Shalom,
The recent news concerning the United States negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program is extremely troubling on many levels. Iran’s nuclear program is a very direct threat to the security of the State of Israel and it seems that the entire world understands this with the exception of Israel’s greatest ally, the US and the Obama administration. I’ve posted two excellent articles from this week’s Israel National News that I’d like to share. Witten by two very respected Israeli authors. Noah Beck provides an outline of the poisonous geopolitical “stew” which is brewing. Moshe Kempinski provides a lesson from the weekly portion on Jacob and Esau and how Torah teaches us to deal with enemies. I found them both enlightening and hope you will too. Please keep Israel and all leaders in prayer for courage and wisdom.
Be well, Bob
Op-Ed: Can Israel Survive Obama?
Noah Beck—“Only epic ineptitude or anti-Israel hostility no longer checked by reelection considerations can explain Obama's moves on Iran.”
Published: Friday, November 15, 2013 - The writer is the author of The Last Israelis, an apocalyptic novel about Iranian nukes and current geopolitical issues in the Middle East.
Excerpt: Obama's desperately eager posture towards the smiling Mullahs has doomed any negotiation to failure. In the spring of 2012, when I wrote "The Last Israelis," I thought that the pessimistic premise of my cautionary tale on Iranian nukes was grounded in realism. I had imagined a U.S. president who passively and impotently reacted to Iran's nuclear ambitions, leaving it to tiny Israel to deal with the threat. But something far worse is happening: the Obama administration is actively making it harder for Israel to neutralize Iran's nukes, and more likely that Iran will develop a nuclear arsenal.
Obama's desperately eager posture towards the smiling Mullahs has doomed any negotiation to failure by signaling that the U.S. fears confrontation more than anything else. Obama's pathetic approach to the world's most pressing national security threat also makes U.S. military action virtually impossible from a public relations and diplomatic standpoint because it promotes the naive idea that more diplomacy will resolve what a decade of talking hasn't. And as long as the Iranians are "talking," world opinion will also oppose an Israeli military strike, so naturally Iran will find ways to keep talking until it's too late for Israel to act. Obama has been downright duplicitous towards key Mideast allies.
Judaism: Sheep and Oxen
Moshe Kempinski- “Regrettably in our days we see the leadership of the world becoming timid like sheep when confronting evil.”
Published: Thursday, November 14, 2013, 9:18 AM
The writer is the author of "The Teacher and the Preacher"; editor of the Jerusalem Insights weekly email journal; co-owner of Shorashim, a Biblical shop in the Old City of Jerusalem.
Excerpt: Every event and challenge in the life journey of Yaacov ( Jacob) represents another rung in his ascent up the ladder to the heavens. He escapes the evil plans of his brother. He leaves his parents under the cloud of uncertainty and a sense of unworthiness. He escapes into a land clouded and unknown. He learns to cope with the camouflaged schemes of his uncle Lavan. He learns to balance the tensions of his growing family. He builds his material strength and possessions and then must flee from his uncle on his way home It is then, too, that he must face his brother Esav. Would that be a challenge that will prove too much for him? The two brothers are not evenly matched.“And the youths grew up, and Esav was a man who understood hunting, a man of the field, whereas Yaacov was an innocent man, dwelling in tents." (Genesis 25:27).
As Yaacov's relationship with G-d grew, so did his preoccupation with the tending of his flocks of sheep. It is in that involvement he learns about reliance, obedience, and the faith to follow his Shepherd into unknown pastures. Yet when facing Esav he would have to develop new talents. The talents of the ox are more aggressive and powerful. “... when relating with G-d we must attain the attributes of the sheep. Yet when confronting the enemies of our people we must come with the power and determination of the oxen. http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/14102#.UojoxuLisik