My musings, reflections on life here in Shiloh, Israel. Original, personal, spiritual and political. Peace, security and Israeli sovereignty. While not a "group blog," Shiloh Musings includes the voices of other Jews in The Land of Israel.
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I see too many confusing rhetoric and statements coming from the American Right, davka rather similar to the anti-Israel Antisemitic ideology of the international Left. Then I thought a bit more about it when listening to the JNS interview with Natan Sharansky.
Socialism/communism began well over a hundred years ago, and they did something extremely clever. They embedded themselves in universities large and small all over the world, and the fruits of this invasion have been very successful for them and dangerous as we're seeing. I don't know if there's a country that doesn't have socialist/communist/progressive Left on their faculty plus their books in their libraries and on their "required reading" lists, from elementary schools to the most elite universities. And even worse, there's no label identifying their ideology, because their ideas have become mainstream.
People who don't agree aren't accepted, aren't promoted. They just don't fit in. As I've been saying for years, Liberals aren't liberal. I guess the source of that reality for me was when I was a high school student in Great Neck, New York. This was in the mid '60s when being Left and Liberal was the thing for the academics, especially the upwardly mobile Jews, like my peers. One day I overheard some fellow students talking. One said to the others:
To me that made no sense. As I understood the word "nonconformist," it meant an individualist, unlike others, who thought for themselves and didn't wear a uniform of any sort.
To be honest, I was one of the few actual nonconformists, having chosen paths different from others. And even among those who chose similar paths to my new one, Torah True Judaism and Zionism, we found different ways to do it and even dress.
Now just to throw out a few ideas on why both Right and Left are embracing antisemitic and anti-Israel policies... The extreme on both sides demand an unthinking loyalty from their followers. They feel threatened by anyone who thinks for themselves, like a 1960's "nonconformist" who carries books in a briefcase or backpack instead of the uniform green bookbag.
Jewish survival over the millennium is a "dangerous" slap in the face to classical Christianity, which markets itself as the "new testament," newly revised religion by their version of the Jewish god. The indisputable fact that Judaism has survived over two thousand years after the invention of Christianity goes against the very basic principle of Christianity. There may be just a few million of us Jews, but that makes Christian theologians terrified. Our survival and the rebirth of the Jewish State poke dangerous holes in their legitimacy.
Some Christians, instead of attacking Judaism for this. have admitted the false premise of their original religion and either become Noahides or even convert to Torah Judaism.
Back to my original question, there are two dangerous groups in the American Right. One is those educated by "undercover" socialist/communists, who may not even admit to that label. To them, the principles are proper and common sense. Think of who is making up the curriculum and writing the text books. Two are the Christian theologians and leaders, no matter, which type of Christianity, who consider the survival of Judaism a threat to their own theological legitimacy.
You may not have heard these reasons before... that wouldn't surprise me. What do you think?
There are some interesting things said by Natan Sharansky in this JNS video
The so-called corruption trials against PM Binyamin Netanyahu have been in the news even more recently. He took US President Trump's hint to ask for a "pardon," which is a mistake for many reasons. The charges are classic "warfare." No proof of any crime has turned up, and even worse... it's no secret that a crew of "legal experts" dedicated their time to search for something to pin on Bibi. So far, no crimes have been proven.
If you read my blog and Facebook, you'll know that I consider him a dangerous failure as Prime Minister, but not a criminal. This horrid, dangerous war is proof of his total incompetence. Please remember the simple fact that Binyamin Bibi Netanyahu has been Prime Minister for close to twenty 20, yes TWENTY YEARS. The "buck stops" on his desk and no place else.
Bibi's guilty but not of a criminal-type crime. It's simple over-ambition and incompetence.
Bibi Netanyahu's guilt includes his way of governing, allowing the "glass ceilings" to continue in the Justice Department, Defense Department, Shabak, Police, IDF etc. In that sense, he has been following what Menachem Begin did when he became Prime Minister in 1977. Begin didn't replace the powerful government employees who control what really happens in government. The Labor Left never left the power it had even before the State of Israel was declared. They were the only Jews recognized by the British Mandate rulers as authorities. Anyone associated with the Jabotinsky Revisionists, Etzel or Lechi (Stern Gang) were discriminated against. Labor Zionists had them turned in to the British to be jailed and hung during the notorious immoral Sezon.
Who's in charge?
The problem I'm referring to can be traced back to 1977 when Menachem Begin, heading Likud, got the most Knesset seats and was able to form a ruling coalition. Likud was a relatively new party which combined a number of Right wing and anti-socialist, pro-capitalism parties.
Actually for years, Menachem Begin had politically aligned with the Liberal Party making גח"ל GaCHaL, Gush Cherut Liberalism. The Liberal Party wasn't "liberal" as a "leftist" party. Its ideology was free market capitalism, totally against the socialist/communist policies of David Ben-Gurion and crew. Cleaning Israel of socialism was the only real change Menachem Begin's government accomplished. Davka, Netanyahu even served as Minister of Finance 2003–2005, at which he did a good job. If Menachem Begin had been as determined to make real change in Israeli bureaucracy as his Liberal colleagues, the country would be in better shape today, and there would be no need for Judicial Reform, removing the glass ceiling in the IDF, major change in what's taught as Israeli History in schools etc.
During all those years Netanyahu has had the power and responsibility to make these reforms, but he hasn't. That's what he's guilty of, only wanting the honors of being Prime Minister, but not doing the really hard critical part of the job to make Israel a better, stronger and more truly democratic country. Those who have been consistently losing elections, the Left, is still running the country.
