JAHG-USA Newsletter: Week of 3 Kislev, 5766 / December 4, 2005

"Was America right in defeating the Indians and settling the land?" Eighty percent of responses favored the cause of the European/American settlers, while the balance held that the Indians were victims of European conquest. Here are a couple of excerpted comments:

Factual Background:
For the most part, the facts are well-known and undisputed.

Without question, the American Indians lived much more primitively than the European colonists who arrived in the new world; not only did they lack the technology and tools of the Europeans, but also the culture, the domestication of agriculture (this varied from tribe to tribe), and other social infrastructure. Religiously, the Indians were purely idolatrous pagans who worshipped a large pantheon of "gods" and natural forces, practiced witchcraft, and easily resorted to murder (inter-tribal warfare and raids), robbery (plunder, rape, and injury of their enemies), eating the limbs of living animals (for reasons of superstitious ritual), immoral relations, and lack of established justice (often living by the merciless rule of the strongest). In short, they routinely and casually violated every single one of the Seven Noahide Laws.

(Their disrespect for property ownership, widely reflected in the practice of common or communal sharing of property, had disastrous consequences on the natural resources of the land they so thoughtlessly plundered as hunter-gatherers. Many of the Indian tribes would set massive fires that burned for hundreds of miles, leaving heavy smog choking the air during certain times of the year, for the purpose of making animals easier to catch. They would also destroy entire herds of buffalo just to kill and eat a single animal, believing that the "animal spirits" would warn other buffalo if they left alive "witnesses" to the hunt; it was Indians, not Europeans, who were largely responsible for the devastation of the wild buffalo population, and they nearly drove deer and beavers to extinction. The most nomadic tribes would lay waste to entire areas before the food became scarce, forcing the Indians to move on.)

On the other side, the contact between societies brought devastating consequences for the Indians. In the exchange of diseases, it was the Indians who bore the brunt of sickness and death; colonial expansion and settlement led to warfare between Europeans and Indians, with heavy losses and massacres on both sides (although many reports of European settler atrocities have been grossly exaggerated or even fabricated by Marxist professors and activists); and ultimately the Indians lost, being either integrated into American society or confined to reservations suffering poverty, alcoholism, and drug abuse.

Relevant Torah Principles:
1) Any gentile who violates any one of the Noahide Laws is liable to the death penalty, either by human courts or by the hand of G-d. An entire society that disregards those laws is subject to judgment and destruction.

2) Gentiles are (apparently) not allowed to conquer the lands of other nations, neither to build empires, nor to plunder resources, nor even to spread superior civilization (including, seemingly, the Noahide Laws). At least, this is our reading of the Talmud, Sanhedrin 59a (and Rashi thereon).

3) Gentiles are, however, not only allowed, but positively obligated, to colonize and settle untamed areas throughout the earth (and, one day, the universe). Property must be owned and developed, natural resources exploited, agriculture domesticated, and cities built. This is the primary mission of gentiles under the Noahide Laws, which exist for the purpose of making the physical world a dwelled place.

4) In the process of expansion and settlement (or of spreading the knowledge of Torah to primitive societies), a nation must defend itself from attackers. If, in fighting such wars, the territory of enemies comes under its control, a nation is (apparently) allowed to keep control of that territory. Often wars must be launched offensively to pre-empt attacks or to establish law and order in lawless regions.

Analysis:
The defeat of the Indians and destruction of their tribal societies was unquestionably a judgment from G-d. However, the mere fact that the Indians were pagan violators of the Noahide Laws, and thus worthy of death before G-d, would not itself justify conquering them.

But since most of the continent was not privately owned or settled by Indians, colonial expansion and settlement did not, for the most part, intrude into the territory of another nation. With some exceptions, the general war of the Europeans against the Indians was a defensive one, required to establish law and order and create conditions for the productive settlement of the land. And that is the justification for the European/American victory.

Because the Indians were largely intransigent pagans, they automatically reacted to European colonization with violence, and thus settled their fate. In the end, superior civilization won, and the Indians themselves — especially the ones who have left the reservations to join society at large — are vastly better off for it.

And now for this week's survey question:

The Kurds of northern Iraq have been treated as allies of the United States since the Persian Gulf War in 1991, but Turkey would like America to change policy. Should the U.S. treat the Iraqi Kurds as allies?

(1) Yes, the Kurds helped America fight Saddam Hussein and we should side with them.
(2) The U.S. should stay out of the fight between Turkey and Kurdish organizations.
(3) No, Kurdish groups are destabilizing Turkey and we should help the Turks.
(4) Other

Only one answer per e-mail address will be accepted; only e-mail addresses on our subscription list are eligible. Please send your input by Tuesday, December 13, 2005, 12pm PST.

Terrorism Update:
Here are some terrorist attacks that took place this last week in Israel:

Missiles were launched from the (now Jew-free) Gaza Strip into the rest of Israel, but missed any significant target.
In the West Bank, terrorists were found waiting by the road with Molotov cocktails (improvised petroleum bombs), but fled without using them.
PLO fighters fired guns and threw rocks and bombs at Israeli soldiers, but missed.
A bomb was found at the Gaza Strip border, but was neutralized.
Two PLO agents were caught in the West Bank transporting pipe bombs in their care.
Terrorists conducted a drive-by shooting near a factory but hit no one.
More missiles and mortar rounds were launched from the Gaza Strip into residential communities outside the Gaza, causing some damage and putting some people into shock.
An Egyptian boat trying to smuggle terrorists into Israel fired at an Israeli boat.
A suicide terrorist killed 3 and injured 50 by blowing himself up in a shopping mall in Netanya. Israeli authorities believe the attack was conducted by the Islamic Jihad organization which, as we mentioned last week, was known to have been planning such an attack for weeks or months. The five dead included an elderly man and a mother of three young children.
Yet more missiles were fired from the Gaza into Israeli communities, causing damage and shock.

As pointed out before, the Islamic Jihad has coordinated its activities with Fatah, the main organization of the PLO, for over two decades. Fatah was the group under the personal control of Yassir Arafat, and now of Mahmoud Abbas, the head of the "Palestinian Authority" (PA). So American tax dollars paid for the suicide bombing — and the other attacks listed above.

(Sources: various Israeli news agencies)

…AND THE HALL OF FAME
Some Chabad Shluchim Are Helping the JAHG-USA Campaign

This week's example:
Rabbi Aharon Begun, Chabad of Cheviot Hills, & Director, Bais Chana High School, Los Angeles, CA

We have recently been flooded with a wave of new endorsements by Jewish leaders of our PLO-defunding campaign. We are particularly happy to report that Rabbi Begun, who previously had not responded to our requests for an endorsement, has just changed his mind and signed the Proclamation when it was presented to him again on November 26th.

Not only does the rabbi run his own Chabad House for outreach in Los Angeles, but he is also the director of the Lubavitch high school for girls in the same city. So his new endorsement may carry some weight in influencing others to get involved as well — which is an obligation for everyone, as Rabbi Begun now acknowledges. Congratulations, Rabbi Begun!

What do you think about Jewish leadership on PLO defunding? Send us your comments at newsletter@noahide.com.

For a complete listing of all rabbis who have received our proclamation, the up-to-date status of their responses, and how you can get help the campaign, visit ATTAC Report at http://www.attacreport.com/plo/.

• (From a Christian, in response to information on our web site):
"…Isaiah 9:6: 'For unto us a child is born, unto us a child is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty G-d, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace… (This is talking about Jesus… the real messiah)." — RN.

Our response: This is a commonly cited mistranslation and misinterpretation of a verse in the Hebrew Scriptures, used as such by Christians because the "New Testament" is tied to this passage. The implication of this translation is that a man (supposedly the Messiah) will allegedly be referred to as "G-d" by G-d Himself. The intent of mistranslating accordingly is, obviously, to justify the notion of a "trinity," and particularly of a man-god as a "savior."

The crux of the bad translation is the word represented by the Church as "his name shall be called" — that is, in the passive. The problem is that the verb in the Hebrew is conjugated actively, i.e., "[he] shall call…". This small but critical change restructures the entire verse. Read properly according to the actual Hebrew text, the verse actually states, "…and the Wondrous Advisor — the mightly G-d, the eternal Father — shall call his name 'the prince of peace.'"

The passage, according to the Jewish traditions preserved from the time of Isaiah (as discussed by Rashi), refers to King Hezekiah, who established a period of peace during his reign as king over Israel (the southern kingdom). The prophetic passage by Isaiah states that G-d shall therefore call King Hezekiah's name the "prince of peace." It is neither a reference to any "man-god" nor to the Messiah.