Hamas War

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Kashrut Politics, Not Very Kosher and Not Always Healthy

Fred Taub's Boycott Watch has revealed that kashrut authorities are making deals with countries that boycott and shun Israel.
...OK Kosher Certification based in Brooklyn, New York certifies palm oil manufactured in Malaysia and Indonesia as kosher, despite the fact that both those nations boycott Israel.
Indonesia is 86.1% Muslim and refuses to establish diplomatic relations with Israel, claiming establishment of an independent Palestinian state as a prerequisite for normalized relations. Malaysia, which also has no diplomatic relations with Israel, is 60.4% Muslim and its prime minister accuses critics as being "Zionist agents."
Palm oil output in 2006

There must be other sources for palm oil. Aren't there?  According to wikipedia, you can see that palm oil can be found in a number of other countries. 

Nigeria, Columbia and Kenya also have large palm oil industries.  According to the MFA-Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Israel does have diplomatic relations with Nigeria and Kenya.
In September 2009, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman visited Ethiopia, Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria and Uganda, where he met with the leaders of these countries and signed a series of political, economic and development cooperation agreements. He also inaugurated joint projects between Israel and the African host countries.
Israel has diplomatic relations with Columbia.
Today Israel maintains full diplomatic relations with all the countries of Central and South America and the Caribbean region, except Cuba, Bolivia and Venezuela (the latter two severed relations with Israel in 2009). These relations are reflected in productive cooperation in the political, economic and cultural spheres, as well as in a large number of bilateral agreements in many areas.

I'm sure that most kosher foods consumers would prefer that the ingredients in their foods be from countries that have diplomatic relations with the State of Israel.

When it comes to palm oil, there's another concern.  It's not considered healthy.  It has the wrong types and combinations of fats.
Palm oil contains five different saturated fats. Saturated fats will raise your blood cholesterol levels and can lead to heart disease. All oils have some saturated fat in them but palm oil is very high in saturated fat relative to corn, soy or olive oil.
Studies show that substituting palm oil for trans fats wouldn't do any good.  It is just as bad for human health.

Too bad the kashrut industry ignores health issues.

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

I Suggest That Ehud Barak Be Canned!

When I saw this headline, I thought that I had been hallucinating from dehydration:
Reuters/Blaire Gable
Barak Suggests Unilateral Disengagement in Judea, Samaria
Defense Minister Ehud Barak suggests Israel consider a unilateral disengagement in Judea and Samaria, similar to that carried out in Gaza.

Is he nuts or worse?
Israel should consider a unilateral withdrawal from the West Bank if negotiations with the Palestinians fail, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on Wednesday.
Barak received support for his position from Amos Yadlin, the former head of Military Intelligence who now serves as director of the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) in Tel Aviv. (complete article)

Not that I believe that true peace can be reached through, negotiations, but why would the Arabs bother negotiating if they could get more from Israel without even talking to us?

Hasn't the Israeli Government, IDF etc. learned anything since the dangerous situations they have created in the past?
  • fleeing from Southern Lebanon, aka Barak's folly, his campaign promise
  • Disengagement, Ariel Sharon's unilateral withdrawal from Gush Katif (and northern Shomron) which replaced successful Israeli agriculture with deadly missiles launched by Arab terrorists at Israeli civilians
  • Oslo Accords which furnished the Arab terrorists with guns as part of their "self-rule"
Defense Minister Barak is Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's chief confidante in the largest coalition in Israeli history.  Ninety-four (4) out of the one hundred and twenty Knesset Members are in that coalition. There isn't much of an opposition.  It's more farce than democratic, but it's legal.  Just because it's legal doesn't make it right.  In all honesty, I think it's awfully dangerous, like a legal dictatorship.

There is something very strange going on in the Israeli Government. 
  • Who is in charge? 
  • What are they thinking? 
  • Are they thinking?
We only have one small piece of Land.  Why are our politicians trying to give it away?

Re: Turkey, Let's Turn Up The Heat

I was surprised to read that it has already been two years since Turkey sent those faux human rights sic activists/agitators to Israel.  It seems like yesterday, ok, maybe six months ago.  Maybe that's because they and their teammates haven't let up on the media and diplomatic attacks on Israel.  They've also been repeating the lies about our "attack" on them to the point where they may even believe it.

Of course the facts are very different as the Israeli press try to point out on occasion, like in Ruthie Blum's latest article. 

The Turkish invasion is back in the news because the Turkish courts have indicted Israeli IDF officers.  Only Israelis can be charged for self-defense.  No other country gets this treatment.  PM Binyamin Netanyahu alluded to the outrageous charges by Turkey in his speech at at the annual conference of the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) in Tel Aviv.
Israel’s hand extended in peace is not always responded to in kind by governments in the region, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Tuesday in a cryptic reference to the Turkish court’s decision the day before to indict four former senior IDF officers.

I don't understand why Bibi didn't spell it out and explain how anti-Israel Turkey really is!
Dan Margolit's Israel Hayom article makes it much clearer.

Israelis who asked Turks in private conversations why Erdogan was foaming at the mouth got the incredulous answer that the Mavi Marmara was the first time Turkish civilians had been killed since World War I, and that it was difficult for Ankara to come to terms with the incident, in which nine of its citizens were killed.
There is no logic to this argument. Mediators who have proposed resolutions to this crisis have been ignored. Each side blames the other. But the main issue is indisputable: The Turks demanded a commission of inquiry, and Israel hesitantly complied, but ultimately it was Turkey that rejected the committee's conclusions. After all, the commission, headed by Jeffery Palmer, concluded that Israel had a legal right to impose a blockade on the terrorist-infested Gaza Strip for the purposes of self defense.
There are always different rules for Israel, a different morality sic demanded.  The United States has put the blame on Israel too and keeps telling us to fix the relations with Turkey.

Speaking May 28 at Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), Michèle Flournoy, a longtime adviser to U.S. President Barack Obama who retired in February after four years as undersecretary of defense for policy, urged Israel to reconcile with Turkey.
Insisting that Turkey shares Israeli and U.S. interests in preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear state, Flournoy said Turkey has emerged as one of the strongest and most influential countries in the region.
“If there was ever a time for Israel to rise above recriminations, now is the time,” Flournoy said. “Israel has to act strategically and try to rebuild its partnership with Turkey.”

We in Israel must remember that we don't have any true friends and allies. We can't trust other countries to care about our future or our defense, whether diplomatic or military.

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Athiests Included, נעשה ונשמה Na'aseh v'Nishma, We Will Do and We Will Listen

נעשה ונשמה Na'aseh v'Nishma, We Will Do and We Will Listen was the Jewish People's response to hearing G-d at Mount Sinai.  The gut reaction of the Jewish People was very simple.  There were no debates, no negotiations, no philosophic rationalizations, no if, ands, buts or maybes.

There was none of today's "ham and shrimps are forbidden to Orthodox Jews."  All Jews, no matter what their personal belief and "life style" accepted G-d's Commandments.

Just as I was checking my email tonight I saw the Tablet Magazine headlines  which includes:
An Atheist for Religion
In Religion for Atheists, Alain de Botton urges nonbelievers to pick and choose religions’ best offerings
And I thought of our all Jewish souls, even those not yet born, being at Mount Sinai meant that even the atheists among us called out:


נעשה ונשמה Na'aseh v'Nishma, We Will Do and We Will Listen
Yes, that means that the non-believers among us, aka the atheists were there, too.  We all promised, pledged to obey G-d on that original Shavuot, which is usually translated as "weeks," although the letters spelled the same way also mean "oaths."  The Holiday of Shavuot is the culmination of the seven week count up from the beginning of Passover until the end of seven (also spelled with the same Hebrew root שבע shevva) weeks which is the Eve of Shavuot. 

We did not promise to always believe and understand all that G-d wants from us.  We had just pledged to obey G-d's Commandments, no questions asked.

I have no doubt that not all of the Jewish people who escaped together from slavery to Pharaoh in Egypt were strong believers in G-d.  Actually, the more I study the less they seem to have had been of strong faith in G-d.  Think of all their complaints just a short time after leaving Egypt and experiencing so many miracles.  They missed the food and the security and lack of responsibility. There are advantages to slavery.  You may not get much pay, but the food and housing are free. 

We've been discussing that issue, the difficulties and burdens of freedom in the Matan class I've been taking,  Change of Course and Course of Change: Sefer B´Midbar taught by Atara Snowbell.

In a sense we must sympathize with the former slaves.  They really weren't prepared for their new lives.  Maybe some of them thought that if they promised G-d they'd obey, He would give them on tap food, like they remembered getting in Egypt.  Yes, no doubt in my mind that there were atheists among them.

Effective Israeli Defense, Not A Computer Game

As you must know by now, I'm not one of those who considers the Iron Dome Israel's defense savior.  It may catch and destroy some of the deadly missiles the Arab terrorists launch at Israel, but it doesn't stop them from attacking us.  I have no doubt that it just makes them launch more missiles, trying harder to murder and destroy us.  In terms of numbers the Arabs have it right, because a certain percentage of missiles will aways get through, so the more you launch the more damage will be done.

The State of Israel is placing too much emphasis on technology as defense.  I just came across (hat tip IMRA) a site Israel Defense which says the same basic thing:
“All of the cumulative measures developed for unmanned aerial systems in Israel today for supplies to combat units in combat zones cannot substitute regular supply convoys that are well secured,” says a senior source from the IDF’s Technology and Logistics Division.
The source also explained that developments like powered cargo parafoil, unmanned aircraft, and unmanned helicopters are tools that can, in the future, serve special forces, or what he called, "specific needs." However, currently, they cannot substitute convoys of trucks and tankers.
For defense we need people and land, not computer games.

This morning I also read an interesting article on Arutz 7 about the 3 Dimensional topographic raised-relief map system of Israel by Mark Langfan, that makes Israel's situation very clear

With no Israeli West Bank Air Defenses or Airspace, Eastern Front Air Attack can destroy the
Israel Coastal Plains which contain 70%* of Israeli Population/80% of the Israeli Industrial Base.


Langfan quotes Israeli defense authorities saying that if the Arab would attack from their Palestinian sic terror state, then Israel would just enter and conquer it again.  Well, we've heard that one before about all sorts of concessions to the Arab terrorists.  The Arabs then did attack us and the IDF never reversed the gifts of Land to the Arab terrorists.

Besides that bit of history, how could these so-called experts be so foolish as to believe that it's possible to just walk in and retake it (Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley) over?  It's not so simple.

In 1967, G-d gave us a gift, and we've been abusing it ever since.

I just wish, hope and pray, that our government, generals and politicians will open their minds to simple common sense and wisdom.  We must all learn from history, too.
 
Dry Bones

None of this is really new or revolutionary.

Monday, May 28, 2012

Jerusalem Post's List of 50 Most Influential Jews, Mostly Trivial

IMHO, the Jerusalem Post's list of 50 most influential Jews is stuffed with names who really have no influence.  They are just celebrities.  Some I hadn't even heard of.  I think that the Jerusalem Post should have limited themselves to ten or eighteen.  That way they would have had been forced to choose quality rather than padding it to such a large quantity.

I do agree that Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is today's most influential Jew in the world.  Whatever Bibi does and says is heard, commented and judged by the world.  My attitude towards our PM is full of ambivalence.  On one hand, I admire his intelligence and knowledge, but I'm very disappointed and upset with many of his policies.  Like the original Likud leader, Menachem Begin, he is best when pushed against the wall defending Israel and its right to exist.



Few people have Netanyahu's vast knowledge of Jewish History, yes especially now since his father Professor Benzion Netanyahu passed away.



How does someone like Natalie Portman deserve to be on the same list? Just because she speaks fondly of Israel and gave her son the name Alef doesn't make her an influential Jew.  Think about it.  She's a beautiful Jewish woman who lives and had a baby with a non-Jew, and duh, what's the point? 

Was the Jerusalem Post trying to be PC and put a certain percentage of  women on the list?

I would have had put Jonathan Pollard on the list rather than his wife Esther.  Pollard's continued incarceration in that American jail is a blight on the entire United States system of justice.  The fact that only a Jew could have received such an out of proportion punishment should be a warning for all Jews all over the world.

On the whole, I find their list far too American, too secular and too Leftist.  I can't see how most of the top ten are all that influential:

1. Binyamin Netanyahu
2. Jack Lew
3. Jill Abramson
4. Mark Zuckerberg
5. Sheryl Sandberg
6. Ruth Messinger
7. Jon Stewart
8. Michael Oren
9. Debbie Wasserman Schultz
10. Interview with Peter Beinart


The top ten should have been strong enough to stand on its own; having two from facebook is totally out of proportion to their influence as individual people.

Considering the demographics of World Jewry, I'd expect to see more Torah observant Jews.  Most of the Jews on this list most probably won't have Jewish grandchildren.  Their influence as Jews will be in history books at most and their Jewish identity no more than postscripts.

OK readers, who would be on your list of the top ten most influential Jews in the world today?  Would you also top it with PM Binyamin Bibi Netanyahu?  Would any of the others on the Jerusalem Post's list make it onto yours?

Sunday, May 27, 2012

Start The Week With Latma's Right News Report כולנו יהודים Culanu Yehudim We are All Jews

Latma is a project of Caroline Glick.
Today on the Tribal Update, the satirical weekly newscast produced by Latma, the Hebrew-language satirical media criticism website I run, we bring you the anthem Jews United Against Israel. We also present the woes of your average Israeli Joe trying to make ends meet, and Awad, our resident jihadist describes the travails of Palestinian terrorists at a time that Israel is beset by violent crimes perpetrated by illegal aliens from Eritrea and Sudan.


 I'm sure you'll like their new song, כולנו יהודים Culanu Yehudim We are All Jews



Every week the show gets better!

Friday, May 25, 2012

Choose Your Own Rabbi, Asifa and The Internet

A psak, (religious ruling) isn't supposed to be just based on the "sources."  According to chazal, our sages, it's supposed to be doable.  That's why you have to ask your question personally, individually, because a good competent rabbi-posek (decider) may give totally different answers to the same question posed by different people.

In the Mishne (Jewish Law book) of Pirkei Avot, Ethics of the Fathers, we're told to choose a rabbi.  Yes, that means that we must look for a rabbi that suits us.


We are not supposed to listen to every Tzvi, Dovid and Hershel who makes grand announcements about what Jews are supposed to do or not do.


That highly publicized self-promoting event aka the Asifa is just an exercise in tooting their horns or like a big "pissing contest" to see who can frighten more people.  You can find all sorts of reports about it like this one I found in Life in Israel.

When rabbis or any other moral leaders exaggerate they end up making themselves just look silly and turn more people off to Jewish Life.  The Asifa has given the comics great material.
Oy the Internet is evil...but I'm still watching a live stream. @The_Asifa
Too many ills in the chassidishe community and THIS is what they focus on? OY VEY. @YeahThatsKosher
Best part of the asifa was that I got new followers on Twitter! @gloooopy

Rabbis are not supposed to make a ruling that can't be kept, and this ban on the internet certainly transgresses that one.

The internet. like telephones, are here to stay.  And telephones are a good comparison to the internet, because today personal telephones, aka cellphones are the norm.  There are even people who don't have landline telephones, because they need the constant contact. And today most telephones have internet options.  Email, twitter etc don't cost anything once you're hooked up to the internet, so why waste money on a phone when there are verbal chats for free? 

There's nothing in Judaism requiring rejection of modern technology.

Food for thought my friends.

Shabbat Shalom and Chag Shavuot Sameach

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Belgium's Health Minister Should Be Sued For Sexual Harassment!


When a person demands that another person touch him or her and condemns that person for refusing, it's sexual harassment.


It goes for men touching women and women touching men.  And it could also be unwanted physical contact between two of the same sex. 


The unwanted touch could be a kiss, a hug, a pat or even a demand to shake hands. 


Nobody should be forced to touch another person.

That accepted norm in the "enlightened world" seems to be ignored when it's a Torah observant Jew who refuses to be touched, refuses to shake hands.  There is no moral or logical reason for Belgium's Minister of Health to have condemned her Israeli counterpart for his refusal to shake her hand

Belgium’s health minister Laurette Onkelinx said she was “profoundly troubled” by the behavior of her Israeli counterpart, Yaakov Litzman, after the Haredi official refused to shake her hand at a conference.
Litzman, Israel’s deputy minister for health, belongs to the Haredi Torah Judaism party and considers it forbidden to touch members of the opposite sex.

Well, I'm "profoundly troubled" by Belgium’s health minister Laurette Onkelinx's condemnation of Israeli Deputy Minister of Health Yaakov Litzman. It's totally insensitive, prejudicial, close-minded, intolerant and discriminatory.  She's touted as being the most powerful woman in Belgium, which is bad for Belgium in my opinion.  She should have responded to his refusal by respecting his wishes and religiosity.

Many strictly Torah observant Jews get condemned by other Jews in Israel and abroad for refusing to shake hands.  This intolerance isn't right.  People should be more respectful of others.  I'd like to see those Torah observant Jews use the modern legal and moral issue of sexual harassment and sue those who mock and condemn them.

An important aspect of religious freedom is the right to say "no" to inappropriate touching, even when it is accepted as benign by most of society.  Nobody should be forced or bullied into shaking hands if they don't want to, even if they don't have religious reasons for refusing.

Bible Thoughts- Was Ruth a Contemporary of Chana?

A Dvar Torah for Shavuot

Even though the Books of the Bible aren't printed in this order, Megillat Rut, The Scroll of Ruth should be lodged between Shoftim Judges and Shmuel Samuel.  That's if you want a historic narrative.  The Naomi-Ruth-Boaz story took place at the end of the period of Judges, when there was no leadership and everyone did what they could rationalize as right and just or as it's said in modern Hebrew:

כי בא לי "ki ba li," "because I feel like it"

That's anarchy or very "me generation."

The only bright spots in the time of the Judges were the women who were able to visualize what was needed to save the Jewish People from themselves, very similar to today's dangerous situation.

The women who changed Jewish History, taking us out of the downward spiral of the Judges and upwards into מלכות Malchut Kingship were Naomi, Ruth and Chana.

Yesterday at Matan after listening to Dr. Yael Zeigler teaching us about King David, I asked her a question that was based on the internet course she teaches about Megillat Ruth, Herzog College.  I wanted to know if any commentators, Biblical experts or medrashim say that Chana knew either Ruth or Naomi personally.  I had wondered if Elkana and Chana's wanderings to recruit pilgrims to pray at the Mishkan Tabernacle in Shiloh could have gotten them to a location where Ruth or Naomi had been at the same time.  She couldn't confirm it. 

Apparently, Elkana's recruitment was from the tribal areas of Benjamin and Samaria, not as far south as Beit Lechem, which is in Yehuda.  So unless Naomi took Ruth and Oved (the child of Ruth and Boaz) to the Mishkan in Shiloh for prayers, they couldn't have met.  But could Chana have heard the story of Naomi, Ruth and Boaz?

I've always marveled at the centuries long history of that difficult time.  As bad as it was, the Jewish People remained a people.  Experts, Chazal, our sages say that Shiloh was the spiritual and administrative capital of the Jewish Nation for 369 years, an awfully long period of time.  That's a lot longer than the United States of America and most modern countries have been in existence.  Travel was long, difficult and dangerous then, and communications even worse.  But still there was contact between Jews living all over the Land of Israel.


Just think about how fickle and quickly forgotten today's history is.  How could it be that today thousands of years after archaeological experts confirm that the Bible took place, we still celebrate the same holidays and study the same texts and the Jewish People have returned to the very same locations?

There is only one answer, the Hand Power of G-d.  Since we know the story of Naomi and Ruth, then I have no doubt that Chana, too, knew that Naomi had orchestrated the Judean line of Kingship via Ruth and Boaz.  Chana also knew that מלכות Kingship needed a facilitator, a leader from the Mishkan in Shiloh to unite the Jewish People and ready them for a King.  For that person to be born she had prayed to G-d. Her son Shmuel, Samuel was entrusted with the task, and she trained him for it. 

After Chana had weaned Shmuel she brought him to Shiloh so he could study G-d's Laws from Eli the High Priest, but she returned with new clothes for him and taught him about Jewish Leadership and his responsibilities to the Jewish People.

It was Shmuel whom G-d entrusted to anoint the first Kings, Saul and David, the great-grandson of Ruth and Boaz.

inspired by Ruth of La Mancha

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Israel Can't Accept Everyone! Israel is Supposed to Be a Refuge for JEWS

Recent news has been of rapes by illegals, infiltrators from Sudan and Eritrea who have found their way to Israel in massive numbers.  Ruthie Blum has written an excellent article about this growing and dangerous situation in Israel Hayom.
Over the past two years, more than 60,000 “infiltrators,” mainly from Eritrea and Sudan, have snuck across the Egyptian border into the Sinai Desert...
Some of these Africans have remained in nearby Eilat, managing to find illegal employment in hotels and other establishments for which cheap labor trumps upholding the law.
A greater number moved to a low-income area in Tel Aviv, where they stuffed themselves into small apartments to share the rent, using their earnings from menial odd jobs.
In Israel it is very complicated, because the Israeli Government has accepted the plea of the Sudanese illegals that they are refugees from dangerous countries. And they would be killed if they returned.
Where the Sudanese are concerned, Israel has a justified fear that if they are returned to the Egyptian border from whence they came, they will be abused by Egyptian authorities — or, at the very least, returned to Sudan, where they will meet certain death. Out of deep worry for their welfare, the Israeli government grants them temporary residence permits, which require renewal every three months.
The tragic irony of Israel’s genuinely humanitarian approach to these asylum-seekers is that it has become yet another issue that is both causing tension within the country — and arousing external criticism.
This is not the same as the story of the Vietnamese "boat people" and Israel.  Soon after Menachem Begin was elected Prime Minister of Israel, 1977, he agreed to accept Vietnamese boat refugees an Israeli ship had rescued.  No other country was willing to accept them.  Israel is a small country, so less than a hundred needy people, men, women and children, was no problem. Some are still in Israel, established businesses, and their families grow and thrive. 

But close to a hundred-thousand African mostly male infiltrators are a different cup of tea.  As much we may understand that they want to flee, Israel isn't the right address.  Israel is a small country with too many internal, social, cultural and religious problems to offer refuge to masses of non-Jewish men.

Recently there has been a great controversy over the fact that a judge (Arab-Israeli) refused to sing the national anthem, Hatikvah, The Hope.  How a person could be in a position to interpret Israeli Law when he doesn't identify with the anthem and aim raison d'etre of the country, is outrageous. 

There has also been more and more talk about changing the lyrics of  Hatikvah to something more "universal" and less Jewish.  This is unfortunately related to the awful act Moshe Dayan did in 1967 after our great victory over our Arab enemies when he ordered that the Israeli Flag be taken down from Har Habayit, The Temple Mount and control be given to the Muslims.

We must not further dilute the Jewish identity of the State of Israel.


As long as the Jewish spirit is yearning deep in the heart,
With eyes turned toward the East, looking toward Zion,
Then our hope - the two-thousand-year-old hope - will not be lost:
To be a free people in our land,
The land of Zion and Jerusalem.
Kol ode balevav
P'nimah -

Nefesh Yehudi homiyah
Ulfa'atey mizrach kadimah
Ayin l'tzion tzofiyah.

Ode lo avdah tikvatenu
Hatikvah bat shnot alpayim:

L'hiyot am chofshi b'artzenu -
Eretz Tzion v'Yerushalayim.
The words to Israel's national anthem were written in 1886 by Naphtali Herz Imber, an English poet originally from Bohemia. The melody was written by Samuel Cohen, an immigrant from Moldavia. Cohen actually based the melody on a musical theme found in Bedrich Smetana’s "Moldau."

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Violence, Peace and Hypocrisy

It's said and sung that "money makes the world go around," but the grease that facilitates it IMHO is hypocrisy and antisemitism.  Jews and Israel are always held up to obey rules that no other People, country or society ever need to worry about, and unfortunately it seems to never end.



There's no rational, logical reason for people like myself, ordinary law-abiding people, Jews who live in Judea/Samaria to be condemned by international statesmen and media as "endangering" the peace while they coddle Iran trying to come up with all sorts of compromises to enable it to continue developing its nuclear industries,  including weapons.

I also don't understand how Hamas, a proven terrorist organization with a long bloody history can be protected by the British Government.

“British authorities have yet to take effective action to put an end to the exploitation of their country by Hamas for spreading incitement,” these reports assert.
The reports also say that while Hamas’ media is “guided from Damascus and assisted by Arab countries,” its “branch operating in Britain is used for printing and distribution of Hamas publications.”
Prominent among these publications is the monthly Filastin al-Muslimah, Hamas’ major publication since the 1980s, which is available in paper edition and on the Internet.Spreading incitement and hatred in the spirit of Hamas’ ideology, it preaches the justice of terrorism and glorifies its perpetrators. From Britain, it is distributed worldwide in both its online and hard copy editions. To avoid unwanted attention from British security services, Filastin al-Muslimah stopped publishing its address in the United Kingdom on the front page at some point during 2004. However, it is still published in the United Kingdom, openly and with impunity.

Iran, like the PA-Palestinian Authority hasn't been shy about revealing its true aims, the destruction of the State of Israel, G-d forbid.
When Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad purportedly said that Israel "should be wiped off the map" there were, and still are, many who argue that the Iranian leader was misquoted or mistranslated. No such argument can be made however regarding the latest comments by the chief of staff of the Iranian armed forces.
According to the Iranian Fars news agency, while addressing a defense gathering in Tehran on Sunday, Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Maj. Gen. Hassan Firouzabadi stressed that the Iranian nation remains committed to the "full annihilation of the Zionist regime of Israel to the end."
According to Fars, Firouzabadi "reiterated the Iranian nation and supreme leader's emphasis on the necessity of support for the oppressed Palestinian nation and its causes," and noted, "The Iranian nation is standing for its cause that is the full annihilation of Israel."
  • Why doesn't the western, pro-peace world condemn Iran?
  • Why doesn't the western, pro-peace world condemn the "PA?"
  • Why do they just condemn Jews like me for living in our historic homeland?
 
This international hypocrisy just encourages violence, violence against Jews and Israel.
Dry Bones

Monday, May 21, 2012

Disgraced Former MK and Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert Tries to Burst Jerusalem "Balloon"

Even though disgraced former Knesset Member and Mayor of Jerusalem Ehud Olmert has been charged with multiple charges of corruption the media, Israeli and international, absolutely adores and respects him.  The Jerusalem Post featured him as a main speaker at their New York Conference a few weeks ago, and now on the forty-fifth anniversary of Israel's totally miraculous 1967 Six Days War victory, the foreign press is publicizing Olmert's dangerous words about dividing Jerusalem again.
Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Sunday urged Israeli leaders to relinquish the idea of a unified Jerusalem if they truly want peace, contending in a pair of interviews that years of government neglect have kept the Jewish and Arab sectors irreparably divided.
His extreme and hypocritical comments have been lapped up by the foreign media.  When Olmert was Mayor he kept the Arabs separated from Jews and as Prime Minister offered them more independence aka separation.
In those talks, Olmert offered to turn over parts of east Jerusalem to the Palestinians, and have Jerusalem's Old City, home to the most sensitive religious sites, be administered by an international consortium including Israelis, Palestinians, Americans, Jordanians and Saudis.
Considering the charges against Olmert, how anyone can give him a "microphone."  It's obvious that those who do only do it because they don't care about Israel's future and security.

Israel has too many enemies always waiting to hear and publicize negative things about Israel.  The United Nations and the European Union consistently look for the most negative "news" they can find; accuracy be damned.  They don't care if their charges are based on reality, as long as they can use it against us.

A JERUSALEM-BASED organisation has released a report lambasting the European Union for spreading inaccurate information about Israel and the Middle East conflict.
Between 2010 and early 2012, six documents from the offices of EU representatives in Israel and the West Bank have been leaked, and all of them were critical of Israel. Now, NGO Monitor, Israel’s self-appointed watchdog of human rights bodies, said it has identified dozens of factual inaccuracies in the reports.

This is extremely dangerous for the future peace and stability in Jerusalem and the State of Israel.  They base their policies on anti-Israel NGO's.

It is bad enough that the EU funds a group whose leaders promote “one-state” polices and use demonizing rhetoric that incites hatred – the fact that this becomes the basis for policy is even worse.
While the EU/NGO reports are filled with false or misleading allegations targeting Israeli policy in Jerusalem, other basic information that contradicts this bias is entirely missing. Thus, there is no discussion of the role of the Jerusalem municipality in providing building permits for Arab residents of Jerusalem at a level comparable to Jewish residents; in opening post offices, public clinics, and classrooms; in inaugurating the light rail systems, which serves both Arab and Jewish neighborhoods; and with respect to other programs for the benefit of Arab neighborhoods.

Instead of encouraging and promoting true peace and coexistence in Jerusalem, Olmert, the European Union, the NGO's and the United Nations all endanger Jerusalem and the State of Israel.

Jerusalem Day, 5772, 2012, photo by Batya Medad

Sunday, May 20, 2012

The Door Was Slammed in the Moshiach's, Messaiah's Face

The more I read about how the Israeli Government planned the 1967 Six Days War, the more conflicted I feel.  On one hand, I feel sick and embarrassed that the government showed such incompetence and lack of vision and faith.  And on the other hand I feel more and more grateful to G-d for His willingness to save us and take over.

Avraham Rabinovitch's second excerpt of his book appeared in this past Friday's Jerusalem Post.  It just confirmed my worst guesses about what had really gone on behind the closed doors of the ministerial meetings in May-June, 1967.
Both Allon and Begin said history would not forgive the government if it did not exploit this opportunity for restoring Jewish sovereignty over ancient Jerusalem, although Allon raised the possibility that Israel might make do with access to the Jewish holy places. Three other ministers pointed out how David Ben-Gurion’s determination to retain Sinai after the 1956 campaign had dissolved overnight, after US president Dwight D. Eisenhower said it was unacceptable and Moscow made dire threats. Jerusalem, they pointed out, meant more to the world than the sands of Sinai. Would the Christian world, particularly the Vatican, accept Jewish sovereignty over Christiandom’s holiest places? Perhaps, suggested one minister, it would be best to leave Jerusalem as an aspiration to be prayed for...
Close to midnight, he met with Eshkol in Tel Aviv and obtained his agreement to three war goals – the destruction of the Egyptian armored formations in Sinai, the capture of Sharm e- Sheikh, and the capture of Jordanian Jerusalem and the West Bank ridge line. He did not propose capturing the entire West Bank. Dayan insisted that there be no attempt to conquer the Old City by direct attack; it would be too costly to battle through its alleys, while damage to the holy places would be blamed on Israel.
And we wonder why today, forty-five years later so many of our politicians, academics and media want to return to a version of the 1949 ceasefire lines.

They're all thinking so small and narrow, as if we could live and thrive on a tightrope.

While some of us are celebrating the great miracle of G-d's interference and the subsequent great, miraculous victory which gave us the Golan, Jordan Valley, Sinai, Judea, Samaria and most of Jerusalem on Jerusalem Day, other Israelis want to cancel the holiday.  They are still fixated on 1949, not willing to accept change and move forward. That's extreme conservative, reactionary aka The Israeli Left.

I have no doubt that not only was our victory due directly to the Hand of G-d, and I also have no doubt that the Moshiach, the Messaiah had come to redeem us.  G-d's representative was here waiting to celebrate the Holiday of Shavuot, Weeks/Oaths with us on the Temple Mount.

Shavuot is the culmination of seven weeks of counting the forty-nine days between the second night of Passover and G-d's giving to us of the Torah, Our Holy Laws.  We count up, from one to forty-nine, as each day is greater than the one before it.  It is no random coincidence that the Six Days War took place less than two weeks before the Shavuot Holiday.  As General Mottke Gur had said on that joyous day forty-five years ago:
הר הבית בידינו Har HaBayit Bayadeinu, The Temple Mount is in Our Hands




In the second film you can already see that we were aiming too low, celebrating at the Kotel rather than at Har HaBayit.  And then, to make matters worse, Moshe Dayan soon gave Har HaBayit to the Muslims, refusing the gift G-d had given us. No doubt the Moshiach packed His bags and disappeared for now.   And then echoing the Biblical "sin of the spies" who returned to Moshe and the newly freed from Egyptian slavery Jews claiming that it would be too difficult to go to the Land:

Dayan, Rabin, and a few other senior officers returning from the Western Wall joined Narkiss in his command post in the basement of the Jerusalem International Convention Center late Wednesday.
They sat on folding cots and a few chairs in the windowless room lit by battery-operated lamps. A radio transmitter occasionally crackled with a report from one of the forces in Jerusalem or the West Bank. The men in the room were largely silent as they attempted to absorb in this first moment of postbattle tranquillity the amazing developments of the past 48 hours. It was Rabin who focused the diffused impressions into a stark bottom line.
“How do we control a million Arabs?” he asked, referring to the Arabs of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

In Biblical times, the former slaves were punished, condemned to death in the wilderness. Only a new generation would enter the HolyLand.  They only waited forty years.  It's now forty-five years, and it doesn't seem like we're ready to accept G-d's gifts and welcome the Moshiach.

Iran, Obama and The Tooth Fairy

US President Obama and Russia's PM Medvedev
 (AP/Charles Dharapak)
There's just too much wishful thinking and make believe going on in the world of "international diplomacy," security etc.  The United States President Barack Hussein Obama, "leader of the free world," sic, has been using outdated child psychology with Iran to convince it to reduce, not totally stop, its nuclear development.

“And our hope is that we can resolve this issue in a peaceful fashion that respects Iran’s sovereignty and its rights in the international community, but also recognizes its responsibilities,” Obama added.
Iran had “the right to peaceful nuclear power,” he said, but had failed to convince the international community that it was not seeking a nuclear weapons capability...

I have no doubt that Obama really believes that somehow he and his allies can "peacefully convince" Iran to change its stripes.  That is really frightening.  The USA has a President who believes in the Tooth Fairy. 

Israel's Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu came out with this statement:
PM Netanyahu Comments on Baghdad Talks
(Communicated by the Prime Minister's Media Adviser)
Following are remarks that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made about the Baghdad talks, earlier today (Friday), 18.5.12, at a press availability in Prague:
"Obviously, nothing would be better than to see this issue resolved diplomatically. But I have seen no evidence that Iran is serious about stopping its nuclear weapons program. It looks as though they see these talks as another opportunity to deceive and delay just like North Korea did for years.
They may try to go from meeting to meeting with empty promises. They may agree to something in principle but not implement it. They might even agree to implement something that does not materially derail their nuclear weapons program.
Iran is good at playing this chess game. They know that sometimes you have to sacrifice a pawn to save the king. The goal of these negotiations should be very clear:
Freeze all enrichment inside Iran.
Remove all enriched material outside of Iran.
And dismantle Qom.
When this goal is achieved, I will be the first to applaud. Until then, count me among the skeptics."
Netanyahu seems much more grounded in reality than Obama.

Another interesting article about Iran is by Ruthie Blum in Israel Hayom.  She reports about a conference she attended in  Italy and the meetings she had with Iranians there:

Regarding Iran, the prognosis was even bleaker. Author and Iran expert Michael Ledeen, from the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, expressed disgust at the fact that no American administration since that of Jimmy Carter — whose presidency saw the ouster of the Shah and the ushering in of the Islamic revolution more than 30 years ago — has done anything to assist the Iranian people to rid themselves of their jihadist regime. He pointed out that no more intelligence-gathering is needed, nor any bits of information lacking about Iran’s nuclear program and intentions. The only question that remains, Ledeen asserted, is what the West should do about it. Bombing the facilities, he argued, would be of no use without taking down President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the mullahs. As someone who is convinced there is still time to accomplish this, and that it wouldn’t take much effort, his frustration is that much greater.
Much of what he said was echoed by Saba Farzan, an expat Iranian now living in Germany and a senior fellow on women’s rights at the Institute for Middle Eastern Democracy. What Farzan did was give a glimpse into the psyche of her former countrymen. Iranians are willing to put up with a lot of suffering, she asserted, if the end result is regime change. She claimed that the sanctions have been hurting them, and that the tougher the sanctions the better.
She also clarified to me in private that a military strike would not cause the Iranian people to rally around the regime, as some experts have been arguing. On the contrary, she said, it is the regime they hate. Therefore, a military strike without regime change would not solve the problem...
The Iranian regime, as everyone at the conference concurred, is behind radical movements all over the world. It would not need to use its nukes, once it acquired them, to do great harm to the rest of us — even without keeping its promise to “wipe Israel off the map.”
Instead of devoting all energy to that issue, the United States and Europe are going to engage in yet another pathetic and pointless summit — this one in Baghdad on May 23 — to negotiate a non-existent deal with a representative of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Meanwhile, as the mullahs and their mad scientists work tirelessly to perfect nuclear warheads, and as the rest of the Middle East is in the midst of internal Islamic takeovers, Time magazine has devoted this week’s cover story to Israel’s prime minister.

I highly suggest that you read her entire article. Ruthie Blum makes more sense than op-ed's you'll find in the New York Times, Jerusalem Post and other media.

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Latma Takes on the Supreme Court and The "New" France

There's nothing like Latma to get things just Right.



It's no secret that Europe's demographics are changing. Today's Europe isn't the same as a decade ago, and changes will be even more extreme in another twenty years.  White Christian Europe isn't "reproducing."  If it weren't for the immigrants and foreign workers, most countries would be suffering a very serious population decline.

The United States is also undergoing a major racial change according to statistics of babies being born there.

Yes, the world does change, and it can't be controlled.

Latma is a project of Caroline Glick.

Friday, May 18, 2012

Jerusalem Day, Yom Yerushalayim, יום ירושלים



This view of Jerusalem may not be a classic, but it's real.  The Jerusalem of today is a vibrant changing modern city.



A lot of people don't like to recognize that. They want Jerusalem to resemble something timeless and mystical.


Real people live in Jerusalem.  It's Israel's capital, but it's also one of Israel's poorer cities.



There's great variety in Jerusalem and constant changes.


Its recent growth, the past hundred plus years, has been do to one factor and one factor only, Zionism-Jews.  No longer do Jews just come here to die. 


Jews come to Jerusalem to live and work and build.


Jerusalem isn't just the past; it's the future, too.



Chag Sameach

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Ancient Coins Found at Tel Shiloh

It has been announced that some ancient coins had been been found today at Tel Shiloh.


During the time of Biblical Shoftim, Judges, Shiloh was the official administrative center for the Jewish People.  This period lasted almost four hundred years.  To put it in perspective, how many of today's major cities have existed for that long?

And even after Shiloh's destruction, when the Jewish Kings, Saul and David ruled from other places, Shiloh still existed.  Recent archaeological finds and remains of more modern buildings prove that Shiloh was "always on the map."  And unlike many other Biblical sites, there's no debate about modern Shiloh being the location of Biblical Shiloh.

Here's the "unofficial" report in Hebrew about these coins:
בחפירות שלנו במשטח הצפוני של תל שילה התגלו היום שני מטבעות בתוך בור מים. על אחד המטבעות אפשר לזהות את האותיות ש ת ונראה שזהו מטבע של המרד הגדול. כיוון שהמטבעות עשויים מברונזה יש עליהן בליה והקריאה קשה מאוד לפני ניקוי במעבדה (זה מצב המטבעות העתיקים בדרך כלל).
לצד המטבעות התגלו בבור המים כלי חרס רבים מסוף תקופת הבית השני, וכן פריטי זכוכית וברונזה.
ממצאים כאלה התגלו גם במבנה שנחשף בחפירה והם עדות נוספת ליישוב יהודי בשילה בימי הבית שני. ככל הנראה היישוב היהודי בשילה נמשך ברצף מימי הבית הראשון עד מרד בר כוכבא.
My translation skills aren't good, but I'll try to give you the highlights:
In the northern part of Tel Shiloh being excavated two coins were found in a water well. On one coin it is possible to recognize the letters and may have been from the great revolt, because it's made out of bronze.  They need professional cleaning to make out more identifying  information.
In the water they also found pottery shards and glass.  More artifacts have been found in the house being uncovered which show proof of Jewish life in Shiloh during the Second Temple period.  Apparently Shiloh remained a Jewish city from the First Temple until the Bar Kochba revolt.

If you can give a better translation, please comment it, thanks.

Aliyah, Moving to Israel, Unusual or Normal/Logical/Common for Jews?

Great Neck North
Recently, I found myself emailing with a couple of members of my high school graduating class who probably never once spoke to me when we were students together.  Email and many decades are the great equalizer. 

They're trying to organize a big reunion in their part of the world, about half a world's distance from where I am in Israel.  I had replied to their query/announcement saying I'd love to meet anyone from our class who comes to Israel, but I can't make the reunion.  There were a few hundred Jews in our graduating class, but I'm the only one here in Israel.  One of them wrote that she considered my being here the most "unusual" of all the stories she knows.  I find that strange.

I live in a world full of Jews who have made aliyah from all corners of the world, all different backgrounds.  I talk aliyah  with people contemplating it.  Just last night I got a call from a total stranger.  Her aunt is a friend who gave her my number so I could tell her about Shiloh.

From our perspective here in Shiloh, it seems like a great tsunami of olim  is in the future.  Read about it in the new site Aliyah Magazine.

Many of my favorite jblogs are by olim and those planning aliyah.  If it weren't for my many relatives who, not only don't have aliyah on their minds but have never even been to Israel, I'd think that all Jews have at least toyed with the idea.  My perspective, like that of my former classmates, is very inaccurate.  We're both wrong.

Here in Shiloh, where we have such a broad representation of international Jewry it seems that no Jew in the world is immune from the "aliyah bug." 

When my husband and I first made aliyah in 1970, the only people our parents knew who had children in Israel were each other, but within a short time, they found themselves part of a growing group of middle-aged American Jews with children and grandchildren in Israel.  They were active in the PNAI-Parents of North Americans in Israel, going to meetings not only in New York but when they were visiting my sister in Arizona.  The meetings were both like a "support group" and also like a "badge of honor." 

But there are Jewish families that although dispersed all over the world, don't have any representatives in the Jewish Holy Land.  I wasn't raised with any awareness of Zionism, but I'm here in Israel.  So, who knows where those families will be found in another generation...

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Best News Headline in a Long Time: "Time to Abandon Stalled Peace Process?"

Sounds good to me.
But then I read more...
Proposals Include Widening Talks and Unilateral Moves
Hate to break it to you, but "abandon" means, give it up, stop, don't keep shaking a dog dummy.  It's not going to bark.  The "peace process" isn't any more real than a teddy bear with fake fur.

The Arabs don't want peace with Israel. The Arabs want a world without Israel.  It's that simple.  Why don't people listen?

PMW Bulletins
PA narrative: All of Israel is "occupied" land

by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik

One of the most important impediments to long term peace between Israel and the Palestinians is the Palestinian Authority's refusal to recognize Israel's right to exist - and its teaching, especially children, that all of Israel is "occupied" land. As Palestinian Media Watch has reported, part of Israel is said to have been "occupied" since 1948 during the "Nakba" or "catastrophe," the term Palestinians use to delegitimize Israel's establishment. The rest, the PA says, was occupied in 1967 during the Six-Day War. All of Israel's existence is said to be an "occupation" and illegitimate.

The "Palestinian" Tragedy of Nakba Day

The Arabs, Leftists, antisemites etc who demonstrate on Nakba Day don't understand what their tragedy really is.  For them it should be a day of mourning.  They totally goofed it. It reminds me of the British officer who decided to ignore the Etzel's warning about a bomb in the King David Hotel should have had done the British equivalent of harikari.  That minimalist  State of Israel had no  plans to "dispel" Arabs.  The Arabs would have  been better off accepting the state then.




In 1948 the Arabs and their British advisers totally miscalculated.  David Ben-Gurion and the Jewish Agency had agreed to the totally indefensible, illogical and dangerous United Nations Partition Plan.  Look at the map:



The Plan was accepted by the leaders of the Jewish community in Palestine, through the Jewish Agency.[3][4] The Plan was rejected by leaders of the Arab community, including the Palestinian Arab Higher Committee,[3][5] who were supported in their rejection by the states of the Arab League.
Immediately after adoption of the Resolution by the General Assembly, the Civil War broke out.[6] The partition plan was not implemented.

There was no way that the State of Israel would have survived with those borders.

Nothing has changed in all these years.  The Arabs never wanted to have peace with a Jewish State.  That's why they rejected the Partition Plan.  And unfortunately, Israeli politicians haven't learned their lesson either.  There is nothing we can do to "make peace" with the Arabs.

You can only have peace with those who truly and sincerely want peace, and the Arabs don't want peace with a Jewish State. 

So we must stop begging and negotiating and offering them gestures and Land.  We must invest our energies into our own growth.  Those Arabs willing to live in peace will stay and the others will leave.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Elliott Gould in the Aish/Jewlarious Movie, Great Acting But...

Apparently I'm not the only viewer of the aish.com - Jewlarious.com three part movie starring Elliott Gould  left rather confused saying:
Duh... So what's the end?  It doesn't seem finished.
I've checked the comments. I'm not alone.  You watch them, if you haven't yet. 








Are we supposed to guess an ending?  And are we supposed to guess how his grandfather really feels about Andy?  We don't see more than some still photos of the mother/daughter who is apparently estranged from her father.  How does she fit into this "disengaged" family?

World Jewry is actually full of all sorts of family relationships like we see in the movie.  Intermarriage and distances have broken up many families.  Many Jews have no Jewish background or identity and don't know their Jewish relatives.  In other cases, people are raised feeling themselves Jewish, but according to Jewish Law they aren't.

What are we supposed to do with these movies?

The Same Old News, Insanity

Dry Bones reposts a lot of his cartoons, because they're never really out of date:

Dry Bones

Arafat got away with it for two main reasons:
  1. The world has always been willing to believe the worst about us.
  2. We (Jews/Israelis in general) hold ourselves up to a very hypercritical distorted mirror.
NGO Monitor's latest article tells more about the same thing:
Leaked documents on Arab-Israeli conflict promote misinformation from NGO grantees
Introduction
Since 2010, six documents from the offices of EU representatives in Israel and the Palestinian Authority have been leaked to the Israeli and international media. The leaked documents are:
•“EU Heads of Mission Report on East Jerusalem” (one from December 2010 / a second from December 2011)
•“Situation of Arab-Israeli citizens” (December 2011, Confidential Report)
•“Area C and Palestinian State Building” (July 2011)
•“Settler Attacks” (internal reports, one from April 2011/ second from February 2012, with cover note)-read more-
No matter what we do, we'll be criticized.  We must learn from it.  It's insane not to have learned by now.

During the Biblical conquest of the Land of Israel, our leader Joshua learned that he had to be in the forefront of the battle and follow G-d's orders.  After the great and easy victory over Jericho, led by Joshua with G-d's help, Joshua sent fighter to The Ai, Joshua Chapter 7 יְהוֹשֻׁעַ and we were easily defeated.
ב וַיִּשְׁלַח יְהוֹשֻׁעַ אֲנָשִׁים מִירִיחוֹ, הָעַי אֲשֶׁר עִם-בֵּית אָוֶן מִקֶּדֶם לְבֵית-אֵל, וַיֹּאמֶר אֲלֵיהֶם לֵאמֹר, עֲלוּ וְרַגְּלוּ אֶת-הָאָרֶץ; וַיַּעֲלוּ, הָאֲנָשִׁים, וַיְרַגְּלוּ, אֶת-הָעָי. 2 And Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Beth-aven, on the east side of Beth-el, and spoke unto them, saying: 'Go up and spy out the land.' And the men went up and spied out Ai.
ג וַיָּשֻׁבוּ אֶל-יְהוֹשֻׁעַ, וַיֹּאמְרוּ אֵלָיו אַל-יַעַל כָּל-הָעָם--כְּאַלְפַּיִם אִישׁ אוֹ כִּשְׁלֹשֶׁת אֲלָפִים אִישׁ, יַעֲלוּ וְיַכּוּ אֶת-הָעָי; אַל-תְּיַגַּע-שָׁמָּה, אֶת-כָּל-הָעָם, כִּי מְעַט, הֵמָּה. 3 And they returned to Joshua, and said unto him: 'Let not all the people go up; but let about two or three thousand men go up and smite Ai; make not all the people to toil thither; for they are but few.'
ד וַיַּעֲלוּ מִן-הָעָם שָׁמָּה, כִּשְׁלֹשֶׁת אֲלָפִים אִישׁ; וַיָּנֻסוּ, לִפְנֵי אַנְשֵׁי הָעָי. 4 So there went up thither of the people about three thousand men; and they fled before the men of Ai.
ה וַיַּכּוּ מֵהֶם אַנְשֵׁי הָעַי, כִּשְׁלֹשִׁים וְשִׁשָּׁה אִישׁ, וַיִּרְדְּפוּם לִפְנֵי הַשַּׁעַר עַד-הַשְּׁבָרִים, וַיַּכּוּם בַּמּוֹרָד; וַיִּמַּס לְבַב-הָעָם, וַיְהִי לְמָיִם. 5 And the men of Ai smote of them about thirty and six men; and they chased them from before the gate even unto Shebarim, and smote them at the descent; and the hearts of the people melted, and became as water.
ו וַיִּקְרַע יְהוֹשֻׁעַ שִׂמְלֹתָיו, וַיִּפֹּל עַל-פָּנָיו אַרְצָה לִפְנֵי אֲרוֹן יְהוָה עַד-הָעֶרֶב--הוּא, וְזִקְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל; וַיַּעֲלוּ עָפָר, עַל-רֹאשָׁם. 6 And Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of the LORD until the evening, he and the elders of Israel; and they put dust upon their heads.
We need to have G-d with us.  The Jewish/Israeli army isn't just guns, tanks and airplanes.  We must follow G-d's instructions, like Joshua did the second time he attempted to conquer The Ai, Joshua Chapter 8:
כח וַיִּשְׂרֹף יְהוֹשֻׁעַ, אֶת-הָעָי; וַיְשִׂימֶהָ תֵּל-עוֹלָם שְׁמָמָה, עַד הַיּוֹם הַזֶּה. 28 So Joshua burnt Ai, and made it a heap for ever, even a desolation, unto this day.
כט וְאֶת-מֶלֶךְ הָעַי תָּלָה עַל-הָעֵץ, עַד-עֵת הָעָרֶב; וּכְבוֹא הַשֶּׁמֶשׁ צִוָּה יְהוֹשֻׁעַ וַיֹּרִידוּ אֶת-נִבְלָתוֹ מִן-הָעֵץ, וַיַּשְׁלִיכוּ אוֹתָהּ אֶל-פֶּתַח שַׁעַר הָעִיר, וַיָּקִימוּ עָלָיו גַּל-אֲבָנִים גָּדוֹל, עַד הַיּוֹם הַזֶּה. {פ} 29 And the king of Ai he hanged on a tree until the eventide; and at the going down of the sun Joshua commanded, and they took his carcass down from the tree, and cast it at the entrance of the gate of the city, and raised thereon a great heap of stones, unto this day. {P}
ל אָז יִבְנֶה יְהוֹשֻׁעַ מִזְבֵּחַ, לַיהוָה אֱלֹהֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל, בְּהַר, עֵיבָל. 30 Then Joshua built an altar unto the LORD, the God of Israel, in mount Ebal,

Consulting with the United States President and groveling for the approval of various international leaders is not the way for the State of Israel to survive and thrive.  As we approach the forty-fifth anniversary of our great G-d given victory of the 1967 Six Days War, we must learn and internalize that important lesson.  We have no true human/foreign ally.  We just have G-d.  And we must live and govern according to G-d's Laws.

Monday, May 14, 2012

How About A "Gesture" To Jews?

Concession to PA Prisoners A 'Gesture' to Abbas

The deal that ended the hunger strike by Palestinian Authority prisoners is a “gesture” to PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, the PMO says.
The deal that ended the hunger strike by hundreds of Palestinian Authority prisoners in Israel is a goodwill gesture to PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, the Prime Minister's Office says.
Speaking for Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, spokesman Mark Regev on Monday night called the deal brokered by Egyptian mediators a "confidence-building" gesture.
Insane, totally insane. "Confidence-building" for whom.  It seems to me that the Arabs are much too over-confident already. Bibi must think we're "in his pocket."  I'd like to see a "goodwill gesture" to law-abiding Jewish citizens instead of Arab terrorists.  Is this really another stab at "peace," sic?
 
<> 

After reviewing Netanyahu's letter on Israel's positions, Palestinian leadership rejects call to resume negotiations without preconditions, says Netanyahu's letter "doesn't include clear answers about the central issues that are undermining the resumption of the peace process" • Ministerial Committee for Legislation rejects bill calling for application of Israeli law to all Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.
Daniel Siryoti, Edna Adatto and The Associated Press
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah rebuffed calls to return to the negotiating table, Sunday.
|
Photo credit: Reuters

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah rebuffed calls to return to the negotiating table, Sunday.
|
Photo credit: Reuters

Why do our Prime Ministers keep trying to do the impossible, turn turd into gold? 

The main job of the Prime Minister of the State of Israel is to make life better here for Jews, not Arabs and certainly not Arab terrorists.  We Jews should be encourage, not just allowed, to live anywhere in the Land of Israel!  Today, I traveled from Shiloh to Kochav Hashachar just southeast of us.  That part of the Jordan Valley is so empty.  There's room for millions of Jews.

Is Today's National Unity Government Like The One in 1967?

Here's my answer:

NO!

There is absolutely no similarity.  In 1967, which I remember much too well, the State of Israel was under attack by Egypt and its allies.  The first shot may have had only been in June, but the war really began the minute Nasser ordered the United Nations peace-keeping forces sic out of the Suez Canal area.
1967 - The Six Day War
In 1966 the Syrian attacks on northern Israel from the Golan Heights intensified, and in the spring of 1967 the armed clashes between the two countries escalated further. Fabricated Soviet reports of alleged concentrations of Israeli troops near the Syrian border made the Arab leaders step up their threats against Israel, and on May 15, 1967 the Egyptian president Nasser ordered his troops across the Suez Canal, into the Sinai Desert. In the following days Nasser expelled the UN peace-keeping force and reimposed the blockade of Eilat.
Israel had to take defensive actions at that point.  At that time, the Israeli public and Knesset was strongly divided among Labor, Herut (Revisionist and former Etzel and Lechi,) religious, communist and Arab parties.  There wasn't much of a "Center."  In my previous post, I quoted from . Abraham Rabinowitch's "The Battle for Jerusalem: An Unintended Conquest That Echoes Still" in which he describes the total panic and debate in the government between the politicians and the IDF on how to react.  It was a wise decision for the sake of the country to establish a national unity government and bring in Opposition Leader Menachem Begin.

Today's Israel and Knesset is a totally different kettle of fish, as the saying goes.  Then we had classic Geffilte Fish, made with both sugar and pepper, while today the government/Knesset is more like a tasteless, overcooked fish stew.  The largest political parties, Likud and Kadima like to consider themselves "Center" are are easily interchangeable.  Many MK's in Likud, Kadima and Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beitenu party have floated around the almost monochromatic political spectrum.

I think that most of the political parties in Netanyahu's bloated coalition are more afraid of elections than they are of our Arab enemies.  Even Bibi's  Likud is, because all the כְּמִתְאֹנְנִים mit'oninim, agitator Korach faux social justice street parties are aimed to raise the voter turnout on the Left. Apathy has been the Left's greatest enemy after small families, (low birthrate.)  I may not agree with Bibi's policies, but he's no dummy and no doubt he knows that the recent polls don't mean that he's a shoo-in.  The agitators have been planning all winter for a long summer of campaign/carnivals.  I considered the proposed September 4 election date to have been a terrible one for us.  The Leftist university students would still be on vacation working hard for the extreme Left.

Democracy has its dynamic and truth.  Only those who care enough vote.  We have to deal with the results.  Many people who voted Likud are totally opposed to Netanyahu's policies.  Honestly, I don't know why they voted for him.  They thought they were voting for those reliably Right, but they got Ehud Barak and Shaul Mofaz instead.  I hope they learned their lesson.