Rabbi Moshe Reiss
Anti-Americanism
and Anti-Semitism - Part II
On February 17, 2005 I wrote a column in the Asia Times on
Anti-Americanism and Anti-Semitism
(‘http://moshereiss.org/columns/antiamericanism.html’). In the
penultimate sentence I noted I would come back to the question of ‘This
Strange Coalition’ of extreme left-wingers and extreme right-wingers,
some believers and some non-believers, Anti-Semites and those who are
Anti-American and finally Jihadist fascists. I know return (although
not in the General MacArthur sense since I do not wish to be thought of
as an American Caesar (whether George Bush so wishes is of course
another matter).
One side of this strange coalition is based on the religious belief of
Jews, Christians and Muslims; the other side are Atheists. On the right
side are the three religions based first and foremost on a revelation
from a being referred to as ‘God’ ‘Lord’, or ‘Allah’.
It used to be that Anti-Semitism was a racial disease; the only
solution to such a pandemic was death. Paul Johnson suggests it is now
an intellectual disease; since most Anti-Semites are Semites or favor
certain types of Semites I consider it a mental disorder, a
schizophrenic religious and cultural disease. Like many other mental
diseases it is self inflicted and highly infectious. Most of those
infected are in the Arab world or in Europe. It began as a Roman
disease, then mutated to Ancient, Medieval and Renaissance
Christianity, to Enlightenment Secularism and finally to the Nazis
whose home was not surprisingly Christian Europe.
One would claim that those countries infected with rabid Anti-Semitism
– Spain (15th century), Czarist and Stalinist Russia (19th and 20th
century) Poland, Dreyfus France and Nazi Germany (20th century) all
rapidly went bankrupt. The most recent examples are the Arabs and new
Europe. To use just one of many examples Sheik Ibrahim Mudeiris, a
prominent Palestinian cleric stated on T.V. “You will find that the
Jews were behind all the civil strife in this world. The Jews are
behind the suffering of the nations. . . . The day will come when
everything will be relieved of the Jews.”
Europe as noted many times by our correspondent Spengler is in the
midst of depopulating itself from this world – whether to heaven or not
is a different question.
This Arab disease is a religious disease it and thus ought to be
examined theologically.
There is no single original text in any of the three religions; each of
texts, the Torah, the Gospels and the Qur’an have numerous old texts
that differ from each other and these are in various libraries all over
the world. Despite that almost all believers agree there is a problem
trying to ‘Fix’ God’s word. The punishment is invariably
excommunication if not death.
Since revelation seems to be the key to this religious belief what do
we have? All the texts as written are based on what can only be
considered ‘hearsay’. Would a religious court, whether Rabbinic, Canon
or Sharia accept ‘hearsay”? Probably, if it is attested by two adult
Jewish males in the case of the Rabbinic Court, two adult Christian
male clerics in a Canon Court and two adult Muslim males in a Sharia
Court. (Women are not acceptable as witnesses in any of the three
monotheistic religions.) In a secular Anglo/Saxon based court none of
these testimonies would be acceptable, although they might be heard by
a Jury of peers to assess; a jury made up of males and females and
irrespective of religion.
What is clear is that every private revelation (no matter that the
listener is Moses, Muhammad or the Evangelists) is wholly
individualistic and not provable according to the usual laws of logic.
Faith is not a matter of logic.
Each of the religions tells us of human death and of an Apocalypse.
‘Thy will be done”!
Apocalyptic thinking is, of course, very ancient; in fact it may be
part of the ‘original sin’. Apocalyptic thinking can be considered as a
virus; it lies asleep until the conditions are ripe for infection.
These conditions are fear, uncertainty and the breakup of social
systems; all symptoms of ‘future shock’. (Yes there were outbreaks
prior to modern ‘future shock’ prior to the twentieth century; for Jews
and Muslims the expulsions from Spain, for Christians the fourteenth
century plagues.) The effect of the disease is panic and an addiction
to terrifying nightmares, illusions of sexual fantasies and magical
thinking. Is there a cure aside from annihilation? Probably not; the
virus and those infected must die. Will God protect the innocent? Did
God protect those in the famous Lisbon earthquake written about by
Voltaire in his famous ‘Candid’ or those in the more recent tsunami?
Apparently not!
Apocalyptic believers expect the transcendent God to become imminent
and strike the world. Using human verbal logic one could be forced to
ask why God would create human playthings and put them in a ‘toy’ box
and when He chooses close it down and incinerate His children. Clerics
who would believe this; a Judgment day in which no one is judged and
all are indiscriminately executed without justice or judgment; are
required to contemplate this paradox of religion.
My death will make my children (and perhaps friends) sad but will be
quite comprehensible. Total annihilation is beyond comprehension.
Prophets who predict these futures, destroy religious tradition.
According to religious tradition God has already annihilated the entire
world by the waters of the Flood and for the Jews by fire. Secularists
could argue that the flood was a natural event and the holocaust was
man made. True, but if the God of the Jews is beneficent (believed by
Christians and Muslims as well) there is definitely a problem according
to human logic; He is responsible for His world.
But we know from the Biblical Job that human logic will not suffice.
Job was seeking to find the Intelligent Designer of the Universe and
His logic.
The fact that any design needs a designer seemed obvious enough. Sir
Isaac Newton, the creator of modern science believed that. However he
also believed that his commentary on Job was more important than his
works on mathematics. Not many believe that any longer; in fact it is
almost impossible to get a copy of that commentary except at the
Cambridge University Library where he taught mathematics.
I suspect that Sir Isaac read Hebrew but being more familiar with
English used James’s I translation more than the Hebrew. God as the
designer is strangely described in that book. God asks Job what do you
know about (for example) snow (38:22); there is little snow in
Israel/Palestine but then Job comes from a place called Uz which for
all we know may be in the North Pole or Oz in Kansas. Then God asks Job
about ‘unicorn’s (39:9,10) – well we Jews never accepted Greek
Mythology (beautiful though they may be) so we translate that Hebrew
word as a ‘wild ox’; James’ translators simply got that one wrong. Then
God asks about the ‘behomoth’ (40:15) – a land monster (fortunately
James’ boys did not attempt to translate that); same with the
‘leviathan’ (41:1) – a sea monster. But what seems clear is God’s
question – why do you think that Human logic is the only possible
system of design for My Universe; perhaps I designed the world for the
logic of the behemoth and leviathan?
After the theophany God is easier with Job beginning with 42:7.
God tells him that the conventional wisdom about justice being a major
thesis in the design of the universe is simply wrong; I do not know
what Sir Isaac thought about that. (Sir Isaac may have been seeking not
verbal logic but mathematical logic.) Is an intelligent designer
required to give his subordinates the same level or kind of
intelligence that He Himself has? Can human logic explain the
conversation between God and Satan in the prologue, where the latter
convinces the former – that is God - to harm with the greatest pain
including murdering his own children; excluding only his own death.
This is God’s reward for his favorite person in the world?
There is one sense of logic that would appeal to many of us. Job’s
children are resurrected. The text is unclear about the wife. She
was not nice to Job or God (2:9), in fact perhaps ‘foolish as women can
be’ (2:10). (Please forgive me but that is not me speaking but Job and
I am not responsible for the Poet-author.) The girls get beautiful
names, the boys are unnamed. And then in the first act of feminism Job
gives the girls equal inheritance rights to the boys. I and others may
believe that equal inheritance rights is not only logical, but in fact
perhaps a sufficient definition of intelligence design. However Muslim
law finds that logic not only fallible but wrong!
Each of the religions noted above also believes that regardless of the
Apocalypse the ‘Holy Elected Ones’ will survive. But who chooses the
Holy Elected ones? If they themselves, that seems narcissistic. Do the
Calvinists choose, the Talmudic Rabbis, the Popists, the Shia’s, Osama
and his ilk or the animists usually located in Africa? Can Holy Elected
ones be ‘False’ prophets? (For a discussion of ‘true’ and ‘false’
prophets see my previous article – March 12 - on the Bushes.
http://moshereiss.org/columns/07_bush.htm).
Those who believe in the Holy War - the Jihad – whether the right-wing
or the left-wing are attempting to bring the Apocalypse now! It would
seem that Muslim suicide bombers (the more usual kind) believe
themselves to be members of the ‘Holy Elected Ones’. They believe they
go directly to heaven and meet doe eyed dark haired virgins – 70, a
number like Muhammad’s companions. And the number of members of the
Jewish Sanhedrin (ancient legislative body).
Were Stalin (considered a left-winger), or Hitler (considered a
right-winger), or Mao (since these terms are largely western oriented
it is not certain how one ought to categorize an oriental like Mao)
Believers or Atheists? (Stalin actually studied as a youth at a Russian
Orthodox theological seminary.) They can be defined as Jihadists – that
is believers in a Holy War, although not of the Muslim persuasion. If
Believers, who anointed them as the Holy Elected Ones? Is it
possible that Siva the destroyer chooses the Holy Elected ones?
Voltaire (a Frenchman, secularist and Atheist) suggested that God was
created from Man’s imagination. Could Man’s imagination have instead or
in addition, have created the Devil!
Another example is the White Supremacists and Arabs who hate each other
but both hate Jews more: See
“http://moshereiss.org/columns/antiamericanism.html”
Recently another strange group has joined this strange coalition –
right wing fascists who while hated Arabs in fact calling them
‘towelheads’ have decided that they are better than the dangerous Jews.
Dr. David Duke (I have no clue where he received his PhD) was the
former Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan Leader from
Louisiana and a Representative in the state of Louisiana clearly
believes Jews control not only America but the World. ‘the truth that I
speak daily, the threat of Jewish supremacism to the American nation’
(http://www.davidduke.com/). I should be so lucky.
During his visit to Syria from Nov. 21- 26 he had a press conference,
on November 25, Duke explained: "I have come to Syria to express my
support to the Syrian people and their just stances... It's the duty of
every free man to reject the conspiracies and threats Syria is exposed
to." He also gave his appreciation to Syria under the leadership of
President Bashar al-Assad.(2)
In his speech at the November 24 rally, he stated that the U.S. and
Syria were both occupied by the Zionists and went on to say that the
Zionists had also occupied "Washington D.C., and New York, and London,
and many other capitals in the world."
We have not yet been able to determine whether left-wingers can be
Believers or must they be Atheists?
We have not yet been able to determine whether right-wingers can be
Atheists or must be Believers?
Do right-wing Atheists have more in common with left-wing Atheists or
vice versa?
Do left-wing Believers have more in common with right-wing Believers or
vice versa?
Unless we can answer those questions how to respond to members of that
strange coalition the difference - which they claim as a similarity -
between Nazism and Zionism, a claim held particularly by
Islamist-wingers?
As an example of claimed similarity Lt. General Mustafa Tlass for 32
years the Defense Minister of Syria, wrote a book entitled ‘The Matza
of Zion’. I need not bother telling readers what he has to say. I have
no problem with a Muslim writing about Judaism, after all I write about
Islam; I have read the Qur’an several times as well as various
commentaries; I am not as sure that Tlass has read the Bible or the
Talmud (even once) which describe the ingredients of the Jewish food
called the Matza. (It is actually the basis of the wafer used in the
Christian Eucharist.) His ingredients which include blood (it used to
be Christian blood, Tlass claims it is Muslim blood) are wrong! Jews
are forbidden to eat blood.
Is it possible that instead of Nazism and Zionism being comparable the
opposite is true – Nazi’s are comparable to Islamic fundamentalists?
Nazis had a cult of obeying, adoring and fearing the Führer; it is
rooted in the patriarchal family obeying, adoring and fearing the
father. The Nazis were also obsessed with virgins and women as
submissive housewives and perfect mothers. Their extreme masculine
values, above all else, male bonding and sacrificing their lives for
the high ideals of racial or religious purity, with the promise of
glorious martyrdom. How different is this than modern Islamic
fundamentalists following their Ayatollah’s or Imam’s dictates?
The Aryan Nations one of the neo-Nazi groups in the U.S. who call Arabs
‘towel heads’ and whose membership is restricted to ‘white protestant
aryans’ had the following interesting comment by its National Director
August Kreis on his website. “We as an organization will also endeavor
to aid all those who subvert, disrupt and are malignant in nature to
our enemies. Therefore I offer my most sincere best-wishes to those who
wage holy Jihad against the infrastructure of the decadent, weak and
Judaic-influenced societal infrastructure of the West. I send a message
of thanks and well-wishes to the methods and works of groups on the
Islamic front against the Jew such as Al-Qaeda and Sheik Usama Bin
Ladin, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah and to all Jihadis worldwide who
fight for the glory of the Khilafah and the downfall of the anti-life
and anti-freedom System prevalent on this earth today.” Apparently
‘towel heads’ if they are anti-Semitic are kosher even to Aryans.
The truth is that fascism, whether of the left wing kind, the right
wing kind or the Islamic kind are not based on religious theology but
of fundamentalist ideology. Fundamentalist as noted above is a disease
not a religion.
A theologian once claimed that the desire for order was a form of
idolatry; humans seeking hierarchies like bees or ants are in fact
inhuman acting as humans. On the other hand who would want an untidy
universe where wars and tsunamis take place? Is a war - man created -
better or worse than one naturally born. Ah! but tsunamis are not born
by nature but God created? Does one come from Order and the other from
Disorder or do both come from Disorder?
The cause of war has always been obvious; Eleanor of Aquitaine, a
Frenchwoman who became Queen of England stated almost a millennium ago
that war’s only cause was men. Despite the fact that Eleanor
lived before the Feminist Revolution, she was fully aware of her own
power and aggressiveness.
This strange coalition makes a ‘witches’ Sabbath’. Who are the
barbarians at the gates? The barbarians can be described to paraphrase
Louis Claude de Saint- Martin as those who ‘speak the same language
because they come from the same country’.
RESPONSES FROM WHITE SUPREMACISTS
Considering the actions of Israel and some parts of the Jewish
community in these days and current political times, it would seem
reasonable another Inquisitor would arise do to Jewish excess's and
exceeding of all limits both of man and Godly. That Iquisitor may have
deep, heavy and hard questions and judgements about the Righteousness
of Israel and it's Government and may require corrective action.
I'm thinking the Rabbi is also as curious as everyone is about how the
new Pope will rule and what sorts of actions he'll be taking. We were
having quite a bit of discussion about who the new Pope might be
leading up to the changeover, and there were many concerns among
ourselves. For the most part, I sense most cause for alarm has been
allayed among us, and I am not aware of any sudden changes being made
by Pope Benedict XVI.
The Fundamental question I see before us is
shall Israel and the Jewish religion rule the world?
or is it for Christ and His followers to rule the world.
Since the Jewish religion believes that the Followers of Christ
are to be killed, and all Christian worship destroyed, I stand
strong with Christ and His teachings of love for all, including the
Jewish people.
I believe it is for Christ and His true followers to rule the world,
and make those who are harming others, and destroying all that is good,
stop what they are doing.
==
Yes, I too noticed a lot of bile in the general tone of the Rabbi's
article, and do hope the Rabbi will be feeling in better sorts soon.
I'm with you on agreeing with the Pope somewhat as well. I'm not sure
that banning publication of such sinful Priests is necessary, but the
double standard of media trumpeting the sins of Christians, while
hiding under a barrel, or making silly jokes of the sexual sins an+d
pedastry of the Rabbi's seems biased at best, and I will not even bring
up the sins of the Islamic leadership, the Hindu leadership or anyone
elses, not even my own.
There's websites that list many of the Rabbi's that have raped, engaged
in pedophilia, and stolen the wives of other memebers of their
congregations. If and when Rabbi's who have done these things are
publicized, it's soon either dropped or covered up....I remember one
case where a Rabbi who'd been caught for the third time, chasing little
boys on the internet, was described as "The wascally wabbi".......
It's hypocritical at best to trumpet in harsh tones the sins of one
religion, while minimizing and covering the sins of another.