SERETIS NOTES: 2011

Moral confusion is a deadly weakness and it has reached epic proportions in
the West; from the Oval Office to the UN, from the BBC to Reuters to MSNBC,
from the New York Times to Le Monde, from university campuses to British
teachers unions, from the International Red Cross to Amnesty International,
from Goldstone to Elvis Costello, from the Presbyterian Church to the
Archbishop of Canterbury.

There is a message sent and consequences when our president visits Turkey
and Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and not Israel .

There is a message sent and consequences when free speech on campus is only
for those championing Palestinian rights.

There is a message sent and consequences when the media deliberately doctors
and edits film clips to demonize Israel .

There is a message sent and consequences when the UN blasts Israel
relentlessly, effectively ignoring Iran , Sudan , Venezuela , North Korea ,
China and other noxious states.

There is a message sent and consequences when liberal churches are motivated
by Liberation Theology, not historical accuracy.

There is a message sent and consequences when murderers and terrorists are
defended by the obscenely transparent "one man's terrorist is another man's
freedom fighter."

John Milton warned, "Hypocrisy is the only evil that walks invisible."

A few days after the Gaza blockade incident in the spring, a congregant
happened past my office, glanced in and asked in a friendly tone - "Rabbi.
How're y' doing?"

I looked up, sort of smiled and replied - "I've had better days."

"What's the matter? Is there anything I can do to cheer you up?" he
inquired.

"Thank you for the offer but I'm just bummed out today and I showed him a
newspaper article I was reading.

" Madrid gay pride parade bans Israeli group over Gaza Ship Raid." I
explained to my visitor - "The Israeli gay pride contingent from Tel Aviv
was not allowed to participate in the Spanish gay pride parade because the
mayor of Tel Aviv did not apologize for the raid by the Israeli military."

The only country in the entire Middle East where gay rights exist, is
Israel . The only country in the entire Middle East where there is a gay
pride parade, is Israel . The only country in the Middle East that has gay
neighborhoods and gay bars, is Israel .

Gays in the Gaza would be strung up, executed by Hamas if they came out and
yet Israel is vilified and ostracized. Disinvited to the parade.

Looking for logic?

Looking for reason?

Looking for sanity?

Kafka on his darkest, gloomiest day could not keep up with this bizarre
spectacle and we "useful idiots" pander and fawn over cutthroats, sinking
deeper and deeper into moral decay, as the enemy laughs all the way to the
West Bank and beyond.

It is exhausting and dispiriting. We live in an age that is redefining
righteousness where those with moral clarity are an endangered, beleaguered
specie.

Isaiah warned us thousands of years ago - "Oye Lehem Sheh-Korim Layome,
Laila v'Laila, yome - Woe to them who call the day, night and the night,
day." We live on a planet that is both Chelm and Sodom . It is a
frightening and maddening place to be.

How do we convince the world and many of our own, that this is not just
anti-Semitism, that this is not just anti-Zionism but a full throttled
attack by unholy, radical Islamists on everything that is morally precious
to us?

How do we convince the world and many of our own that conciliation is not an
option, that compromise is not a choice?

Everything we are, everything we believe, everything we treasure, is at
risk.

The threat is so unbelievably clear and the enemy so unbelievably ruthless
how anyone in their right mind doesn't get it is baffling. Let's try an
analogy. If someone contracted a life-threatening infection and we not only
scolded them for using antibiotics but insisted that the bacteria had a
right to infect their body and that perhaps, if we gave the invading
infection an arm and a few toes, the bacteria would be satisfied and stop
spreading.

Anyone buy that medical advice? Well, folks, that's our approach to the
radical Islamist bacteria. It is amoral, has no conscience and will spread
unless it is eradicated. - There is no negotiating. Appeasement is death.

I was no great fan of George Bush - didn't vote for him. (By the way, I'm
still a registered Democrat.) I disagreed with many of his policies but one
thing he had right. His moral clarity was flawless when it came to the War
on Terror, the War on Radical Islamist Terror. There was no middle ground -
either you were friend or foe. There was no place in Bush's world for a
Switzerland. He knew that this competition was not Toyota against G.M., not
the Iphone against the Droid, not the Braves against the Phillies, but a
deadly serious war, winner take all. Blink and you lose. Underestimate,
and you get crushed.

I know that there are those sitting here today who have turned me off. But
I also know that many turned off their rabbis seventy five years ago in
Warsaw , Riga , Berlin , Amsterdam , Cracow , Vilna. I get no satisfaction
from that knowledge, only a bitter sense that there is nothing new under the
sun.

Enough rhetoric - how about a little "show and tell?" A few weeks ago on
the cover of Time magazine was a horrific picture with a horrific story. The
photo was of an eighteen year old Afghani woman, Bibi Aisha, who fled her
abusive husband and his abusive family. Days later the Taliban found her
and dragged her to a mountain clearing where she was found guilty of
violating Sharia Law. Her punishment was immediate. She was pinned to the
ground by four men while her husband sliced off her ears, and then he cut
off her nose.

That is the enemy.

If nothing else stirs us. If nothing else convinces us, let Bibi Aisha's
mutilated face be the face of Islamic radicalism. Let her face shake up
even the most complacent and naïve among us. In the holy crusade against
this ultimate evil, pictures of Bibi Aisha's disfigurement should be
displayed on billboards, along every highway from Route 66 to the Autobahn,
to the Transarabian Highway . Her picture should be posted on every lobby
wall from Tokyo to Stockholm to Rio . On every network, at every commercial
break, Bibi Aisha's face should appear with the caption - "Radical Islamic
savages did this." And underneath - "This ad was approved by Hamas, by
Hezbollah, by Taliban, by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, by Islamic Jihad,
by Fatah al Islam, by Magar Nodal Hassan, by Richard Reid, by Ahmanijad, by
Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, by Osama bin Laden, by Edward Said, by The Muslim
Brotherhood, by Al Queda, by CAIR."

"The moral sentiment is the drop that balances the sea" said Ralph Waldo
Emerson. Today, my friends, the sea is woefully out of balance and we could
easily drown in our moral myopia and worship of political correctness.

We peer up into the heavens sending probes to distant galaxies. We peer down
into quarks discovering particles that would astonish Einstein. We create
computers that rival the mind, technologies that surpass science fiction.
What we imagine, with astounding rapidity, becomes real. If we dream it, it
does, indeed, come. And yet, we are at a critical point in the history of
this planet that could send us back into the cave, to a culture that would
make the Neanderthal blush with shame.

Our parents and grandparents saw the swastika and recoiled, understood the
threat and destroyed the Nazis. We see the banner of Radical Islam and can
do no less.

A rabbi was once asked by his students....
"Rebbi. Why are your sermons so stern?" Replied the rabbi, "If a house is
on fire and we chose not to wake up our children, for fear of disturbing
their sleep, would that be love? Kinderlach, 'di hoyz brent.' Children our
house is on fire and I must arouse you from your slumber."

During WWII and the Holocaust was it business as usual for priests,
ministers, rabbis? Did they deliver benign homilies and lovely sermons as
Europe fell, as the Pacific fell, as North Africa fell, as the Mideast and
South America tottered, as England bled? Did they ignore the demonic
juggernaut and the foul breath of evil? They did not. There was clarity,
courage, vision, determination, sacrifice, and we were victorious. Today it
must be our finest hour as well. We dare not retreat into the banality of
our routines, glance at headlines and presume that the good guys will
prevail.

Democracies don't always win.
Tyrannies don't always lose.

My friends - the world is on fire and we must awake from our slumber.

"ER KUMT." (It's coming!)

Thia is the gas station by my home on route 739 in Lords Valley, PA, Pike County. The $4.00 a gallon is not that far off and with that in mind one has to wonder what will people do. I for one will pay for gas because I do have to go to work and take the kids to school. Will I cut back n other things in order to save, absolutely. This is not only my choice, but all Americans will have to cut back on things just to save to pay for gas in order to go to work or the main necessities of life. I had to stop my bowling league and a few other things I did for pleasure, and I am sure others in this country will do the same thing and will it cause a ripple in the U.S economy? Most likely, as people only shop for the few necessities and cut back on activities and this will hurt small businesses, such as bowling lanes and small retailers and yes even Wal-Mart.