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It is a truism that the West was formed by Athens and Jerusalem — meaning the rational thinking introduced by Greece and the moral and religious thought introduced by Israel.
Of the two, Jerusalem’s contribution was the more enduring. Relatively few Westerners read Aristotle and Plato. Virtually every citizen of the West — even the illiterate — until the last generation or two, was familiar with the Bible. Europe was Westernized by the Catholic Church in the name of the Bible, not Homer.
Were it not for the Jews and their Bible, there would be no Christianity — and therefore no Western civilization. The abolition of slavery was led by Bible-believing Christians. The Bible, not Aristotle, was their moral inspiration.
With regard to America, its Founders, even the less religious ones, were rooted in biblical morality. Two of the least religious, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, designed a Great Seal of the United States that depicted the Jews leaving Egypt. The only inscription on the symbol of American Liberty, the Liberty Bell, is a verse from the Torah (the first five books of the Bible). The insignia of Yale University is in Hebrew, and it, too, is taken from the Torah. The Princeton University seal features an open Bible. Until about 1800, students at Yale, Harvard and other universities were required to study Hebrew.
Many American Founders described America as a “Second Israel.” In the words of Eran Shalev, a Fulbright scholar who became a professor of history at Haifa University:
So prevalent was the Old Testament in the early culture of the United States that for decades after the start of the nineteenth century it was, in the words of Perry Miller (a Harvard professor regarded as the cofounder of the field of American studies) as “omnipresent … as … the air that people breathed.”
The American Founders’ attitude toward the Jews is summed up in these words of John Adams, second president of the United States:
I will insist the Hebrews have (contributed) more to civilize men than any other nation. If I was an atheist and believed in blind eternal fate, I should still believe that fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing the nations. … The Romans and their empire were but a bubble in comparison to the Jews. They have given religion to three-quarters of the globe and have influenced the affairs of mankind more, and more happily, than any other nation, ancient or modern.
As Israel once made the West, now it is saving the West. This was eloquently stated a few weeks ago by Wall Street Journal columnist Gerard Baker in a column titled, “Israel Defends Itself — and May Save Western Civilization”:
How will we ever repay the debt we owe Israel? What the Jewish state has done in the past year — for its own defense, but in the process and not coincidentally for the security of all of us — will rank among the most important contributions to the defense of Western civilization in the past three-quarters of a century.
Israel has in 12 months done nothing less than redraw the balance of global security, not just in the region, but in the wider world. It has eliminated thousands of the terrorists whose commitment to a savage theocratic ideology has claimed so many lives across the region and the world for decades.
Above all, it has provided an unexpected but crucial reminder to our enemies that there are at least some willing and able to pursue and defeat them, whatever the risk to our own lives and resources. The only appropriate responses to Israel’s gallantry, fortitude and skill from us — its nominal allies, especially in the U.S. — are “thank you” and “how can we help?”
Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few, Winston Churchill said of the men of the Royal Air Force after they had repelled Hitler’s Luftwaffe during the Battle of Britain.
We should echo those words today as we watch in awe what a country smaller in area than New Jersey, with a population less than North Carolina’s and an economy smaller than that of Washington state, has done for all of us.
Baker is not alone in understanding that Israel’s war is a war for the West. On the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, massacres, Brendan O’Neill, former editor of the British libertarian magazine Spiked, wrote:
The West’s moral failures in the aftermath of 7 October were of an entirely new order. They exceeded even my grim fears. They shone a harsh, inescapable light on the retreat from reason and abandonment of Enlightenment many of us have warned of for years. … The delirium of our post-civilizational era emerged into broad daylight. It was undeniable now: The West is in the stranglehold of a profound moral crisis. … The sympathy for Hamas on our campuses and streets is fundamentally an extension of the West’s own crisis of meaning, of our denial of our own insights, of our betrayal of our history.
A war for the soul of humanity must now be fought. On two fronts. On the physical front of Israel’s borders … (a)nd on the intellectual front here at home. … Only a full-throated defense of the virtues and wonders of Western civilisation might see off the moral derangement of our times and the Jew hatred it has nurtured.
If you care about Western civilization, you need to care about ancient Israel and Israel today.
Pulling America out of the United Nations would really help solve all our Problems with Terrorists moving them to either Moscow or Beijing would be even better
Agreed. The U.S. is also by far the largest funding source for the U.N., and that needs to be cut dramatically. Look at how we effectively subsidize terrorist attacks against us and our allies through our funding to UNRWA. There are UN staff actively aiding Hamas and Hezbollah as well as Iran. Of course this is funding support from the U.S. on top of the $70-$100 million we send to the Taliban each WEEK (for distribution to its allies in Al Qaeda, Islamic Jihad, Haqqani Network, etc. and the billions of USD that the Obama and Biden-Harris regimes have shipped directly to Iran. This is the definition of TREASON — giving aid and comfort to our enemies.
This is the 6th booklet in my series of Massing Singing Events in Israel. It contains only songs recorded after Hamas’ rampage of October 7th, 2023. Here, in these YouTube video clips, are the faces of the people who would be powerless, homeless and probably dead if Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran succeed in their efforts.
“The Land of the Deer” and three other songs
Some of the residents of the town of Netanya get together here to sing a month or so after the start of the October 7th war during the Chanukah festival. This is a mashup of four songs, including “We Will Not Be Conquered So Quickly,” very popular during these times of national and personal challenge and stress.
“Bo”
“Come”
This mainly women’s audience has come together to honor, through singing, women activists who have given to the community during the October 7th war. Each has been of service in a different way.
“My Heart is Happy” and “With His Hands He Will Bring [the prophet, Elijah]”
Girls from the Oph’rah settlement high school sing along with special needs students, teachers and other staff members about bringing redemption even if it means doing so with their own hands.
Defeating Ishmael is a dirty job, but somebody’s got to do it.
Thanks, Israel!
“I Have No Other Country
Even If It is Burning. My Home is Here”
Where south Lebanon meets northern Israel, the Jews have left. With that exodus, Israel deprived Hezbollah of potential hostages. To safeguard its population, Israel has had to abandoned some of their oldest kibbutzim (collective farms) and towns stretching back a hundred years to the 1920s. In this video, you can see some of the most pleasant landscape and some of the most innovative social arrangements for living that compare favorably to anywhere else on the planet.
“Escape to the Light”
This group of mainly high schoolers are either the great grandchildren of kibbutz Brenner founded in 1928 or come from the area surrounding the kibbutz called the Brenner Regional Council. Long-time residents join them, as is the custom where everyone sings together. Many of the youngsters’ fathers and brothers are off fighting in Gaza or from wherever the threat has arisen. They sing of days when there will be no fighting: “leave the city, rise up,” “birds will fly overhead,” “new life,” “[the future] starts from now.”
“Arouse Yourself, [get up] From the Dust”
This singing event is a memorial service for Lucy Dei, a teacher beloved by her students, and two of her daughters, Maya and Rina, who were killed by terrorists as they drove home one evening in Judea. The killers honestly believed that for Jews, the act of living in Judea was reason enough to remove them violently from the world. Here we can see Rabbi Dei who teaches in the yeshivah (academy) that these boys attend. He is the husband and father of those who were murdered. In that same incident he also was seriously injured. The boys sing “Arouse yourself, rise up from the dust [of mourning].” He speaks, saying he is comforted by the love and regard that existed between his wife and their students.
Yesh Bee A’ha’vah
There is Love Within Me
A wondrous song sung by the residents of a town in the south of Israel, Kiry’at Ma’la’khee; nearby in Gaza the Israel-Hamas war continues (about June or July, 2024). In Israel, it is usual that adults with their children, teenagers, the elderly and the special needs community members sing together; however, in this case, this song would probably never be sung by children anywhere else in the world that I can imagine. If you read the translation, you will understand how unusual this song is!
Between the misfortune[s] that [become] hidden
In our bitter world
There are those who say there is still hope
They call this love
And are waiting [for it] to come
Between [all the] yesterdays [that become] the future
Between the treasure[s] [that are still] hidden
There are those who say there is still hope
They call this love
And are waiting [for it] to come
Between the confusion[s] that are part of disaster
[You should] know there is a solution
They call this love
Between the anger that is [part of knowing] the truth
Between all the destruction [associated] with death
There is love
There is love inside of me
[The love] awakens [me] and [makes me] brings it to fruition
There is love inside of me
And it will triumph
Between the quiet peace [that leads] to sleep (perhaps death?)
Between youth and old age
They say there is still hope
They call this love
And are waiting [for it] to come
Between [all] the yesterdays [that become] the future….
Hope? Love?
TELL THAT TO NETANYAHU!
and he’ll kill your children.
Israel needs to be free to do what she needs to do but we should not be physically involved with any foreign wars.
IF Israel were free to do what it needs to do, no other nation would need to be “physically involved” in its defense. It is solely BECAUSE the U.S. and other countries want to tell Israel how it should protect itself that we are getting sucked in. The same goes with the Ukraine. Israel and the Ukraine are losing their youth to fight against an axis of evil that is poised to eliminate individual freedoms and substitute corrupt government dictatorships. Why not let them fight the wars the way they want? For more than 20 years, the U.S. had a bounty on the heads of terrorists that killed U.S. military personnel. In less than a year, Israel took care of these murderers.
What a bunch of B.S.!
Without Plato the Cult of Jesus would never have become the religion of Christianity. Plato is the father of Christian theology. No Plato. no Christianity. You don’t need to read Plato directly, his influence is all over your preacher’s Sunday sermon.
Aristotle, not Moses or Jesus, is the father of all the RATIONAL and SCIENTIFIC aspects of Western civilization. Aristotle, not the Jews, gave the West LOGIC. Aristotle, not Moses or Jesus, is the father of freedom and liberty, and he is the father of America. No Aristotle, no United States of America.
Ancient Greece, not Israel, gave the west philosophy, reason, logic, science, mathematics, the first ideas of secular freedom and secular liberty, literature, historiography. You name the intellectual discipline and it’s roots come from Ancient Greece.
Judaism prepared the ground for Christianity, and both, prepared the ground for Islam and Marxism.
Yes, Dennis Prager, the irrationality of Judaism prepared the ground for the irrationality of Islam. The ancient Maccabees killed any Jew who wanted the Hellenization of the Jewish tribe, just as today the Muslims kill any Muslim who wants to Hellenize (westernize) the Muslim tribe.
The Aristotelian Renaissance and the Aristotelian Age of Enlightenment finally Hellenized the Jews, Hellenized the Christians, and Hellenized the West.
Without the introduction of Aristotle to the Christian Dark and Middle Ages by Thomas Aquinas the West would still be living in a DARK AGE of Judeo-Christianity.
Well then, Thank God for Plato. Your comment is a “bunch of B.S.” If we lived in a “DARK AGE of Judeo-Christianity” we would be able to fight off the Jihad more readily, instead of having to listen to “rational girly men” like you and Antony Blinken calling for cease fires.
The THX Beer drinking game has been activated with the ever popular “prepared the ground” excuse for why the world doesn’t work like THX wants it too.
Hint: No one cares about Aristotle, or the “Aristotelian Renaissance and the Aristotelian Age of Enlightenment”. People acknowledge the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. And a big Whoopdie Doo! And they certainly don’t give a crap about Ayn Rand and her dead-ass philosophy.
It’s so nice to see your hatred of Prager, Christianity and Judaism getting more strident. Pastors? Really? When I hear a sermon each week I don’t think I have ever thought of old Ari-stoootle. But thanks for encouraging Jihadism in this country.
You couldn’t find Jewish history with two hands and flashlight. You are an unAmerican traitor.
Oh yeah T, Prager has a career, a following and knows more about Judaism and Christianity than you ever will.
You have none of those, do you.
Bitter table for uno.
Bother your head and view the YouTube videos above. These people have created happiness out of disaster, It is quite irrational to seek to destroy people who can still be happy and transmit that happiness to others, in particular their children.
The irrationality of Leftist abstract constructs like racisism and misogyny does not augur well for American culture. I have never met a deep Leftist who is happy. Judaism commands us to be happy. That’s irrational, but has a better outcome both for the individual and the collective than “perennial revolution..” Nonethe less, we will soon see who is MORE irrational. Don’t you agre?
“Greece created philosophy, logic, science, mathematics, and a magnificent, man-glorifying art; it gave us the base of modern civilization in every field; it taught the West how to think. In addition, through its admirers in ancient Rome, which built on the Greek intellectual base, Greece indirectly gave us the rule of law and the first idea of man’s rights (this idea was originated by the pagan Stoics). Politically, the ancients never conceived a society of full-fledged individual liberty; no nation achieved that before the United States. But the ancients did lay certain theoretical bases for the concept of liberty; and in practice, both in some of the Greek city-states and in republican Rome, large numbers of men at various times were at least relatively free. They were incomparably more free than their counterparts ever had been in the religious cultures of ancient Egypt and its equivalents.” – Leonard Peikoff, “Religion versus America”
Please, not another replay of this idiotic video from 1986 and Little Lenny. Not another homework assignment.
Greek philosophy, your foundation and bedrock of the rational and scientific beginnings and aspects of Western Civilization, folded like a cheap suit in the face of the spread of Christianity, which absorbed the teachings of your pagan heroes. Without Christianity Greek history would resemble those ruins that everyone takes selfies at. Without Christianity no one would remember or care about the Greeks or their fragile democracy.
Francisco Gil White writes about this. Today, thecontributions of the eternal Jews are not recognized. American students study Egypt, Greece, and Rome which were slave cultures.
My equation:
Trump = USA
Bibi= Israel
Israel= Jews
Jews=God
A lot of gymnastics involved. Just because someone attempts a lot of triple lindies doesn’t mean they are a great gymnast or even a reasonable BSer. Take your title and hit some one else over their head with this fabulist extremis propaganda.
I can understand Denis – he wants to see “the better side of his people”
– but he has to accept the darker side, too – like Germans are told to accept Hitler’s crimes.
And the history of ‘Erez El’ is not one of pure Goddness and Yahwe’s Grace.
The ‘Hibaru’ were not a nice group but a robbing and murdering desert tribe.
Then, Father Abraham calmed them down, but Jacob’s son were back to it (Genesis 34)!
And Joshua was worse than them: “NO MAN, NO WOMAN, NO CHILD DID WE LET LIVE”!
THAT CANNOT HAVE YAHWE’S BLESSING! CLAIMING IT IS WORST BLASPHEMY!
And had that “BELIEF OF BEING SPECIAL – WITHOUT LIMITS” it changed – say, by 1948?
AND HOW MANY MORE CHILDREN DOES OUR NEW HEROD WISH TO KILL?
There was a man like him, about 80 years ago, who also thought of great “ENTITLEMENT”
– like our man here when he attacks small places like GAZA, LEBANON, and Syria, too –
AND ALREADY HAS HIS BIG EYES ON IRAN – TO BUILD HIS “FOURTH REICH”.
To stop that bad man, 80 years ago, took many nations to fight him and keep him in limits.
HE ALSO BELIEVED THAT HIS “VOLK WAS WITHOUT SPACE” like the settlers in West Bank,
AND THAT DIVINE WILL (“VORSEHUNG”) ALLOWED HIM ANYTHING!
Among the people, then, in Germany there were many who were afraid, but tried to stop him: but 42-trimes he escaped death, and 100,000 others who stood up, in one way or the other, were murdered, executed. ARE THERE NO HEROES IN ISRAEL TO STOP THIS HEROD?
You’re being insulting, Mr. Prager. The Jews may be the Chosen People, but without Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and Christianity, especially American Christianity, Western Civilization never would have flourished, and Israel never would have been reborn. Only Jesus Christ, the Messiah, will save Israel, America, and the world.
Defeating Ishmael is a dirty job, but somebody’s got to do it.
Thanks, Israel!