Two Week Countdown to Passover, Chodesh Nissan Tov!

Tomorrow is Rosh Chodesh Nissan, the first of the Jewish Month of Nissan, which also commemorates the very first Mitzvah, Commandment G-d gave to the People of Israel as a nation.

Nissan is the first month on the Jewish calendar. Before the Jews left Egypt, on the first day of the month of Nissan, G‑d told Moses and Aaron: “This chodesh(new moon, or month) shall be to you the head of months.”4 Thus the peculiarity of the Jewish calendar: the year begins on Rosh Hashanah, the first day of the month of Tishrei (the anniversary of the creation of Adam and Eve), but Tishrei is not the first month. Rosh Hashanah is actually referred to in the Torah as “the first day of the seventh month.”5

G-d willing, I'll be joining with a number of women from all over the country to pray together at Shiloh Hakeduma, Tel Shiloh.

I've been doing this for many years already. Shiloh is a very traditional place for prayer in Jewish History and tradition, especially for women. There is a very well-known story in the Bible about Chana (Hannah) who prayed there for a son. This son was not to be for her personal maternal needs. She prayed for a son who would be apprenticed to the Priests in the Mishkan, Tabernacle at Shiloh and then lead the Jewish People to the next stage, when he would anoint a king.

Chana's son Shmuel, Samuel, was born after she had prayed in Shiloh. He was trained by Eli the High Priest and then ended up anointing not only the first king, Saul, but King David, too. King David's dynasty is the most important in Jewish History. The Moshiach, Messiah will come from his descendants.

Women's Rosh Chodesh Prayers are every Rosh Chodesh, 8:30am at Shiloh Hakeduma, Tel Shiloh. We don't do a "women's minyan," but we do sing the Hallel Prayer together. We also tour the archaeological site and hear Divrei Torah, Torah lessons. More information can be found on this blog, Shiloh Musings.

Shiloh Hakeduma is the actual site of the Biblical Shiloh. 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 visit@telshilo.org.il  or phone 02-994-4019.

Nu, Why Did Israeli Bibi-Coalition Partners Wait So Long to Balk at Convicted Terrorist Release?

Israel is too glib about crossing its "red lines." There was a time when no Israeli Government would dare mention the freeing of convicted terrorists, then there was the proviso, as long as they "didn't have blood on their hands." That euphemisms means that the "successful" terrorists had to stay in jail, but those who failed would be given by the Israeli Government a free pass to try again to murder Jews! Now, isn't that sweet and generous of Israel?  Would any other country be so unbelievably and illogically kind to its enemies?

There was also a time when the mention of a possible "Palestinian State" would cause everyone to rise up in anger and accuse the person of treason. Those were the good old days.

Today's supposedly Center-Right politicians are more like the Extreme Left of an earlier and safer time.

News is that the recent threats by some of Bibi's bloated cabinet to leave his coalition if he releases the last batch of convicted Arab terrorists is the excuse/reason Netanyahu is giving to the Americans for a delay.

The pan-Arab London-based newspaper Al-Hayat has reported that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told US Secretary of State John Kerry that his governing coalition may fall apart if Israel goes ahead with the fourth planned tranche in the terrorist release that it agreed to as a “goodwill gesture” toward the Palestinian Authority.
Al-Hayat said that Kerry has asked PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas to extend negotiations even if Israel fails to release additional terrorists. Abbas, for his part, told Kerry he would not discuss continuing negotiations until the terrorists are freed, including 14 Israeli Arabs. (Arutz 7)

Could Minister of Defense Moshe Bogie Ya'alon's statements against Kerry and Obama have been part of a script he and Netanyahu had written just to reduce American pressure on Israel? Or am I giving Bibi too much credit for protecting Israel's interests?

How does that rumor jive with the other one that Israel will release, G-d forbid, another four hundred 400 convicted terrorists?

A report on the Israeli news website, Walla, said that Israel informed the United States, that not only would it free the 30 terrorists that were supposed to be freed tonight (Saturday night), but also an additional 400 Palestinian Authority terrorists – if Abu Mazen agrees to extend the peace talks for another 6 months.
The 30 terrorists that were supposed to be released tonight include Arab citizens of Israel, and the release has met tremendous resistance in Israel as the names that Abu Mazen demanded released are among the most heinous of mass murderers. (Jewish Press)

Rumors, rumors are they true or trial balloons?

The office of Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon on Tuesday would neither confirm nor deny comments attributed to him calling US Secretary of State John Kerry “obsessive” and “messianic.” 
Tuesday editions of the daily tabloid Yedioth Ahronoth  quote Ya’alon as telling associates in private conversations that Kerry “should take his Nobel Prize and leave us alone.” (Jerusalem Post)

That means that there's more of a chance that Ya'alon's comments about American Secretary of State John Kerry was planned with Netanyahu.

My biggest gripe is that the first three batches were released without the recent threats by ministers to topple the coalition. The so-called Right partners in the coalition should have used their united muscle against the very first convicted Arab terrorist prisoner release and not have waited until now.

Either this protest is just for their voters, to pretend to threaten leaving the coalition or they've been following the policy I keep saying is wrong. They were counting on Mahmoud Abbas to totally call off negotiations, so he, rather than Israel could be blamed for the failure. I'm constantly saying f2f and on my blog that we should never count on Arab stupidity. We must act, not react.

Warnings from the U.S. Gov't About Land Day, But American Campuses Aren't All That Safe for Jews

Many of us United States citizens got the following email.

United States Consulate General Jerusalem
March 28, 2014

Security message for U.S. citizens:  “Land Day” Demonstrations

The U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem advises U.S. citizens that "Land Day" will be commemorated on Sunday, March 29, in Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Israel.  Demonstrations and heightened tensions may continue on Monday, March 30, and through the next week.  U.S. citizens are advised to exercise an extra measure of caution.

The U.S. Consulate General takes this opportunity to remind U.S. citizens that even demonstrations intended to be peaceful can turn confrontational and escalate into violence. U.S. citizens should avoid areas of demonstrations and exercise caution if in the vicinity of any large gatherings, protests, or demonstrations.

Review your personal security plans; remain aware of your surroundings, including local events; and monitor local news stations for updates. Maintain a high level of vigilance and take appropriate steps to enhance your personal security and follow instructions of local authorities.

We strongly recommend that U.S. citizens traveling to or residing in Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza enroll in the Department of State's Smart Traveler Enrollment Program(STEP). STEP enrollment gives you the latest security updates, and makes it easier for the U.S. embassy or nearest U.S. consulate to contact you in an emergency. If you don't have Internet access, enroll directly with the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate.
For the latest security information, U.S. citizens traveling abroad should regularly monitor the Department of State’s Internet website where the Worldwide Caution,  Country Specific Information for Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, Travel Warnings, and Travel Alerts can be found, including the current Travel Warning for Israel, the West Bank and Gaza.  Follow us onTwitter and Facebook.
You can also follow the Bureau of Consular Affairs on Twitter and on Facebook. .  Up-to-date information on security can also be obtained by calling 1-888-407-4747 toll-free in the United States and Canada, or, for callers outside of the United States and Canada, on a regular toll-line at 1-202-501-4444.  These numbers are available from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time, Monday through Friday (except U.S. federal holidays).   U.S. citizens should also review "A Safe Trip Abroad,” which includes valuable security information for those both living and traveling abroad.
The U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem is located at 14 David Flusser Street in the Arnona neighborhood and is open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday (except U.S. federal holidays and certain local holidays). Its telephone number is (972) (2) 630-4000. The U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv is located at 71 HaYarkon Street and is open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday (except U.S. federal holidays and certain local holidays). Its telephone number is (972) (3) 519-7475. If you are a U.S. citizen in need of urgent assistance, the emergency number for the Consulate General is (972) (2) 622-7230, and the emergency number for the Embassy is (972) (3) 519-7575.

I just hope that this warning doesn't make the Arab terrorists think they are supposed to riot and attack us. also don't see the point in their recommending that we contact them in an emergency tomorrow, when they don't have hours on Sundays... but that's American efficiency no doubt.

What concerns me even more is that American universities, especially the elite ones are extremely anti-Israel. Caroline Glick wrote about it this week and there's also a very disturbing book review in the Jewish Daily Forward, A Century of Anti-Semitism on the American College Campus:

In 2012, the American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise published “Israel and the Campus,” a study noting 674 anti-Israel events at 108 United States and Canadian universities during the 2011-12 academic year. It remains undetermined how many of these events led to the development of full-fledged anti-Semitism on campuses making American Jewish students feel uneasy during their bright college years because of who they are. But there’s nothing new in that, as “Antisemitism on the Campus: Past & Present” edited by Eunice G. Pollack proves.
Read more: http://forward.com/articles/195371/a-century-of-anti-semitism-on-the-american-college/#ixzz2xNdvOen4

Glick's Campus brownshirts on the march is a report on what's happening on American campuses:

Rather than take action against the thugs from the SJP, both the members of the committee and the audience quickly joined forces with them and doubled down on their assault against all even mildly pro-Israel voices on campus.

As Scheneiderman wrote on her blog, at the meeting she was “knocked off-center by a belligerent academic community dedicated to vilifying anyone who dares set foot in Israel.”

Weiss wrote of the meeting, “The spirit of that young progressive space was that Israel is a blot on civilization, and boycott is right and necessary.

If a student had gotten up and said, I love Israel, he or she would have been mocked and scorned into silence.”

Weiss is pleased with the air of intimidation. As he sees it, this is the whole point of the so called boycott, sanctions, and divestment movement that calls for institutions to boycott businesses that do business with Jews in Israel.

As Weiss explained, the real purpose of the BDS movement in all its component parts is to make it impossible to voice any sentiment in relation to the Middle East on college campuses that isn’t anti-Israel.

Unfortunately the extreme Left also dominates many Israeli universities. I'll be perfectly honest with you. I think that those extreme Leftist academics in Israel and abroad are ore dangerous to the State of Israel than the Arab terrorists.

French is The "New Russian" on The Streets of Israel

When the two large Russian aliyot to Israel were new we'd hear a lot of Russian in the streets, buses, offices, stores and clinics in Israel. But now most immigrants from the FSU (former Soviet Union) use a lot of Hebrew or are answered in Hebrew by the younger generations, and the Russian language no longer stands out.

Nowadays I hear an awful lot of French in  the streets, buses, offices, stores, clinics etc. Israeli history, sociology has been described as continual waves of immigrants. The more veteran ones are replaced by newer waves. Each wave has its own stories and needs. And each one thinks the newer ones got a better deal.

There's a classic Israeli film and jokes about how each wave of immigrants are resentful and discriminate against the newer ones.

A classic skit from the 70's where Arik Einstein and Uri Zohar play all the roles. English Subtitles. 

It's a parody saying the Israelis are inpatient towards the new Olim. But 5 minutes after the new Olim came to Israel, they see themselves as Israelis, and act the same 

The majority of Ethiopian immigrants, due to their color, are noticed visually even before being heard. They tend to speak so quietly. Bnai Menashe, who have come in smaller numbers, are also pretty silent and aren't as scattered around. I see them in Ofra, Beit El and shopping in Sha'ar Binyamin.

There was also a lot of resentment incomprehension when the American immigration was large in the post-1967 Six Days War euphoria. There was total amazement by many Israelis who couldn't understand how we Americans could have left America which has always been seen as a magic place, wealthy, easy living and easy money. To make it worse more veteran Israelis would misunderstand the regulations of that time concerning all sorts of tax free/reduced items, including cars, and insist that we got them for free.

But I'll never forget how moved the El Al flight crew was by the Americans making aliyah during the Second Lebanon War. I accompanied the Nefesh B'Nefesh flight as a journalist.

Photo I took on that NBN flight

Recent French immigrants are understood by many Israelis as escaping terrible, violent antisemitism.

Speaking on camera a day after his assault, the victim – a 59-year-old Jewish teacher only identified as David –said he was attacked by three North African “Maghreb men” at 10 p.m. on March 20 after leaving a kosher restaurant in Rue Manin, Paris, and making his way to a subway station.
“They started to curse me out: ‘dirty Jew,’ ‘death to the Jews,’ ‘son of a b***,’ etc. Then they started to beat me up,” David says in the clip before breaking down in tears. “I was hit on my face, I got my nose fractured… And then one of them took something out of his pocket, I thought it was a knife… It was a marker… And this is what they did to me (showing his chest), a swastika as they were screaming ‘dirty Jew.’ ”

There has been a lot of coverage of French antisemitic attacks in the media, including the one on the Jewish school in Toulouse.

There has been a marked increase in the number of French Jews who have moved to Israel since the killings two years ago, from fewer than 2,000 in 2012 to more than 3,000 last year.
President Moshe Kantor of the European Jewish Congress, in a statement on Wednesday, commended the French authorities for their efforts to curb anti-Semitism and urged officials to “preempt the next murders by continuing to invest in education, law enforcement against those who preach hate and incitement, and to combat the extremists.”
The SPCJ, the security unit of the French Jewish community, says the murders triggered a wave of 90 anti-Semitic incidents in the subsequent 10 days.
Two years after the most traumatic Islamic terrorist attack on its territory, France continues to remember the killings in Toulouse. French websites and France 2 television reported Wednesday’s two ceremonies.
On March 19, 2012 the French-Algerian Merah shot and killed three Jewish children and the father of two of them at the entrance to the Ohr Torah school in Toulouse.

An English-speaking friend who made aliyah at the time of the large Russian aliyah finished ulpan (intensive Hebrew-language classes) with a Russian accent. Now, no doubt, many olim chadashim new immigrants from all over the world pick up Hebrew with a French accent.

The big question is:

From where will the next wave of immigrants come?

"Sister?" More of "My Adventures with Arabs"

I think that this should be a new periodic "series" on this blog, My "Adventures with Arabs." As many of you know, I have much more contact with Arabs than most Israelis. I work in Yafiz, Sha'ar Binyamin where Jews and Arabs work and shop together.

The gulf between Jews and Arabs is much smaller in may world than in the world of many other Israelis, including the Extreme Left. That's especially because I meet ordinary Arabs, the relatively apolitical who shop in Yafiz and Rami Levy because of the quality goods and low prices. And this isn't a paid advertisement. 

Money does make the world go around. 

It's the nature of man to put a price on everything, whether it's barter or actual money.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has said that economic development in the Arab world is the key to peace, but unfortunately when he's in power, like now, he forgets that principle.

Recently I had another of my unforgettable meetings with an Arab customer at Yafiz. As is my norm, I first speak to the Arab customers in Hebrew and then try English if they look at me with blank uncomprehending stares. This Arab woman, with her hair and neck covered in the Muslim way was of my daughters' generation and really perked up when she heard me speak English.

"Your English is so good.  Where did you learn it?"
"America, and yours?"
"Me, too, in America." 

And then she gave me a quick summary of her life and why she is now living "nearby," which is also how I described my home location.

A Jewish Israeli man watched mesmerized by the scene of the two of us, obviously Jewish and Muslim, chatting away in such a friendly way. He just had to comment on how surprising it seemed to him. To me he spoke Hebrew, and to her he spoke Arabic, and we had this very amusing three-way, trilingual conversation. The young Arab-Muslim woman kept referring to me as her "sister."

I found this very interesting. It was obvious that this woman felt more in common with me and my Americanism than she felt with the other Arab women where she now lives. I did say that if the politicians would just leave all of us alone, we'd have peace, and she agreed with that.

True peace will develop slowly between people, like a very long pregnancy. But this sort of "pregnancy" won't require a painful birth. It will be more of a metamorphosis. Negotiations and treaties will stop or seriously delay the process. So let's send all those politicians, negotiators, mediators etc back to where they come from and let the slow process begin or continue. It will take a long time, so be patient. Our great-grandchildren or later generations will enjoy it. 

Politicians just bring war, hatred and chaos.

The Pollard "Distraction," Will Obama Free a "Loose Cannon?"

If Jay Jonathan Pollard has any of his guts and principles left, I don't think United States President Barack Hussein Obama wants him free to talk. Honestly, I don't know if President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu want him free in front of a microphone either.

I really feel sorry for poor Pollard. He made a very dumb mistake, illegal to boot, thirty years ago, and he has been paying through the nose ever since.

Every once in a while the Israeli media teases us with possible scenarios that Pollard will be released, and then nada, nothing. This week there were rumors that Obama and Kerry would use Pollard to pressure Israel into releasing convicted Arab terrorists-who were convicted of murdering Jews, a bitter pill the Americans thought would be more easily swallowed if they could distract us with a freed Pollard.

Now, the news says that Pollard's still in jail with no sign that he's any closer to being released.

Days ahead of Israel's expected release of a fourth batch of Palestinian prisoners, the United States said on Wednesday it was not at the moment planning to release Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard in exchange for Israeli and Palestinian moves to extend peace talks.
"There are currently no plans to release Jonathan Pollard," US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in response to an Army Radio report that claimed Washington had made the offer to free Pollard in order to salvage negotiations.

I have no inside information, but I can imagine that if he'd been interviewed as part of being prepared for release and asked if he would be silent, he'd say "no."

If the successive Israeli governments, ever since Pollard's arrest, had really wanted him in Israel, they would have made strong demands on America, and I think that he would have had been released years ago. It looks like both governments are intentionally waiting too long.

A lot of Pollard's supporters are on the Right of the Israeli political spectrum, and that's why Bibi is afraid to have him free in Israel or any place.

"Egalitarian Judaism?" Need it Like A Hole in The Head

It really bothers me when I read these articles claiming that all modern Jewish Orthodox  women are waiting for mainstream Orthodoxy to accept egalitarian dovening.

The motivation behind partnership minyanim is to narrow the wide gap between the relative gender equality that Orthodox women experience in their professional and civic lives and the gender stratification they experience in their religious lives. As Josephine Felix pointed out in an opinion piece in Brooklyn’s The Jewish Press, Orthodox women pursue every career imaginable, and in some circles they do it in greater numbers than their non-income producing, Talmud-studying husbands. “They may become CEO of a company, but when it comes to being president of a shul board, they are forbidden by many Orthodox legal scholars. They may be doctors whose decisions impact the life or death of a patient, but when it comes to deciding halacha, they cannot contribute,” Felix writes.
Women are said to be unable to handle the intellectual rigor of Talmud. When Orthodox women are professors or computer scientists, it makes that argument hard to swallow. Women who live in a civic society where male and female lawyers, witness and judges are treated as equally reliable by the courts may question the validity of the ban on female witnesses in Jewish law. Essentially, despite efforts to prevent it, the positive values of human rights and equality that are the fabric of Western culture are absorbed viscerally by women through their lived experiences, and when compared with the values of traditional Halacha, eventually the cognitive dissonance starts to cause a strain.
Orthodox feminists (both male and female) have been campaigning to make changes to prayer and ritual that empower women within the traditional framework. They do not want to leave Orthodoxy for Conservative Judaism. They like the closeness of the community, the way Orthodoxy permeates and informs all aspects of their lives. As Elana Sztokman put it in these pages, they “love everything about Orthodoxy except for the gender thing.”

Read more: http://forward.com/articles/194998/partnership-minyan-and-the-egalitarian-threat/#ixzz2x2LZO3bv

I don't agree. I'm not interested. I don't see being able to lead prayers, aliyot to the Torah etc as the same as being on the board of the shul/synagogue or studying Talmud.

In Aurora Mendelsohn's Jewish Forward article, she extensively quotes Josephine Felix, but in Felix's Jewish Press article nothing is mentioned at all about egalitarian minyanim. Felix's complaints are more about custom than halacha.  Yes, the make up of a minyan and Torah reading etc are halachik questions, while Women's Talmud Study is a matter of custom.

I know many strictly Orthodox Jewish women who study Talmud and teach it.  I davka study Tanach, Bible at Matan, but Talmud is on the curriculum there and at many other schools and institutes for Orthodox Jewish women.  Some of the women who study Talmud may be members of egalitarian minyanim, but for most Talmud for the love of studying Talmud is the focus on and the reason for their studies. It's not to make a modern feminist point.

As I've written before, I don't go for dabbling, and I don't want new requirements. I doven everyday more than once and have no interest in adding Tefillin to my dovening experience/routine. Years ago when I was on the local synagogue committee I did insist on being included in all sorts of decisions and complained about the custom of having "unofficial meetings between mincha and ma'ariv. They did that out of custom, not Law/halacha.

It's human nature to consider oneself in the majority, but I see a danger in the insistence that most Orthodox women in today's world are in favor of these "partnership," aka egalitarian minyanim. I honestly don't see it as the case. I really don't think that most women want more responsibility in their lives.

Most of us are struggling with what we have. Instead of demanding a role in the dovening, let's ask for something much more necessary, the opening of Ezrat Nashim, Women's Sections in synagogues for all the daily prayers. It's very hard for us women when not home to find a suitable location for dovening Mincha, Arvit (Ma'ariv) and saying T'hillim. All over Jerusalem you'll hear calls to gather for Mincha in small synagogues, but those synagogues don't have places for women, or they are full of men. One exception is Jerusalem's Central Bus Station, Egged.

The Time Has Come for Israel to Finally Leave the Faux "Peace Talks."

Enough is enough! We all know that the Arab, and that's including the so-called "moderate" sartorial Abbas's vision of "peace with Israel" is to weaken it so that they can easily destroy us. As the Obama-Kerry deadline for "a deal" approaches, Abbas is working with his Arab League buddies to propose something that Obama and Kerry will like, but it'll be the death for the State of Israel.

Arab leaders whose summit begins in Kuwait Tuesday, March 25, are set to carry hard-line ultimatums for the US-sponsored Palestinian-Israeli negotiations as a means of derailing US Secretary of State John Kerry’s stubborn effort for a peace accord, and as a red flag for President Barack Obama three days before he lands in Riyadh..
DEBKAfile’s Middle East sources report the Arab League summit’s two-day agenda includes a veto on recognizing Israel as the Jewish national state,a resolution that will be binding on all members including Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.
Another resolution would mandate the proclamation of all parts of East Jerusalem, including Al Quds al Sharif (Temple Mount) and the entire Old City of Jerusalem, the location of the shrines of three faiths, as the capital of a Palestinian state. This is diametrically opposed to US and Israeli positions.
Another ultimatum the Arab leaders propose to issue would halt Jewish settlement on the West Bank and Jerusalem, freeze development and ultimately dismantle all traces of a Jewish presence in a future Palestinian state.
Yet another demand will be for “the immediate release of all the Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails” – by which they mean all Palestinians serving time after being convicted of terrorist crimes, including Israeli Arabs.

It's worse than illogical for Israel to keep on participating in these faux "peace talks." Neither United States President Barack Hussein Obama, nor his Secretary of State Kerry, nor the P.A.'s Abbas wants peace, true peace. They just want "a deal" and the praise and prizes of the world.

The time has come for Israel to finally throw in the towel and tell the world and Israelis the truth. Mahmoud Abbas is incapable of making peace for the simple reason that he doesn't want peace with Israel.  He supports the Arab terrorists and wants to destroy the State of Israel. And we can't trust any country to assist us, not even the United States, because Obama considers facilitating the establishment of a "Palestinian state" to be one of his chief aims as in international figure and President of the United States. How it affects Israel isn't important to him, because he thinks that we stole Palestinian sic land.

Israel will be a lot safer if we end this farce. The sooner the better!

If There Was To Be A "Palestinian State," My Prediction

Now, I really want to make something very clear before I continue this post. I AM 100% IN EVERY POSSIBLE WAY OPPOSED TO THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A COUNTRY CALLED "PALESTINE!"

Palestinian Media Watch
PA depicts a world
without Israel

Besides the certainty that the existance of another Arab country here in the Jewish Holy Land would herald, cause, facilitate the destruction of the State of Israel, because that is the declared aim of the so-called "Palestinian nationalists," I am completely certain that something else that nobody wants to talk about will happen.

For the past three plus years I've been working in Yafiz, part of the Rami Levy business empire, in Sha'ar Binyamin.  I work with Arabs and "serve" Arabs as salesperson. I certainly have more daily contact with the local Arabs than most Israelis, including Leftists.  I know Arabs of all ages and incomes, including customers who work for international "help" organizations. Arabs talk to me and ask me very interesting questions. I'm telling you this so that you understand that I'm speaking from knowledge, not from ivory tower theories and wishful thinking.

For the first time in my working life in Israel, close to four decades, I had to pass a security review to get my job in Yafiz. Everyone who works for Rami Levy or Yafiz must go through the same thing, and that of course includes the Arabs. To make it easier for non-Israelis to pass the security investigations, it ends up that most of the Arabs hired are related to those Arabs already working in the company. Getting these minimum wage jobs in Rami Levy is a great job for most of the Arabs, because the employment conditions are much worse when out of Israeli government labor laws.

Over a year ago, an Arab woman who was enjoying the fact that she could practice her English with me told me that she's an English Teacher, and when I replied that actually I am, too, she said that I could make "lots of money teaching English in Jenin or Nablus, ns4-5,000 shekels. Besides the safety factor, I was shocked, because in Israel that's minimum wage; teachers make much more. Then a couple of weeks ago, an Arab man told me that he owns a clothing store in his village and wanted to know how much I make. I didn't tell him, but he told me that he pays ns700. I asked for how much time, and he answered "a month." Nobody can live on that.

Don't forget that just a couple of months ago when the idea of a "land swap" as part of a "peace agreement" was suggested that would transfer Israeli Arab areas to "Palestinian" rule, the Israeli Arabs were outraged and refused it, because they do not want to be under Arab rule. They, even MK Tibi, want to stay Israeli!

I have a very strong suspicion that if, G-d forbid, an Arab aka Palestinian State was to be established every single Arab who could would move to Israel!

Americans, I have One Thing to Ask of YOU!

Last night we had some guests.  Now I'm not going to give more information as to who the guests were, because I don't know if they want that sort of publicity. They came to us as part of their research on how to help the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.  I gave them my opinion and my husband gave his and no surprise if you know both of us or read our blogs, we didn't agree at all.

I asked them to do something rather daring, and I said that it's urgent. We don't have much time. It should have been finished yesterday or last month or last year.

I WANT THE AMERICAN SUPPORTERS OF ISRAEL TO TELL THE ISRAELI GOVERNMENT NEITHER TO FEAR NOR LISTEN TO OBAMA AND KERRY!

I requested that they do everything in their power to counteract the popular all persuasive  misconception that they must obey American dictates or they'd lose American support. From the reactions of ordinary Americans I meet when in the United States, I believe that there is great popular support for Israel and its security needs.  This is very much the "silent majority" that the Republicans tapped into during Reagan's time. The people who visited us are part of that America and agreed with me completely.

I may be wrong but I see most American politicians as focused on how to get votes and rather flexible in their policies. I'll never forget an interview I read with an American political wannabe who when asked about his policy replied that he was waiting to find out what the polls said. Simply put, he had no real opinions but was willing to shape his policy according to what he perceived as the public opinion of the electorate.

American Congressmen, who have to be re-elected every two years, spend a very large portion of their time on their campaign. They are also the legislative power of the American Government. Whoever is President needs their support. So if a large portion of Americans join this campaign, then their congressmen will follow and the american president will be forced to follow, too.

This is an emergency, because Obama and Kerry are on a very tight schedule to create an Arab terror state here in Israel where I live. They don't care about the repercussions and the dangers to the State of Israel. They are totally focused on this aim of theirs. Obama's knowledge of history of this part of the world is very faulty and distorted. He is convinced that the State of Israel was imposed on a "country called Palestine." That's an out and out lie. There never, ever was such a country. He and millions of others in the world have been fed this lie for so long that they consider it an undeniable truth. And he wants to restore that faux that fictional country!

Obama and the others really don't care if this country endangers Israel, because they consider Israel as inherently immoral and illegitimate. They profess love for the State of Israel, because they must in order to be popular politicians. As I stated earlier, most politicians will say pretty much anything to be elected and stay on the "right side" of their electorate. That's what politics is about.

Most Israeli citizens are not happy with the peace negotiations and the demands on us. But they mistakenly think that we must agree in order to keep the American Government happy. The campaign I want our American friends to start, and start last week, is to counteract this dangerous mistake.

Please help!!!

Israel is The "David" Not The "Goliath"

Israel is a very small country without many natural resources. When it comes to things that can be easily counted and measured, we're far from the top, and that includes our number of allies.  I really wonder if we have any true allies.

Even the foreign leaders who come here to profess their love coat it with "advice" and veiled threats that can destroy us. Offhand I can't think of anyone of all those foreign leaders who have come to Israel, praised us and refused to talk to the enemy Arabs. Even the Canadians brought gifts to Mahmoud Abbas and his P.A. The United States is the worst, because they demand that we profess fervent and doubtless belief in their mystical, fictional "peace process." They throw total uncontrollable tantrums when any Israeli Government Minister pipes up with an opinion that goes against their policies.

Diplomacy: Ya’alon strikes twice by Herb Keinan
US leaders regularly call Israeli policies into question, saying friends can talk honestly with each other. But when the tables are turned, all that openness and honesty is much less appreciated.

That's called hypocrisy. And that isn't how true allies react. The USA uses bully tactics against Israel.

Dry Bones

In the long run it will boomerang back against the Americans and all the rest of them.

Every time that an Israeli Prime Minister, such as Binyamin Netanyahu, orders a critic like Defense Minister Moshe Bogie Ya'alon to apologize to the Americans, he's acting like the Biblical King Saul who cowered along with his troops when threatened by Goliath.

Even when King Saul was trying to help prepare the young David to fight Goliath, he professed doubt that David would succeed. He offered the daring challenger his own protective gear and weapons, even though the equipment didn't off much confidence to his troops or himself. If those weapons and armor had been the key to victory, then they would have been used against Goliath.

David, who ended up succeeding Saul as King of the Jewish People, understood perfectly well, that it's not modern weapons, a "professional army" etc. that would guarantee us a victory against our deadly enemies. We have one ally who never sleeps and doesn't cost us money. That ally is G-d Almighty Who has no equal, no peer.

When we Jewish People recognize that simple eternal fact, we will be victorious and have peace. That is the true meaning of our being the "Light unto all nations." It's following G-d and observing the Mitzvot, Torah Commandments.

G-d willing, speedily in our day...

How One Man Can Change the World, Rabbi Wolf, ZaTz"L, Great Neck

Can it really be a decade since Rabbi Ephraim Wolf of the Great Neck Synagogue passed away? Apparently it is.  This video click was made of the memorial evening at the Great Neck Synagogue to commemorate Rabbi Wolf.

In the economic boom of the 1950's in the United States, many Jews rushed with great enthusiasm into standard American life. And that American life didn't include Jewish practice and restrictions. The dream was to be a Real American, rather than an old-fashioned Jew.

Many Orthodox Rabbis reluctantly accepted jobs in Conservative shuls, because they were pretty much the only rabbinic jobs to be found. Popular knowledge of the time was that Orthodoxy was on its way out. Reform Judaism was much more American, and if you wanted a moderate amount of tradition, then Conservative was the best bet.  But Orthodox Judaism? That was for the elderly; when they would die, it would die with them.

In Great Neck there was a many named Solomon Goldwyn. He had a dream.  His dream was that there would be an Orthodox synagogue and community in Great Neck. He wasn't willing to compromise and he didn't give up when the first rabbi couldn't share his dream. In 1956 he found his willing partner, Rabbi Ephraim Wolf. Rabbi Wolf, his wife and two sons came to Great Neck and took to the challenge.  They didn't let Great Neck change them; they changed Great Neck.

We just celebrated the Purim Holiday. One of the questions debated is why is the Megillah, the Scroll that tells the story of Purim named after Esther and not Mordechai. Chazal, our sages say that it's named after Esther, because she took Mordechai's alert seriously, took personal risks and knew how to rescue the Jewish People. Rabbi Wolf was the Esther to Solomon Goldwyn's Mordechai.

Today Great Neck is an enormous center of Orthodox Judaism because of how Rabbi Wolf made personal contact with all potential members of the shul. The shul kept dues to a minimum so that "not having money" could never be used as a reason not to join. He welcomed all Jews and didn't condemn those who weren't religiously observant.  We moved to Great Neck in 1962. I became involved in the Teen Club, a founding chapter of NCSY, and through that learned what Judaism really is. That's why I'm the Torah observant person living in Israel I am today.

Rabbi Wolf always made great efforts to visit me when he was in Israel, and he was very supportive and proud of my move with my husband and children to Shiloh. He'd even mention me on occasion in his sermons.

Today's American Jewry is not what the experts had predicted sixty-seventy years ago. Orthodox Judaism is strong. Orthodox synagogues are full in many cities.  Davka, the Conservative synagogue we we had been members of before we moved to Great Neck, the Oakland Jewish Center, Bayside, NY, closed last summer after decades of declining membership.

Great Neck is an Orthodox center today because of Rabbi Wolf, and many people, like myself, are Torah Observant today because of Rabbi Wolf, and I am taking this opportunity again to thank him.

Can Abbas and Fatah Really Make Peace With Israel?

Can Abbas and Fatah Really Make Peace With Israel?

Certainly not before ham is declared kosher...

Read the latest in the Palestinian Media Watch-PMW!

PA: "Palestine" replaces all of Israeland is "indivisible"
Fatah Facebook: "We educate our children... [so that] they will only agree to one rule, which cannot be added to, subtracted from, or calculated: that Palestine cannot be divided"

"We educate our children on the national anthem every morning. They will memorize the anthem of 'return'; they will engrave the four-colored [Palestinian] flag on their hearts; they will learn the foundations of the revolution before they learn to read and write; they will only agree to one rule, which cannot be added to, subtracted from, or calculated: that Palestine cannot be divided." [Facebook, "Fatah-The Main Page," March 5, 2014]

The text was accompanied by a photo of a teacher pointing to a map of "Palestine" replacing all of Israel drawn on the blackboard, with the explanatory text rejecting Israeli jurisdiction over Israeli cities: "Acre, Haifa, Jaffa, Ramle, Safed, Beit Shean, were and will remain Palestinian cities."

Fatah is not moderate! They are extreme, radical anti-Israel Arabs.

I so sincerely wish that the Israeli Government from Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu on down would take the statements of the Fatah seriously. It's not like this is all secret. Another generation of Arabs is being raised to deny Israel's existance. Therefore according to simple logic, we can't have peace with them, and they do not want true peace with us.

We must stop trying to imagine, guess what Arab reactions will be to our peace proposals. If you read carefully, you'll see that Israeli politicians don't quote the Arabs.  They guess, imagine, think that the Arabs will react in peaceful ways to all the "deals" being proposed by the Americans and the Leftists. There are only a couple of sites where you can find the truth about the Arab plans for Israel. One is the PMW and the other is David Bedein's Behind the News in Israel. Here's an excerpt from a recent post on his site.

Arafat and the Jewish State: Setting the Record Straight

• On March 13, 2014, Secretary of State John Kerry told Congress that he views Israel’s principled requirement of recognition as the nation state of the Jewish People “as a mistake.” He added that the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat “confirmed that he agreed it [Israel] would be a Jewish state” in 1988 and in 2004.

• However, the truth is just the opposite: the U.S. administration at the time did not believe that Arafat’s words satisfied their goal of his recognizing Israel’s right to exist. Moreover, Arafat’s 1988 statement does not come close to meeting the requirement for the Palestinians to recognize Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish People.

• In the last quarter of 1988, an intense effort was undertaken to facilitate the opening of a diplomatic dialogue between the PLO and the U.S. Previously, all U.S. administrations had strictly adhered to U.S. commitments, originally given by Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, that required the PLO to recognize Israel, accept UN Security Council Resolution 242, and renounce terrorism as prerequisites for any dialogue between the parties.

• Arafat did not issue a clear declaration recognizing Israel as a Jewish state, but only summarized the language of UN General Assembly Resolution 181. The U.S. government concluded that Arafat’s statement did not meet Washington’s demand that the PLO unequivocally recognize the State of Israel, and thus no dialogue was launched between the U.S. and the PLO at that time.

I highly suggest that you subscribe to these news sites.

Bogie WIMP Ya'alon! Another TKO for The USA

Just a couple of days ago, Israelis and proud Jews all over the world reveled at the honesty that had come from Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon when he told the truth about the Arab terrorists who are supposed to be our "peace" sic partners. Now here we are less than a week later, and he has already buckled and apologized.

Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon found himself apologizing for the second time in recent weeks for harsh comments made about the US government.
In a phone conversation with US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel on Wednesday night, he said that his comments "were not intended to express opposition, criticism or offense to the United States," adding that maintaining strong ties with the United States is Israel's utmost priority.
Ya'alon expressed his appreciation for the close relationship Israel shares with the United States, and emphasized his full commitment to cooperation between the two nations.

What can I shout other than WIMP?

What kind of defense can a man like that administer?

Honestly, I hate to say it, but I'm not all that surprised. Many of you readers already know that I think of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's coalition as marionettes on the stage, all controlled very efficiently by tightly held strings.

photo credit

That's the deal that Bibi makes when he signs people into his governments. And that's why I don't consider being in the Israeli Government Cabinet as having real power. Bibi holds muzzle power over his cabinet and coalition. To be part of the Netanyahu government one must promise to be a team player and play only according to Bibi's rules. He's a strict enforcer and as unhappy as some of the coalition may be, nobody has the guts to walk out on him.

After each rebellious peep, there's a kowtowing apology and then silence.

Netanyahu Government, photo credit: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90

None of them are willing to rock the boat aka give up their Volvo's*...

*Israeli slang for cabinet, ministerial perks. Israeli ministers and vice/assistant ministers get government cars/drivers, which were once Volvo's. 

For Truth and Common Sense re:Peace in the Middle East, Listen to Ruthie, Caroline and Arlene!

Honestly I've given up on the politicians running this precious country, Israel. On rare occasions we'll hear a wise word or two and then the mask and muzzle return. Even those who seem to understand reality when campaigning undergo some sort of lobotomy or brain transplant or could it be some high-tech zapping of the brain that preprograms our elected leaders to follow the script/screenplay of the anti-Israel radical Left...

They are blinded and deaf to the simple truth. Sometimes I think I'm the only one who sees the facts as they are. And then I read articles by three brilliant women, Ruthie Blum, Caroline Glick and Arlene Kushner. I'm not alone, thank G-d. And even more important Ruthie, Caroline and Arlene enjoy a much wider audience than I usually get, although some of my articles are published in the Jewish Press.

I'm going to quote excerpts from recent articles they've written, and I suggest you follow their writing.

Ruthie Blum:

Never mind that these "differences" involve the Palestinians' aim to delegitimize and destroy Israel. Forget about the fact that PA officials are open about this goal in Arabic. Indeed, mere days ago, Abbas Zaki -- a senior official close to Abbas -- gave an interview in which he said, "These Israelis have no belief, no principles. They are an advanced instrument of evil. They say, the Holocaust, and so on -- fine, why are they doing this to us? Therefore, I believe that Allah will gather them so we can kill them. I am informing the murderer of his death" (official PA TV, March 12, 2014, provided and translated by Palestinian Media Watch).

The peace fantasists and Palestinian apologists prefer to look the other way. This is why Obama was happy with Abbas' performance at the White House, such as when he said: "Time is so tight and we don't have any to waste, particularly given the extremely difficult situations in the Middle East. ... We hope the fourth batch of prisoners will be released on the 29th of March, which will give a very solid impression on the seriousness of all efforts exerted to achieve peace."

Caroline Glick:

By claiming that the cause of the conflict, and through it all the problems of the region owe to the absence of a Palestinian state, and by claiming that the reason that such a state doesn’t exist is because Israel won’t surrender sufficient quantities of land to appease Palestinian demands, the two-state formula says that the Jews are responsible for everything bad in the region.
Israel’s demand that our “moderate” Palestinian “peace partners” recognize our right to national self-determination in our historic homeland is an attempt by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to take this hallucinatory policy and force it into reality.
In reality, the reason that the conflict began, and the reason it continues to this day is because the Arabs writ large, including the Palestinians, and the Islamic political world reject all Jewish rights – to peoplehood and to national self-determination.
The PLO ’s 1964 charter, posted on the group’s UN Mission’s website, sums up the prejudiced sentiment thus: “Judaism, because it is a divine religion, is not a nationality with independent existence. Furthermore, the Jews are not one people with an independent personality because they are citizens to their states.”
Supported by the Arab and Islamic worlds, the PLO ’s fight is not about establishing an Arab state next to the Jewish state. It is about destroying the Jewish state, because, as far as the PLO and its supporters are concerned, Jews have no right to self-determination.

Arlene Kushner:

Perhaps even more troubling than the Palestinian Arab position on this issue is the US position. Talk about duplicity.  For a while press statements from the Americans acknowledged the right of Israel to be recognized as a Jewish state and accorded Israel that recognition. Then the backtracking began, with statements about how, yes, the US acknowledged a Jewish Israel, but that was not necessarily the position of all parties, and it was yet to be determined how this would be resolved in negotiations. Blah, blah... Most recently, Kerry was cited as saying to a Congressional committee that: ...he thought it was “a mistake for some people to be raising it [Jewish state recognition] again and again as the critical decider of their attitude toward the possibility of a state and peace.”  (Emphasis added) Translation: we cannot get the PA to change its stance here, so it’s time to start criticizing Israeli leaders, who are just troublemakers, for making this demand.

We in Israel have no choice other than to heed the words of these wonderful women and take appropriate action and cease these dangerous negotiations that will only lead to the most destructive war the State of Israel has ever experienced.

• The United States can't be trusted to mediate between Israel and the Arabs.
• The "two state solution" is more dangerous for Israel than the status quo.
• Israel is a the Jewish State, and denying it is like an act of war.
• Mahmoud Abbas is neither a "moderate" nor a "peace partner."
• The United States is neither unbiased nor neutral when it comes to Israel. 

Anglelina Jolie is a Lot Braver Than PM Bibi Netanyahu and His Government

We keep on hearing that even though pressure keeps mounting on Israel to make more and more dangerous concessions in the American brokered/mediated sic peace sic negotiations, it would be "more difficult and dangerous" for Israel to back out, disengage or just plain leave. Not only Moshe Ya'alon has been warning that they won't result in true peace.  Most Israelis admit that the so-called "peace" sic will endanger the security, the very existance of the State of Israel.

Everything our Prime Minister used to say about our national security before he entered politics and was elected to lead the Israeli Government is being violated by his cooperation with the Americans. It takes real guts to say "no" and walk away.

Recently all sorts of Hollywood and health news has been following the decision of Angelina Jolie to subject herself to major surgery in order to lower her chances of getting two genetic cancers, breast and ovarian.

After having a double mastectomy in 2013, that next stage would likely be to have an oophorectomy, a.k.a. ovary removal surgery. The procedure would combat Angelina’s 50 percent risk (the number varies based on the individual) of developing ovarian cancer, the disease her mother, Marchelina Bertrand, died from at the relatively young age of 56. Angelina’s risk of developing breast cancer and ovarian cancer was and is so high because she inherited the “faulty gene” known as BRCA1 from her mother and ancestors.

Just like Jolie decided that she doesn't need her mammary glands and ovaries, we here in Israel do not need the United States of America.

Israel doesn't owe anything to the American Government which has never truly supported us in times of need.

• FD Roosevelt sent Jews who had fled the Nazis back to Europe and their death.
• Truman originally refused to vote for a Jewish State when it was an issue in the United Nations.
• The USA participated in the boycott of weapons to the nascent Jewish State of Israel.
• American "aid" to Israel is a sham. Loans are not gifts, and the "military aid" is no more than shopping coupons which can only be used for American produced weapons.

So What, Ya'alon has Finally Admitted That "Peace in Our Time" is a Lie

Photo credit: Yoav Ari Dudkevitc

Moshe "Bogie" Ya'alon is the Israeli Defense Minister. Many people from Israel's Right had been hoping that he'd be Bibi's appointee for the previous administration, but Ehud Barak got the nod instead. Here in Shiloh, the eye of the storm, it has been very difficult to notice much improvement now that Ya'alon is supposedly in charge. He signed the order to destroy a Jewish house in the Shiloh area without properly examining the facts. It's still painfully difficult for Jews to get building permits, and the latest Netanyahu government has continued cooperating with the American Secretary of State John Kerry's dangerous faux "peace" sic talks which aim to establish an Arab terror state in the heart of the Historic Jewish Homeland at the expense of Jewish Rights and communities.

So it was a pleasant surprise that Ya'alon gave this revealing and honest interview Purim time.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is not a partner for a permanent peace agreement, Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon (Likud) said in a Channel 2 interview on Saturday, just days before Abbas is set to meet with U.S. President Barack Obama at the White House."Unfortunately, an agreement will not happen in my generation," Ya'alon said.
Ya'alon also questioned U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's impartiality.
"I am not sure Kerry is a fair mediator," Ya'alon said. "We'll see at the end of the process."
Ya'alon said that a peace deal could not be reached without Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state.
"Abbas has resorted to the Oslo trick, no recognition and no promises," Ya'alon said. "Abbas is a partner who takes, not a partner who gives. He is not a partner for a permanent peace agreement that includes recognition of Israel as the national state of the Jewish people. He just takes back prisoners. A country isn't founded by U.N. declaration, but on the ground. Judea and Samaria and Gaza are dependent on us. If we aren't in Judea and Samaria, Hamas will take over instead of Abbas."
"What transpired with regard to Kerry's mediation is between us and him. He knows we did not commit ourselves to releasing Israeli Arabs [from prison], and so the issue is open on the table. Abbas received assurances regarding the prisoners, not the government of Israel," he said.

RJ Streets

I don't know what caused Ya'alon to take off the mask.  Maybe it was Purim.  Actually, I couldn't have said these things any better myself. To be honest, I've been blogging the same stuff for years. But you readers are members of a very exclusive club. Too few people read my articles. If you agree with what I write, please help publicize the posts, thanks.

It's still Purim here in Shiloh, so Chag Purim Sameach!