Kissufim: Where Broken Remnants Show Life

by Hadassa DeYoung, K'far Darom/Elon Moreh

Tomorrow, the 13th of Menachem Av (Wednesday, August 1) marks the Expulsion from K'far Darom, Gush Katif. Former residents of K'far Darom and guests will meet in Shavei Darom, just outside of Netivot, where a core group of expellees from K'far Darom are building a new community, and then proceed to the Kissufim Crossing, which had been the main entry point to Gush Katif.

The Kissufim Crossing, named after nearby Kibbutz Kissufim, was the main entrance to Gush Katif. The Or Movement Negev Information Center explains the meaning of the kibbutz's name: The name "Kissufim" means longing, craving for the Land of Israel, good and sharing life.

Since the Expulsion Gush Katif reunions at the Kissufim Crossing, where meeting friends had been a routine occurrence, are particularly poignant. We meet, and yearn for our land which lies beyond the crossing.

Every year we return to the same place. Every year we leave with a new layer of memories and understandings.

One of the times that we met our neighbors from K'far Darom for our yearly reunion at the Kissufim – there never has been a more appropriate name – Crossing into Gush Katif, I collected a a simple, but very dear to me, souvenir. I don't take a souvenir every year, but that year I wanted one, to help me remember the day.

We parked a short distance from the crossing and proceeded on foot. I honestly had no idea how far we were going to walk. I hadn't verified exactly what the schedule was and I feared that the army had denied permission to reach the Kissufim Crossing. We passed the "Closed Military Zone" signs and continued. I didn't was to get my hopes up, but I started to think that maybe, just maybe, we would reach the small part of Gush Katif still not fully abandoned.

We walked towards home, on the road leading to Gush Katif. To our right, Gush Katif, under the (supposed) control of Hamas, and to our left, a Jewish farmer, working in his fields. Only a simple fence stood between him and the Gaza Strip. I was jealous of that farmer, who could gaze into Gush Katif and almost touch it. We reached the Kissufim Crossing. I hadn't fully believed that we would reach it until we did. I looked forward, into the Gush and it was hard to accept that we would not proceed further. I could see almost to the T-intersection, and from there I imagined the way home: a right turn, just a bit more, and then K'far Darom.

In reality I looked at the desolation around me. A few cement barriers were all that remained. Not even a small building was left in the place that had once been so full of life: people coming and going, waiting for rides. We read Psalms, cried, prayed and spoke of Gush Katif.

A young woman, a new bride, continued on in an attempt to reach home. And so she cried out to the soldier who tried to stop her. My daughter asked me, "What is she trying to do?" I replied that she was trying to reach her home. "But she has a home, she is married. She doesn't live in Ashkelon any more (Interesting. An expellee apartment in Ashkelon isn't a real home, but an apartment somewhere else, but still outside of Gush Katif is a real home?) and..." I interrupted her, pointed towards K'far Darom and choking back the tears said, "Home is there. Never forget that home is there." Perhaps it was for that moment that we had come. Mixed emotions filled and surrounded everyone present. No-one wanted to leave, despite the shooting and the IDF tank that suddenly pulled up next to us.

I wanted a souvenir. My eyes searched the area. Should I take a flower or a plant and dry it? Would a rock be better, or some earth? Then I saw the bricks marking the parking area. Most of them were still in place, waiting for us to return. A few were slightly askew, waiting for us to return and repair. I noticed also broken bricks, that were of no use. I took one as a souvenir. I didn't want a plant that had grown on its own. I took something that we had brought to Gush Katif, a sign that we had come and built.

G-d willing we will return and build anew the broken remnants.

Romney's No Messiah

Again Israelis are searching for salvation from a non-Jew.  Headlines and pundits are repeating ad nauseum  all sorts of statements that Mitt Romney, the most likely to be the Republican Presidential candidate of the United States of America. 

Not long ago, Israel was all excited by Mike Huckabee and then Glenn Beck; that is except for me.  I don't look for my salvation in non-Jews and foreigners. Both Romney and Huckabee fit both those categories.  Romney and Bibi may be old friends, so if he's elected US President, there won't be that obvious antipathy that is so clear when Obama is with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.  But there's no guarantee that as President, Romney will promote his platform.

Don't forget that Romney is an American. He won't "out-pope the pope," be more to the Israeli Right than the Likud. He's for the "two state solution," hasn't condemned the idea that we Jews can't live and build in Judea and Samaria etc.  Contrary to what Obama's staff is spouting, there's nothing unusual in Romney's statements affirming Jerusalem as Israel's capital.  Almost if not all US Presidential hopefuls say it and promise that they'll be moving the USA Embassy to Jerusalem.  It's like some sort of meaningless mantra.  I've stopped listening to those promises.  They are totally meaningless, a real farce.  And every single time a wannabe says the words, the Israeli public gets all excited as if the Americans will really  do it.

The only ones to choose a country's capital are those running that country and the citizens.  No other country is treated the way Israeli is.  We are not respected as an independent country.  And the worst thing is that Israel doesn't condemn all those countries.  At least if we would davka locate our embassies in the cities of our choice and not the capitals. What's good for the goose is good for the gander, nu?

Please don't get me wrong; I don't want Obama to be re-elected.  I don't think he's doing his job well and still wonder who he really is and who planted him in politics.  But I haven't forgotten that both Obama and Romney (as it seems) will be running against each other for the Presidency of the United States, not of Israel. 

Israel is an independent country.  We aren't ruled by America, at least we shouldn't be.  And that's up to us, to all Israelis.  America will stop the pressure when we close the hatch.  It's up to us.  Romney, even if elected, won't be able to help us. 

Let's stop this pathetic dependence on others.  We have a G-d and G-d's Laws.  The Bible, especially the Torah, is full of very sensible instructions and example after example of how G-d is connected to all that happens.  And the more I've learned in my Bible studies the more I see that only with G-d's help will we be victorious.

Nuclear Iran is an International Problem, Not Just Israel's

I was riding around with my sister-in-law getting all steamed up at the radio headlines.  They kept reporting that Mitt Romney, GOP Presidential hopeful is being credited as saying that he would support Israel's right to defend itself by attacking Iran.

"Iran isn't just Israel's problem." I kept muttering to my sil.

Now, while blogging this, I checked the web to accurately quote Romney and discovered that he didn't quite say that:

"If Israel has to take action on its own, in order to stop Iran from developing that capability, the governor would respect that decision," Romney's senior national security aide Dan Senor told reporters traveling with the candidate. (complete article)

In another article it seems pretty obvious that Romney may understand the issue better.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu Sunday told Romney in a Jerusalem meeting that diplomacy and sanctions leveled against Iran have not worked so far.
"I heard some of your remarks and you said that the greatest danger facing the world is the Ayatollah regime possessing nuclear weapons capability," Netanyahu said. "Mitt, I couldn't agree with you more, and I think it is important to do everything in our power to prevent the ayatollahs from possessing that capability. We have to be honest and say that all the diplomacy and sanctions and diplomacy so far have not set back the Iranian program by one iota."
Netanyahu said that a "strong and credible military threat coupled with sanctions" was needed to "have a chance to change the situation." (complete article)

 Nu, who's distorting it? I did hear (from the car radio)  Romney say that he didn't see it as his place to make new American policy.

At this point, I don't think Israel should be taking responsibility.  It would have been effective if a surprise, but so much talk has been public; it's much too late.

International problems need international solutions.

Irish Flight Security? Strange Story

There's a very peculiar story on YNet about an Irish girl who couldn't take her luggage with her to visit her boyfriend in Israel.  This made me "laugh" at first.  Was some powerful relative of the Israeli guy using a creative way to break up his relationship with a shiksa?

But there's the actual security issue in the story which is more worrying if true.

"The Israeli representatives claimed that it wasn't possible to screen her luggage in Dublin," he said.
Just 45 minutes before the flight, the young woman was finally given the green light to board the plane, but on one condition – she had to leave all her possessions behind, including her hand luggage and her phone. She decided against making the trip.
"I don't know anyone who would travel to a foreign land without anything," the boyfriend said.

Nu, what does that mean?

I've been blogging about being forced to undergo pat-downs in American airports.  Coming from Israel where so many public buildings x-ray pocketbooks, backpacks and shopping bags I can't imagine how an airport, even a small one in Ireland wouldn't be fully equipped with all the security  machinery.

THAT should be the story!

Which countries do not have standard, accepted security routines in their airports?  We should become aware of that.  That list should be well publicized.

The security checks and packing according to the security rules is now very routine.  We may joke about guzzling water before the check-in and running to the first toilet to pish, or being forced to leave scissors, nail-clippers, sunscreen and expensive perfume behind--not funny-- but travelers expect and accept security and try to remember not to wear old socks with holes.  And yes I've blogged a lot about my public pat-downs.  That's the price we must pay.  We take it for granted and know that it doesn't pay to argue with the workers, TSA, or otherwise.  They are doing their jobs and don't make the rules.  Just keep your eyes on your bags at all times, but that's another story.


Modern travel has its dangers, not just technical failures.  That's life.

Latest Latma News Skits, The Right Look From Israel

Here are a few new Latma skits, as they report the news, sort of...








There's more news from Caroline Glick.

Munich Olympics Massacre and the 9th of Av

One of the reasons that the 9th of the Jewish month of Av is a significant fast day is that so many tragedies happened then:

Five misfortunes befell our fathers ... on the ninth of Av. ...On the ninth of Av it was decreed that our fathers should not enter the [Promised] Land, the Temple was destroyed the first and second time, Bethar was captured and the city [Jerusalem] was ploughed up. -Mishnah Ta'anit 4:6

This sort of coincidence is very common in Judaism.  Each date has its "mazal," luck significance.

In my family the weekend of the attack and murder by Arab terrorists at the Munich Olympics of Israeli athletes coincides with a family tragedy.  My father's cousin and wife were killed in a car accident.  They left two young teenage orphans.

For me the date is a time of personal mourning, not just national.  Each date has multiple significance....

Be Pragmatic and Erase the "Green Line"

Israel is a small country with a population like a large metropolitan city, so for us when you're mentioning a number like, 350,143 it's major.  And the population statistics now say that 350,143 Jewish Israelis live "beyond the green line."

Of course, it's an approximate number, and the number is far from static.  The birthrate is high, and people are always moving in and buying and renting homes.  Yes, of course, some people do move out for various reasons.  It's not some high security prison for life-servers.

Israel is a small country and some of the locations, like my Shiloh, are very convenient and central.  Many people choose to live in Shiloh for that reason along with the reasonable housing costs, excellent education, great community spirit, clean air and more.  By car we're just a half hour from Petach Tikvah and the same from Jerusalem.  We have public transportation in both directions, too.

The Left loves to repeat that Israel is a democracy and there should be freedom of choice, so
why are they so upset by the steady annual increase in the Jewish population in Judea and Samaria?  Are they anti-democratic?  Hmmm... It seems that they are.  Hypocrisy reigns in the Israeli Left.  I have no doubt.

Truly democratic, personal freedom loving people would respect our wishes, opinions and choice of address.

I also consider it immoral for foreign leaders to interfere in Israeli democracy.  They have no right to give their opinion about mine.  I live in Israel.  I pay taxes.  My family serves in the army.  We aren't inanimate pawns to be ordered around by self-professed morality experts and pseudo-human rights experts.

In all of world history, there is no story like the story of the Jewish People and its relationship to the Land of Israel and the Jewish Religion.

Our return to the Land can't be stopped or restricted.  Great Britain tried very hard in the last century, defying the mandate given to it to facilitate the establishment of a Jewish State in what they called "Palestine."  Even after Nazi Germany murdered most of European Jewry, the survivors and Jews from Arab countries and Northern Africa managed to establish and defend the State of Israel.

It may sound simplistic, but G-d is on our side.  It takes more than conventional weapons and soldiers to win a war, just like it takes more than a man's sperm and a woman's egg to make a baby.  The magic ingredient is G-d.

So, be pragmatic and stop referring to the "green line."  At most it existed for about eighteen years, and that was over forty years ago.

A Question For Shimon Peres

Some things never quite fade away.  Jonathan Pollard's imprisonment is one of them.  Every once in a while the Israeli public hears that a prominent politician/officeholder will request Pollard's release, and will then expect Pollard to get out and come home to Isarel on the plane with the politician.  And each tme, nothing happens, nothing at all.  Jonathan Pollard is still in jail.

I really wonder if these politicians have ever really made a request, a real sincere request.  How about a strong forceful request... or a demand?

Here's the article I wrote for the most recent edition of Voices Magazine:

 

What I Had Wished I Had Asked Shimon Peres

by Batya Medad

A few weeks ago I was among the hundreds, or was it thousands of attendees at the free “President Conference,” as a guest of the very wealthy supporters of Israel’s President Shimon Peres.  The conference filled Jerusalem’s enormous Binyanei Ha’uma Convention Center. I had to use my color-coded press identification to get into sessions, since they were so packed.

One of the sessions was a special one for bloggers with President Peres.  I managed to get there, but a bit late, when it was half over.  We were offered a chance to ask him questions, but obviously not everyone was called, and I was one of those whose question remained unasked.  So, I’ll tell you about my question.

Just prior to the conference, the news had been filled of hints that President Peres was going to request that American president Barack Hussein Obama would release Jonathan Pollard from prison.  After over twenty five years, even those who considered Pollard guilty of a very serious crime believe that he has served more than any other person convicted of a similar crime.

We must not forget that Peres has been known to state that history is irrelevant, and I have no doubt that he counts on people’s forgetfulness.  None of the articles I had seen mentioned a very crucial connection between Peres and Pollard.  I consider it extremely important that Peres was very involved in the entire Pollard case, because Shimon Peres was Prime Minister of Israel during the time of Pollard’s spying and capture and arrest.

Peres cannot make a very convincing request for Pollard’s release without being honest about his involvement.  Peres, as Prime Minister at the time, had to know exactly what was going on including the fact that the United States Embassy refused to give Pollard and his wife Anne refuge.

Peres as politician and long time Leftist is coated with Teflon.  I think that he’s afraid of what Pollard would reveal about him when released. 

In the meantime, Jonathan Pollard is rotting in an American jail.  Something stinks.

Peace for Harel, G-d Willing

Honestly, I just don't understand why our IDF soldiers can't just shoot to kill any Arab who is attacking innocent Jews!

Yes, that's my introduction!

There was once a boy in Shiloh called Harel Bin-Nun.  Harel is the Hebrew for Mountain of G-d, and he was born around the time his parents moved to Shiloh.  His father Rabbi Elchanan was given the job as the community rabbi.  Harel, like his older brothers and sisters was an ordinary kid.  That is until the 1991 Madrid Conference.

I've written before about the terror attack, when Arab terrorists shot up a bus of my neighbors on their way to demonstrate in Tel Aviv, to encourage then Prime Minister Yitzchak Shamir to be strong against international pressure.  I usually write about the tragic fact that my close friend Rachella Druk was shot and murdered.  Less often do I mention Harel.  He was shot in the chest and given lifesaving first aid by his father and then the army medics and then flown to the hospital for surgery.  He wasn't even Bar Mitzvah, 13, at the time.

Thank G-d, Harel survived.  By the end of his adolescence he was living on a mountain, in Yitzhar, a community north of Shiloh, in the Shomron, Samaria, building for Jews.  One night, while on patrol guarding with a neighbor, Arab terrorists attacked and brutally murdered them.

A short while later, his older brothers established a new community, just northwest of Shiloh in his memory.  The area was unoccupied and deserted and also the location of Biblical altars and had been his Bar Mitzvah project, something he and his father had researched very thoroughly.  Today about forty families live in Givat Harel, a quiet pastoral community.  Many of the residents are busy with agriculture and building, very much in the character of Harel, HaYa"D.

But Arabs are still attacking Harel.



I find this film very disturbing, because the soldiers are just separating the Arab attackers from the Jews, nothing more.  That won't stop future attacks.

News From Galus: Right or Left, No Inbetween

I left for the states about a week ago,  and since then I've been seeing family.  I've been in Philly, aka Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and Phoenix, Arizona.  I've seen mostly family, and my family is very heterogeneous.  We have Jews of all stripes and non-Jews, too.  We have pro-Obama and anti-Obama.  Both sides are equally vehement that they are correct.

As a political commentator aka blogger, I've always said that I blog in order to get my points across about Israel and other political issues.  I want to convince people that my point of view is the correct one.  Have you noticed that I'm using the word "correct" and not "right?"  I want to be very clear. 

It seems  to me that most people are totally incapable of listing, absorbing opinions that don't jive with theirs.  I guess it's human nature, because I, too, am a tough nut to crack.  My husband is right correct when he says that I don't listen to others once my mind is made up.  I'm pretty rotten as a follower; it's just not my nature to send my brain on sabbatical and adopt new ideas, trust others to do my thinking for me.

To convince someone of something, you have to get to them before anyone else gets them, because few people are willing to admit that they had been mistaken.

Four years ago, before the previous American Presidential Elections, there was a great excitement.  Many people really believed that Barack Hussein Obama could change the world, make it, especially America better than it had ever been.  I'm not exaggerating.  Obama won by a landslide.  But during the past three years, since he has been at the helm of the U.S. A.  things haven't improved by much.  According to the polls, some people have noticed, and others haven't.  And some people think that he needs another term in office to successfully activate his plans to change America for the better.

The people I've heard speak politics all have different opinions. None are interesting in changing them.  I don't say anything to anyone who probably doesn't agree with me.  It's the safe thing to do.

Forty Years Ago, Attack was on Israeli Olympic Athletes, Not on They Olympics

I was visiting New York at the time of the Olympics and the terror attack on the Israeli athletes, and a family tragedy occurred in New York that very same weekend.  For that reason, I have always felt removed from the Israeli reaction.  But forty years later I've reached a more accurate perspective.

As Ruthie Blum so perfectly described, in her Israel Hayom article the Olympic Committee, then and now, refuse to accept the truth about the attack.

Since that time, there have been repeated requests to the International Olympic Committee, mainly on the part of families of the victims, to have a regular memorial service at the games. This request has been denied again and again, on the grounds that such a commemoration might “alienate other members of the Olympic Committee.”

The Olympic Committee has always considered the attack more of an attack against the Olympics and its "ideal" rather than a terror attack against Israel.  The Olympic ideal is a lie.  They want themselves and the world to believe that they exist in a world of pure sport and brotherhood.  Didn't the ancient Greek athletes compete stark naked?

The fact that modern Olympics, as a sports competition is nation versus nation,  actually is very different from its ancient roots.  The Olympic committee has always tried to whitewash the reality.  If you ignore the 1972 terror attack against Israel, it never really happened.  If you consider it a minor scratch on the shiny image, then that's all it was.  If you don't want such a thing to happen again, then just placate the terrorist countries.

That's the Olympic way.  Since today's athletes are dressed in designer gear with national logos, instead of competing in their skin of all colors, there must be a way to smudge the problems and wipe them away.

Great Britain is hosting this summer's Olympics and there isn't a country in the world with a more ambivalent attitude towards Israel. Great Britain had been entrusted with the establishment of the Jewish State.  That was the "Mandate."  Instead they gave a humongous portion of the land, all there was east of the Jordan to the Hashemites and declared them to the rulers and to make matters worse, they kept restricting Jewish life and immigration in the rest of the land.  They helped the Arabs and invented a nation and history they called Palestine.  All of this was to make it impossible for the Jewish People to have an independent country. 

There's a lot of dirty stuff in history.  So I'm not surprised at all of the sneaky anti-Israel stuff going on, like the British Olympic refusal to identify Israel's capital city as Jerusalem.  I don't expect them to do the right thing and memorialize murdered Israeli athletes either.

Ban/Boycott Switzerland!

Honestly, I think that Jews should avoid visiting and living in all countries that ban shechita, Jewish ritual slaughter. That includes Switzerland for sure. Considering that those very same countries permit hunting, the cruelest and most immoral sport of all, the only reason for their banning shechita can be blatant antisemitism.



The latest faux moral fad is banning circumcision, even though it has been recommended by doctors for centuries. It's one of the pillars of Judaism and was adopted by Islam, also. Their have been laws proposed banning it even in San Francisco, USA. Germany almost banned it, too, but finally stopped the process.



Now Switzerland, which has shechita as illegal for decades is now joining the ban the circumcision crowd. But so far it's not a national law, just hospital by hospital. Actually, this doesn't affect the Jewish community all that much, because most brittot, religious circumcisions are done in synagogues by qualified and trained mohelim, not medical doctors. This is more of a psychological war against Jewish ritual which can influence the less observant to think of it as bad or dangerous.



Religious rights and freedom should be part of Swiss life, but it isn’t. Any country that bans shechita is banning Jewish life, because it is banning Jewish food. That’s the foundation of life, isn’t it? I remember being shocked when hearing about the Swiss ban when we were doing Jewish youth work in London in the mid-1970’s. Coming from the United States and Israel, it was hard to believe. In the typical Jewish fashion, Swiss Jewry just found ways of dealing with it, ways of importing kosher food/meat. Just because you can find ways around it and not starve doesn’t make it right or moral. That's how the Nazis began, with small steps that people easily ignored.

We must not accept countries like that. There are enough places in the world in which Jews can legally live as Jews. Of course, Israel is best, but that’s another story.

The Anti-Government Agitators are Out of Control

National Insurance Institute

Flash 90

Just before traveling to the states I went to the Jerusalem branch of Bituach Le'umi, National Insurance to attend a seminar about my rights as a senior citizen.  While waiting on line to get in, undergo the standard security check, I overheard the guards talking about the damage discovered in other branches.  This was after Moshe Silman had set himself alight, and the faux "social justice" mobs had taken their revenge on Bituach Le'umi.

I'm not going to say that all decisions of the Bitu'ach Le'umi are correct and speedy, but destroying a branch and all of the documents and files certainly won't help anybody.  It's a criminal act, and the police should arrest all involved.

An Israeli protester at Saturday night's demonstration in memory of Moshe Silman. 

|

 Photo credit: Reuters

If the leaders of this movement were really responsible, serious and cared about others, they would have taken a strong stand against Silman's horrid, fatal act.  They should have admitted that they have gone much too far. Instead, they have sympathized with him and now another person has done the same suicidal action, self-immolated.

50-year-old man in serious condition with burns over 80% of his body; 5th self-immolation comes ahead of Moshe Silman funeral.  Jerusalem Post

Photo: Michael Omer-Man


Killing oneself as a political protest isn't a Jewish concept.  Suicide for any reason is forbidden.  The Israeli media has been promoting the faux social justice sic movement from its beginning last summer.  Israeli TV even cancelled scheduled programs to broadcast the entertainment at the demonstrations.  It's clear that the anarchists have very powerful backers.

The anarchy they promote endangers Israeli law and democracy.  The "me" and the "I want" philosophy are illegal and immoral.  IMRA reported that Israeli holiday homes owned by people who live abroad are being taken over by squatters.  If the owners are unaware of the squatters for the first month, it is extremely difficult to remove them.

There has been a totally preposterous proposal by Jerusalem secular Leftists associated with the faux social justice movement to try to force those who own holiday homes to rent them out to those looking for affordable housing when the owners aren't using them.  It makes no sense at all.  Why should people allow strangers into their homes to use their belongings?  We all must learn to live within our means. Sometimes you can't afford to live in the neighborhood or city you want. And you can't afford to buy what you want either.  That's life.  No country gives you all you want.

One of the things that we heard at the senior citizen lecture was that Bituach Le'umi doesn't cover all expenses, and we must have additional pensions.  I wish I had understood that decades ago when I was just starting to work.  Now I have to live on much less.  That's life.

Latma Variety Show, Finding the Humor in the News

Here are the latest Latma skits.

Learn how hard it is to be a traditional terrorist...



And the next one, Alone in the Dark, is just available in Hebrew right now.  The English one was removed from youtube.  You'll probably find it reposted or uploaded again soon.  I guess there were technical problems.



The Latma staff has been taking vacations and will be back with complete shows in a couple of weeks.

Keep Status Quo, No Elections Now

IMRA has posted two polls re:elections.  Let's call them poll a and poll b.

I'm no great fan of polls, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't pay any attention to them.

The basic line on both is the same.  Israelis don't want early elections.  As much as people do like to complain, and Jews are great kvetchers, there isn't a politician Israelis can pinpoint as more suited to be Prime Minister than Binyamin Netanyahu aka Bibi.

Who do you think is most qualified to be prime minister of Israel?
Netanyahu 41% Ichimowitz 7% Neither 32% Don't know 20%
Netanyahu 44% Mofaz 6% Neither 27% Don't know 23%
Netanyahu 37% Lieberman 16% Neither 33% Don't know 14%
Netanyahu 41% Olmert 18% Neither 31% Don't know 10%

For a country ruled by coalition governments like Israel is, that's a vote of confidence for Netanyahu. The media may be trying to promote others and new elections, but when you check the polls, it's clear that Bibi will end up putting together a new government even if there are elections, so why bother at this point in time.

Current Knesset seats in [brackets].
27 [27] Likud
17 [13] Labor
16 [15] Yisrael Beiteinu
11 [--] Yeish Atid Party lead by Yair Lapid
09 [11] Shas
07 [28] Kadima
06 [05] Yahadut Hatorah
10 [11] Arab parties
04 [03] Meretz
03 [04] National Union
03 [03] Jewish Home/NRP)
02 [--] Party lead by Arieh Deri
02 [--] Green Party
1.5[--] Ehud Barak Independence Party
1.5[--] New party headed by Rabbi Chaim Amsellem

and another

Current Knesset seats in [brackets].
25 [27] Likud
21 [13] Labor
13 [15] Yisrael Beiteinu
13 [--] Yeish Atid Party lead by Yair Lapid
10 [11] Shas
07 [28] Kadima
06 [04] National Union
04 [05] Yahadut Hatorah
11 [11] Arab parties
04 [03] Meretz
04 [03] Jewish Home/NRP)
02 [--] Ehud Barak Independence Party
Total national camp: 62 Left: 47 Arabs: 11

I think that the faux social justice agitators burnt themselves badly with the self-immolation of one of their supporters.  It's very non-Jewish to do such a thing.  It was a real turn-off.  If they were really suffering financially, then they would be working at any job they could get and not playing around with their shenanigans.

Shabbat Shalom everyone.
Greetings from galut.

Terrorism isn't Rational

When you're dealing with terrorists and terrorism and situations when people are willing to kill themselves and others without provocation, don't look for rationales or "cures."  It's not so simple.  Self-defense, when under attack and immediate threat, is one thing, but when people blow up, destroy, murder, mutilate others for "political reasons" there's something inherently fokokt  in their psyche.

No matter what Israel and Jews do, there will be people out to destroy and murder us.  It's something very hard for many to accept.  Their isn't any simple solution.  Remember the Nazi Holocaust, the systematic persecution and murder of six million Jews had nothing to do with the Jewish State.  And almost every country in the world including the United States and Great Britain wouldn't even give refuge to the lucky ones  who had a chance of escaping. That's fact, not fiction.

Most of you probably know that I frequently base my posts here on what Ruthie Blum has written in Israel Hayom, and today is no exception.  Her title, Don't ask why Hezbollah attacked, says it all.

Family and friends mourn over the coffin of one of the victims of the suicide bombing in Bulgaria, as the bodies arrived at the Ben-Gurion Airport early Friday morning. (photo credit: Tali Mayer/Flash90)

Popular psychology claims that there is not such thing as a "bad child," just bad actions from a good child, and modern politicians keep insisting that the terrorists are just good people who have reasons to be so angry that they just react in bad ways.  That's utter garbage.  Some people are just evil.  Who else would murder like terrorists?

Any rational inherently good person would look at this picture and want to cry.  The pain and grief of the people is so strong.

We live in a dangerous world and are ruled by politicians and philosophers who live in lala land.  I'd still like to know who are the real backers and controller of United States President Barack Hussein Obama.  He came out of no where, like in those old Hollywood movies in which the unknown suddenly becomes a star.  There are too many problems not only with his background but his ideologies and priorities.

Sorry that I can't write something cheerful today.

Missing "Storms"

It's all in the timing, isn't it?

The day before I flew to the states for a family visit, someone in Israel looked up the weather predictions for my United States landing.  He gleefully reported stormy weather.  I wasn't interested.  I don't trust, worship the weathermen.  And I'm not going to freak out over something I can't control.  Life it too complicated and stressful to add to the list of problems.  I don't take along coats, jackets and raingear for summer visits, but I do end up buying umbrellas.

I left Israel during a heatwave, and got to Philly while they were experiencing the same.  Most people I spotted were armed with umbrellas, but my day in Philadelphia ended up hot, sunny and muggy.  As I went to the train to New York City, I could feel possible storm in the air, but it didn't reach the 30th Street Amtrak Station.

The NewYork I greeted was dry, too.  It's said that there had been a storm, but maybe I frightened it away.

While I was in a kosher restaurant in Philly, they had a tv going showing news of a terror attack.  I couldn't quite figure out where and what.  One thing I could follow was that the ambulances had a language I didn't recognize, so I wasn't concerned.  My mistake.  Although the location wasn't Israel, Israelis, Jewish Israelis were the targets and many were killed and injured.

We must remember that as individuals we really don't have control over terrorism.  Many of the same Israelis who quake in fear and horror over visiting places in Israel like my home in Shiloh, don't think twice about traveling abroad to places like Bulgaria where that terror attack took place.

It's a serious and sometimes a fatal mistake to think that you have such control over your life that you can protect yourself from terrorism and death.  Those who trust the "experts," whether security or the weathermen are mistaken. 

And while I'm at it ranting about the faux experts, I'll say the same about those who keep telling us what we Israelis need to do for peace.  They don't know what they're talking about either.  Life's not that "simple."

Please don't forget that there's an element in all that happens that man has no control over and can't predict.  I'm talking about G-d.  G-d's really in control, not us and not the scientists.

Antisemitism, Hillary Re:Pollard and Germany Re:Circumcision

United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has let the cat out of the bag, unless she's carrying the wrong one, by stating that Jonathan Pollard should expect to stay in US jail. 

“Jonathan Pollard was convicted of espionage, sentenced to life imprisonment and is serving the sentence. I do not have any expectation that this will change.”

Trust Hillary to give the official line without neither apologies nor sugar-coating.  She's not Bill, and that brutal honest is one of the reasons she easily lost the nomination for United States President to Barack Obama four years ago.  With Hillary, you don't go on fantasy cruises into nowhere.  No doubt it was Bill Clinton who told the imaginative fairytales to their daughter Chelsea.  Successful politicians can make you believe almost anything.  Just look at Ehud Olmert!

The bottom line here is that nothing has officially changed in terms of Pollard's status as far as the Americans are concerned.  I still think that if Obama is really desperate he may free him very close to the elections on condition that Israel keep him incommunicado, for debriefing, until polls are closed.  The Israeli secret service is probably more afraid of Pollard than the Americans are.  No doubt that he was screwed, and although I do not use that sort of language, I can't think of a more accurate way of describing what happened to Pollard.

And about what's going on in Germany...
Deja vu the 1930's for sure.  How else can you describe the silence by international human rights, civil rights and religious rights groups since ritual circumcision of children/minors has been banned?  It really shouldn't surprise us because many European countries forbid shechita, Jewish ritual slaughter of meat and poultry, davka in the same countries that permit animal hunting.  That immoral stand against the Jewish religion is always received by silence.

One interesting/positive result of the German law is that the Jewish and Muslim populations must work together.  But strangely, you don't see/hear the expected strong protests from international Muslim organizations that aren't shy to condemn the least serious "affronts" to Muslims and Arabs.

This Land is Ours! Jewish Sovereignty in All of The Land of Israel!

So many times I wish I could be two places at once, or wealthy enough not to have to work.  On the day of Second Annual Conference on the Application of Israeli Sovereignty over Judea and Samaria I was selling in Yafiz, Sha'ar Binyamin.  I deal with Arabs every time I work. 

Places like Sha'ar Binyamin, a shopping center/industrial zone in southern Binyamin, just north of Jerusalem, is an example of what Jewish sovereignty in Judea and Samaria would be like.  It's ruled by Israel.  The Arabs who use the services and shop in the stores, Rami Levy, Yafiz, Shifon Bakery and take-out, Dusha-toys, the hardware store, natural food store, shoe store, bicycle store and more know who's in charge.  Both Jews and Arabs work in many of the stores, but it's clear to all that this is a Jewish ruled area.  It's a taste of Israeli sovereignty, a taste of with G-d's help future.

For an excellent summary of what I missed, read Arlene Kushner's article.

The timing of the conference was excellent, considering that the Levy Report about Israel's legal status in Judea and Samaria had come out just before.  It proves that the supposed illegality of Israel's presence in Judea, Samaria and all other Land liberated in the 1967 Six Days War is just rubbish.  For forty-five years already the Israeli Left and "the world" have been intensively brainwashing the Israeli public and politicians that we have no legal right to be here  But the truth is that their arguments are pseudo-legal claptrap.

This Latma skit gets it just Right.





Speakers at the conference included legal experts and Knesset Members from Likud, National Union and HaBayit Yehudi.  They all reinforced and agreed that there is no legal or practical reason for Israel not to annex all of the Land we liberated as a result of the 1967 Six Days War.

I have no doubt that the only way to true peace, not the flimsy farce called השלום Hashalom "the peace" is by Israel's fully annexing all of the Land and encouraging Jewish residence without restrictions.

Will Hillary Promise Israel Not to Interfere in Our Internal Affairs?

Headline in The Times of Israel:

Clinton meets with Islamist Morsi in Cairo
US will not interfere in Egypt’s internal affairs, US secretary of state tells newly-elected Egyptian president

The USA loves interfering in the internal affairs of foreign countries, especially Israel.  OK, one of the reasons it continues to butt into our lives is that Israeli government officials don't tell the Americans to butt out.

As Obama tries to improve his personal popular support because of the upcoming American elections, Clinton has been delegated to represent United States interests abroad.  She'll soon be in Israel. 

For many of us, Hillary Clinton's applause and kiss for Suha Arafat after a hateful anti-Israel diatribe.

...And so, back in the good old days of post-Oslo Labor rule, America’s first lady, self-satisfied and basking in ultra-liberal sanctimony, smiled contentedly as Suha railed in indignation: “Our people have been subjected to the daily and extensive use of poisonous gas by the Israeli forces, which has led to an increase in cancer cases among women and children.”
No way could Hillary claim to have gotten the wrong end of the stick. She listened via simultaneous translation to Suha’s prepared script, accusing Israel – in genuine medieval well-poisoning tradition – of resorting to all manner of noxious concoctions to kill Arab women and tots (as distinct, presumably, from adult males).
Among its other sins, Hillary’s hostess charged, Israel deliberately contaminated with lethal toxins 80 percent of the water (not 79% or 81%) consumed by Palestinian females and infants.
Hillary listened to the calumny without a hint of displeasure. Indeed, she nodded approval from time to time, and when Suha concluded, Hillary embraced her warmly and planted affectionate kisses on her cheeks. (complete article)

No doubt that Hillary as Secretary of State is the same Hillary except for the fact that she hasn't had a decent haircut for ages.

And for those of you who think I'm mistaken by sitting out USA Elections, because I must vote Romney to keep Obama from being re-elected, have you heard the latest surprise  running mate for Romney?  It's no other than Condi Rice!  When it comes to Israel, she's no better than Obama.  I can't think of one good thing about her, can you?

Let's make a deal.  I won't vote in American Elections if the USA will stop interfering in Israeli policy decisions.  I'm willing to put my cards on the table first.

צדק Tzedek Justice? More About Ehud Olmert

Ehud Olmert, lawyers and cohorts have been celebrating after the court gave its ruling.  Yes, he was declared "innocent" of some of the indictments but the judges did find him guilty on one count.

Sarah Honig in the Jerusalem Post wrote about how the judge's strange way of discerning innocence or guilt.

In Olmert’s cases, the judges don’t dispute that money changed hands between American businessman Morris Talansky and Olmert or that he double-billed charities on his air journeys (this isn’t innuendo but boldly asserted in the verdict). However, they didn’t ascribe to him “criminal intent,” even if illicit ties and illicit practices existed.
Here we willy-nilly enter the realm of psychoanalysis rather than legal reasoning.
Hypothetically, we might submit that there needn’t be something inherently felonious in the spectacle of a leading politico accepting envelopes stuffed with cash. At the same time, however, this state of affairs is hardly condonable from the vantage point of civic hygiene. Any bigwig in public life owes us more elevated ethics. (complete article)

In effect, the judges do admit they think that Olmert did the illegal act, but in typical Israel way uses the excuse that "he didn't mean to be bad."  There's something very strange in Israeli culture.  They don't think they have to apologize for hurting you if it was unintentional.  This drives me nuts.  I expect them to apologise for carelessness, but instead they say:

"But it wasn't on purpose..."

The other day at work a women and her young daughter rammed into me.  I was looking the other way and didn't see them coming.  When I told the woman she should have had been more careful, she was outraged.  She had been talking on her phone, looking the other way and pushed her seriously obese little girl into me so hard I had to sit for a few minutes to recover.  "But it wasn't on purpose..." was all she would say after first denying she had even caused me any harm. 

Ruthie Blum in Israel Hayom wrote about a different aspect of the Olmert saga.  Was Olmert hounded  to stop his peace plan?

According to this assertion, Olmert was on the verge of getting Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to sign an agreement with Israel. And had the prime minister not been forced to resign as a result of a cloud of corruption allegations that hung over him, we might all have been celebrating the end of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by now.

Are they joking?
While it is true that Olmert practically begged Abbas to take the 1967 borders on a silver platter — and even threw in a partial “right of return” for refugees — the Palestinian Authority chief didn’t even bother dignifying the offer with a response. This is because Abbas had no more intention of reaching a deal with the Jewish state than his predecessor, Yasser Arafat.
It is getting tiresome restating the obvious, for which (unlike the Olmert trial) there is and always has been endless evidence: There is nothing Israel can offer the Palestinians, short of ceasing to exist, that they will accept.

Nobody took Olmert's offers very seriously then, including the Arabs.  They were very much like Ehud Barak's.  And talking about Ehud Barak, Caroline Glick actually considers Olmert to have been an even worse Prime Minister than Barak was.

Objectively speaking, Olmert was the worst prime minister that Israel has ever had. And that is saying a lot. He had stiff competition from Ehud Barak, but he managed to outdo him in incompetence and general failure to meet the challenge of the office he aspired to in his unmitigated shamelessness and hubris.

Olmert lost the war with Hezbollah in 2006. He lost Israel's campaign against Hamas in 2008-2009. He failed to block Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons. He weakened Israel's international position and its alliance with the US. And so on and so forth.

The public never forgave him for his failed leadership in the 2006 war. And rightly so. There can be no forgiving or forgetting his decision to send forces to their deaths in battle AFTER he had already accepted the ceasefire ensuring that none of their action would make any difference. I believe that 34 IDF soldiers died in the last 36 hours of the war that took place AFTER Olmert had agreed to the ceasefire.

So, why is the media full of rumors of Olmert's return to politics?  I generally don't take polls too seriously, but the media is pushing Olmert.

Photo: (Jerusalem Post/Smith Research survey)

Were Olmert to form a new centrist party that included Kadima and Yesh Atid Party leader Yair Lapid, it could win 30 seats, compared to 27 for Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s Likud, according to the poll. The new party would take away mandates from Likud and Labor and could potentially form the next government.

But davka, the same Jerusalem Post article says that the public prefers Netanyahu over Olmert as Prime Minister.

But when asked who is most fit to be prime minister, Netanyahu won by a wide margin. Thirty-three percent said Netanyahu, 15% opposition leader Shelly Yechimovich, 12% Olmert, 10% Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman and just three percent Mofaz. 27% said none of the above or that they had no opinion.

Davka, Israel Hayom's poll showed that the public doesn't want Ehud Olmert back in politics.

Fifty-five percent of Israelis think former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert should not seek elected office again, a new poll suggests. The New Wave Research poll, commissioned by Israel Hayom, was conducted in the wake of Olmert's acquittal this week on two major corruption charges over a travel expenses double-billing scam. The results may be a bad omen for the former premier's prospects of staging a political comeback, some four years after he was forced to resign. Olmert himself said on Thursday that he was not now planning on returning to politics, while his spokesman Yanki Galanti said the former premier would make a decision on the matter only once the Holyland corruption case, in which Olmert is accused on serious charges, is settled.  

Asked if Olmert should be allowed to return to national politics, 55.2 percent of respondents in the Israel Hayom poll said he should not, 26.8% said he should and 18% offered no opinion. Asked if they thought Olmert was guilty of the corruption charges on which he was acquitted – notwithstanding the court's verdict – 37.5 percent said yes, 23.9% said no, and 38.6% offered no opinion.

The newspapers may actually be showing the same numbers but showing them differently.  The "30" seats that the Jerusalem Post writes about are only one quarter 1/4 of the Knesset seats which would need only 25% of the vote, very similar to the 26.8% who support Olmert according to Israel Hayom.

Nu, did you think that the media is objective?

Reality From Latma, Really

Here are two new news skits as only Latma can write it, Right?



There's no exaggeration there. The Left refuses to accept reality.



I wrote a post also asking us to check exactly who's supporting Israel's Left.
Follow The Money... Who's Trying to Weaken Israel?

Shabbat Shalom u'Mevorach

Have a Peaceful and Blessed Shabbat 

"Oom Schmoom," One Thing Ben-Gurion Got Right!

I'm not the greatest fan of Israel's first Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, although he did get one thing right when referring to the United Nations as "Oom Schmoom." "Oom" is the abbreviation, pronouncing the initials, of United Nations in Hebrew, and "schmoom" is from the Hebrew שום דבר shoom davar, nothing.

Ben-Gurion hasn't been in power for close to half a century, and things with the United Nations hasn't gotten any better.  It has only gotten much worse.

When I, as an elementary school student, I remember doing a project about the UN.  There were fewer than a hundred member states as the United Nations was in its second decade of existence.  Most were veteran countries with long histories. They were trying to change the world by inventing, approving/recognizing the establishment of all sorts of countries where none had ever been before, and then giving them full membership. 

Because these new countries had no real history or culture to unite them, they have been inherently unstable causing much of the problems in the modern world, especially in Africa, Asia and the Middle-east.  All sorts of official United Nations "help" organizations now exist to support them.  It's a major international industry.

And these unstable, violent nations stand in judgement over Israel, which is one of the reasons that the UN spends a ridiculous amount of its time condemning Israel.  And what sort of country is considered acceptable to be a member of the UN's human rights body?  Sudan, the same Sudan which is terrorizing its citizens, many of which flee to safety in Israel.

UN Watch, which headed the World NGO Summit on Darfur, also called on US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the EU’s Catherine Ashton to denounce and fight against Sudan’s candidacy.
“Electing Sudan to the U.N. body mandated to promote and protect human rights worldwide is like putting Jack the Ripper in charge of a women’s shelter,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch. (complete article)

The United Nations is nothing like what had been envisioned by those who established it after World War Two.  It has become a dangerous monster.  Israel should just leave it and stop paying it money.

Bi-National Israeli Americans, To Vote or Not To Vote?

I vote not to vote.

According to American Law I have the right to vote in American Elections, but I've never done so.

I've lived in Israel two-thirds 2/3 of my life, which is a very long time.  When we made aliyah, moved to Israel,  voting age in The United States was 21, and we got on the boat between my twenty first birthday and election day.  There was neither time nor reason to look for a voting district to register in.

In the days when you needed the help of an operator to call overseas, long before the Internet, cellphones etc, the distance between the USA and Israel seemed very far. 

Making aliyah is more than just moving house and changing area codes.

Living in Israel is a full-time commitment and not a temporary "vacation."

I don't think that Israeli politicians and government leaders should make decisions according to American advice and mores and I don't think that American politicians should be expected to consider the advice of expats like myself. 

My priority is Israel not the United States of America.

A few months before American Presidential Elections, there's always a lot of pressure on us Americans here in Israel to request overseas ballots and vote for the candidate we think will be best for Israel.  Of course, both candidates always have their Israeli committee which campaigns that their guy would do the most to protect Israel.  Almost every candidate in recent decades has also vowed to move the American Embassy to Jerusalem, but none of them have done it.

Most years there's no real choice between candidates.  I could choose by flipping a coin, because I know that once they've rearranged the furniture in the personal First Family Apartment, they can't be trusted to do anything earth shattering good for Israel.   They're all the same.

One reason was best explained in the excellent comedy, or political satire TV series, Yes, Minister.  It's really the permanent "non-political" civil servants who run governments, not the elected officials like the President.  They are the people who research and write up all sorts of reports to give the officials information to help them make decisions.

Also, I don't want foreigners telling Israel what we should do, and although I have full intentions of keeping my American citizenship and passport, I don't think I have a moral right to vote in American Elections.

Chutzpah Galore -- Ad Nauseum: Olmert, Ketzele and Talia Sasson

It's hard to decide what has me more upset this morning.  There are three articles/subjects vying to get top billing in this post. 

President Truman with

"The BUCK STOPS here"

sign on his desk

Let's start with the antithesis of Harry Truman, no other than former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert who has made it legally clear that the buck stopped on his assistant Shula Zaken's desk has me double-fuming.  I don't know what ticks me off more, Olmert's chutzpah or the judges who agreed with him.

Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert at the Jerusalem district court, Tuesday. An Israeli court acquitted Olmert on two key corruption charges and found him guilty on a lesser count.

|

Photo credit: Flash 90

In its verdict, the three-judge panel unanimously accepted Olmert’s defense that he thought his private trips were paid for by frequent flyer miles, and not via a Rishon Tours slush fund. The judges said there was no evidence that Olmert methodically took the leftover money from double billing groups for other trips abroad.  

“The evidence did not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that [Rishon Tours] received money for Olmert,” Judge Musya Arad said of the Rishon Tours verdict.  

Olmert’s assistant, Shula Zaken, however, was found guilty on charges of fraud and breach of trust in the double billing affair. She had maintained her silence under questioning over the affair. (complete article)

Why didn't Zaken testify to defend herself?  The judges accepted a situation that makes no sense.  Who gave the orders to Zaken? There's a "buck" flying out there.  Who's going to stop it and take responsibility?

The next awful bit of chutzpah is, davka, by an MK I had voted for, Ketzele of Ichud Le'umi, National Union.  Two clarifications first:

1. There's a big difference in the American and Israeli political systems.  In the United States you must choose between two candidates. Neither may be all that great, so you vote for the lesser of two evils.
2. In the Israeli system there are many political parties; each has a different ideology and a rather mixed slate of MK hopefuls.  It's sometimes possible to actually find a party with a platform and candidates you agree with and want to see in office.

I've been voting for and supporting the NU since before Ketzele swooped down and took top place adding a bit of energy and charisma to the package.  Ketzele's previous position was working for the Rabbi Melamed of Beit El.   For many many years I'd hear of his legendary exploits as fund-raiser and project promoter.  Since charisma has been sorely lacking in the Ichud Le'umi, and the NRP is staid and has its own rabbis, I wasn't surprised about the "match."

Being that Ketzele is a devoted chossid to Rabbi Melamed, and I'm not, there was always a fear in the back of my mind that Ketzele had been planted in NU, sent on a "mission" by his Rebbe.  And now the cat's out of the bag, so to say, because Ketzele is presenting Rabbi Melamed's "we have a price" law to the Knesset.  I 100% 1,000% oppose it!  Ketzele does not have the support of his party.  He's acting as an agent of Rabbi Melamed, chutzpah!

And the last bit of chutzpah for the day is well-described in Ruthie Blum's article, Talia Sasson's chutzpah .  Talia Sasson and Peace Now consider themselves the experts in Israeli Law and morality.  They are having very public fits that a government commission came to the opposite conclusions of their extreme ideology. 

Peace Now director-general Yariv Oppenheimer — like a true rebel-robbed-of-a-cause-by-reality — put on his best pout-face for the TV cameras when asked about “The Report on West Bank Settlements,” commissioned in January by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Oppenheimer accused the committee appointed to investigate the legal status of unauthorized Jewish building in Judea and Samaria of having a political agenda — you know, a right-wing one.

His indignation over the 89-page document — prepared over the past six months by former Supreme Court Justice Edmund Levy, former Foreign Ministry legal adviser Alan Baker and former deputy president of the Tel Aviv District Court Tchia Shapira — was nothing compared to that of legal eagle Talia Sasson, however. And it’s no wonder.

Sasson is the author of a similar report conducted in 2005 at the behest of disengagement Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Her findings, however, were the opposite of those handed over to the government this week.

The Government Report, clearly explained in English by Arlene Kushner, makes it very clear that there's nothing illegal about the Jewish communities in the Lands liberated as a result of the 1967 Six Days War. 

The findings are stunning and constitute a major victory for all who believe in the right of Jews to settle the land (emphasis added):
"According to international law, Israelis have a legal right to settle all of Judea and Samaria, at the very least the lands that Israel controls under agreements with the Palestinian Authority. Therefore, the establishment of Jewish settlements [in Judea and Samaria] is, in itself, not illegal."
"The lands that Israel controls under agreements with the Palestinian Authority" refers to Area C under Oslo, which is under Israeli civilian and military (security) control. This includes every Jewish community and the Jordan Valley:

Credit: Lifesource

The total chutzpah of the Left in their pseudo-intellectual-academic posturings and demands that the infinitesimal eighteen years from the Israeli Independence War cease-fire agreement to the 1967 Six Days War should be the dominant "reality" of Jewish Land Rights has no basis legal or otherwise.

Tel Shiloh, Digging Up the Past

There is a lot going on at Tel Shiloh aka Shiloh HaKeduma, Ancient Shiloh.  Archaeologists are revealing more and more of the Biblical site where the Mishkan, Holy Tabernacle rested for 369 years, the place of pilgrimage, prayers to G-d for the Jewish People before we had kings.

The modern community Village of Shiloh adjoins the ancient one, and even those of us, like me, who live far from the Tel can walk it very easily.  It's just over a mile, barely two kilometers, from my house.  Chazal, our sages say that G-d's shechina, presence still remains in such a holy place.  People come from all over the world to pray there.  I've been organizing women's Rosh Chodesh Prayers for a number of years already.  Next month is Av when mourning the destruction of the Holy Temple intensifies.

The Rosh Chodesh Av Women's Prayers at

Shiloh HaKeduma, Ancient Shiloh, Tel Shiloh

Friday, July 20, 2012 8:30am

Shiur Torah, Short Tour & Torah Lesson

Please come and invite family, friends and neighbors

תפילת נשים ראש חודש אב שילה הקדומה, בתל שילה

יום ו' 20-7 8:30

יהיו סיור ודבר תורה קצרים

נא לבוא, לפרסם ולהזמין חברות, משפחה ושכנות

 

You're welcome to join our facebook page. Tel Shiloh is open to visitors daily. Tours can be arranged through the Shiloh HaKeduma, Ancient Shiloh office. Email telshilo@gmail.com or phone 02-994-4019.