Memo   

To: George Bush, Jr., President, United States of America
From: Joseph Ehrlich
Re: Count to Ten
Date: September 14, 2001

One of the most noted figures in Jewish history was Rabbi Akiva. His wife was from a noted rabbinic family, which strenuously objected to her marrying him because he was from a poor uneducated family. To honor his wife’s love and dedication to him, and the sacrifice she made in marrying him, he strove and became one of the great rabbinic authorities of his time. Then G-d put him to the test of Abraham.

The Roman army terrorized the Jews in Israel. They even threatened to deny Jews the ability to study Torah. Rabbi Akiva then supported what history records is the Bar-Kokhba Rebellion. While the rebellion was initially successful against the Romans, the Romans thereafter mounted supreme forces, which thereafter killed off half the Jewish population in Israel, and thrust the Jews into the Diaspora.

Wasn’t this a battle between good and evil? Ask anyone oppressed during that period of time and it is clear that the Romans who enslaved and ruled in Israel and elsewhere represented evil. So where was G-d? Why did evil prevail?

The historic and religious message is that before you wage war against forces seen as representing evil, one must assess one own’s house before setting out to destroy another’s. When the Jews were given Israel, part of G-d’s gift was that the Jews would have no enemies to drive them out of the land. They had no such enemies. Such enemies did arise only when they created such enemies to offset their defamation of G-d’s Name by forgetting Him and engaging in conduct and behavior defiling his gift. Thus, if you pause for just a moment, you can see that the Assyrians, the Babylonians and the Romans were all creations of Jewish conduct and behavior in failing G-d.

Thus obviously today the Arabs are the created reality from a government leadership that has bent over backwards to promote a secularization plan, to make Israel a nation among nations, which defames and defiles G-d’s gift and Name. Thus, all efforts by Israel to attack or vanquish the Arabs, without assessing its own conduct, will result in the same consequence as in the time of the Romans: defeat.

Next, one asks how can Israel lose when it is militarily superior to the Arab Nations? This is the same dynamic as when Clinton and crew thought the peace process was a slam-dunk because they believed they adequately controlled the Government of Israel, and Arafat, they thought, was getting so much. It was at this time that I passed along the message that the end result would be by G-d’s will not Clinton’s and that the result would be other and different than Clinton expected.

Conclusion: The United States represents the Christian point in the trilogy of monotheistic religions deriving from Abraham. The United States prospered and grew when it was a country steeped in religious tenets and values. Now, it is a country which has gone astray, turned its back on G-d, and in the throes of its economic success spews forth drugs, violence and sex upon its children under a banner of hedonistic and paganistic principles, creating an entire generation even further removed from G-d’s presence in our daily lives.

Do you think that G-d will intervene for the United States and Israel when these important countries seek to shed their connection to G-d? Do you think G-d will intervene for Israel against the Arabs and Islamic countries when the result will move a government agenda that defames and defiles G-d’s Name? Do you think the United States honors G-d’s intervention for it, by now blasting forth a generation of children riddled with morals which only align themselves with a paganistic future and lifestyle?

You should ask your father for his expression of how this world would have looked today if Germany and Japan had won the war (answer: like the darkness of the soot and ash from the collapse of the WTC towers). You should also ask him whether the U.S. and allies victory was a slam dunk or whether there were times the allies were concerned who would develop superior weapons first and who would in fact win the war. You should ask him whom he thinks was behind the victory, and if he says what I think he will say, he will tell you that it was G-d. Without G-d, we may have lost and found the entire world looking like the area around the World Trade Center, with millions enduring the indescribable pain and suffering endured by those who died in connection with the terrorist deed.

Thus, it is foolish to think that we might win if the net result of a war is that a paganistic agenda would be further enhanced in the U.S. by such a victory, under an interpretation that we represent good and have conquered evil. The U.S., a country founded and flourishing under religious tenets and values did represent good. You only need see what children are exposed to on television today to contravene that interpretation and if that interpretation is not valid then the assumption that we represent good, and G-d will provide us with victory, to continue in our wrong ways is seriously flawed and will lead to destruction not victory.

Thus, it would be wise to count to ten before proceeding to attack perceived evil. Rabbi Akiva failed to look to clean out the wrong in his own house because it was his peers who gave him the commendations that he earned to honor his wife. As a President of the singular world superpower, brought up with religious values, you must first pause and look to clean up our own house, before we move forward, for without doing so, G-d will not intervene, and if He doesn’t intervene, the nation is at real risk.

Thank you for your time. May G-d bless you and the people of our great country to reassess and rethink our current situation to lead us on the correct road to a happy and joyous future with peace for us and all the peoples and inhabitants of the planet.