The new terrorist-industrial complex
The new terrorist-industrial complex

In a recent article, Jonathan S. Tobin tells us that the Boeing Company, under the terms of an exception to the recent “deal” with treacherous Iran, is allowed to supply Iran with commercial airliners and other goods and services.  He goes on to summarize the significance of the release of $150 billion to the Iranians by noting, “Not only has Boeing gotten into bed with terrorists, the same can be said of those who are counting on all the new business ties changing the nature of a terrorist regime.” 

The American left is still fond of quoting Eisenhower’s farewell address caution that the U.S. constitutional republic faces threats from the “military-industrial complex”; but perhaps we would not be off the mark by considering the “Boeing exception” (plus new worldwide economic implications of the Iran deal) as ushering in a new age:  that of the terrorist-industrial complex.  The Obama administration would then be considered the author of this new turn in the road with all its sinister implications. 

This shift whereby global business interests, the government of the United States, and our P+5 partners, all collude with the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism is ominous for Israel. But the implications extend even further than that.  This deal portends a great shift in the moral/ethical climate of the entire planet. The entire power elite of the world is hereby going beyond mere greedy excess or dealing first and foremost in terms of expediency.      

Who says humans are basically good?  It is a fiction.
Instead this deal may indicate a moral glacial shift in the governance of the world.  It is the essence of the yetzer hara [bad tendency of mind/spirit] that Solomon Schechter wrote about in a couple of wonderful books.  The deal and its “exceptions” reek of the moral poison that comes from violating the Commandments "Thou shall not bear false witness" and "Thou Shalt not covet."  It also reflects a New Testament teaching wholly consistent with the Hebrew Scriptures, "You cannot love both God and mammon too."  However, please be forewarned: God will not be mocked.

Who says humans are basically good?  It is a fiction.  Were we good, there would be no need for Torah.  There would be no need for a Messiah. The prophets and the forefathers would have no relevance. There would be no need for prayer, study, tzedakah (charity), mitzvot, blessings.  There would be no need for repentance (tshuva).  There would be no need for atonement.  Anything honorable and worthy is only honorable and worthy in contrast with that which is not honorable and worthy.  If expedience is the standard, then there is no room for the honorable or worthy. Hence, immorality or, at best, amorality becomes the unspoken standard for conduct.

Years ago, when I was an officer in the Product Communications Division of Bankers Trust Co. in New York City, I was taken on a tour of the offices that maintained the accounts of foreign banks.  My guide explained that the bank held deposits from Libya.  When asked how the bank could accept those deposits when there were so many terrorist acts by Libya, he answered, "Whatever their international behavior, we still officially have diplomatic relations with them, so it's legal."  Further, all interest calculations were purposely done by a team of six clerks instead of by computer because the written calculations were too complex for the foreign banks to review, and thus BTCo. could cheat them on the applied interest.  

Later, a friend of this writer who was vice president of Merrill, Lynch, Pierce, Fenner, and Smith related that he had complained to his boss about certain lies being told to their customers, and was told in no uncertain terms, "It's not illegal to lie!"  Thus, in both cases, law was perceived as driving ethics rather than the other way round.  This is the complete reversal of Judeo-Christian values where natural law drives legal constructs. 

The Law of the Great Lawgiver, Almighty God, is paramount in all dealings on the face of the Earth.  Otherwise, our very raison d’être is being denied.  There is a Higher Law on which our "natural rights" and daily social intercourse (both customary relational behaviors and those behaviors formalized into legal codes) are based.  The Iran deal and the Boeing exception represent a quantum leap forward in the suppression of Godly Truth.

But the industrial-terrorist complex that is now emerging with implications for the world may be destructive far beyond even the fate of individual states.  It may be a leap forward towards an even darker revelation. In an amazingly prophetic story by Isaac Bashevis Singer entitled “The Gentleman From Cracow,” about life in the village of Frampol where “the food was scarce and the water foul….,”    one day a young Jewish man, a doctor, arrived in a carriage drawn by eight horses.  He told the villagers that his wife and baby had just died in childbirth, and his rabbi had advised him that his melancholy would disappear in Frampol.  He begins to spend a lot of money in the town and the town prospers as never before.  He finally decides to marry one of the local women.  On the day of the wedding, “the gentleman from Cracow revealed his true identity.”  Who was he?  Singer reveals him to us, “He was no longer the young man the villagers had welcomed, but a creature covered with scales, with an eye in his chest, and on his forehead a horn that rotated at great speed. His arms were covered with hair, thorns, and elflocks, and his tail was a mass of live serpents, for he was none other than Ketev Mriri, Chief of the Devils.” Can it be that the prosperity for Iran and for the other beneficiaries of the deal, including Boeing, is but the prelude to a darker revelation?

When we look at Israel’s enemies and at the enemies of Western Civilization --- equal opportunity haters who despise Jews, Christians, Yazidis, Zoroastrians, Druze, Buddhists, Hindus, and, depending on their sect, Shi’ites or Sunnis, and believers of every stripe (perceived as presenting an “opiate” for the people), we see evil incarnate. We see minds devoured by hate. 

The new terrorist-industrial complex may be a lurching forward towards a sinister revelation.  Events large and small may be moving in that direction.  Was not a precious 13 yr. old Hallel Yaffa Ariel murdered in her bed?  Can any human’s heart not break?  Can the conscience of a person of any political persuasion not be torn apart by such an event?  Yet, where is the cry?  Where is the voice of pain from Western leaders, from the Arab world, from the imams, from the so-called democratic leaders? 

Is this really a time to be self-controlled and circumspect, or is it a time to speak out and to fall on our knees before Almighty God, a time to wail our grief and determination to root out this degenerate, murderous spirit by prayer, supplications, and very aggressive governmental policies?