Some Thoughts on America's Mid-Term Elections by Aaron Hecht

 

I am writing this blog in my living room a few hours after waking up to see the results of the mid-term elections in the United States.

I have many thoughts and feelings running through my heart and mind as I scroll through the headlines, most of which are deeply personal and wouldn't be of much interest to my readers.

But here's a few thoughts that are not so personal to me and which you might find interesting and or helpful.

To start off, I am not any more worried about the future of Israel, or my own personal future, after this election then I was before it. Israel is a project of the Kingdom of the Lord God Jesus Christ, and it's not going to fail because of anything happening in this physical world.

Many people believe that America is indispensable to Israel's existence, and that without American support, Israel will not survive.

This is not the case, and I could write an entire book explaining why.

But for now, it's enough to say that if America stops supporting Israel, or even if it turns decisively against Israel, as many European countries already have, that will not be catastrophic. In fact, an unpopular opinion I hold to is that this is something that NEEDS to happen for Israel to stop looking for help from earthly kingdoms like the United States and the European Union and instead seek assistance from the God of their Fathers.

Not the RELIGION of their Fathers, but the GOD of their Fathers.

You'll be happy to know, gentle reader, that this is already beginning to happen, and I think recent electoral events both here in Israel and in the US will serve to push that along even more.

Regarding America's future, I am also not overly concerned with this one election, because many of the people who voted for Democrats in this election voted for Republicans in the last one, and if they changed their minds once they can change their minds again. If any Republicans reading this blog need to be cheered up, I will say that in my humble opinion, you've got a VERY good chance of keeping the White House in 2028 and maybe even gaining back control of one or both houses of Congress.

Once again, I could write a whole book telling you my reasons why, but for now, I'll just say that politics is a game where winning can create all kinds of new problems and losing sometimes helps you solve some of your old problems.

So, those are the things I'm NOT worried about, for either Israel's sake or America's.

Here's what I AM worried about, for America's sake.

The Bible was on the ballot in this election, and it was RESOUNDINGLY rejected.

I'm not talking about "Christian Nationalism" which SHOULD be rejected because it's a form of idoloatry (more on that in a bit) I'm talking about the Bible.

It is incorrect to say that "America is a Christian nation" but it used to be correct to say that America is a country where the Bible was the most important foundational pillar of cultural influence.

America's traditional support for Israel was a manifestation of this Biblical foundation in American culture, starting with President Harry Truman's extension of diplomatic recognition of the newly born Jewish State just a few minutes after David Ben Gurion Declared Independence on May 14th, 1948, up to this present moment.

But in this most recent election, many fiercely anti-Israel candidates were elected in races around the United States, with the most high-profile being the new Senator from Michigan, Dr. Abu El-Sayed. 

But this "blue wave" also included some self-described "Christians" like Texas Senator-elect James Talarico, whose selective and conditional support for Israel should surprise no one given his selective and conditional relationship with the Bible and the God it describes. I would take that a step further and describe the kind of Christianity Talarico practices as nothing but agnostic secular humanism overlayed with a thin veneer of traditional Christian nomenclature and vocabulary.

That did not prevent him from being elected as the new Senator from Texas, and there were other examples of this same phenomenon in many other traditionally "red" States and districts.

To be fair and comprehensive on this point, some of the most popular influencers on the political Right in America, such as Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens, have also gone off the deep end regarding their obsessive expressions of contempt and vitriol for Israel, and this is actually a key element in their own expressions of "Christian Nationalism." 

In particular, Carlson has chosen to regard Christian supporters of Israel his most bitter ideological enemies. He also makes no secret of his belief that the Book of Esther has no business being in the Bible and he has contemptuously dismissed efforts to call his attention to other passages in both the Old and New Testament which contradict his positions.

What Tucker Carlson and James Talarico have in common is that they both treat the Bible like a salad bar, taking the parts they like and ignoring the parts they don't like while pointing to a non-Biblical "jesus" as their Lord.

In both cases, the "jesus" they're both worshiping is not the "Jesus" described in the Bible but rather he's a composite made up of a collection of ideological beliefs and positions and ideas that they themselves hold to. In other words, the "jesus" they worship is a figment of their own imaginations and thus, an idol.

In case no one ever explained it to you, an "idol" and it can also be literally ANYTHING a person looks to for their identity, their hope, or their security.

That is as true for a modern American Democrat worshipping "woke jesus" or a modern American Republican worshipping "MAGA jesus" as it was for an ancient Philistine worshipping "Dagon" or an ancient Greek worshipping "Zeus."

It is also true, just by the way, for a modern Israeli or Christian Zionist who is worshipping "King Bibi" and/or the Golden Calf of Modern Orthodoxy.

Brothers and sisters, please hear me.

The ONLY hope for America, or Israel, or Europe, or anywhere else, is the big-G "God" described in the Bible, and that means ALL of the Bible, the Old Testament and the New Testament. All of it.

As Psalm 33:12 says "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people He has chosen as His own inheritance."

To our modern ears this sounds redundant, but the meaning is clear that the nation who worships the TRUE God that the Bible describes instead of one of the many other small-g "gods" that so many people have been worshipping all through history, will be blessed. I believe the opposite is also true, that any nation whose object of worship is NOT the TRUE God described in the Bible will NOT be blessed, but cursed, or just left to its own devices, which is essentially the same thing.

So, if you're reading this as you're in shock and mourning over the results of the mid-term elections in the United States, or the recent Knesset elections in Israel, or the elections they had last month in Brazil, or any other election anywhere else, what I can tell you is that the way to get to a better place is to open up the Bible and read it. Pray EARNESTLY into what you're reading in that Book and then get into regular fellowship with others who read the Bible and pray.

Repent individually and corporately, of the errors you've made, the idols you've put your faith, hope and trust in, the false doctrines you've held to which contradict the Bible (remembering that the Holy Spirit will never "reveal" anything that contradicts the written Scriptures) and any other sinful behavior you've slipped into, even unintentionally.

Stop chasing "prosperity" and earthly possessions, political power, book and merch sales, prestige and all that other nonsense and instead pursue righteousness.

That's the winning strategy you're looking for.

That's the way you can become a force for good that no earthly force can withstand, even a blue wave, or a red wave, both of which can be here today and gone tomorrow.

That's what I've got for you this week brothers and sisters. I hope it blesses someone.

Some Thoughts After Israel's Latest Election by Aaron Hecht

On Tuesday morning, which was election day here in Israel, I had a special problem. It was the first election I'd be voting in where it wouldn't be possible to take a cute picture of my children helping me vote, because they've "been there and done that" and it's not exciting for them anymore and they didn't want to. Happily, my furry little four legged daughter (or as some might say, my "dog") is still eager to go with me wherever I go and do whatever I have planned for us to do together. But when there's long lines of people waiting to vote, everyone is impatient and no one has time to let a guy take a picture, so if one wants to take such a picture, one must try to go vote at a time when there won't be a lot of people there impatiently waiting in line.

In order to ensure the success of my mission, I thought it best to go vote as early as possible, and the polls opened at 7AM, so I was dressed and out the door by 7:12 AM and I got to the polls (which are at the school where my sons attend, just a short walk from our apartment) at 7:19AM.

But here's where my plans began to fall apart.

Y'see, although it was the crack of dawn, and people had all day to vote, and the traditional thing is to sleep in on election day and take one's time getting to the polls since they're open until 10PM and there's no rush, on Tuesday morning, at 7:19AM, the halls of the school where I'd be casting my ballot were already filled with people. It wasn't a "large crowd" but it was way more than I'd ever seen before at the polls so early in the morning. Right then, at that moment, I knew this election would be different from all other elections, and there would be lots of surprises when it came time to start counting the ballots.

In the meantime, my daughter was a big hit with my fellow citizens, especially the people who had brought their children, who are all probably now bugging their parents to let them have a dog (dogs are VERY good for the emotional development of a child, in case no one ever told you that). In the end, a lady who lives in my building who was there to vote took the picture for us and no one expressed any impatience. But the lines were already getting long as I left the school at 7:32 AM, and I went home to tell my wife that this election would NOT be going the way all the pollsters had said it would.

She replied by saying "okay" and then putting her head back down on the pillow and going back to sleep.

She's very calm and not easily alarmed, which is one of the reasons I married her, so she could balance me out.

Later in the morning, she took our youngest son to go with her to vote, and a good time was had by all.

As the day progressed, I got several assignments to write things for different clients (a freelancer NEVER gets paid time off) and even if I didn't need to for work, I would have checked in on the news sites regularly to see the results as they came in. As I had thought would be the case after seeing the early morning crowds at my own polling place, the turnout was much higher than anyone had been expecting. I knew that this would throw off the math and that some of the parties which had been hovering just over the electoral threshold of 3.25% wouldn't be making it into the Knesset.

Now, a few days have passed, most of the dust has cleared and t looks like we've got some final results.

The bloc of parties led by incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has 53 seats, the bloc led by former IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot which was hoping to depose Netanyahu and usher in a new era in Israeli politics has 48 seats and the two Arab parties have 19 seats, more than they've ever had before.

Regular readers of this blog have almost certainly seen or heard a fair amount of commentary about all this, but in case you haven't, here's a video from my friend Barry Segal in which he tells us how it is. Don't worry about the grim look on his face in the video thumbnail, he was just trying to be serious and that's how it turned out.

My own thoughts as I prepare for the first Shabbat after the Israeli elections and the last Shabbat before America's mid-term elections next week is that these results are definitely not what I was predicting and they're VERY sub-optimal. I mean, literally NO ONE got what they wanted out of this election, and we'll probably have to have another election in a few weeks which may or may not produce a result which will lead to the formation of a stable governing coalition.

Now is a REALLY bad time for Israel to not have a stable governing coalition, because we're probably going back to war with Iran before the end of the year.

Another thought I have it that is WAS, (sadly) predictable that there would be accusations of foul play when the Arab parties got the largest number of seats they ever got in an Israeli election because the Arab public (which is 20% of Israel's population, in case no one ever told you that) voted in numbers they'd never voted in before.

The narrative I'm seeing being pushed by Netanyahu-friendly influencers (what we used to call "talking heads") is that Qatar sent a bunch of money to Israeli Arab community leaders so they could use it to bribe Arab citizens to vote.

There are just two things I'll say about that.

First, there is ZERO evidence at this point to indicate that there's any truth whatsoever to this narrative, and the people making these accusations know it, but they're talking about it as if it's self-evidently true.

Second, even if it IS true, Israeli political parties, especially Likud, have been taking enormous amounts of money from Jewish and more recently Christian donors in America and Europe for decades and making no secret of it. If you ever read Ariel Sharon's memoirs, he tells the story about how he spent months in America raising money to help set up the Likud Party back in the mid-1970s. That pattern of fund-raising continues to this day.

So, for Likud and their friends to now start bemoaning "foreign influence" in Israel's elections is deeply dishonest and almost comically absurd.

As a bonus, one of Netanyahu's top aides is currently under investigation for taking money from Qatar in order to try and improve that country's image in Israel. It's difficult to believe Netanyahu himself was unaware of this, so again, for him to now be accusing Qatar and the Arab parties of trying to "steal the election" is pretty rich.

I know there are some Christian Zionist supporters of Israel who are joining in this deeply dishonest effort on the part of Likud and its allies to peddle the narrative that the Arab parties "stole the election" by having the audacity to mobilize large numbers of their voters to come to the polls. If you're reading this and you're one of those people saying this, you need to repent and you need to stop doing that.

In a more general sense, I believe it is LONG past time for Christian Zionists to stop blindly and unconditionally supporting Benjamin Netanyahu. He is NOT always right, and he is DEFINITELY not always righteous. He is also not immortal, and he just turned 77 years old earlier this month. He's had at least three surgeries that we know of in the past two years and he's also undergone treatments for cancer. Even if he keeps winning elections, he is NOT going to live forever, and we have GOT to start making plans for the day after.

Speaking of plans, it'll be weeks before we know for sure who will be the next Prime Minister of Israel but it'll be just a few more days before we know who will control the US Congress for the next two years, so buckle up brothers and sisters, we've got plenty of turbulence ahead.

Some Thoughts on Man's Best Friend by Aaron Hecht

Brothers and sisters, I hope you can have some patience with me this week. There's so many terrible, frightening, disgusting, hideous, awful things going on in this world that deserve to have a blog written about them, but I am just overwhelmed by it all. I don't even know where to start or what to say.

So, with your permission, I'm going to take a break from commenting on the decay and imminent collapse of civilization this week and talk instead about one of the greatest gifts that God gave the Human Race so that we can cope with all the problems we encounter during our time in this mortal plain.

I'm not talking about the Holy Spirit, who Jesus calls the "Helper" in John 14:26. I'm talking about a visible, tangible, "helper" that I believe God specifically appointed to be the companion, teammate, sidekick, and many other things to the Human Race.

I am talking about the dog.

The word "dog" appears 40 times in the Bible and almost every one of these instances comes in a negative context of contempt or even evil. Perhaps the best known of these verses is Proverbs 26:11; As a dog returns to his own vomit, so a fool repeats his folly.

Then there are some of the words of Yeshua Himself, such as Matthew 7:6 where He says “Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.

Also notable in this context is Matthew 15:26: But He answered and said, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.”

On the other hand, the Bible also gives us several passages which tell us of how we can see evidence of God's plans and purposes in the natural world. For instance, Romans 1:20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.

Psalm 19:1–2 “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge.”

But my personal favorite is Job 12:7–9 “But ask the animals, and they will teach you… or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea inform you.”

In other words, God's creation contains many clues as to what He was thinking when He created it, and if we apply this principle to canines, we can see amazing love He has for us, that he created and appointed these marvelous, wonderful, snuggly, adorable, loyal, loving and above all useful creatures to be ever by our side.

(The Far Side, by Gary Larsen)

The Science Behind my Theory

Scientists have demonstrated that dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) possess genetic characteristics that no other animals have which make them uniquely suited to be companions for human beings. 

This includes the saliva and microbes found in their mouths and digestive tracts which make them able to digest grains, rice and vegetables. I believe God did that so that humans and their dogs could eat together, which is one of the most powerful ways that humans bond.

Dogs also have unique characteristics in their adrenal glands, jaw size, ear cartilage, coat pigmentation and many other things which no other species of animals have, including wolves, coyotes, foxes and other wild animals that otherwise share much of the same genes dogs have. I believe God did that so that dogs would play with their human companions and have coats that were soft enough for humans to pet and snuggle with them, and ears that would make us laugh when the dogs moved them in certain ways.

Dogs also have smaller larynxes then wolves or other canine species, so they make noises that their human companions think are cute and funny and endearing instead of scary, like the howling of wolves or the yapping of coyotes and the cackling laugh of jackals.

But for me, the most convincing proof that God created and appointed dogs to be a special companion for human beings is what biologists call the "Human–dog oxytocin bonding loop."

In simple language, the brains of dogs and humans secrete the chemical oxytocin, which is a bonding hormone, while interacting with each other, just like human infants and their parents do.

That is NOT an accident!

That is NOT evolution!

That is evidence that even before God so loved the world that he sent His only begotten son so that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life, He so loved the world that He sent us dogs.

Why is Aaron Talking About This Now?

I recently watched a movie called "Heart of the Beast" which stars Brad Pitt and literally only has two other human actors in it, both for just a few minutes and a few rather unremarkable lines of dialogue. The majority of the movie is about interactions between Brad and his dog, whose name is "Odin" but who he affectionately calls "Odie" which reminds us of the dog from the Garfield comics.

I won't ruin the movie by telling you too much about it but just suffice it to say I commend this movie to you. You won't regret watching it. It will remind you why you love your dog so much if you already have one and I hope it also inspires you to get a dog if you don't have one already.

(Official Movie Poster for Heart of the Beast)

My Personal Story

"I want a dog."

This simple, four-word sentence changed my life, and the life of my family. It was the first complete sentence in the English language that my eldest son ever spoke to me and he said it at the prompting of his mother, who told him that it was time to let me know what he wanted for his upcoming birthday.

Two years previously, I had taken my family on a short vacation to a kibbutz up in the Galilee. A few moments after we got to the cabin where we would be staying during this trip, as we were unpacking our suitcases and putting clothes in the closets, a friendly golden lab casually approached the cabin door and announced her arrival with a simple "WOOF" which prompted my sons to squeal with delight and open the door so the dog could come in. For the four days we were at this kibbutz, that dog was never more than two feet away from my sons. She followed us around everywhere, wagging her tail, curling up at my sons' feet when they sat down to eat, or watch TV, sleeping on the floor in between their beds in their room at the cabin, etc.

On our last day there, as we were walking towards the bus stop to leave the kibbutz, she went with us and sat down on the ground next to my sons so they could pet her a little more as they sat on the bench and waited for the bus. After the bus arrived and we all got on board, the dog stayed in her spot at the bus stop, calmly watching us. My sons both waved goodbye to her as the bus drove away and she slowly faded out of sight.

In subsequent emails I told my friends who lived on that kibbutz about this golden lab, but none of them had ever noticed such a dog on the kibbutz before and didn't know if there were any golden labs there now. That was somewhat puzzling to me, as I compared it to my experience of living on a kibbutz in the Negev many years ago and working in the dairy farm with a man who owned a black and white border collie named Bessie. Years later I happened to spend a few hours on that kibbutz, just passing through on my way to something else, but while I was there I asked a random person I met there if Bessie was still around and this person said of course she was and led me straight to the dairy farm so I could say hello. My old boss was still there, but he didn't remember me at all, which was only fair since I'd also forgotten his name. But I remembered Bessie, and she remembered me, and she was very happy to see me.

All of that is to say, I always figured that friendly dogs would be well known on any kibbutz they were part of, but this golden lab apparently wasn't. That, and they way she'd acted while we were there, made me wonder if she was real, or if we'd imagined her, or if she was an angel, or what.

In any case, this dog made an even bigger impression on my sons than she'd made on me. In fact, without telling me, my wife encouraged my sons to pray that I would let them get a dog of their own, and they continued praying that prayer every night for the next two years. My wife never told me about that and she assumed that I would say no to the idea of getting a dog because I didn't like her sister's dog and had been very annoyed when that dog had come over to our apartment for a visit once. I had also commented on that occasion that I didn't think our landlord would be happy having a dog in the apartment, which my wife took to mean that I wouldn't be willing to even ask our landlord if we could have a dog of our own.

But then, after two years of praying and hoping, my wife decided that if my son was ever going to get the dog he wanted so badly, he had better ask me for it and she promised to help him convince me to say yes.

In the event, that's exactly what happened.

He asked me, in English, for a dog, and a few moments later, she told me that he'd been praying for a dog for two years. If that wasn't enough to convince me to say yes, she added that the counselor at school had said having a pet would be good for the emotional development of both of our children.

I took a deep breath, and promised my wife to try and convince the landlord to let us get a dog.

In the event, our landlord had no problem with the idea, so I had no more excuses.

The only question at that point was what kind of dog we'd get. After discussing a few different options, I told my wife that I'd had a Corgi when I was a kid and that was probably the only kind of dog I'd be comfortable with. She'd had a different idea but she asked my son if a Corgi would fit the bill and he said yes. A few days later, my sister-in-law saw some Corgi puppies for sale Facebook marketplace. My son took one look at the pictures and declared that he couldn't live without the one that had red fur.

A purebred corgi puppy costs NIS 8,000 and that includes a bunch of inoculations and certifications and whatnot. I had some severe sticker shock when my wife told me that, but she assured me that we could afford it and in any case, this far into the process, we had no choice. My son would be deeply traumatized if he didn't get this puppy he'd already fallen in love with and he'd be angry at me, and God, for the rest of his life. I knew my wife was right about all that, so I took another deep breath and gave the final okay.

The breeder was up in Herzliya, so my wife and son took the bus up there a couple of days later to bring the puppy home.

They came back that evening and the look on my son's face as he came in the door was simply radiant with joy. A few moments later, my wife walked in with the puppy in her arms, and I saw her for the first time and my heart melted like butter in the microwave. I forgot all about the NIS 8,000 this puppy had cost us and how I wasn't looking forward to housetraining (that part took longer and was messier than I was anticipating, but we got there eventually) and all the other nonsense.

That first evening she was home with us, I got an overwhelming feeling that I had absolutely done the right thing and that this would end up being one of the parenting decisions I would absolutely not regret. As time went on, this feeling was confirmed as this amazing little Corgi became my furry little four legged daughter and the source of immense joy and fun for my entire family.

She is "our" dog in a cosmic, eternal sense. It is no accident that she's the dog we ended up getting, and every time I look at her, I see a manifestation of God's love for us.

Conclusion

As I said at the beginning of this blog, there's a lot going on in this world which is scary, ugly, awful and absurd. But God has given us signs that He is still on the Throne and we can be confident of His love for us, His awareness of our needs, His intention to provide for those needs and His ultimate plans and purposes for our provision and our good.

Dogs are one of those signs, and I believe we should be very grateful for them.

That's what I've got for you this week brothers and sisters. I hope it blessed someone.