Ancient of everlasting Days

The God of Abraham praise

Words: Yigaddel Elohim chay weyishtabach Daniel Ben Judah (14th century), Thomas Olivers (1725-1799)
Tune: Leoni

The God of Abraham praise
who reigns enthroned above,
Ancient of everlasting Days,
and God of love:
Jehovah, great I AM,
by earth and heaven confest;
I bow and bless the sacred name
for ever blest.

The God of Abraham praise,
at whose supreme command
from earth I rise, and seek the joys
at his right hand:
I all on earth forsake,
its wisdom, fame and power;
and him our only portion make,
our shield and tower.

The God of Abraham praise,
whose all-sufficient grace
shall guide me all my happy days
in all my ways.
He calls a worm his friend,
he calls himself my God;
and he shall save me to the end
through Jesu's blood.

He by himself has sworn,
I on his oath depend:
I shall, on eagles' wings upborne,
to heaven ascend;
I shall behold his face,
I shall his power adore
and sing the wonders of his grace
for evermore.

Though nature's strength decay,
and earth and hell withstand,
to Canaan's bounds I urge my way
at his command:
the watery deep I pass,
with Jesus in my view;
and through the howling wilderness
my way pursue.

The goodly land I see,
with peace and plenty blest:
a land of sacred liberty
and endless rest;
there milk and honey flow,
and oil and wine abound,
and trees of life for ever grow,
with mercy crowned.

There dwells the Lord our King,
the Lord our Righteousness,
triumphant o'er the world of sin,
the Prince of Peace:
on Sion's sacred height
his kingdom he maintains,
and glorious with his saints in light
for ever reigns.

He keeps his own secure,
he guards them by his side,
arrays in garment white and pure
his spotless Bride:
with streams of sacred bliss,
beneath serener skies,
with all the fruits of Paradise,
he still supplies.

Before the great Three-One
they all exulting stand,
and tell the wonders he hath done
through all their land:
the listening spheres attend,
and swell the growing fame,
and sing in songs which never end
the wondrous name.

The God who reigns on high
the great archangels sing,
and 'Holy, Holy, Holy.' cry,
'almighty King,
who was, and is the same,
and evermore shall be:
Jehovah, Father, great I AM,
we worship thee.'

Before the Savior's face
the ransomed nations bow,
o'erwhelmed at his almighty grace
for ever new;
he shows his prints of love-
they kindle to a flame,
and sound through all the worlds above
the slaughtered Lamb.

The whole triumphant host
give thanks to God on high;
'hail, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost',
they ever cry:
hail, Abraham's God, and mine,
(I join the heavenly lays)
all might and majesty are thine,
and endless praise.

Selah.

The ancient boundaries

Here is a nice shot of an old boundary marker: a treeline stretching up, over the hill and in the distance. Very evocative photo... it brought to mind the divine prohibition about moving boundaries.

• You shall not move your neighbor's boundary mark, which the ancestors have set, in your inheritance which you will inherit in the land that the LORD your God gives you to possess. Deuteronomy 19:14
• 'Cursed is he who moves his neighbor's boundary mark.' And all the people shall say, 'Amen.' Deuteronomy 27:17
• "Some remove the landmarks; They seize and devour flocks. Job 24:2
• Do not move the ancient boundary Which your fathers have set. Proverbs 22:28

There is something sacred in the land granted by God; one moves the boundaries only at great detriment to himself. The lesson is enduring and graphic, in its physical intent: a protection of property and heritage, an honoring of the poor, the widows and orphans. In a spiritual sense, this applies in spades to postmoderns: we've ripped away the ancient boundaries, defining all sense and sin in relation to ourselves. The ancient Reformation understanding of the true self as defined outside one's natural self is jettisoned -- and despised. Layers of lessons! Not the least of which is the fact that this picture is posted in a time when Israel's boundaries are transgressed almost daily by terror. Selah.

True man, yet very God, from sin and death He saves us

Lo, how a Rose e'er blooming

Words: tanzas 1-2: German, fifteenth century carol; trans. Theodore Baker, 1894. stanzas 3-4: Friedrich Layritz (1808-1859); trans. Harriet Reynolds Krauth (1845-1925).
Tune: Es ist ein Ros

Lo, how a Rose e'er blooming
from tender stem hath sprung!
of Jesse's lineage coming,
as those of old have sung.
It came, a floweret bright,
amid the cold of winter,
when half spent was the night.

Isaiah 'twas foretold it,
the Rose I have in mind;
with Mary we behold it,
the Virgin Mother kind.
To show God's love aright,
she bore to us a Savior,
when half spent was the night.

The shepherds heard the story
proclaimed by angels bright,
how Christ, the Lord of glory
was born on earth this night.
To Bethlehem they sped
and in the manger they found him,
as angel heralds said.

This Flower, whose fragrance tender
with sweetness fills the air,
dispels with glorious splendor
the darkness everywhere;
true man, yet very God,
from sin and death he saves us,
and lightens every load.

Alleluia!

Selah.

Sinners, whose love can ne'er forget

All hail the power of Jesus' name!

Words: Edward Perronet (1725-1792), 1780
Tune: Coronation

All hail the power of Jesus' name!
Let angels prostrate fall;
bring forth the royal diadem,
to crown Him, crown Him, crown Him Lord of all!

Crown Him, ye morning stars of light,
who fixed this floating ball;
now hail the Strength of Israel's might,
and crown Him, crown Him, crown Him Lord of all!

Crown Him ye martyrs of your God,
who from His altar call:
extol the stem of Jesse's rod,
and crown Him, crown Him, crown Him Lord of all!

Ye seed of Israel's chosen race,
ye ransomed of the fall,
hail Him who saves you by His grace.
and crown Him, crown Him, crown Him Lord of all!

Hail Him, ye heirs of David's line,
whom David Lord did call,
the God incarnate, Man divine,
and crown Him, crown Him, crown Him Lord of all!

Sinners, whose love can ne'er forget
the wormwood and the gall,
go spread your trophies at His feet,
and crown Him, crown Him, crown Him Lord of all!

Let every tribe and every tongue
that bound creation's call,
now shout in universal song
the crowned, the crowned, the crowned Lord of all!

Alleluia!

Selah.

An ad that New York Times radio won't run

Fifteen seconds

Fifteen seconds. Imagine you had fifteen seconds to find shelter from an incoming missile. Fifteen seconds to locate your children, help an elderly relative, assist a disabled person to find shelter.

That's all the residents of Sderot and neighboring Israeli towns have.

Day or night, the sirens go on. Fifteen seconds later, the missiles, fired from Hamas-controlled Gaza, hit. They could hit a home, a school, a hospital. Their aim is to kill and wound and demoralize.

Imagine yourself in that situation.

The sirens blast. 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. The time to seek shelter has ended. The missiles hit.

This is what Israelis experience daily. But, amazingly, they refuse to be cowed. Help us help those Israelis. Visit ajc.org.

Thanks, Powerline.

Click the link and read the articles. 'Nuff said...

God bless Israel.

Selah.

Antisemitic falsehoods: Exposing the 'cycle of violence' meme

The Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center has done an analysis title, "Rocket Threat From Gaza, 2000-2007." Since Israel has withdrawn from Gaza, the rocket attacks have increased exponentially.

John Hinderaker at Powerline, comments:

Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, eliminating, many thought, a key element in the "cycle of violence" between Israel and the Palestinians. On that reasoning, violence launched from Gaza should have been expected to decline. Instead, it increased.

...The [Intelligence and Terrorism Center] report is worth reading in its entirety, but this graphic tells you all you need to know about the consequences of withdrawing from Gaza...

Indeed. Please read the report and consider its implications!

The new antisemitism

Yeshiva Mercaz HaRav. We live in a bizarre postmodern world where intentional, brutal death-seeking is fine, as long as it is against a truly democratic, peace-seeking "aggressor," and no one blinks when terror-states dance in the street at the sight of innocent Israeli blood. And the Western elites who enable such terror consider themselves socially progressive, so cultured and post-racial!

Here's the truth: this is the face of the new antisemitism. And its effect will be potentially exponentially more deadly to Jews than the old version; to wit: the new Hitler will have nukes; he already has a fawning world media fan base, enabling the madness.

Via Gail at Crossing the Rubicon, hear the prophetic voice of Yitzchok Adlerstein:

The society that preaches martyrdom to children, that rejoices in the street over the deaths of students huddled over sacred texts, that praises death over life – this society has become Amalek.

Selah.

A song for Jerusalem: May they prosper who love you!

O 'twas a joyful sound to hear

Words: Nahum Tate and Nicholas Brady, 1698
Tune: Mount Sion

O 'twas a joyful sound to hear
our tribes devoutly say,
up, Israel! to the temple haste,
and keep your festal day.
at Salem's courts we must appear,
with our assembled powers,
in strong and beauteous order ranged,
like her united towers.

O ever pray for Salem's peace;
for they shall prosperous be,
thou holy city of our God,
who bear true love to thee.
May peace within thy sacred walls
a constant guest be found;
with plenty and prosperity
thy palaces be crowned.

For my dear brethren's sake, and friends
no less than brethren dear,
I'll pray: May peace in Salem's towers
a constant guest appear.
But most of all I'll seek thy good,
and ever wish thee well,
for Zion and the temple's sake,
where God vouchsafes to dwell!

Selah.

A song from Psalm 122, written in the 17th century, still apt today... blessings be upon Jerusalem and all who love her truly!

A friend of Israel

I've carried the "Friend of Israel" logo on my site for some time, and just recently had to update it because of a site upgrade from Blogger. For those who question my support of Israel during these difficult times, or my support of Jews, please feel free to email me with your questions. I'll be glad to dialogue with you. And, just a word to all bloggers who can see the light of Israel in the midst of a darkened Mideast: please click on the logo and consider hosting one on your blog! Israel needs all the friends she can get, at this juncture in history. As do Jews around the world -- anti-Semitism is at a higher level now than at any time since the socialist pogroms of Nazism and Stalinism.

A song for Israel

Psalm 131

A song of ascents by David

My heart is not proud, O LORD,
my eyes are not haughty;
I do not concern myself with great matters
or things too wonderful for me.

But I have stilled and quieted my soul;
like a weaned child with its mother,
like a weaned child is my soul within me.

O Israel, put your hope in the LORD
both now and forevermore.

Come to the Quiet

John Michael Talbot

Lord, my heart is not proud,
Nor are my eyes fixed on things beyond me.
In the quiet, I have stilled my soul
Like a child at rest
on its mother’s knee.
I have stilled my soul within me.

Israel, come and hope in your Lord.
Do not set your eyes on things far beyond you.
Just come to the quiet,
Come and still your soul
Like a child at rest on it’s daddy’s knee.
Come and still your soul completely.

May the peace of this passage be upon Israel. May the soul of Israel be quieted in the arms of Abba, this day and this night in the very stillness of God. Amen.

The truth according to Hezbollah

Would you recognize Hitler...

...if he came in your generation?

A question runs through my mind: How can we claim to be on the side of light in reference to past crimes, if we cannot delineate between good and evil on this day, this very day?

Look at this video, where a modern leader leads the masses in mesmerizing chants: Death to Israel! Death to America!

Look at this video, where a passionate speaker sways the minds of his followers with a revised history and call for blood.

Look at these videos and ask, "Was it any clearer during Hitler's time -- this call for Jewish destruction?" Or was it even muddier then, with the Holocaust denied until the camps were discovered by the Allies? Indeed, morality is easy in hindsight, and these calls for Jewish destruction are far clearer than Hitler's... or Stalin's... in the death of tens of millions of Jews.

We will not be judged for another time. Neither will easy moralisms against evil in another time absolve us from the guilt of our own time. We will be judged for today, for where we stood when darkness offered the price in our own terms.

Look at these videos, and evaluate where you stand!

Selah.

Sad update: Meanwhile, Mike Wallace of CBS News calls Ahmadinegad smart, interesting and charming...at the same time referring to Israel as "that Zionist state." Unbelievable, yet real. Thus is evil enabled in our time. Hitler and Stalin had their charms, as does every mass murderer. Antichrist comes as a man of peace. Now we see just how such destroyers are feted, how they are excused: good called evil and evil good, on the basis of banalities, while millions of Jews, Christians and innocents die.

A picture worth a thousand words...

An Iranian woman walks past a billboard proclaiming militant Islamic gospel

Metaphysical totalitarianism at the heart of liberalism

Do people support Islamic terror because it offers armed destruction of the ephemeral architectures of the West?

Toward understanding the modern support of terror

The latest Hezbollah tactics are such a blatant strike at Israel's existence, a promise of what is to come [in attempted total destruction], that I've been trying to understand how so many world players tacitly support this terror.

Several thinkers offer the suggestion that liberalism is actually making common cause with Islamic terror, because Islamic terror currently provides an armed destruction of the ephemeral and physical structures of Western [Judeo-Christian] Civilization. This this a shocking idea, but it must be countenanced, especially when observing the use of force that liberalism supports, and the concurrent calls for peace that liberalism authors -- generally speaking, of course [note: a discussion of liberalism as opposed to liberals]. But it is worthy of more thought, a theme that serious minded persons cannot ignore.

In this train of thought, I ran across a quote on Gail's blog, Crossing the Rubicon2. She quotes a thinker by the name of Benjamin Kerstein, who authors three incisive paragraphs on the subject. Kerstein itemizes a metaphysical totalitarianism at the heart of liberalism -- a postmodern application of Nietzschean will to power, its raison d'etre.

He suggests that metaphysical totalitarianism can brook no rival, ruthlessly destroying any person or structure that stands in its way. This being the case, Israel is a hated rival: a Jew that clings to her land and heritage is a threat, a virus to be removed. Thus Kerstein demonstrates that deep anti-Semitism is an unconscious outflow of liberal thought, reflected in conscious actions.

Antisemitism is not only representative of the "liberal community," it is the essence of liberalism itself. Liberalism is a bid for power first, and an ideology second. Its advocacy of racial and ethnic equality is, in fact, an expression of the imperialism inherent in liberal universalism. Liberalism must expand, its ambitions are total. Its desire is not, in fact, to make all peoples equal, but to make all peoples liberal. Its desire is not to equalize, but to conquer. When peoples are not liberal, they must be destroyed. This is not confined to antisemitism. Witness the brutal and inhuman racism directed at black and Hispanic conservatives. But in the case of the Jews, we have an absolute rejectionism.

The reason is that liberalism must seek to annihilate the Jews because the very fact of Jewish existence is, in the end, a rejection of the metaphysical totalitarianism at the heart of liberalism. Judaism is particular, rooted in place, uncompromising in its pride and its belief in its unique and divinely connected existence. This is called Chosenness. I am at best an agnostic, but I do not deny Chosenness. It is a fact of history. Albert Camus wrote that "a mission exists for any human group which knows how to derive pride and fecundity from its labors and its sufferings." He was speaking of the working class. He could easily be speaking of the Jewish people. This too is Chosenness. In the eyes of liberalism, this is not only offensive, but an existential threat.

This principle was summed up by the avatars of the French revolution, who proclaimed that the glorious new order of reason would grant everything to the Jew as a citizen and nothing to the Jews as a people. In other words, for the Jew who is not a Jew, everything. For the Jew who is a Jew, who willfully embraces the ephemeral architectures that make him a Jew, nothing. The reason is obvious. It is rooted in the essentially destructive nature of liberalism. Liberalism is based on the rejection of all connections or values beyond the material. We are all human beings, we are all flesh and blood, and this is our only legitimate value. The architectures of the past which make us human are demolished by liberalism, and those who hold to them are considered enemies of the one true faith. Thus, liberalism becomes an inquisition dedicated to the reduction of man to the biological. The medieval Inquisition named its justification the immortal soul. Liberalism calls it equality. It is still, ultimately, only another name for the will to power. And the destruction of those who would stand in the way of its absolute consummation.

Study these words:

In other words, for the Jew who is not a Jew, everything. For the Jew who is a Jew, who willfully embraces the ephemeral architectures that make him a Jew, nothing.

Thus, liberalism becomes an inquisition dedicated to the reduction of man to the biological. The medieval Inquisition named its justification the immortal soul. Liberalism calls it equality. It is still, ultimately, only another name for the will to power. And the destruction of those who would stand in the way of its absolute consummation.

Here, I think, is the key to understanding the world onslaught against Israel, those who would seemingly give their lives to ensure the success of those who radically seek Israeli and Jewish destruction...

Selah.

Hezbollah plots its own children in tragedy

Article 28, 4th Geneva Convention: the deliberate placing of military targets in the heart of civilian areas is a serious violation of humanitarian law.

Terrorism as an inversion of moral judgment
Which world media brokers agree with and abet

The tragedy of the deaths of children and adult civilians should not obscure that every day the Hezbollah terrorists send barrages of rockets into Israel, each one of which is intended to kill civilians and in far greater numbers than died in Qana. The incompetence of Hezbollah's munition makers is somehow obscuring the scale of its terrorism. If the 9/11 attacks had only killed 300, would the U.S. not have invaded Afghanistan and later Iraq? Hezbollah has tried for three weeks to inflict a 9/11 on Israel, but Israel is being damned because its defensive measures have led to civilians held hostage by terrorists. This is an insane inversion of the laws of war and customary international law as well as of common sense. Hezbollah began this war and is responsible for the deaths of everyone on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border.

Each day of the war Israel struggles to minimize harm to civilians. Each day Hezbollah tries to kill them and uses Lebanese civilians as hostages.

Yet Hezbollah's tactics are condemned in passing by Kofi Annan, and only Israel's mistakes summon the Security Council to its labors, which is why Kofi Annan is a joke, a cartoon of an international leader. Annan and the UN are legitimizing a terrorist organization and its tactics. They are demanding, in essence, that Israel accept a defeat.

While the world should be horrified that this war has claimed many more innocents, its diplomats and representatives ought to have been denouncing in a single voice the invasion of Israeli territory by Hezbollah and the murder and kidnapping of Israeli soldiers and the use of terror tactics against civilian populations as well as the use of civilian populations by Hezbollah as shields

The West must not acquiesce in the elevation of Hezbollah to the status of state actor, in the non-condemnation of its tactics, or in anything remotely like a return to the status quo which would allow Hezbollah to resupply and deepen its hold on south Lebanon.

Hugh Hewitt, writing on the seductive way in which the latest civilian deaths are plotted by Hezbollah and media alike.

One of the most immoral things that I've witnessed in my life is the way that Hezbollah has been spun by the U.N. and by the dominant world media. Hezbollah, which targets civilians intentionally as its stated aim, is given a pat on the head by Kofi Annan and the U.N., CNN and New York Times and the others. Meanwhile, Israel, which tries its best not to target women or children, is vocally excoriated when it chases terrorists to their lair. These so called "tough" terrorists hide behind their women and children, causing their demise, and the world mouthpieces squeak in utter horror -- not at the evil men who put those women and children in the line of fire, no! but at Israel, the country surrounded by terror, only trying to defend itself.

If I didn't believe in the war between good and evil before, if I didn't believe in anti-Semitism before, seeing this latest media-driven sabatoge of Israel, seeing major players overturn all strictures of moral judgment, inverting it utterly in defense and promotion of terror...if I didn't believe before, I would now.

In their dripping hatred of Israel, they've embraced evil and called it good. But let those with eyes to see, and ears to hear, speak...

And may the Islamic children who pay the price for their parents' terror, may they receive mercy from the true Abba...

Addendum: Via Powerline, the blog Vital Perspective has video of these Hezbollah killers firing missiles from Qana. [Video link post here, showing these terrorists firing rockets from behind a three-story building which looks much like the same building flattened.] Vital Perspective aptly notes Article 28 of the 4th Geneva Convention:

The presence of a protected person may not be used to render certain points or areas immune from military operations.

Vital Perspective comments:

Clearly, the deliberate placing of military targets in the heart of civilian areas is a serious violation of humanitarian law, and those who chose to locate such targets in these areas must bear responsibility for the injury to civilians which this decision engenders.

The Geneva convention is clear as to whom is responsible for these deaths. Abundantly clear. And yet the U.N. and media types scream hatred at Israel, de facto casting their lot with terror, enabling its aims.

Aside: Note the fatal symmetry in Islamic terror choosing Jewish women and children as its target in Seattle, Jewish women and children as its target in Israel, and Islamic women and children as its shield in Lebanon. Is it accidental that Islamic "heroes" intentionally kill women and children, and then hide behind their own women's skirts while knowing all along it could mean the destruction of their own children? And is it accidental that world Muslims refuse to disavow such despicable actions?

More words from a reluctant war

Smoke billows from a terrorist stronghold in southern Lebanon

Hezbollah took us hostage

Hezbollah didn’t only take 2 Israeli soldiers hostages, but he took Lebanon hostage and gave it to its masters (Iran & Syria) as a bargaining chip. Do we Lebanese have a saying in all this? Did Hassan Nasrallah ask us, the Lebanese, if we agreed on such operation? He doesn’t care. He thinks he is untouchable and any decision he makes, we the Lebanese, must obey it. After all he is a Muslim religious leader and Allah path is the right one. He threatened every single Lebanese, right after kidnapping the Israeli soldiers, he asked all Lebanese to stand by his resistance or else. Or else, what? You will pull your Imam Ali sward and cut our heads?

Mano, writing on the Ouwet Front, a Lebanese Forces blog.

What the Lebanese think of Hezbollah

I think all the Arab flag wavers need to find someone Lebanese to speak to. Not Syrians with Lebanese passports, and not Shiaas either. Find yourself a Sunni Lebanese, a Christian, Durzi or Marouni. Talk to them. Ask them about what they think of Hezb ‘ollah…

Guess what? Not a moment goes by without them cussing at Hezb ‘ollah. And they too believe that Hezb ‘ollah is armed to the gills with Syrian and Iranian weaponry. Even the Syrians I spoke to admit that Syria supports Hezb ‘ollah with material.

So it irks me when I read that Egyptians - the politically immature mixed in with the blindly nationalistic Nasserites for example - cheer on Hezb ‘ollah like they have a vested interest in the continuation of this lunacy. Sorry, but you aren’t even Lebanese! It’s easy for us Arabs to support an organisation that wrecks havoc against our ‘enemy’ but does it on someone else’s expense.

I mean, if Hezb ‘ollah decided to open shop in Sinai, and fight Israel from across our border, how many Egyptians would cheer then? Even if it meant having to contend with parts of Cairo being shelled back to the stone age, literally? I highly doubt it…

Mindbleed, Arab blogger writing “to Arab brothers” [Warning: Language alert on this site].

How the U.N. legitimizes terrorists

Part of the goal of organizations like Hezbollah and Hamas is to gain moral legitimacy for their terrorist tactics by having them equated with the conventional military tactics used by democratic regimes. Only the morally obtuse--or perverse--cannot recognize the difference between a terrorist group that targets civilian population centers with anti-personnel weapons designed to maximize civilian casualties and a democracy that seeks to prevent terrorism by employing smart bombs designed to minimize civilian casualties.

Annan knows better than to suggest a moral equivalence. He is fully aware of the tactic employed by terrorists of launching their rockets from, and hiding behind, civilian shields, so as to make democracies have to kill some civilians to get at the terrorists.

But Annan heads an organization that is so anti-Israel that as the late Abba Eban, the early Israeli ambassador to the UN, once put it: "If Algeria proposed a resolution that the Earth was flat and that Israel has flattened it, it would pass by a vote of 120 to 3, with 27 abstentions."

Many such resolutions have been passed by the General Assembly, including the notorious one equating the Jewish national liberation movement with "racism." Other one-sided resolutions have been passed by the General Assembly legitimating terrorism. Only the U.S. veto--which does not operate in the UN General Assembly--has prevented one-sided resolutions by the Security Council.

If a space alien from a distant planet were to land at the UN, he would come away with the impression that Israel is not only the sole offender in the Middle East, but the worst offender in the entire world. He would single out Israel for condemnation and exclude it from membership on many UN bodies, on which Syria, Lebanon and Iran serve in positions of honor.

Annan himself has a long history of one-sided condemnations of Israel. In March 2004, Annan "strongly condemned" Israel's targeted killing of Sheik Ahmad Yassin, the terrorist leader of Hamas, without condemning Yassin for his murderous actions or his organization for the murder of Jewish civilians. In December 2003, Annan "strongly condemned" Israel's assault on a Palestinian refugee camp where two gunmen were thought to be hiding. And in 2005, he issued the most tepid of statements--expressing "dismay"--at threats by Iran's president to "eliminate" Israel, a member nation of the UN. The list goes on and on.

And even worse than the one-sided condemnations that ignore Hezbollah and Hamas are the numerous statements that perversely suggest moral equivalence.

The UN peacekeepers on the Lebanese border have turned out to be collaborators with Hezbollah, videotaping the Hezbollah kidnapping of three Israeli soldiers in 2000 and then refusing to release the video--which could have helped in the rescue--on the grounds that it might compromise their "neutrality."

This is a real test for the UN. If it cannot--or will not--distinguish between terrorists who target civilians and a democracy that seeks to stop the terrorism while minimizing civilian casualties, it has become part of the problem, rather than part of the solution.

Alan Dershowitz, describing how the U.N. legitimizes terrorists.

A pictorial of anti-Semitism

Before arriving in South Florida this weekend, I had heard from several friends in the area that the Miami Herald was providing slanted coverage of the war in the Middle East. I had visited the web site, but that was largely a collection of wire stories.

Then I saw Saturday’s paper. The most prominent headline on the front page, in the center, above-the-fold, was “The human cost of war.” Immediately below was surprisingly brazen bias. Before I describe more, look for yourself…

Joel Mowbray showing one example in a long line of brazen mainstream media bias against Israel.

“Proportional” -- new anti-Semitic code word

If by chance you have the search engine LexisNexis and you punch in the words "Israel'' and "disproportionate,'' you run the risk of blowing up your computer or darkening your entire neighborhood. Just limiting the search to newspapers and magazines of the last week will turn up "more than 1,000 documents.'' Israel may be the land of milk and honey but it certainly seems to be the land of disproportionate military response -- and a good thing, too.

The list of those who have accused Israel of not being in harmony with its enemies is long and, alas, distinguished. It includes, of course, the United Nations and its secretary general, Kofi Annan. It also includes a whole bunch of European newspapers whose editorial pages call for Israel to respond, it seems, with only one missile for every one tossed its way. Such neat proportion is a recipe for doom.

The dire consequences of proportionality are so clear that it makes you wonder if it is a fig leaf for anti-Israel sentiment in general…

Readers of my recent column on the Middle East can accuse me of many things, but not a lack of realism. I know Israel's imperfections, but I also exult and admire its achievements. Lacking religious conviction, I fear for its future and note the ominous spread of European-style anti-Semitism throughout the Muslim world -- and its boomerang return to Europe as a mindless form of anti-Zionism. Israel is, as I have often said, unfortunately located, gentrifying a pretty bad neighborhood. But the world is full of dislocated peoples and we ourselves live in a country where the Indians were pushed out of the way so that -- oh, what irony! -- the owners of slaves could spread liberty and democracy from sea to shining sea. As for Europe, who today cries for the Greeks of Anatolia or the Germans of Bohemia?

These calls for proportionality rankle. They fall on my ears not as genteel expressions of fairness, some ditsy Marquess of Queensberry idea of war, but as ugly sentiments pregnant with antipathy toward the only state in the Middle East that is a democracy. After the Holocaust, after 1,000 years of mayhem and murder, the only proportionality that counts is zero for zero. If Israel's enemies want that, they can have it in a moment.

Richard Cohen, telling us why “a ‘proportional response’ is madness.”

The inhumane nature of an immature ceasefire

We know that the missile that wrecked an IDF warship and killed four sailors on July 15 was manufactured in Iran to a Chinese design. We know that Hezbollah's longer-range weapons are commanded by Iranian Revolutionary Guards. We know that Hezbollah's fighting forces were equipped and trained by Iranian officers. And we know above all that Hezbollah is financed, equipped, and trained by the Iranian secret service. It carries out terror missions on behalf of Iran. For all practical purposes, Hezbollah is an arm of the Iranian state.

And when Hezbollah goaded Israel into war, the war it triggered was not a war between Israel and Lebanon.

The war Hezbollah provoked is a war between Israel and Iran, with Hezbollah as Iran's proxy--and the people of Lebanon as Iran's victims. The Lebanese have been kidnapped by Iran as surely as those two Israeli soldiers abducted on the northern border.

Israel has recognized that tragic fact. It has fought this war on its northern border as humanely as it can. Flip the switch in Beirut and the lights come on; open the taps, and the water flows. Essential services have been spared. The runways at Beirut Airport have been bombed to stop reinforcements to Hezbollah, but the control towers and the newly built terminal have been spared because Lebanon will need them later.

Unintended civilian casualties have tragically occurred, as they do in any war. But Israel's sincere and costly attempts to minimize the loss of innocent life present a stark contrast with Hezbollah's deliberately atrocious war methods.

Hezbollah has boasted that it has tried to fire missiles into Haifa's chemical factories, in hope of releasing gases to poison the civilian population. Hezbollah rocket warheads arrive crammed with ball bearings, so as to inflict maximum death and suffering upon the civilian populations at which they are fired.

Nobody wants the war to last a minute longer than it needs to. But ironically, letting this war go to the finish would be a far more humane policy than the UN's call for an immediate, unconditional ceasefire.

Thoughts from David From, resident fellow at AEI.

A collection of words from a reluctant war

U.S. Marines on a rigid, inflatable hull boat patrol the coast of Lebanon, guarding the security of fleeing Americans. [Foxnews photo-essay]

A reluctant conflict

“We – the majority of us anyway – don't want peace with Israel, and are not interested in any real dialogue with them. We weren't then and we are not now. The entire peace process has always been about getting the land back, not establishing better relations. Even when we do get the land back, it's not enough. People in Egypt lament daily the Camp David treaty that prevents us from fighting. In Gaza they never stopped trying to attack Israel. In Lebanon Hezbollah continued attacking even after the Israeli withdrawal. And the people – the majority of the Arab population – support it. Very few of us are really interested in having any lasting Peace or co-existence. I mean, if our left is asking for war, what do you think the rest of the population is thinking?

I think that the Israeli want peace with us because they don't want their lives disrupted. They don't want to have the IDF soldiers fighting in Gaza, rockets coming into their towns from Hamas or having to go to wars against Hezbollah to get their soldiers back. I think they want peace because they want their peace of mind. They view us as if we were a headache. We view them as if they are a cancer.

And this is why there will never really be any peace in the middle-east."

Candid words from Egyptian blogger “Sandmonkey,” speaking in collective voice regarding positions he himself does not hold.


“While the people of Palestine and Lebanon are paying the price of this bloody conflict, the main players, who caused this conflict, are living in peace and asking for more oil from Arab countries to support the facade of resisting Israel. With the Palestinian Authority close to collapse and the Lebanese government beginning to give up responsibility for what is happening in its territory, Saudi Arabia has been forced to come out of its diplomatic routine and indirectly hold Hezbollah responsible for what is happening Lebanon…

Unfortunately we must admit that in such a war the only way to get rid of 'these irregular phenomena' is what Israel is doing. The operations of Israel in Gaza and Lebanon are in the interest of people of Arab countries and the international community."

Incisive thoughts from Ahmed al-Jarallah, editor of the Arab Times, a Kuwaiti based paper that publishes online, quoted by New York Daily News.


Most Arabs perceive Israel as small. Egypt – home to one of every three Arabs – has enjoyed a cold peace with Israel for more than a quarter-century. Gulf states, on the whole, would rather make money than directly fight Israel. While they do not like Israel's existence, Jerusalem presents no threat. Not so Tehran. A giant with 70 million people, Iran is no status quo power. Its ideological commitment to export revolution is real. Across Lebanon and the region, Arab leaders see Hezbollah for what it is: An arm of Iranian influence waging a sectarian battle in the heart of the Middle East.

Some words of Michael Rubin, a resident scholar at AEI.


For years, the Arab world clamored for the Israel "problem" to be solved. Then peace and security would at last supposedly reshape the Middle East. The Western nations understood the "problem" as being Israeli retention of lands it had captured in Sinai, the West Bank, Gaza, Syria and Lebanon after defeating a series of Arab forces bent on destroying the Jewish state.

But after the Israeli departure from Sinai, Gaza and Lebanon, and billions of dollars in American aid to Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinians, there is still not much progress toward peace. Past Israeli magnanimity was seen as weakness. Now Israel's reasoned diplomacy has earned it another round of kidnapping, ransom and rocket attacks.

Finally, the world is accepting that the Middle East problem was never about so-called occupied land -- but only about the existence of Israel itself. Hezbollah and Hamas, and those in their midst who tolerate them (or vote for them), didn't so much want Israel out of Lebanon and Gaza as pushed into the Mediterranean altogether. And since there will be no second Holocaust, the Israelis may well soon transform a perennial terrorist war that they can't easily win into a conventional aerial one against a terrorist-sponsoring Syria that they can.

Victor Davis Hanson, revealing that "Western patience is wearing thin."


From Israel's perspective, defeating this unconventional enemy requires an unconventional strategy. Hizbollah's headquarters are in urban neighborhoods and it fires its rockets from civilian areas, making it virtually impossible for Israel to distinguish between combatants and non-combatants. Israel's response is to destroy those elements of Lebanon's infrastructure, including its civilian components, which it says house and sustain Hizbollah.

Israel is using the "opportunity" presented by Hizbollah's attack to take care of the guerrilla force once and for all. But given Israel's choice of methods, it is inevitable that innocent Lebanese civilians will be killed in the process...

World attention is focused, legitimately, on the level of destruction being meted out on Lebanon. But in assessing Israel's response, one needs to look beyond the asymmetry of power, to a second asymmetry in terms of goals. Israel's goals are strategic, while Hizbollah's are existential. Israel has the greater arsenal, but it is fighting an enemy that won't be satisfied as long as Israel continues to exist. In this case the asymmetry is reversed. And it begs the question: how should you fight such a group as it wages war on you?

Hizbollah is not just a "Lebanese militia," but is Iran's proxy army, with Syria as the middleman. Hizbollah's actions, and Israeli reactions, could spark a regional war. "I'm afraid that if the Iranian president allows Hizbollah to use its long distance missiles against Israel" and they hit Tel Aviv, says Cheshin, "very soon we will find ourselves in a third world war."

The Lebanese people are being squeezed between Israel and Hizbollah, two forces that do not prioritize protecting Lebanese life. But so long as Lebanon and the international community remain unable or unwilling to disarm Hizbollah and remove it from Israel's border, Israel will continue to use its arsenal in a "deliberately disproportionate" manner against the organization that proudly declares itself to be Israel's existential enemy.

It is time for the international community to step into the fray for the sake of the Lebanese and the Israeli people. But any serious proposal must acknowledge that there can be no return to the "status quo ante."

Some thoughts from Pierre M. Atlas, assistant professor of political science and director of the Franciscan Center for Global Studies at Marian College.

The deadly racism of demanding Jewish restraint

Birkenau. The tracks which Ahmadinejad denies lead to the ovens which Ahmadinejad denies. But surely this all happened because of Jewish lack of restraint!

A true story, a parable
by Loy Mershimer

The elderly Jew looked out over the river, and silently laughed for joy. The sunlight ran from shore to shore, sparkling like diamonds on the water, calling forth praise. It was a good day, a day for giving thanks... A ferry pulled to the shore, and he stepped up to board, smiling slightly as the gentle breeze tufted his wise, grey beard. The wisdom of Torah lighted his face as his eyes blessed creation and creatures alike: “Praise you, G-d, for this good day!” “Praise you for these people here, that they could enjoy this scene with me!”

The beauty of his thoughts was suddenly broken by a strident voice: “A fig, I say!” “A fig for the Jew!” Through the clustered passengers strode a strongly built man, athletic and proud: “A fig for the Jew!” The big stranger ruffled the kippah of the elderly Jew and turned to play the crowd. “What do we have here?” he asked rhetorically, gesturing grandly. “We have ourselves a bona fide Jew!” “Rub its head three times for good luck; yank its beard and money will flow!”

Several of the clustered people chuckled; others turned away and pretended not to see…

“…Yank its beard and money will flow!” the rowdy strong man continued his litany, as he turned again to his victim. “Isn’t that right, Mr. Jew?” “Yank your beard and money will flow?” The elderly Jew replied with a look of trepidation: “What do you want from me?” he asked. Visions of past abuse danced in his soul…his head bowed.

“What will you pay me to stop yanking your beard, old man!” sneered the athlete. With that he yanked the man’s beard, and laughed to the crowd. “It’s a bank!” he cried. “Yank the string and money will clink out!” “Where’s the payment, old man?” Again, he yanked. And again.

Then, instinctively, impulsively, he knew not how it happened…something steeled in the soul of the old man…and as the strong bully grasped his beard for another yank, the old man bit down on his hand.

“Aaaaahhhh!” shouted the athletic bully. His proud words quickly turned to pain. “The Jew bit me!” he cried. His pride seamlessly turned to self-righteous indignation: “This Jew assaulted me for no reason!” He clutched his wounded finger and began calling for the police. “You saw him bite me!” he cried to a bystander. “Yes, I saw,” replied the man.

“Here now!” said the police officer. “What’s all this racket?”

“The Jew!” blustered the wounded bully. “This Jew attacked me for no reason, and bit my finger!” “You see the blood!” “This Jew wanted my blood!” “I was just having a little fun with him, and he attacked me!”

“Come with me,” said the officer, as he clasped the shoulder of the grey-bearded Jew.

“But, sir!” said the old man, tears in his eyes. “He was pulling my beard and threatening me! He was hurting me!” “Look, the hair pulled out by the roots, the blood on my face!”

“Tell that to the judge,” said the officer. “Come along.” “You’re under arrest for assault and battery.”

Later, the elderly Jew stood before the district judge, and told his story as true as it happened before G-d.

The pious judge listened to the story, hands about his chin. Then he reached for his gavel and clanked it down with all the weight of law-abiding authority: “A fine for the Jew!” he said. “Enough to cover damages and pain and suffering for this fine athlete!”

The gathered audience nodded their heads, tongues clucking in approval of the wise judge’s decision.

Then the judge turned to give a final lecture to the old Jew: “What’s the matter, old man?” he said, false moral authority creasing his portly brow. “Couldn’t you practice a little restraint?”

“Couldn’t you practice a little restraint?”

In this court of supposed justice echoed the most unjust words an ear could hear…words dripping with moral authority, yet so fatally wrong: of course it was the Jew’s fault, the words shouted: He didn’t practice restraint!

A true story, yet ongoing

It would be bad enough if this event only happened once, and it did happen…but the travesty is that its injustice continues. It happens often on an international scale, as a Jewish nation struggles for life and peace.

Terror? Rockets? Missiles? Kidnapping? Suicide bombs? Beard-pulling? Destruction? Such is a daily occurrence for a lonely nation, surrounded on the dock by a clustered crowd, some of whom add their voices in derision, others who turn away in silence: it’s only a Jew being terrorized, after all!

And so the nation gives up her land, land made to blossom as a garden, arid land turned into lucrative flower, and only asks for peace in return. But in return, what? More bombs, more terror, more injustice. “We’ll yank your beard, Mr. Jew. Where’s the money?” “We have the strong man behind us, you know!”

They didn’t want the Jew’s land after all; they only wanted the Jew’s destruction…

And yet the clustered crowd blames the Jew!

Selah.

The beard of the Jew is pulled again and again. Blood is running down his cheeks; his right to exist is denied, and actions for peace are mocked. Yet if he moves against the hand of his oppressor, it is his fault! The arrest must be made; this is peace, after all: the removal or submission of the Jew!

And if the Jew is destroyed, it’s all the same, surely!

After all, he didn’t practice restraint, you know…

At stake for Israel: the right to exist

A fuel tank burns in southern Lebanon.

A moment of truth

This war upon Israel provides a moment of clarity for the world. David Horowitz writes that it is a "Moment of truth" for Americans and freedom-loving people everywhere. His words are prophetic and incisive:

Americans need to take a hard look at what is going on in the Middle East, because it provides the clearest picture possible of the war we are in. On one side are al-Qaeda, Hamas, Hizbollah, Syria and Iran and their allies: Russia, France, Greece, and the UN majority. On the other is the only democracy in the land of Muslim and Arab terror. The origins of this front in the war on terror are crystal clear: the desire of the Muslim terrorists -- the elected majority among Palestinian Arabs and the occupying Shi'ite army in Lebanon, backed by Syria and Iran -- to destroy Israel and push the Jews into the sea.

The war reveals the impossibility of a Palestinian state and the necessity of a civilized occupying force in a region that is populated by a people who have been terminally brainwashed into an ideology of hate, which makes their self-government a crime waiting to happen.

There were 10,000 Jews living in Gaza until recently. They were so creative that while representing less than one percent of the population they accounted for 10% of the entire gross national product of the country. Productive and law-abiding as they were, their existence in Gaza required a Israeli army presence to protect them. So uncontrollable is the genocidal hatred of Palestinians for Jews (more than a million Palestinians on the other hand live peacefully in Israel enjoying more rights than any Arabs or Muslims living in their own countries). The Israeli army in Gaza was also necessary to prevent genocidal Palestinians Jew-haters from lobbing rockets into Israeli schoolyards.

Eventually, the Israeli leadership made a decision to capitulate to Arab Jew hatred and uproot the Jews living in Gaza, and to withdraw the forces that protected Israel from being attacked by Arab criminals. In the months that followed, the Arabs did nothing to improve their new homeland, which they now controlled completely. Instead, they elected genocidal terrorists to govern them. They destroyed the horticulture industry the Jews had created and that provided 10% of their GNP. They lobbed 800 or so rockets into Israel. During all this mayhem no word of condemnation for the Gaza aggressors came from the UN, France, Russia and rest of the Jew-hating, terrorist-appeasing and terrorist-supporting international community.

Consequently, the Hamas army command, based in Syria, authorized a further aggression -- a tunnel into Israel and the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier. For good measure, Palestinians in the West Bank executed an 18-year old Jewish hitch-hiker for the crime of being a Jew. Still no condemnation of the Palestinians from the Jew-haters in France, Russia and at the UN. This support encouraged Iranian-sponsored Hizbollah to initiate another aggression, this time from the north...

Read the whole thing. It's time the truth is told about the war foisted upon Israel -- silent and deadly most of the time, now it has boiled over into open conflict; yet this conflict is only a sign of what is to come, if this Jew hating terror is not stopped -- in its local iterations and its theocratic patron states of terror.

Israel has withdrawn from all "occupied territories," and still she is relentlessly attacked -- yea, attacked even more since she withdrew!

What does this tell you about the aims of the people who attack her?

Are we willing to see the truth?

Selah.