Dear Readers

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Dear Readers,

At least 40 killed in Ankara International airport. 87% of people surveyed in Venezuela say they do not have enough money for food. But Brexit is the problem. A double suicide bombing in Iraq. Incendiary munitions being dropped on civilians in Syria? Blame it on Jews living in Chevron.

It will be impossible for the free world to confront the real issues such as the threat of Islamic Jihad if it does not see them as one.

The allies were able to bring down Nazi Germany only after it was decided they would accept nothing less than unconditional surrender, eventually outlawing Nazism in the countries it had taken root. To this day many European countries are still extremely sensitive to this and monitor groups associating themselves with the Nazi ideology. They recognize that hate and extremism have always been attractive for people looking to rule others, somehow justifying their own existence.

We need to treat radical Islam the same. Governments and populations which support it materially need to be ostracized materially. Those who support it as a belief system need to be shunned from that community. And if the need arises to use the military option, than we need to consider that as well. This is a cancer which is not going away by itself.

A good response in our personal lives can be increased joy. Even a mundane activity such as eating pizza with the family should be done with the joyful expression of being alive, as a Jew, at the threshold of the future redemption.

It’s this basic enjoyment of life itself which extremists can’t handle, and it is this which will ultimately prevail.

“These trust in chariots and these in horses, but we – we mention the name of the Lord our G-d.”

May we have a peaceful and spiritual Shabbos,

Shalom