A Reporter's Walking Tour of Israel: He Finds a "Resilient" People

Very interesting video on the Today Show about a reporter who broke with his years of reporting on the wars and rocket attacks by the Arabs, and decided to walk down the coast of Israel from north to south, just to get a feel for the country and the people.

What he found was very positive: we are great achievers and a "resilient" people.  With our history of being persecuted by everyone and his uncle ("hu lo echad mi-shelanu"), we have to be.

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Israel's Poor Decisions--or Indecisions--Created Today's Political Mess

In an article on YNet Magazine, Daniel Friedmann writes a sobering report on how Israel itself, through indecisiveness or bad decisions, prepared the ground which strengthened the concept of a "Palestinian" state.  Even though, after the Six-Day War in 1967, Israel officially declared "no" to a Palestinian state with full consensus of the Israeli population, it's actions since then have actually contributed to the opposite.

Immediately following the Six Day War, the Arab League convened in Khartoum and passed the famous three No's resolution: No to peace, no to recognition and no to negotiations with Israel. Meanwhile, Israel also had No's of its own: No to pulling back to the '67 borders and no to a Palestinian state.
There were some weighty considerations behind the decision to oppose the establishment of a Palestinian state that are still relevant today. It was a national consensus that only the radical Left contested. However, despite clear resistance to the establishment of a Palestinian state, Israel has in fact been integral to the advancement of such a state.

 The Jerusalem question is a case in point.  Not only did Jordan do nothing about Jerusalem in the nineteen years it had sovereignty over the city from it's aggressive war against the nascent state of Israel in 1948 (called "the War of Independence") until the Six-Day War of 1967 (another Arab aggressive war) when it was defeated by Israel, but for over a thousand years Muslims reigned over Jerusalem and never, ever considered it important enough to them to make it their capital.

 
The only real interest the Arabs have in Jerusalem is that by demanding it be their capital now, in a future Palestinian state, it would further weaken Israeli and Jewish ties to this city, and further weaken, with their goal of finally eliminating--the Jewish State, which they never accepted in the Middle East to begin with.  The Palestinians are already denying historical connections between the Jews and Jerusalem, thus attempting to de-ligitimize any Jewish claim to the Holy city which is of course, as are most of their claims, a pack of lies. Par for the course.

Mr. Friedman claims that had Israel made an agreement with Jordan at the time it controlled the so-called "West Bank," the results would have been more favorable towards Israel, because Jordan would not have cared about Jerusalem--Amman would have continued to be its capital--whereas the Palestinians are adamant about Jerusalem being their capital, and that being "non-negotiable." G-d forbid.

 An agreement with Jordan regarding the West Bank would have required an agreement regarding the Holy Sites, but the question of declaring Jerusalem the capital of two cities would not have arisen as it has with the Palestinians. For Palestinians, making Jerusalem their capital is a non-negotiable precondition, making it the first time in history Jerusalem has been called upon to be the capital of two separate states.

These days, because of its poor decisions, Israel is faced with the possibility of an adjacent terrorist Palestinian state, which would have to be demilitarized (do you see them even agreeing to this?), with a group which refuses to this day to recognize the legitimacy of the state of Israel.  It makes no sense whatsoever to any thinking person.  No nation in its right mind would even consider accepting such an enemy as a state right next door. It's totally insane.

I look at it this way: you can argue back and forth about the poor decisions Israel made from 1948 onward, when they agreed to be created with "Partition" losing a huge chunk of the territory promised them by the British, and the Arabs didn't agree--and promptly attacked--but in my mind there is only one poor decision which was made by Israel, and that was after the 1967 war.

Israel should have learned by then, after three wars of aggression by the Arabs (1948, 1956, and 1967) and countless wars of attrition and terrorist attacks on its civilians in between, that after soundly defeating the Arab aggressor in 1967, she should have annexed all the territories gained in that war as part of Israel proper, subject to Israeli law--period.  And the option should have been given to the Arabs to become loyal citizens of the Jewish state, studying its history, culture and laws and pledging allegiance to it--or get out (they could have chosen which of the many Arab states to go to).  After all, they were the aggressor, not Israel.  And they lost.  That's the way it works.

Israel didn't do that.  And now we have. . . our scenario today.

Shlomit's Sukkah (Israel) is to Blame for Ruining the "Peace"

We are in the midst of the beautiful harvest holiday of Sukkot.  I wanted to upload some pics of our sukkah this year, but with a three-day Yom Tov (Holy days) time and exhaustion (and working in between) did not yet permit.  Instead, I found this:

There is an Israeli children's song called "Shlomit Bonah Sukkah," meaning a little girl named Shlomit (from the root 'shalom,' peace) is building a sukkah--that temporary hut we build to eat and sleep in for the holiday of sukkot, ongoing now.  Latma TV has now used that song in a sarcastic video showing how Shlomit's sukkah--euphemism for Israel--is to blame for ruining the "peace," while the world just looks the other way at the real Jew-haters, war-mongers and terrorists.

Beautiful Haveil Havalim #284

Maybe it's because, especially right after Yom Kippur (it was a relatively easy fast, thank G-d), I'm still very hungry--that I think Chaviva's Haveil Havalim (the Jewish Blog Carnival) is yummy!  Go check it out.

Why do I want cholent on Sunday, 12:16 p.m.? Oy!  (See ya later. Gonna go down to the kitchen and get some leftover seudat mafseket*!)

*se'udat mafseket: the last meal before the fast of Yom Kippur, eaten this year Friday late afternoon.

It Don't Mean a Thing if you Ain't Got that BLING

I've changed my clock (thank you, Reb Mordechai), and went a little crazy adding crap stuff to my sidebar. I might have gone a little overboard.  It's because of my penchant for bling of all kinds. I am the one who loves those "bells and whistles."  Don't have any new cars (we had to return our leased 2005 Honda Pilot last April and couldn't afford to lease another), but if I did, I would want them with everything: 4-wheel drive, running boards, USB ports, built-in GPS, even a Heads-Up display (I hear they're coming)--basically, computerized everything. 

But since I can't have any new cars, I decided I'd Bling My Blog  instead.  If you like it, tell your friends (if you have any).  If you don't like it, tell me.  Quietly.

 In the end, I'm afraid I'm just a wingnut, er--Bling-nut!

(This post has nothing to do with anything.  Just have an easy but meaningful fast, y'all.)

"Peace" is Just a Catchphrase

So we are going at it again, on and on with more "peace talks" between Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas, head of the Palestinian Authority, Fatah faction.  First meeting in Washington, D.C., then in Sharm-el-Sheikh, then in Jerusalem, and on and on---back and forth.
But the world is not aware that the word "peace" is just a catchphrase.  It has no basis in the reality of the way the Middle East is today. This is just a dance that the two leaders and their American advisers, emissaries, and negotiators are stepping to, dancing around the great big pink elephant in the room, which no one wants to identify. And what is it?  The fact that no one is considering that the Arabs have, to this day, not yet declared acceptance of Israel as a Jewish state in the Middle East. They always step around the issue, claiming in their text books and maps the entire region which is Israel as theirs, which was "taken away" by the Jews in the Naqba--the "catastrophe" of the creation of the state of Israel.

The whole thing is a pack of lies and obfuscations.   It's antisemitism (which refers to Jews only) by the Muslim Arabs of that region, plain and simple. They just don't want a Jewish state in their midst, historical rights be damned--and never have.  They have never come to terms with Israel being there.  Is this the basis upon which "peace talks" are held? Not on your life.  The whole thing is a sham, and utterly ridiculous.  In order to have a true peace, the vanquished (the Arabs, from 1967 when Israel won the war they had started), should just accept the fact that they are the losers, and concede--period.  They started every war Israel waged in self-defense since its inception in 1948, including that first one in 1948--they don't want the Jews there, and they don't really want peace, plain and simple.  But nobody seems to see this, nor care.

Just look at the cover of Time Magazine, with their provocative picture of a Jewish Magen David with the antisemitic "Israel Doesn't Care About Peace."  Talk about offensive.  Can you imagine them putting a Palestinian flag or symbol on the cover, with a statement that the 'Palestinians Don't Care About Peace?' Wouldn't happen.

The only sort of real peace we could have there, is a JUST peace, where the little nation which wanted to rebuild in its ancient land from time immemorial, is given full rights to live in its land which it paid for in the blood of thousands of its citizens and pioneers who defended themselves for an ideal: a return of the "rootless," homeless Jews to their ancient home.  It's a 'damned if they do and damned if they don't' situtation.  The Jews are vilified for being rootless and having NO home, are now are vilified for RETURNING to their home.  I guess if you're a Jew, ya just can't win the popular opinion, can ya?

Life Has More Meaning...with Observance

An article on Israel National News indicated that a CBS survey showed more and more Israelis are becoming observant in their Judaism.  Life just has more meaning, when you believe there is more to it than merely the physical world in which we live, when you believe there is an underlying reason for our existence.

 What sense does it make for a tiny nation such as Israel is to exist in an arid, originally inhospitable land, surrounded by many, larger enemy countries seeking its destruction, constantly under physical threat?  It makes no sense at all, except for G-d-given ancient Judaism which gives us Divine reasons for living in the Land of Israel.

 A special Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) survey has found that more Israeli Jews are becoming increasingly religiously observant than the reverse. 21% of those surveyed said they are currently more religious than they were in the past, while 14% say they are less religious.

After all, what is the purpose of our being here, in this physical world--without other-worldly, metaphysical reasons which are, in this lifetime beyond our ken? 

Kaparot with Chickens: Custom or Cruelty?

I grew up doing the ritual of Kapparot (or Kaporos, in Ashkenazic Hebrew), meaning "atonements" in English--with coins to be given for tzedakah (generally translated as charity, although in Hebrew it really means "righteousness").

My parents and grandparents, however, grew up with the more ancient Jewish custom of waving a live chicken or a rooster (depending on the gender of the "sinner") over one's head while uttering a formal statement expressing that one's sins are hereby transferred to the chicken/rooster, which is then slaughtered and given to the poor.

That was the old way of doing the ritual: with live fowl.  In past years (about twenty years ago) we, ourselves also used live chickens and roosters, as that was the custom in our former Hassidic congregation.  These last ten years or so we have reverted back to using coins.

I have mixed feelings about this ritual.  On the one hand, there is a sort of nostalgia for the way of this ritual which Jews have done for centuries; one doesn't want to end an ancient custom, as it connects us with our past while looking towards the future.  But on the other hand, I agree with PETA (and I rarely agree with them) that there is definitely a humane issue with waving live chickens over someone's head.  The birds are probably scared to death (no pun intended here) and disoriented, to say the least.

Perhaps in Eastern Europe, where there was great poverty, chickens were a bit more prevalent than spare coins--so it was done thus.  However, being uncomfortable with the thought of returning to live fowl, my D.H. and I started the discussion again this year.  And we were not alone in ruminating about this: the Rambam also wrote against the ritual with fowl, stating that personal philosophical reflection, penitence and prayer are more worthy than sacrifice (which is what we are doing with these poor chickens) in repenting for our sins. Other great Jewish sages such as the Ramban (Nachmanides), Yosef Karo (who complied the Shulchan Aruch) stated that this was not originally a Jewish ritual, but rather associated with non-Jewish practices.

In the end, I agree with Rav Chaim David HaLevy (a"h), who stated thus in his work "Aseh Lekha Rav":

"Why should we, specifically on the eve of the holy day of Yom Kippur, be cruel to animals for no reason, and slaughter them without mercy, just as we are about to request compassion for ourselves from the living G-d?”

So the outcome of our discussion? D. H. and I decided again this year to use coins for the Kapparot ceremony, which we will give to tzedakah--in lieu of chickens.

(At least, one chicken and one rooster will sleep easy this coming Friday eve...)

Ground Zero Mosque is "Bringing a Pig Into a Holy Place"

So the 'moderate' Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf says to CNN "this is not Ground-Zero proper. No ones' body is in that location". . .Is that so? Not really.  Remains were found 348 feet from the site of the proposed mosque.

 (http://www.nypost.com/rw/nypost/2010/09/10/news/photos_stories/ground_zero_map090251.jpg)

But since when are Muslims, even so-called 'moderate' ones, sensitive to anyone else's feelings and sensibilities? As Miriam Avraham, the mother of Alona Avraham (who was murdered at age 30 on 9/11 while visiting her uncle) said,

"We intend to address the US government together about this. My position is clear – there shouldn't be any mosque there. It cannot happen. I don't understand this government, they invest millions into catching (Osama) Bin Laden but on the other hand they allow this mosque. It's like bringing a pig into a holy place."

That's exactly what it is.  Spitting on the victims, twisting the knife a little more.  Adding insult to injury.  And we are allowing that? 

For Rosh Hashana: The Holiness of the Land of Israel

Upon the season of the New Year, Rosh Hashana 5771, I wanted to post something of significance illustrating the love of the Jew for Eretz Yisrael (the Land of Israel), and its importance.

Here is a little story told by my friend Rabbi Avraham Trugman of Ohr Chadash, illustrating the holiness and centrality of the Holy Land to the Jewish people, from time immemorial.  No matter what anyone says to the contrary.

May all of you have a Shanah Tovah u'Metukah: a Good and Sweet Year!

Remember this False Headline Condeming Israel? Now Victim and Savior Meet After Ten Years

How many of you remember that ubiquitous photo of "an Israeli policeman and a Palestinian on the Temple Mount" published by the New York Times, AP and other news media in the year 2000?

The headlines implied that an Israeli policeman beat up a Palestinian at the Temple Mount.  The identities, as well as the place--were wrong.
The true story and correct identity of the bloodied victim were brought to light after the victim's father, Dr. Aaron Grossman, sent a letter to the New York Times stating that the young injured man was a Jew, his son Tuvia, who was, along with two friends, dragged from a taxicab on a street in Jerusalem and brutally attacked by Arabs while on the way to the Kotel (Western Wall).

This was the incident that launched the Web site Honest Reporting, and it is they who searched for the young man and the Israeli soldier in order to reunite them. 

Now, ten years after this incident, Tuvia Grossman, the young man who was stabbed and almost beaten to death by Arabs has met the Israeli soldier who saved his life (hat tip The Israel Situation).

This is what Tuvia said about his ordeal to Israel National News after it happened:

I was in a taxi on the way to the Kotel [Western Wall] and we got stoned... [They took me out of the car and beat me and] I gave a scream, and for a second they let go of me, and I said Shma Yisrael, because I thought it was all over... After they let go of me, I ran - even though I had a knife in my leg, G-d gave me the strength to run and I was able to make it up the hill where there were soldiers by the gas station and they took care of me. But I [had been] beaten for around 5 or 6 minutes with a rock on the top of my head, and I was stabbed in the back of my leg and kicked and punched all over my body."

This just goes to show two things: 1) that the world cares nothing about truth or facts.  It just rushes to condemn Israel, and 2)  Muslim Arabs are culturally and behaviorally barbarians.

The goodness in the world, the truth, the beauty--emanates from the Jews, and Israel.

The Power of the Shofar

Thanks to my blogger friend D for alerting us to this video (and to Jacob Richman for including it on his aggregate of Rosh Hashana videos).

This is the kind of dedication we need to change the world.  Believe in the right.  And fight for it.

No Peace Before Rosh Hashana

I am afraid there will be no peace before Rosh Hashana.  Nor will there be before Yom Kippur, or Sukkot--unless a miraculous redemption happens.  The world is heading down the slippery slope, and kowtowing to rogue states and terrorist supporters.  Already there have been at least four innocent people murdered by Arab terrorists during this month of personal introspection, Elul, approaching the High Holy Days. Here are some reasons why.

There is blatant Anti-Semitism everywhere, it is totally accepted now--even on  Facebook, which apparently is doing nothing about removing the anti-Israel hate sites (I reported two--did you?).

It looks to me as if everyone is capitulating at this time: Netanyahu stated last week that the "construction freeze" would end as originally planned, on September 26th.  I don't trust what he says anymore.  He should have cancelled the meeting with Abbas after the terrorist attacks on four civilians, and ended the construction freeze immediately.

And Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has backtracked on her promoting a "unified" Jerusalem, instead saying that it "is a contested emotional issue for both Israelis and Palestinians?  It's just more hogwash.

And that so-called "moderate" Imam, Feisal Abdul Rauf of the "Ground-Zero Mosque? Turns out he is a strong supporter and donor to a pro-Hamas (officially designated a terrorist organization by the U.S., remember?) movement.  You know--the one which has tried several times to break the Israeli embargo on military supplies to Gaza.      

And one of the major donors to that mosque, part of a real-estate partnership which bought the property to be torn down and used for the mosque, donated to an Islamic "charity" whose assets were, in 2001, frozen by the U.S. government because it was a fundraiser for Hamas.

This is the Muslim way.  Lies and obfuscation, which are absolutely permitted and encouraged to get their way: Al-Taqiyya can be and is condoned to be used for the purpose of world domination  by Islam.  After all, it's the religion of peace, right?

G-d help us, we need a miracle.

Sick to My Stomach

I am sick to my stomach upon reading of the Arabs' massacre of the four Israeli Jews who were driving on route 60 on Tuesday.  Hamas has claimed responsibility for this brutal, unprovoked attack on unarmed civilians, two of them women, one of whom was pregnant.  It was thought that this was a move to undermine the direct negotiation 'peace talks' which began in Washington, D.C. today.
The reports called these victims "settlers." They are as much settlers as are Americans living in Texas or New York.  They are--were--Israeli citizens, ordinary middle-class people, people with families, children and unborn children, of a country recognized and voted into being by the United Nations in 1948.  A nation which has a perfect right to exist on its ancient lands where it had sovereignty two thousand years before.  A nation which did not even overthrow and conquer another nation in order to exist--no one had sovereignty over what is now Israel, except for the area being a territory under the Ottoman and then British Mandate.

Do you want to know who these people are, the victims? They were your neighbors next door, your aunts and uncles, they were you and I.

The victims were couple in their forties, husband and wife, driving the car, shot dead; they leave six orphan children at home, age twenty-four to one-and-a-half years old. The murdered mother of six was pregnant with her seventh.  The other victims were two passengers, a man who had just moved with his wife to Beit Haggai, the town where the four vicitms lived.  He was in his twenties.  The fourth was a woman in her twenties and a teacher; she leaves a bereft husband and  a daughter eight-years old.

And all the United States could do was issue a condolence statement condemning this as a tragedy:  

“Any time one human being takes out a weapon and fires and kills other human beings it’s a tragedy,” said State Department spokesman PJ Crowley following the attack, adding that the US still didn’t know the circumstances surrounding the incident.

 A tragedy?!  I am incensed at the use of that word.  It's a tragedy when a hurricane rips through a town and people drown and die.  It is a tragedy when a volcano blows apart houses and as a result, people die. Those are what we call "acts of G-d," natural disasters the severity of which we often cannot predict and can only marginally prevent. 

But when cold-blooded, cut throat murderers spray a civilian car driving down the road with bullets and then approach the car, open all the doors and shoot everyone multiple times at close range until they are dead, that is not a tragedy: it is an atrocity, committed by uncivilized barbarians.

Nothing, not 'peace talks,' not accusing Israel of being 'occupiers' -- nothing justifies this barbaric behavior.  And these are the people with whom we are supposed to make 'peace?'  I don't think so.

Oh, and do you know what else happened? When the first responders of Zaka came to the scene, this is what ensued:

A ZAKA volunteer who arrived on the scene recognized his wife's body. "We saw him crying at the scene and didn't understand what was hapenning at first. It wasn't the first disaster he saw," his colleauge, Isaac Berenstein, told the Post. Then he shouted, "that's my wife!' That's my wife!'" The volunteer was immediately removed from the scene by his colleagues and taken to his home in Bet Hagai.

What should be done now? Here's what:  Israel should now annex all the so-called "territories" into greater Israel, and implement the 'One State Solution': the State of Israel.  Anyone who does not pledge loyalty to the Jewish State, may live elsewhere--how about in those tolerant, democratic Arab countries which surround it and who seem to care so much about their fellow Palestinians.

Because the bottom line is: we shouldn't negotiate with people who only want our destruction and behave worse than animals. This is no "partner for peace."