November 19, 2018--Ice Storm

For a moment late last week it did feel as if the world was ending. It didn't, but perhaps we got a preview.

In the West, mainly in California, it felt that the entire state was being consumed in flames, with hundreds, perhaps thousands incinerated. It felt literally hellish. 

Some of the millennialist persuasion, always alert to signs of the End, claimed that it was in fact the (upper case) End and that the Antichrist was in our midst (someone other than Hillary Clinton this time) and the Rapture was imminent.

And in the East, not nearly as deadly or terrifying, the entire region was shut down in tri-state gridlock that was the result of a paralyzing snow and ice storm. Though "only" 6.4 measurable inches fell in New York City, a city that both never sleeps and prides itself in shrugging off 20-inch blizzards, this time, as the storm struck at rush hour, we more than blinked.

Commutes that typically take up to two barely endurable hours, on Thursday evening stretched from five to 10 hours. Yes, 10. There was a 20 car collision on the westbound side of the George Washington Bridge that took more than 12 hours to untangle. After an hour or two of frustration, sitting stalled in cars, commuters realized they were hopelessly stranded and that they would soon run out of gasoline and as a result would not have heat, they abandoned their cars and did who knows what or went who knows where.

Even in solid-as-a-rock, New York City, even in our shady West Village, half the trees either lost main branches or collapsed entirely under the weight of the ice and snow. There were cars that were abandoned near midnight on our block between Broadway and University Place. Trapped between fallen trees. At least they were only blocks from various subways that thankfully continued to run. If the subways had shut down without notice, I can't begin to imagine what would have happened. Even in the secular Big Apple I suspect that there would have been more than a few conversions to Evangelicalism.

Even if neither coast provided hints of a biblical ending it did offer more than a glimpse of how our country, the world is collapsing under the weight of overpopulation (rarely mentioned as it urgently should be), overconsumption, climate change, and the related collapse of infrastructure. 

Driving from Maine to our city home we got a full taste of the latter. 

I generally hate the FDR Drive which runs north-south along the East River, but because of the aggressive flow of traffic that didn't allow me to shift lanes we wound up swept onto it, forced to go south on the FDR at 125th Street. (Confession--I did not as yet have my NYC driving chops and for the city was driving too passively.) This last few miles took almost an hour of tense stop-and-go driving. Not helped by the lack of lighting in the half dozen tunnels one has to negotiate, not aided by white lines to help keep everyone in lane, and with a road surface that felt it was built and not maintained for a hundred years. Only a modest exaggeration.

"Worse than a third world country, what a way to welcome visitors to the city," I muttered to Rona, with whom, as a result of the driving tension, I was already spatting.

She grumbled something at me and that was our last exchange in 40 minutes of mounting aggravation.

In fact, they have been working on the FDR for almost as long as I have been driving (about 50 years) and rather than things improving the road surface it is getting worse and about to collapse entirely.

Two weeks later (actually, a couple of days after the storm with fallen trees and limbs still not removed from our street), we needed to take the car to the VW mechanic in Brooklyn for its annual inspection and assorted repairs. 

We took the Manhattan Bridge between Manhattan and Brooklyn. As with the FDR, they have been working on the road surface for more than three decades and since traffic was slowed because of volume and potholes, we were able to catch closeup views of the road surface as we inched along. 

It is sad to report that in spite of all those years of effort in many places the potholes are so gouged out that one can see the East River flowing beneath the bridge.

Doing something about infrastructure is more than a subject for political oneupmanship. We will see that aspect of it played out as soon as the Democrats take control of the house. It is more about taking care of some of society's essential assets. What would happen to NYC, for example, to in fact the nation, if both the FDR and Manhattan Bridge collapsed? As I feel certain one day not too far from now they will. What will workers do if their commutes routinely require 4-5 hours each way? When every day is like last Thursday?

Extrapolate this across the country and, what with the incessant fires, perhaps the Preppers have it right and the End is approaching.

December 8, 2017--Evangelicals: When Time Shall Be No More

While struggling to understand the logic and politics of President Trump's decision to move our embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, considering the disruption and violence it is already fostering, virtually all the analysis suggests that it is for religious reasons. 

To woe Jewish voters? To some extent yes, especially the likes of billionaire casino magnate Sheldon Adelson and some of Trump's other wealthy, intensely pro-Israel supporters and donors.

To throw a lifeline to about-to-be-indicted ultra-nationalist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who has lobbied for this? Yes, as this will firm support for him from the right-wing religious parties in Israel who are a part of his ruling coalition. 

To appeal to Christian evangelicals? Especially yes. This is most mentioned by commentators and connects two dots--between Trump's huge national Evangelical base and Roy Moore's core of voters in the Alabama senatorial race.

But, in regard to why Evangelicals are such passionate supporters of non-Christian Israel, there is barely a word.

Religion can be such a hot-button subject that it is sadly understandable why the mainstream media would shy away from discussing it. For every Evangelical they might attract and thus boost advertiser sales and ratings, at least as many will, they fear, be offended And as they can be easily mobilized by rightwing demagogs, controversy and boycotts will likely follow.

But an understanding of why conservative Christians so universally support Israel, especially when it is governed by Jewish millennialists--those who believe in the imminent coming of their own Messiah and the commencement of a new religious age--to understand them in all their aspirations and nuances is critical right now as Trump rampages across the region where these issues are most intense and are at such a dangerous boiling point. 

I have been talking and writing about this for many years, ever since reading Paul Boyer's brilliant, When Time Shall Be No More: Prophecy Belief In Modern American Culture.

If you haven't read it (it is scholarly and readable), I urge you to do so immediately. I feel certain it will reshape your view of the world.

Briefly, it begins with a discussion of prophetic religious belief in the Middle East and the West, particularly America where fully a third of the adult population believe that we are approaching the End Times--the Rapture when the most worthy Christians will be bodily lifted to Heaven (see image below), to the appearance of the AntiChrist, the 1,000-year Times of Tribulation, the Second Coming of Christ, and at the ultimate End--the Last Judgement.

To contribute to bringing this about, essential to the coming of the Millennium, all Jews in the diaspora must return to Israel, actually to Greater Israel, which includes Sinai and Iraq. To some this helps explain why born-again George W. Bush overthrew the government of Iraq and occupied the country.

Jews who do not return will be doomed and those who do emigrate to Greater Israel will be given a final opportunity to convert to Christianity. Thus the Jews for Jesus movement. If we Jews, as dupes, do not avail ourselves of this opportunity, we too will be doomed for all of eternity.

Trump's rock-solid base of supporters who see him as an essential part of this narrative, his 30-33 percent, are mainly Americans who share this apocalyptic prophecy, and almost all of Roy Moore's potential voters are of this persuasion.

From this brief synopsis it is obvious why CNN, the New York Times, and even Fox News would shy away from touching this. They are more concerned about their numbers than the fate of America.

We, I feel, must understand and confront this as the fate of our democracy may be at stake.

In the "Actual" Rapture, Those Raptured Will Be Naked

December 26, 2016--Our Israeli Allies

I'm prepared again to be accused of being a self-hating Jew.

But because of the explosion of rhetoric about the U.N. Security Council vote to condemn Israel's "settlement" practices, especially the outrage expressed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu--much of it directed at the United States in the person of Barack Obama--impels me to speak out.

For all intents and purposes the annexation of the occupied territories by building homes there for Israeli Jews is against international law. But it proceeds apace with more than 500,000 Jews now living, or settled, on the West Bank, which was seized from Jordanian Palestinians in 1967 as the result of Israel winning the Six-Day War.

Under pressure from the United States, though periodically and grudgingly dragged into negotiations with Palestinian representatives in an effort to forge a lasting peace that can only come after there is agreement about the details of what a two-state "solution" would look like, Israeli leaders for decades have pretended to be interested but never, except briefly, suspended the bulldozing, the building, or the resettlement of Jews on the Islamic West Bank. They have done this in the guise of securing their borders but in reality to change the facts on the ground. To in this way assert that the West Bank is a part of Greater Israel.

And until this past week, whenever the issue of a two-state solution or to criticize the settlement practices has come before the U.N. Security Council, the United States, under both Republican and Democratic administrations, has used its veto power to block the resolutions.

That is, until Friday when Obama with less than a month remaining in his presidency finally unburdened himself, allowing his true feelings to show, by directing U.N. ambassador Samantha Power to abstain, effectively allowing the condemnation of Israel to proceed. The resolution promptly passed, 14-0.

This led immediately to a storm of criticism. First from swaggering president-elect Donald Trump who postured via a tweet that things "will be different January 20th" and then later from Netanyahu who said he can't wait for Trump to become president.

What an unholy alliance.

They were quickly joined by members of Congress from both parties. It seems that unflinching support for the Israeli government is the one issue about which members of both parties reflexively agree. All say that Israel is not just the only democracy in the Middle East but that they are also America's "most important ally." Not just in the region but globally.

I've heard this my entire life from family-member Zionists who made excuses for the abuses of one Israeli government after another, and, of course, all of the serious media across the ideological spectrum, since 1948, have done much the same thing--from the New York Times to Fox News.

What jumped out at me this time was the claim about Israel being our most important ally.

Israel is not that.

It is possible to see them as an undesirable ally.  And that the nature of our alliance does not contribute to peace or security for either them or us.

In fact, Israel may be our most dangerous ally.

Every time another Palestinian village is leveled or another apartment house constructed on the West Bank, Israel makes new enemies for themselves and for us. Images of settlement activity engenders hatred and serves to help recruit terrorists worldwide.

Israel's very existence contributes to similar sentiments and though Israel does have a legal and moral right to a homeland, even nationhood, but not when it insists on continuing to expand its borders by encroaching on the territories of neighboring countries. And, of course, resists any possibility of the Palestinians having a state of their own.

These practices have contributed to the Middle East becoming the most dangerous region in the world, one that has sucked us into various wars and acts of aggression with hundreds of thousands on all sides killed and maimed and which have cost us $3.0 to $5.0 trillion borrowed dollars.

What that is positive have we received from our alliance with Israel?

I have been thinking about this for quite a while and cannot think of much that is worth the cost. At most, they share intelligence with us gathered by Mossad, their excellent intelligence agency. And some high-tech U.S. businesses have formed useful partnerships with Israeli firms. Not enough in either case to justify the geopolitical price our uncritical relationship with them has imposed upon us.

Of course there is the long historical memory of the Holocaust perpetrated by the Nazi that saw more than six million European Jews exterminated. This does without question put the Jewish people in a special category of concern and reparation. But that commitment should be, originally was, to the Jewish people, not the regressive governments of Israel. It is important to keep that separation in mind when thinking about the current threatening situation.

And there is more--

Part of the almost universal support for Israel by American governments and citizens also has a religious foundation.

Millennialists of all kinds from Christian apocalyptic fundamentalists to ultra-orthodox Jews who are waiting for the Messiah to apppear (in Hebrew, the Mashiach) see Israel, again Greater Israel, or as they prefer, Judea and Samaria, as playing an essential role in bringing about the End Times. It is only when all of Greater Israel is united that the conditions will be in place to begin the process of unleashing Armageddon and the Millennium.

With eyes wide open, this is the world America has been drawn into.

I am not sure it is in our best interests to rush to get entangled further. Let's see if Donald Trump can figure this out and make a deal to de-intensify matters. At the moment, considering his choice to be our ambassador to Israel, he is on a hot course to make things worse. And in the Middle East worse often means catastrophe.

April 23, 2015--The Rapture

Here's why we have to hope Michele Bachmann has a seat in the Republican clown car. Yes, we'll have The Donald and perhaps Herman Cain, but without her things will not be the same.

Here's why.

The Huffington Post reported the other day that in a radio interview with Jan Markell, host of End Times, the former congresswoman predicted that the Rapture is very near and it's all Barack Obama's fault.

The Rapture, as you know, is something many messianic Christians believe will mark the beginning of the End Times, Armageddon, the rule of the Antichrist, the destruction of nonbelievers, and after 1,000 years of violent suffering, the Second Coming of Christ, the Last Judgement, and God's eternal kingdom.

All this is Obama's fault?

I know some on the delusional fringe have called him the Antichrist, though with Hillary Clinton emerging as a possible president, some are now seeing her in that role. (Ironically, on these eschatological matters they appear to be able to view things in more gender neutral ways than most other issues.)

Bachmann laid out the case against Obama--it is all about his Middle East policies, especially his alleged mistreatment of Israel. She said: "If you look at the president's rhetoric, and if you look at his actions, everything he has done has been to cut the legs out of Israel and lift up the agenda of radical Islam." And thus because of him, “We need to realize how close this [countdown to End Time] clock is getting to the midnight hour.”

What she didn't spell out, but which is understood by Millennialists, is the requirement that all Jews return to Greater Israel, convert to Christianity, and through those actions set in motion the events that will lead to the Rapture and all that follows.

Those Jews who do not convert, alas, will be slaughtered. This unique role assigned to the Jews is why those who believe this are such strong supporters of Israel. It is not because Israel is the lone western democracy in the region. It is because of what the Jews and Israel must do to help bring about the ultimate Second Coming.

But here's what I do not understand--

Why, if these events are foretold and, to these believers, will intimately lead to Christ's return, the Last Judgement, their salvation, and the eternal Kingdom of God, why are Obama's polices, which are supposedly advancing their unfolding, a bad thing? Shouldn't Bachmann and those like her feel hopeful and thankful about what Obama is helping to bring about? Is the Rapture, which his policies are supposedly advancing, a bad thing or a good thing?

As I understand the Millennialists, the Rapture is a very much a good thing since it not only is the initial indication that End Times are coming but also true believers (and I assume this includes Michele and her pray-away-the-gay husband) would be Raptured. That is, at the very beginning of The End, they will be whisked up to heaven, leaving all and everything behind, including their neatly-stacked clothing and jewlery.

So I am confused--if Obama is playing such a crucial role in all of this, instead of excoriating him, shouldn't Bachmann and her co-believers be expressing their appreciation for all he is doing?

You see, then, why I am so eager for her to make another run at the presidency. It is only during the debates that all of this will get straightened out. Minimally, it would also be good for a few laughs.