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 end game 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 movie tone 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 Trope? 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, no 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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