A Stunning Video

I was struck dumb when I saw this video. But that's okay, because It speaks for itself.

So Easy, Even GUYS Can Do It!!

Remember a couple or three posts ago I showed you how easy it is to put on the Baby K'tan compared to a wrap-type baby carrier?  Well, here's one of the newest positions, called "the Kangaroo" position, which can be used with cute little newborns (whom I still swoon over!).  This position is so easy, even guys can do it (forgive me, dudes)!



So all you men--fathers and fathers-to-be, go out right now and GET one, 'cause it is the BEST!

(I just wish I had one when my eldest daughter--who invented it--was a newborn.  But time can't go backwards, can it?)

Israel: A Land Flowing with Milk and Honey and. . . Gas and Oil?!

Is it possible? Is it a miracle? At long last, tiny, seemingly resource-poor Israel has found abundant natural gas and oil resources offshore in the Mediterranean!

In 2009, American company Noble Energy based in Houston, Texas, found (in their drilling for the Israeli Delek fuel company) vast reserves of natural gas and then oil, in the sea offshore from Haifa. Original estimates of around 87 billion cubic meters were apparently conservative, and were revised to 850 billion cubic meters, enough to supply Israel's domestic gas requirements for up to thirty-five years.  There is the strong possibility that Israel will become--and this is truly miraculous--an exporter of natural gas and maybe even oil.

Of course, Lebanon and Hezbollah have already laid claims to some of these discoveries, saying that it is in their territory, and that they will "not allow" Israel to take possession of these oil and gas fields.  Well, let's take a look now, shall we?

Funny, it doesn't look as if it is in their territory.  Above is the map straight from the Noble Energy site, showing the Tamar, Dalit and Mari-B oil field development projects. Seems to me, Cyprus might have something to say for discoveries in its waters.  But, nope. Not Lebanon.  And certainly not Hezbollah.

But knowing the character (or lack thereof) of Israel's surrounding enemies, we can be sure that they will do everything in their power to get their hands on natural gas and oil reserves which rightfully belong to the Jews.  Belonging to the Jews? Unheard of!  Not permitted!  It can't be! We won't allow it!  Not fair!!!

But maybe, just maybe, it's fulfillment of a prophecy from the Torah. . . ?  You can interpret it any way you like.  Meanwhile, just keep swimming drilling, drilling, drilling. . .

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Oops--Quick--HH #281!!

. . . has been here at Ki Yachol Nuchal and live since August 22nd!! Read it fast: the next one's coming out tomorrow, er--today (yikes!)

Ya Can't Get the Yid outa da Jew

My sister-in-law's sister-in-law (you know the one) in sunny________sent me this.  In case you were thinking of doing the same thing as "Bernie," I suggest. . .just join the JCC!

Baby K'tan: BEST Baby Carrier on the Market!

Yes, folks--I've been away from the PC because I was teaching little tykes (one-and-a-half to three-year olds) in a preschool for a week.  Each day I came home totally exhausted and too pooped to peep--I mean blog.  So just to ease back into it (I might be teaching some days next week too), I found something to post which is sort of related to my job this past week with babies and toddlers: the best baby carrier on the market, BABY K'TAN!

Just see how easy-squeezy it is to put on, pop your baby in, and start your day!  The best way to get one is to go to the Baby K'tan web site and look up the stores which carry it in your state.  Call those stores and ask for it by name! Show there's a demand for the most innovative, mother-invented, dual-shoulder baby sling carrier around!  It carries kids from birth to 42 lbs., by the way, and has over 9 positions to accommodate infants and toddlers.

Get a load of this:



(By the way, that's my middle daughter Toodles on the left, wearing the Baby K'tan!)

"Patronizing American Lectures...Are Now Obscene"

Unity Coalition for Israel reprinted a scathing article by George F. Wills published on WashingtonPost.com, denouncing president Obama's patronizing statement that "Israel should take risks for peace."  That's all Israel has been doing for decades, since its inception--taking risks for peace.

In the intifada that began in 2000, Palestinian terrorism killed more than 1,000 Israelis. As a portion of U.S. population, that would be 42,000, approaching the toll of America's eight years in Vietnam. During the onslaught, which began 10 Septembers ago, Israeli parents sending two children to a school would put them on separate buses to decrease the chance that neither would return for dinner. Surely most Americans can imagine, even if their tone-deaf leaders cannot, how grating it is when those leaders lecture Israel on the need to take “risks for peace.”

Somehow or other world leaders and spokesmen keep spouting ridiculous statements about Israel vis a vis its neighbors which not only indicate a lack of knowledge but worse--a total disinterest in learning the truth and facing it head on. That wouldn't work, you see, because then there would be no excuse to blame Israel for. . .something--anything.

Palestine has a seemingly limitless capacity for eliciting nonsense from afar, as it did recently when British Prime Minister David Cameron referred to Gaza as a “prison camp.” In a sense it is, but not in the sense Cameron intended. His implication was that Israel is the cruel imprisoner. Gaza's actual misfortune is to be under the iron fist of Hamas, a terrorist organization.

 How many times (ad nauseum) have I stated in this blog that Israel did not "take over" a 'Palestinian' state? There was no such thing, ever.  But there was a Jewish one, many many snows ago.

The creation of Israel did not involve the destruction of a Palestinian state, there having been no such state since the Romans arrived. And if the Jewish percentage of the world's population were today what it was when the Romans ruled Palestine, there would be 200 million Jews. After a uniquely hazardous passage through two millennia without a homeland, there are 13 million Jews.

Thirteen million Jews.  Do you realize how little that is, in relation to other populations? The Chinese, admiring the Jews' and state of Israel's accomplishments in sixty-two short years, were discussing modeling their economic growth plan after Israel's.  They were under the impression that the Jews of the world numbered 100 million, much smaller than China's over 1.3 billion (China ranks 1st; Israel ranks 96th, out of 223 countries, including tiny sovereign islands).  They were dumbfounded when they learned that the total number of Jews is approximately 13 million, worldwide.

The truth of the matter is, that the world is resentful of the Jews' successes.  And after two millenia of no state of their own, the Jews finally have one.  In the 62 years of its existence, Israel has not known any real peace.  The enemies surrounding her still refuse to even recognize that she exits.  So, stop the patronizing, and the pandering to the Arabs.  It's enough already.

In the 62 years since this homeland was founded on one-sixth of 1 percent of the land of what is carelessly and inaccurately called “the Arab world,” Israelis have never known an hour of real peace. Patronizing American lectures on the reality of risks and the desirableness of peace, which once were merely fatuous, are now obscene.

Read the entire article.

Video: NO to Ground Zero Mosque

Thanks to Israel Matzav for posting this.  It's exactly how I feel about this proposed mosque: it's rubbing salt in the wound.

Panorama Surprise: A Fair Report on Israel and the Turkish Flotilla Incident

What we have known all along about Israel's actions being self-defense in the incident of the Gaza "Peace" Flotilla has now been confirmed, by a surprisingly very balanced report by the BBC's  documentary show, Panorama, as written on Honest Reporting UK. 

This BBC report indicates, from videos, radio transmissions and interviews of members of the Turkish IHH (-who openly stated that they wished to be martyrs and that the Israelis should "go back to Auschwitz"), of other passengers on board, and of soldiers in the elite Israeli Naval Commando 13 who boarded the ship--what really happened on the Mavi Marmara on 31 May, 2010.

I'm Thirsty. Time for. . . Limonana!

I found this wonderful picture of a tall, cool glass of Limonana, several posts ago.  And it got me thirsty for that wonderful Israeli drink: lemonade with nana, or mint leaves.  There ain't nothin' like it for thirst-quenching during hot, dry (or humid) summer days, whether in Israel or elsewhere.

So here's a recipe for you.  It makes approximately a 2-quart pitcher.  Enjoy!

Limonana:

1 cup lemon juice (fresh squeezed is best, but bottled works)
1 cup sugar

About ¼ cup fresh mint leaves (to taste) + some extra sprigs (optional)

1 or 2 fresh lemons, skins well scrubbed (optional) and then sliced.

Grape juice, cherry juice or Grenadine (optional)

Chop up the ¼ cup of mint leaves and put in small pan with the sugar and 1 cup of the water. Bring to boil. (Alternately, pour one cup of boiling water over the mint leaves, let steep a minute or two, then add the cup of sugar).

Put the mint/sugar mix and the cup of lemon juice in a 2 quart pitcher and add water to fill (you can use some ice as part of the water to cool this down more quickly).

If you are very finicky, you can strain the lemonade after it cools in order to remove the pieces of chopped mint.

At this point you can add the sliced lemon, although one might well save some for garnish when the lemonade is served, perhaps putting one of the sliced lemons in the pitcher and using slices of the second lemon to hang on the rim of each glass.

The extra sprigs of mint are also to be used as garnish.

Chill the lemonade and serve over ice, with garnish.

For Pink Mint Lemonade

Add some Grenadine, grape juice or cherry juice (in which case you can also throw some cherries into the glass as garnish). Other variations include Strawberry Mint Lemonade (sugar strawberries, let sit overnight, throw into the lemonade – remember to count the sugar you used on the strawberries as part of the recipe! – and garnish with fresh sliced strawberry).
 

For Middle Eastern-style Lemonana

(As served in Tel Aviv, Beirut, Jerusalem and Damascus)

Use HALF the ingredients. Put the sugar/mint mixture (1/2 cup sugar, 2 Tablespoons chopped mint) into a blender. Add the lemon juice (1/2 cup). Add ice to the four cup mark, and some water to fill around the ice up to the four cup mark. Blend until it is slushy. Serve, garnishing only with mint sprigs.

In my case, our blender is milchig (dairy), and we are BBQing and smoking chicken on our grill tonight, so using the blender is out (besides, I'm too lazy).  Instead, I will probably go with the pouring-boiling-water-over-nana-leaves-and-sugar part, because it's...easy.  My mantra for cooking (the little that I do).  Will let you know the outcome, after our Al haAish tonight!

(hat tip DH, for finding this recipe.  We are going to test it out tonight, for our BBQ with friends...)

A Biased Ideology and Double Standard

Our president has attempted, in his pro-Ground Zero mosque statement, to maintain that his stance is such because it's a civil rights issue. Civil rights for Muslims, that is.

I didn't believe it then, and I don't believe it now.  He is absolutely biased towards Muslims, whom he says should be afforded all rights to build wherever they want--but what about the Jews, whom he prohibits from building in East Jerusalem, in "the heartland of Jewish history?" That, according to the president, is verboten.  And the fact that Abbas does not want Jews living in a Palestinian state, if it is created? That's ok by Mr. Obama, the great proponent of civil rights for all, right?  Just not for Jews.

Caroline Glick elucidates it best.  Here is her entire article, reprinted here from the Jewish World Review.  And I wonder, after reading it, whether supporting Muslims who call the United States an "accessory" to 9/11 (see previous post), thus being America's enemies--are not grounds for impeachment. . .?


Standing on a landmine
By Caroline B. Glick

http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | US President Barack Obama's warm endorsement of the plan to build a mosque by the ruins of the World Trade Center tells Israel - and its enemies - everything we need to know about the president of the United States of America.

Speaking during a Ramadan fast breaking meal at the White House to an audience of people affiliated with various Muslim Brotherhood- related groups in the US, Obama couched his support for the mosque at Ground Zero in constitutional terms.
In his words, "As a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country. And that includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in Lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances. This is America. Our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakable. The principle that people of all faiths are welcome in this country and that they will not be treated differently by their government is essential to who we are. The writ of the Founders must endure."

Of course, none of those who have voiced opposition to the mosque project at Ground Zero have claimed that the Islamic group behind the mosque project is acting unlawfully in seeking to construct a mosque. The nearly 70 percent of Americans who oppose building a mosque at Ground Zero oppose the mosque because they believe it is wrong to build a mosque at the site where less than a decade ago Muslims acting in the name of Islam murdered nearly 3,000 people in an act of war against the US and an act of terror against the American people.
Obama has been pilloried by his opponents for his position. And his fellow Democrats, facing the likelihood of massive defeats in the Congressional elections in three months, are reportedly deeply frustrated by his statements. Indeed, the uproar Obama's pro-mosque remarks has unleashed has been so harsh it raises the question of why he made it.

THERE ARE two possible explanations for Obama's move. Either he was motivated by politics or he was motivated by ideology. The view that Obama was motivated by politics is easily dismissed. With more than two-thirds of Americans telling pollsters they oppose the Ground Zero mosque project, it makes no political sense for a politician to strike out a position in favor of the mosque. Indeed, major Democrats have either refused to state a position on the issue or, like New York Governor David Paterson, they have recommended that the mosque builders construct their mosque elsewhere.

Perhaps Obama thought he could he could get away with making his statement. However, with his polling numbers consistently eroding, it is hard to imagine Obama's advisers would have told him that was a realistic view.
This leaves ideology. But what ideology motivates Obama to embrace such an unpopular initiative at such an explosive political juncture? Obama and his supporters would like us to believe this is a civil rights issue. In his defense of the Ground Zero mosque, Obama claimed his position was based on the American values such as, "The laws that we apply without regard to race, or religion, or wealth, or status. Our capacity to show not merely tolerance, but respect towards those who are different from us."

But if Obama is motivated by a belief in civil rights that is so strong it propels him to take on deeply unpopular causes in an election season, then one could reasonably expect that his support for civil rights would be absolute. That is, one could expect him to use the same yardstick for all groups, in all places and at all times.
But for Obama, there are some groups who must be denied the same civil rights he upholds as absolute in his defense of the plan to build a mosque at Ground Zero. As Obama has made clear since his first days in office, he believes that Jews should be denied the right to their property in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria simply because they are Jews.

OBAMA IS so firm in his belief that Jews should be denied civil rights in Israel's capital and in the heartland of Jewish history that he has provoked multiple crises in his relations with Israel to advance this bigoted view. Almost from his first day in office Obama has struck out a radical position in which he has insisted that Jews must be prohibited from building anything - synagogues, homes, nurseries, schools - in Judea, Jerusalem and Samaria on land they own. Jews - Israeli and non-Israeli - should be barred from exercising their property rights even if their construction plans have already been approved "in accordance with local laws and ordinances."
At the same time, Obama has insisted that Israel take no action to enforce its "local laws and ordinances" against illegal structures built by Arabs in Jerusalem, Judea, or Samaria.

Next month the deeply discriminatory and legally dubious 10-month moratorium on Jewish building in Judea and Samaria that Obama coerced Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu into instituting is set to end. So now Obama is putting the full weight of the White House on Israel to again coerce Netanyahu into prolonging the discriminatory ban that denies the civil rights and property rights of Jews simply because they are Jewish.

Obama claims to be embracing the nullification of Jewish civil right in the interests of peace. In his stated view, to forge peace in the Middle East it is necessary for the Palestinians to achieve statehood. But it hard to see how the establishment of a Palestinian state squares with Obama's purported dedication to civil rights.
In a briefing with the Egyptian media last week Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas told reporters that no Jews will be allowed to live in a future Palestinian state. He also said that while he would agree to allow NATO forces to deploy in the future Palestinian state, he would not permit any Jewish soldiers to serve in the NATO units stationed on the territory of such a state. As he put it, "I will not agree that there will be Jews among NATO forces and I will not allow even one Israeli to live amongst us on the Palestinian soil."

The notion that an inherently anti-Semitic Palestinian state, predicated on Jew hatred that strong, could possibly live at peace with Israel is simply ridiculous. But tellingly, in all the American pressure that has been placed on Abbas to begin direct negotiations with Israel, at no time has the administration been reported to have insisted that Abbas abandon his anti-Semitism. Obama has made no statement addressing the fact that the Palestinians demand that Jews be barred from living in the future Palestinian state. He has certainly not objected to this position although it squares with none of the American values of tolerance and property rights he upheld so strongly in his remarks on the Ground Zero mosque.

SO THE ideology Obama holds so strongly that it provokes him to take positions antithetical to the political interests of his party during an election season is not civil rights. Rather it has to do with his commitment to advancing the interests of a specific group or groups over the interests of other specific groups. In the case of the Ground Zero mosque he prefers the rights of Muslims over the values of the overwhelming majority of Americans. In the case of the Palestinians, he prefers their anti-Semitic nationalism over the civil rights of Jews.

Obama's behavior tells Israel's leaders something very important about how they should think about their relations with the Obama administration. It tells them that Obama is so wed to his ideology that he will push it regardless of political conditions. This means that for Israel, dealing with Obama is like standing on a landmine. Just as a landmine can explode at any minute, Obama can attack Israel at any moment. He is so ideologically bound to the Palestinian cause against Israel that he is liable to provoke a crisis when it is least politically advantageous - from his perspective - for him to do so.

This lesson is particularly urgent on the eve of yet another round of direct negotiations with the Palestinians and as the freeze on Jewish property rights is about to expire. Obama's ideological fanaticism means that nothing Israel does in the upcoming talks will help us.

As Obama's media surrogates like Tony Karon at Time magazine have made clear in recent weeks, the anti-Israel narrative has already coalesced. Everything that happens regarding those negotiations is Israel's fault. It is Israel's fault that they haven't begun. It will be Israel's fault when they falter. It will be Israel's fault when they fail. And if they succeed, Israel will still be blameworthy.

Facing this US President and his radical ideology, Netanyahu and his deputies must understand that they cannot appease him. They cannot convince him of Israel's good intentions.

The US leader who has rejected the expressed views of 68 percent of his fellow citizens in favor of the construction of a mosque at Ground Zero is not going to be moved by reason. The American president who defends the Ground Zero mosque builders even though their leader refuses to acknowledge that Hamas is a terrorist organization and has claimed that the US had the Sept. 11 attacks coming to it; and the American president who upholds the Palestinian cause even though it is virulently, and often genocidally anti-Semitic is not going to be appeased by Israeli building freezes and other confidence building gestures.

What this means is that Netanyahu and his deputies must concentrate on defending Israel and advancing its national interests. It is in Israel's national interests to guarantee the civil rights and property rights of Jews. It is in Israel's national interests to forthrightly set out and defend Israel's legal rights in Judea and Samaria and its sovereignty in united Jerusalem. It is in Israel's national interest to enforce its laws without prejudice towards all its citizens and expect all its citizens to respect its laws.

We are dealing with a self-consciously radical President who intends to remake the US relationship with the Muslim world. We will find no understanding from him.

Obama: Aligned with Terrorists?

President Barack Hussein Obama issued a strongly worded statement this past Friday night supporting the proposed new mosque near Ground Zero.

So now, Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar has backed the building of the Muslim Center and mosque.  Because, he says, Muslims have the right to worship wherever they want and build their houses of worship wherever they want, just like "Christians build their churches and Israelis build their holy places."

Yes, Hamas, that Islamic organization controlling Gaza, still firing Kassam rockets into southern Israel and which was classified by the United States as a terrorist group, remember them?  Al-Zahar went on to say this (emphasis mine).  Pay attention.

 "[Hamas] is representing the vast majority of the Arabic and Islamic world, especially the Islamic side” and that American Muslims, like all others, are united in a common cause."

Let us review: Hamas, according to its senior leader al-Zahar, is endorsing the building of the Islamic mosque at Ground Zero, as a necessity for Muslims.  And because Hamas represents the majority of Muslims, it is thus speaking for that majority, which are all united in a common cause.

My fellow Americans, Jewish and non-Jewish alike--do you have any idea what that common cause might be? If you know anything about  Islamic history vis a vis world history, you should know that it is the spreading of Islam throughout the world by any means possible, including quiet, ostensibly peaceful infiltration into  non-Islamic societies and acting as a fifth column--in addition to the obvious method of conducting outright war--whose sole purpose is to conquer and destroy those societies and replace them with Islam.

The Muslims also have a history of destroying others' religious sites, whether having been conquered, or not--often building their own over them.  Do any of you remember the Buddhas of Bamiyan in central Afghanistan? They were in existence for 1700 years, until they were blown up by the Taliban in 2001.  The Taliban leader at the time, Mullah Mohammed Omar issued an edict ordering the destruction of all non-Islamic statues. Over the Cave of Machpelah in Hevron, the second Holiest Jewish site which is the burial place of the Jewish Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, they built the Ibrahimi Mosque after the Muslim conquest in the 7th century.  Over the ruins of the Beit Hamikdash, the Jewish Holy Temple, they built the Dome of the Rock.  After the Islamic conquest of Damascus, they built the Ummayyad Mosque over the Christian Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, which had existed since the time of Constantine I.

It is one thing to believe that your religion is the only one, the right one, or the only path to truth; it is quite another to force others upon penalty of death to convert to yours, or to destroy others' holy sites or statues. 


The historian  Dr. Steven Carol, a Middle East expert, confirms this: that the Muslims' view of building an Islamic religious building is not quite the same as ours.  Rather, their view is, that buildling an Islamic religious center is an affirmation of their own superiority over non-Muslims.  It is a symbol of Islamic hegemony. (Emphasis mine):

Arab-Muslim conquerors have a penchant for destroying other people’s religious shrines and many times building their own on the ruins. It was, and remains, Islam’s way of saying, ‘We have defeated you, we rule you, and our god–Allah– is greater than your god.’ As I have pointed out, with numerous examples, in my book: Middle East Rules of Thumb: Understanding the Complexities of the Middle East, this has been a long established historic practice.

There has been a great backlash at Mr. Obama's forceful statements approving the building of the Islamic center mosque in lower Manhattan, and rightly so.  Our president seems to support the Muslims' "right to build everywhere," and in doing so, trampling on the rights and sensitivities of those impacted by the atrocity committed at Ground Zero, by Muslims.

It just makes no sense. Whose president is he? The American people's, or the Muslims and the terrorists?  I think we're all beginning to wonder...

Haveil Havalim #280 is Live

It's nice to see Soccer Dad (who is the culprit who started it all) back as host of his brainchild, Haveil Havalim, the Jewish Blog Carnival.

We are up to #280, and it is up and running at Soccer Dad's own blog, so go have a good read, while drinking your limonana.

 Yum.


*Limonana: Israeli lemonade with mint (nana) leaves

Relgious Tolerance Does Not Mean Utter Stupidity

Allowing a mosque led by a seemingly anti-American Imam who does not condemn terrorism and blames the United States as contributing to 9/11, without knowing from where and how this proposed 13-story building is being funded, is a ridiculously bad idea.

And now our great president is approving of its building, citing our need for religious tolerance. As David Pryce-Jones so aptly states in his excellent article Apologist in Chief (emphasis mine):

This [allowing Muslims religious freedom] is obviously true, but a mosque in this site of mass murder committed by Muslims is not about freedom of worship, it is a statement of supremacy and conquest.

Bet the Islamists are laughing at our naivete all the way to the bank...and the next suicide bomb in New York City (or coming to a town near you).



Let's DO something about it: Sign the Petition, to disallow its building!

Teshuvah in the Month of Elul--Is it Possible?!

Am I seeing things? Is it a miracle? Are Mashiach times upon us??  Did the Israeli courts really recognize that a Jew has to profess loyalty to Judaism and live like a Jew, in order to be considered for the Law of Return?

As read on Jewish Israel, the Israeli High Court has ruled, according to traditional Judaism, that a Jewish convert to Christianity has to prove that she is committed to the Jewish people before she is allowed to come into Israel.

The secular court of Israel apparently outshined the London and Tel Aviv rabbinical courts, which maintained that the woman in question had the status of a Jew (although she had abandoned Judaism). According to the JPost editorial report, the justices noted that “… communities throughout the ages regularly ostracized these people, … suggesting that in modern Israel the refusal to reinstate citizenship was a legitimate response…” to those who have abandoned their Jewish identity.

The justices also cited a decision by former president of the Supreme Court Aharon Barak who, “basing himself on solely secular criteria, acknowledged in 1987 that a Jew who believed Jesus was a savior had removed himself from the Jewish collective and was, therefore, to be denied Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return.”

Don't you think it's about time?  Let's hope this isn't a fluke.

Greeting Shabbat on a Positive Note-and HH #279

(Just a quick notice that HH #279 has been up all week, here.)

In my previous post I presented a short synopsis of some events in the news, and I wanted to end the week with a bit more spiritual depth upon which to reflect, today, on the approach of Shabbat.

Here is a video, the fifth in a series on the Israeli settlers (who are considered by some to be right-wing extremists and Arab-haters) called The Other Side (hat tip Daled Amos), which tells their story, of why they settled in Judea and Samaria (the so-called "West Bank") and about what they go through in order to live there.  It also shows the resilience of these citizens of Israel, their unshaken faith, and their desire to create good from evil--in this case, helping the traumatized Jewish children of terrorist attacks.




Shabbat Shalom (h/t Rafi for the video).

After a Hiatus: Chock Full O' Links

I haven't blogged since August 6th.  Good thing I didn't sign up for "Nablopomo" (National Blog Posting Month) for August.  I would have been run out of town for noncompliance.  My time has been taken up with resume (curriculum vitae to some) editing and interviews.  I am actively seeking work, and between that, and guests who stayed over last Shabbat involving much preparation, I was a victim of "so many____(fill in the blank with everything I did last week and this), so little time."

It's interesting to note that even though daily blogging became slightly stressful at times (when will I write? What will I write?!), it kept me in practice, and honed my skills, if you can call this a 'skill.'  Now that I have not blogged in exactly one week, I feel somewhat rusty.

It's not as if there is no news to blog about. I think there is plenty--there almost always is.  Some examples?  How about Russia loading fuel into Iran's nuclear reactor (it shows what a great friend Russia is), and--

the so-called "Israeli Serial Killer" nabbed after having boarded a Delta flight to Tel-Aviv whom many readers just assumed was Jewish, thus commenting on various articles with vile hatred dripping from their keyboards--partially because most news reports buried the fact  that the killer was a Christian Arab deep within their stories, except for some such as ABC News, who had it in their lead (hat tip Meryl Yourish).

And what of this one: the parents who named their kid Adolf Hitler Campbell (who last year were refused by a supermarket when they ordered a birthday cake with their child's name written in frosting) have lost custody of their three children, all of whom have Nazi-inspired names.

Or, how about that Dr. Laura--who dishes out personal advice in her radio show as if she is a psychologist or family therapist (she does have a Ph.D., though--in physiology) saying the "N" word repeatedly on the air and offending a caller complaining about racial slurs?

Now, here's a story you've probably actually been following: the controversy over building a mosque near Ground Zero.  My opinion on this? I'm totally against it.  I believe that Mayor Bloomberg's decision favoring it--which greatly disappoints me--is naive, dangerous, and shows the enemy just how soft we really are.

The mosque's Imam, Faisal Abdul Rauf, I wouldn't trust as far as I could throw him.  He explains away terrorism as happening because Muslims have been "humiliated and ignored."

Awwwwww. And Jews haven't been "humiliated" and not ignored, but much worse--persecuted, discriminated against, forced to convert to both Christianity and Islam and murdered on and off for centuries??  When was the last time the Jews blew up 3,000 people in the name of Judaism? Oh, and in addition, the good Imam obliquely blames the U.S. as an "accessory" to the attacks of 9/11.

Are we daft to allow this?  Tawfik Hamid thinks so.  See what he writes about the tenets of Islam and what this mosque will accomplish.  Charles Krauthammer put it so well when he said it's all about location, location, location (emphasis mine):

Location matters. Especially this location. Ground Zero is the site of the greatest mass murder in American history -- perpetrated by Muslims of a particular Islamist orthodoxy in whose cause they died and in whose name they killed.

And also thank you, Pat Condell, for speaking up on this subject and not mincing words.  Again.



Read more on the proposed mosque and it's Imam here, and here.


In short, there's a wealth of very important and also some very weird news out there.  I just don't have the patience yet to write about it all, so I am posting this first post after a hiatus of one week chock full o' links. Be sure to read 'em.  With coffee.

Israeli National Bird: the Hoopoe

Did you know that the Hoopoe was chosen to be the Israeli National Bird, in 2008?  The Hoopoe, or Duchifat in Hebrew, is mentioned in VaYikra (Leviticus) as a bird which Jews are not permitted to eat, along with eagles and vultures. Notwithstanding that utterly stupid Colbert video (gee, thanks, Dov Bear) which disses Israel's choice of bird, what he doesn't know (Colbert, that is) is that the special thing about the Duchifat is that it is the bird which can catch that special worm, the shamir, which it is written, cuts the stones to build the Beit HaMikdash--the Holy Temple.  As the legend goes,

The duchifat is called nagar tura, carpenter of the mountain, by Targum Onkelos because of its characteristics, as our Rabbis explained in Tractate Gittin (68b):

The Gemara there discusses King Solomon's dilemma. He wished to build the Holy Temple but was restricted from using cutting tools to cut the large stones from the quarries into smaller building blocks. The Gemara relates how Solomon encountered the demon Ashmedai (Asmodeus), who told him of the shamir, a small worm that possessed the unique ability to cut stone. Ashmedai further said that the only creature that might bring him the shamir was the tarnegol habar, the wild rooster or wild cock (as translated by the ArtScroll Schottenstein Edition of the Shas.)

The key element of this description is that the wild rooster or duchifat utilizes its clawing ability to pick up the shamir.

May the Duchifat, Israel's National Bird, be able to pick up the shamir, in order that we will see the Third Beit HaMikdash built speedily, in our day!
Shabbat shalom!



And in case you wondered, this is how a Duchifat sounds:

Gazan: "Get me Out of Here!"

Want to buy a new 2010 model Chevy in Gaza? You'll have to pay $45,000, twice what they cost in Egypt.  Cars were on the banned list because of the Egyptian/Israeli blockade of goods, until now: Israel is now allowing cars in.  But wouldn't you know it? Hamas and Fatah can't agree on who's in charge of the car import business.  So meanwhile, while they're squabbling, the cars are being smuggled in through those secret tunnels.

What I find significant, is something you might miss, if you're not paying attention: listen carefully, especially at around .30-45.  That Sky News reporter could have had himself a free Chevy, if he had gotten the dealer out of Gaza.

Nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there. . . in Hamastan (bet he'd like to move to Israel, though).

Just Joined "The Kehila!"

There is a new internet community in town, of Jewish and Israel bloggers! The Kehila* was founded by Eric, of The Israel Situation blog. In Eric's own words, 

The idea is that we each agree to help each other out and promote each other’s blogs. . . the challenge is open to anyone with an active Jewish/Israel themed blog.  It can be personal or professional.  There are no big rules.  I don’t plan to kick anyone out.  It is not my community, after all, it belongs to each person who joins.

Let's all help each other, and grow stronger by doing so.  We all can, by working together, not only increase traffic to each of our blogs and generate greater reader interest and comments in the process, but also create a synergy that would not be possible separately.  Remember, "The whole is greater than the sum of it's parts!"

I personally think that this is a great idea, and I am proud to be a member. If you fit the parameters, you should be, too!



*Kehila: Hebrew, meaning "community."

This Week's HH #278

This week's Jewish Blog Carnival #278 (yay! it's got a number again--I'll take their word for it) is up and running at The Israel Situation, so go get your cup o' jo, kick back in that easy chair, and have a good read.  Ya gotta have a laptop, though; it's a little bulky maneuvering that PC monitor and keyboard onto your lap.  Or alternatively, you could. . .

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Only in Israel: Flash OPERA in Tel-Aviv!

A Flash Opera at the food court of the Dizengoff Center in Tel-Aviv (hat tip Rafi).  I just love the comment that someone made about this :

"FRIGGEN KICKASS AWESOME!
I LOVE MY COUNTRY!"

. . . couldn't have said it better myself.