‘Ehr Daw’ —- They’re Here

muslim-nazi-youthEditor’s note: Below is the transcript to Rabbi Shalom Lewis’s sermon marking Rosh Hashanah at the Etz Chaim synagogue in Marietta, Georgia. 

I thought that maybe I’d start with a rendition of Paul McCartney’s plaintive masterpiece “Yesterday”… “Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away. Now it looks as though they’re here to stay, oh I believe in yesterday” – but then I thought, too romantic. And then I thought, how about the favorite classic we all learned as children – “Frere Jacques, Frere Jacques, Dormez-vous, Dormez-vous, Sonnez les matines, sonnez les matines, Ding Daing Dong, ding daing dong. Are you sleeping, are you sleeping, Brother John, Brother John” but then I said to myself…too French. Perhaps the story of Chicken Little – “The sky is falling. The sky is falling” and I thought, getting closer but too childish. What about Santayana’s “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Maybe, but too philosophical. And then I remembered Joseph Conrad’s sadly, cynical observation – – “The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary. Men alone are quite capable of every wickedness,” and sadly it felt right.

And so, here were are in a place of unimagined chaos and cowardice, paralysis and brutality. The beast roams the earth; we are stymied, stunned and continue to fiddle. My friends, “Ehr Kumpt Part 2, the Sequel.” This is not a time for delicacy. For tiptoeing. It is not a time to parse words nor worry about offending someone with unfiltered vocabulary. Time is no longer a luxury we possess. Distance no longer provides protection. We are being threatened like no time before, by an enemy obsessed with an apocalyptic endgame that will bring only disaster. An enemy that worships savagery. An enemy that celebrates depravity. An enemy that glorifies the death of the young. There has been a seismic shift in our world. We feel it. We see it. We know it. We dare not deny it. Pick up any newspaper on any day, the first page, the second page, the third page, the fourth page and beyond – – most of the articles are about radical Muslims, not just ISIS, immersed in a vicious culture of blood and slaughter. Skip to the sports page or the crossword puzzle if you wish, but that doesn’t make the uncomfortable news go away. In fact, it brings joy to the jihadists who hope for our indifference. If we deny evil then we need not fight it. It doesn’t exist – just a few lunatics, thousands of miles away, pounding sand, blowing each other up and occasionally beheading an unlucky journalist. Not so bad.

For years, we have been mercifully spared the ugliness and intimacy of war. The Battle of the Bulge and Iwo Jima were a black and white MovieTone newsreel after Tom & Jerry and before the Pride of the Yankees. We planted victory gardens, rolled up tin foil, bought Liberty Bonds, said goodbye to fathers, sons and brothers. But the trenches were on the other side of the Atlantic and Pacific. So too, every other subsequent conflict. The Yanks were coming but the shooting was “over there.” We suffered little. But today, war has been redefined and relocated. Geneva is finished. We are all combatants in the cross hairs. We are all on the front lines, like it or not. The battlefield has no boundaries and the war, no rules. The enemy targets deliberately, fiendishly, any place of innocence. All are vulnerable and so we must recalculate our strategy, re-examine our tolerance, re-energize our resolve and unequivocally identify the evil doers. Let us not be silenced by fear, by feckless goodwill, by reckless hope, by meaningless rhetoric.

There are one billion Muslims in the world and authorities agree that 5% are committed Islamists who embrace terror and wish to see, by any means possible, the Muslim flag fly over every capital, on every continent. I was relieved when I heard only 5%. Thank God it’s only 5%. Now I could sleep soundly. But wait, let me figure this out, 5% of a billion is… 50 million Koran-waving, Allah Akbar-howling Muslim murderers out there planning to slit our throats, blow us up or forcibly convert us. It only took 19 of Osama bin Laden’s disciples to bring down the Twin Towers, plow into the Pentagon and crash a plane into Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Over 3,000 dead. Over $10 billion in damages on that sad day. 19 Al Qaeda. 50 million Islamists. Do the math.

But what disturbs me is, where are the other 950 million Muslims who are not terrorists? Who are not bomb-blasting, acid-throwing zealots? Where are the other 950 million Muslims who tuck their children in at night with a lullaby, who are okay with Christians and Jews, crave a peaceful world and wish nothing more than a tasty bowl of hummus and a friendly game of Shesh Besh with a neighbor? I want to believe they are out there, for their sake and for ours. I want to believe they weep in pain over the desecration of their faith. I want to believe that we have partners who dream the dreams we do and wish upon the same star. I want to believe – – but where are they? A silent partnership is no partnership. Sin is not just in the act of commission – it is also in the act of omission. Most Germans were not Nazis – but it did not matter. Most Russians were not Stalinists – but it did not matter. Most Muslims are not terrorists – but it does not matter. Stand up righteously or get out of the way. Perhaps in every mosque, in every midrassah, in every Muslim neighborhood, Edmund Burke’s powerful warning should be chiseled on a wall in Arabic, in Farsi, in Pashto, in Urdu, for all to read and heed. “All that is necessary for evil to prevail is for good people to do nothing.”

A couple of months ago, 3 young Israelis were kidnapped by Hamas terrorists and killed. And so began Operation Protective Edge. But the Gaza war was much more than shooting down rockets and blowing up tunnels – it was the preview, the soft opening, for a much more serious war – a genuine world war. It was a test of resolve, of fortitude. It was a test watched carefully by the indecent forces of a rising Islamist world. Israel is only the beginning. The first prize sought in what promises to be a protracted, multi-generational Kulterkampf. Israel made the headlines, but the front lines are all over the map – we just don’t know it yet. The whole world was watching and our performance was pathetic. We, the good guys, stumbled at the gate; tripped clumsily in an embarrassing display of moral confusion and ineptitude. It was amateur hour and the bad guys were licking their chops. I say the following unapologetically and with a heavy heart. When the war began, the President of the United States, the leader of the Free World, should have immediately, instinctively invited to the Oval Office, the leading Democrats and Republicans of the Senate and the House, his cabinet and all significant Washington political players. Every domestic and international news organization should have been notified and the following talk broadcast across the planet.

Fellow Americans – a crisis has erupted once again in the Middle East and I have been told that the war between Israel and Hamas is complex and nuanced. I have been told that our great nation must be evenhanded- but I am here to say with no equivocation, with no hesitation, this war is not complex. This war is not nuanced and we will not be evenhanded in this confrontation of good and evil, of right and wrong, of civilization and savagery. We Democrats and Republicans, Liberals and Conservatives from sea to shining sea, stand together in unshakable support of Israel against foul, corrupt, murderers who sacrifice the lives of children in their pursuit of power. To Israel we say – do whatever you must. To Israel we say, take whatever time you need to crush this vile enemy and whatever you require, you can count on us. To the world we say, Israel is fighting for all of us – for our values, for our principles, for our civilization. Support her efforts, as we do, in every way possible. I will not tolerate any words of disparagement against our greatest ally and friend in the Middle East. God bless Israel and God bless the United States of America.

But these words did not ring forth from the White House, the capital of the free world. What we did hear was “No victor, no vanquished.” This statement was our President’s strategic plan. No call for triumph over terrorism, but a weak kneed, stalemate with butchers – a tie between good and evil. Right and wrong. Civilization and savagery. This did not go unnoticed. Media coverage during the war was biased and shameful with a few notable exceptions. To permit Hamas spokesmen and Hamas sympathizers to speak and to defend their monstrous deeds to millions of viewers is morally shocking. To promote equivalency between Israel and Hamas is morally appalling. With my remote, I would channel surf, go from station to station and I could not believe what I was hearing on CNN, CBS, BBC, ABC, MSNBC, and all the rest. The grotesque propaganda, the repulsive distortions – the tolerance of the wicked. And this did not go unnoticed. As I sat through these numbing broadsides, I wondered if our mainstream media during WWII would have invited the Germans and the Japanese to share their perspectives on the hostilities in Europe and in the Pacific. As they moaned about Dresden and the Doolittle Raid, would the anchors have nodded in sympathy? When the Germans and Japanese explained the need for the V1 and V2 bombardment of London and the necessity for the Bataan Death March, would the anchors have expressed understanding? The obscenities and outright lies given airtime and legitimacy should be sickening to any person of conscience.

Words distinguish us from the beast. In a powerful Holocaust tale, Eli Wiesel painfully writes that when words lose their meaning, disaster follows. In today’s Middle East lexicon; restraint means suicide. Terrorists have become militants. Self-defense is a war crime. Democracy is apartheid. Israelis and Jews have become Nazis. Warning civilians to get out of harm’s way has become genocide. 38 Muslim countries – 22 Arab countries and Israel, the only Jewish nation, must constantly defend her right to exist. Russia invades. Nigeria enslaves. China oppresses. Pakistan rapes. Iraq slaughters. North Korea starves. Iran nuclearizes. Syria massacres. Venezuela plunders. Afghanistan tortures. Sudan annihilates. ISIS beheads and Israel is the pariah state, put under the microscope by the morally noxious. And this did not go unnoticed. Eric Hoffer, the longshoreman philosopher, wrote the following in 1968 – 46 years ago. His words have not grown stale with the passage of time. To the contrary, they are every bit as relevant and meaningful today, nearly 1/2 a century later. I quote: “The Jews are a peculiar people: things permitted to other nations are forbidden to the Jews. Other nations drive out 1,000’s, even millions of people and there is no refugee problem. Russia did it. Poland and Czechoslovakia did it. Turkey drove out a million Greeks and Algeria a million Frenchman. Indonesia threw out heaven knows how many Chinese and no one says a word about refugees. But, in the case of Israel, the displaced Arabs have become eternal refugees. Everyone insists that Israel must take back every single Arab. Arnold Toynbee calls the displacement of the Arabs an atrocity greater than any committed by the Nazis. Other nations, when victorious on the battlefield, dictate peace terms. But when Israel is victorious on the battlefield, it must sue for peace. Everyone expects the Jews to be the only real Christians in the world…Other nations when they are defeated, survive and recover, but should Israel be defeated, it would be destroyed…” Hoffers’ final words are chilling and prophetic. “I have a premonition that will not leave me; as it goes with Israel so will it go with all of us. Should Israel perish, the Holocaust will be upon us.”

To those who are morally obtuse, I say shame on you– from university professors to the useful idiots of the media, from liberal churches to Hollywood, from the United Nations to the clueless left – let me remind all the ‘misguided do-gooders” – your deeds do not go unnoticed. The world does not like a righteous Goliath especially if Goliath speaks Hebrew.

Let’s leave the Middle East and head to Europe. For those who have not been recently, it has changed. It has changed dramatically. The sights. The sounds. The crowds. The streets are much different than when we backpacked with our Eurorail passes – strolling down the Champs-Elysees, chasing pigeons at Trafalgar Square, wandering the backstreets of Amsterdam after dark. The continent that gave birth to Western civilization, the continent that defined high culture is crumbling before our very eyes. Because of well-intentioned tolerance and an undisciplined pluralism, Europe is returning to the dark ages. By most estimates, Europe will be unrecognizable by the middle of this century – crushed by a demographic tsunami. The birthrate of the Brits, the French, the Dutch and the rest of the EU is well below ZPG. The Muslim community’s birthrate is prolific.

The danger, however, is that Europe has not been a melting pot, assimilating new Muslims. And these new Muslims, for the most part, are not interested in respecting the great democracies of Europe. They want Sharia law and Islamic culture to be ascendant, and with their birthrate, the ballot box and their disdain for the West, in time they will get it. The element that is surging and redefining Europe are not the democracy-respecting Muslims, but those who are rampaging in nearly every capital. They are preaching hate for Jews, for Christians, for Israel, for America, for the entire Western world. It is not our grandfather’s Europe and it will not be a Europe our grandchildren will recognize. For the record, Europe is being flooded not by freedom loving, tolerant, assimilating Muslims who wish to share in Western freedom, in Western tolerance, in Western culture but rather by violent Islamists, extremists who reject every value we treasure.

We love ethnic communities – they are vibrant, exciting, magical faraway places only a walk away. Chinatown, Little Odessa, Greek town, Little Havana, Lower Eastside, Little Italy, but what is spreading across Europe are not charming, quaint neighborhoods enjoyed by locals and camera toting tourists in search of a charming restaurant. These are beachheads for invasion. Want to stare down a guard at Buckingham Palace? Do it soon. Want to see the Follies-Bergere dance the Can Can? Do it soon. Want to sip wine at the vineyards of Tuscany? Do it soon. Want to sunbathe on the beaches of San Tropez? Do it soon. The sun never set on the British Empire, but now there is a cold darkness settling on Europe. A nihilism. A corruption. A perversion in the name of Allah. A Kristallnacht of European and Western culture is coming that will destroy a millennia of creative genius. Don’t listen to me. Listen to what the Islamists preach.

Don’t listen to me. Look at what the Islamists do. It is not a leap into fantasy to perceive a dystopian future that is irretrievably ugly and inconceivably vile.

• The Sistine Chapel demolished for portraying God’s image.
• The Pieta, Venus de Milo, David smashed. Idolatry.
• Botticelli’s and Goya’s and Renoirs and Rubens torched – paintings of women not wearing a hijab and chador.
• The Guttenberg Bible. The Magna Carta. Tossed into a bonfire. Profane literature.
• Museums all across Europe vandalized by marauding Islamist fanatics.
Even the Nazis saved the masterpieces.
• Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart silenced.
• The end of opera. Rossini, Verdi, Puccini gone.
• For Shakespeare, Cervantes, Moliere. The Final curtain, a dark stage.
Even the Nazis enjoyed the classics.

I must assume there are skeptics out there – folks who disbelieve my warnings and might label me an alarmist – a Paul Revere wannabe – galloping across the Pyrenees through the European heartland in the shadow of the Alps crying out “The Muslims are coming. The Muslims are coming.” I weighed each and every word carefully. Repeatedly. Was I treading into bigotry? … Into melodrama? Speak with the ‘canaries in the mine’, the Jews of Europe, fleeing in record numbers. Synagogues fire bombed. Jewish businesses vandalized. Children threatened on their way to school. Kippot buried in their pockets. Mezuzot. Hamsas. Magen Davids dangling on chains tucked under shirts and under blouses to hide Jewish identity. Israeli products pulled off store shelves. This is not the 1930’s nor the 1940’s and yet it is. 68 years since the Nazis defeat but their descendants are making Hitler proud picking up where he left off. “I have a premonition that will not leave me; as it goes with Israel so will it go with all of us. Should Israel perish, the Holocaust will be upon us.” Slip in the word “Jew” for Israel and we see the future of Europe. This ever-growing tragedy doesn’t end neatly in Europe, in the Middle East, in Mumbai or the Philippines.

Most of us have never tasted the bitterness of war. Witnessed its horror. Clawed our way out from beneath tons of rubble. But we dare not be complacent and cry out confidently – “we have 2 oceans and the TSA to protect us.” We live in a shrunken world. In a porous country. In an open society. We have become perilously naïve. Recklessly evenhanded. Unacceptably tolerant. Dangerously comfortable. The greatest generation has spawned the clueless generation. I say it again loudly, slowly and clearly – we are at war, here in America as well, with radical Islamists. We have been attacked repeatedly and yet we continue to turn away. We euphemize the enemy. Disguising his identity and his intent. There will not be armadas chanting “Allah Akbar” landing on the beaches of Malibu and Boca. No vast battalions chanting “Allah Akbar” while crossing the Rio Grande or the 45th Parallel – but make no mistake – we are at war, right now, this very minute. The tactics have changed. The battlefield is different. The rules of engagement have been redefined but we dare not make the mistake that all is well and that Islamic terrorists are simply violent criminals. That Islamic terrorists are just a bunch of unemployed losers, not part of a vast network hell bent on destroying our country. Their disunity in numbers but their unity in purpose is their power. The Lone Wolf is deadly and we are the prey.

Ask the man or woman on the street when did this all start and most would reply: “On 9/11.” That was a catastrophic day, but not the start. For us here in America, the war began in Teheran in 1979 when our embassy was taken over. It has continued ruthlessly and without pause ever since. Lockerbie and Scotland, TWA Flight 840, the USS Cole, embassies and American interests bombed and Americans killed in Lebanon, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Sudan, Spain, Kenya, Germany, Egypt, Kuwait, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia. Connect the dots. Here on American soil, before 9/11, the Twin Towers were attacked in 1993. The Times Square bomber. The Tsarnev brothers in the Boston Marathon bombing. The Fort Hood massacre was not work place violence but the calculated, cold blooded murder of 13 American soldiers by a Muslim Jihadist yelling “Allah Akbar.” The shooting up in Little Rock, Arkansas of an army recruiting station. The murder of 2 CIA agents outside Langley by a Pakistani whose final words before meeting his maker were “There is no God but Allah.” The indignant, impious, arrogant claim by CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic relations, that anyone who commits an act of violence is by definition, not a Muslim. Therefore, a Muslim terrorist, a Muslim killer, a Muslim suicide bomber, is a misleading term of bigotry and Islamophobia. The slick, masterful ISIS recruitment in Minneapolis. New York. Colorado. On Facebook. On Twitter and across the country. Connect the dots.

Let’s get Jewish-personal. A Zim Line cargo ship was prevented from offloading it’s cargo for 3 days because of pro-Palestinian mobs in Oakland, California. A young man from our shul on his 1st day of university was taught by his PhD, tenured professor that Israel committed ethnic cleansing in 1948… In Dade County a synagogue was defaced with swastikas and the words Hamas scrawled on its walls. A JCC in Seattle was attacked. A pro-Palestinian rally in Miami called for “the massacre of the Jews.” University campuses across the country, hot beds of anti-Israel, anti-Jewish hostility. A local merchant in Roswell told one of our members (not realizing she was Jewish and vocal) that she was fed up with Israel’s brutal treatment of the children of Gaza. We are not Europe, but connect the dots. I am concerned, as we all should be, of the alarming surge in Islamist rhetoric, violence and influence. I am equally concerned, as we all should be, of the alarming silence and inaction of mainstream Muslims. I fear political correctness run amuck. I fear the worship of multiculturalism. I fear progressive voices of repression. I fear a distorted media tolerant of intolerance. I fear politicians who prefer the easy, still of the night to the noble, necessary struggle of the day. I fear we are not so far away from where we thought we would never be.

Three thoughts to ponder. This past year, many of us saw the Book of Mormon at the Fox. An irreverent, vulgar, hysterically entertaining musical about the Mormons. We parked our car at the Georgian Terrace and crossed Peachtree Street. In front of the theater were a half dozen, well dressed, mannerly Mormons handing out literature. “Sir, if you would like to know more about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints,” a young woman said to me as I took her brochure, “Please go to our website.” I thanked her. She smiled, wished me a pleasant evening and turned to speak with another ticket holder. I thought, “God bless these folks. This is how we disagree in America.” At the same moment I had another thought. What if Trey Parker and Matt Stone came out with a tasteless, bawdy musical that was hysterically entertaining entitled “The Quran, Allah’s Holy Book.” What would happen? It doesn’t take much imagination to answer that question. Jeff Foxworthy correctly wrote, “Have you ever wondered why it’s okay to make jokes about Catholics, the Pope, Jews, Christians, the Irish, the Italians, the Polish, the Chinese, the French (including French Canadians)…but it’s insensitive to make jokes about Muslims?” A few years back, a Danish newspaper “Jyllanns-Posten” printed 12 cartoons of the prophet Muhammad to illustrate an article. If the photos published were of Moses or Buddha or of the Apostle Paul, the event would have been met with a yawn. But not so with our Islamist friends. The reaction? Not a letter to the editor. Not a request to submit an op-ed. Not a friendly visit to the publisher – – but worldwide rage. Riots. Boycotts. Embassies burned. Ambassadors recalled. Attacks on Christians and on churches. 200 killed. Soon after, a professor from Brandeis wrote a book on this outrageous event entitled, “12 Cartoons That Shook the World.” It was published by Yale University Press, located at 302 Temple Street, New Haven, Connecticut 06511, United States of America. But what was missing in the book? What Yale University refused to print were the 12 cartoons and images of Muhammad. This self-censorship was shameful, cowardly, un-American and a sniveling submission to Islamic narcissism and intimidation. Where is a great university’s courage? Where is Freedom of the Press? This happened in America. In the land of the free and in the home of, I hope, still the brave.

I recall, as we all do, the good old days when air travel was a pleasure. When I flew here to Etz Chaim in my commuting, student days, I’d catch a cab outside my apartment on the upper West Side and be at LaGuardia in about 20 minutes. I’d check my bags in 2 minutes and be at the gate in 4 minutes, just in time to board my flight. I even got a meal. In those days, flying was an adventure, even in coach. Today it is irritating and exhausting. What happened? What changed? Who’s to blame? Who has created the need for a multibillion dollar security industry? Who has created a tedious need for us to remove our shoes and belts, empty our pockets, pack only 3-1/2 ounces of Listerine, go through metal detectors and x-ray machines, submit to frisks and wand searches? Arrive hours before departure? Who is responsible? Let’s see – – not the Italian Mob, not skin heads, not neo Nazis, not Columbian drug cartels, not the Russian mafia, not the Crips nor the Bloods nor the Aryan Brotherhood, not the Ku Klux Klan. So who is it that has irretrievably ruined worldwide air travel? So, think of a Muslim play on Broadway. Think of a scholarly text on Muhammad. Think of flying Delta or United or AirTran. Think about it and connect the dots. For us, WWII lasted 4 years. It has been 13 years since 9/11. 35 years since the invasion of our Iranian embassy and like it or not, we are still at war with radical Islam. Declaring we are not at war with radical Islam does not make it so. Roosevelt and Churchill got it and understood that the stakes were not just the Sudetenland and a few islands in the South Pacific. From the White House and 10 Downing Street, they understood it was planet earth. Today, the radical Islamists seek the same prize – not just Bagdad or Benghazi – but planet earth.

This is not dramatic fiction, but the real thing. A handful of us here today, experienced the real thing about 11 weeks ago in Israel. We didn’t see the real thing on the nightly news nor read about it in the evening paper or hear about it in a long distance phone call from uncle Moshe in Tel Aviv. We were there as Kassam rockets rained down on Israel, on us, targeting, not military bases, not Merkava tanks, not IDF divisions, but children at play, families enjoying dinner, friends laughing over a beer, lovers strolling through a park, teenagers playing volleyball on the beach. The world watched and preached and judged and only now has begun to stir from their slumber of hypocrisy and inaction. Hamas is ISIS. ISIS is Hamas. They are all the same. Hezbollah. Islamic Jihad. Al Shabab. Muslim Brotherhood. Boko Haram. Al Qaeda. Taliban. Iran. The only difference is the length of the knife they use in their butchery. Israeli blood bleeds the same red as the blood of James Foley, of Steven Satloff, of David Hawthorne Haines, of Christians, and Yazidis. Let’s reason, some suggest. One last Hail Mary negotiation. Maybe we can figure out what’s bothering these troubled Muslims and perhaps they’ll tell us what we can do to resolve the friction. I am all for dialogue, but we are dealing with a moral species that eats its own, kills it’s young and celebrates innocent death as homage to God. Osama bin Laden eluded capture for 10 years. Ever wonder why? There was a $25 million bounty on his head. That’s a lot of money. $25 million can by a lot of plastic surgery. A new identity. Rosetta Stone tapes. Elocution lesson. A suburban home. A Brooks Brothers wardrobe. New partners. New friends. Surf and turf every night and a round of golf every day. In 10 years, there was not one betrayal of Osama bin Laden – – not one. And I asked myself, “why not?” – $25 million is a great amount of money and can easily facilitate a luxurious disappearance. The answer is simple. These Islamist criminals are unlike us in the most basic of ways and we have yet to accept and understand their total immersion in moral debauchery.

The enemy has eyes and ears. Fingers and toes. Speaks with lips. Runs with legs. Eats. Drinks. Has the face of a human being – but, has a much different heart and a much different soul. Three years ago on this bima, on this very same day, standing at this podium, I cried out, “Ehr Kumpt – they are coming.” 3 years later on this bima, on this very same day, standing at this podium, I cry out not “Ehr Kumpt – they are coming,” I cry out, “Ehr daw – they are here.” The fury of ultimate evil is upon us and we must act – not to contain it. Not to degrade it. Not to manage it. Not to tolerate it, but to exterminate it utterly and absolutely. If we fail in this holy crusade, we will live in a world bereft of color. Empty of music, of art, of romance, of laughter, of freedom, of invention. A world barren of all beauty. Depleted of all virtue. We are divided today not by faith nor holy book. We are divided today by decency and indecency. By right and wrong. By moral and corrupt. By courage and cowardice. By righteousness and evil. The good citizens of earth must rise up. Gather on the mountain top and proclaim in thundering unison the words of Isaiah: “Hoy ha’omrim lera tov v’la’tov rah – woe to them that call evil, good and good, evil. Who present darkness as light and light as darkness. Who call bitter, sweet and sweet, bitter. We must turn back the evil. We must turn back the darkness. We must turn back the bitter.

My friends – Ehr daw – they are here.

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  • mollysdad

    I fear that there is no way to prevent the global triumph of Islam that does not entail the use of nuclear weapons. Not all Muslims are terrorists, but you will never defeat the jihad unless you rid the world of Islam.

    Freedom to profess the religion of Islam is a luxury we cannot afford.

    • UncleVladdi

      ALL MUSLIMS are potential terrorists, and all muslims ARE CRIMINALS, if only by dint of belonging to the extortion-racket Crime syndicate of “islam.”

    • UncleVladdi

      While islam does indeed slander the idea of a good “god,” it’s main crimes aren’t those of blasphemy or even idolatry – it’s main crime is ‘holy’ murder.

  • Physiocrat

    ISIS is not desecrating the Muslim so-called faith. The are following the teachings of their ideology to the letter. The “good” Muslims are complicit if they do not wake up and start burning their Korans.

  • Bamaguje

    “Where are the other 950 million Muslims who tuck their children in at
    night with a lullaby, who are okay with Christians and Jews crave a
    peaceful world…?” Rabbi Shalom.

    Just because the 950 million supposedly moderate Muslims are not engaged in violent Jihad, does not mean they are on our side…. Or that they share our values of tolerance and religious freedom.
    On the contrary, many of the so-called moderate Muslims support Jihad, even though they may not have the stomach for violence as their more violent coreligionists.

    A 2010 university of Maryland poll found that 84% of Egyptians support death penalty for apostates – ex-Muslims who have abandoned Islam. 82% of the same Egyptians endorsed stoning to death.
    Other polls show the overwhelming majority of Palestinians want Israel destroyed, not the hyped 2-state solution.

    The truth is, if 95% of Muslims are truly moderate and opposed to violent Jihad, it wouldn’t exist.
    They’d strenuously oppose violence and intolerance, and would easily give up Jihadists in their midst. 5% of Jihadi Muslims can’t hold the remaining 95% of the Umma to ransom, if the moderates are truly commited to peaceful coexistence.

    ““No victor, no vanquished.” This statement was our President’s strategic plan” – Rabbi Shalom.

    Actually Obama wanted Hamas to win.

    • The March Hare

      It seemed like more than 5% were dancing in the streets and handing out candy on 9/11. If they celebrated, then they are Islamic terrorists, they just haven’t committed a terrorist act, but support terror. They all need to go extinct.

    • herb benty

      Muslims will join any Muslim army that invades us. They will turn on a dime against us, and a is strong reminder to nix Muslim immigration.

    • nightspore

      If there are no moderate Muslims (other than Ed Husain), then it’s difficult to make sense out of what happened recently in Egypt. How do you explain the push-back against Morsi and his gang?

  • veritaseequitas

    Israel will not be destroyed. Israel is God’s chosen people. Read the Bible. Christ will return to redeem all believers. Will there be suffering? Yes. But, Christ the Redeemer, The Messiah, will vanquish the enemy.

  • http://johnnyangeladvocacygroup.net JohnnyAngel Advocacy Group

    This speech should be circulated to all Congressional representatives !!

    • itasara

      I plan to send this to my representatives.

  • mollysdad

    I write from the United Kingdom. If we can’t defeat these savages, we might as well take as many of them with us as possible.

    If the worst came to the worst, we would be well advised to destroy everything necessary for the survival of the population. The easiest way to do this would be to close down and demolish every power station on those parts of the continent which are to be surrendered to Islam. That would include exposing the reactor cores at the nuclear stations, and letting them run to meltdown.

    • Dan Knight

      Let’s hope it doesn’t get that far. I’m not interested in a Mad Max world! ;-)

      • mollysdad

        You’ll either be a Muslim or you’ll be dead. In the former case you’ll be living in a Mad Muhammad world.

        • Dan Knight

          LOL, you’re probably right. But again, I intend to keep trying to stop this … at least until I get my head cut off!

  • Vel_Non

    “…like it or not, we are still at war with radical Islam.

    For Heaven’s sake, islam is islam -

    Let us get beyond the myth of the “radical” islam label, an artifice and
    moniker designed to reassure and to comfort themselves by those who fail
    to understand the organic and fundamental nature of islam, a nature and
    essence which are accepted universally by those who profess this murderous creed.

    Those who do not believe in the foundational tenets of islam, as embodied in their qur’an, in their sunna and in their hadiths – are not muslims.

    Stop the mythologizing: islam is islam – there is no “radical” islam.

    Failure to recognize and denying the true nature of the beast – is deadly.

    • Yehuda Levi

      Unless you missed it, I don’t believe the Rabbi is confused or misled about the nature of the threat. He is very clear about what our response should be – virtually transparent compared to the opaqueness of our ‘leaders’.

      The fact is that this ‘war’ will not be won by killing every Muslim but by convincing moderate Muslims to modify their understanding of the Quran just as Christians and Jews have modified their understanding of the Bible and Torah. Religions, as ideologies, evolve (or need to) with human understanding.

      Rabbi Shalom Lewis’ article is spot on – he understands and articulates the threat much better anyone in our federal government.

      • KevinBattspuv

        My Uncle Luke got a great Cadillac CTS Vsport by working off of a macbook air.read EARN NOW

      • Vel_Non

        Az me lozt a chazzer aruf afn bank, vil er afn tish.

        • Yehuda Levi

          Geh tren zikh.

          Some people are so sensitive to the slightest criticism that they act like children. A sign of the lack of emotional maturity.

          • Vel_Non

            I heard that you were dead.

            Sorry.

          • Yehuda Levi

            You are such a witty guy…

            You need to come down off your self-built pedestal and join the rest of us humans.

      • mark

        Except that the evidence proves there is no such thing as a moderate muslim, since those that try to appear so, ALL, practice intentional/willfull lying (taqiyya), to disguise islams mainstream teachings in quran, hadith and sira., its past and its evil agenda against non muslims.

  • JVictor

    Brilliant. Blessings be upon you, Rabbi, for daring to proclaim and publish the truth.

  • AnneM040359

    Thank-you and God Bless Rabbi!

  • kasandra

    Wish my (substitute) rabbi had given this sermon. Instead, she used the occasion of Rosh Hashanah to give a sermon criticizing what she considered the excessive influence of the religious party in Israel. I walked out. Irrespective of the merits – or lack thereof – of her arguments, I thought it highly inappropriate, particularly for the High Holidays. With the publication of this, I finally got the sermon I wanted. Thanks FPM for publishing it.

  • wileyvet

    Brilliant words, Rabbi Lewis.

  • snaphanen

    What a magnificent piece. Thanks from Denmark. *S

    • mrhans

      And from Sweden!

  • Rondo

    A distinction is often made between Islam and Islamism. Do
    you feel that it’s a valid distinction, and is a
    reformed Islam possible?

    Mark Durie answers:

    A thorough reading
    through the hadiths, sira and Koran led me to believe that
    reform in the sense of “improvement” is
    incredibly difficult. In medieval Christianity, reforming
    religion meant making it better by going back to its roots,
    back to the gospels. The problem is, if you reform Islam
    this way, you go back to Muhammad’s message and
    example, and what you get is Wahhabism and al
    Qaida. Reform through reshaping Islam under the
    influence of external ideas, derived from non-Islamic
    sources, is conceivable, but the trend of the past 100 years
    has been just about all in the other direction.

  • yoelk

    Clear,concise and well written; but, and there is the rub, the Jews will continue to vote, blindly, or not, in their masses, for the present administration again.

  • MukeNecca

    Thank you, Rabbi Lewis for your loud and clear wake-up call. I wished you delivered it in my church.

  • Horace Yo

    Rabbi Lewis,
    You are 99 3/4 percent correct in everything you say. The other 1/4 percent is unfortunately the crux and answer to the problem. The 95% are the beneficiaries in waiting for the spoils of the Jihadi wars. They practice taquia and kitman -lies, telling you what you want to hear.
    How can the leaders of western countries be so blind and deaf to this fact?
    They have various reasons, all of them stupid at best and complicitly evil at worst.
    Saudi payroll. Look at Obama allying with Saudi and Quatar and Turkey to fight ISIS when they bankrolled ISIS from the start. They are just looking like they are doing something so as to let ISIS finish their takeover. (Evidenced by failing to arm the Kurds in Kobani with anti tank weapons) Quite likely they are happy to see the end of our civilization as it has been. They revel in the new immorality. I think they imagine they will get a handle on Islam on time to save their ownassis.Secular Jews are not blameless in this mess, being the voting bloc that put Obama over the edge to stay in power even to the destruction of Israel and their own heritage. They would do it again at this point. Bush:”Islam is the religion of peace” Obama: “Jihad has nothing to do with Islam”
    .

  • Horace Yo

    Rabbi,
    I forgot to mention the complicity of the Pope too – calling for dialogue with ISIS. Unfortunately ISIS has cut off the heads of their victims and the victims are unable to speak any more. The Catholic Church has been supportive of Obama and the “Palestinian struggle” – Hamas, etc. The Catholic Church is adrift in la la land at this point. Ditto Presbyterian, Methodist, and many other Christian churches.

    • mrhans

      The archbishop of Sweden, Antje Jackelen, has “Allah Akbar”, translated to swedish, as her motto! She is more a missionary for Muhammed than for Jesus.
      To make it even more strange she is a socialist from the former East Germany with connexions to the secret police, STASI, there!

  • ArizonaPaul

    The figure of a billion Muslims is kind of out-dated. It’s closer to 1.6 billion today.

  • Geppetto

    Every “infidel” should stop or postpone whatever trivia they’re involved in, read this piece, study it, commit to memory the fact that, not just the Jews but “the people of the book,” we, the “infidels” are in a war that was long ago declared by those who practice the orthodox version of Islam, and prepare ourselves for a raging conflict that is globally metastasizing like a stage 4 cancer.

    Despite consistent and stubborn denials, to what is becoming more obvious daily, the world is at war and the biggest danger lies in ignorance or an obstinate refusal to believe that there is a global conflict or any cause for concern. The liberal, intellectual, anti-war, anti-American, smarter than thou, elites that dominate the airwaves, print media, academia and government are mired in narcissism and the muck of their mendacious rationalizations, misconceptions and denials, and committed to doing their very best to destroy the character of anyone who dares to threaten the foundations of their carefully constructed house of cards. That house is doomed to fall under the weight of the overwhelming evidence to the contrary. It is becoming more and more difficult to convince the “ignorant” masses to continue to disbelieve their lying
    eyes and ears.

    This article should go viral. Perhaps some among the “ignorant” masses will read it, relate it to the reality that is occurring on a daily basis, in the Middle East and elsewhere around the world, and begin to absorb the dire implications
    before another monstrous attack like that of 9/11 when perhaps the “boots on the ground” will be those of the Muslim fanatics on our soil, killing, raping, enforcing their draconian Sharia laws and creating havoc with every footfall.

    Get mentally prepared for what is coming and spread the word. Given the Obama administrations dedication to reducing America’s military strength and weaponry and his absolute refusal to tolerate any inference connecting Islam with terrorism, there may be no better reason to exercise our 2nd Amendment right to bear arms.

  • watsa46

    The owner of “Mondoweiss” considers this speech as promoting GENOCIDE!
    A NAKBA for Humanity!!!

    • SCREW SOCIALISM

      I prefer a Nakba for Mondoweiss.

      And Victory over Islamofascism and its ally Socialism.

    • nightspore

      Reality-warp will be an essential part of this war.

  • Dan Knight

    Rabbi Shalom, great piece. Full of tragedy and poignant memory.

    We live in an age though, where most of the drones would deny the truths of which you speak. They think we are evil, and paradise lies beyond our borders – or if not – it’s ‘our fault. And I guarantee not a one in ten of them could tell you the difference between Goya, El Cid, or Picasso.

    We must all work to defeat the Left or we will not be able to build the foundations to resist the barbarians at the gates (so to speak).

  • SCREW SOCIALISM

    Top Picture: Sand Nazis doing their outstretched arm salutes like their “blessed” role model of the 1930s/1940s.

    http://www.debbieschlussel.com/archives/hezbollahkidsnazisalute.jpg

  • Libslayer

    Violent Muslims want sharia through violence.
    “Moderate” Muslims want sharia through stealth.
    With Muslim collaborationist Obama as president, jihad is welcomed with open arms. Whether he is a Muslim or not is unknown, but he sides with Islam in every situation. Christians and Jews are being slaughtered and he says NOTHING.
    He agrees with the goals of Islam.
    America will continue to pay dearly for twice electing this traitorous Chicago creep president and commander in chief.

  • Libslayer

    There is only one solution to Islam.
    It must be eradicated as completely as the cancer that it is.
    Nothing good comes from Islam. Nothing.

  • Gary Dickson

    Indeed, it took only a few Muslim Turkish soldiers, relatively speaking, to dispatch 1.5 million Armenians.

    Regardless, I suggest that the people of Israel not underestimate themselves.
    For example, I consider the story of Golyat and the fear he struck in nearly all the minds of the warriors of Israel. He was a monster and, apart from one shepherd boy, nobody was willing to fight him.

    At one point, the shepherd boy responds to Golyat:
    David answered the P’lishti, “You’re coming at me with a sword, a spear and a javelin. But I’m coming at you in the name of Adonai-Tzva’ot, the God of the armies of Isra’el, whom you have challenged. Today Adonai will hand you over to me. I will attack you, lop your head off, and give the carcasses of the army of the P’lishtim to the birds in the air and the animals in the land. Then all the land will know that there is a God in Isra’el, and everyone assembled here will know that Adonai does not save by sword or spear. For this is Adonai’s battle, and he will hand you over to us.”
    – I Sh’mu’el 17 (CJB)

    We all know how that ended.

    I am convinced beyond any shadow of a doubt that, no matter how large the number of what I call orthodox Muslims becomes and no matter how threatening they become, the people of Israel will win the battle through and because of the name of Adonai-Tzva’ot.

    The people of Israel are the means by which God brings his blessings and his right-living to the rest of the world. They will win the battle! They will!

  • hammar

    My very thought unfortunately, ‘world war’. Wow, most people cannot fathom the thought and probably will not. But evil is growing and we are not all engaged. Why not?
    Russia shot down an ‘airliner’ with some two hundred people thinking they were going on vacation. And ‘boom’, they are no more. And the world goes on. How?
    Islam is not a faith that you can love and is exactly the opposite. So how and why are people attracted to it? Is it the power of knowing you can have as many as 4 wives? You can kill people and no justice from the social order that is now in power. How is hate winning?
    The real reason is that we need real faith. And the social order has done everything in its grasp to extinguish the Church, the people of Christ. What are we going to do first? Confront, oppose, or seek faith in Our Lord. Only each person can choose the right thing for themselves.
    Lets hope we can join together fast enough to overcome what’s coming.

  • Jeppe Samuel Cholewa Juhl

    This speech will stand for eternity as one of unrivalled reason and moral clarity.

    It brings to mind Emile Zola’s epic master piece from 1898: “J’Accuse”, about the despicable anti-Semitic Dreyfus affair, and Stefan Zweig’s autobiographic novel “Die Welt von Gestern” (1942) where he described what he perceived as the end of the world.

    תודה רבה Rabbi Lewis

  • bigjulie

    Rabbi Lewis has written a monumental summary of every worthwhile reason that the so-called “civilized” world needs, to contain and extinguish this sordid and thoroughly corrupt philosophy. Any of us who hesitate, especially for “politically correct” reasons cannot possibly claim membership in the “civilized” world after reading his words and taking a critical look at what is REALLY happening!

  • liz

    You consider the imminent threat of genocide to not only the Jews, but the entire world, POLITICS??? Wake up.

  • tartanmarine

    Brave, true words. I covered some of this in my book, “The Coming Collapse of the American republic.” Another view of the future can be found in this short novel: “The Hand of the Prophet: A Novel of Islamic America, 2053.” http://tinyurl.com/nbap9hr. I will link to this Sermon from my Old Jarhead blog.
    (www.tartanmarine.blogspot.com)

    Robert A. Hall
    USMC 1964-68
    USMCR, 1977-83
    Massachusetts Senate, 1973-83
    Author: The Coming Collapse of the American Republic
    All royalties go to help wounded veterans
    For a free PDF of my 80-page book, write
    tartanmarine(at)gmail.com

  • Jerry James

    PROPHECY OF THE BIBLE IS COMING TO PASS.

  • GOLFNPSYCH

    The leaders of Islam, the Imams, are the ones who teach this perverse interpretation to the masses of Muslims. It is they who have the power to emphasize the verses of the Koran that would enlighten and tone down the verses that preach death and destruction. It is they who emphasize the caliphate and the political aspects of Islam and who refuse to separate the religious from the political. And they do it to increase their own earthly power. The people will follow the interpretations provided by the Imams. The Imams could easily marginalize those we refer to as “radicals”. The fact that they do not is telling. The solution is, at least in America, to jail every Imam who preaches the primacy of Sharia over American law as treasonous. Jail every Imam who preaches the return of the caliphate as a terrorist bent on over-throwing government. Stop this nonsense at its source. Islam is both a religion AND system of government. Muslims are free to practice their religion up to the point that it interferes with the American principle of respect for the religion of all citizens and up to the point that it becomes incompatible with the law.

  • http://harris-gulko.artistwebsites.com Gulko

    One of the most powerful messages I have ever read. People of our generation will recognize such references as El Alamein, Sudentenland, Vienna, etc. but I suggest
    people born after WW2 will not. Perhaps footnotes would make a wonderful sermon even stronger and more powerful.

  • montana83

    Rabbi,
    You don’t want to run for President of the US do you? Here’s one Christian who would vote for you in a heartbeat. Loved your “Ehr kumt” article as well

  • Surak1

    “The ONLY way to end this problem is by talking because it is the only way to end any war.” My God – did you really have the brains to graduate from medical school? How do you think the Nazis were stopped? It is leftists like you who are endangering America’s survival.

    • UncleVladdi

      Perhaps the MD after his name stands for Moronic Dummy?

  • UncleVladdi

    This Rabbi commits the same cognitive errors he accuses others of: calling the enemy of mankind “radical islam.” If terorrism is FUNDAMENTAL to islam, then by definition it’s not “RADICAL!”

    There are no “moderate” muslims simply because there is no “moderate” islam.

    Here’s the only real “difference” between “radical” and “moderate” muslims:

    “Radical” muslims want to murder us.
    “Moderate” muslims want “radical” muslims to murder us.

    CAPISCE?!
    ;-)

  • UncleVladdi

    The only way to win this war by talking is to openly declare that islam is nothing more than an extortion-racket crime syndicate which blames a sick version of a “god” as their crime alibi-excuse.

  • UncleVladdi

    This Rabbi commits the same cognitive errors he accuses others of: calling the enemy of mankind “radical islam.” If terrorism is FUNDAMENTAL to islam, then by definition it’s not “RADICAL!”

    There are no “moderate” muslims simply because there is no “moderate” islam.

    Here’s the only real “difference” between “radical” and “moderate” muslims:

    “Radical” muslims want to murder us.
    “Moderate” muslims want “radical” muslims to murder us.

    CAPISCE?!
    ;-)

    Both article deconstructed in detail, here:

    http://unclevladdi.wordpress.com/2014/10/14/rabbi-shalom-lewis-misses-the-point-in-ehr-kumt-and-ehr-daw/

    Njoi!

    ;-)

  • UncleVladdi

    “Only 5% of muslims are “radical!”?

    NO, YOU SILLY SELF-HATING MASOCHISTIC LIBERAL FANTASISTS, ACTUALLY, MOST “MODERN, MODERATE” MUSLIMS REALLY DO STILL BELIEVE IN SHARIA:

    The Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan American think tank that provides information on social issues, public opinion, and demographic trends. They are considered to be a trusted source for information.

    The Global Attitudes Project is a series of worldwide public opinion surveys that encompasses a broad array of subjects.

    Are there wide spread beliefs in the Islamic populations that are counter to the human rights of free speech, free expression, woman’s rights, and gay rights?

    What are the statistics?

    http://www.pewforum.org/2013/04/30/the-worlds-muslims-religion-politics-society-beliefs-about-sharia/

    ;-(

  • Southernationalist

    Obviously, you are oblivious to the past 1300 years of Muslim murder, invasion and fanaticism. You cannot talk to a rabid dog, you have to put him down for the safety of the community. The sooner we have a Muslim free planet , the safer we will all be. As my fellow Virginian, Stonewall Jackson, once put it when faced with an invading horde of sub-human barbarians ” Kill them. Kill them all.”

  • info warrior

    Thank God I’m not religious. People who get so worked up about other peoples religion or race (or whatever) really need to grow up.