical and religious superiority. Christians, thinking according to their religious framework, naturally disagree. For our part, all Jews disagree with Christianity and many – with democracy. Our feeling of superiority is sensible, but not objective.

Jewish arrogance is a major force behind anti-Semitism. No one likes to be thought of as inferior. Politically correct rabbis might speak of equality, but our sages universally proclaimed the Jews different from other nations. In practice, difference and isolation is always associated with resentment toward outsiders; “equal but different” is a line too thin for nations to walk. The discussion of Jewish difference and nationalism painfully irritates anti-Semites. People who feel that they are doing Jews a favor by accepting us as equals are offended when we refuse their equality.

The “light unto the nations” role assures that the Jews respect other peoples. We won’t suffer to bring the light to the world unless we believe its people are good.

 
 
June 1
 
 

Zechariah 13:8

Iraqi archeologists worked for decades uncovering artifacts and collecting them in the Baghdad museum. During the US invasion, much of this immense cultural treasure was lost. The ancient pieces had survived for thousands of years – inconspicuous in the ground, but safe. In a few days, they were looted and sent abroad to private collections. The remains of entire cultures were largely lost – forever.

Likewise, the Jews suffered persecutions in many countries but survived because they were dispersed. Israel has deliberately uprooted many unique Jewish cultures from Belarus to Yemen to Morocco. Those cultures are no more, preserved only in Israeli museums and old family photos. Besides exterminating these cultures, Israel greatly endangers the Jews. The Soviets were allegedly ready to employ nuclear weapons against Israel in 1967 and 1973; Pakistan and soon Iran could attack Israel with nukes at any time. Indecisive Israel provokes the enemies into thinking they can strike with impunity. Israel could become the trap for annihilation of another one-third of the Jews in addition to the third lost in the Holocaust.

 
 
May 22
 
 

A familial enemy

It is impossible to persuade young Jews to avoid marrying Gentiles for rational personal reasons. The pool of Gentiles is 400 times the number of Jews. Even the white Gentiles are a hundred times the number of Jews. Larger pool of prospective spouses means better chance to find a good one, especially that Jewish spouses are notoriously nagging, many are spoiled, and most are assimilated to the level of Gentiles. Non-Jewish spouses are no less nice, funny, and ethical than Jewish. Only two lines of reasoning could be advanced against assimilation: religion and hardcore nationalism, or fear and hatred. It makes sense to start with fear, and substantiate the resultant hatred with nationalism, crowning that ideological edifice with moderate version of Judaism.

Fear is simple to arouse. Polls indicate a degree of anti-Semitism from 17-20% in America to 25-50% in Western Europe to above 60% in Eastern Europe. Only thirty years ago, rabbi Kahane’s Jewish Defense League fought massive anti-Semitic violence in Brooklyn and Bronx. Only fifty years ago, Russians tried to eliminate the Holocaust survivors through planned starvation in Siberia. Only sixty something years ago, the most civilized country in Europe annihilated six million Jews with enthusiastic help of Russians, Poles, Ukrainians, Romanians, Greeks, Croats, French, and scores of other nations. Jews were so assimilated in Germany; the Germans were so civilized. Zhabotinsky toured Europe in 1939, urging the Jews to leave for Palestine immediately; he warned of the impending mega-pogroms, specifically in Poland. The Jews who laughed at him were murdered three years later. Did the human mentality change in sixty years? in thirty? ADL annually registers more than 1,500 anti-Semitic incidents in the US alone. Attacks on Jews are commonplace elsewhere; Jews are murdered for being Jewish in France, Russia, and the United States. Radical anti-Semitic minority will act; nice and tolerant majority will tolerate the murders. In no country did its people take into the streets to demand the government ban on anti-Semitic groups. Anti-Semites, communists, and idealists alike side with oppressed Palestinians against Israelis – a euphemistical name for the Jews.

Jews thought themselves assimilated in 1492 Spain and 1939 Germany. Perhaps they were. Almost. The residual anti-Semitism flared under the government’s slightest bidding. How unlikely is such bidding now? Ukraine promotes Khmelnitsky and Petlyura as national heroes; the former killed proportionally more Jews than did the Nazis, and the latter killed more Jews than did any single group before him. Muslim countries, including Egypt at peace with Israel for thirty years, are seething with incitation to murder the Jews; there are 1.5 billion Muslims around. Britain instigated Arabs to murder the Jews in Hebron in 1929 and in several other massacres. Britain refused a German offer to release a million Jews for trucks, coffee and other militarily non-essential goods because Moyne didn’t want a million Jews to enter Palestine. Americans refused so little help as to bomb the death camps. Did that attitude pass? No. In 1967, the US Army was preparing to deploy against Israel to protect Egypt. Was that an odd aberration? No. America similarly threatened deployment against Israel during her 1956 war with Egypt. Americans were indifferent to Germans’ murdering the Jews, and progressed to being officially ready to kill Jews in 1956 and afterwards.

Likely, a Gentile spouse won’t murder you or betray to murderers – though scores of Germans divorced their Jewish spouses in the wake of Holocaust. Still, your Gentile spouse is a direct descendant of those who murdered Jews, and a relative of those who will murder Jews. Christians recall after two thousand years that the Jews murdered their religious figure Jesus. Jews have a shorter memory and try to forget how Gentiles have killed Jews in every generation. Better forget the Romeo and Juliet nonsense; in the day end, you will be treated – and murdered – as a Jew, by your Juliet’s relatives. In any quarrel, she will not quarrel with you – but with a Jew in you.

Jews forget the past and ignore the present. They betray the grandparents who went up in flames on the stakes and in crematoria manned by Gentiles or not stopped – easily stopped – by Gentiles. They marry the persecutors and the persecutors’ children. Every time you kiss your Gentile wife, look in her eyes. There, under the haze of sexual desire, lurks the hatred of generations – the hatred to Jews you try to forget you are.