TRANSCRIPT
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The Rabbi Daniel Lapin Podcast
Episode: A Time to Find Joy in Love and a Time to Win Wars
Date: 08/02/24 Length: 1:03:56
Speaker 1 0:00
How long just to be with you, how alone see your smile every day, every hour, for the rest of my life with
Daniel Lapin 0:21
you. You. Greetings,
Daniel Lapin 0:30
Happy warriors and welcome to the Rabbi Daniel Lapin, show where I your rabbi, reveal how the world really works. Thanks for being part of the show. And we always study not only the amazingly powerful five F's on the show, but we also remember that the more that things change, the more we have to depend on those things that never change. And right now, things throughout the world seem to be changing very rapidly in many different places. And so if there was ever a time where each and every one of us, every happy warrior, needed to try and understand exactly what are the unchangeables? Because once you know the unchangeables, everything else can be adjusted, as long as you are anchored to reality, everything else is adjustable, and that's wonderful. Well, one of the things that never changes is our addiction to love, and you were hearing a brand new song composed by happy warrior, Bruce Edward Bruce Ibanez, who happily and enthusiastically gave us permission to play a little bit of his song. Thank you very much, Edward Bruce Ibanez, we're happy to have you as a happy warrior, and your song is absolutely beautiful. It's a song about love and Edward Bruce Bunya says that it is inspired by some of the things we've been talking about on this show in in recent weeks. The link for the full song, so you can hear it in its entirety you will find in the show notes below, and don't hesitate. Go ahead and enjoy those now. The subject we touched on last week was how difficult it was to define the word love. You know, what exactly does it really mean? And I invited happy warriors to go ahead and take a shot at defining love, and that I would continue the discussion and share that this week. Well, I want to speak not only about love. I also want to speak about war.
Daniel Lapin 3:23
But first of all, we're going to have a look at some of the responses that we received from Steve. Steve wrote, dear Rabbi Lapin, I listen to your latest podcast today. I'm very sorry to hear about the passing of your daughter, I will pray for her and you and Mrs. Lapin and all the family. God bless you all during this terribly difficult time, and I thank you for that, Steve, I really do you asked for a definition of love at the end of your podcast last week. Here is one that I like, but it didn't originate with me. It comes from Thomas Aquinas, love is willing the good of the other as other and Steve adds, feelings are not involved. I so appreciate your podcasts. God is blessing America and other parts of the world through you. Steve. Thank you very much indeed. Steve, much appreciated. I like Thomas Aquinas definition the willing the good of somebody else as somebody else, we're not we're not trying to absorb him or convert him or change him.
Daniel Lapin 4:43
Okay, this one's from Michael. And Michael writes in answer to your question, what is love? Four years ago, my daughter, a mother, became critically ill, to the point I received a call from her doctor advising there was. Hope. A few days later, the entire family gathered near her in the hospital. The doctor and I spoke, I told him, as there was no hope while we're all here, let's allow her to go home. Everyone, one by one, said goodbye. She had been in a coma for days, unresponsive. I went lost. I held a right hand nearest to me, cried, admitted I'd not know why or how we ended up here, but here we are, and what's next for you is better than this. With a room full of sorrowful family members nearby, I prayed, Honey, let go. We will all remain connected and raise these children. We will love and support each other. You can go home. Her left hand moved to cover mine, and she passed away. Love is putting someone else's best interest ahead of yours. Love is family binding together in the depths of despair. Love is doing the right thing, and not counting the cost, we all remain closer than ever almost five years after and Michael signs it, love is putting someone else's best interest ahead of yours? The young man who is trying to seduce his new girlfriend, and he repeats to her, I love you, I love you? Is he putting her interests ahead of his own? Don't think so. So there's a lot to Michael's definition that we can use.
Daniel Lapin 6:55
Niah wrote, love is a desire to give or a desire to serve. One of the lessons I was taught as a girl was why it's so important not to have sex before marriage. Before marriage, a boy pursues sex for his own physical desires. A girl pursues sex for her desire of commitment. In both cases, it's a selfish motivation. Within marriage, the man has access to sex and instead concerns himself with the pleasure of his wife. A woman has the commitment of her husband and has sex to fulfill his needs. In both cases, it's an act of service and love. I should mention that Niah is a recently married happy warrior young woman. She lives in the northern hemisphere, and she finishes off saying, you can love many things my husband desires to fix up his truck. That's a form of love. I would say it's anything that you sacrifice more than you gain and do so with joy. Well, so far, you've all you've all come home to that basic idea of selflessness in love, that love is not about what I want. You're all you're all hitting home on that.
Daniel Lapin 8:35
Dalmay writes, love is when you love someone more than yourself. See again, the same thing, my first niece was born three months before my wedding. I spent the whole night with her in my arms so my sister could rest. I looked her at her, and I said to myself, now this is love. Of course, I was in love with my then fiance. Our romance was blooming, but I loved her above all else, I've been married for 23 years. We have two amazing children, and I still think that she was my first true love. Lorinda writes My definition of love would include something like having an intense preference for something or someone to the point of having a distinct emotional connection to them or it. Carrie Lynn writes God defines love for us in the Bible. In First Corinthians, chapter 13, and then she quotes chapter 13, verse four and five and six and seven and eight and nine and 10 and 11. And 12 and 13, which finishes so now faith, hope and love abide these three, but the greatest of these is love.
Daniel Lapin 10:18
I'm not sure Carrie Lynn that what you have quoted defines love. You started off saying God defines love for us in the Bible, in First Corinthians, chapter 13, I'm not seeing a definition. Yeah, maybe if I, if I reread it a few times, but at first glance, I'm not seeing it, but, but thank you. It was very interesting. Tom writes to your point about meaning of the word love. I love the opera Rigoletto. The music is magnificent. But more to this point, it contrasts the love of a man for his deceased wife, the love of a father for his daughter, and the lustful love of a powerful man for his daughter. Marco writes, love is, I think, both a desire to be with someone as well as the urge to sacrifice something or all of myself for the loved one. Paul writes shalom, Rabbi from outer Mongolia. Laugh out loud. And my extended condolences and deeper sympathies for your loss. I hope you've received my handwritten note by now. Paul, yes, we did. It meant a great deal to us Thank you. Says Paul, I always go to the Hebrew ahav to define love. The Hebrew word love is ahav. I do not find the Greek words Eros or agape very helpful, seeing as God is neither our parable, nor is he our Santa Claus. Ahavas, you teach means to give. So when I think of biblical love, I think of generosity, selflessness, abundance, affection and thoughtfulness. With one correction Paul, ahav doesn't mean to give. It means to love. But the word breaks down to it's a compound word made out of two words, which means, I give. So love is I give. That's right.
Daniel Lapin 12:46
Here is another one. And this is, this is, it doesn't say who it's from. I'm sorry. Love is equal to ourselves. I'm not sure I get that. This includes God, his son, and each of us who are in unity with the Father, the Son and the body of Christ, which is the church. Condolences to your lovely family, for which I thank you very, very much indeed. Um, that one I've already read to you. This one I've already read. Okay, so that's, that's pretty much the responses that happy warriors wrote in to try and define what the word love actually means. You all, you all, as I said earlier, you all danced around that basic idea of sacrifice and of giving Paul honed in on very precisely, which is that love is an overwhelming and almost irresistible desire to give to the other person. Now I don't know the book of Corinthians that was quoted earlier, but I do know the book of Genesis, and I thought it might be interesting for us to see, where does the idea of love show up for the first time, Adam loved Eve, I'm sure he did, but that's not where the Bible chooses to give us an understanding of what love really is about. So it's not mentioned there at all. How is about? How about Noah and Mrs. Noah, after all, they went on a sea cruise together. Surely, they loved one another, and yet, it would appear that that is not the case. Maybe they did. But you do not find the word love mentioned in the context of Noah and his wife. 10 generations later, We have Abraham and Sarah. Do? Abraham and Sarah love one another. Maybe they did. They probably did. Doesn't say so the first reference to love is between Abraham and his son Isaac. The next budget of love is when Isaac married his wife, Rebecca. And there we find the first time love between a man and a woman mentioned. And then the third time it's mentioned, love is mentioned is later on in chapter. Is it 37 34 37 where it says and a Jacob loved Joseph, very much. So out of the first three uses of the word love in Scripture, all in the book of Genesis. The first two are, excuse me, two of them are between father and son, and one of them is between husband and wife. And so that also gives us something of a clue, does it not because it is to our children that we are irresistibly drawn to give. We just want to give to our children. And I told you, I think it was last week, I mentioned that the words I used to love hearing from my children when they were small is Daddy, come here. I need you because that gave me an opportunity to give them something, do something for them, give of myself, and that is an expression of love. And expressing love is somehow every bit as fulfilling as being the object of love. Now in Greek, thinking the love gets broken down into three categories, Eros, meaning erotic love, male, female love, so Philia, like the word philanthropy, means love of mankind. Or Philadelphia, brotherly, brotherly love So, or Philo Semite, love of Semites. So Philo means love. And in in its basic term philia. And I'm not a student of Greek, apparently, it means sort of brotherly love. And then agape means sort of unconditional, huge love, Godly love. I would suggest that we don't actually need to break the word up at all the word love, as long as you understand that the expression of love means the desire to give, and that if you are lucky enough to have somebody to give to, to give of yourself to, and give to then you are much it's much more than being in love. You are able to practice love. And so obviously marrying your husband or your wife becomes somebody to whom you can always give, and that is part of what makes a satisfying marriage relationship fulfilling, because to give is what we were made for. It's really an important thing receiving. It's very nice, but it's not what we were created for. As a matter of fact, we have ample evidence that receiving, on its own, corrodes the soul. Receiving only makes one less of a person, and that's one of the reasons that when we receive a gift, we want to reciprocate. At the very least, you want to write a handwritten thank you note. You want to do something for people who do things for you, because you realize that receiving isn't an end in and of itself. You cannot be satisfied only with receiving. Being a giver is where true excitement and joy in life is really found.
Daniel Lapin 19:47
We discover that, whether it's in Europe, in the United Kingdom, or in England or in the United States, people who are on the dole, people who receive money, and it's not really from the government. Government, it's from their fellow citizens. Because the government is not able to produce money. It can only take money and shift it around, and that's something that's worthwhile. Realizing money is created when one human being serves another human being. And I've discussed this repeatedly. I've written about it in our books. And if it's if it's not something you really are clear on, you should be. You really should take the time to become absolutely clear on this point, that money is created by one human being serving another, since the government does not serve us. We you might say, well, it's called public service. I know what it's called, and that is designed to camouflage the fact that government is essentially a mechanism for extracting money out of your pocket or out of your bank account. And so money is only made by human beings, by citizens serving other human beings, and the government is able to extract a portion of that in the form of taxation. That's that's how it works. It's not complicated. It's very straightforward and and. So people who receive money from their fellow citizens never end up being happy people, because receiving is not enough. Does money make you happy? Not if you just received it? Lottery winners, gambling, winning, you go to the casino and you come home with $1,000 more than you went it's going to make you happy. Temporarily, you'll be you'll get a kick out of that, but it's not a form of long term joy. If you went back and you were able to repeat it on a regular basis, you wouldn't be happy. How do I know? Well, because I know lottery winners overwhelmingly end up unhappier than they were before they won the lottery. Lot of money.
Daniel Lapin 22:10
Now I will correct one thing, receiving money doesn't make you happy. Earning money does, particularly for men, more for men than for women, significant, very, very important to understand that. But yes, when particularly a man earns money, it does bring Him joy. It really does something that women ought to really understand. You might be happy when you get paid. I get that. I'm not saying you don't, but the deep existential joy that validates his masculinity is something that a man has at making money, which no woman relates to. Intuitively. It's a very, very real thing. And so let us, understand that we are not made for receiving. We are made for giving, and love is a way of explaining the joy that results from giving. Now, the word obviously is used incorrectly. You know, I every Thanksgiving, I smack my lips and I say, I love roast turkey. I say that all the time, but it's a misuse of the word, because obviously, I don't really love roast turkey. I don't love turkey at all, because if I did, I wouldn't eat them. I'd set up a Home for Retired turkeys, but I use the word and I say, No, it's a misuse of the word. We should just be aware of it. And there are many times words are used that just don't mean anything. And I saw an article recently, and I've got to look and see I'm sorry I forgot where I read it, and it was an article about a woman by a woman saying, I've been hearing a lot about traditional wives, and I've been hearing about stay at home girlfriends and stay at home wives and these wives cook meals for their husbands and they're dressed beautifully, and they're put together and so I thought I'd give it a try. So I took a week off my high paying job, and I stayed home with my two children, and you won't be shocked to hear that the week was not a success, and she she says often as well. All I know is that if my daughter ever expresses a desire to be a traditional wife, I will do my best to talk. Her out of that outdated thinking, she uses the word outdated as if that is enough of an indictment to completely condemn an idea. So a traditional wife is outdated, therefore gone and it's finished. The other thing that was sort of really stupid about that article was, you know, how would it be if, if I said, you know, I really want to know what it's like to be a Frenchman, and so I wear a beret, and I eat baguettes, and I listen to French music, and for an entire week, I'm living like a Frenchman. I eat crepe Suzette and I drink French wine. I'm living like a Frenchman. And at the end of the week I say, you know, I don't really get what all those folks in Paris like so much. I tried being a Frenchman. Didn't do much. I think it's an outdated thing. It's an overrated benefit. No, what you did was being nonsensical. You didn't live as a Frenchman at all. Nothing like it. And in the same way here, you know that the idea that she lived as a as a traditional wife for a week, it's complete rubbish. It's completely untrue, but yes, in a traditional marriage where the man deals with the outside world and creates a cocoon of security for his wife, and he allows her to focus on building a home, preparing an environment in which children can grow properly, healthfully, with the right values. And she focuses on spending time with those children and raising those children, which is not at all simple, not at all simple.
Daniel Lapin 26:56
I have a wonderful daughter-in-law who spends time with a beautiful little girl and two amazing boys, extremely rambunctious, and she's exhausted at the end of the day, rightly so, because she's not just sitting around. She's providing stimulating and educational surroundings for the children at all times, and she's making sure that they're nourished physically as well as spiritually, and at the same time, she's making sure that her husband comes home to a neat, orderly home and a relaxed wife who has time to spend with him and has attention and she's not worn out by eight hours in some grueling office job. No, that's a very traditional marriage, very difficult for on both both sides, but the end result is that both are able to be givers. Both are givers. He is able to be generous with his wife financially, and to prepare and cater for her, and to spend time with her and to give her his full attention when he's not at work, he's able and does those things, and she is able to surround him with With love and serenity and joy. These are priceless, and each one finds fulfillment by loving. What does loving mean? Not wanting, not desiring, not lusting, no loving is giving and the strange, quiet, tranquil joy that you're filled with while this is going on is called love. That's what it really is. So some people wrote and said, Love is an emotion. Others said, No, it's not a feeling. I think that I would tend towards saying that love is an action. It's not just a feeling that would suggest you can be totally passive and you can experience the joy of love, not true. Loving means you are giving to someone else, and so marrying somebody so that you can lavish them with love means lavish them with giving the things that they need, whether it's a sense of security, whether it's a sense of of closeness and and commitment, whatever it is all Those things that different people love in their marriages, that's it's a wonderful thing, and then you have children. That's the next step. Now, children are amazing because they are capable of absorbing absolutely everything you give your attention, your time, your work, your. Whatever you give them, whatever you give them. And so that's one of the reasons that children do bring joy, because they are limitless reservoirs for your love. There's no limit to what you can give them. And so consequently, there's no limit to the joy they bring you as you feel love for them. And I've often heard women who were confident that as soon as they had their babies, they would want to go back to work as quickly as they possibly can. And and mothers write and speak about I became a mother. My first baby is born, and as she lay on my chest, looking up at me with maybe her eyes were still shut, but I realized I was overwhelmed by a sense of love for this creature, more than I've ever felt ever before. And the last thing on earth I ever thought of, I thought of I was thinking about was going back to work. And in fact, many, many, many women, and this is spoken about in business circles all the time, that women get leave for having a child. They get leave many women do, they get leave for the end of pregnancy and for childbirth and for the first couple of months of the child, and then the company realizes that she's not coming back. She said she would, she promised she would, she wanted to. She just doesn't want to anymore, because for the first time in her life, she's experienced a love that is limitless, and so the joy that it brings is also limitless.
Daniel Lapin 31:45
I want to make sure that you all have the opportunity to join our Happy Warrior community. We meet once a month on a zoom call, a little bit like a mastermind group, a little bit like a discussion group, and we all get together as Happy Warriors to compare notes and discuss things also on the Happy Warrior website, which is a Members Only website, Happy warriors communicate with one another, encourage one another, inspire one another, and also communicate in a forum with one another and also together with Susan and me. So I would like to suggest that you consider joining us and becoming a supporting member of the Happy Warrior community. You do that by going to RabbiDaniellapin.com and you'll find there drop down for the Happy Warrior community. You also get access to a vast amount of material pertaining to 5 Fs you know, whatever you happen to be working on, whether it's family or faith or friendships or finance or fitness, all of those things can be found on the Happy Warrior website. In what is your resource basket, things that you can access at will, and this becomes extremely useful as one grapples with the many, many significant decisions that we all have to make every day to be able to have a place where you can go to run it by some other people who have a similar outlook to life as you do. Run it by them. Look up some of the resources and see some of the material that has helped other people with exactly the same decisions you're making. All of that happens when you are a Happy Warrior member. And so please go ahead and join us. Susan and I welcome each and every one of you, and we cherish the love that you lavish on us by being a member of the happy warrior community. So please go over to RabbiDanielLapin.com.
Daniel Lapin 34:18
You know in Ecclesiastes, King Solomon speaks about the time for to be born, a time to die, a time to love, a time to hate, all of these things. And of course, years ago, in the 60s, the musical group called the birds turned it into a very popular song called Turn, Turn, Turn, and we've been speaking about love. And what I'd like to spend a few moments on now is on war. The other side of the coin. What happens in war? Well, war you're taking when you conquer another side. I've pointed this out in. Past that when Germany took over the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia. And this happened in 1938 before World War Two actually began in a very shameful process, England and France gave Czechoslovakian land to the Germans, they were fearful. Why were they fearful? Well, England and France paid a very high price in World War One. World War One ended in 1918, so now we are 20 years later. That's all 20 years, it's like yesterday, and Adolf Hitler is rearming against the Versailles Treaty, against the the the rules. But nobody did a thing. Nobody tried to stop him. Hitler, at that period, Lolita, marched into the Rhineland, which had been demilitarized at the end of World War One. He marched an army in there, and we know now from post World War Two documents that Hitler and the Wehrmacht knew and stated explicitly that if the French as much as lift a finger to object, they'll back down, because France in 1938 had a very big army. Hitler marched, I believe it was 20,000 men into the entire Rhineland. It's ridiculous. He couldn't hold it if the French came and nobody lifted a finger, not England and not France. They were scared of a fight. That's really important. I want you to remember that they were terrified of a fight, and they just kept on trying to appease Adolf Hitler and to placate him, and Adolf Hitler said, Czechoslovakia will be the last territorial demand I make in Europe. I have to have Czechoslovakia, and in order to placate him and hopefully avert the necessity of ever fighting France and England, met with Germany in Munich, and they gave him the Sudetenland, the most important industrial part of Czechoslovakia. It didn't take long before Hitler annexed the whole of Czechoslovakia within the next few years. And what did he do it for? Well, there was a very big industrial complex in in Czechoslovakia called Skoda. You might actually have even seen Skoda. Cars to this day, are still being made, I believe. But at that point, it was a very huge industrial complex. They were making cars and also making armaments for the Czechoslovakia army. But Hitler, immediately after conquering Czechoslovakia, he didn't destroy it, he redirected its productive capacity for the benefit of the Nazis and for Germany. And so the overwhelming bulk of Czechoslovakia's agricultural output got shipped to Germany, and the Skoda works got turned to producing trucks and tanks and airplanes for the German military machine.
Daniel Lapin 38:28
And so warfare is about taking. It's very opposite of love, right? That's why you go to war. You take you take property. You know, in the case of of Putin, went to war against Ukraine, and we'll take a look at that also in a moment. But what was going on on there, of course, is that he felt threatened in the Senate. And I know that my view is not the popular view on this, but my view is that that he felt that the NATO Allies violated an understanding that they would not move NATO into Ukraine, and doing so would be the equivalent of the Chinese Communist Party establishing a military base in Tijuana, Mexico, just a few miles from San Diego, just over the border, America would obviously, well, I don't know about now, but we never would have settled for that in exactly the same way that in 1962 when the Russians put long range ballistic missiles in Cuba, which is not just over the border, but it's near enough, Kennedy reacted very strongly, and I don't think he really took the world to the brink of nuclear war, but it did feel like it, and people certainly have claimed that that was the case. But at any rate, the point was that. People go to war to get things, not to give things, to get a security, to get benefits, to get whatever it is that they are going to try and take from the people that they are conquering. And I'm interested in, well, first of all,
Daniel Lapin 40:25
I hear noises all the time about we're not going to let China take over Taiwan. Well, as you know, and I want you to remember, you heard it right here first that China will get Taiwan. They will get it, however, not with bullets, but with ballots. Yes, indeed, the alliance in the Taiwanese parliament that is in favor of restoring Taiwan to Greater China is growing in strength with every election, and so it's going to be a very simple, straightforward thing. There is no danger whatsoever that the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation, the biggest maker of chips in the world, no danger that they're going to be bombed into oblivion and and what is America going to do about that? Well, absolutely nothing, exactly the same way that there'd be absolutely nothing they're going to do even if China did decide to take Taiwan militarily, what is America going to do send aircraft carriers into the South China Sea and put them in range of China's land based hypersonic missiles. Not likely. It's not going to happen. And so you know what is going to happen? Well, we're living in an increasingly dangerous world. There's no question. For many years, America has hoped that India would become a sort of bulwark between China and the United States. Well, because of four years of the Biden administration and before that, because of Obama administration policies, there are many countries that are weighing up the value of their alliance with the United States. Now, you know, am I being partisan? Political? Yes, I am not necessarily in favor of Republicans over Democrats, but in favor of constitutional conservatism and in favor of the interests of the United States. I do not believe the interests of the United States and its taxpayers are served by sending 10s of billions of dollars to Ukraine. I don't I don't see that. I don't think that American interests are being served by foreign aid to many other countries. I do believe that the criterion is American interests. We are not here to impose American morality on the rest of the world, and we're certainly not here to impose homosexual and transgender rights on other countries that in Afghanistan, the Afghanis to this day are still angry at the fact that America was making upset acceptance of homosexuality and transgenderism a condition for financial assistance and for building educational institution. Did you know that your tax money was going to promote through official government channels, Gay Pride flags on American embassies throughout Africa. Really, the Kenyans were not at all happy to be lectured by Barack Obama about the need to become accepting of homosexuality. Most countries around the world are not. And so as far as India is concerned, one of the things that's happening right now is that India is building an alliance with China, not at all what America dreamed of. It's tragic, but it's the reality. It is what's happening.
Daniel Lapin 44:33
And so, yes, we are living in a very dangerous world, and it's a world in which America, for many years now, has not had any clarity, and I'll give you an example. I've spoken about this before in a previous podcast. I wonder if you remember when I said that World War Two was the last war that the United States of America won Korea in. Draw at best, Vietnam, a defeat, and then the whole slew of Iraq and Afghanistan wars, really a huge loss of blood and money for what you don't call that a victory, do you not at all. And I've also spoken about the fact that when Germany was defeated and the Marshall Plan began to be set up in Germany, do you know how many roving bands of German terrorists and saboteurs circulated attacking American aid convoys and attacking anything that America was doing in Germany. Do you know how many of those gangs of terror, of roving German terrorist was took place? Not one when Douglas MacArthur took over the running of Japan 1945 he marches into Tokyo with what in the way of armaments? No armaments. How many bands of Japanese thugs and terrorists took potshots at German soldiers. How many German soldiers were shot by Japanese snipers after August 1945 How come there were no Germans still angry at America's victory in World War Two and proceeding to run terrorist operations, none Japan with a ferocity with which the Japanese fought, the bravery and the courage and the determination, the fearlessness With all of that going the Emperor okays a surrender. The surrender is signed on the decks of the USS, Missouri, and after that, not a single Japanese seems to have been going on a murderous rampage to exact revenge on those people who dropped fire bombs from the sky, wiping out city after city engine. Why not, my friend? Shall I tell you? Why not? Because there was the application of hugely disproportionate force, and the victory was complete and unarguable, and everyone in Japan was very happy not to tempt America to drop another bomb. They were very, very happy. The victory in Germany was total answer and complete surrender. Several times during 44 and early 45 the Germans asked for terms of surrender. The Allies response was no terms, no discussions, no conditions, unconditional surrender, or we can continue annihilating you. Holy. The way you win wars is with disproportionate force. The way you make sure that there is no eventual victory and that the war just lingers on and on and on and on. Do you now dispel Vietnam? That happens when you avoid overwhelmingly disproportionate force, when both sides are encouraged not to react disproportionately all you're making sure of is the fighting goes on and on and on and on and so what? How? How does America let's compare how America treats Ukraine and how America treats Israel. Does America say to Ukraine, don't use disproportionate force against the Russians. They don't want them expanding the war by going into Russia. But when they encounter Russians in Ukraine,
Daniel Lapin 49:17
the Ukrainian attack on Russian soldiers again and again and again has been brutal. There's been torture, there's been mutilation, there's been the most horrific acts done by the Ukrainians against the Russians. And that's kind of if you are Ukrainian, that's what you kind of want to do. You want to make it very difficult for Russia to get volunteers to come and fight or even conscripts, because they hear stories of what the Ukrainians do to them. That's what you do. And America has not, in any way whatsoever, exer. Any restrictions on Ukrainians exertion of as as disproportionate as they can make it, Russia is fighting, in many cases, with World War Two vintage artillery and America supplied Ukraine with modern fighter planes, with drones, with all kinds of high tech gear, very disproportionate. They want Ukraine to exert disproportionate power because they want Ukraine to beat Russia. How about in Israel? Constant fears of disproportionality. No, no, no, don't go after them too much. Imagine had President Biden said to President Prime Minister Netanyahu, on October the eighth, 2023 you had a terrible attack yesterday. We're going to give you, shall we say, three weeks to destroy Hamas. We'll supply you with whatever you need. We don't want to talk about it. We don't want to hear you talking about it. Just get in and do what you have to do. Do you think there'd be any problems today? You'll be over and done with America. Couldn't do that. Why there's something going on here? Is there not Isn't it odd. Have you noticed that Zelensky in Ukraine is not exactly a democratic guy, violation of almost all ordinary constitutional norms of a civilized Western democracy. Let's face it. I mean, Zelensky has become his own little tyrant. Any insistence on America, on fair elections, any insistence on the part of America that opposing parties need to have a say they need to be able to exist. Any requirements for a free press from America, no requirements on Zelensky in Ukraine at all, but in Israel, America is insisting that it has to be democratic. And it goes on and on and on. Why? What is going on about now here, I know that this is something that you are going to find. I think as innocent as I do the I mean, think about it. Every time that Israel retaliates in Gaza or anywhere else, they constantly are attacked because, oh, you know how many civilians were killed? You know how many babies were killed? You know how many children were killed? We get that all the time. How come there's no conversation in Ukraine about killing civilians? How? How come there's no requirement on Ukraine to only kill combatants, not required, not mentioned.
Daniel Lapin 53:04
And what I want to suggest to you is that there are wildly different standards being placed by the United States on Ukraine than are being placed on Israel, to the detriment of Israel. And so it's almost as if America is preventing Israel from winning a war, whereas America is doing everything possible. And the sad reality is that there's no way that Ukraine is beating Russia. It's not happening. What do you think the game plan? What is the end plan here? Well, I suppose one of the things is that Russia requires must have a land bridge to the Crimea and to their naval base in zvezdo, Pol and and so probably that's going to be the end negotiation. But I'm just speculating on that. Bottom line is there's no evidence that even with supplying huge amounts of armaments and with no restraints placed on the military and with Zelensky given every benefit, it's no indication they're going to win. Israel, on the other hand, could clearly win and bring about an end to the and all you hear from we need a ceasefire. A ceasefire. You know what? Japan. The war in the Pacific didn't end with a ceasefire. It ended with an overwhelming, crushing defeat of Japan. The war in Europe didn't end with a negotiated ceasefire with Germany. The war in Europe ended in 1944 1945 it ended with a crushing defeat that left Germany in absolute ruins with no alternative but to give an unconditional surrender in. Does America really not want peace in Israel? What do you think? And I'll invite you know it was so nice to receive your comments on the definition of love that I'm going to give you this this question to tell me as well. Go on the we Happy Warriors website. You'll find a place where you can comment on the podcast and tell me, what does America want? What does America want with Israel? It's clear that they're not giving it the same opportunity for a victory as they're giving Ukraine. So what do they want? Eternal warfare in the Middle East. It doesn't have to be that way, war is God's way of solving disputes. War settle things. Have you ever heard people say violence doesn't settle anything? Of course it does. It's a lie. Of course it does. War is hell. Look, I'm not saying it's great. I'm not saying I want to hear about innocent civilians dying. I don't want to hear about kids, but I know that that's what war is. I'm sorry about it. I wish it were different, but it isn't, and it's not going to be in any time in the future. That is what war is and so there isn't any doubt in my mind that if America would apply the same rules to Israel as they apply to Ukraine, the problem would go away. That's all as long as the Islamic fundamentalists believe that there is a chance that they can get rid of Israel and get rid of all the Jews. They're going to keep trying, because America is stopping Israel from doing what they do best. You remember what a long period of peace there was following 1967 and following 1973 because in both those cases, the defeat inflicted on Arab forces was complete. It was absolutely complete. Now it wasn't complete in terms of unconditional surrender, America stopped Israel on the road to Baghdad, which is what would have brought about a complete victory, and America stopped Israel from crossing the Suez Canal and going to Cairo. But had those things happened, there'd be peace in the Middle East. Israel wouldn't be occupying anywhere. They don't want to occupy anywhere. So my question is, if Israel were treated like Ukraine has been treated, the problem would be resolved. What does America want to see? Remember, that's exactly what America did in Vietnam. Do you think America couldn't have inflicted a complete, total defeat on Vietnam, and, if necessary, on their Chinese allies. We're not talking China 2024 we're talking China circa 1950s very different China, easily defeatable by a then United States, but we didn't do it. And so Vietnam leaves a permanent scar on the American psyche, and it was a lost war. After World War One, we World War Two, we won Vietnam, a defeat inflicted upon the United States. Why? Well, because we didn't go all in. We did not apply overwhelmingly disproportionate force. It's as if we didn't really want to win. It's even as if we were a little frightened of a fight.
Daniel Lapin 58:58
It was kind of okay fighting the Vietnamese, but we were scared of fighting China. We didn't want to risk that happening. But what's happening in Israel? Why is that? And so in many ways, what we have are two different questions we're trying to understand: Why it is that America is treating Israel differently? In other words, what does Israel actually What does America want to see happen? What is the game plan? What is the goal? And question number two is, why after World War Two, why did America move into a no-win mode? Why did America move into a mode that said we never want to apply crushing force and defeat our enemies? What happened there? I really would love you to take a good look at that, see what you think of it, and write let me know, right two questions, what does America want with Israel, and what is the reason for why post World War Two, America lost the will to fight a war and win,
Daniel Lapin 1:00:30
And that, dear Happy Warriors, is as far as we're going to go today, I will say this, that on the Happy Warrior website, I'm going to provide my response to those two questions that I asked on the Happy Warrior website. I'm going to explain just why it is that America stopped winning wars after World War Two, and I'm going to explain what is it that is making sure that America will not let Israel win this war, completely different from the approach to Ukraine. And so you can go to the Happy Warrior website, and you will be able to hear but you might want to first go ahead and write and tell me your suggestions, your answers to those two questions and then after that, go and listen to what I explain as the reasons for those two things, why America is not letting Israel win, and why America in general, hasn't been able to win a war since 1945 My goodness, the bug out of Afghanistan and President Biden leaving behind $60 billion worth of military equipment. Yeah, that's that's a defeat. We lost that one. What's going on? Why does that happen? And these are things that I think we do have to understand. They help us understand how the world really works, and we do that, right? Don't we all look for some kind of schematic that helps us make sense of what's going on around us. It's like a road map on a journey. You know, you're you're trying to figure out what is the relationship between the various cities, where are they situated, and in which directions do the roads go? Hey, there's a thing called a road map, and that's what we're doing here as well. We're trying to gain a better understanding of what is happening on the geopolitical scene. We're trying to get our roadmap to that, our broad schematic, because it enables us to prepare correctly. And so as we focus on our on our five F's, knowing which directions to go in your business going, knowing which directions to go in finance and family, how do you find most security and most protection? You kind of got to know where the threat is coming from and what kind of threat it is, right. And that is exactly what we've been doing today, and what I will continue providing for you on the We Happy Warriors website. So thank you all for being part of the rabbi Daniel Lapin show. As always, I cherish the opportunity to be with you, and I look forward to being together again next week, but until then, I want to make sure that you grow mightily in your five F's in your family, your finances, your fitness, your faith and your friendships. I'm Rabbi. Daniel Lapin, God bless you.
