Silent Majority Cheers Trump!

For those who have seen more than a handful of American Presidential Elections there's a bit of deja vu here as we see the media doing its very best to convince the American public that they shouldn't take Donald Trump seriously as Presidential candidate. I remember similar talk about Ronald Reagan, who ended up being a very popular President.

Reagan was pooh-poohed as just an actor and Trump a joke. There are those who have gone as far as to insulting and denigrating Trump's supporters.

Rand Paul: Donald Trump's poll surge is just a brief 'loss of sanity'

In a CNN interview Thursday, Paul dismissed the real-estate magnate's rise as a brief "loss of sanity."

"I think this is a temporary sort of loss of sanity. But we're going to come back our senses and look for somebody serious to lead the country at some point," he said. (Business Insider)

The Israeli Left  tried that a few decades ago and has never recovered its subsequent losses. They called Likud supporters "riff-raff." That's no way to win friends (voters) and influence people (voters, again.)

I connect Reagan with the term "silent majority," but it was actually Richard Nixon, who had never been popular with the press who used the term politically in 1969. Reagan actually did use it in his campaigns, too. And I see that today it is the very wealthy and successful businessman Donald Trump who has caught the attention of the silent majority, those who do not control the mainstream media.

As I've mentioned before on this blog, after experiencing the presidency, Reagan was known to have said that couldn't understand why people denigrated his acting experience claiming that it didn't qualify him for the Presidency of the United States, while he couldn't understand how someone without acting skills could be president.

To counter those who think that a real estate developer mogul's skills and experience disqualify him for the presidency makes no sense to me. Donald Trump's experience in finance and administration are far superior to that of a long-time, experienced politician. And he certainly knows more of how to rule and fix the world than a "community organizer"  like Obama.

There's still more than a year before the next American Presidential Elections, and a lot can happen until then. But I certainly wouldn't write out Trump and hope that the Republican Party doesn't do any of their "dirty tricks" to keep the nomination away from him.

In the meantime the polls put him ahead.

Polling Data

Poll	Date	Trump	Walker	Bush	Rubio	Carson	Huckabee	Paul	Cruz	Kasich	Christie	Perry	Jindal	Fiorina	Santorum	Pataki	Spread
RCP Average	7/13 - 7/28	19.8	13.6	12.6	7.2	6.4	6.2	6.0	4.8	3.2	3.2	2.2	1.4	1.4	1.4	0.6	Trump +6.2
Quinnipiac	7/23 - 7/28	20	13	10	6	6	6	6	5	5	3	2	2	1	1	1	Trump +7
CNN/ORC	7/22 - 7/25	18	10	15	6	4	5	6	7	4	4	3	2	1	2	1	Trump +3
ABC/Wash Post	7/16 - 7/19	24	13	12	7	6	8	6	4	2	3	4	2	0	1	1	Trump +11
PPP (D)	7/20 - 7/21	19	17	12	10	10	8	4	4	3	3	1	1	4	1	0	Trump +2
FOX News	7/13 - 7/15	18	15	14	7	6	4	8	4	2	3	1	0	1	2	0	Trump +3

All 2016 Republican Presidential Nomination Polling Data

Immoral World Cares More about a Lion than Jewish Victims of Arab Terror

Last night after I got home late after a full day of work and a long trip to Netivot to see friends, I was totally stumped by the news on CNN. All they could talk about was the international outrage after Walter Palmer, a Minnesota dentist killed a lion. Lions in  are endangered species, but they are still just lions.

US uproar over death of protected animal forces Walter Palmer’s practice to close, as two others attend Zimbabwean court to face poaching charges (The Guardian)

Jimmy Kimmel on the Killing of Cecil the Lion

There were no outraged headlines and newscasts when Arab terrorists murdered Malachi Rosenfeld, Rachella Druk, Harel Bin-Nun, Gila Kessler, Yehuda Shoham, Shmuel Yerushalmi, Avi Siton, HaYa"D for them all, and all the other dozens or hundreds of Jewish victims of Arab terrorism.

victims of Arab terror

This Cecil the Lion business is a very clear example of the moral bankruptcy of the world. There is neither justice nor mercy for Jews. The world is more concerned about a lion than an innocent Jew. They can understand, justify, excuse and identify with  Arab terrorism against Jews, but they get all outraged when a lion is killed.

This is proof that we, the State of Israel, must leave the United Nations and the official bastions of hypocrisy. We must tell all of the international leaders that we will do what's best for us and expect them to recognize Arab terrorism and the so-called Palestinians sic for what they really are, immoral terrorist murderers.

All who support the Arab terrorists are our enemies!

Beit El Like an Armed Camp, Who's the Real Enemy?

Yesterday's trip from Shiloh to work in Yafiz, Sha'ar Binyamin included a stop at the T junction to Beit El, where I needed to find a bus or ride. The permission to go further into Beit El was supervised by security forces checking to make sure that any Jew entering had proper reason, which was not to join the protestors.

Yesterday (28-7-2015) at the T Junction to Beit El, Photo by Batya Medad

Protesting the demolition of the residential building wasn't allowed.

'If Beit El Falls, the Government Must Fall'

Residents of Beit El, located in Samaria north of Jerusalem, were calling for nationalist MKs to collapse the coalition on Tuesday, after security forces stormed the Draynoff compound in the town ahead of demolition despite the nearly completed legalization process for the buildings..."Last week we got our final permission from the (IDF) CivilAdministration, and then today we were supposed to go to the Supreme Court in order to request that the discussion be reopened and that the demolition orders be cancelled."

But on Monday night, security forces came "like thieves in the night," even while fully "knowing that everything was upright and proper, moments before we were able to put in our request," said (Judy) Simon...
For its part, Likud's Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon has denied giving the order to seize the buildings, while Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has said he opposes the demolition, calling on the Supreme Court to cancel the demolition orders in light of the Civil Administration building permission which has led to a last-minute petition.
However, speaking to Arutz Sheva, Simon noted that Netanyahu has not kept his campaign promises to build 300 new housing units in Beit El, which has been subject to a two-year covert Jewish building freeze by the last two coalition governments along with the rest of Judea and Samaria as well eastern Jerusalem. (Arutz 7)

One of the disadvantages of Beit El is that there is only one road that Jews can use to enter and exit, so the people living there can be stuck in an emergency. I worked in Beit El for many years and know it well. Before this road had been built, you got to Beit El from Jerusalem via Ramalla and then continued on that road, to the west of the present one passing Jelazoon refugee camp, then turning east to Vaadi Charamiya and continuing north to get to Shiloh. Now that road is considered forbidden to Jews. The only apartheid here is discriminating against Jews.

A few years ago, Beit El reluctantly agreed to the destruction of some homes near the girls high school in exchange for promises by the government to approve the building of three hundred homes for Jews in Beit El, which is a very popular community and would be much larger if the government would allow for the normal growth according to supply and demand. I'm sure you're not surprised to hear that the homes now being demolished were supposed to be part of that 300 home package.

Prime Minister Binyamin Bibi Netanyahu is pretty quick with his promises but notoriously poor at keeping them.

Security forces has been using force against the Jewish protesters who have been trying to hold onto the buildings.

Border Police and settlers clashed after hundreds of youths refused to evacuate the so-called "Dreinof" structure that the High Court of Justice has ruled must be razed.
According to reports, the police used pepper spray and other crowd-dispersal methods against the settlers. (Jerusalem Post)

Following are some photos by Beit El resident Avi Dobuler, which he posted on facebook.

10 Years After Disengagement Add Beit El to List of Tragedies

Some people may think that the Israeli Government's decision to destroy Jewish homes in Beit El is too minor to be added to the disasters of Tisha B'Av, but I don't agree.

Police Forces Preparing for Demolition in Beit El

Police forces in large numbers arrived in the town of Beit El on Monday night in preparation for the demolition of the Draynoff Homes, which the High Court had ordered to be demolished....There were no reports of injuries, but at least 30 people were arrested.

The High Court on Sunday yet again sought to put a halt to plans to prevent the demolition of the homes, issuing an injunction against any construction work that would result from the removal of objections to the project by a planning council.

First of all, I think that we should consider Disengagement another of the terrible things that happened to the Jewish People on the 9th of the Jewish Month of Av. The 9th of Av is more than a specific date; it's a season. Anything that causes dangerous repercussions and is triggered by an event in the first half of Av, before TU (15th) B'Av is connected to the awful series of events. That is especially when they are connected to destruction of Jewish Homes, community life and the denial of Jewish Sovereignty.

How ironic, or typical to be honest that this decision is yet again by a Likud government. Remember that it was the Likud, led by its founding leader Menachem Begin which gave the Sinai to Egypt and destroyed Yamit and many Jewish communities in the process. Then again, it was the Likud, then led by Arik Sharon that masterminded the dastardly Disengagement which caused the handing over of Gush Katif and part of Northern Shomron to Arab terrorists. The thriving Jewish communities in Gush Katif are now ghost towns and/or terror launching pads against Israeli cities in the south and center of the country. Please remember--do not forget--that the Gazan Arab terrorists succeeded in hitting Tel Aviv last summer.

I don't vote Likud and I don't celebrate Likud "victories." Davka the Left may be in favor of all of these withdrawals/destructions, but they have never had the power to actually enforce them in the way that the Likud has. That is because the when the Likud is in the Opposition it is further to the Right than any of its governments.

And, I haven't forgotten Amona and its horrors, nor Migron nor any other similar anti-Jewish rights/settlement acts by Israeli governments. None of these have brought us peace, respect or security. There is no Justice in them, no matter what our "Supreme Court" has ruled. They are all dangerous travesties and tragedies, the modern suicidal attempts of the Leftist ruling elite to forge international alliances. The results just make us weak and vulnerable. It encourages antisemitism and Arab terrorism.

Police beating protesters at Amona destruction 

When will we ever learn? When will we ever learn? 

Kerry and Pollard, Bad Combination

Headlines here in the Israeli and Jewish press mention a lot about United States Secretary of State John Kerry and unprecedentedly long-time Jewish American prisoner Jonathan Jay Pollard. They aren't mixed in the individual headlines, but they're sharing the front pages.

Obama seems to have given Kerry the thankless job of threatening Israel. After the faux reassurances of Obama that his "deal" with Iran wouldn't harm Israel, Kerry has a different message:

Kerry Threatens Israel with Isolation if Iran Deal CollapsesIn an interview to NBC, quoted by Reuters, US Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday said a unilateral Israeli military attack on Iran would be "an enormous mistake," as tension between Jerusalem and Washington continues to rise over the nuclear deal achieved last week between Iran and six world powers. (Jerusalem Online)

photo credit:MARC ISRAEL SELLEM

And unlike the Esther Pollard camp that has been hinting that they expect Pollard to be released on parole after his thirty 30 years in prison are up, I agree with his ex-wife Anne Henderson Pollard that it does not look good for Pollard's chance of parole," though she sincerely hopes that he'll be released after all these years. Click for interview on Channel 2 with Anne Pollard.

The Pollards’ sentencing took place on March 4, 1987. The prosecutor, in accord with a plea agreement, recommended that Pollard receive “only a substantial number of years in prison,” Judge Aubrey Robinson, Jr., noting that Pollard had violated many conditions of the plea agreement, and citing a damage assessment memorandum from the Secretary of Defense, imposed a life sentence.
Anne Pollard was sentenced to five years, but was paroled after three and a half years over health problems. Jonathan filed for divorce after Anne’s release, saying that since he expected to be jailed for the remainder of his life, he did not want Anne to be bound to him. At the end of her parole period, Anne emigrated to Israel. (Jewish Press)

Especially considering that the Esther Pollard group has consistently mismanaged the case, the chance of Jonathan Pollard being released on parole is poor.

I see a connection between these two issues, Iran and Pollard. My favorite political cartoonist dry bones drew it perfectly in these two cartoons.

Israel would be treated much better aka respected by the United States of we would stop trying to appease them and just do what's best for us. And if/when they complain, just tell them to !!#$%!! it. That's what Cuba, Iran, Syria etc. have done very successfully. And if we had just supported Pollard and demanded his release, he would have been in Israel a long time ago. In all honesty, I don't expect him to come here on his two feet, and I'm not talking about needing a wheelchair.

Dayenu! I've Had Enough!!

Don't blame it on the Tisha B'Av fasting. I'd be upset enough about all this even on a full stomach and a morning drinking coffee!

Malachi Rosenfeld, HaYa"D

The last straw today was when I read that the Arab terrorist murderer who had murdered Malachi Rosenfeld, HaYa"D, a few weeks ago was an American citizen. Wasn't it enough that he had a long history of terrorist acts and he had been released from Israeli summer camp aka prison in exchange for Gilad Schalit?

Just four of seven terrorists in the cell were arrested by Israel, Olam Katan revealed - among them the murderer, named as Ma'ad Hamad.
Moreover, it revealed, not only did terror cell leader Ahmad Najar kill before - he was responsible for the deaths of no fewer than six Israelis during the Second Intifada, when he was the head of a terror cell busted in 2003.
Najar, 39, led the Silwad terror cell responsible for a string of shooting and other attacks against Israelis in Samaria (Shomron). In less than a year, Najar orchestrated attacks concentrated in the Binyamin area which killed six Israelis and injured dozens.
Among his victims:

• Esther Galia, from Kohav HaShahar, a mother of seven who was shot dead in her vehicle after a terrorist ambushed her car in the nearby town of Rimonim in 2002;

• Tzvi Goldstein, 47, from Eli, who was murdered as he drove to his son's wedding in June 2003; 

• and Shalom (Shuli) Har-Melech, 25, from Homesh, who was murderedas he and his pregnant wife and child were driving along the Alon highway in August 2003. 

Three of his victims were killed in an attack on soldiers patrolling a highway in Binyamin in October 2003:

• Sgt. Erez Idan, 20, of Rishon LeTzion; 

• Sgt. Ro'i Yaakov Solomon, 21, of Tel Aviv; and

• Sgt. Elad Pollack, 19, of Kiryat Motzkin.

Wasn't it enough that he had murdered more than once? Why isn't one attempt at murder enough to get the death penalty. Isn't it enough to be executed when one attempts to murder a Jew? Why do we give them enough chances to succeed and murder yet again?

ENOUGH with this revolving door terrorism!!

ENOUGH!!

And if that isn't enough? Today, davka, today the 10th of Av when we are fasting in commemoration of the destruction of our Holy Temple, the Arabs attack us on the Temple Mount and a Jew is arrested for saying a prayer.



ENOUGH!!

And it's more than enough that Arabs are allowed to pray on the Temple Mount when they have holidays, but we Jews can't.

ENOUGH!!

It's more than enough that we have given the Arabs virtual autonomy and sovereignty on Har Habayit, the Holiest spot in the World for the Jewish People. It it time to take it back. That is the only way we will have peace. It is up to us.

Let us clean the Temple Mount of Muslim terrorists and begin building our Third Holy Temple. That is the first step to begin Redemption and bring the Moshiach. I've had enough of living by non-Jewish values and priorities.

ENOUGH!! Dayenu! I've Had Enough!!

Mourning and Hungry Havel Havelim

This year, and next, the 9th of Av fast will be on the 10th of Av, that is unless we start building the Beit Hamikdash and the Moshiach comes for the Chanukat Habayit festive dedication of the Holy Temple instead. It's already too late for this year, but Gd willing next year we'll celebrate... we pray.

In the meantime, since I've finished my prayers and Kinot, those depressing Tisha B'Av readings, I've holed myself here in the den by the computer trying not to enjoy myself.

Havel Havelim, however you want to spell it in English, is the long running international Jewish blog carnival, long ago started by Soccer Dad who no longer blogs. We keep it going by utilizing our facebook page. That's where you can find out who's hosting and how to host it yourself. For next week, unless there's another volunteer, I'll be hosting, so before Shabbat your time, please send your best link of the week to shilohmuse@gmail.com with "HH" as subject and a short "blurb" about the post. You're also invited to send me posts/links from other blogs, not just yours, thanks.

Following are posts sent to me, then mine and last will be some I've found. And please don't forget that you don't have to be a blogger to read, comment and share Havel Havelim!!

On with the show:

From Yael, last week's hostess, The seeds planted on Tisha b’Av, a poem by Ovadya ben Malka: “A curse and a blessing were laid on us that day. Having lived the curse, can we doubt that blessing will come as well?” And also Tisha b’Av: Redemption rooted in tragedy. Tisha b’Av is a kind of “Bermuda Triangle in Time” for the Jewish people. Most people know that both the First and the Second Temples were destroyed on that day. That would be enough to qualify this day as a day of misfortune. But what is less well known is how far back it goes.
Ben-Tzion Spitz: Sufficient Scholars?

Real Jerusalem Streets: Israeli Summer Heats Up and she also posts on Israellycool, Photo of the Day: Virtual Unraveling of History
Jacob Richman greeted the Nefesh B'Nefesh flight, Welcome Home!
With Tisha B'av still in our hearts and Rosh HaShana on the way we should think about and talk to our kids about how we treat others. Check out The Children of Israel are Told Not to Cause Pain to Widows and Orphans on Enjoying the Bible Online by Marcia Goldlist.

giant storage jug, Shiloh

When I went to the Israel Museum last week, I decided to visit the giant jug which had been found in Shiloh. And when looking at that part of the archaeology exhibit I was inspired to write No Historic Justification for Tel Aviv, but Shiloh on The Other Hand...
Never Tired of The Israel Museum has many of the photos I took while there.
The results of a recent rabbinic scandal may the the impetus for a needed change, If Rabbis aren't Able to Counsel Women, Maybe The Time has Come for Females to get Official Roles. What do you think? Please read what I wrote first.
Here in Shiloh we have activities for the "senior citizens." Even though I'm old enough to be a participant, I'm there only as an occasional translator, Memories, Senior Citizens "Playback"
It is Tisha B'Av today. I'm using my hosting privileges to ask what you eat Before and After a Fast?
Following are some interesting posts. Read to discover which blogs, since I'm not identifying them, only giving you the titles.

Religion Ministry Sends Search Party To Help Evangelicals Find Jesus
Shabbat Shalom and a message for Tisha B’Av
Take me with you: How to make aliyah with pets
"Pour out my heart like water" – thoughts for Tisha b’Av 5775
Deri allows import of shrimp and lobster
A strikingly different and refreshing idea about acceptance of others
Let Go and Let G-d
Building-Blocks Made of Kindness
New "White Beer" from Herzl
An Update about the Ramle Hesder Yeshiva
Let's talk about loneliness
Jack Cohen – National Identity, The Day After and More
Sorry Folks-Jonathan Pollard Isn't Getting Out Of Prison Till He's Paroled
What Are You

And yet again:

You don't have to be a blogger to read, comment and share Havel Havelim!!

May my next blog post be a celebration of our Redemption, the rebuilding of the Holy Temple and coming of the Moshiach!!

Important Article by Caroline Glick about Disengagement

I read this article, The irony of the expulsions from Gaza by Caroline Glick, on Shabbat and consider it very suitable reading for the Tisha (9th of) Av Fast. Among the sins and tragedies that has happened to the Jewish People over the millennia on the 9th and 10th of Av have been sins of bad relations between Jews, which most recently culminated in Disengagement, when the Israeli Government expelled over 8,000 law-abiding Jews from their homes for no reason at all. Glick brings up a point here that I had never realized. She sees the IDF officer in charge, Brig.-Gen. Gershon Hacohen, as a hero. Please read the article, and no doubt you will agree that he definitely did some good in an impossible situation.  I don't completely agree with her last line, but I do agree that with a different sort of IDF officer in charge there would have had been another Altalena. 

Disengagement, Reuters

07/23/2015
The settlements of Gaza were destroyed 10 years ago. Israel has been paying the physical price of the strategic lunacy of the withdrawal ever since. Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza 10 years ago was a strategic disaster. But it could have been much more devastating if the ideologues behind it had had their way.
Formally, the withdrawal was supposed to do two things. It was supposed to strengthen Israel’s diplomatic position vis-à-vis the US and Europe by demonstrating Israel’s commitment to Palestinian statehood, and it was supposed to enhance Israel’s security by redeploying the IDF along more defensible lines.
Neither argument for the withdrawal was particularly plausible. But due to the media’s lockstep support for it, neither was seriously challenged.
The truth is, these justifications were never anything more than a smoke screen to hide the true purpose of the withdrawal from the public. The real purpose of the withdrawal from Gaza was to deal a strategic blow to Zionism and the Jewish character of the state.
The destruction of those communities – and the expulsion of the 350,000 Jews who live in them – was also not an end unto itself. For the leftist ideologues who invented the idea of unilaterally withdrawing from Gaza, destroying the settlement enterprise is a necessary precondition for destroying religious Zionism.
And religious Zionism has to be destroyed in order to destroy Zionism.
This true purpose of the Gaza withdrawal was made clear by leftist ideologues in the months that preceded the withdrawal.
For instance, Haaretz published an editorial a month before the withdrawal explaining, “The real question is not how many mortar shells will fall, or who will guard the Philadelphi Route [between Gaza and Egypt], or whether the Palestinians will dance on the roofs of [the destroyed communities].
“The real question is who sets the national agenda. The disengagement of Israeli policy from its religious fuel is the real disengagement currently on the agenda. On the day after the disengagement, religious Zionism’s status will be different.”
As the leftist ideologues perceived things, it wasn’t enough to simply kick the settlers out of their homes and destroy their communities. They had to be humiliated and made to suffer in order to ensure that no one would dare to identify with them.
As a consequence, when the idea of building a new settlement for the evacuees in southern Israel was floated a few months before the withdrawal, the Left firmly opposed it.
Haaretz columnist Avirama Golan explained that doing so would empty the expulsions of political significance.
In her words, “Transferring the evacuees from Gush Katif to a brand new neighborhood built especially for them along the beautiful strip of Nitzanim transmits a problematic implicit message. This is a message that says to the Jewish settlers in the territories: ‘You are a chosen group. You will not be like all the other Israelis.’ If this is what the government does in the evacuation of Gush Katif, the main sting of the evacuation of the settlements will be neutralized. It will be as though nothing has been done.”
The goal of the Left in destroying the Jewish communities, and indeed the goal of the so-called peace movement was laid out explicitly in November 2013 by Ron Pundak, Yossi Beilin’s partner in negotiating the Oslo Accords with the PLO in 1993.
In an interview with the International Crisis Group Pundak explained, “Peace is not an objective by itself. It is a way to transition Israel from one era to another: to an era of what I consider is a normal state. Israelization of society rather than its judaization.”
Demonization and disenfranchisement were key components of the Left’s campaign against Jewish Israel. For the withdrawal from Gaza to serve as a stepping stone toward a withdrawal from Judea and Samaria, the public needed to become fully alienated from its fellow Israelis whose lives were being shattered.
Opinion-makers from Dan Margalit and Ari Shavit to Yair Lapid jumped on the anti-religious bandwagon and sought to outdo one another in stirring up irrational hatred for the 8,500 Jews of Gaza and their supporters.
Margalit called for the institution of a numerus clausus against religious Zionists serving in the IDF. Strict limits, he said, should be placed on the number of religious Israelis permitted to serve as officers.
Lapid insisted that the settlers were not his brothers and he wouldn’t have a problem going to war against them.
Shavit wrote that the settlers deserved no protection from the IDF, because as far as he was concerned, they weren’t Israelis.
Day after day the media machine spewed out hatred and derision against the Jews of Gaza. Day after day the public was told that religious Zionists were fanatics and potential terrorists.
The police, public prosecution and Supreme Court all joined the action. The civil rights of opponents of the withdrawal were trampled. Organizers of lawful protests were subjected to warrantless pre-dawn raids on their homes. Protesters, including children, were arrested without charge and often held in custody for months.
Police interdicted licensed buses en route to lawful demonstrations to prevent law-abiding citizens from protesting the planned expulsions.
Given the atmosphere of hatred that blanketed the country, as the expulsions approached, the Left had every reason to believe that it was on track to destroy its harshest ideological opponents and so remake Israel in its post-Zionist image.
Perhaps the most promising aspect of the expulsions, from the Left’s perspective, was that the IDF was tasked with carrying them out. Having the most beloved and revered institution in the country carry out the Left’s dirty work meant that any attempt by the settlers to defy the expulsion orders would be viewed by the public as an assault not on the Left, but on the army. And that would finish off whatever residual public sympathy for the settlers that the pre-expulsion demonization hadn’t successfully expunged.
But then someone gummed up the works.
Five months before the expulsions, then-IDF chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Moshe Ya’alon appointed Brig.-Gen. Gershon Hacohen to command the expulsions from Gush Katif.
Hacohen was a tank division commander appointed to the Northern Command. He was appointed because he was a prince of the national-religious community.
Hacohen’s grandfather had been one of the founders of Mizrahi, the religious-Zionist movement.
His father was one of the founders of the Gush Emunim settlement movement.
After Ya’alon appointed him to command the expulsions, Hacohen came under massive pressure from the Right to resign his commission. If you quit in protest, he was told, then the expulsions will be canceled.
But Hacohen felt differently. As he saw it, the minute the Knesset approved the plan, there was no turning back. The expulsions would happen. And if he resigned his commission, the Left would have wrecked his reputation in a heartbeat. As the son of settler leaders, his action would have been immediately explained away as the act of a settler fanatic and as proof that religious soldiers shouldn’t be promoted.
Hacohen understood the Left. He knew that it meant it when it said that its goal was not only to destroy the settlements in Gaza but to discredit religious Zionism in order to de-link Israel from Judaism.
Because Hacohen recognized the Left’s purpose in conducting the expulsions, he understood that it wasn’t simply the fate of Gush Katif that hung in the balance, but the future of Israel itself.
And so, when he set about preparing the expulsions, Hacohen conceived an operation that would prevent the expulsions from serving any larger destructive purpose.
For the Left’s plan to succeed, the expulsions had to be perceived by the public as a physical and ideological clash between the settlers and the soldiers.
Hacohen worked to prevent the public from receiving that impression. Rather than prepare the soldiers for a clash with the settlers, Hacohen set up the expulsions as a national tragedy which the soldiers and the settlers would experience together.
To this end, in the weeks before the expulsions, Hacohen ordered his officers and soldiers to mingle inside the communities of Gush Katif they were set to evacuate. Rather than treat the villages as hostile zones, soldiers and officers were given the opportunity to see that the settlers were no different from them.
By the time the expulsions were carried out, the soldiers felt little alienation from the settlers. Consequently, the clash the Left anticipated never happened.
Instead, Israelis glued to their television sets watched as soldiers and settlers prayed and mourned together at the soon-to-be-abandoned synagogues of Gush Katif. They watched as the commander of the Golani Brigade embraced the youth of Moshav Gadid and cried with them.
Far from destroying the Jewish character of the state, let alone destroying the bond between religious Zionism and the state, the expulsions strengthened both.
Weeks after the withdrawal was completed, Haaretz’s Orit Shochat lamented, “Soldiers who experienced the evacuation won’t travel to an ashram in India because they discovered that there is an ashram next door. The same Jewish religion that they hadn’t seen up close for a long time embraces them into its fold with song and a tear and a common fate.
“They have now sat arm-in-arm at the synagogues in Gush Katif, they have now felt the holiness mixed with sweat, they have now moved rhythmically and sung songs, they have stood in line to kiss the Torah scrolls, they are now half-inside.”
Shochat was a lone voice on the Left. Most of her comrades didn’t understand what had just happened.
Ehud Olmert for one didn’t get it at all. When the next year Olmert ordered the police to forcibly evacuate Amona, a neighborhood in Ofra, he expected that it would be easy. He assumed the public would support the move, just as it supported the withdrawal from Gush Katif. In the weeks leading up to the evacuation, the media conducted the same demonization of the settlers in Ofra that they had of their brethren in the Gush Katif.
But the public wouldn’t stand for it. When the police attacked the youth holed up in the homes set for destruction, the public sided with the settlers, not with the police.
Far from preparing the psychological foundation for further expulsions, the IDF’s conduct of the withdrawal from Gush Katif destroyed that foundation.
The public was no longer willing to accept the lie of settler fanaticism.
The settlements of Gaza were destroyed 10 years ago. Israel has been paying the physical price of the strategic lunacy of the withdrawal ever since. But due to a significant degree to Hacohen’s leadership, ironically, Israeli society emerged stronger, more Zionist and prouder of its Jewishness than ever before.
www.CarolineGlick.com

No Historic Justification for Tel Aviv, but Shiloh on The Other Hand...

It has never made any sense to me for the insistence by Leftist Israelis and others all over the world that Tel Aviv should be part of the modern Jewish State but not Shiloh.

Enormous storage jug found in Tel Shiloh. Shiloh had been the first Jewish spiritual and administrative Capital of the Jewish Tribal Nation before the reign of King David who declared Jerusalem the Capital City.

Last week I was in the Israel Museum and went to the archaeology department to visit the enormous Biblical time jug discovered in Shiloh about thirty-five years ago. Periodically I like to touch base with it since its presence there reaffirms that even the most Leftists of the academic archaeologists recognize the historic existance of Shiloh during Biblical times.

This time I noticed a map that showed the cities of the Biblical era.

Shiloh is listed/indicated, just where I live today, but there is absolutely no Tel Aviv. Look carefully at the coast directly west of Shiloh. You can see the Yarkon River and far (especially when you take into account how people traveled then) to the south is Ashdod. You can also see Beit El, Jerusalem and Shechem.  But when the Jewish People functioned as a nation thousands of years There was no city in the Tel Aviv/Jaffa area.

Jewish Historical Legitimacy is to the very cities and areas "Medinat Tel Aviv," Israeli the Leftist establishment keeps insisting must go to Arabs.

And even more ironic or hypocritical of the Leftists is the fact that Tel Aviv was established as the Jewish suburb or neighborhood of Jaffa, which was an Arab city at the time modern Zionists began to flock to the Holy Land. Jaffa Port was necessary for the Zionist commercial, industrial and political development. They invented Tel Aviv as a non-Arab city.

Shiloh Hakeduma, Tel Shiloh

Shiloh, on the other hand, was totally empty of inhabitants, Arabs or others, when seven young Jewish families and a handful of yeshiva students moved here in January, 1978. There was no conflict with anyone besides the Israeli Government, the total opposite of Tel Aviv's history. All that was found in Shiloh were the Biblical artifacts from the time the Mishkan, Holy Tabernacle was in Shiloh for pilgrimage and worship, plus the remains of synagogues, churches and a mosque. In a very significant way, this is totally reminiscent of the condition Shiloh was in during the time of Joshua's conquest and settling of the Holy Land after wandering the desert for forty years.  There was no need for a military conquest for Shiloh. No war over Shiloh is mentioned in the Bible. Joshua was able to bring the Jewish People into Shiloh and establish it as the Capital without any opposition. It remained the Jewish Capital for about four hundred years.

To summarize:

• If, as according to the Left, we have no Jewish rights to Shiloh, then we have even less rights to be in Tel Aviv.
• If we have the right to have a Jewish/Zionist city in the Tel Aviv area, then we certainly have even more right to be in Shiloh!

What do you think?

The Training of Arab Terrorists Starts Young!

For years decades, I've been trying to explain how there is a very strong difference in the values, the morality in Arab society versus Israeli Jewish and what's known as "western society." What I'm saying isn't racist, it's pragmatic based on facts.

Flash 90

Just look at the facts, the numbers, the statistics and you can see which society produces the most per capita or proportionate terrorists.  And also listen to the responses of the parents and society to acts of terrorism. Also, check out the school and informal education curriculums in all societies. What is promoted and praised?

• 8 year-old Jerusalem Arab boy is learning to be a terrorist; he was caught hurling rocks at police on the Mt. of Olives.
• “Palestine is more precious than my ‎sons,” says women’s rights activist
• Palestinian Authority Education A Recipe for Hate and Terror
• Palestinian Village Celebrates Murder of Malachi Rosenfeld

That makes the posts on the excellent satirical site PreoccupiedTerritory so REAL!

2015 Class Of Palestinian Child Soldiers Looking Promising“I will kill every Zionist pig I see, and liberate my land with blood and fire,” he added, his voice cracking, whether from emotion or puberty.Gaza City, July 20 – Ghasseb Hatib hopes to be drafted in one of the first few rounds when Hamas and other Islamist militant organizations begin their recruitment this week for next season’s round of conflict with Israel, but he faces stiff competition. 

Get Ready for the Jewish Month of Ellul!

Remember that Ellul is the month of preparing ourselves spiritually for Rosh Hashannah and Yom Kippur, the holiest days of the Jewish Year. And since now we are already in the Month of Ellul isn't far away.

I'm a member of a group of women who go to Shiloh Hakeduma, Tel Shiloh every Rosh Chodesh to pray together. Shiloh, as the main location for Jewish Prayer predates the Kotel (Western Wall) by thousands of years and even predates Har Habayit, The Temple Mount by hundreds of years. Soon after Joshua led the Jewish People into the Holyland they came to Shiloh where the Mishkan, Tabernacle was placed and stayed for three-hundred-sixty-nine 369 years. The Kohanim, the Priests were stationed there, and it was the religious and spiritual Capital of the Jewish Nation. Yes, Shiloh predated Jerusalem!

Today, there is a vibrant Jewish Community in Shiloh. We have been living here since 1981, three and a half years after the community had been reestablished and fourteen years after the Six Days War. Today Shiloh is surrounded by many other Jewish Communities. We have schools, stores, clinics, bus service, light industry and even a swimming pool.

Rosh Chodesh, the beginning of the Jewish month, is traditionally the Women's Holiday. Please make plans to join us. Organize rides from your communities.

Women's Prayers at Shiloh Hakeduma, Tel Shiloh Rosh Chodesh Ellul

Sunday August 16, 2015

1st of Ellul, 5775, 8:30am

Hallel and Musaf for Rosh Chodesh

Tour of Tel Shiloh

Dvar Torah, Short Torah Lesson

Please come and invite family, friends and neighbors

תפילת נשים ראש חודש אלול בשילה הקדומה, תל שילה

יום א' 18-8  א' אלול, תשע"ה 8:30

הלל ומוסף לראש חודש

יהיה דבר תורה קצר וסיור בתל

כדאי לבוא ולהזמין חברות, משפחה ושכנות

Come  visit Shiloh! Please save the date, publicize it and join us.

Please mark it on your calendar and make arrangements to come. Also, whether you can come or not, please let friends and family know about it, thanks.

You're welcome to join our facebook page.

Mark your calendar, and join us. For more information, please contact me at shilohmuse@gmail.com with "Rosh Chodesh at Tel Shiloh" as subject, thanks.

You can visit the holy site anytime. Guided tours can be arranged through the Shiloh HaKeduma, Ancient Shiloh office. Email visit@telshilo.org.il or phone 02-994-4019.

Obama and His Knockoff Nuclear Treaty With Iran

DESIGNER INSPIRED
VS KNOCKOFF HANDBAGS

The deal that United States President Barack Hussein Obama is promoting is as genuine as those cheap knockoff designer bags on sale in street stands and internet sites.

I'd say that the biggest difference between the American scam and the cheap bags is the marketing. Those who sell the copies usually promote their products as "looks like" the original.

Replicas make no bones about the fact that they aren't the super expensive originals, but just as good for all practical purposes.

Obama and Kerry are not as honest.

"This deal will make America and the world safer and more secure. Still, you're going to hear a lot of overheated and often dishonest arguments about it in the weeks ahead," he said. (Jerusalem Post)

They and their henchmen are promoting their "deal" as if it was the genuine article. There are just too many holes in their "deal."

Analyst Group Calls Out Kerry, Moniz for ‘False Claims’ on ‘Anywhere, Anytime’ Promise“There’s no such thing in arms control as anytime, anywhere. There isn’t any nation in the world – none – that has an anytime, anywhere,” Kerry told CBS’s Face the Nation.
Rather than “anywhere, anytime” inspections, as critics of the deal had hoped for, Iran will apparently be able to delay access to suspicious sites for up to 24 days before sanctions could be re-initiated. (Algemeiner)

It's more like a poorly repainted used car being touted as "just like new." The Obama-Kerry "deal" with Iran will prevent the production of nuclear weapons, just like the dirt and various powders sold by the fake California doctor will cure his patients/customers of cancer.

If Rabbis aren't Able to Counsel Women, Maybe The Time has Come for Females to get Official Roles

In response to the periodic revelations that some rabbis have abused their positions and taken sexual advantages of females coming for counseling, some rabbis are now refusing to see unaccompanied women, or even a woman with her husband.

As we know, there is a halachik problem in the one on one counseling/meeting of a man and a woman. Officially it is forbidden, but when the situation is for pikuach nefesh, saving a life, medical, certain types of counseling, it is generally permitted.

In recent years, there have been women trained in certain halachik (Jewish Law) fields pertaining to women, and they do advise women with all of the authority of a male rabbi. And there are also women trained and certified to appear as "religious lawyers" in Batei Din, Jewish Religious Courts.

Now it is no longer rare for women to be experts in Talmud, Jewish Law. There are extensive advanced programs for women, giving tests and certificates in institutes such as Matan and Nishmat, both in Jerusalem. Nishmat has a well-known and successful halachik counseling service and hotline for women. And participants in programs like Matan's Beit Medrish are on the level of many male peers from a yeshiva.



Over the years, centuries and millenium, there have been female religious leaders, such as the Biblical Miriam, Devora, Chana and more recently the Chassidic Chana Rochel also known as the Maiden of Ludmir. A number of years ago, davka on the yartzeit of an aunt whose Hebrew name was Chana Rochel, Isramom and I saw a Hebrew-language play based on her story.

I think that it is time to distinguish/separate between the rabbinic role in leading prayer from the very different role in deciding Jewish Law and other religious counseling. 

Just use the simple hebrew term "Yoetzet Hilchatit," translate as "Religious Counselor/Advisor" or something like that. Don't use any word reminiscent of "rabbi" for the position. Do you have suggestions for a suitable name for women in the field?

Why should women feel they must consult with men about personal and religious questions or problems? And why belittle the knowledge of female scholars?

Nuclear Iran, Not Just Israel's Problem

I think it has been a major tactical mistake for Israel to consider Iran a particularly Israeli problem. And it is of crucial importance for Israel and Israelis to stop thinking that we have any influence on international leaders when it comes to anything, including international policy re: Iran. That's why I think that Yair Lapid sounds like a total idiot (OK, he always sounds like an idiot) when he blames our Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for the fact that Obama and his international lackys came up with a very bad "deal" with Iran.

Lapid said on Saturday that he would make a written request to the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee to establish a commission of inquiry to investigate "Netanyahu's foreign policy failure."  He also called for the would-be commission to make its final report on the matter available to the public.    
Lapid said Netanyahu's foreign diplomacy failure with regard to the Iran deal was the worst such failure in Israel's history. (Jerusalem Post)

fly on elephant

Considering all the press Israel gets for no reason, we forget that we aren't major players in international policy. The Americans Obama and Kerry had no problem getting the support of their cohorts for the "deal" that obviously won't solve the problem of a nuclear Iran.

That deal doesn’t merely show that the US is unwilling to exact a price from states that illicitly develop nuclear weapons. The US and its allies just concluded a deal that requires them to facilitate Iran’s nuclear efforts.
Not only will the US and its allies remove the sanctions imposed on Iran over the past decade and so start the flow of some $150 billion to the ayatollahs’ treasury. They will help Iran develop advanced centrifuges.
They even committed themselves to protecting Iran’s nuclear facilities from attack and sabotage.
Under the deal, in five years, Iran will have unlimited access to the international conventional arms market. In eight years, Iran will be able to purchase and develop whatever missile systems it desires.
And in 10 years, most of the limitations on its nuclear program will be removed. (Caroline Glick) 

We may annoy them at times, but they can too easily crush us if they want. Remember that although there is so much violence and cruelty all over the world, a truly disproportionate amount of time is spent in the United Nations condemning Israel for defending itself.

And what did Iran do to celebrate id and the "deal?"

Jewish Press

"We have repeatedly said we don't negotiate with the U.S. on regional or international affairs; not even on bilateral issues. There are some exceptions like the nuclear program that we negotiated with the Americans to serve our interests."
U.S. policies in the region were "180 degrees" opposed to Iran's, he said in a speech at a Tehran mosque punctuated by chants of "Death to America" and "Death to Israel".

Iranian leadership sees the United States as its chief enemy, even with Barack Hussein Obama in the White House. Their focus is on the USA, not on Israel.

I highly suggest that we in Israel start taking care of ourselves and developing our country, building all over Judea and Samaria for Jews and stop waiting for the world to approve.  No matter what we do, the world won't be in our favor. The only "pats on the back" will be to knock us down.

We are now in the days leading up to the 9th of Av, the most tragic date in the Jewish calendar throughout Jewish History. It is time for us to build the Third Holy Temple on our Temple Mount and banish our enemies!!