6 6 6 — The Mark Of The Beast...

666--The Mark Of The Beast...One Jew’s Interpretation

by Gerald A.Honigman

Over the decades, I’ve heard several different interpretations of my Christian friends’ New Testament’s ‘mark of the beast,’ usually associated with the number 666.

Listening to various news commentators lately, I couldn’t help but think of yet another twist to this.

Fox News is usually the television station most balanced when it comes to dealings with Israel and the Middle East. So, if the Jews can’t get a fair hearing on this channel, they’re in real trouble.

Regarding the world’s current energy crisis (and America’s in particular), the subject of continuously increasing oil prices repeatedly is being discussed in the same breath as Iran’s non-stop nuclear ambitions.

Whether the particular program is the business news or Bill O’Reilly, the audience hears one variation or another of the following…

Israel better not dare to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities because, if it does, Americans will be pointing the finger at it for six dollar a gallon gasoline.

6…6…6

Now, let’s see…

It took six million dead Jews--1/3 of all in existence at the time--to serve as a down payment for at least part of the world’s fleeting sympathy for the rebirth of the Jewish State.

Of Israel’s roughly seven million people today, about six million are Jews.

And, while Ahmadinejad and the Iranian mullahs openly call for Israel’s obliteration, Israel’s best friends in the media warn that it must be willing to take a nuclear first hit so that gasoline won’t hit six dollars.

Now, I don’t want to see the price of gasoline go that high either, but understand that an Israel--over thirty of which fit into President Bush’s home state of Texas--that takes a nuclear first strike virtually ceases to exist.

What would America--3,000 miles wide, with two huge oceans buffering it, and a population over three hundred million--do with an enemy which promises to end its existence, and one already supporting deadly proxies as a step in that direction? America, or anyone else for that matter…

I seem to remember another story from my Christian friends’ New Testament…one about Jesus being sold out for thirty shekels of silver.

But, along with this, I have to also share a Jewish interpretation of a famous quote that Christians like to use from the Jews’ own Hebrew Bible, aka the ‘Old Testament.’

For us, you see, Israel--the Jewish People itself--is the Suffering Servant of G_d.

Just how high does the price of gasoline have to go before that fleeting support for the Jew of the Nations vanishes completely? Do we really need a second Holocaust Remembrance Day so folks can momentarily show sympathy for more dead Jews? And have others claim that it never happened afterwards?

How about empathy for live Jews instead?

Alas, it seems that that’s too much to ask for.

So, let’s see, just how many shekels does it take to equal six dollars these

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How Did We Let It Come To This? Sderot And Beyond...

How Did We Let It Come To This?

by Gerald A. Honigman

I received a phone call this morning from a friend.  Ron wanted me to listen to Chabad’s Jewish radio program in town, where the plight of Sderot’s children would be discussed…the town in the Negev that’s under constant bombardment by Arabs years after Israel’s total withdrawal from adjacent Gaza. The plan evidently involves moving the kids elsewhere, out of harm’s way.

Like many other Diaspora Jews, I’m also deeply concerned about the resurrected Jewish State. But Israel itself has been making serious blunders over the last few decades--and, especially, the past several years--which greatly exacerbates its situation.

Something about this rubs the wrong way… big time.

I know, it’s easy for me to be brave when it’s not my own town in Florida being targeted. But it goes far beyond this…

The Arabs have always planned to make life so unbearable for Jews in Israel that they’d want to abandon the Zionist dream.

When a pressured Prime Minister/ General Ariel Sharon came up with his controversial unilateral withdrawal plan for Israel from Gaza a few years back, many of us had mixed feelings. One of our main fears was that it would just bring Arab terror that much closer to Israel proper, while caving into yet another step in the Arabs’ post-’67 War destruction-in-phases plans for Zion. We instinctively knew that Arabs would not take advantage of this to begin a state-building process for their 22nd state and second, not first, within the original 1920 borders of the Mandate of Palestine (Jordan created from almost 80%of this back in 1922).

Yet, we hoped we would be proven wrong.

And, after all, David Ben-Gurion himself looked to Israel’s own Negev Desert as a major area for a growing Jewish population, not Gaza--despite the latter being used as an invasion route to attack Jews from since the days of the Pharaohs.

Sad to say, the Arab leopard does not change its spots, and the whole area--despite scores of millions of non-Arab Kurds, Berbers, Copts, Jews, black Africans, and so forth--is still regarded as “purely Arab patrimony.” Episodes such as the Gaza withdrawal only confirm the success of the overall Arab game plan for the region. The Arabs’ ANFAL campaign against Kurds in Iraq and genocide against black Africans in the Sudan are just a few of many other examples.

So, back to Sderot...

I’m all for building strong defenses and shelters to try to keep the town’s citizens as safe as possible from Arab mortars, rockets, and such. But evacuating Jews in Israel proper because of Arab terror is a line which I believe will lead us down a very dangerous slippery slope. Today Sderot, tomorrow Ashkelon, etc. and so forth as Arab missiles gain in range and power.

Jews should not be the ones having to evacuate…

Imagine, as Presidential hopeful John McCain, has said himself, that it was an American border town in Arizona, Texas, or elsewhere being subjected to this terror.

Would the world expect an America which dwarfs Israel to evacuate its own land, or would it expect the aggressors to halt their destructive, murderous behavior? Certainly Mexico has its grievances with America…McCain and President Bush’s home states were once part of Mexico.

Now, what do you think we--or any other nation--would do (have done) under such circumstances?

Okay? So now here’s the plan…

Since Prime Minister Olmert’s crew lacks the backbone (and a few other analogous body parts) to spell it out and carry it through (letting the Arabs’ good buddies in the American State Department dictate most of Israeli policy instead), let me propose that a major, well-advertised , televised news conference be held to which many of the world’s leading media and diplomats will be invited. It will be broadcast live all over the world, carried by radio too, in many different languages, will explain much of what I have already covered above, and will be delivered by a handsome orator with the talent of the late Abba Eban. Yep, the John F. Kennedy factor won’t be ignored either.

After this general overview of the situation Israel faces, the following will next be stated…

My friends...Please understand that Israel would love nothing more than to be able to live in a true, mutually respectful, peace with our Arab neighbors. Unfortunately, the problem has never been how big Israel is, but that Israel is. For this problem, there is no compromise solution, and poll after poll conducted amongst Arabs has shown this to still be the case. Continuous unilateral Israeli concessions only convince Arabs of Israel’s weakness and the success of their own long term strategy for Israel’s demise.

In light of this, and in consideration of the current main Arab target of terror, please note the following…

Sderot will not undergo any evacuations.

If evacuations are called for, then they will not be those of Jews.

We will soon be delivering to our Arab neighbors one last call for them to begin their own # 22 state-building process, rather than continuing to persist in their quest to destroy our one, tiny, sole state. Gaza was a test of what the future might hold…and the Arabs have flunked it--pure and simple.

If, as we fear, they ignore our plea and continue to wage terror, destruction , bodily harm, and murder, then we will be forced to respond to these open acts of war the way others have and would respond.

Indeed, we have been far more patient than any other nation regarding those who openly seek our destruction. And, in this, the Hamas-led Arabs only differ in timing with those led by Abbas’s Fatah…by the latter’s own words. The quarrel between the two factions is largely about who will control the billions of dollars that will be pouring in from abroad--not over acceptance of a permanent Jewish neighbor.

Those ruling Gaza were openly elected by that Arab population--the same population which shields them as they launch their terror. Furthermore, the same situation awaits us in Judea and Samaria, aka the “West Bank,” unless a reasonable territorial compromise is arrived there as well. Secretary of State Rice might wish us to believe otherwise, but it is our children in the line of fire--not hers.

Let it be known that the next act of Arab terror launched against us will be met by the following sequence of events. We will not pursue tit-for-tat or targeted responses any longer, for those have proven to be virtually useless.

When the next mortar or rocket lands, we will proceed as follows:

We will drop by air--as we’ve done elsewhere before--numerous warnings, in Arabic, to the Gaza population. Unlike Arab terror, we will let Arabs know where not to be in advance.

They will be told that two days following the next terror attack will be answered by a massive artillery bombardment of the entire width of the area in Gaza from which mortars or rockets may be launched from. This is similar to what America calls its Powell Doctrine. The two-day grace period will provide time for Arab evacuation of the area. Note also that we put ourselves at risk by doing this, with the probability of being subjected to massive foreign pressure, and so forth.

Because of the latter, it has also been discussed that we carry out our plan according to the Arabs’ own rules, and launch our response unannounced--without telegraphing our plans or punch. Unlike our neighbors, however, we cannot get ourselves to behave as such.

The day afterward the artillery assault will bring a massive aerial bombardment.

As the Perfidy and other clauses of the Geneva Conventions openly state, warring parties cannot use their civilian populations as human shields, and when they do so, this will not remove such locations as legitimate targets…Any civilian casualties will thus be on the Arabs’ own shoulders.

Article #51/7:

The presence of the civilian population shall not be used to render certain points or areas immune from military operations, in particular in attempts to shield military objectives from attack...

Article #58b:

The parties to the conflict shall...avoid locating military objectives within or near densely populated areas.

There will be no massive infantry invasion, subjecting Jewish soldiers to the deadly surprises Arabs think they have in store for them.

After the bombardment, a fifteen-mile buffer zone will be created which will be a mine field, posted for all to see and keep out of.

If terror continues after our initial responses, we will repeat the above process, extending the mine field, and so forth.

Next…

We advise our Arab foes to forget about crying to their hypocritical friends in the United Nations, the American State Department, and elsewhere. We have already displayed a patience far beyond what any of those folks would display themselves given the same circumstances which we have daily faced.


Finally, we are holding this news conference today because we truly hope that we will not have to put these plans into motion.

But we refuse to put up with the murder and destruction any more.

Now, I will open the floor to questions from this distinguished audience…

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Time For Diaspora To reconsider Its $$$ Support Of Israel?

Is It Time For The Diaspora To Reconsider Support Of Israel ?

by Gerald A. Honigman

It’s like a broken record…the same story being replayed over and over again…truly, ad nauseam.

Israel captures live Arab disembowelers, plotters, and murderer wannabes of Jews, and other Jews have to pay to keep them alive in Israeli jails.

That is, until the inevitable happens, and Arabs later capture some more live Jews. They then offer a swap in exchange for hundreds of their comrades. If the Jews are lucky, they get back a live prisoner or so.  In just one example, in 1985 they exchanged almost 1,200 Arabs for three of their own. In January 2004, Israel handed over more than 400 Arabs in return for one Israeli businessman and the bodies of three soldiers abducted along the Lebanese border in 2000.

Usually, the deal involves a few dead Jews for hundreds of Arab killers and collaborators--who are soon back in the Jew-killing business.

And I bet you thought Jews were smart…

Well, guess what? Here we go again.

This time, the potential swap is for a few more Israeli soldiers kidnapped from within Israel by Hizbullah in another cross border raid. Recall the war that this triggered back in 2006.

Among the other prizes Israel holds alive is Samir Kuntar, a Lebanese who the Jews have supplied room and board to for almost three decades. Good way to spend Jewish Diaspora funds, heh?

Kuntar’s relevant bio is educational--and only emphasizes how dumb Jews really can be.

On April 22, 1979, Kuntar led a team who entered Israel from Lebanon by boat. All were members of the Palestine Liberation Front.

Around midnight they reached the coastal town of Nahariya. After killing a policeman, the team entered a building and split into two groups. One of these next broke into the apartment of the Haran family. Danny Haran was taken hostage along with his four-year-old daughter, Einat. Danny’s wife, Smadar, hid in a crawl space with their two-year-old daughter, Yael, and a neighbor.

Kuntar’s group next dragged Danny and Einat down to the beach, where a shootout with Israeli forces erupted.

Kuntar shot Danny at close range in front of his daughter and drowned him in the sea to ensure that he was dead.

Next, he smashed the four year old girl’s head on beach rocks, crushing her skull with the butt of his rifle.

Meanwhile, back in the crawl space, 2-year-old Yael Haran had been accidentally suffocated to death by her mother’s attempts to quiet her whimpering so as not to reveal their hideout…a story right out of the Holocaust.

While Kuntar’s exploits rank “up there” with Arabs as far as his heroics against Jews go, he is by no means an exception to the rule.

Back in May 2004, Arabs gunned down a pregnant Jewish mother and her four terrified little daughters in their station wagon.

After spraying the car with gunfire, they next ran up and blasted each of their victims’ heads to make sure they had finished the job.

One of the Arab heroes next deliberately shot the swollen belly of the eight-months pregnant mother, Tali Hatuel, at point-blank range. Rescuers found Tali’s dead baby still strapped in her car seat.

Note, please, that all of these Jewish victims were/are deliberately targeted--not accidentally caught in the middle because their own folks used them as human shields--a favorite tactic used by so-called Arab “militants.” And Jews don’t throw Arab children out of school windows, blow them up on buses, in pizzerias, ice cream parlors, shopping malls, and restaurants, murder them in their beds, and so forth.

Now, combine the above lunacy (knowing the costly predictable blackmail that awaits, the Samir Kuntars should never be taken alive, and if they are, after a quick trial, should be executed soon afterwards) with the additional death wish of still too many Israelis who believe that if they just keep on making concession after concession to Arabs on crucial security issues (checkpoints, territory, etc.), the Arabs will finally let their microscopic Jewish rump state live in peace.

Peace alright…peace of the grave. And it’s that obvious.

That others pressure Israel to act against its own basic needs and interests is no surprise--the American State Department, Dhimmi Europe, and so forth. So the Jewish State should be used to this by now.

That Israel allows itself to be bullied this way--regardless of the aid issue and such--is beyond pathetic. It truly borders on suicidal, and such behavior should not be repeatedly rewarded.

Why is Olmert still in power, for example? Why can’t the selfish portions of his fragile coalition not see the forest of their miniscule State’s survival and existence for their own individual trees?

How much longer must it take before a new Israeli leadership arises which will not behave like someone else’s collective stooge and fool?

Olmert now seeks to appease Baby Assad--the late Butcher’s son--with the gift of all the territory Syria has repeatedly used to attack Jews from --the Golan.

Think of how borders constantly have changed all over the world due to such aggressive, murderous behavior as Syria’s…not to mention the fact that the Golan was to be part of the original 1920 Mandate Of Palestine after World War I until the Brits and the French did some imperial trading. Or that numerous peoples besides Arabs ruled the Golan Heights over the centuries…including Jews.

And what of Syria’s oppressive shenanigans in Lebanon, burying the hopes of those who wanted a better, independent, and more peaceful path for their country? Or their continued murderous suppression of millions of Syrian Kurds?

Should Israel also simply ignore all of this too in its quest to become a state like all others, with no friends, just interests? That’s where it’s anti-Jewish, post-Zionist path has been leading it.

So, how to get the message across that such consistent self-destructive behavior cannot continue?

Think about it…

Perpetually victimized and demonized Jews waited for millennia to finally live to see the Hebraic Prophetic resurrection of Israel, only to see spineless leaders with head-in-the sand Jewish supporters undo the dream.

Perhaps the time has come to send a real wake up call…and it will indeed be a hard one for Diaspora Jews to deliver.

Yet I do believe that such things as the refusal to enact the death penalty for the deliberate butchers of innocents (and please don’t sing me the tune about allegedly stooping to their level) and the refusal to demand the reasonable territorial compromises which were allowed by UNSC Resolution 242 require drastic action at this time.

Diaspora Jews have poured many billions of dollars into Israel for well over a century now.

While this doesn’t give them the right to tell Israel what its policies should be, on the other hand, the Diaspora does not have to continue to support policies which are obviously dead end, both figuratively and literally.

Israel doesn’t have to continuously prove how much “better” it is than much of the giant dung heap which surrounds it. Yet it continues to act this way…not that it makes any difference to the world’s hypocrites. If Samir Kuntar was a Jew, Kurd, Berber, Copt, Black Sudanese, etc. and committed these acts against any of those “Arab” states in which those non-Arab people live or have lived, he would not have lived to see the light of day.

Yet as I write this, Islamist student organizations are intimidating Jews on Israeli college campuses, Jews are being attacked by Israeli Arab neighbors, treasonous Arab members of the Israeli Parliament side with Hamas against Israel and so forth. Again, imagine any of the almost two dozen Arab countries allowing anything like this…

The Diaspora does not have to continue to pump money into a post-Zionist state which insists it’s going to out Christian the Christians by turning cheek after cheek after cheek to enemies which will never accept a permanent Jewish neighbor, regardless of size. Forget about those Arab Knesset members...The actions of recent Israeli leaders who have played along with the Arabs’ well-known destruction in phases plans borders on treason itself--regardless of who is tightening the screws from abroad.

Something is needed to open up the eyes of too many in Israel who have forgotten what life was like for Jews all over the world before the miraculous Phoenix arose from the ashes of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Perhaps a severe shock is what’s really needed right now to bring the forest back into vision...and one long enough to drive home the message.

I realize it’s controversial. It’s hard to say “no” to the many worthy charities and such pulling at Diaspora heartstrings.

But if business stays as usual regarding current Israeli behavior, Iran’s Ahmadinejad will be correct regarding his death forecast for the Jewish State. And the Jews will largely have done it to themselves.

If Israel can no longer count on Diaspora money to fill the many gaps in society which depend upon it, and it then has to use funds targeted for defense and elsewhere to cover those costs, perhaps the message will finally get through.

The heirs of Ben-Gurion, Jabotinsky, Golda, Begin, and a younger Arik must now come to the fore and take their rightful place. And an Israeli public finally awoken from its slumber must know how to respond.

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Florida and Michigan's Primaries—Deuces Wild Or Aren't They?

So--Are Deuces Wild Or Aren’t They?
by Gerald A. Honigman

Hey, I need to get my mind away from international politics for a while…especially the Middle East.

How’s a game of poker sound?

Deuces wild, you say?

Alright, let the game begin…

Nice--I’ll bet a hundred bucks on my hand.

You’re seeing me and raising me another hundred?

We’ll, hey…I’m just a Florida teacher, with three of my four kids in college at the same time, and the other not far behind. Two ’Gators and a Seminole so far…

Okay… I’ll pay to see you.

Full House, Queen high?

Ugh…

I have two pair, King high.

Hey, Wait a minute!

Where’s the Full House, Chum?

I just see two Queens, two sixes, and a two of hearts…

What...You say deuces are wild?

Since when? Who says?

What…I agreed to that?

Well, that was before you drew the deuce…

Forget about all the legal gobbledygook that went on until recently regarding the Florida and Michigan primaries. It all comes down to a poker game.

Were deuces wild or weren’t they?

Well, all parties indeed knew the rules of the game prior to play time. If there were any questions, the time to have debated them was prior to the primaries.

Sour grapes doesn’t cut it afterwards. And if they do, then we’re all in for trouble down the road.

I get a charge out of alleged liberals crying about disenfranchisement in the aftermath.

Where were their worries when the rules were being expressed loudly and clearly to all parties prior to the vote? How about the folks who played by the rules and didn’t even show up because of them...candidates and voters alike?

The time to question or change the way the game is to be played is prior to its start--not when you don’t like the hand you’re dealt afterwards.

The main issue here is not disenfranchisement (as real as it is), but chaos…and it doesn’t take a lawyer to figure that one out.

If expressed rules and laws set up by legitimate representatives are allowed to simply be tossed aside by disgruntled parties after the fact, then watch out for any and all other types of agreements arrived at as well.

Even I know that precedent is important in law.

And the precedent even the compromise decision recently arrived regarding these two states, which knowingly and deliberately disobeyed the Rules and Bylaws Committee of the Democratic National Committee, stinks like a rotten egg.

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