Tikkun Olam

So many blog posts have been written about this Gaza operation, Protective Edge, the response to the incessant rockets raining over the heads of Israeli civilians that I didn't add another one.  I listen to NPR reports which are all slanted against Israel, decrying the "disproportionate" number of Gazans killed versus the much smaller number (thank G-d) of Israelis killed.  The world is railing against Israel for killing "innocent" civilians.  But in fact, they are not "innocent civilians": by an overwhelming majority in a democratic election they voted in the bloody Jew-hating terrorist group Hamas into government. Those who do not leave, after being warned by telephone calls ( telephone calls! ) from Israel and leaflets dropped from planes to flee or be in the line of fire, are no different than Hamas. They've made their choice, and chose their sides. And yet, everyone posted about this. I didn't. There was no need for me to.  Until no...

When the three Israeli boys, Gil'Ad Shaar, Eyal Yifrach and Naftali Fraenkel were kidnapped, everyone went into a frenzy. They (we all) needed to "do something." This is very normal.  Most of us, far removed from the situation--even those in Israel who are not connected by family or close friends to the victims--felt helpless in the face of this atrocity.  So I can understand the call to prayer or to say Tehillim.  For people who don't have any other option, it's better than sitting and doing nothing.  I, for one, called my congressperson, in addition to saying Tehillim.  I wrote about it in a blog post and sent it out to everybody. But do I really believe that saying Tehillim or praying specific tefillot from a siddur will bring them back? Doubtful. There have been "studies" - not controlled, double-blind scientific ones however - which seem to indicate that mass prayer often helps to alleviate a situation, such as helping to heal someone. We say ...

When will you learn, people? What will it take for you to actually recognize the threat to Western civilization, and have to courage to name it?  For it is Islam .  Period. This is what Saudi Arabian children are learning in their high school textbooks, sanctioned by the Saudi government: Sharia law.  You want some of this? I don't want these people as my neighbors.  But, if we don't wake up and smell the blood-on-the-cleavers-and-knives , we will get some of this, whether we like it or not.   Read this horror story below.  And then tell me that "all religions are equal." The Arabic school textbooks which show children how to chop off hands and feet under Sharia law By Leon Watson Barbaric textbooks handed out in Saudi Arabian schools teach children how to cut off a thief's hands and feet under Sharia law, it has emerged. The shocking books, paid for and printed by the Saudi government, also tell teenagers that Jews need to b...

In going through my blog post list, I found this video which I had intended to post in September, after the terrorist attack on the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi, Libya.  I must have forgotten about it and it remained as a draft. It's never too late to remind ourselves of what is going on in the world, and how terrorism rears its ugly head again and again.  And it's never too late to remember what our policies and responses should be to an attack such as this. So I am posting this now, almost four months after it happened.  To remind us of what we should have done, how we should have responded, and of whom we have in the White House,  who didn't respond and act how he should have.  There will be a 'next time.' What will we do then ?

In several previous posts I compared U.S. airport security to it's Israeli counterpart, and in my considered opinion the United States comes up lacking. In my post of January 21, 2010 I wrote about an airplane being diverted from its flight because a Jewish teen was davening* on the plane.  Wasted time and effort, and a scare for an airplane filled with passengers and a teen traveling with his sister to visit relatives.  In December, 2009 I posted about our poor intel gathering and screening techniques which allowed Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to board a Northwest flight and attempt to blow up the plane. As recently as last month I posted about the new, invasive security system which reveals everyone's birthday suit. Thank G-d Abdulmutallab and others failed in their Jihadist mission.  But one day, if we don't change our methodology for screening these evil people off the passenger lists, one of them might, G-d forbid, succeed.  It is only a matter of time... ...

Here we go again.  The new TSA airport security regs are now in place.  Now, we can look forward to little old ladies in wheel chairs and children over twelve being scanned in a very revealing manner, or if they refuse, going through very personal pat-downs.  Is this necessary? Is it effective? Not really, on both counts.  These methods are for the people who are afraid.  Not of terrorists, but of political correctness, i.e., that which is called racial profiling .  This fear in the end, could kill us. Funny, Israel, subject to more terror threats than most other countries and surrounded by enemies who have publicly called for her destruction, doesn't do that.  And their security is pretty thorough, thank G-d.  Their international airport, Ben-Gurion, is considered one of the most secure airports in the world (hat tip The Israel Situation ). What do we learn from this? That Israel is smart. That it faces reality and doesn't hide it's head in...

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 be...

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 th...

 (nablopomo day 7) This was apparently published in the English language Turkish newspaper Hurriyet on Sunday.  The video shows that the IDF was viciously attacked and three commandos seriously wounded by the Islamist terrorists who were among the passengers--most of which passengers were not involved, but in their stupidity and naive ideology were there with the terrorists, probably believing their lies about Israel. It is terrible that possibly some innocents were killed in the IDF retaliatory attack.  But you need to remember this: If you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas.  And sometimes, you might not get up .  So choose carefully...

Have you ever seen such a ruckus raised by everyone over what Israel may have done in Dubai to a known Hamas leader, Mahmoud Al Mabhouh ? You'd think that Israel committed a heinous crime, when the crime which was committed was the Hamas leader's himself, that of murdering two Israeli soldiers and forging a connection between Hamas and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. Hamas is classified as a "terrorist organization" by the United States and by Europe, but nobody accused Dubai of hosting this criminal. They only accused Israel of doing what nobody had the courage (or worse, inclination) to do, which is to eliminate him. Israel may have done just that, and for it, has been heaped with vitriolic condemnation from the world at large. And it isn't even certain that Israel's Mossad carried out this hit. According to Caroline Glick , What the initial European reaction to [Dubai Chief-of-Police] Tamim's allegations shows is that blaming Israel has become Eur...

As usual, it is immensely difficult for me to let go of a chag* . Purim ** came like a lion, and also went out like a lion (as opposed to a lamb)! The chag, for me, was filled with meaning and mitzvot, and great portent for the future, in the light of events and developments in Iran, who's evil leader Ahmadinejad has threatened Israel existentially. Although both my husband and daughter--D.H. and Toodles respectively--say that this is pish-tosh : like, Jews have been threatened in every generation and decade so, buddy, what else is new?! I understand where they're coming from, but my opinion differs. I think these times-- partially because of radical Islamists' terrorist attacks globally, the rise of antisemitism's ugly head all over the world, combined with nuclear weapons development and proliferation by rogue nations (read: Pakistan, North Korea, and now Iran)--are much more dangerous and have greater portent than in the past. So Purim, the story of the planned ...

I've been devastated since reading about the murder of Rav Meir Chai, father of seven and a teacher of school children and kindergartners, who was gunned down while driving on Route 57 in the Shomron .* Rav Meir (a"h) was a humble, learned man, and was cherished by his students. That scum like his murderers should continue to exist at all is a travesty. Then I read on The Muqata that his orphan son Eliyahu delivered a moving hesped * for his slain father at his funeral, which hundreds attended. The son spoke about continuing the lessons of his father. He especially (can you imagine for yourself how difficult this was for him to do?) emphasized that his father was leaving- a message of faith, Jewish pride, religious observance, and “no revenge.” Did you get that? Well then, let me repeat it for you: " A Message of Faith, Jewish Pride, Religious Observance, and 'No Revenge.'" Now, I strongly believe that we have every right to take revenge on this brutal, b...