It's July, and summertime has hit with full force. New Yorkers have fled either upstate to scenic camps or down to Miami, and everywhere else people are occupied with taking vacations or just swimming in the pool.

That's the only explanation we can come up with for the unusually low response to last week's newsletter. We didn't get enough answers to the survey question even to justify giving results; most of the responses, for that matter, were in the "other" category. So we'll just review a couple of comments and keep trying; even if things are a little slow for a while, they should pick up again in September (G-d willing).

Last week's survey question was,"In November of 2001, just weeks after the 9/11 attacks, the Bush Administration called for closing more military bases of all kinds, over the objections of military officers and both houses of Congress. Should the President be trying to close more bases?" Here are a couple of the more notable "other" comments:

• "There should be as many bases open as needed..."
• "He [Bush] should pull all of our troops out of Europe.... Use those troops to seal our borders and keep the existing bases intact, perhaps adding a few smaller bases to accomodate the troops coming from overseas.... But he won't. He is the weakest President we've had in a long while...."

The general attitude of all responders seems to be against further closures of American military bases (speaking now of those in America itself). But as we mentioned, the Bush Administration policy is openly for radical dismantling those bases, far more than the previous Clinton Administration did.

Indeed, the Bush Administration is engaging in an all-out disarmament of every branch of the US military that goes further than the defense-crippling policies of Clinton and other presidents. Bush and his defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, have cancelled such badly-needed weapons systems as the stealth Comanche helicopter and the powerful Crusader mobile artillery system; they have threatened to cut or cancel the F/A-22 Raptor combat plane and the DD-21 naval destroyer; they have cut back on attack submarines and heavy M-1 Abrams tanks; they have actually reassigned soldiers away from combat duty toward civil functions, thus tightening the shortage of soldiers; and they have even tried to block Congress from funding more weapons, fighting to keep their disarmament cuts over Congressional objections.

The whole situation is eerily similar to the 1960s, when President Johnson and his secretary of defense, Robert McNamara, were likewise busy disarming the military and cancelling weapons systems precisely while American troops were fighting in Vietnam!

Meanwhile, the Soviet regime in Russia and the Communist regime occupying mainland China are frantically building up their military forces, actively preparing for war. If the US keeps disarming while they keep building, they could hope for a day when they could defeat US forces in major combat (G-d forbid!).

What does the Torah have to say? Since America is a gentile country, it is governed by the Noachide Laws. One of the seven primary commandments is to establish a system of "justice" — including not only a system of law and courts, but all functions of national defense. The government is required to maintain law and order, protecting its nation and citizens from all threats. It requires no profound logic to realize this includes keeping a sufficiently strong military when faced with literal threats from abroad. Congress, most American voters, and many officers in the military are instinctively aware of this moral obligation, and are baffled by the Bush Administration's open hostility to US national defense.

And now for this week's survey question:

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 Sunday, July 31, 2005, 12pm PST.

This week's examples:
Rabbi Dov Wagner, Chabad Jewish Student Center at USC, Los Angeles, CA; and
Rabbi Boruch Shlomo Cunin, head of Chabad of the West Coast (California & Nevada), Los Angeles, CA (Part 3)

Rabbi Wagner received our proclamation (calling on all Jews to participate in the campaign to defund the PLO) on March 4 at 12:40pm, yet we have never heard back from him. While we don't know him personally, his silence is presumably related to the silence and/or refusals of almost all other California rabbis we've approached. That is, they are all Lubavitch rabbis whose positions, incomes, and careers depend entirely on Rabbi Cunin, head Chabad representative in California. And Cunin has made his opposition to the campaign plenty clear.

Last week, we mentioned a second voice mail message left by Cunin in November 2001, angrily lashing out at JAHG-USA volunteers for doing a mitzvah project, one that is part of the Lubavitcher Rebbe's larger campaign to teach non-Jews the Noachide Laws. The story and audio voice messages are presented on our site.

But after leaving that new message filled with bitter insults and attacks, Cunin still wasn't satisfied. So he called back just one minute later and left yet one more message. In it he added, without the slightest shame, a boast that he was trying to throw our JAHG-USA volunteers "out of town." The fact that these were Jews, and Hasidic Jews at that, didn't bother Cunin in the slightest. Nor did he hesitate to add that they were no longer welcome in any Chabad synagogues — despite Cunin's ongoing advertising that 'every Jew is welcome in Chabad' and similar claims. The image of Chabad programs open to every single Jew is effective at raising millions of dollars from unsuspecting donors, who don't realize Cunin has no use for Jews who don't conform to his demands (committing the terrible "crime" of carrying out a mitzvah campaign of the Lubavitcher Rebbe that Cunin himself doesn't care to do).

The third message can be heard from the same page as the other two messages. And it leaves no doubt why Cunin has no respect for any mitzvah campaign that doesn't raise money for him, even if it's needed to save lives from terrorism.

As a reminder of our obligations to save lives, here's one final halacha from the proclamation:

Proclamation Rule No. 10
Various authorities, including the Lubavitcher Rebbe, have unequivocally applied the principle of saving lives to the current situation in Israel, in which Jews are being forced to surrender in stages to our enemies — especially to the Marxist, terrorist Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and various affiliated groups; these terrorists continue to make clear their objective of utterly destroying the nation of Israel and murdering all its citizens.

[Additional comment: We have yet to find a single Jewish leader who believes it's a good idea to keep funding the PLO. So the "refusenik" rabbis are clearly ducking out of our campaign for purely political reasons — and the Torah absolutely forbids any Jew from avoiding the responsibility to save lives, especially for such abominable reasons as fundraising or political connections!]

This week's example: Rabbi Ephraim Piekarski, Oholei Torah Yeshiva, Brooklyn, NY

A JAHG-USA volunteer approached Rabbi Piekarski in person on May 26, showing him the proclamation. He signed it immediately, agreeing with the several rabbis present that this is a mitzvah requiring everyone's participation. Rabbi Piekarski and his colleagues are all teachers at a major Lubavitch yeshiva that teaches young boys planning to be future Chabad representatives. Let us hope the influence of such teachers helps build a generation of Jewish leaders who recognize their responsibilities to save lives.

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, and the up-to-date status of their responses, visit ATTAC Report at http://www.attacreport.com/plo/.

This week's edition of our sister site, ATTAC Report, presents: The return of Communism in Russia; our world strategic survey takes a look at the calm before the storm back in 1930; a map of ten death camps and over 350 other concentration camps in today's western Siberia, Soviet Russia's infamous land of genocide.

1. (Regarding last week's answer to a Christian letter):
"Excellent reply to [the] missionary. However, maybe you can get rid of the term 'New Testament,' which implies it replaced [an] 'old' [one]; better terms are 'Jesus Scrolls' or 'Paulian Myths.'" — Rabbi MS Antelman, Rehovot, Israel.

2. (Answering our poll question as to whether the US should terminate aid to the PLO):
"Continue [aid to the PLO]." — "A. Borisov" (responding with an e-mail address in Russia).

Our response: Russian citizens today are still living under the brutal Communist police state, despite all propaganda to the contrary (see this week's edition of the ATTAC Report). So no one in Russia could possibly have access to the internet unless he is part of the Communist Party- or KGB-revolutionary structure.

Which means we hardly need to comment on a Russian writing in to JAHG-USA (at noahide.com), calling for US aid to keep flowing to the Communist PLO. The Soviet Russian regime saves itself hundreds of millions of dollars each year by having its American enemies subsidize the PLO, a Soviet-created and -sponsored organization. The Soviets, for their part, contribute guns, bombs, training, and directives, but the Communists have always sought to have their victims pay for their own destruction.

Yes, Mr. "Borisov" is delighted that American taxpayers pay for Soviet-sponsored terrorism — and that itself should wake us up to the importance of the "Campaign to Stop Funding the Terrorist PLO!"

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