Hamas War

Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Israeli Sovereignty, The Faster We Do It, The Less It Will "Hurt"

1- I consider it highly important, vitally necessary for the Israeli Government to unilaterally declare full Israeli Sovereignty over all Land we still hold! There shouldn't be any foreign or Arab rule at all. It would be like leaving bits of cancer.

2- I have no doubt at all that the idea of "gradual sovereignty," which in a sense has been going on since the end of the miraculous 1967 Six Days War, to be the cause of the growing terrorism and international (and domestic) opposition to Israeli Sovereignty.

Israel Road Map

The fear of international opposition has paralyzed successive Israeli Governments, even the supposedly Right-leaning ones, since mid-June, 1967. It's the slowness, the gradual annexation that has caused our biggest problems. If we had only annexed and declared sovereignty immediately after the 1967 Six Days War, it wouldn't have caused any international problems. The world saw and recognized the miracle and would have accepted it. We were like gods of old.

But just like leaving a sticky bandage on and slowly trying to remove it is the most painful way, this slow, never-ending process of wondering if Israel could just keep the status quo is pushing Arabs to identify with terrorism. That's because Israel appears too weak to protect them.

We must quickly, in one strong swoop rip off the bandage of so-called occupation and fully annex and declare sovereignty on Judea, Samaria, the Jordan Valley and any nook or cranny that is still in a status of uncertainty.

Do your best to attend and support the 2017, 5777, Sovereignty Conference on February 12, in Jerusalem.


Monday, January 30, 2017

Dangerous Glorification of Arab Terrorists

On the International Left, in Europe, The USA, Israeli, too, and beyond, there exists an extremely dangerous phenomena glorifying Arab terrorists and terrorism. IMHO, one of the most dangerous and numerous locations is academia, universities all over the world, because they very authoritatively indoctrinate naive and gullible students, staff and readers of their articles and journals.

Members of Temple University’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter. Photo: Temple SJP/Facebook.
Habash, described by Time magazine as the “godfather of Middle East terrorism,” was forced to resign as head of the PFLP in 2000, due to ill health. He died in 2008.
Temple U Chapter of Notoriously Anti-Israel Group Pays Tribute to Late Founder of Deadly Palestinian Terrorist Organization on 8th Anniversary of His Death
Israeli diplomats and pro-Israel students and speakers have been shouted down and banned from universities and conferences, because they aren't willing to pay homage to Arab terrorism nor support policies that would endanger and destroy the State of Israel.

Americans who are upset that Obama is no longer in power should be aware that one of his last acts as POTUS was to send more money, over 200 million dollar$ to his buddy  Mahmoud Abbas, head of the PA-Palestinian Authority. That money, like all the other money that various countries and NGOs donate, does not go to infrastructure, health need etc. Israel covers most of that. It goes to Abbas's cronies, his "retirement fund" and the "pensions" he provides to families of Arab terrorists.
An Investigation: Humanitarian aid to the Palestinian Authority: Embezzled For Personal Gain
Yes, really. Click on the headline above and read the article, please.

"Her pure body exploded into pieces in the Zionists' faces" - Fatah proud of suicide terrorist who murdered 1 and wounded over 100 (PMW)
And for all of those who still keep on insisting the Abbas's Fatah is "moderate," please sign up for the updates from PMW-Palestine Media Watch and  Israel Resource Review.

Sunday, January 29, 2017

Jews Who Fled Nazi Germany/Europe weren't The Same as Today's Fleeing Arabs

Those who claim an equivalency between the Jews who were persecuted and threatened with certain death during the late 1930's and early 1940's and today's Arabs clamoring to leave their troubled countries are comparing peas and pears, which aren't the same at all.

First of all the American immigration laws of the early-mid twentieth 20th century were an proactive attempt to severely restrict the growing Jewish population in the United States of America. Your majority of veteran Americans, aka the WASPs-White Anglo-Saxon Protestants, were horrified when they noticed that "too many" Jews and Catholics" had entered the United States in the end of the 19th century.

To stop that trend/phenomena, they crafted laws to create a quota system based on the percentage of various national and ethnic groups to replicate older demographic statistics. That gave lots of immigrant visa to the British, who couldn't fill them, and almost none to the various central and eastern European countries which ended up with large backlogs of requests.

When the Nazis took over Germany and began its systematic discrimination of Jewish citizens culminating in the Holocaust murder of six million European Jews, the United States Government under the instructions of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt held to that law, even claiming that anyone from Germany -including Jews- could be Nazi spies.

A Twitter Tribute to Holocaust Victims,
A new social-media project commemorates refugees turned away by the United States in 1939. Bettman / Getty

Remember that until the immoral shocking brutality of the Nazis was revealed to the world, Germany was considered a cultured, sophisticated and highly moral country. Many of those Jews fleeing were professionals, doctors, professors and successful businessmen along with their families. Some weren't even Jewish, because the Nazi law considered anyone with a Jewish grandparent to be a Jew.

Quite a number of countries around the world stepped in to accept the Jews who fled Germany and the rest of Europe. Canada, various South American countries, South Africa, the Dominican Republic and even China. There are no stories of increased crime, rape etc the way we're hearing about those trying to flee Arab countries and Africa, too.

Except for some Christian Arabs trying to get away from Moslem rule, those leaving aren't fleeing religious persecution and/or death camps. They just want out. None of those countries are pleasant places to live, except maybe for those on the take. As Americans should know after years of trying to turn some, like Iraq and Afghanistan into western style democratic states,  their concepts of justice, good citizenship etc. aren't quite like the "western model." So to expect a quick and easy transition and absorption/assimilation into law abiding citizens is unrealistic at best. The new restrictions by American President Trump is to better investigate the potential immigrants to keep out those who could endanger American society.
Let’s analyze the key provisions, separate the fact from the hysteria, and introduce just a bit of historical perspective. First, the order temporarily halts refugee admissions for 120 days to improve the vetting process, then caps refugee admissions at 50,000 per year. Outrageous, right? Not so fast. Before 2016, when Obama dramatically ramped up refugee admissions, Trump’s 50,000 stands roughly in between a typical year of refugee admissions in George W. Bush’s two terms and a typical year in Obama’s two terms.
Read more at:  National Review
Most Americans have no idea how hard it is for an Israeli just to get a tourist visa to visit. It should be much more difficult to enter as a refugee.

Saturday, January 28, 2017

Amona, Deja Vu

A view of the Jewish outpost community of Amona. (Noam Moskowitz/Flash90) http://hamodia.com

Just a few short weeks ago, the residents of Amona made a very difficult decision. They agreed to allow a portion of their community to be moved for what was called "the greater good." The government made what seemed to be reasonable promises, and in order not to have a repeat of the violence that so traumatized us all eleven years ago, the residents very reluctantly agreed to the government's offer.

Israeli police clash with Jewish settlers at a burning barricade in the unauthorized outpost of Amona, close to the West Bank Jewish settlement of Ofra, Feb. 1, 2006. (photo by REUTERS/Oleg Popov) Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/09/amona-outpost-settlements-netanyahu-yair-lapid-coalition.html#ixzz4X5UsuKOT


A settler struggled with Israeli security officers in 2006, when the Israeli government razed nine homes in Amona. Residents are preparing for another clash with their government. Credit Oded Balilty/Associated Press, NYTimes
And now, apparently, the nearby land promised to them is suddenly "problematic," too.

I don't think that anyone wants a replay of the violence of eleven years ago, but now "the ball is in the government's court," and it must make clear laws that protect Jewish Rights over ghost/fictional "landowners" who never really owned the land, never developed it and only were discovered by anti-Jewish settlement NGOs that have an agenda to destroy Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.

I see this as part of the mechanizations being used to try to topple the Likud government. Netanyahu is under pressure for alleged corruption, and if the Amona agreement falls apart there will be pressure from the Right. Bibi certainly has plenty of balls to juggle if he wants to remain Israel's Prime Minister.

Friday, January 27, 2017

Vacationing Up North


Cross-posted on A Jewish Grandmother.

Last week I posted a few pictures from our A Bissel Vacation up north taken and posted on my phone. Yes, a smartphone is very much like a mini laptop computer. I don't see the need for a tablet, even though my Samsung J7 isn't the most powerful of phones. But typing on a tiny/mini-keyboard and saying really interesting isn't for the phone. So now I'll tell you more about our vacation.

My husband works for the Menachem Begin Heritage Center, and they had joined with the Kinar-Galilee Hotel for a truly interesting program that began Thursday evening, then a tour Friday morning and a Shabbat full of activities. As an employee of the Begin Center Education Department, my husband was needed to guide one of the buses. As a result we had a wonderful weekend and finally made it to the Kinar, which is really a great hotel.

As the sun set, I took some amazing photos of the hotel grounds and Lake Kinneret:


















Dr. Udi Lebel, PhD
Here are more of the photos I took. Thursday night we heard a lecture by Dr. Udi Lebel, PhD, "Beyond the Pantheon": Bereavement, Memory and the Strategy of De-Legitimization Against Herut, which was totally fascinating. He talked about the enduring hatred Ben-Gurion had for anyone who had been associated with the Etzel and Lechi. For example the two men on the screen behind Lebel were twin brothers who had both been killed during the War for Independence. The difference was that one had been with the Haganah and the other Etzel, so the family only got bereavement benefits for the son killed while in the Haganah. They were told they'd lose those benefits if they made a joint memorial for their two sons.




After that we watched the excellent one-man show, "Mr. Begin," which was totally amazing. If you have the opportunity to see it, go. It was in Hebrew.



The following morning we were off to tour to Shlomo Ben-Yosef memorial and grave in the old cemetery in Rosh Pinna, the Memorial for Mishmar HaYarden and Tel Chai.



















There were two busloads of people, and we heard very positive reactions. On Shabbat there were two more lectures,  "From Ben Gurion to Levi Eshkol" by Muki Tzur and Herzi Makov, Director of the Begin Center spoke about From Menachem Begin to Yitzchak Shamir.  The veteran singing duo Tzemed Re'im were also there to entertain and act as part of the choir at the Ashkenaz synagogue.

All and all it was a really excellent program which ended after Shabbat. If they repeat the program, try to attend if you can.




Thursday, January 26, 2017

18 Interesting Jewish/Israeli Blog Posts, HH/KCC, First of 2017

from way back when
This past Sunday, I promised my facebook friends who need some time to heal from American Elections that I'd try hard not to say/write a word about what's happening there. So, I figured it would be a good time to post another edition of a joint Havel Havelim and Kosher Cooking Carnival.
As has been my custom, since I have found myself "holding the bag," being the one and only blog carnival host for both of these Jewish blog carnivals, I just choose a variety of eighteen 18 חי Chai Life posts from various blogs, including my own obviously.

You can get more information on the facebook pages, Havel Havelim and Kosher Cooking Carnival, and if you'd like to get more active, then please email me. These editions now come out periodically, according to my moods.

Remember that these blog carnivals are for everyone, bloggers and non-bloggers alike, to read, comment and share. I hope that you take a look at the various blog (notice no mention of the blogs' names) posts included here and let me know what you think of the selection. Enjoy!

I 💙 JERUSALEM
1- January 2017 Jewish Book Carnival
2- Jerusalem is Israel's Eternal Capital City!
3- Proposed Law: bituach leumi exemptions for baalei tshuva
4- Another Shalit Deal outcome, another life sentence, another bereaved family
5- What was This Supposed to Say?
6- Explaining Israel: What the heck is going on here???
7- Hamas to evict 2500 Gazans from their homes. NGOs freaking out. (Just kidding!)
8- Future Israeli Leaders in the Negev
9- A Special Pair of Booties..
10- Israeli Charred Eggplant Salad
11- It flopped like a failed souffle
12- You Can't Blame Them
13- Denial
14- Bnei Noah
15- Nice to Know New Part of Neighborhood
16- When Beinart's Hero Called My Hero a Fascist
17- Was Elor Azaria Setup?
18- THE GOD THING

I do appreciate your input, so please don't be shy.

Wednesday, January 25, 2017

This Rosh Chodesh Shvat, 5777

This Rosh Chodesh Shvat, 5777, falls on Shabbat Kodesh, the Holy Sabbath, so there won't be the usual Women's Rosh Chodesh Prayers at Shiloh Hakeduma, Tel Shiloh.

The following Rosh Chodesh is Adar, and that we will celebrate on Sunday, February 26, the 30th of Shvat.

Women's Prayers at Shiloh Hakeduma, Tel Shiloh
Rosh Chodesh Adar, 5777 
Sunday February 26, 2017 
30th of Shvat, 5777, 8:30am 
Hallel and Musaf for Rosh Chodesh 
Tour of Tel Shiloh 
Dvar Torah, Short Torah Lesson 
Please come and invite family, friends and neighbors. 

תפילת נשים ראש חודש אדר
בשילה הקדומה, תל שילה
יום א' 26-2-2017
 ל' שבט, תשע"ז 8:30
הלל ומוסף לראש חודש
יהיה דבר תורה קצר וסיור בתל
כדאי לבוא ולהזמין חברות, משפחה ושכנות

So, take out your Jewish Calendar, 5777, and mark the day. If you have more questions about it, please contact me shilohmuse@gmail.com with "Rosh Chodesh" as subject. Our women's dovening isn't a version of synagogue prayers. We sing Hallel out loud and then doven Musaf individually.





There's lots more to do at Shiloh Hakeduma besides our monthly prayers, so I suggest that you contact them and visit. For more information call 02-994-4019.

Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Stop Supporting So-Called "Palestinians," sic, Parasitic Corruption!

Gaza Mall, Huffington Post
Media all over the world, innumerable countries and NGOs are always trying to arouse sympathy for the "unfortunate Palestinians," sic.  Rather ironically, or more accurately illogically, what we'll call "the world" likes to refer to the Arabs they have named "Palestinians," sic, are not one group.

Those who live in or near Gaza call themselves "Gazans," and those who live east and west of the Jordan River consider themselves entitled to use the name "Palestinian," though they are far from being a united group at all. They come from all different places. A large percentage are descended from Syrians, Lebanese, Egyptians, Saudis, further afield or have been nomads for more than centuries. Their great-grandparents were attracted to this part of the world because of the economic opportunities brought by the Jewish Zionists starting a century and a half ago.

grapes in my garden vineyard
They can never be equated with the Jewish People who practice a religion that is centered on mourning the loss of our Land, Jerusalem-based Holy Temple and the agricultural seasons here in the Holy Land. Our Jewish Calendar and Holidays follow planting and harvest times.

It doesn't matter how much money and how many "advisors" the various countries and NGOs send to help the Arabs, since not only is corruption the dominant characteristic of their way of "governing," but they have no genuine desire to establish an independent viable united country. So when a newspaper/site, whether the Jerusalem Post or the NY Times or CNN has a headline like " ‘GAZA INFRASTRUCTURE NEARING COLLAPSE’," you should know that it's just a request to waste more money into the crooked leaky buckets that support terror against Israel and abuse their own residents.

Stop falling for the lies. There is only one nation/people truly native and deserving of a state here, the Jewish People!

We Con The World! Caroline Glick and Latma, we miss you!

Monday, January 23, 2017

Jerusalem is Israel's Eternal Capital City!

I 💗 JERUSALEM
Zion Square, Jerusalem
The insulting behavior of the world against Israel must end:
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told senior ministers he is lifting restrictions on settlement building in East Jerusalem, a statement said on Sunday, immediately after the city's municipal government approved permits for the building of hundreds of new homes in the area. (Reuters)
It is really up to us. No normal self-respecting country would stand for it. Jerusalem has been the capital, most important city for the Jewish People since King David thousands of years ago. No other people or country or kingdom has ever had that relationship with Jerusalem. Actually no other indigenous people have ever had an independent country/kingdom here. Yes, there were invaders and occupiers like Hadrian, the Assyrians, the Greeks, Romans, Crusaders, Turks and the British who had been assigned by the League of Nations to facilitate the establishment of a Jewish State here.

But the British sabotaged the plans by severely restricting entry to Jews and trying to invent Arab "nations" to occupy the Land, which had been known as Palestine-Transjordan. They invited the foreign desert tribe of the Hashemites to occupy the eastern bank of the Jordan and invented the "Kingdom of Jordan," which has no historic roots whatsoever.

November 29, 1947, the newly minted United Nations General Assembly rather half-heartedly voted to approve the establishment of a Jewish State in just a sliver of what remained of the British Mandate. At the same time it supported the establishment of an additional Arab State in most of what remained west of of the Jordan River. The Arabs were given military superiority and security, since they had the mountain range, which also was the Historic Heartland of the Jewish Nation and History.

Here we are almost seventy 70 years later, after many wars during which Israel has proven its superiority in all ways except for one. Although we have consistently and miraculously defeated our enemies, we still act like the world is doing us a favor by letting us exist. Today in the 21st Century there isn't a single country that honors and respects us properly by having its embassy in our "Capital City Jerusalem. And instead of taking steps/sanctions against them by retaliating in kind, and probably saving billions of dollars over the years, by locating our embassies in the cities of our choice, rather than capitals, we just let them insult us and our history.

Some of you will want to comment that they are sure that the United States will be moving its embassy to Jerusalem. Sorry, but until it actually happens, I just don't believe it.

GUEST POST: Jewish NYC Mayor

Two Quotes from Jewish NYC Mayor
a guest post by Mr. Cohen

MICROBIOGRAPHY: Edward I. Koch was a secular Jew.
He was Mayor of New York City from 1/1/1978 to 12/31/1989.

QUOTE 1:

“I’m very conscious of being Jewish,” says Koch. 
He is also conscious of, and threatened by,
what he considers widespread black anti-Semitism. 

As a member of Congress, he seethed at black colleagues
who voted against aid for Israel; he feared that their votes
were an expression of their hostility to Jews.

In his oral memoirs of [year] 1975 and [year] 1976,
Koch reveals his innermost feelings about race relations:

“I find the black community very anti-Semitic. 
I don’t care what the American Jewish Congress or the B’nai B’rith
will issue by way of polls showing that the black community is not. 
I think that’s pure bull….
They’d like to believe that.
My experience with blacks is that they’re basically anti-Semitic. 

Now I want to be fair about it. 
I think that whites are basically anti-black….
But the difference is:
it is recognized as morally reprehensible, something you have to control.”

SOURCE: Mayor: An Autobiography (chapter 12, page 152)
by Edward I. Koch, year 1984, Simon & Schuster Publishers,
ISBN 0-671-49536-4

PERSONAL COMMENT:
It seems that the secular-Liberal Jewish establishment organizations
cannot be trusted to tell Jews the truth about anti-Semitism. 

QUOTE 2:

“The Christian community has failed in every case
involving the Jews. People said after World War Two
that it could never happen again to the Jews. 

But it is happening again.  Not in the same way,
with concentration camps, but with the same disregard
for the Jewish community’s safety and security.

You know, today in Argentina there are 300,000 Jews
who are living on the edge of a sword. Today. 
They can be expelled at any time. They have already
had their leader, [Jacobo] Timmerman, tortured and expelled. 
You have the Jews in the Soviet Union.  We would not
take in all those Jews if the Soviets were to expel them all. 

And that is the way it is across the world. 
And it is Israel that has to be there constantly. 
And its security has to be safeguarded 
And this isn’t only the way religious Jews feel. 
This is all Jews.  It is me.”

SOURCE: Mayor: An Autobiography (chapter 16, page 229)
by Edward I. Koch, year 1984, Simon & Schuster Publishers,
ISBN 0-671-49536-4

PERSONAL COMMENT:
This quote reminds me of the good-old-days when secular Jews
and Liberal Jews – like Ed Koch -- were still solidly-pro-Israel.
____________________________________________________
PLEASE help the battle against
internet anti-Semitism by
making a PayPal donation to:
FourCupsOfWine@gmail.com.
THANK YOU!!

____________________________________________________
OTHER BLOG POSTS BY MR. COHEN:

Ancient Roman historians connected Jews with the Land of Israel and Jerusalem:

https://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2017/02/guest-post-josephus-vs-muslim-liars.html
http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2016/05/guest-post-cornelius-tacticus.html

Rambam Rejected Childless Messiah:
http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2016/08/rambam-rejected-childless-messiah-by-mr.html

Forgotten Muslim Oppression against Jews:
https://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2017/01/guest-post-forgotten-oppression.html
https://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2017/06/guest-post-kiddush-hashem-1498.html

Seven Times Stronger:
https://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2017/01/guest-post-seven-times-stronger.html

Why Muslims Hate Jews:
https://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2016/12/guest-post-why-muslims-hate-jews.html
https://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2017/01/guest-post-moynihan-1982.html

Quick Bible Quotes from Joshua and Jeremiah:
http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2016/11/guest-post-joshua-chapter-23-verse-12.html
https://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2016/12/guest-post-jeremiah-chapter-17.html

How a Reform Rabbi Became Orthodox (true story):
http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2016/07/how-did-reform-rabbi-become-orthodox-jew.html

Sephardic Jews Reject Reform Judaism:
https://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2017/07/sephardim-reject-reform.html
https://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2017/08/guest-post-persian-rabbis-decree.html

Greek NYC Jews and Syrian NYC Jews:
http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2016/03/greek-jews-syrian-jews.html

How to Convict the New York Times
of unfair bias against Israel:
https://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2016/11/guest-post-how-to-convict-new-york-times.html
https://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2016/11/guest-post-nyt-erases-israel-from-map.html
http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2016/03/guest-postnyt-vs-israel.html

Why Israel’s 1967 Borders are Undefendable:
https://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2017/03/guest-post-why-1967-borders-are-suicide.html
____________________________________________________

GUEST POST: SEVEN TIMES STRONGER

SEVEN TIMES STRONGER
a guest post by Mr. Cohen -- about American anti-Semitism during the Holocaust
 
Popular concern for Europe’s Jews could not develop without wide-spread knowledge of what was happening to them.  But the information gap, though extremely important, was not the only limiting factor.

Strong currents of anti-Semitism and nativism in American society also diminished the possibilities for a sympathetic response. A quieter, more prevalent prejudice, a “passive anti-Semitism,” was another major barrier to the growth of concern. 

It was reflected in opinion surveys taken by the [USA] Office of War Information.
 
They showed that the impact of atrocity information on the average American was 
SEVEN TIMES STRONGER when it involved atrocities-in-general, than when
it referred specifically to atrocities against Jews.

SOURCE: The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust 1941-1945
(chapter 16, page 327) by David S. Wyman, year 1984, Pantheon Books, New York,
ISBN: 9780394428130, 0394428137, 9780394740775, 0394740777.
____________________________________________________________
PLEASE help the battle against
internet anti-Semitism by
making a PayPal donation to:
FourCupsOfWine@gmail.com.
THANK YOU!!

____________________________________________________________
OTHER BLOG POSTS BY MR. COHEN:

Ancient Roman historians connected Jews with the Land of Israel and Jerusalem:

https://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2017/02/guest-post-josephus-vs-muslim-liars.html
http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2016/05/guest-post-cornelius-tacticus.html

Rambam Rejected Childless Messiah:
http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2016/08/rambam-rejected-childless-messiah-by-mr.html

Forgotten Muslim Oppression against Jews:
https://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2017/01/guest-post-forgotten-oppression.html

Why Muslims Hate Jews:
https://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2016/12/guest-post-why-muslims-hate-jews.html
https://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2017/01/guest-post-moynihan-1982.html

Quick Bible Quotes from Joshua and Jeremiah:
http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2016/11/guest-post-joshua-chapter-23-verse-12.html
https://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2016/12/guest-post-jeremiah-chapter-17.html

How a Reform Rabbi Became Orthodox (true story):
http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2016/07/how-did-reform-rabbi-become-orthodox-jew.html

Sephardic Jews Reject Reform Judaism:
https://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2017/07/sephardim-reject-reform.html
https://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2017/08/guest-post-persian-rabbis-decree.html

Greek NYC Jews and Syrian NYC Jews:
http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2016/03/greek-jews-syrian-jews.html

How to Convict the New York Times of Unfair Bias Against Israel:
https://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2016/11/guest-post-how-to-convict-new-york-times.html
https://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2016/11/guest-post-nyt-erases-israel-from-map.html
http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2016/03/guest-postnyt-vs-israel.html

Sunday, January 22, 2017

Powerful Women in Shmot This Week's Torah Portion

Over Shabbat my husband and I were in the Kinar Hotel in northern Israel which is on the shore of Yam Kineret, the Sea of Galilee.


The Shabbat Prayers we attended, (there was an amazing variety to choose from,) was led by a talented sweet-voiced chazan, cantor who was accompanied by a small choir which included the veteran Israeli singing duo the Tzemed Re'im. During the Prayer for The Welfare of the Israeli Government I noticed something rather surprising to me. While all the women I could see from my frontrow seat in the Ezrat Nashim, Women's Section were standing, very few of the men were.



How could that be? I wondered.  Then I thought back to the Torah Portion of the Week, Shemot, NamesExodus 1,1-6,1, which tells how the "Children of Israel" suddenly fell from favor in Egypt. They had entered as honored guests and suddenly discovered themselves to be enslaved.

This Torah Portion is full of heroines:

  • The midwives who defied Pharaoh and refused to murder Jewish baby boys at birth.
  • Bat Paroh, the daughter of Pharaoh who rescued the obviously Jewish baby boy she saw floating in the Nile.
  • Miriam and Yocheved who cared for the baby until he was old enough to live with Pharaoh's daughter in the palace.
  • Tzippora, who circumcised her baby son.

We don't see the men fearlessly taking the initiative the way the women did in the Biblical narrative. Moshe would not have reached maturity if it hadn't been for those women I just listed. Yes, only after the women made it possible did the men begin to act.

I noticed that more men get up when the Prayer for the IDF Soldiers began. Considering my interpretation of the parsha, the Torah Portion of the week, we shouldn't be surprised. Should we?
He Who blessed our forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob -- may He bless the fighters of the Israel Defense Forces, who stand guard over our land and the cities of our God, from the border of the Lebanon to the desert of Egypt, and from the Great Sea unto the approach of the Aravah, on the land, in the air, and on the sea.
May the Almighty cause the enemies who rise up against us to be struck down before them. May the Holy One, Blessed is He, preserve and rescue our fighters from every trouble and distress and from every plague and illness, and may He send blessing and success in their every endeavor.
May He lead our enemies under our soldiers’ sway and may He grant them salvation and crown them with victory. And may there be fulfilled for them the verse: For it is the Lord your God, Who goes with you to battle your enemies for you to save you.
Now let us respond: Amen. (Aish.com)

bhol.co.il


I searched but couldn't find the arrangement I had heard in the Kinar Synagogue.



Saturday, January 21, 2017

I Was Relieved That Trump Wasn't Assasinated

Pre-Inauguration Photo, Trumps and Obamas (People)

Donald Trump is sworn in as the 45th president of the United States by Chief Justice John Roberts as Melania Trump looks on during the 58th Presidential Inauguration at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Friday, Jan. 20, 2017.
(AP Photo/Matt Rourke) fox25
Am I the only one who was in suspense wondering if something awful would happen to Donald Trump on the way to the White House? If you google assassinate trump meme, you'll get some really awful things.

There was much too much talk about the legal implications of a Trump death before inauguration and how that could give Hillary Clinton the presidency. CNN is in hot water over a piece they broadcast,  CNN Runs Story Imagining Trump & Entire Cabinet Are Assassinated & It’s Not Going Over Well.


Such an event/tragedy would be very bad for United States of America. It's not a matter of Trump vs Hillary, it's a matter of an assassin trying to change the legal result of elections. I don't remember reading articles explaining how to prevent a "president-elect" taking office like the ones that have been in the media since last November. They frighten me. I'd expect it in one of the unstable countries in other parts of the world, not the United States of America.

Relax, maybe Donald Trump will surprise you for the better...

Friday, January 20, 2017

Give Trump a Chance, The democratic Way

It isn't a typo. I purposely wrote "democratic" in the title with a lowercase "d." There's a reason. With an uppercase "d" it would be the name of the political party that lost the American Presidential Election. But the meaning of the word in lowercase is:
According to political scientist Larry Diamond, democracy consists of four key elements: (a) A political system for choosing and replacing the government through free and fair elections; (b) The active participation of the people, as citizens, in politics and civic life; (c) Protection of the human rights of all citizens, and (d) A rule of law, in which the laws and procedures apply equally to all citizens.[3] Wikipedia
And that should be taken very seriously by Americans. According to American Law, Donald Trump won the Presidency. People can be disappointed, but to protest the results the way we've been seeing is anti-government, anti-rule of law and anti-democratic.

credit

Thursday, January 19, 2017

Building in Shiloh as Land Rises in Value

Shiloh has reached the exalted stage in real estate values when people are willing and hoping to buy an old house and tear it down before building their dream home.



I consider this an extremely important benchmark in our development as a community. There was a time when people came to Shiloh just for ideological reasons, and in terms of financial reasons, just because it was relatively inexpensive. Land for those of us who have been here from the beginning or close to it, was free. We just paid for the expense of our homes, whether built or purchased very cheaply.

But now, Shiloh as real estate value, the community, education, location and other necessary facilities are such that the land itself has value.

The house that was knocked down was built by the housing ministry and sold pretty cheaply about twenty-five years ago. A family lived there, and then it was rented out. Many people have added to those homes and are very happy living in them, but the new family has planned a large home with one or two rental apartments. As you can see, the area is flat, so access is easy. It is also a very desirable neighborhood, just down the way and around the corner from me. There are many "youngish" families with children in school. The parents are approaching middle-age. Yes, they are about the ages of my children.

There are a few synagogues in the neighborhood, a clinic and public transportation. There are also a lot of English speakers.


The neighborhood also has a few terraced apartment buildings, which are also populated by young families, who have bought their apartments. They were built by private contractors. The only "public housing" built here in Shiloh were that area built up twenty-five years ago and the first prefabricated homes which Ariel Sharon had brought here just over thirty-five years ago. They are still being lived in, and here in the photograph below you can see that they, too, have real estate value (though less) and are being expanded.


There are a lot of housing options in Shiloh besides purchasing homes. We have a large caravan (mobile home) neighborhood, and there are other rental options. I think there are close to four hundred families living here now. And there are many more in neighboring Shvut Rachel and the various small "hilltop"communities to the east and west of us.

Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Not Even Jared Kushner Can make "Mideast Peace"

Donald Trump greets his daughter Ivanka and son in law Jared Kushner (R) at his election night rally in Manhattan, New York, November 9, 2016. (photo credit:REUTERS) (Jerusalem Post)
It sure must be nice to be so adored and respected by one's father-in-law, especially when he's a powerful wheeler dealer, reality TV star and recently elected President of the United States. But it sure shows how little Donald Trump really understands about the situation out here in the heart of Judea/Samaria aka "disputed territories," when he so blithely states:
JARED KUSHNER WILL 'BROKER MIDEAST PEACE' FOR THE WHITE HOUSE
In an interview with the Times of London, Trump said that Kushner, Ivanka Trump's husband, would to take on the task of negotiating peace between Israelis and Palestinians– an appointment Trump has previously floated due to the fact that Kushner "knows the region, knows the people, knows the players," Trump described in a previous interview. (Jerusalem Post)
It's not that Trump is an idiot, it really must be remembered that he was elected on a platform that emphasised the needs and desires of ordinary Americans and he didn't show any great interest in international affairs or claims that he would fix the world. That is one of the reasons that he attracted so much support.

I don't consider Kushner to be an idiot either. Remember that in business, sometimes you have to admit that a business plan must be cancelled, because it just won't work. In the building/project development business, which both Trump and Kushner understand and excel, there may be some underlying topographical or logistical problems discovered that just can't be fixed or would cost so much that the project would be neither viable nor profitable. In those cases, a wise and experienced businessman goes onto other projects, and I hope and pray that the Trump-Kushner team will realize that this "Mideast peace project" must be scrapped.

I hope that Kushner stays busy solving the problems Americans who voted for Trump, and others, are really concerned about, truly affordable healthcare and enough jobs with incomes one can live on.