JewishIndy sadly mourns the loss of Prof. Eugene Narrett. He had
been a valued contributor to JewishIndy. Type Prof. Eugene
Narrett into the search box to review his many previous posts on JewishIndy.
Blessed will be his memory. Alav hashalom. Baruch Dayan
Ha'emet.

December 9, 2013Forwarded by Reuven
Kossover:

I just noticed this on my e-mails from Ted
Belman. It is copied unedited. Dr. Eugene Narrett, z"l, was an inspiration
for me in my writing. May the almighty comfort the members of the Narrett
family among all the mourners of Zion and Israel, and may they hear no more
bad news.Barukh Dayan haEmet.

From Buddy
Macy

Friends &
Correspondents:

My cousin, Eugene
Narrett – professor, writer, painter,
commentator and strong advocate for Israel and the Jewish People – died
tragically this past Friday evening after being struck by a hit-and-run driver
in Brattleboro, Vermont. Eugene was a pedestrian, having just visited an art
gallery a short distance away. It was three weeks short of his 65th
birthday.

Funeral services for
Eugene Narrett will take place this Wednesday, December 11, at the Jewish
Memorial Chapel at 841 Allwood Road in Clifton, NJ, commencing at 11a.m.

Eugene received a PhD in English
Literature from Columbia University and taught Art, Art History, History,
Literature and Philosophy. He had an extraordinary knowledge and appreciation
of the Classics , and had reached a scholarly level in the area of Jewish
studies. In his early 20's, Eugene began educating himself about the history
of ancient and modern Israel, and he became one of the foremost authorities
on the geopolitics of the Middle East, providing commentary on numerous radio
programs, including Israel National Radio (many times) and the Barry Farber
Show.

Dr. Narrett held strong
views about Israel, based on history, Jewish identity and the current reality.
He believed in Israel's Biblical, legal and historical rights to all of the
land between the Mediterranean Sea and Jordan River, and was an outspoken
critic of the 1993 Oslo Accords between Israel and the Arab-"Palestinians." He
would be quick to point out the deadly consequences of that failed political
strategy. Many of Dr. Narrett's writings and radio commentaries may be
accessed through his Israel End Times blog,

Treat
and educate yourself by listening to Dr. Eugene Narrett on this edition of the
Tovia Singer Show.

Eugene, may
the Almighty comfort you amongst the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem. And, may
all of your hopes and dreams for Israel come to fruition in the very near
future.

If you are concerned about the transformation of America
into a “nanny state,” this article will appear most timely.

Modern Israel is referred to as a “state” as well as a
“democracy”; and of course public life in this so-called democratic state is
dominated by “politics.” But to practice “politics” in Israel, or to
conceive of Israel as a “state” or as a “democracy,” is to enter a world of
thought, action, and passion utterly foreign to the Torah and out of place in
the Holy Land. Let us only consider the concept of the
“state.”

Alfred North Whitehead, the great gentile philosopher and
mathematician, wisely discerned that, “The Jews are the first example of [a
people’s] refusal to worship the state.” Perhaps the reason is
this. The state, like the city of Babel, manifests the self-glorification
of man. The state is wholly a human product, based on the autonomy of
human will. Hence there is no essential difference in proclaiming
L’etat c’est moi and saying Vox populi, vox
Dei. In both cases the laws of the state depend solely on
the will of the sovereign, be it the One, the Few, or the Many. Obviously this
idea of the state is fundamentally opposed to the Torah’s conception of
Israel.

Israel is supposed to be a
non-sovereign state created by God to be the teacher
of mankind. This explains why Israel today, by using foreign concepts,
often fails to act like a sovereign state. Notice how Israel relies on
Washington to mediate its conflicts with the PLO-Palestinian Authority.
This may not seem unreasonable, until we recall that Israel’s government
invested the CIA and the American State Department with the power to supervise
the Palestinian Authority’s compliance with the security arrangements of the
Wye River

It’s bad enough to deny God in Chicago; it’s infinitely worse to deny God
in the Land of Israel from which the Jewish People were to relate God’s
praise—His infinite power, wisdom, and graciousness. But this denial of God is
what various prime ministers of Israel have been doing by consorting with evil,
most conspicuously since a particular Labor leader concluded the Oslo covenant
of death called the “Israel-PLO Agreement” in September 1993. That Agreement
was fully consummated by a Likud leader who endorsed the creation of a PLO
state in June 2009.

Both of these prime ministers desecrated the Name
of God, and the people of Israel have done nothing to undo this degradation of
the God Who gave them the Land of Israel from which the Jewish people were to
relate God’s praise. Ponder, therefore, Isaiah 28:14-18: “…hear the word of the
Lord, you scorners … in Jerusalem. Because you have said: we have made a
covenant with death, and with the nether-world are we in agreement; When the
scourge shall pass through, It shall not come unto us; for we have made lies
our refuge … in falsehood have we hid ourselves …”

The degradation of
Israel among the nations must therefore follow.

We may put this in
another way. Lies have been the modus operandi of Israel’s Oslovian Prime
ministers. Hence the people of Israel have been cursed by a non-people called
the “Palestinians” whose culture is based on the primacy of falsehood.

Stop and think. That the Jews are alive despite the tortures of hell
and the hatred of the nations is just not “natural.” No people other
than the Jews could have survived 2,000 years of torture, decimation, and
holocaust. But nothing you learn in “higher education” or in the social
sciences or in philosophy can explain this phenomenon. You know this, but
what lessons can you derive from this “knowing”?

One lesson is enough:
no secular politician can bring peace and security let alone dignity to the
people of Israel. This would contradict 2,000 years of Jewish history along
with the Torah.

Notice how Israel succeeds in high-tech and is a
complete flop in politics. Can you imagine any non-Jewish country pursuing
Israel’s policy of territory for peace year after year vis-à-vis Muslim
barbarians? Of course not! Israel’s territorial policy is obviously the
policy of fools, scoundrels, and madmen. This should be obvious to any
normal high school kid who lives in a heterogeneous neighborhood.

Go
to New York and stroll through Harlem at night. Aren’t Blacks the primary
victims of Blacks?

You gotta be out of your mind to think Jews are
gonna get peace from Muslims. How much evidence do you need to get the
message? So, if you’re not stupid, you must conclude that Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu is either an idiot or has lost part of his cerebellum.
And if you think you can explain this away by playing the “American
pressure” card, that’s just an excuse for the deadly combination of cowardice
and stupidity. And you're still miles away from a rational explanation of why
Israel Lives.

Isaac was born in 1927 in Boolodva, Poland. He
was one of seven children, born to Nathan, a tailor. The family was sent to
the Sobibor death camp during the Holocaust.

He and his brother were selected to work in the camp. He had to tie
together bundles
of victims’ clothes. The rest of the family perished.

With the outbreak of the revolt at Sobibor, Isaac and his brother managed
to escape from the camp, but they lost each other mayhem that broke out in the
revolt.

Isaac joined the partisans in the woods and went on to travel with them,
until captured by a Polish farmer who shackled him in chains in a horse stable.
After several months of suffering abuse by the farmer and his family, he
managed to escape and join the partisans again.

After the war, he joined the exodus to Israel. The ship was seized off the
coast of the country by the British, and all the passengers were transferred to
a detention camp in Cyprus.

Isaac reached the shores of Israel in April 1947. A year later he joined
the army and fought in the War of Independence in the north, near Kibbutz
Manara.

Isaac married Rebecca Diamant and had two children: Zipporah and
Pinchas.

He worked as a plasterer and when he reached the age of retirement,
decided to continue
working several hours a day to keep himself busy.

In 1994, on a Tuesday, Isaac was at work repairing the floor, his knees
bent, when two Arab Muslims came in and struck his head with an axe.

Almagor, an organization that represents victims of Arab terrorism,
responded with sorrow to the High Court decision to reject its motion against
the release of 26 terrorist murderers, as a “gesture” to the Palestinian
Authority (PA).

Almagor chairman Meir Indor said, "We regret very much that the court, like
the prime minister,
did not even listen to the serious arguments regarding the government's
crossing of red lines, including the fact that some of the terrorists being
released committed their crimes after the Oslo accords were
signed.

"The Supreme Court locked its gates today before the bereaved families and
the Jewish terror victims – something it does not do when it comes to any
Palestinians,” Indor added – noting, among other past decisions by the High
Court, its willingness to force the state to change the route of the securityfence,
at the cost of hundreds of millions of dollars, because of complaints by
Arabs.

The High Court rejected a motion by the Almagor group for victims
of terrorism, to block the release of Arab terrorists from prison that is
scheduled to take place Tuesday night.

"Our hearts are with the family members, whose pain is great," wrote
the judges, headed by Supreme Court President Asher Grunis. "We are certain
that the authorized elements made their decision with a heavy heart and took
into account
the families' pain and their opinion."

Before the decision, Attorney
Naftali Wertzberger, who represents Almagor, said that he believes the release
of the 26 terrorists, which the Israeli goverment has described as a
“gesture” to PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, could still be prevented.

The court had not yet issued a verdict in Almagor’s appeal against the
release, which is unusual, he told IDF Radio (Galei Tzahal). “The very
fact that the court has not yet issued a decision leaves room for hope,” he
explained.

The Torah includes 613 mitzvot (divine commandments),
ranging from the obvious ("Honor your father and your mother") to the
esoteric ("Do not cook a kid in its mother's milk"), from the well-known
("Keep the Shabbat") to the obscure ("Do not muzzle an ox while it is
threshing"). One of them -- prohibition #57 by Maimonides' count -- is Lo
Tashchit, "Do not destroy," the prohibition to destroy or waste of any part
of G-d's creation.

Interestingly, the commandment not to destroy
appears in the Torah as part of the laws of war. When laying siege to a city,
the Torah instructs, do not cut down fruit trees to build siege towers from
which to attack the city. Use regular trees. This injunction becomes the
basis for the law that forbids all forms of wanton destruction or waste: "One
who breaks a utensil, tears clothes, demolishes a building, stops a spring or
disposes of food in a ruinous manner, transgresses the prohibition of Lo
Tashchit" (Mishneh Torah and Codes).

War is basically a destructive
act. So is cutting down a tree. Yet when the Torah wishes to tell us that it
is forbidden to destroy, it gives us a case in which war is a necessity, and
cutting down a tree is a necessity -- and then tells us which trees not to
cut down.

Parshat
Shoftim is the original Jewish “political science”. All of the
institutions of governance, including kings, priests and prophets are here
in a unique blend of “checks and balances”. The foundations of Rabbinic
authority are included as well. Regarding the appointment of the
king, who is to serve as the embodiment of the nation, we find several
crucial guidelines. Fittingly, the verses regarding the appointment
of the king immediately follow the warning to punctiliously listen to the
Rabbis, as even the powerful King is not above HaShem's law.

The King
must be from among your brothers, not a stranger. He must not
acquire many horses or return the people to Egypt. Nor should he have
many wives who may “remove his heart” nor should he amass great stores of
silver and gold. The king must possess two Sifrei Tora. One
is kept in his treasure house and the other is constantly with him.
The goal is that he learns to fear the Lord his God, to observe all the
words of the Tora and keep its statutes. That his heart not become
haughty above his brethren and that he not depart from the Mitzva to the
right or left, so that he and his sons will have a long-lasting kingdom in
the midst of Israel.[1]

The message for us today is loud and clear. We
should strive to elect governments led by people who are first and foremost
from among your brothers, from the people, embodying their values
and embracing their concerns. We need leaders whose primary concern
is looking after the well-being of Am Yisrael, not concern with managing
their own personal silver and gold. May we be blessed with
genuinely God fearing leaders who understand that they have a holy mission
to fulfill, for the good of all of our citizens.

Behold I place before you
today a blessing and a curse. The blessing if you listen…and the curse
if you don’t.[1] Rav Leibele Eiger explains the nature of this “gift”,
HaShem gives the blessings into our hand, like a father who loves his son and
chooses expensive and good things to give him.[2] We always read these
verses just before Elul, the month of teshuva, and we need to look for helpful
hints in this parsha to guide us on our quest.

When we
enter Eretz Yisrael we are graphically commanded to destroy all of the places
of idolatry left by the Canaanites.[3] Thus a significant part of the
teshuva process involves the total denial of all those past “idolatries” that
we have been subjugated to. Thus the Piaseczner writes[4] regarding
wavering about “two options”, whoever imagines that there are two options, and
he stands between them, between good and evil, this is a spark of idolatry
(God forbid), for he mixes a foreign element into the world. This
powerful statement reflects the Rebbe’s panentheism, his belief that
everything in the world exists due to the Divine sparks within.
Therefore, to really give credence to an option other than total devotion to
HaShem, is to empower idolatrous forces that otherwise could have no real
existence.

The Head of Israel's Security
Services, Yoram Cohen, stated that 60%
of released Palestinian terrorists revert to operational
terrorism. Most of the 1,150 terrorists, released via the May 21, 1985
"Jibril
Exchange” played a key role during the First Intifada (wave of
terrorism). Over 50%
of the Palestinian terrorists, who were released between the 1993 Oslo
Accord and the eruption of the Second Intifada, participated in that wave of
Palestinian terrorism. Mahmoud Abbas' commitment to
embrace – and not to condemn – terrorists shed light on his prime
values, which are consistent with his track record: A Holocaust
denial PhD from Moscow's Patrice Lumumba University; enrollment in KGB
courses; the coordination of PLO ties with ruthless Communist regimes in East
Europe; the logistical coordination of the Olympic Games' "Munich Massacre:”
collaboration with Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait; subversive and
terrorist activities which led to his expulsion from Egypt, Syria, Jordan and
Lebanon.Mahmoud Abbas commemorates
Palestinian terrorists - who unlike freedom fighters
systematically and deliberately assault civilians – by naming
kindergartens, schools, summer camps, streets, squares, community centers and
sport events for them.

Releasing Palestinian terrorists upgrades their
social status in a society which has been subjected, since 1994, to
hate-education and incitement, in Abbas-controlled schools, mosques and the
media. The Palestinian (hate) education system – and not the
Palestinian dialogue with Western policy makers and public opinion
molders - has been the most authentic reflection of Abbas'
worldview. It constitutes the production-line of terrorists and
suicide-bombers.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has resumed negotiations with the
Palestinian Authority (PA). The objective of these negotiations, which he
estimates will take at least nine months, is the creation of a Palestinian
Arab-Islamic State in the homeland of the Jewish People. Netanyahu announced
his decision to create such a state at Bar-Ilan University on June 14, 2009.
This monumental decision, which is of existential significance to the Jewish
people, was taken without Knesset or public debate.
Moreover, and contrary to a ruling of Israel’s notorious Left-wing Supreme
Court (HC 34114/96)—a ruling which ignored the fact that the PA has been
waging a terror war against Israel—Netanyahu’s decision constitutes a prima
facie violation of Israel’s Penal Law governing treason. This law defines
four kinds of acts as treason:

1. Acts which "impair the sovereignty" of the State of
Israel—section 97(a);

2. Acts which "impair the integrity" of the State of Israel—section
97(b);

3. Acts under section 99 which give assistance to an "enemy" in war
against Israel, which the Law specifically states includes a terrorist
organization;

4. Acts in section 100 which evince an intention or resolve to
commit one of the acts prohibited by sections 97 and 99.

To reveal the sordid political background and ramifications of Netanyahu’s
Palestinian state policy, I have decided to republish, with almost no editing,
many of the “Eidelberg Reports” which were broadcast on Israel National Radio
between 2004 and 2012. By reading these reports today, future policy makers
and decision makers of Israel will see with greater clarity and precision,
not only the flawed political character of Israeli Prime Ministers, but also
how Israel’s flawed system of government has been betraying the Jewish
people. The Reports will be published not in chronological order but in terms
of their urgency vis-à-vis Netanyahu’s endorsement of a Palestinian which,
according to a detailed 1967 assessment of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of
Staff—experts unaffected by the bias of President Obama—would constitute an
existential threat to the Jewish people.

The Palestinian Authority flag flew in the Israeli Knesset on Wednesday
as several senior PA representatives came to visit more than 30 Israeli ministers and
MKs.

The visit was organized by the Knesset Lobby for the Promotion of a
Solution to the Israeli-Arab Conflict, led by MK Hilik Bar, and by the
OneVoice organization, a group that calls to end the “occupation” of Judea and
Samaria and to create an Arab state in the area.

PA lawmaker Abdullah Abdullah told the MKs, “It’s moving to see our flags
flying next to each other. That’s exactly how we need to be committed to
negotiations… as two nations, equal to each other.”

“Our goal is to live as neighbors in two states west of the Jordan River,”
he continued. “Neither of us is going to disappear from here, not to the desert
or to the sea, so we need to work hard to end the conflict and end the
occupation.”

Abdullah Abdullah invited MK Bar and the other Israeli representatives to
visit the PA parliament in Ramallah. The invitation came from PA Chairman
Abbas, he told them.

And it willcome to pass if you listen to
these Mitzvot…Rashi teaches us that this refers to those Mitzvot that seem
minor, that people take for granted.[1]
The holy Hornsteipler Rebbe of Denver zt"l[2] elaborates on Rashi stating, sometimes the truly important
things are what people take for granted and that which a person thinks is
important is relatively insignificant.[3] This alone should be enough to get us
thinking about our priorities in life, and yet there is more. The Rebbe also
teaches that the word Eikev, usually translated as since or because, should
be understood here in its more literal meaning, that of heels or footsteps.
How so? Eikev hints at Ekvei Mashiach [the foot steps of the Messiah], for
just as there is a general Messiah to redeem all of Israel, so too every
individual has his own messiah to redeem himself.[4] This is a very significant point for our own
Divine service as the Rebbe explains; most people think that there personal
redemption will come when they have spiritual clarity and expanded
consciousness, and they wait for this their entire lives and it never
happens. Again we see that we often have our priorities confused. This is
caused in part by the mistaken notion that it takes dramatic spiritual
leaps to achieve self-redemption, that avodat HaShem is in some ways "all or
nothing". This however is a fatal spiritual flaw. What should we be
focusing on? The Rebbe explains; we must listen carefully to the subtle
illuminations that HaShem sends us. These are like the footsteps of the
Messiah, that is to say, only the footprints which are reflections of the
approaching redemption. Salvation will come when we see these lights and
join them together. This is the meaning of the verse Eikev Tishmaun – you
must listen to the footsteps of the Messiah.

Judaism
teaches that a fundamental purpose of creation is to manifest the plenitude of
God’s goodness to mankind. From this goodness is derived the purpose of the
American Declaration of Independence, which teaches that all men have a
God-given right to Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.

Secular
historians mute the fact that most often cited in America’s Founding Era was
not the political philosopher Charles Montesquieu (with 8.3 percent of the
quotes), nor the legal scholar William Blackstone (with 7.9 percent), and
emphatically not the darling of liberal commentators John Locke (with only 2.9
percent). Happily, contrary to the Straussian preoccupation with le sage Locke,
the single most-cited work was the Bible, with 34 percent of the quotes coming
from the Scriptures.

No wonder: the Puritans founded Harvard
University; Calvinists founded Yale; Presbyterians founded Princeton; Anglicans
founded Columbia University. Indeed, the law codes of colonial America read as
if taken from Leviticus. Rhetoric aside, America’s Founding Fathers were not
mired in modernity. Thanks to the influence of Hebraist scholars such as the
English polymath John Selden, the Founders used Talmudic ideas to render the
socio-economic affairs of American life more rational and more
prosperous.

This Hebraic influence on colonial America had the salutary
effect of enhancing self-government and individual freedom on the one hand,
while limiting the scope of government on the other. It is hardly an
exaggeration to say that colonial American law-makers were “Torah-oriented
Christians.”

“We cannot expect the Americans to jump from
capitalism to Communism, but we can assist their elected leaders in giving
Americans small doses of socialism until they suddenly awake to find they have
Communism.” – Soviet Leader Nikita Khrushchev,
1959.

Last July
17th was the 95th anniversary of the murder of the Romanov family. July
12th was the 400th
anniversary of the Romanov Dynasty. The western media proclaimed it on
every front page and was the lead story on TV news. We saw Obama shed
a tear as he stated how the royal family was his family and how we should all
follow their example of strength, faith and courage under persecution. News
anchors throughout the west spoke sorrowfully as they echoed Christ's words,
"Blessed are ye when they shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all
that is evil against you, untruly, for my sake. Be glad and rejoice, for your
reward is very great in heaven." I am being facetious of course. The Red press
would never mention what happened to the Romanovs and how successful Russia
has grown especially in the light of the recent failures in the US.

The Romanovs and other martyrs of the 20th century
go quietly unnoticed overseas but not in Russia where their sufferings
enkindled their nation's faith. Obama and his imps prefer to ignite racial
warfare in their land so to cover up his wars and economic woes. How many
white people have been murdered that have gone unreported? I am afraid the
list of murdered innocent people will continue to grow. Where is the
conservative Black voice? It is there but ignored. Allen
West's conservative voice goes unheard by those in power. Alan
Keyes, who ran for Senator of Illinois against Obama, is laughed at by
most blacks who call themselves Christians. The niece of Dr. Martin Luther
King, pro life activist Dr. Alveda C.
King, is asking why the race baiting. Also, how many more babies will be
legally killed under Obama's reign of terror? Christianity is under siege in
America and the world. Christians murdered in North Africa. Bishops held
hostage in Syria. Christians held hostage in America. Solzhenitsyn once said,
"The Soviet Union was the Russian people held hostage by the Communists". Now
they are free of the "Beast" and its atheistic
government.

It seems John Kerry’s imitation of Henry
Kissinger has borne fruit. His sixth trip to jump start ‘peace talks’ in as
many months has triggered the desired response, with Arabs and Israelis
agreeing to restart negotiations.

Unfortunately, getting Israel to the negotiating table is just a first step
in squeezing Israel back to the 1949 Armistice Lines. Doubly unfortunate is
that trying to reduce Israel to those lines is a long State Department
tradition.

Which makes it all the more disturbing that Israel’s government cheers on
Kerry’s endeavors. On July 14, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent PA
Chairman Mahmoud Abbas Ramadan greetings, saying “I hope that American
Secretary of State John Kerry’s efforts have results.” Israel’s
soon-to-be-replaced U.S. Ambassador Michael Oren, echoed this, saying Israel
strongly supports Kerry’s efforts and, “’If [Abbas] decides to stay in the
negotiations, he will find an Israeli government that’s very committed to a
solution.”

Shmuel Katz once said presidents and secretaries of state come and go, “but
the spirit of the makers of policy in the State Department has not changed.
With increased subservience to Arab demands it has only become more intense,
more urgent.” Kerry demonstrates he has zero intention of breaking from that
mold. He wears Arabist designs like an old suit.

Notwithstanding American posturing as an “honest broker,” when it comes to
Arab-Israeli negotiations it is two against one – America and the Arabs vs.
Israel. Kissinger described diplomacy as the art of restraining power. In this
case, it has always meant restraining Israel’s power.

They certainly should be; the potential for abuse is enormous. The massive,
centralized database will include comprehensive personal information such as
income and financial data, family size, citizenship and immigration status,
incarceration status, social security numbers, and private health information.
It will compile dossiers based on information obtained from the IRS, the
Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense, the Veterans
Administration, the Office of Personnel Management, the Social Security
Administration, state Medicaid databases, and for some reason the Peace Corps.
The Data Hub will provide web-based, one-stop shopping for prying into people’s
personal affairs.

Judaism
teaches that a fundamental purpose of creation is to manifest the plenitude of
God’s goodness to mankind. From this goodness is derived the purpose of the
American Declaration of Independence, which teaches that all men have a
God-given right to Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.

Muted by secular historians is the fact that most often cited in
America’s Founding Era was not the writings of the political philosopher
Charles Montesquieu (with 8.3 percent of the quotes), nor the writings of
the legal scholar William Blackstone (with 7.9 percent), and certainly not
the writings of John Locke (with only 2.9 percent). No, the single most-cited
work was the Bible, with 34 percent of the quotes coming from the
Scriptures.

No wonder: the Puritans founded Harvard University; Calvinists founded
Yale; Presbyterians founded Princeton; Anglicans founded Columbia University.
The law codes of colonial America read as if taken from Leviticus. Moreover,
Talmudic ideas were applied to the political and economic affairs of American
life.

This Hebraic influence on colonial America had the effect of limiting the
scope of government on the one hand, while enhancing self-government and
individual freedom on the other. It is hardly an exaggeration to regard
colonial American law-makers as “Torah-oriented Christians.”

My
teacher Rav Shagar zt”l taught three years before his untimely death, in a
session on mourning and comfort, the following definition of
nechama, comfort: comfort is not healing, but
rather making room for the wounds to appear, not as rage and depression that
disrupt life, but the opposite, to deepen life and our belief in the good,
and to refine our relationships. We are all so afraid of death,
the great taboo of mankind. I once heard from Rav Shabbtai Rappaport
shlit”a that tumat met is a chok, since it is
engraved (chakuk) very deeply in the sub-conscious of all human
beings, from the most “primitive” to the most “sophisticated”. Rav
Shagar teaches that it is exactly death that allows us to take life
seriously, to live it fully. Were it not for the fear of death we
would have the luxury of going through life as though it were all a
game. In the face of death, life must by definition become more
meaningful, more intense, and paradoxically more alive.

But in the
face of death how can we embrace life? Most of us have lost close
friends over the years. Many of us know people, even young people, who
are very sick (may HaShem grant them salvation in the twinkling of an
eye!). Sometimes we actually feel surrounded by death. Rav
Shagar writes when one dies young there is something beyond pain; the
feeling of injustice is very powerful. How can we comfort in
such cases? You have to say to another only what you could say to
yourself, if not, it is falsehood (even if you think it isn’t).
What is needed is to sweeten the judgments at their source.
That sounds easy, but what are we really to do? Rav Shagar sums
up, the question is, do we bring this back to life, to refine the
relationships with those around us? Even if we hadn’t reached that
level of intimacy with the deceased when he was alive, this will allow us to
continue the relationship with him. Only this enables us to reach the
eternality of existence.

Despite Israel's efforts to stop the process, the European Union on
Friday published its new official policy boycotting Jews and Israelis in areas
of Israel liberated in the 1967 Six Day War, including Judea and Samaria and
most of Jerusalem. Beginning next January, contracts and agreements between EU
entities and businesses, individuals, and institutions from those areas will
not be legally recognized by EU courts and forums.

In a statement, EU
foreign affairs head Catherine Ashton said that despite Israel's
protestations to the contrary, “in no way will this prejudge the outcome of
peace negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. It has been the EU's
long held position that it will recognize changes made to the borders once
agreed by both parties" in talks on a two-state peace accord,” Ashton said,
adding that the document "reiterates the long-held position that bilateral
agreements with Israel do not cover the territory that came under Israel's
administration in June 1967.”

Israeli experts said that the implications
of the policy could have a major impact on how Israel does business with the
EU. For example, Holocaust survivors who have accounts in banks in areas like
Ramat Eshkol – considered “occupied” under the EU guidelines – may find that
their reparation payments are held up, as Germany, an EU member, would refuse
to transfer money to such banks. Israeli owners of property in Europe who
love in Judea and Samaria could find themselves unable to collect rent from
their properties, as European courts would not enforce those contracts. The
policy, said the experts, could cause a “legal morass” that would tie up
courts in Israel and the EU for years.

[Reuven Kossover: The
solution for peace in this country, a solution that gives justice to
"Palestinians" - many families of whom predate the Muslim occupation of Eretz
Yisrael by centuries - is to kill off the terrorists in the PA and Gaza, and
force the Jordanian monarch to either surrender his power - or leave - while
installing a secular Israel-friendly Palestinian régime in what is now called
Jordan. This is doable. The régime EAST of the Jordan can, with Israeli aid,
build what Israelis used to call ma'abarót to house exiled refugees from
Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and other parts of the world, allowing them to rebuild
their lives in an independent country of their own. The Palestinian residents
of Gaza, Judea and Samaria would be offered citizenship in the new Palestine,
or citizenship in Israel. There could be broad levels of autonomy for them,
and compensation for exiles to help them get going. However, Judea, Samaria
and Gaza would be permanently absorbed into the State. It is time to tell
the imperialists from Europe and America and elsewhere to go to hell - and to
be willing to use our military to back our words. Israeli leftists and other
self-hating Jews are welcome to stay in exile and enjoy being beaten up by
Jew-hating mobs there. They are not needed HERE. Palestinian terrorists who
cannot abide living in peace with Jews in Israel can be executed. We do not
have to suffer them to live.]

De facto foreign
minister hints EU projects with Palestinians are in danger because of EU
sanctions.

Deputy Foreign Minister Ze'ev Elkin said in an interview broadcast
Friday that it is time to halt all “gestures” toward the Palestinian
Authority (PA), and added that Israel has “no reason to allow the Europeans
to act vis-a-vis the Palestinians in all kinds of projects they are
promoting.”

He was reacting to an EU directive to halt cooperation with Israeli projects in
the Golan, Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem.

Binyamin Netanyahu's office denied that he
accepted pre-'67 lines as the basis for talks with the PA. But what about the
building freeze?

[Reuven Kossover: I
know that this news is over 4 hours old; but would anyone but a traitor - a
Qvisling - pull this shit?]

[Barbara Ginsberg:
No country who wins and wins land that
is rightfully theirs, concedes to the loser to give him land that he lost by
starting a war in the hopes of annihilating that country.
In a normal country, a WINNER is a WINNER and a LOSER
a LOSER. Unfortunately, Israel cannot understand this and will commit suicide to
please the world and take all of his with them.

In a statement, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's office denied that
Israel had agreed to accept the 1949 armistice lines as the basis for renewed
negotiations with the Palestinian Authority. Israeli officials had been quoted
in earlier press reports as confirming the claim made by a top PA
official.

“The report is untrue,” said Netanyahu spokesman Mark Regev,
who reportedly called the media organization originally responsible for the
misinformation, which spread like wildfire.

According to the reports,
PA chief Mahmoud Abbas met with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry Thursday in
Jordan to discuss conditions for restarting the talks. Abbas agreed to talks
with Israel, the PA official said, as the result of Netanyahu's
capitulating partially to two key PA demands: the Prime Minister reportedly
agreed to at least a partial building freeze in Judea and Samaria, and agreed
to announce that freeze publicly, and also agreed to negotiations on the
basis of the pre-1967 lines.

The implications of that acceptance
entails an implicit Israeli agreement to surrender the vast majority of land
liberated in the 1967 Six Day War, except for the lands needed for security
purposes. In the past, the PA has demanded that Israel also give up on the
idea of settlement blocs, and have demanded that cities such as Ariel be
evacuated and surrendered as part of any final arrangement with
Israel.

The Obama administration has done absolutely nothing
in five years to stop the Iranian nuclear program. In the spring
of 2012 Obama flatly denied the urgent request of Centcom commander USMC
General James Mattis to send a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier strike force into
the Persian Gulf as a warning to Iranian mullahs. Now Obama is arming Egypt
and their terrorist Muslim brotherhood President Mohammed Morsi with hi tech
F-16 jets and Abram tanks which will only be used against Israel. We are
working on public relations initiative that will end the Obama administration
this year.

Who is Barack Hussein Obama, the man in the White House? Without a doubt,
Obama is the most un vetted, unaccomplished, unqualified person to ever
to occupy the Oval Office in American history. Bill Clinton (in
reference to Obama's inexperience) is reported to have
told Ted Kennedy during the 2008 campaign, "A few years ago this guy
(Obama) would have been carrying our bags." Aside from Obama
being completely and totally unqualified to be the leader
of the free world do we even know for sure that Obama mentally stable?
Dr. Sam Vaknin the world's leading expert on narcissism and the author of
"Malignant Self Love " has said that " Obama's language, posture and demeanor
and the testimonies of his closest, dearest and nearest suggest that Obama is
a narcissist or he may have Narcissistic Personality Disorder." Narcissists
have a grandiose, inflated, messiah like self image and cannot stand to be
criticized. Obama's Christ like view of himself is very clearly revealed in
his Democratic nomination victory speech in St. Paul, Minnesota on June 3,
2008 in which he tells a worshipping audience, "This was the moment when the
rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal." Clearly, this
is a delusional statement. At the end of Barack's Super Tuesday speech in Chicago on February 5, 2008 Obama makes
another ludicrous and insane pronouncement telling his followers "We are the
ones that we have been waiting for." This is narcissistic double speak; in
translation what Obama is really saying is, "I am the one the world has been
waiting for.

The Quran-derived "Taqiyya” concept is a core cause of
systematically-failed US peace initiatives in the Middle East; 1,400 years of
intra-Muslim/Arab warfare and the lack of intra-Muslim/Arab comprehensive
peace; the tenuous nature of intra-Muslim/Arab agreements; and the inherently
shifty, unpredictable and violent intra-Muslim/Arab relations, as currently
demonstrated on the chaotic, seismic Arab Street.

The "Taqiyya” concept constitutes
Islam-sanctioned dissimulation, deception and concealment of
inconvenient data, aimed at shielding Islam and "believers” from "infidels”
and hostile Muslims. It is a tactic utilized, by Muslims, during times
of strategic inferiority, intended to achieve provisional accords, only to be
abrogated once conditions are ripe for vanquishing adversity.

For example, Iran's new President, Hassan Rouhani, who
was hand-picked by Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, demonstrated
his "Taqiyya” capabilities during his term as Iran's chief negotiator
with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Rouhani perfected
double-talk, misleading the "infidel” IAEA negotiators, thus providing Iran
with extra time to acquire nuclear capabilities, while systematically
violating commitments made to the IAEA. In September, 2002, Rouhani stated, in his capacity as the Chairman of Iran's
Supreme National Security Council: "When we sign international treaties, it
means that we are not pursuing nuclear weapons. We are
not pursuing chemical weapons. We are not pursuing biological
weapons. Iran is not interested in any of these.” Rouhani's "Taqiyya'
talent earned him the image of a moderate in Western circles, in
defiance of his track record: an early supporter of Khomeini; he
represented Khomeini at the Supreme National Security Council; he served as
National Security Advisor to Presidents Hashemi and Khatami; and he was one of
the planners of the 1994 "AMIA terrorism” which was responsible for the murder of 85
civilians in Buenos Aires.