It’s possible that the world as we knew it will change over the next few weeks. It will be a gargantuan task that will require fixing and changing our broken systems, the most pressing of which is immigration.

Over the last few years, the Trump agenda has included a commitment to reversing this trend, which has resulted in somewhere between 10 and 20 million people entering the U.S. illegally from all over the world.

The numbers and statistics vary, but it is estimated that there are at least half a million illegal migrants in our country who were violent criminals in their home countries. The immigration services have indicated that there are at least 13,000 people who committed murder and violent crimes in their native countries and are now floating freely around the U.S.

When Republican leaders talk about fighting back and battling one thing or another, they’re accused of supporting and advocating for “violence.” When Democrats use the same verbiage, it’s considered “political rhetoric,” or at the very least, calling for non-violent civil disobedience. When Senator Chuck Schumer threatened Supreme Court Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh that they will “pay the price” for their votes on abortion, what did he actually mean? What kind of price was he suggesting that they would pay? Frankly it sounded like he was threatening their lives and perhaps those of their families.

There are two vital matters that should be addressed immediately after Inauguration Day on January 20th. The first is closing our borders to anything but legal immigration. A sub-division of that will be to devise a system to deport or expel illegal migrants, prioritizing those with criminal records who commit crimes here.

The second matter is, as Trump declared on his campaign trail, to “drill, baby, drill.” Reuters reported on Monday that his transition team was already preparing a wide-ranging energy package to boost domestic oil and natural gas output. As Trump demonstrated during his first administration, our ability to be energy independent impacts on many peripheral issues in our economy. First and foremost is that fuel and transportation prices come down, which directly reduces the cost of doing business, especially for manufacturers and producers transporting their products all over the country.

This process also includes clamping down on Iran and closing off their lucrative oil export business, where 90% of their petroleum products are bought by and shipped to China. As soon as our oil industry is up and running, China will become the largest customer for the Americans if they do not want Chinese products subject to expensive tariffs.

This all-important move will bankrupt Iran over the short term and force them to cut off the millions of dollars they send to Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and other terrorist proxies of the Ayatollahs.

Then there is the urgent matter of ending two wars that have dominated the foreign policy landscape and have cost the lives of more than one million people.

The other day President Biden pardoned a turkey, which is a White House tradition and a lighthearted gesture, but it would not have been so earth-shattering if his administration had dispensed with this ritual, especially while people are dying in war zones around the world every day.

It’s true that it has been difficult to comprehend what exactly our lame duck president is doing these days. At least this week we know of one official act carried out by Mr. Biden, and that was pardoning a turkey from its Thanksgiving fate. At least Biden is not a chicken when it comes to protecting turkeys.

Today, just a few weeks after our momentous national election, when we think back to what the overarching important issues were that dominated the Harris-Walz campaign, namely abortion and transgender rights, one cannot help but be overcome by disbelief. The fact is that it was a close call, but thankfully, it is behind us, at least for now anyway.

On the matter of the wars, Mr. Trump has stated on more than one occasion that he will hopefully be able to bring these insane wars to a stop even before he is sworn in.

In Israel’s north, it looks like the terrorists of Hezbollah have had enough of being pounded day and night by the Israeli Air Force. Certainly, the Israelis who were forced to leave their homes near the Lebanese border more than a year ago want to go back home, but they also want to live safely and securely.

And the same is true in the south, where communities were destroyed by Hamas terrorists. Missiles are still being fired into Israel from Gaza, but the firing is intermittent. Fortunately, the Hamas leadership is mostly dead, as is the case with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

There are still 101 hostages being held by Hamas terrorists somewhere in Gaza. The hope is that they will all be home before Mr. Trump is sworn in. He has said it more than once that if the hostages are not back with their families by that date, there will be hell to pay. Let’s hope they are freed before then.

Another urgent matter that the incoming Trump Administration will have to deal with is the ongoing, antisemitic, anti-Israel, and pro-Hamas demonstrations on college campuses throughout the U.S., in particular, some of our more upscale universities.

There are two things that need to be done in order to stop these threatening and frightening protests. The first is to identify all who were involved in organizing and leading these protests, and if they are in the U.S. on student visas, to terminate them and deport them out of the country to wherever they came from.

The second matter is for the Federal Government to determine whether these universities are violating the civil rights of their Jewish students (who in many cases have been warned to stay off campus) and terminate the federal funding under Title VI to these universities, which can total in the hundreds of millions of dollars. You can rest assured that once the first few students are sent home and the money stops flowing, the schools will begin to pay attention in earnest and put a stop to the protests.

And all this antisemitism is what Ronn Torossian and Ross Glick of the reinvigorated Betar USA are addressing with elected officials in Washington. As reported over last weekend, they do have bipartisan support for their efforts as once and for all the U.S. has to stop being a breeding ground for Jew-hatred, with the Shomer Israel Chuck Schumer leading the way in reverse. What a disgrace and a shanda Schumer has been.

Betar USA recently launched a large cyber campaign to target websites that promote hate, antisemitism, and anti-Israel rhetoric with the goal of defending Jewish communities. They have been taken seriously since last week, Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp disabled their accounts with no reason given and no contact information for an appeal or explanation provided. Their offense was sending mock beepers to pro-Hamas leaders in Pittsburgh. I spoke with Ross Glick the other day and he advised me that the group has been reinstated to Instagram and WhatsApp but not to Facebook.

Another indication that Betar USA means business and has plans to press the Trump Administration on these issues is that the FBI has been interviewing people associated with the group. That’s a true indication that they must be doing something right.

Zvi Kogan, Hy’d

This weekend the Chabad community in Crown Heights will host the annual Conference of Shluchim where thousands of the Rebbe’s emissaries from around the world will be gathered.

But the wanton murder of Rabbi Zvi Kogan last week in the United Arab Emirates is casting a pall over what is usually a festive and celebratory occasion for shluchim who may have attended yeshiva together years ago but look forward to these few days to catch up on what their friends have achieved since the last time they met.

Zvi was a presence in Abu Dhabi where he managed the Rimon Market kosher store that catered to the local Jewish community of several thousand as well as to a steady flow of kosher-observant tourists from around the world.

According to news reports, he was taken by three Uzbek nationals who in the past had been known to carry out terror missions for their Iranian handlers. We cannot conclude that Kogan was kidnapped for a ransom payment or anything along those lines. It appears that he was grabbed off the street last Wednesday afternoon and directly murdered. Investigators reported evidence of a struggle inside Rav Kogan’s car, suggesting he fought with his attackers before being killed, thwarting what was suspected to be a kidnapping attempt to bring Kogan to Iran.

Rabbi Kogan was well-liked and the name that anyone crossing through the UAE knew they could turn to if they found themselves in the Emirates and needed information about where to stay or what they can eat.

The UAE took the murder of the rabbi very seriously and worked together with the Mossad to track down the killers and find Rabbi Kogan’s body and return it to Israel immediately for burial.

I spoke with Rabbi Elie Abadie, the senior rabbi in Dubai, who said that this indeed was an awful tragedy and the community is shaken. He added that they trust the UAE government and the security they provide to protect the growing Jewish community there.

Rabbi Kogan’s murder will indeed be very much on the minds and on the lips of the shluchim as they gather this week in Brooklyn. The murder is reminiscent of that of Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg, who were also killed by Islamic terrorists at their Chabad House in Mumbai, India on November 26, 2008. Rabbi Kogan was a relative of the Holtzbergs.

At the funeral in Israel on Monday, the head shliach in Israel, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Aronov, said the loss of Rabbi Kogan will spur shluchim the world over to redouble their efforts to bring love, light, and life to the world.

Pray For Noam Taragin

Rabbi Moshe Taragin is a writer who submits columns to the 5TJT on a weekly basis. He is a Torah scholar and great teacher as well as leader at Yeshivat Har Etzion where he deals mostly with students from the U.S.

Last week, his son Noam was the victim of a drone attack in Lebanon where his IDF unit was stationed. Noam was badly wounded and is now hospitalized in Haifa where he is intubated. Young Noam was a great leader and as his father describes him, and was always volunteering for missions to protect and defend the people and land of Israel.

Rabbi Taragin describes his son as the kind of young man who always acted for others, especially those who were serving with him. He points out that Noam was not home for Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur because he always insisted that his fellow soldiers who were married with families should go home for yom tov and he would stay in their stead.

Moshe Taragin requested that we all have his son Noam Avraham ben Atara Shlomit in our prayers and we should daven that he has a refuah shleimah b’korov

 

Read more of Larry Gordon’s articles at 5TJT.com. Follow 5 Towns Jewish Times on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for updates and live videos. Comments, questions, and suggestions are welcome at 5TJT.com and on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.