Posted on 02/20/2011 11:17:34 AM PST by Ari Bussel
The Golden Calf by Ari Bussel and Norma Zager
These are the first two Commandments given by God to Moses at Mount Sinai:
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me.
“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My Commandments.”
From Saturday to Tuesday next week, Jewish people and Israelis will converge onto Washington D.C. for J Street’s second annual national conference.
The birth-child of George Soros, J Street “was born in 2009 when 1,500 pro-Israel, pro-peace activists descended on our capital to voice their commitment to peace and security in Israel and the Middle East.”
The organizers plan to “make history again in 2011 with [their] largest-ever gathering of pro-Israel pro-peace activists.” They call their supporters to “Stand up for your Jewish and democratic values. Be a part of a bold vision of diversity and tolerance, peace and compromise, compassion and justice for Israel and for the Jewish community. Come strategize and learn, challenge and question, advocate and mobilize at J Street’s 2011 Conference.”
The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles is probably not alone in the field of those concerned with Israel’s wellbeing that stood up last week and unequivocally announced that J Street is a legitimate organization, part and parcel of the Jewish community. Indeed, a show of hands among many of the Federation’s top donors showed that the number of those supporting or seeing J Street as a legitimate organization is not negligible.
As Jewish people around America, Reform, Conservative and Orthodox, were reading this week’s Torah portion from the Book of Exodus, we were all taken to a scene that is familiar to most, religious as secular: Moses on Mount Sinai.
For forty days and forty nights Moses was absent, alone with the God of the Hebrews on Mount Sinai. While God was giving Moses the “tables of stone, and the law and the commandment, which [He has] written,” to teach the Jewish people, they saw Moses was delayed and did not know what had happened.
Thus, they went to Aaron and said: “Stand up, make us a god.”
Aaron took the gold rings the women were wearing in their ears “and fashioned it with a graving tool, and made it a molten calf; and they said: ‘This is thy god, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.’” Exodus 32:1-4
The next day they woke up merry for it was a holiday of offering to their god. Except that God was unhappy about the new face given to Him. God was about to consume the people He took out of Egypt, from slavery to freedom, realizing what a stiff-necked people they are. Is it not interesting that the first two commandments given to Moses dealt directly with the very sins the Jewish people were committing as Moses was acquiring the laws?
My thoughts still on Mount Sinai and the scene just described, I am also thinking of two events happening at the same time: Some 1,500 people gathered in Los Angeles at the Century Plaza Hotel for an AIPAC (fundraising) dinner. I have not seen such a pro-Israel crowd gathering for a long time. The keynote speaker: Ambassador Dennis Ross who served under five presidents.
Almost parallel to the AIPAC event, J Street is also gathering to hear … Ambassador Dennis Ross. Five members of the Knesset will be there, joining the celebration, although the Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC, is not sending anyone to the festivities.
It is extraordinary for those representing the Government of Israel to be absent from a celebration highlighting Israel and trying to support her quest for peace. Could there be something wrong?
Possibly the idea that George Soros’s anti-Israel stand will not allow him to give money or support any organization that is truly pro-Israel. Thus, contrary to J Street’s self-pronunciations it is “pro-Israel, pro-peace,” the fact Soros is its main backer would lead one to the conclusion that the buzzword is far removed from reality, that the organization’s intent and purpose are not to support Israel, but to fight against her.
The Government of Israel has recognized before the danger in J Street, and when the organization brought US Congress people to Israel, the Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister refused to see them.
Alas, let us return to the celebration planned in the American capital. It is designed to mirror, and hopefully to surpass and replace, the efforts of AIPAC, the “all-powerful Israeli lobby.” As I think of the meteoric ascent to acceptance of J Street, I struggle to understand how it was done. Was it just the free flow of Soros’s money that enabled this rise? Possibly it was the vacuum created by Americans for Peace Now, Meretz and other left to extreme left organizations? After all, these organizations have achieved little, if anything, over the past eighteen years in a quest for peace with their peace-partner, the Palestinians.
Disillusionment is a great motivator. What was tried before failed miserably, so let us try a new organization, well funded, that purports to be the “Change and Hope” we were all yearning to find. J Street, the “pro-Israel, pro-peace” deliverer.
J Street is nothing but the molten calf, fashioned with an engraving tool from all the gold that George Soros provides. “Stand up,” said Soros to his people, “MAKE US A GOD.” And a god they created, a god before whom some Jewish and Israeli communities now kneel.
It is an exciting and exuberant moment, seeing the golden calf, a new face for Israel’s quest for “peace and security” (or is it the Palestinian’s quest to destroy Israel and exterminate the Jews?).
During the AIPAC dinner, there were three diamond-jeweled philanthropists sitting one next to the other. When they heard of J Street’s wide acceptance by the Federation, one of them stood up, went to the next table, conferred for a few moments with another major philanthropist and continued to a third table. There was sitting a member of the Federation’s board and his wife.
This information seemed to have upset her greatly, confirming what she heard about J Street acceptance by the Federation. She is withholding her money, she said, and along went her friends. This has not created an avalanche yet, for the established Jewish community understands the language of money. Oh, how well it understands it. But the fact that she was upset to discover what is happening, went to investigate and found out the rumors were indeed true, raises the following point.
As Moses was on Mount Sinai conferring with God, Aaron was with the Israelites. They were concerned with their faith, their security and their long-term survival. Moses who took them out of Egypt was absent. An idea came about, one that was absolutely the custom at that day and age: LET US MAKE A FACE, AN IDOL WE CAN SEE, TO WORSHIP.
No one stood against the idea, so the plans proceeded, the gold gathered and melted and shaped into a calf. Everyone gathered, those from the Left, those from the Extreme Left, those from the “humanitarian rights,” “anti-expansionism,” “anti-war,” “civil rights” and a plethora of other organizations. They all were blinded by the shine of the gold, or maybe they saw through and realized what the Devil form was all about.
They do not do God’s work, nor do they respect Him. J Street is as far removed from being “pro-Israel” as an organization can be, unless the intention is to celebrate Israel after there is no Israel any more. In the same manner that Jewish culture, religion and heritage is celebrated in Poland and Germany after the Jews were exterminated.
There are many well-intentioned Jews that do not know differently. They hear the expensively paid for smooth-talk and half-truths of J Street and innocently follow. Not much different from the children’s story about the goose whose eggs were of solid gold, and anyone who touched her became glued, unable to separate.
The Jewish people, thus led, will find themselves dead at the abyss. A very tall pile of bodies made of those who were blinded by the gold’s sparkle and those who did not know any better. Beware! Israel does not needs not another Golden Calf. We were already burned once. God may not be so forgiving now that the law has been burned in stone.
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The series “Postcards from America—Postcards from Israel” by Ari Bussel and Norma Zager is a compilation of articles capturing the essence of life in America and Israel during the first two decades of the 21st Century.
The writers invite readers to view and experience an Israel and her politics through their eyes, Israel visitors rarely discover.
This point—and often—counter-point presentation is sprinkled with humor and sadness and attempts to tackle serious and relevant issues of the day. The series began in 2008, appears both in print in the USA and on numerous websites and is followed regularly by readership from around the world.
© “Postcards from America — Postcards from Israel,” February, 2011 Contact: bussel@me.com
First Published February 19, 2011
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