Year: 2012

To Ron Paul Supporters: Reflections from Israel on the Iowa Caucuses

rafifarber The Jewish Libertarian Blog , ,

To my dear American patriots and fellow lovers of liberty and freedom,

I’m writing this to you to give you what they call “chizuk” in Hebrew, or strengthening. Before I get on to it, Ron Paul came in third in the vote count last night, but he came in tied with Romney and Santorum for delegates to the convention, and possibly even first due to the dedication and love of our liberty soldiers in Iowa who volunteered to be delegates after the voting ended. We will know for sure in the coming days whether Ron Paul actually won the most delegates. Nonetheless, a third place showing is emotionally difficult for all of us. I will try to explain to you now why it should not be, and actually isn’t for me.

I am first and foremost a Jew. I am only an American in name in that I feel no national bond with America, though I do love the country as being one of the most spectacular to ever have existed, if not the most. And I want her to be healthy and strong and free. So I am telling you this as a Jew, not as an American, because I cannot separate my Jewish consciousness from anything I think about, as it is so integrally entwined with my psyche.

There is a Rabbinic lesson written in a book called Midrash Raba, which is basically a collection of Rabbinic exegesis on Biblical verses. Commenting on the story of Creation, the Rabbis note that redemption was preprogrammed into the universe. Redemption, meaning humanity being restored to its complete, most fully functional form. That form is freedom. The drive toward freedom is unstoppable and inevitable. This is the very first thing you have to keep in mind at all times. In pushing humanity toward freedom, you are literally partnering with God in furthering the very purpose of creation, because what you are fighting for is absolutely real and true, and nothing can change that. Nothing.

This is all nice and good, but how do we overcome a third place showing? The same way the Jewish people overcame virtually everything. You just have faith in God. And if you understand that you are doing the right and true thing, you do the absolute best you can while realizing you cannot control everything. We cannot control everything and we are not the masters of the universe. We are only subordinate partners with the True Master.

Remember, there are men who love power, and there are men who love freedom. Freedom is uncontrolled. Power is control. So if you do the best you can and understand and internalize the truth that freedom means you can’t control everything, then you inherently leave the final step to God. If you think you can control everything, you are treading into the dangerous alleys of the power mind. Your hard work and dedication and love of humanity did not go unnoticed in the heavens. Now have faith and keep going.

Going back to the Exodus from Egypt for a second, before the Israelites finally left, they were commanded to do the ultimate act of defiance against Egypt right in front of the Egyptian people. That is, tie a sheep – the Egyptian god – to a bedpost, leave it there for 4 days, then slaughter it, smear its blood all over their front doors, roast it completely whole over an open fire, eat it, and burn all the leftovers, bones and all – and only then could they get the hell out of Egypt.

That is, they had to demonstrate one act of complete freedom in defiance of the Egyptian establishment before they took the final step. And then they were out forever. Just one act of freedom, and that was enough to earn them a ticket out.

You, my friends, have demonstrated so many acts of freedom already. You deserve your freedom and you WILL win it, because unlike any other cause to get some soulless guy in the White House, your cause for freedom is the very purpose of Creation.

What you all need to do now is first, understand that you WILL win. It is programmed into the Divine fabric of the universe. Second, understand that you cannot control exactly HOW you win. If you could control it, you wouldn’t be free. In order never to be seduced by power as so many human beings are, in order to be truly free, you have to ultimately let go and have faith. You must realize you cannot control ANYTHING. The only one who can is God, the source of freedom itself.

And third, keep going full speed.

The ultimate test of our own liberty is when we are deflated and depressed, what do we do? Do we give up and say that since we couldn’t control this one event absolutely and it didn’t come out as we personally envisioned it, then we may as well give up on the whole thing? That would prove that our conception of liberty was only self-aggrandizement, only a form of power lust for absolute control.

So what are we going to do? Are we going to go home? Or are we going to take the lamb of slavery and government control where they can now arrest us without trial or charges, slaughter it, smear its blood all over our door posts and BURN the damn thing?

Not every soul will be activated. It will not happen. We WILL win, but we CANNOT know how. What we CAN know is that God is with us in our fight because it is TRUE.

We won the MOST delegates even though we didn’t come in first. And you know why? Because the people that voted with us are FREE! In Iowa, we didn’t have the most men. But we had the FREE men, and that’s why we won.

Now on to New Hampshire! God bless you all!

 

How can a settler who usurps Palestinian land be a Ron Paul supporter?

rafifarber The Jewish Libertarian Blog , ,

UPDATE: TO PEOPLE READING THIS NOW, I NOW NO LONGER AGREE WITH WHAT I WROTE HERE. SEE THE ZERO STATE SOLUTION FOR MY CURRENT POSITION. 

This was a question that came up repeatedly in several comments to the last post. It is a question that warrants a good and thorough answer. Many of the comments were so nasty I didn’t publish them. Some were just mildly hostile and I published those, but there was one comment in particular that caught my eye for asking the question honestly and respectfully. Here is the comment by a woman named Valerie:

I thank you for your support of Dr. Paul; however I do not understand your freedom message when the Palestinians are not afforded those same freedoms. Maybe I am misunderstanding your blogs? Maybe I am misunderstanding the Palestinian cause? Could you please elaborate more on your feelings toward the Palestinians. I believe in your message of freedom and support your message of freedom. I am not coming down on you, but I do believe freedom is for every man, woman and child no matter your ancestry. We are all brothers and sisters in this world as we have only one Father and that is God.

My answer, point by point:

Valerie,

You are correct when you say that everyone has freedom and should not be punished for using it, including my Arab cousins. I respect them as human beings created in God’s image just as I respect any other human being. Let me just be clear on that point first.

Now, I must start out this answer with a two axioms, those are, assumptions I rest my argument on that I assume to be true. If you don’t accept either one of these assumptions, then you obviously will not accept my conclusion. This is fine, since I don’t rely on the world’s agreement to justify my presence in Samaria, or what you call “the West Bank”. Consider this a window into my thoughts rather than an attempt to convince you that I’m right.

So here are my two assumptions:

1) The Bible, what you call the “Old Testament,” and only the “Old Testament,” is the Word of God. (“Old Testament” is actually an offensive term to me but I use it here so we both know what I’m referring to.)

2) The Jews of today are the legal descendants of the Israelites of the Bible, and are therefore the recipients of the legal covenant God made with Abraham in the Covenant Between the Parts. (See Genesis 15) In that covenant, God gave the Land of Israel to Abraham’s descendants for all eternity.

Now, with that in mind, we can continue.

Ishmael, father of the Arab nation, also Abraham’s son, was weeded out of this covenant explicitly by God. See Genesis 17:15-21. He received his own land and it is not the Land of Israel. Arabia is not mine, and I will never claim it as mine.

As a lover of freedom Valerie, I’m sure you also believe in private property rights. Private property is either property you purchased, or property that you inherited. In either case, you have the right to allow who you want in your property, and to exclude who you want as well. Israel, as defined Biblically, which includes where I currently live, is the private property of the Jewish People, as we inherited it from Abraham, who inherited it from its Creator and Owner, God. (Which I spell with an O for all the Jews reading this thinking I’m a plant.)

Before we get carried away thinking I want to expel or kill any and all Arabs living in my private property, let me say that I categorically do NOT. I have no problem with Arabs living here in my land and doing whatever they want. That is, provided that they do not hurt me, or, and this is key, provided that they do not claim that my land is actually theirs.

Let me put this into perspective for a second. Let’s say that a group of illegal Mexican immigrants claimed that Texas was actually theirs and they wanted to take it away from America. Actually, they’d have a much clearer claim to Texas than Arabs have to Israel, because your nation actually DID take Texas from the Mexicans, and fairly recently. You have no Biblical basis to have done that, though still, notice I didn’t use the word “steal”. You “conquered” Texas in an act of war and annexed it, which is legitimate. It’s what nations do when they have power.

Going back to the illegal Mexican immigrants who want Texas back, remember  they are illegal immigrants with no voting rights and no citizenship. Now they start gathering in a group with a supposed national identity. They don’t want to go back to Mexico because well, life sucks there with all the drug wars and no welfare, so instead they name themselves “Texastinians” and they want to establish an independent “Texastine”. So they start killing American Texans and demand the Federal government sit down to peace talks with them on the condition that you agree to give them all of Texastine before any negotiations even start.

Your response would probably be “Get them the hell out of my country and #$%# peace talks, Texas is mine!” And I certainly wouldn’t blame you.

So, my feelings towards the “Palestinians” are the same as your feelings towards the “Texastinian” Mexicans. There are no Texastinians, just Mexicans, just as there are no Palestinians, just Arabs.

You wish the people who call themselves Texastinians would just leave you alone, you don’t believe “Texastine” is a real sovereign nation anyway, and you’d love to just live in peace but if they keep acting like Texas is actually theirs, you want them gone and out. You’d probably kill the worst of them, meaning the leaders of the attacks against American Texans, you’d probably pay the rest of them who would accept the money to leave back to Mexico, and those that wanted to live in peace and be left alone, you’d just let them stay.

The “Palestinian” cause, Valerie, is simply the cause to get Jews out of their God-given land. They have no positive national aspirations. They never have, nor will they ever, actually produce anything. 80% of their GDP is foreign aid. They can’t even have positive national aspirations, because their nation is the larger Arab nation that spans hundreds of times bigger than the Jewish one. They have plenty of places to go if they want to. They can even stay here where I live. But NOT if they claim that my land is theirs.

The only issue we have left to touch on is the issue of citizenship and the definition of nationhood. Theoretically speaking, if confronted with the issue of “Texastinians,” the Federal government could simply give all of those illegal Mexican immigrants American citizenship to try and stop the fighting. This would probably work and would end the whole affair. You could do this because “Americanness” or the reality of being part of the American nation is simply incidental. You call yourselves the melting pot, which is great. Anyone can become a citizen and that’s it. Why can’t that be done in Israel?

Because, Valerie, God did not give Israel to “Israeli citizens.” He gave Israel to the Jews. And unlike “Americanness” which is only incidental, “Jewishness” is essential. The Israeli government can’t simply grant “Jewishness” and call the conflict over. Jews are not a religion. We are, and always have been, a distinct nation.

Just as there are no “Palestinians,” there really are no “Israelis” either. “Israeli” is just a made up term by Jews trying to shed their Jewishness in favor of a new modern national identity under a philosophy called “Zionism” that they even try to incorporate Arabs into by calling them “Israeli Arabs”. That term is absolutely ludicrous. It is a complete contradiction.

The reality is this: There are Jews in the land of Israel, and there are Arabs in the land of Israel. The Jews are the owners of the land, and the Arabs just happened to be here when the owners returned in 1948. What the Jews must do to end the conflict is make it clear that Israel is ours, both to them and the entire world. Those Arabs who are here and agree, are welcome to stay and be treated with the utmost respect and courtesy. They of course should not pay any taxes to the Jewish government, nor should they get any benefits at all. If they stay, they should be completely independent, without voting rights just as non-Americans in your country don’t have voting rights.

Those Arabs who are here and disagree that the land belongs to the Jewish People, however, must be paid to get out. Those who are here and disagree to the point of fighting me over it with weapons, they must be destroyed, just as you would kill anyone who barges into your private property with a gun.

Israel is the private property of the Jewish Nation. Without private property, there is no freedom.

You say:

I do believe freedom is for every man, woman and child no matter your ancestry. We are all brothers and sisters in this world as we have only one Father and that is God.

You are right. Freedom is for everyone just like you said Valerie, regardless of ancestry. And we are all brothers and sisters and have one Father and that is God. That one Father gave me the Land of Israel as my nation’s private property. And if you believe in freedom, you can’t do whatever you want on someone else’s private property.

Therefore, I am a freedom-lover who lives where I live. Because it’s my land given to me by God Himself, and not anyone else’s.