Friday, May 20, 2011

Obama's Green Light for Genocide

Do not pretend to know the thoughts and intents of the President's heart, but after his Thursday Mideast outline for "peace," it became painfully obvious that the plan as imposed would facilitate a Post-WW2 genocide. Discounting the ceding the fertile West Bank to Arabs and the Negev desert to Jews, the abandonment of the Hebron graves of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and most unthinkable, the "forgetting" of Jerusalem, Obama's proposed Palestinian State would literally cut the heart from Israel, and as Netanyahu strategically assessed, leave her an "indefensible" "nine mile" corridor.

Obama was not the first president to "befriend" Jews:

"At the French resort of Evian on the shores of Lake Geneva in the summer of 1938, President Roosevelt initiated a nine-day international conference, supposedly to facilitate Jewish immigration from Germany and Austria.

Very important people were here and all the delegates had a nice time. They took pleasure cruises on the lake. They gambled at night at the casino. They took mineral baths and massages…some of them took the excursions to Chamonix to go summer skiing. Some went riding, some played golf. Meetings. Yes, some attended the meetings. But, of course it is difficult to sit indoors hearing speeches when all the pleasures that Evian offers are waiting right outside" (Rene Richier as quoted in Peggy Mann, When the World Passed by on the Other Side, Manchester Guardian Weekly, 7 May 1938).

Here are the recollections of an uninvited delegate, Golda Meir, former Prime Minister of Israel:

"… sitting there in that magnificent hall and listening to the delegates of thirty-two countries rise, each in turn, to explain how much they would have liked to take in substantial numbers of refugees and how unfortunate it was that they were not able to do so, was a terrible experience, I don't think that anyone who didn't live through it can understand what I felt at Evian – a mixture of sorrow, rage, frustration and horror" (As quoted in, The Evian Conference - Hitler's Green Light for Genocide, Annette Shaw, 2001, Quoted by permission of Stephen D. Smith, Director, Beth Shalom, (Letter 15/3/2000), Perspective, Vol. 1, Issue 1, July 1998, "Nobody Wants Them,” p. 21).

"At the end of the nine-day conference, Hitler had his Green Light" (Annette Shaw, The Evian Conference - Hitler's Green Light for Genocide, 2001):

"Nobody wants them' claimed the German newspaper Völkischer Beobachter after the Evian Conference in July 1938 and Hitler gloated, saying, 'It is a shameful spectacle to see how the whole democratic world is oozing sympathy for the poor tormented Jewish people, but remains hard hearted and obdurate when it comes to helping them." (Perspective, Beth Shalom, p. 21).

After Obama's Thursday Mideast outline for "peace," it became painfully obvious that the plan as imposed would give, Fatah, Hamas, and the Arab League a "Green Light for Genocide."

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Sennacherib Once More

"And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it: and Hezekiah went up unto the house of the LORD, and spread it before the LORD. And Hezekiah prayed unto the LORD, saying, O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, that dwellest between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth: thou hast made heaven and earth. Incline thine ear, O LORD, and hear; open thine eyes, O LORD, and see: and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which hath sent to reproach the living God. Of a truth, LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations, and their countries, And have cast their gods into the fire: for they were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone: therefore they have destroyed them. Now therefore, O LORD our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the LORD, even thou only.... Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shields, nor cast a bank against it. By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith the LORD. For I will defend this city to save it for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake. Then the angel of the LORD went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses. So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh. And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword...." (Isaiah 37:14-38).



The Destruction of Sennacherib

The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold,

And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold;

And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea,

When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.

Like the leaves of the forest when Summer is green,

That host with their banners at sunset were seen:

Like the leaves of the forest when Autumn hath blown,

That host on the morrow lay withered and strown.



For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast,

And breathed in the face of the foe as he pass'd,

And the eyes of the sleepers wax'd deadly and chill,

And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew still!

And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide,

But through it there roll'd not the breath of his pride;

And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf,

And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf.



And there lay the rider distorted and pale,

With the dew on his brow, and the rust on his mail:

And the tents were all silent, the banners alone,

The lances unlifted, the trumpets unblown.

And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail,

And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal;

And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword,

Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord!

Lord Byron, 1815

Thursday, May 5, 2011

The Congregation of the Dead

For a almost a decade the world has been asking: "Where is Osama"? Now the world is asking every other question but "Where is Osama now"?

Under our feet this very moment is a subterranean world. The Hebrew Scriptures refer to it as the pit, the abyss, the nether parts of the earth, Abaddon.... No, it is not Hell. Hell is not yet. The Judgment must come first. The name of this present shadow land is called Sheol. And within it a place reserved for those who "caused terror in the land of the living."

"Asshur is there and all her company... all of them slain, fallen by the sword... which caused terror in the land of the living" (Ezekiel 32:22-23).

"There is Elam and all her multitude... fallen by the sword, which are gone down uncircumcised into the nether parts of the earth, which caused their terror in the land of the living" (Ezekiel 32:24).

There is Meshech, Tubal, and all her multitude... they shall not lie with the mighty that are fallen... which are gone down to Sheol with their weapons of war: and they have laid their swords under their heads, but their iniquities shall be upon their bones, though they were the terror of the mighty in the land of the living" (Ezekiel 32:26-27).

There is Edom, her kings, and all her princes, which with their might are laid by them that were slain by the sword: they shall lie with the uncircumcised, and with them that go down to the pit" (Ezekiel 32:29).

"There be the princes of the north... with their terror they are ashamed of their might; and they lie uncircumcised with them that be slain by the sword...." (Ezekiel 32:30).

"Sheol from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us? Thy pomp is brought down to Sheol, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee" (Isaiah 14:9-11).

Sunday, May 1, 2011

The Wicked Witch is Dead

A celebration continues outside the White House; Osama bin Laden was killed today. Similar revelry, no doubt, is occurring at night spots across the country. Message boards are percolating with tasteless exuberance at the announcement. And the president and his aides are rushing to claim credit for the assassination. But something does not seem right.

It is right to affirm the covert assault force, who risked their lives to protect our own. It is right for the one who cursed Israel (cf. Genesis 27:29), himself be cursed this day: Yom Hazikaron L'shoah U'l'gevurah (Shoah Remembrance Day). But is it right to "delight" in the death of another?

"... Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you..." (Mathew 5:44). Yet this must be reconciled with His other words: "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man" (Genesis 9: 6).

"Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth" (Proverbs 24:17).

"... I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked" (Ezekiel 33:11).

If God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, should we?