"Si vis pacem, para bellum."  If you want peace, prepare for war.  —Roman proverb

According to CNN, the man suspected of stabbing Jews during a Chanukah celebration at a rabbi's home in Monsey, New York was taken into custody with "blood all over him."  However, Pamela Geller has reported on Twitter what neither CNN nor any of the other anti-Semitic media outlets would dare to print: "Monsey Machete Assailant Is Recent Muslim Convert and May Be Linked to Another BRUTAL Synagogue Stabbing."  Likely, the man's head was filled with verses from the Koran and the Sunna, like this one from Sahih Muslim 41:6981, 6983: "[A] stone says: Muslim, here is a Jew behind me; kill him!"

So why were there no defensive guns at the event, when there were reportedly 100 Jews at the rabbi's Chanukah celebration?  There certainly was armed defense present at a Christian worship service, in readiness for a possible attack, in Texas!  This Chanukah season, an appropriate question may be this: "Why have Texas Christians acted more in line with the example of Judah Maccabee than New York Jews?"

"If someone comes to kill you, arise quickly and kill him." —Talmud, Sanhedrin 1994,2,72a

It is more than a source of embarrassment to many Jews, this author included, that numerous Jewish political and religious leaders support victim disarmament laws, which go against long established Jewish laws, the most basic of which is the commandment to "choose life, so that you and your children may live."  Throughout Jewish history, there have been threats requiring armed defense to preserve the Jewish people and their religion.  The biggest threat — from the Roman Empire to the Third Reich — has always come from the state and its representatives.  It should not be lost on Jews that Joe Biden, about as devoted to state power as one can get, criticized Texas governor Greg Abbott for signing a bill that allows Texans to defend themselves against attack in their places of worship.  Clear-headed Jews thank God that Donald Trump, perhaps the most philo-Semitic president of all time, is chief executive, rather than a statist Democrat, like Biden, who would disarm the people, allowing them to be murdered in their synagogues and churches, as well as in their own homes.

It is sad that so many Jews have forgotten their history and have chosen to put their trust in left-wing leaders who choose death over life (in the tradition of such Jewish leaders as Max Naumann and Hans Joachim Schoeps, in Hitler's Germany).  Jews must stop trusting in the government to protect them and, instead, need to take responsibility by invoking their Second Amendment right to self-defense.  As the Jews for the Preservation of Firearm Ownership (JPFO) so aptly put it, "[t]he main threat to Jews in America, as elsewhere, is a government 'gone bad.'  Jewish 'leaders' who emphasize victimhood to unify Jews are misguided.  Jewish 'leaders' could strengthen Judaism by teaching proper observance" of Jewish law.

"You shall not murder." —Exodus 20:13

The above commandment does not prohibit the righteous taking of a human life, only the immoral taking of a human life.  Properly translated, this negative commandment reads, "You shall not murder."  The positive corollary of this commandment would go something like this: "You shall use deadly force, if necessary, to protect innocent life."  Thus, all righteous citizens in a republic, to the greatest extent possible and appropriate, should possess the proper means by which to fulfill their shared obligation to defend the lives of their loved ones and fellow citizens.

"If a burglar be found breaking in, and be struck dead, it is not murder." —Exodus 22:2

Jewish law has always required the active defense of every innocent life.  According to God's commandment, in Exodus 22:2, a thief should be proactively attacked, to defend against the deadly threat he poses.  If the thief were to die of his wounds, the defender's blood is not to be shed as a penalty for having justifiably taken the life of a criminal.  A person who is capable of defending the innocent but chooses not to do so is guilty of a tremendous wrongdoing.  Also, he who actively enables the deaths of others, by supporting government-sponsored victim-disarmament (AKA "gun control"), has blood on his hands — the blood of those wrongly murdered, with no chance of rightfully defending themselves against their criminal aggressors, be those assailants lone outlaws or state actors.

A government official's breaking of his oath to defend the Constitution — which includes the Second Amendment — is a wicked deed, akin to endorsing the same types of fascist victim disarmament policies enforced by Hitler's criminal gang of National Socialists.

Besides Joe Biden, another potential dealer of death on the national stage, in 2019, has been Governor "Blackface" Northam of Virginia.  Northam is planning to arrest and incarcerate legal gun-owners, to further his unconstitutional — indeed, criminal — crackdown against law-abiding Virginians.  This includes Jews, of course, who share the common desire with their fellow Virginians simply to live in peace.  But with the police busy and, therefore, usually arriving too late to a crime scene to defend human life, firearms need to be available to ensure the security and tranquility of Jewish communities.

The old Roman idea "Si vis pacem, para bellum" remains true to this day.  If Jews want peace, they must prepare to defend themselves.

Paul Dowling has written about the Constitution, as well as articles for American Thinker, Independent Sentinel, Godfather Politics, Eagle Rising, and Conservative Notions.