akuperma

” how any frum yid can vote for Democrat” – for 2024, the Republicans have turned into pacifists, appeasers and isolationists. Jews worldwide, and in particular the Israelis, benefitted from the generation of Republicans who led the free world against the “Axis of Evil” and pushed a “Freedom Agenda”, but it now appears those Republicans are now considered RINOs. The Democrat leadership favors the old Truman-Kennedy agenda of globalism are somewhat for Israel, though they may be losing ground to the “Progressives” and their agenda of WOKE anti-Semitism. It will be interesting to see the party’s platforms, the Republican VEEP candidate (isolationist MAGA fanatic or someone chosen to appeal to the Reagan Republicans), and if a strong third party opposed to isolationism emerges.

The real bottom line is a great many Arabs do not wish to become of a rebuilt Iranian (Persian) Empire. The Iranian launched the war for fear of an alliance of Arabs, Americans, and to a lesser extent, Israel, against Iran. The Iranian goal is to convince the Islamic world that the leaders of the Arab countries (none of whom were elected) are corrupt traitors, and that the Islamic world should accept Iranian leadership. Defeating Israel would go a great way to establish Iran as the dominant Islamic power, and humiliating the western Christian powers by closing the Red Sea/Suez definitely helps. The first Arab countries to fall would be the small states along the Persian Gulf (they are rich, and very undemocratic, and their leaders will have much to lose if Iran takes them over).

Nothing is certain. It should be noted that most Israelis are willing to fight for their survival, and most Americans are either “Reagan Republicans” or “John Kennedy/Harry Truman Democrats” (albeit in different parties) rather than MAGA or WOKE.

Trump may turn out to using the threat of isolationism to encourage allies to get ready for war, and may then announce that what makes America great is leading the free world. Iranian reliance on American disinterest or incompetence will soon turn to fear (China and Russia will decide against invading their neighbors)

The Democrats can decide to tell the “Progressive” (WOKE, and anti-Semitic, among other things) caucus to bug off – or if the Democrats turn left, while Trump stays isolationist, it will create an opening for a third party that will be globalist and not anti-Jewish. Either well the non-Trump party will also favor a strong military response to the Sino-Russian axis (which includes Iran and its clients).

The Israelis could get their act together and be able to defeat their enemies without foreign aid – it would be messy and require the Israeli elite (secular, left, 1st world standard of living) to accept that they live in a third world country dominated by non-secular, non-Europeans, and a standard of living similar to the 1950s – but Israel could be militarily self-sufficient which the capability of deterring its enemies. If Israel could take out Iran, and neutralize Hamas and Hezbollah (which are Iranian clients), it would the from a position of strength attempt to negotiate with the Palestinians (who are the only Arabs who matter if Israeli wants to survive).

Or the Zionists will go down in Jewish history along with Shabatai Zvi, has one very bad idea with disastrous results. The Hareidim will survive, as we always do, but most of the non-religious Jews (who outside of Israel have minimal birthrates already) will disappear. The best remembered Jewish leader of this era will be the original Satmar Rebbe, and people such as Herzl, Ben Gurion, and Netanyahu will be known only by historians interested in obscure tangents.

Of course children are here to bring nachas to their parents (and what great nachas is there in educating one’s children and watching them grow up). If this wasn’t Ha-Shem’s intention, we could be like reptiles who lay eggs, buried in a safe place, and the hatchlings that emerge are tiny adults with no need for parental guidance. But Ha-Shem decided on helpless babies who needs years and years of care to grow up.

I doubt Trump knows who the Kurds are, and I suspect Biden doesn’t either. They are fairly secular Moslems who are greatly annoying Americas enemies, as well as the Turks (who are American allies, at least nominally). Historically they have been friendlier to Yidden than the Arabs, Iranians or Turks.

A weak United States will be unable to help Israel, and the combined effects of Trump and Biden, WOKE and MAGA, is to weaken America.

For Israel, the best approach is to cut a deal the Palestinians, which will end the threats from the Iranians, eliminate reliance on the Americans, and probably result in Israel losing its invitation to join in World War III (which will be a great show to miss).

If the Republicans go “America First”, it means that the Israelis, the Europeans (not just the Ukrainians), the Taiwanese, the Philippines and the Koreans all end up under the bus. Depending on how overbearing the Russians, Chinese and Iranians are, the US might settle to except their domination as long as we are largely left alone domestically, or perhaps the US will quickly realize it made a big mistake, and go full force into a World War (as happened on the afternoon of Dec. 7, 1941).

But if you pay close attention to what Trump is saying, he has so far said he will only help allies who help themselves, and since almost all of the NATO members as well as the threatened countries in East Asia are seriously increasing their armed capacities themselves (even Germany is getting ready to go nuclear, we are thrilled???), Trump could simply take credit for global rearmament and become a reincarnation of Harry Truman, John Kennedy or Ronald Reagan. With Trump you never know.

And Biden may be so scared of losing the “WOKE” Democrats, that he’ll be steadily be turning into an anti-war, and anti-Israel Democrat.

Coffee addict: There is no “flood” of Chinese illegal aliens. Chinese is fairly prosperous (so immigrant wannabees tend to have money and advanced degrees and can at least read English since it is required in schools), and it is very hard to walk or swim to the USA from China (cf: Pacific Ocean). The “flood” coming over the southern land border are largely indigenous “huddled masses” from very poor Latin American countries (while some are educated political refugees, most are working class “deplorables” that tend to be upwardly mobile but with job skills that are either unskilled or at best semi-skilled).

RE: “Jordan is already 78% of historical Palestine. Jordanians of Palestinian origin constitute more than 80%
of the population …” — Meaning that if a Palestinian state is established in Jordan, it will be well situated to start to work recapturing its lost territories (Israel). The flaw in the Zionist movement was always that they forgot that the Arabs have been the largest group in Eretz Yisrael for well over a thousand years, and are very unlikely to ever agree to settlement that leave Eretz Yisrael other than under Muslim rule. This was pointed out in the last century by Hareidi gedolim, and ignored by the various types of zionists. One should consider how the Americans would acted if the indigenous Americans attempted to establish an indigenous state in place of the United States (and American control of the United States has been for a much shorter period – 200 years most of what is now the United States was under indigenous control).

We’ve know the “intellectual left” (the “enlightened ones” as they perceive themselves) for over two centuries, and we have never been so naive as to see them as other than arrogant bigoted elitists who desire to harm Yiddishekit. The secular Jews have identified with them and they are horrified to find that that they admired and respected and imitated (“aped” might be a good word) support genocide of Jews and “canceling” Jewish life, even of those that are secular (killing frum Jews was never problem for them, but now they are going after the hilonim as well).

Some of the political points in the original posting are irrelevant to us (e.g. while Ukraine’s defeat will encourage Iran and Hamas, immigration policy and the exaggerated response to Covid are not Jewish issues, though if Medinat Yisrael goes the way of Afghanistan we will liberal immigration rules in place)

Fur hats used to be standard throughout Europe. One factor was it got warmer (the period from roughly 1400 to the mid-19th century was the “Little Ice Age” and it was unusually cold – that’s why the greens use it to base global warming charts). The centers of non-Hasidic Ashkenazim were increasingly in countries where fur hats ceased to be fashionable. While some attribute the decline of kapotes (frock coats) to King George V’s decision to stop wearing them, automobiles were a major factor (to a greater extent than railroads).

Hasidim tend not to care about British kings or American presidents, and so are less likely to follow their fashions.

1. IF a Jewish boy is born on Dec. 25, his bris would be on Jan. 1, and the goyim hold that someone important to them was a Jewish boy born on Dec. 25. Of course, even according to their scholars, “Dec. 25” is a myth based on a Roman holiday (Saturnalia).

2. For a long time the “new year” in the Christian calendar began on March 25 (at least in English speaking countries), and the change to Jan. 1 was not motivated by religion but by a desire to standardize calendars.

The correlation between being an “elite” university and one that tolerates and encourages anti-Semitism has been widely noted. Frum Jews aren’t all that affected since while some of us attend or work for such schools, we are obviously aware of anti-Semitism since we are obviously Jewish – though some “modern” Orthodox do change their personal names and modify their appearance so they won’t look “too” Jewish. For us it has always been a fact of life.

For the more assimilated, Oct. 7 and the aftermath are an existential shock. They never could imagine that those they saw as colleagues felt that the mass murder and rape, etc., of Jews was good public policy. The good American Jews assumed that anti-Jewish prejudice was only directed against frum Jews (and such assimilationists held such views themselves). A similar event occurred just under a century ago when highly assimilated German Jews discovered what their beloved German countrymen really thought of them (and the meme of a German Jew being led to the gas chamber shouting about his medals earned fighting for the Kaiser)

One option is migration to the “red” states, and going to politically conservative (or at least moderate) universities. We can also join the many conservative voices attacking the manner in which credentials from “elite” universities are afforded a value not reflected in the quality of education the students receive.

But the bottom line, is that if the anti-Semitic elites continue in power in America, it is unlikely that the country will remain a good place for Jews, and also that Israel needs to be prepared to stop depending on the United States for assistance.

1. Most American are descended from immigrants, including almost all frum Jews.
2. The above fact shows that the pro-immigration parties were successful, and the nativists lost, and it turns out the prosperity of the country is largely due to immigrants.
3. Jews opposed to non-admission of non-WASP immigrants look silly, since they are arguing that our ancestors should not have been allowed in

Facilitating access to Gaza from Egypt would facilitate terrorist movement and facilitate the importation of weapons. Also remember that many if not most Egyptians tend to support their fellow Muslims in Gaza. — And trying to expel the Gazans to Egypt is very problematic since while Palestinians are basically the same ethnically as the Arabs in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan (excluding the Bedouin elite who rule Jordan), the Egyptians are very different in terms of ethnicity, race and culture.

In a world of fools, a corrupt non-fool might be the best choice.

And the “Progressive” faction of the Democrats gave Hamas their blessing to do so.

Except for the Wall Street Journal (among major news sources) there are very few if any “major” American new sources that still make an attempt at “reporting” the news objectively. This is a return to the status quo ante in the mid-19th century when all newspapers had open political bias, and “reported” the news based upon their own biases. Just as you would expect YWN to be presenting news from a frum perspective (and being very unfair in reporting news of anti-Semites), don’t expect the New York Times (etc.) to do anything other than presenting the news for a WOKE, left wing politically correct perspective (and being unfair to those defined as enemies by the left, which includes frum Yidden and Zionists).

The left wing has been anti-Semitic for years. Usually the focus was on traditional Jews, but Hamas has made it clear that the international left sees all Jews as the enemy – something that we frum Yidden have always known, but is a shock to those Jews who used to think of themselves as good members of the politically correct “progressive” movement. The similarity is to German Jews who had seen themselves as good and respected Germans, until they woke up and realized that the Germans didn’t agree.

Kuvult:

1. Public libraries in general have long preferred opening on Saturday and closing on Sunday, even in neighborhoods with large Shomer Shabbos populations. Compare the Saturday hours to the Sunday hours. And as a consequence, they are unable to accommodate staff members who are unwilling to work on Saturday.

2. These biases go way back. Over a century ago, New York State’s librarian was fired at the insistence of the legislature since he was openly anti-Semitic – and the library profession was outraged by the legislature’s bias. Job discrimination even against non-frum Jews continued through the mid-20th century, and even today it is hard for someone who is openly Orthodox (Shomer Shabbos, and whose clothing and preferred days off based on the Jewish calendar) to get a job as a librarian unless working for a Jewish library or as a specialist in Jewish/Hebrew studies.

3. The people running NYPL are left wing Democrats, as is most of the city government. The new “politically correct” position is that all Jews (not just religious ones, though we are the most visible) are public enemies who should be discriminated against. What we would want is for advocates of “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” to be seen as what they are, Nazis if 21st dress and treated accordingly (fired and marginalized) but the reality is that they control most of the political institutes in blue cities and states.

1. If you notice a common sort of behavior of the Yismaelim, going back almost 4000 years, you understand that human life is less important to them than it is to us. No hidush.
2. Israel is not willing to execute Palestinian prisoners, especially if they were arrested only for opposing the regime (as opposed to terrorism). The Palestinians have no qualms about executing Jewish prisoners, as they clearly illustrated (and note, most of the Arab world, and the political left, cheered the murder, torture and rape of Jews). By halacha, killing non-combatants is only allowed if Ha-Shem, or at least a Navi, or at least a Kohen Gadol with Urim ve-Tumim says its okay. And whatever you think of Bibi, he is a prophet or even a Melekh Beis Davis.

The MARC (Maryland commuter rail) has announced that due to a “First amendment event” the trains may be very crowded on Tuesday. I would not be surprised if many non-frum Jews and goyim come. The issue of the WOKE left endorsing murder, kidnapping and rape is actually quite important to more than just the frum community, as they (the pro-Hamas demonstrators) appear to have alienated more than just Orthodox Jews, even if it is probably considered “existential” only to us.

If the “left” favored Taiwan and Ukraine, they would be demanding expanding the military to Cold War levels (at least), and reducing domestic spending while raising taxes to pay for it. The same holds true of the “right”. This suggests that the current political leadership is not very serious about supporting Israel, Ukraine or Taiwan, and that the Hamas outrage is calling the American “bluff”.

Coffee addct: Those who supported the Nazis for an ulterior motive but did not support the Holocaust are NOT seen in the same light as the Nazis. This includes Finland (allied with Germany against the Soviet Union, but only as a co-belligerent and never at war with the other Allies, and refused to persecute Jews or even to exclude them from its army) and Japan (allied with Germany but refused German requests to round up and execute Jews within its territories).

Actually most of the “Progressive caucus” opposes American intervention abroad and are just as isolationist as Trump’s “America First.” They oppose building up the military, and regard defense contractors as evil war-mongering capitalists (and in their lingo, “capitalist” is a pejorative).

The ones who support Taiwan and Ukraine, are the RINOs (Reagan Republicans) and DINOs (cold war Democrats in the Truman/John Kennedy model), and there are the ones who support Israel. Though not very enthusiastically (note that none of them favor cutting the domestic spending or raising taxes, meaning they are willing to come up with the money to match China/Russia/Iranian military spending).

You need to trace the maternal ancestry back at least 200 (or at least until someone who you can establish was frum). For Ashkenazim, the movements towards intermarriage and people going OTD in large numbers began about 250 years ago. Since the Euro-American custom is for a child to have the father’s surname, the name itself gives you no useful information about whether the great-great-great-grandmother was a Yid.