Middle East ‘forever’ wars


Iran, Lebanon join victims in the forever war. Vigils continue

March 2026

The 119th vigil took place in Salisbury with over 25 in attendance, as the war intensified in the Middle East. We are in the third week of attacks on Iran as Israel and the US are bombing large areas of the country. Israel has resumed attacking Lebanon with over 800 dead. Israel seeks to destroy Hezbollah who are firing rockets into northern Israel. With Iran significantly weakened, the IDF regard now as a key opportunity finally to destroy the organisation’s activities in the Lebanon. Reporting on Gaza has been overlooked recently where the death toll now stands at 72,000 plus.

This new development has resulted in consequences which do not seem to have been anticipated. The response from Iran has massively affected the Gulf states and the movement of oil. The impact on western economies is only just starting. Some UK politicians were all for the Israeli/US action urging Sir Keir Starmer to be more pro-actively involved. There seems to be some rowing back from that as its effects became apparent. The bombing of the Shajareh Teyyabeh girl’s elementary school in, Minab, Iran killing around 170 – mostly children – has had an effect on public opinion.

The war, only three weeks old in its current manifestation, has led to a massive displacement of people around the region running into hundreds of thousands. The glee with which Pete Hegseth has spoken about the destruction of Iran is especially alarming. The objectives and timescale remain unclear.

Sources: Independent, CBS, Al Jazeera, Haaretz, Guardian


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  1. The phrase “מי שלמד תורה שלא לשמה, סופו ללמד לשמה” a Baraita found in the Gemara of Avodah Zarah 19a. What does it mean? The Sinai Life/Death blessing\curse revolves around ruling the land with justice vs. Par’o like judicial oppression in g’lut as the k’vanna of the bi-polar דיוק separation between לשמה – לא לשמה. Rabbi Yechuda compiled his Shas Mishna in 210 CE, some 75 years after the collapse of the Bar Kachba revolt. By the time that Rabbi Yechuda published the Mishna – the name of Judea – Emperor Hadrian, around 135 CE, had already renamed that conquered province to Syria Palaestina.

    By the time of Rabbi’s Mishna the Romans had already decided to expunge the land of the Jewish people like as did the Syrian Greeks whom the Hanukka benching in ברכת המזון condemns for attempting to cause Israel to forget the Torah. G’lut, based upon מצרים – לאו דוקא, therein means תורה לא לשמה. The Syrian Greeks the first to change the name of Judea unto Palestine. This fact exceptionally important because universes separate לא לשמה g’lut oppression from Sanhedrin Court justice לשמה. Sanhedrin court fundamentally and absolutely require Yovel freedom, based upon Pesach freedom, and brit melah as the sign of this brit to rule the land with justice צדק צדק תרדוף first established at the brit cut between the pieces with HaShem & Avram לשמה.

    The generation of Yehoshua established the other 3 Cities of Refuge with their small Sanhedrin Capital Crimes courts. However, the next generation abandoned this Torah and worshipped avoda zara other Gods; meaning the Tribes of Israel abandoned the Federal Mishkan as Central hub of the Great Sanhedrin and cities of refuge as the spokes small Sanhedrin capital crime courts! Whenever Israel abandons the righteous pursuit of justice in the conquered land of Canaan, qualifies as av tuma avoda zara.

    לא לשמה “ulterior motives” stands under the 2nd Sinai commandment of g’lut. לשמה “sake of Heaven” – dedicates the Oral Torah tohor middot אל רחום וחנון etc לשמה; herein defines Yermia’s ברית חדש and rabbi Yechuda’s בכל לבבך chiddush in ברכות; Mishna א:א which lears kre’a shma as tefillah דאורייתא in ארץ ישראל; acceptance of the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven לשמה – the k’vanna time-oriented wisdom commandment which prioritizes tohor middot as the dominant spirits which rule the heart over av tuma “Esav – middot” — Yatzir Ha-Rah spirits of violence hatred without cause “avoda zarah”.

    By the time rabbi Yechuda compiled his Shas Mishna and how much more so the Bavli Talmud sealed around 450CE, the land of Judea no longer called by that name but rather Palestine; the Roman religion of Xtianity had expunged the brit cut between the pieces and replaced it with a Harry Potter messiah “son of God”. Then the Arab caliphate slaughtered and butchered the Roman empire in the Middle East and replaced the JeZeus God downgraded to prophet with Allah. Arabs together with their Muslim converts ignore the oath brit לשמה cut between the pieces and replace Ishmael as the son dedicated to inherit the chosen Cohen status oblivious to the concept of a chosen Cohen people!

    The blessing/curse opening first two commandments of Sinai serve as the basis to understand לא לשמה. Following the capture and destruction of Herod’s Temple the Romans “permitted” the establishment of a Sanhedrin in Tiberias! Akin to Napoleon’s “Sanhedrin” to give citizenship to Jews to serve as hamburger meat in his Armies! Both this and that Sanhedrin לא לשמה, simply because no Pesach/Yovel existed not in the entire history of the בית שני nor in the long g’lut which culminated in the Shoah! Therefore, the Shas Mishna compiled by rabbi Yechuda does not compile Sanhedrin common law rulings made in the past but rather serves as a model when Jews לשמה reconquer the oath brit homelands and establish the Torah as the Constitution of the Republic of Tribes which mandates a Federal common law Sanhedrin court system when Jews rule this land keeping the Yovel.

    Romulus Augustulus, the last Roman emperor, collapsed in 476CE at the helm of the Germanic barbarian Odoacer. The collapse of the Western Roman empire considered by many scholars as marking the beginning of the Dark Ages which witnessed the collapse of international travel and trade. Virtually all European governments sought to restore the Roman empire. The name Czar of Russia directly refers to Caesar. In the West the crowning of Charlemagne as Emperor of the Romans by Pope Leo III in 800 CE symbolized a revival of the idea of a unified Xtian empire in the West, harkening back to the legacy of Rome. The Holy Roman Empire, established in the early Middle Ages, this entity likewise sought לא לשמה to restore the dead Roman empire, much like the Romans sought to impose the dead Syrian Greek empire by renaming Judea unto Palestine. Then in 1939 the coward Chamberlain, after betraying the Czech Republic the year previous, did the same with the Balfour Resolution and promised to establish a Arab 75% majority Palestinian state within 10 years after WWII.

    Great Power 20th Century imperialism an extension of the dreams of Charlemagne and the Czar – both dead empires. Pre-’67 “neutral” England and France–Post ’67 wrote 242 in the Security Council (LBJ tied down in Vietnam), which stands on the British abomination of the ’39 White Paper which promised within 10 years after the War a 75% Arab majority Palestinian state. But both European empires as dead as Rome following the conclusive defeat of imperial ambitions of both London and Paris follow the 1956 War which terminated the great power status of both countries. The sun set on both empires. Yet the UN pretends that it establishes “international law” in the matter of a Palestinian State despite the cold hard fact that the UN Protectorate mandate of the League of Nations “Palestine” ceased to exist after David Ben Gurion declared – post the UN 181 validation by 2/3rds General Assembly validation of Jews equal rights to achieve self determination – the Jewish state of Israel. All UN attempts to re-impose the White Paper abomination, like UN 3379, 446 and 2334 null and void. The British empire dead like the Roman and Syrian Greek empires. The White Paper directly guilty for the Shoah. Any UN attempt to restore Roman “Palestine” dead.

    The phrase “מי שלמד תורה שלא לשמה, סופו ללמד לשמה” – often interpreted in idealistic terms, focusing on the educational aspect of Torah study. However the Baraita means nothing not under Par’o withholding straw and beating Israelites for their failure to meet their tale of brick production. Nor in all g’lut lands because מצרים לאו דוקא. Only in the oath sworn lands can Jews observe and keep mitzvot לשמה. In g’lut Jews do mitzvot לא לשמה so when they rule Canaan they do not forget how to do mitzvot לשמה. The model to do mitzvot לשמה learns from the generation of Yehoshua who conquered Canaan and established all 6 cities of refuge/small Sanhedrin courts; as opposed to the next generation לא לשמה who abandoned Torah justice (recorded in all prophetic mussar) and worshipped avoda zarah.

    “אנכי” ו“לא יהיה לך” – מפי הגבורה שמענום (Makkot 24a) Moshe’s entire covenantal warning in Devarim 27–30 is nothing but the expansion of these two commandments. “ראה נתתי לפניך היום את החיים ואת הטוב… ואת המוות ואת הרע.” (Devarim 30). The entire משנה תורה-דברים common law mandates צדק צדק תרדוף as the national application of the first two Sinai commandments. Moshe’s Torah establishes the oath brit as remembered through the Avot; a national, not psychological or personal religious observance which any Jew can do in g’lut.

    The mitzva of Moshiach dedicates לשמה the rule of צדק צדק תרדוף Sanhedrin common law courts. This wisdom time-oriented positive commandment must have this k’vanna of dedication. When the Moshe anointed the House of Aaron, herein defines the k’vanna of this wisdom time-oriented commandment. When the prophet Shmuel anointed both the house of Shaul and later David as Moshiach – herein defines the k’vanna of this wisdom time-oriented commandment לשמה. When Shaul failed to slaughter the king of Amalek and David failed to stand Uiah the Hittite before the Sanhedrin bar, both men profaned the dedication of Moshiach; Shaul lost the kingdom and David too lost the kingdom – initially through civil wars and later through Babylonian g’lut.

    מי שלמד תורה שלא לשמה = A nation that keeps Torah in g’lut—under Par’o, Rome, Charlemagne, the Czars, the British Empire, the UN—where mitzvot are practiced without sovereignty, without Yovel, without Sanhedrin, under the shadow of foreign gods and foreign law. Mitzvot in g’lut = שלא לשמה by definition—preservation, rehearsal, memory. All the centuries of Torah שלא לשמה in exile are not meaningless. Egypt serves as the model of t’shuva – remembering the oath sworn by each of the Avot to father the Cohen brit cut between the pieces/akadah\blessing to Yaacov. Therefore, the Mishnah simply not a record of an active Oral Torah Sanhedrin judicial system—but a blueprint for future sovereignty. The first “mitzvah” following reconquering ארץ ישראל the mitzva wherein all Israeli men accept the mitzva of Moshiach צדק צדק תרדוף as the dedication of the Yatzir Ha-Tov within our hearts for all generations as the yoke of the kingdom of heaven, the k’vanna of brit melah.

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