To Serve Man

ב"ה

Rod Serling was a genius. He was able to use allegory to make points about human nature without offending people. He was prescient enough to see the future from his production world in the 1950s to the 1970s. For those of you who don't know who Rod Serling was, he was the creator of "The Twilight Zone" and "Night Gallery", among other things.

One of the more popular episodes was called 'To Serve Man' (if you haven't seen it, watch it by clicking on the link -- I will be referencing this episode).

In "To Serve Man" Aliens come to Earth with a book written in their language. The linguists were able to translate the title, which was "To Serve Man" but they were unable to translate the contents of the book. The Aliens had invited everyone on earth to travel to their planet. The main character of this drama, played by Lloyd Bochner, after being skeptical and not trusting these aliens, finally gives in and decides to check the planet out.

The episode climaxes with Bochner's character going up the gangplank to the spaceship. A colleague of Bochner's character calls to him, telling him to get off the ship -- the book, they have discovered, is a cookbook!

I was reminded of this episode when I heard what the "Ground Zero Imam" was saying, trying to explain to us (we prejudiced, uninformed lot -- whenever I hear this Imam he strikes me as being very patronizing) exactly how benign this building is; just how his "community center" (I have to tell you all, the 92nd Street "Y" this ain't!) is there to open dialogue and build tolerance.

Open dialogue and build tolerance? "To Serve Man", huh???? He tells us the "title of the book" in English, but the real "cookbook" is in Arabic. Just listen to what the man says in Arabic:

Throughout my discussions with contemporary Muslim theologians, it is clear an Islamic state can be established in more than just a single form or mold. It can be established through a kingdom or a democracy. The important issue is to establish the general fundamentals of Sharia that are required to govern. It is known that there are sets of standards that are accepted by [Muslim] scholars to organize the relationships between government and the governed. [emphasis added]

So why are we ignoring the "cookbook"? Why are we ignoring what this mans is saying to his own people in his own language? Why do we want so much to believe that these people are just like us, that they only want peace with us despite what they say in Arabic, despite the thousands murdered by them in Israel, in the US, in Darfur, in Spain, in Mumbai, I could go on all day with this (Act for America has more on this). Despite evidence to the contrary, people like self-hating Mayor Michael Bloomberg want to believe these are peace loving, reasonable people. Despite the resistance of upwards of 60% of the US population, despite the danger giving in to these enemies of peace and freedom poses, despite the threat these haters pose to our own lives and way of life, people still want to believe that all they want is "To Serve Man".

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Kibuda Bat Melech Penima???? (or Is Her Home Life Really Honorable to Her?)

ב"ה

I recently read about a very worthy charity. It's called Bat Melech and it's a battered women's shelter for Orthodox women. These are women who live in communities where "abuse doesn't exist" at least on the outside. It's a community where battered women are told that it's their fault, that they are overreacting. It's a world where divorce isn't always a viable alternative and women who leave their husbands are often ostracized.

I was reading about this shelter, which I think is very important and I'm glad it's there, I was thinking about how much all this reminds me of Israel. If you substitute Israel for the battered women and the Arab countries for the abusive husband it fits right in.

In the Orthodox community many abused women, when they try to leave their abusive husbands, are told they did something wrong -- the wives didn't take care of their husbands well enough, or they didn't keep the house clean enough or didn't have his supper on the table or didn't keep the children quiet.

This "blame the victim" mentality never works. If we are trying to eliminate the problem, the victim can't do anything that will actually change the situation. The victim can only get help or get out of the situation. Just as there is nothing a battered woman (or an abused child) can do to stop the abuser, just as the abuser depends on enablers to continue his abuse, Israel can do nothing to bring peace to the region (since Israel is not the one creating the "non-peace" -- Israel is not the one initiating missiles; Israel is not the one sending her citizens into populated areas and murdering people; Israel is not the one killing innocent people).

That the rest of the world has had a taste of the terrorist methods used by the Islamist "causes" should make them understand what Israelis go through on a daily basis, but instead, they separate between what Israel is going through and what they themselves are going through -- it's not the same people; it's not the same agenda. So the rest of the world, particularly Europe and the Obama and Bloomberg crowd in the US, enables the Islamists and allow these enemies of the world, peace and Western values to become stronger and bolder.

I continue to ask myself two main questions: 1) Why are people so intent on having Israel give up more land? and 2) Why are people ignoring the danger to themselves? Why are people putting themselves in danger by supporting the 'Cordoba Initiative' and the 'Let's blame Israel' game? Why do supposedly responsible, educated, knowledgeable journalists continue to make Israel the scapegoat, the reason the Islamists are on the rampage, the ultimate cause of all the evil in the world? Why do they ignore the millions of people maltreated by the Islamists, murdered by homicide-bombers and "ethnic cleansing" and just plane old racism, xenophobia and entitlement? Why do they think that Israel can make Neville Chamberlain style concessions and that the Islamists will respond in a different way from the way Hitler reacted (by wanting and taking more and more and murdering millions)?

I don't know the answer to this, nor do I know what I as one person can do to stop the tide of hatred and vituperation directed toward me and my people. But as long as I am able, I will continue to write and continue to try to influence others. And that is just about all I can do.

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Time Magazine's no better than the NY Times

ב"ה

"Time Magazine" has jumped on the bandwagon (or were they already there?) of the loud voices condemning Israel for just existing and surviving. In Why Israel Doesn't Care About Peace, Karl Vick, instead of commending Israelis for continuing to thrive in the shadow of their enemies, under the specter of homicide bombs and missiles from Gaza, Mr. Vick chooses to take this as a "sign" that Israelis don't want peace. Israelis, Mr. Vick chooses to not understand, are weary of a "peace process" that leads only to emboldening their enemies and alienation their supposed allies. Phyllis Chesler, in her wonderful Arutz Sheva article TIME Magazine’s Latest Blood Libel About Israel points this out.

After reading her article, I was reminded of an article I myself wrote that was in the April 25, 2008 issue of the Jewish State, so I decided to reprint that article here:

I was talking to a gentile friend the other day, and I asked him how many Jews he thought there were in the world. He told me he thought there must be about 150 million or so.

I started laughing. I told him that there were only about 15 or so million Jews in the world. This surprised him. It also surprised him when I told him that Israel is smaller than New Jersey.

There's a message that seems to make the circuit around the Internet with a list of Jewish Nobel Prize winners and Muslim Nobel prize winners. Keep in mind, the Jews make of about 0.2 percent of the world's population. With 0.2 percent of the world's population, Jews make up almost 22 percent of the world's Nobel Prize winners. Muslims make up about 16 percent of the world's population but less than one percent of the world's Nobel Prize winners.

If you learn Jewish history, you learn about a long history of persecution. We were enslaved in Egypt, attacked by the Amalekites, oppressed, at various times, by the Philistines, the Moabites, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans and many more. We were oppressed in England, France, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Russia, Germany, Ethiopia, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Syria, Iran, Iraq -- you name it. And yet, throughout it all, whenever given even half a chance, Jews have risen to the top.

In Shakespeare's England it was well known that Jews were "money lenders". This was pretty much the only business open to Jews in England at the time. And Jews found a way to succeed at it. In Inquisition-era Spain, Don Yitzhak Abarbenel became an adviser to the king and queen and many other Jews rose to high offices, many had enough money to lend to the monarchs to help finance Columbus's voyage. In 19th Century Europe, Jews rose to high office, did well in business, generally showed the world what is possible. Three of the four most arguably influential 19th- early 20th century thinkers (Freud, Einstein, Marx, and Darwin) were Jewish (of the four, only Darwin wasn't). Benjamin Disraeli became Prime Minister of England in a time when Jews weren't permitted to hold office (he officially converted to Christianity, but never considered himself anything but Jewish).

In the United States, a place of relative freedom and equality for Jews, Jews permeate every aspect of life, despite making up only about two percent of the population. Jews are doctors, lawyers, accountants, teachers, professors, actors, directors, producers, politicians, baseball players, artists, etc. This is why many people overestimate the number of Jews in the world.

I don't quite understand why the Islamists are trying to destroy us, quite honestly. Instead of trying to kill us, they should be trying to copy us. They should be studying us and trying to find out why it is that wherever we go, wherever we live, whatever we do, we tend to succeed in life.

Yet, instead of studying us, instead of trying to copy us, instead of using our success as a blueprint for their own future success, they are trying to destroy us.

Part of the reason for this is corrupt governments. In most of the Arab and Muslim world, the people are ruled by immoral leaders who know that if the people realize the truth -- that the leaders are milking them for their own greed -- they will revolt and that will be the end of their cushy lives. These leaders would rather have the people believe that Israel and Jews are the enemies of the world than find out who is really keeping them in poverty.

I think one of the reasons Jews succeed in the world is that we are taught to question. We are taught that Avraham and Moshe argued with God. So it isn't unusual for Jews to look at things in ways no one has looked at them before. It isn't strange that someone would question capitalism or the human mind or accepted scientific beliefs.

But in fundamentalist Islamic culture such intellectual investigation is suppressed. Women are taught never to question men, especially their fathers. These lessons are often taught in a violent fashion. So it's no wonder that people raised in these societies don't question and don't discover new ways of doing things or thinking about things.

Which brings us back to the original question, or at least a solution. While I'm pretty certain that the people who really need to follow this advice won't see this article, at least we can learn from it. When you see something that works, don't try to destroy it. Try to copy it. And, in replicating success you may discover that you actually like the person who succeeds and has taught you how to succeed.

I think that, particularly at this time of year, during the High Holy Days, we should all remember that success, when done in a proper, legal, moral fashion, should be emulated. We should learn from others, not try to destroy them.

שנה טובה (Shana Tova) -- Happy New Year -- to all. May 5771 be much better than 5770 was.

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For the Times, they aren't a-changing.....

ב"ה

The news of another terror attack recently hit cyberspace. It was a brutal murder of a couple and two other people (one was a teacher and mother) in the חברון (Hevron -- Hebron) area.

עד מתי (ad matai -- until when) will the leadership (and I use the term loosely) of Israel continue to allow the enemy in its own backyard?

Despite the brutality of these murders, despite the pregnant mother and the children left without parents, the special ed children left without a teacher, despite all this, the NY Times chooses to blame the "settlements" and, by extension, the "settlers". I've been to places beyond the "green line" (believe me, there's no green line down the center of the highway). They don't look like "settlements" to me. To me, the term "settlements" conjures up a picture of tents or mobile homes on unfinished roads. But what I have seen is homes, family houses, small businesses, cars, buses, synagogues, trees and plants (including fruit trees), pets, children playing in finished parks, basically the sort of towns we are all used to in the US and the Western World.

It's amazing to me that so many supposedly intelligent people feel the need to blame all the troubles of the world on Israel and the Jews. There are only about 13.3 million Jews in a world of 6.5 billion. This is approximately .2% of the world's population. That is 1/433 or for every Jew in the world, there are 433 non-Jews. So really, how logical is it to say that 15 million Jews are oppressing 1.5 billion Muslims. Add to this, the 15 million Jews (a bit more than 1/3 of whom are actually living in Israel).

The strangest things about this are 1) ask most Americans how many Jews there are in this country and you'll probably get some really inflated answer (like 50 million?) and 2) you get these people who claim they don't want all the Jews in the world dead, but they don't want us living in their country and they don't want us to have our own country. HUH????? How do they reconcile that???? Israel, in their eyes, is evil and logic doesn't enter into it.

And now, lately, I've been seeing things on the net that are very disturbing -- Organized Afghani Pedophilia; a new group of home-grown terrorists being recruited in US prisons;
Iran building nuclear bombs; the list just goes on and on. People are sitting back and allowing it to happen. Michael Bloomberg really doesn't understand (or want to understand????) what he's allowing to happen with the building of this mosque.

Bibi (Netanyahu) doesn't seem to be doing much better. This is a man who has made a name for himself on the coattails of his soldier brother, Yonatan,'s death at the Israeli raid on Entebbe. I wish he would remember what things were like after Entebbe. I wish he would remember the pride we all felt when the Israeli military saved all those people.

But for now, Bibi needs to hang tough at the "Peace Talks" and tell Abbas and Obama that Israel has security needs and all the Jews, nay, all the people in the world, depend on Israel's survival, whether they know it or now. He needs to remember that we look to him for guidance and support and safety. I pray he has the chutzpah to stand up for us all.


Check out my other blogs:

Israel and it's Place in the World
Jewish Singles
Strong Jewish Women

Check out some of my squidoo lenses (articles):

Strong Biblical Women
Strong Biblical Women 2
Why Be Vegetarian
Vegetarianism: Getting Started 1
Vegetarianism: Getting Started 2
Why be Vegetarian?
Rosh Hashana
Quick Vegan Cooking
Creating new recipes from old
Hanuka
About the Jewish Calendar
Witches and Morality
Math Hints 1 -- Adding Fractions
Presidents1: George Washington