CAFI Newsletter #101

[cafi-list@christianactionforisrael.org]

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* CHRISTIAN ACTION FOR ISRAEL NEWSLETTER  #101 *
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"ON YOUR WALLS, O JERUSALEM, I HAVE APPOINTED WATCHMEN"
Isaiah 62:6
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               Friday, September 13, 2002


IN THIS ISSUE:

  1.    REMEMBRANCE DAY
  2.    AN OPEN LETTER TO GOD
  3.    SHINE ON, NEW YORK
  4.    EYEWITNESS TO HATRED: CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY, MONTREAL
  5.    QUOTES TO NOTE
  6.    HIGHLIGHT ARTICLES

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   1.   REMEMBRANCE DAY

by Rod Dreher   -  The New Republic
New York prayers on 9/11/02.

September 11, 2002: Over the crest of the Brooklyn
Bridge, with the rising sun over their shoulders, came
the FDNY bagpipers, playing "America the Beautiful" on
the last leg of their all-night march to Ground Zero.
Behind them followed a drum corps playing martial cadences.
The pipers played "The Marine Corps Hymn" and "Over There,"
and hundreds of ordinary New Yorkers followed, many
waving flags on the sad and glorious American morning.

We'd have followed those big old Irishmen playing that
soulful music all the way to Baghdad, I'd wager, but we
had to stop at the northwest gate of the World Trade Center
site, where the crowd grew even larger. Only dignitaries
and the families of the 9/11 dead were allowed onto the
site, of course, and because of the fences around the
perimeter, nobody could see a thing. It didn't seem to
matter, though; folks just wanted to be as close as
they could to sacred ground.

Just before 8:46, and the first scheduled moment of
silence, the cold front forecasters had promised roared in.
The intensity of the wind gusts were startling, I mean
really intense, and very quickly a cloud of dust rose
from Ground Zero, as the names of the 2,800 dead were
read aloud. I heard much later that television commentators
were likening the dramatic weather to an eerily Biblical
sign. While that sounds like poetic liberties to me, I
can tell you that the extraordinary wind arrived just
before the ceremony began, and slacked off shortly after
it ended. Make of that what you will.

Yesterday was a day of prayer and worship across this
city, as well as the nation. At noon, a service of Solemn
Evensong got underway at beautiful Trinity Church, the
historic Episcopal parish at the head of Wall Street and
only a few hundred yards from Ground Zero. George Carey,
the Archbishop of Canterbury, was present to bless a
church bell presented to Trinity by the Lord Mayor of
London, in celebration of the friendship between London
and New York. Carey told the congregation that the bell
had been forged in the same East End foundry where the
Liberty Bell had been forged centuries earlier.

In generous remarks before the New York audience, the
archbishop recalled presiding at a memorial service at
St. Paul's Cathedral last autumn. "I can assure you that
you weren't alone in your suffering then, just as you
aren't alone in your commemoration now," Carey said.

Though he was unequivocal in his condemnation of the
evil of the terrorist acts, Carey nevertheless used the
occasion to warn Americans to resist the "urge to revenge,"
which he said "is especially strong when we have not only
right, but might on our side." This appeared to be a
thinly veiled reference to the impending war on Iraq,
which Carey has previously said he opposes, absent
"clear evidence" of Saddam's guilt. The archbishop
stopped tastefully short of saying the war shouldn't be
fought; nevertheless, it seemed inappropriate for Carey
to come to that church on this day, and suggest that
America's determination to expand the war on terrorism
is motivated by a base desire for vengeance.

That seemed to be a variation on a theme common in at
least some pulpits yesterday. Several NRO readers wrote
to say they'd had it with a "peace at any price" line
from their ministers. A friend wrote from Virginia to
say he'd walked out of Catholic Mass after the pastor
harangued the congregation with a mawkish, pro-pacifism
lecture. Pope John Paul II denounced the 9/11 attacks
as examples of "ferocious inhumanity," but coupled a
prayer for the souls of the innocent dead with a prayer
for God's mercy on their killers. The Christian religion
demands of its followers prayers for their enemies, but
still, this was jarring, especially for Americans. John
Paul also called on people of all religions to "firmly
reject every form of violence and commit themselves to
resolving conflicts with sincere and patient dialogue."

One can't be faulted for wondering if there are many
Christian clerics left who reject appeasement, who
believe in the moral use of violence, even lethal
violence, to bring justice and stop evildoers from
threatening the innocent. You will be pleased to learn
that I found one last evening: the Rev. George Rutler,
who celebrated a requiem mass at the Church of Our
Saviour, the Catholic parish on Park Avenue of which
he is pastor.

Though he did not mention it in his sermon, Rutler
rushed on 9/11 to the burning towers, arriving in time
to look into the eyes of firemen and give them the
sacrament of absolution they asked for before they
began their fatal climbs. Rutler spoke of the goodness
the nation saw on that day in the actions of men and
women, some of whom gave their lives to help others.
Preached Rutler, "In the midst of all the evil of
that day, we saw the nobility of the human soul."

He then talked about how we cannot honor our dead by
bringing justice to their murderers, and by eliminating
those who would murder more Americans, unless we are
willing to act. A World War II-era song, said Rutler,
contained the line, "wishing will make it so," to comfort
a nation that had seen too much blood.

But that's a sentimental lie, the priest said.

"One man said the only thing that will conquer evil
is blood, toil, tears, and sweat," Rutler said, alluding
to Churchill. "Sentimentality is love without sacrifice;
therefore, it is not love at all."

"We cannot exact revenge because of evil," Fr. Rutler
went on. "But we are not Christians if we think vindication
is revenge. ...Vindication is honoring that which is true.
Vindication is offering the self for love."

"Wishing does not make things so. Blood makes things so.
Toil makes things so. Sweat makes things so. Tears make
things so. We are all called to show mercy, but only
those who have suffered have the right to show mercy
to their persecutors. Jesus asked mercy, but Jesus did
not ask mercy for the Devil. Jesus killed the Devil
on the Cross. That is the power of love."

The congregation took communion, made thanksgivings,
and ended by singing, in full voice, all four verses of
"America the Beautiful." The congregation walked out
into a cool night in the alabaster city, whose gleam
on this day of solemn remembrance remained undimmed,
despite tears of grief and rage.
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   2.    AN OPEN LETTER TO GOD

by Rabbi Yaakov Salomon   Aish.com

Dear God, we may not need to know "Why?" But
we do need to know "When?"

September 11, 2002

Dear God,

Questions. I have so many questions... especially lately.

I sometimes imagine getting an "open forum" with You,
where I could ask You ANY QUESTIONS I WANT...and
receive an immediate response. That would truly be
the "ultimate" life experience. Now, don't get me
wrong. Niagara Falls, witnessing childbirth, and
sunrise in Jerusalem are mighty thrilling in their
own right. But 25 minutes, "Fire away!"
face-to-face with the Creator would probably be "It."

If I were to get 25 minutes to try to understand
everything, nearly every one of my questions would
begin with the same word -- "Why?"

I read the papers. And You know the story all too well.
A nine-year old boy in Haifa watches his sister become
crippled in a school bus explosion, and he wonders,
"Why?" A 27-year-old widow, now dependent on
psychotropic and sleep medications, wakes up every
morning tormented and asking, "Why did he have to
go to work so early that horrible Tuesday morning?"
Too many orphans in Israel, whose parents were murdered
in terrorist attacks, numb from shock, ask You, "Why?"

Innocent citizens in civilized nations around the globe
experience a kind of vague and persistent trepidation.
They also turn to You and wonder, "Why?" and
"What will happen next?"

We seem to be obsessed with the need to understand
everything. We're driven to know. After all,
You made us this way.

But lately I've been detecting a certain degree of
arrogance when I require an explanation for everything.
It becomes pretentious to expect that no experience
or encounter be beyond my comprehension. I'm no
different than most. When illness, premature death
or failure of any kind strikes near me or my loved
ones, I don't hesitate to ask, "Why?" And it doesn't
take much, either. I've missed planes or busses by
fractions and stood angrily at the bus stop and
demanded an explanation from You!

And maybe there's nothing terribly wrong with that.
After all, shouldn't I attempt to see Your hand in
everything that happens to me?

But something doesn't sit right with me anymore.
I think I need to reach a point...somewhere...where
I accept that I am simply incapable of grasping every
nuance of Your boundless inventions and intentions.

But that point is not easy to reach. I'm a bit
uncomfortable to admit that my aptitude falls short
of being limitless, and that some of life's mysteries
will remain just that.

I often forget the magnitude of Your wisdom, power,
and infinite supremacy. And that's dangerous. Because
then I begin to accept only those things that I can
understand. You know how it goes: "If it doesn't fit
into my definition of rational thinking and purpose,
I discard it." That's when my thoughts become
preoccupied by the "Why?" question. That's
when "faith" becomes a pariah.

It's confusing. In reality, You want me to question.
You want me to understand and to ask, "Why?" Isn't
that one of the signatures of Your People? And so
I ask. But I'm not always privileged to be blessed with
the insight I desire. Frequently I "just don't get it."
And so I ask again...and again...and sometimes I'm
still denied access to the Heavenly answer. I'm coming
to realize that You have Your reasons. I must believe
that. And that's when faith...and a dash of humility
must kick in. It isn't easy.

And this is especially difficult when the
incomprehensible is accompanied by pain -- sometimes
a lot of pain, unbearable pain. The pain of parents
burying children. The pain of Holocaust survivors
replacing years of triumph with sudden tragedy.
The pain of those who need so badly to cry, but have
been drained of all their tears. That is when our
need to make sense of the senseless becomes paramount.

You certainly know that recent world events have
left all of us stunned, questioning, and frightened.
Scores of leaders, authorities, and plain folk like
me have beseeched You for the ability to comprehend
unspeakable acts of global and personal catastrophe.
"If only we could understand the reason, the plan,
the ultimate purpose - then perhaps the pain
could be ameliorated." We're all asking, "Why?"

I am sure that among the millions of prayers You'll
be sifting through in the next week or two, many of
them will begin with "Why?" But maybe the recent
overload of wanton acts that totally defy reason
should really be compelling me to accept my vast
limitations of comprehending Your ways.

So this year, I decided to omit the "Why?" to my
list of questions. Perhaps my place is not to
require an answer that I can appreciate. I'll leave
that to Your Higher Judgment. Instead, I humbly
substitute the word, "When?" When a child asks
his parent, "When?" instead of, "Why?" he's
stating his confidence...his belief that the time
will definitely come. The only real question is,

"When?"

And so, as the New Year begins, I wonder:

WHEN will the sirens finally end?
WHEN will we turn to You in complete and
absolute confidence?
WHEN will the world recognize its ever-growing
prejudices?
WHEN will our children go to sleep without fear?
WHEN will we put aside our petty habits and differences?
WHEN will we stop worshipping the holy dollar?
WHEN will the time come that we can wake up without
"needing" 9/11's?
WHEN will the media recognize accomplishment more than
destruction?
WHEN will our heroes become truly worthy ones?
WHEN will we learn to be happy, not critical; giving,
not sarcastic?
WHEN will the fashion, cosmetics, and entertainment
industries retreat into the background of life's priorities?
WHEN will our teachers get the salary and recognition
we claim they deserve?
WHEN will we remember Nietzsche's simplicity:
"Life is not an argument"?
WHEN will we stop asking, "Why?" as a prerequisite for
acceptance?
WHEN Moshiach comes, will we stop asking questions?
WHEN?

Dear God, I know you are near. I can feel it. I can
touch it. Your children are crying. We may not need to
know, "Why?" But we do need to know, "When?"

Hopefully the answer will be, "Soon...very, very soon."
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   3.   SHINE ON, NEW YORK

By Naomi Ragen  -  jerusalem Post  - Sep. 12, 2002

As the memorial for the victims of September 11 fill
the airwaves of Israel, thousands of miles away
from the city of my birth, I have come to understand
why the terrorists chose the City of New York for
the sickening expression of their degenerate
agenda against all free people.

It is because the spirit of New York City represents
everything that they, and the ruthless dictators of
slave states in the Middle East who support them,
are trying to destroy.

New York City is a place where everyone can have
an education, and can choose any profession. For
$50 a semester, I, and millions of others who could
never afford a college education, went through the
corridors of the City University of New York,
learning about music and art and history and
culture and literature and biology and chemistry...

New York City is a place where it doesn't matter
who your parents are; how much money they have;
what faith they profess; what color they were born
because you can still become a famous artist, a
writer, a dancer, a scholar...

New York City is a place where the Arts flourish.
Where any idea is tolerated and explored. Where
men and women are free to watch and read and
believe or reject any philosophy, any idea, any
book, any magazine.

New York City is a place where women are in
control of their bodies and their futures and their
health and their choices. A place where no man
can murder his daughter, abuse his wife, slaughter
his sister because she does not conform to his
ideas of how to act, or think, or dress.

New York City is a place of economic opportunity,
where small workshops and tiny factories, and little
fringe theater groups, and cornershop bakeries
flourish. Where every man and woman can pursue
a dream, and cannot be destroyed by nepotism
and corrupt politicians and war lords and dictators.

New York City is a place where elections take
place and men and women go to meetings, march
in the street, print brochures, knock on doors, and
say out loud anything they want. They can vote in
absolute secrecy for leaders, and these leaders
can be voted out if they displease the people who
voted for them.

It's a place where votes are counted fairly, and
ballot boxes are not stuffed and candidates are not
murdered, and every man or woman who wishes to
offer himself as a leader will be heard.

New York City is open to the people of the world of
every nationality, religion and color. Boats and
planes filled with immigrants seeking refuge are
welcomed. Very few New Yorkers can say that they
and their parents lived there for two hundred years.
It is a city of newcomers, all welcome, all treated
equally.

New York City represents the best of what America
has to offer, the best in a world overrun by
hate-mongers, dictators, nepotists, thieves and
strong men, who deprive men and women of their
right to life, to liberty and to the pursuit of
happiness.

YOU, WHO have bruised our city, and taken a
piece of its heart and trampled on it, know that you
will never defeat it, because that would mean
defeating all that is good in the world.

You have succeeded in putting out thousands of
lights. But millions more will continue to shine
through the horrible black hell you created with your
sick ideas and brutal acts of barbarism.
Shine on New York.

Shine on, the lights of Broadway and Lincoln
Center and The Metropolitan Opera House and
Carnegie Hall and The Empire State Building and
Macy's and The Museum of Modern Art, and The
Metropolitan Museum and The Forty-Second
Street Library, the skyline, the bridges, the great
hotels off Central Park, the skaters of Rockefeller
Center.

Shine on Statue of Liberty. Shine on.
Never forget that your light warms the lives of good
people all over the world who strive to live peaceful,
creative, productive lives, free of hatred.
Never forget that your enemies hate you for all the
reasons that you became, and remain, the greatest
city in the world.

The writer is a best-selling novelist.
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   4.   EYEWITNESS TO HATRED: CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY, MONTREAL

Sara Ahronheim  -  September 2002

This morning my friends and I set out to Concordia
University, in the heart of downtown Montreal, to hear
Benjamin Netanyahu (former Prime Minister of Israel)
speak. Many articles were featured in the Montreal
papers leading up to today´s speech, warning of
protest action. I had a good idea of what we would
face as we approached Concordia, but I could never
have predicted what actually happened once we were there.

To enter the building we had to make a giant circle
around it, to get to the supposedly "safe" entrance.
We had to walk right through a volatile protest of
hundreds of Palestinians and their supporters in keffiyehs,
with flags, screaming vitriolic hate. Once having run
this gauntlet, we waited patiently outside the Bishop
street entrance, held back at the gate by security and
police. After about an hour they started admitting us
inside, but it was too late because a huge group of
Palestinian ´demonstrators´ had appeared in our midst.
I was fortunately right at the entrance, and as dozens
of violent protesters pushed their way to the front,
I tried to get through. Right next to me appeared the
ringleader, who tried to push his way in. The cop in
front of me punched him in the face while pulling me
through the gate at the same time. I rested against
the wall and watched as at least a hundred (I think)
red-and-green coloured protesters attacked the barriers
and tried to get in. Riot cops appeared, dozens of them,
and went to the gate as I and a few others were herded
into the building. There was yelling and chanting,
drumming and fighting going on outside the doors, with
hundreds of our people stuck behind the gate being
abused by hundreds of violent demonstrators. A few of
us were waiting after the metal detectors for our
friends to come through, when all of a sudden we heard
loud chanting and yelling INSIDE the building. The riot
cops came storming in and up the stairs beside us, and
we began hearing fighting, crashing, yelling, punching.
Chaos broke out and riot cops made us run for the door
to the auditorium - I thought we were going to get
killed, I swear. It was the scariest feeling, because
I knew that these people wanted to hurt me and anyone
who supports Israel or is Jewish.

Once inside the auditorium, we were told to be patient
as more people would drift in from the insanity outside.
We waited inside for three hours, as the commotion
outside grew increasingly loud. We could hear chanting
and yelling, and the protesters began trashing the
university building. The police tear-gassed and pepper
sprayed the entire building and outside, and we began
to feel the effects if we stood too near the doors.
After hours of waiting, and bomb searches by RCMP
sniffer dogs, we were informed that Bibi Netanyahu
could not speak after all - too much danger to him and
to us. This was an incredible disappointment and we
were naturally upset. We, however, managed to maintain
a kind of composure and instead of fighting, the 650
of us inside began to sing Hatikvah, the national
anthem of the State of Israel. We sang peace chants
and then just waited to be let out, in groups of 10,
escorted by police.

The scene as we exited was disgusting. Benches were
overturned, papers and garbage streaked across the
hallways, and broken windows. We were shoved outside
directly into a HUGE Palestinian riot, where some of
our people were apparently attacked. The cops did
nothing. We stood on one side of the barrier, while
they stood on the other, and we faced off. On our side
 we sang and danced and celebrated being free and
Jewish. On their side, they threw bottles at people´s
heads, screamed hatred, and tried to break the barriers
down to hurt us. They started tossing pennies and coins
at us - one of the oldest ways to taunt Jews by
saying we´re all ´money-grubbing´. While we sang
Hatikvah arm in arm, they spat at us. Finally we
decided to disperse and leave them to their hatred.

Today was a sick and sorrowful day not only for the
Jewish students and community of Montreal, but for
Jews everywhere, the city of Montreal and Canada.
Today a man was gagged and not allowed to express an
opinion; today hundreds of people were denied the
opportunity to listen to him speak. Today a riot
broke forth on our peaceful streets, and today no
police managed to restrain hate. Today Montreal Jews
were made to feel afraid for our lives, and today
Jewish students were threatened in our own home.
If we cannot express ourselves here in Canada,
champion of free speech and human rights, where on
earth can we do so? If we cannot feel safe in our
own cities where we have grown up and thrived,
where are we to go?

I can answer my own question with what many of us
already know - Israel is our place. She is our
homeland, and opens her arms to us, willing to
protect us at all costs. The Jewish people need
Israel, and she needs us.

Even so, we must voice our distaste at the violence
which occurred in Montreal today We must all take
our own individual stands against this fascism, by
which freedom of speech was denied. What happened
today in my city cannot be condoned or allowed to
repeat itself. We must act. So I am sending you all
this long letter, with my own personal feelings and
an eyewitness account. Please do what you can to see
that this message is spread to anyone you can think
of - from friends to work associates, to politicians,
and from Jews to non-Jews alike. We have a chance
to fix these wrongs, but only if we take action and
don´t sit back as passive observers. We say
NEVER AGAIN,
but unless we protest these attacks on our
freedoms, it is fruitless to put up that chant.

Last but certainly not least, a personal lament on
our situation: today I saw raw hatred, and it cut me
to the core. I have never feared for my life as I did
today. I have never feared for our free society the
way I do today. I wish beyond anything that we can
one day fix the agonizing rifts between our peoples,
and erase the hate from our and their hearts alike.

Shanah Tovah to all Jewish readers of this letter,
and a sweet year. To all non-Jewish readers: thank
you for reading, and please understand what I am
expressing here. It is most important for you to
know what really happened here today, and it is
vital that you see this side of the story.
------------------------------
Sara Ahronheim is a university student in Montreal

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   5.   QUOTES TO NOTE

    "Every one of the innocents who died on September
the 11th was the most important person on earth
to somebody. Every death extinguished a world."

George W. Bush - December 11, 2001

    "It is no exaggeration to say the Arabs, along
with the Palestinian cause, have paid the
highest price for the September 11 terrorist
attacks,"

Agence France-Presse quotes a Syrian government newspaper
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   6.    HIGHLIGHT ARTICLES ON THE SITE

SINCE DURBAN: AN ENTRENCHMENT OF HATRED
This week marks the anniversary of another hate-filled
event with broad international repercussions, the UN
World Conference Against Racism. A racist anti-racism
spectacle, courtesy of the United Nations, it concluded
in Durban, South Africa on September 8, 2001.
http://christianactionforisrael.org/un/since_durban.html

FROM 9/11 TO 9/13
September 11 is not the only significant occasion
appearing on the terrorists' calendar this week. There
is another date as well, one that embodies just how
crafty the practitioners of terror have become. It is
9/13, the date on which Yasser Arafat stood on the
White House Lawn nearly a decade ago and signed the
Oslo Accords, professing peace even as he was pursuing war.
http://christianactionforisrael.org/isreport/sept02/911_913.html
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Become a WITNESS TO THE NATIONS and let them know what
great things our Lord is doing for Israel and what great
things He will continue to do for her, His firstborn.
http://christianactionforisrael.org/witness/home1.html
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