Biblical, shmiblical

And some thoughts on entertainment...

I am very nervous thinking that what we are seeing between Iran and Israel can be categorized as biblical, not just a hinge moment. When you say that something is of Biblical proportions then it is not only momentous, as this war is, but it smacks of divine intervention. And to me, that bespeaks a kind of hubris that can get people killed. Well good people killed. I wont hide my satisfaction in killing bad people, like those that run the Iran regime.

When someone, people, countries, groups, NGOs, the UN and their ilk, works toward slaughtering my children, I will not cry if and when they are vaporized off the face of the Earth. Nope. Nada. Not gonna happen.

I am Jewish after all, and one of our origination stories is the holiday of Purim when the Jewish Queen Esther was able to help thwart the genocide of the Jews of Persia. The Persian King upon hearing of the dastardly plot to massacre the Jews had the plotter his vizir Haman, and Haman’s sons all put to death.

Now the little discussed second half of the story (well not discussed by Jewish American because it might make their leftist Jew-hating friends uncomfortable) was the realization that simply because Haman and his sons were dead, it did not mean that his movement died. So on the 2nd day of Purim, the Jews were actually provided weapons by the King to fight and kill their enemies. No where are we told to mourn these deaths. We are in fact instructed to actually get drunk to celebrate this holiday. (We are instructed to be glad we survived and were not genocided, imagine that.)

This is not the same as the story of our salvation from Egypt. During the seder when we recount the plagues, we are instructed to spill some wine from our glass because of the innocents that were harmed so that we may become a free people. Oh we are not supposed to feel bad that we were freed. But we remember the innocents who suffered because of Pharaoh’s evil heart (aka Hamas).

Judaism makes a great distinction between the good and the evil. We are taught to understand who are enemies are, and we are also instructed that if someone says they are coming to kill you, we are commanded to find weapons and kill them first. We are allowed to live and our children are allowed to live. And if we have to kill in order to survive then so be it. (The Ten Commandments says thou shalt not “murder,” not thou shalt not “kill.” (Mistranslated from the Hebrew.))

We also do not “turn the other cheek.” (By the way that phrase also doesn’t mean what most people think it means either.)

I am not one to say that there is no plan somewhere in the recesses of the universe. I don’t know if it is God, some superior alien being like a Jedi, or persons from an alternate universe who are using our world as a lab of some kind, but I simply cannot and will not think that we are all that. I consider it the height of hubris to think that we, humanity, is the tops of every kind of being that has been produced from the primordial sea of the big bang. That simply can’t be. There is no way that humans, with all their failings, is the best thing that has ever happened to the universe.

Sorry, but nope.

We may be the height of evolved creatures in the Milky Way, which in and of itself says something about where we live, but with the tens of thousands of galaxies that exploded onto the stratosphere there has to be beings so much better than us. Well there just has to be right? I think its the eternal quest for something beyond ourselves and that something has to be superior to us by a long shot.

But with this “heavenly” plan, that we cannot see or understand, we need to continue to also be humble. And truthfully, the Iranian theocrats and their armies, the Basij, and the IRGC, they are evil, however, they are not stupid. And yes, the Israelis, mostly the Mossad, had constructed this other worldly plan to take down the nuclear plants. Embedding themselves in Iran for what some say was 20 years. The coordination to rid the middle east of the “Axis of Resistance” the way Israel was able to, and to continue to fight on the level that they are fighting is extraordinary. But is it divine? I dare not say, because I am waiting, and I am sure others are waiting too, for evil isn’t going to go quietly and isn’t simply going to disappear.

On the other hand, some even say, that as horrible that October 7 was, because Hamas jumped the gun, and took both Iran and Hezbollah by surprise, Israel was able to survive, albeit at a horrible cost. The experts say if what Iran had actually been planning had come to fruition, there would have been another Holocaust.

So maybe a little bit of divine intervention. Or maybe just dumb luck.

Complacency is not good when you are up against those who think detonating a nuclear weapon will bring about the coming of the secret Mahdi, and a new paradise. You can not reason with fundamentalists who want to die and to be martyred for their cause of death. But it doesn’t mean they are stupid. As I wrote evil is not stupid. It is not crazy. Evil is very rational.

So this is why I wish people would stop talking about this in biblical terms.

I don’t understand what is happening. I truly hope that the powers that be around the world are paying attention. Yes, I know Keir Starmer asked Trump not to bomb Fordow because he is worried about sleeper cells in the UK. (The hubby thinks there are all kinds ofIranian terror cells across the globe that the Mullahs will activate.) But to that I say, what exactly is your MI6 and MI5 doing? If you know there are potential mass murderers in your country maybe take some time to find them instead of worrying about the grandma who wrote hurty words on facebook.

Listen I think something is afoot.

We need to be ready.

And yes, I want the US to bomb Fordow. (Apparently they did.) The only way the world will actually be safe is to prevent a doomsday cult from having a nuclear bomb and no negotiating with them won’t bring that about. They have been negotiating with this regime for 50 years. What has that accomplished?

By the way, there was a terrific interview with Ambassador Michael Oren who discusses the failure of the west to stop Iran, and especially just how horrible was Obama’s JCPOA.

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Now on another note- the entertainment industry is just nauseating. It’s as if they aren’t happy, they have miserable love lives, so nobody ever in any new movie or TV can be happy.

And I know this is all fiction.

Old case in point- years ago when NCIS killed off the character of Ziva David I cried for 2 days. Seriously. I felt how unfair it was that she and Tony loved each other and why couldn’t they just let them find a way forward. Yes, the actress wanted to leave the show, but there are ways to have accomplished their love story without killing her off. Well, due to fan outcry, Ziva was suddenly alive and she and Tony found each other again. I am looking forward to the new show coming the fall. I hope this time, they leave them all alive (including their daughter Tali.) (I’m really interested in seeing what if anything they do with the fact that Ziva is Israeli and a former Mossad agent. It’s CBS so considering they think that it was free speech that caused the rise of Nazism, and they spout Hamas propaganda, who knows.)

Now for my new case in point- Transplant. If you haven’t seen it, it is streaming on Peacock here in the US. It is a Canadian show, so the Canuks know already how it ended. If you don’t want to know don’t read any further. It is the story of a Syrian refugee doctor who comes to Canada and finds a place at a hospital. Yes, a brilliant man who fled Assad’s brutal civil war brings his sister to the west for safety. There are the usual sappy stories both personal and in the hospital. Alot of soap opera of course. But in the end he fell in love and was planning a future. His partner was another young doctor who had needed a heart transplant. Well, I had a feeling that this was not going to end well, because these mamzerim can never let anyone be happy. Yeah I read ahead. Well she dies. Again, I cried now for 2 days. There is no resurrection here this time.

I just don’t get it. But then again I never could read those huge multigenerational soapy sagas either. Except I did love anything written by Michener, Uris, mysteries based on the middle ages, anything Tudor, and everything authored by Sharon Penman (I love historical novels). Nowadays I stick to my Israeli super spy Gabriel Alon series. (When I have the patience to sit and read. Not much time for make believe since October7.) All the time, in every book, horrible choices, abuse, tragic love stories…and yes I know people actually go through alot in life.

But entertainment is supposed to be fantasy. If I want to see horror, I’d turn on the fucking news.

I’m going to watch Pride and Prejudice , and Sense and Sensibilities again. I need my happy place.

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IT IS DAY 624 OF THE HOSTAGES BEING STARVED AND HELD IN THE TERROR DUNGEONS OF GAZA 🎗️

It is day 624-9 of the present war.

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