Israel, The Holyland, is Not Europe

So far, so god. The early winter crocus flowers are blooming. They are the signs that water has seeped into the ground, and winter has begun here in the Holyland.

Quite a few decades ago, I took a course to improve my Hebrew. One thing I got out of it was the fact that the early Hebrew writers here couldn't get European seasons out of their brains. They continued to refer to the "first buds of spring" and other such literary images that aren't part of the Holyland reality. New York, where I grew up, and most of North America is very much like Europe. The winter is dark and snowy. You don't see the "buds" and flowers until spring. Then it all blooms and continues throughout the summer.

Here in the Holyland, it rains only in the winter. By early-mid summer, unless you irrigate your garden, everything just dries up. Many people try to imitate, recreate the gardens of Europe or North America. It's a waste of water and distorts perception of the Israeli climate.

Israel begins to green in early winter, after the first few rains. Winter flowers start blooming, too. By the end of winter the ground is covered with wildflowers and greenery. As the weather heats up in the spring, and the rain ceases to fall, the flowers dry up and die.

In addition, oranges, which since the middle of the twentieth century are a staple of Israeli agriculture, only get sweet (fully ripe) after the first rains.

Chazal, our sages, teach us that the quantity and quality of rain are dependent on how well we Jews keep the mitzvot and treasure the Holyland. Gd willing, we will deserve rains of blessing.

Assad Murders Syrians, Can it Be Stopped?

While the Syrian terrorist dictator Assad continues his murderous rampage, using chemical weapons plus against Syrians, anti-Israel countries conspire to condemn Israel for self-defense.

The pictures coming out of Syria are awful and make it clear that Assad is targeting civilians.

https://www.reuters.tv/v/jqy/2018/04/09/trump-says-big-price-to-pay-for-syria-attack

There are reports of  Syrian bases being bombed, but nobody knows who's doing it for sure. I have this picture in my mind of some mysterious cartoon character swooping in to "save the day."

My innate pragmatism makes me very pessimistic. That's because the western so-called developed world is being taken over by Moslems. That's because Christian society, even the Catholic countries are just not reproducing. Their birthrate is in the negative, especially among the academics, but even in "blue collar" social/economic circles. This means a serious lack of workers, and also not enough young people to pay into the governmental pension systems, like American Social Security.

That's why Europe and the United States are easing their immigration laws and encouraging even illegal migrants to remain. Somebody has to work. But the question is whether these newcomers, mostly Muslim, will assimilate into the existing culture and value system, or will they change society into their own.

Any objective social observer with a knowledge of history should be very worried.

Should The State of Israel Take Advice/Orders?

When I opened the computer tonight after Shabbat I saw this headline:

Europe criticizes Israel over legislation on terrorism

All I could think of was that the last thing the State of Israel should do is to pay attention to Europe's opinion. They are pro-Arab and anti-semitic.

And the United States isn't much better. Even the Jewish organizations don't know what's best for us. Caroline Glick's latest article is a must-read:

COLUMN ONE: ACHIEVING AIPAC’S MISSION

AIPAC’s mission to cultivate and maintain bipartisan support for Israel in the United States is an important mission. Unfortunately, the messages AIPAC’s leaders delivered during the organization’s annual policy convention this week in Washington indicate that they are at a loss for how to achieve their mission in the contentious political environment now prevalent in post- Obama America.

Their befuddlement is not surprising. For the eight years of Barack Obama’s presidency, AIPAC’s leaders showed a consistent inability to understand the challenges they faced. And since they were unable to understand how or why the Obama administration was undermining AIPAC, they couldn’t protect AIPAC or advance its mission during his tenure in office.

At this week’s AIPAC convention, the message emanating from the speeches AIPAC’s senior leadership delivered was that they still don’t get what happened.

And largely as a consequence, they do not understand the challenges they face as an organization moving forward. And again, since they don’t understand what happened, or what is happening, they are incapable of meeting today’s challenges to AIPAC’s mission in a constructive way... Click for complete article

Europe- Anti-Israel, Antisemitic Terror Hotbed, USA No Better

Yesterday's terror attacks in Spain are shocking but no real surprise. Even though Israel is labeled "dangerous" and "threatened by terror," it seems to me that Europe and the USA are a lot worse, for Jews and for absolutely anybody.

Right, Left and Center, no matter who is being violent, they all hate the Jews.



No joke, though the song has its humor it's full of truth.

It didn't take long for media sleuths to discover that one of the Barcelona terrorists had RANTED RECENTLY AGAINST ISRAEL ON FACEBOOK. And in America not long ago, the "dyke inclusion march" viciously attacked the lesbians who showed up with a version of the Israeli flag. But the media just blames the "Right" for antisemitism.

Jewish tourists and business people who go to Europe are constantly warned not to wear obviously Jewish clothes like kippot. They shouldn't be easy targets. From what I've heard, most don't pay attention to the warnings. And that's because the terror attacks have been so general that it's hard to see an obvious target.

There's a general violent anarchy spreading in the world, which some people like to blame on Israel and Jews. Unfortunately, too many people like to accept Israeli policy as the cause of the terror, but the truth is that the violence is promoted by extreme ideologues and religious leaders, especially Arab Muslims. Israel isn't the cause, it's just the victim of hatred.

Peaceful scene in Netanya, Israel, by the Mediterranean Sea

Three Invented "Peoples," Palestine, Africa and Europe

Geology.com

Nowadays and for the purpose of this post, I will consider "people" and "nation" to be synonyms, because that is how the terms are being used by many. As my readers and many others know, there is great debate about the origins and legitimacy and factual history of the so-called "Palestinians" sic as a nation/people. In recent days, I've heard the term people/nation used to describe others who do not fit the classical definition of either "people" or "nation." The terms are used pretty loosely nowadays, and I think it's a problem.

On a news discussion program on the BBC, I heard a man referring to the "European People," which was  a new one for me, since the various nations/countries in Europe are relatively new, just from the last couple of centuries. And borders are continually changing. Europe is a body of land with many different nations and peoples. Today's European Union in its early day was known as the "Common Market" creating closer economic ties between neighboring countries. Now it is trying to blur the national borders, laws and regulations, but Europe isn't one people.

look at the candelabra on the lower right

And in a recent post on this blog,  The USA is Not a Jewish Country!, I had mistaken the candelabra on the lower right for a misdrawn Jewish Chanukah Menorah, which has nine, rather than the seven candles. I hadn't noticed the Jewish one next to the Christmas Tree on the left. A number of people sent me messages explaining that the seven-branched candelabra was for a newly invented African sic holiday, Kwanzaa. When I first heard about it, my immediate reaction was that Africa is not a people/nation/culture. There are dozens, or most accurately hundreds of different tribes and native/ancient religions. Also, not all Blacks/Negros look the same. There is no such thing as African culture, religion, holiday or nation/people.

Chazal, the Jewish sages say that there's an importance in the number/quantity three, so when I discovered three fake nations/peoples, I decided that the situation deserves a blog post.

What's a "people" or "nation?" Here are a few definitions I found with the help of Rabbi Professor Google:

www.dictionary.com/browse/nation a large body of people, associated with a particular territory, that is sufficiently conscious of its unity to seek or to possess a government peculiarly its own: The president spoke to the nation about the new tax. ... an aggregation of persons of the same ethnic family, often ...
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nation Simple Definition of nation. : a large area of land that is controlled by its own government. the nation : the people who live in a nation. Nation : a tribe of Native Americans or a group of Native American tribes that share the same history, traditions, or language.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nation A nation (from Latin: natio, "people, tribe, kin, genus, class, flock") is a large group or collective of people with common characteristics attributed to them - including language, traditions, mores (customs), habitus (habits), and ethnicity.
www.duhaime.org › Legal Dictionary The legal definition of Nation is A distinct group or race of people that share history, traditions and culture.

Neither Palestine, Europe nor Africa accurately fit these. Davka, the Jewish People do fit...

There has to be an agenda behind the invention of these new fake "peoples/nations." Otherwise they wouldn't have been invented:

• The Palestinians, along with the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, were invented by Great Britain to sabotage the establishment of a Jewish State in our Ancestral Historic/Biblical Homeland.
• The European Union/Common Market was invented to compete with the United States as a commercial power and has evolved to compete on the world scene as a political power. Davka, they are among the greatest and most enthusiastic supporters of the Palestinians...
• The African-American "nation" was invented to supplant American patriotism among Black Americans, which is why nowadays it's becoming common for  them to kneel in protest during the American national anthem. 

twitter

One lie leads to another...

Europe's Rapidly Changing Demographics, Brexit...

As usual, Dry Bones, hit the nail on the head perfectly.

Know Your Islamophobes

The full story:

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's interior minister has warned that the country is home to more than 500 Islamic militants who could be capable of carrying out assaults on their own or as members of "hit teams." Speaking in an interview with Bild newspaper, Thomas de Maiziere said there were currently at least 520 "potential attackers" in the country, which has been on edge since two Islamic State-inspired attacks in July. He said another 360 "relevant" people were known to police because of their close proximity to the potential attackers.

Many Germans fear that fighters belonging to the Islamic State jihadist group could have slipped into Germany with the roughly one million of refugees from Syria, North Africa and Asia who arrived last year. "The terror threat now stems from foreign hit teams as well as fanatical lone wolves in Germany," de Maiziere said in the interview ahead of the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in the United States, which were partly coordinated from Germany."The hit teams are secretly smuggled into Europe and prepare their actions without being noticed, as we saw with the attacks in Paris and Brussels," he added. "But it's even more difficult to uncover the fanatical lone wolves. Unfortunately, there is a real and present danger from both threats."

He said security authorities were doing everything possible to monitor "the potential terrorists" and noted that there have been more investigations and arrests this year. Despite their efforts, he said, "the authorities are assuming there are undiscovered lone wolf terrorists out there."

Germany had until July been spared the kind of militant attacks suffered by neighboring France and Belgium. But in late July, Islamic State claimed two attacks -- on a train near Wuerzburg and at a music festival in Ansbach -- in which asylum-seekers wounded 20 people in total. The anti-immigrant party Alternative for Germany (AfD) has seized on the attacks to criticize Chancellor Angela Merkel's migrant policies.

A friend's grandchildren had been attending British local/neighborhood schools and reported that unlike when she was growing up, the classroom demographics was far from the white Anglican, with a smattering of Jews. Britain, which has been absorbing all sorts of immigrants/newcomers from the Commonwealth and all sorts of migrants from the European Union and refugees from all over during the past half century, is extremely different from what it had been. Today's classes are a total mix of religions a cultures, multiculturalism.

Traditionally Great Britain has felt itself protected by the English Channel, but modern laws, treaties and transportation had taken down that barrier. And the British had kept its own currency, even during the honeymoon years of its membership in the EU, like a married couple, keeping the bachelor pads. No doubt that the recent terror attacks in France and Belgium, and the reports of rapes etc. in areas full of refugees, have convinced the British to divorce Europe.

Is this racism or pragmatism? What do you think?

Great Britain Reverts to its Island Isolation

From the news reports, it looks like Great Britain is actually going to leave the European Union.

illustration credit

'Leave' scents victory as EU vote divides Britain

With results declared from 206 of 382 voting districts plus parts of Northern Ireland, Leave was ahead by 51.3 percent to 48.7 in the referendum, in which a vote to break with Europe could usher in deep uncertainty over trade and investment and fuel the rise of anti-EU movements across the continent.
Initial results suggested those in favor of quitting the EU were outperforming pollsters' expectations. They scored close to 70 percent of the vote in Hartlepool in northeast England and in Basildon, near London.
It was not clear whether an expected pro-EU vote in the capital and across Scotland would be sufficient to redress the balance. In the London district of Haringey, 76 percent voted to remain. (Reuters)

I'm not really surprised. Great Britain is an island off of Europe and always treasured its independence. That is what saved it from invasions, such as the Nazis less than a century ago. Also, in terms of the demography, cultural/ethnic politics in Britain, this is probably the last chance to get a majority to leave. As in Europe, the open borders have enabled a cultural diversity unprecedented in most of Europe and Great Britain for sure.

Don't forget that the European Union is much larger and more diversified than most people had ever expected it to be. For those who mourn the relatively monochromatic Christian Britain and Europe, they find themselves living in a nightmare, like a Twilight Zone episode.

The vote seems pretty close, so it could change directions, and then Great Britain will remain in the EU, and it will then find itself a totally different country in another couple of decades. And if it leaves, the transformation will just take a bit longer...

Dangerous All Over! I'm Not a Terrorist!

I just came back from New York, and when I was buying my tickets to go I very seriously mulled over getting much cheaper tickets, but...

But the cheaper ways of going from Israel to New York require changing planes in Europe. And I'm not being crazy paranoid to feel that it's probably not the safest place to be. In addition, around the same time I realized that I had to make the trip, I had heard that there were threats of airport strikes there, or some such thing.

So, I don't know if I did the right thing or wrong thing by getting the more expensive direct flight. Only "Murphy" knows for sure... I did try to save money by traveling to and from the airport as cheaply as possible.

I had barely landed, just gotten home, turned on the television and there was news of another terror attack in Europe:

German police storm movie theater, kill suspected gunman

PHOTO: Police secure area around cinema complex in #Viernheim http://on.rt.com/7ghi

That's right; Europe is not a safe place to be. Neither is America. It's no different than Israel; I guess. I still feel safer here at home. Most people are the same. Wherever home is we feel safer.

With all going on in the world, I'd like to know why I was singled out for a rather unpleasant inspection. I have a feeling it was the same woman who inspected/harassed me for no reason a few years ago. At JFK, they seem to count randomly to make people get the zap inspection. My "zap" wasn't good. The simple lightweight necklace I was wearing was deemed potentially dangerous, as was the zipper on my skirt. So this big black TSA lady told me to turn around or come with her for a more private inspection. I said that I must see my bags at all times. She said that I'd get them when she's finished. She kept yelling at me for turning my head to watch my bags. Then some kid in a "Camp Emma Kaufman" t-shirt touched my bag, and I complained, and she called a supervisor to yell at me. I think she was told to calm down, because she finished quickly and stopped telling me to face away from my bags. There was no reason for the inspection, since I showed her the zipper and could have taken off the necklace.

When I was on line to board the plane, the worker was told to stop just as she had put my boarding pass in the machine. It was pretty clear to me that there was a "traffic jam" trying to get into the plane with all the baby carriages and wheelchairs. The worker was also a large black woman, but we ended up having a great talk. She told me about her family, and I told her about that awful experience, so unlike Israeli security which sees me as a person and profiles. It makes more sense than the 1, 2, 3 sic! which is done in the states.

Yes, now I'm home, thank Gd!

Aliyah Now! Why Wait?

We all know the reasons many American Jews give, those Jews who agree that aliyah is a good idea, for not making aliyah:

• They don't have enough money to make the move. So, when things are better they will come.
• Life in America is just too good for Jews to leave. We have everything we need, including high economic life-style.

So, by listening carefully, it's clear that when life is good in America, they won't leave, and when life is hard they won't leave. Basically, whatever is going on for them is the perfect excuse to stay in the USA.

My husband and I made the move to Israel when we were young marrieds in 1970, without the academic degrees we have now. Here in Israel I completed my B.S. and later on got a EFL teaching license, while my husband, not all that long ago, got his Masters degree from Hebrew University. We own our own home and are active members of our community, Shiloh. We are now of retirement age, work part-time, and I've also been studying one day a week for a number of years in Matan. Honestly, I can't imagine living anyplace else but Israel.

A Jewish cemetery in France defiled with swastikas. (New Voices)

In other parts of the world, life for Jews is much harder and more dangerous. Yes, it's even more dangerous than living in Shiloh; not that I consider Shiloh to be dangerous, but others do.

Survey Finds 85% of European Jews Fear Bringing Children to Rosh Hashanah Services 

A massive majority of Jews in Europe are fearful of publicly identifying as Jewish, leading to decreased participation in ceremonies and prayer services, a new survey of European Jewish communities revealed.

According to details published by Israel’s Channel 2 on Tuesday, 85% said they will not bring their children to synagogue on Rosh Hashanah this week out of concern for their safety. (Algemeiner)

Great Britain is no better for Jews and Israelis than France.

More than 107,000 sign UK petition for arrest of NetanyahuMore than 107,000 people have signed a British petition calling for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to arrested for war crimes when he visits London this week for talks with Prime Minister David Cameron.Britain said visiting heads of state have immunity from legal process and thus cannot be arrested, though the petition indicates the strength of feeling among some about last year's war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza."Under international law he should be arrested for war crimes upon arrival in the UK for the massacre of over 2,000 civilians in 2014," the petition reads.

Parliament considers all petitions that get more than 100,000 signatures for a debate. (Reuters)

This is so deja vu; isn't it? Less than a hundred years ago Nazi ideology began in Europe, but Jews didn't leave in sizable enough numbers. Rabbis and community leaders on the whole encouraged them to stay. Zionist leaders were ignored, and there were even those who rejected American visas in fear that living in the USA would mean assimilation and the end of Jewish life.

Today it is even easier for Jews to assimilate in the states than ever before and it isn't PC-politically correct to voice Torah Jewish Values. Today's America idealizes transgender and same-sex "marriage." It's harder for the Jewish Sabbath Observer to get a good job with promotions than for two men or two women to get a marriage license.

And with the rapidly rising Arab and Muslim populations in the United States, it's only going to get harder for American Jews.

In the forty-five 45 years I've lived in Israel the standard of living has skyrocketed, from well behind the USA to ahead of it, and I'm not exaggerating at all. When I think of Shiloh and our county Mateh Binyamin as a microcosm of Israel, it's clear that there is a place for all Jews from all over the world and all backgrounds.

I don't know what World Jewry is waiting for.

Vive la Différence, Today versus 1930's in Europe!

Danish police secure
 the scene near
where the suspect
was shot dead early
on Sunday. Photograph:
Michael Probst/AP

As awful as the present antisemitism in Europe is, there is an extremely crucial and reassuring difference between now and the 1930's when the Nazis rose to power and began their systematic destruction of Jewish life in Europe. I think that it is very important to point this out.

We all know that the world, Europe, Britain and the Americas sat by silently, complicitly as the Nazis began their first discrimination which escalated to the Holocaust, the murder of six million Jews and millions of others.

There are two major differences today.

• Today's antisemitism/terrorism against Jews is privately instigated. It's not government policy.
• Today the governments feel necessity to condemn anti-Jewish acts, especially when they result in murder.

Finally, in Europe at least it is no longer "PC," politically correct to condone or ignore the murder of Jews.  The United States Obama Government still refuses to admit that the Muslims are intentionally terrorizing and murdering Jews for antisemitic ideology. This is something the American public must correct and vote in a better more moral president.

I'm not saying that things are perfect. Remember that the French Government tried to keep Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu from attending the anti-terrorism rally, and they are trying to convince French Jewry to stay and not emigrate to Israel. 

Smashed Graves in France on Sunday / AFP

The French Prime Minister Manuel Valls has called on Jews to not heed the call of Benjamin Netanyahu to leave Europe and resettle in Israel, but his comments have come against a background of extreme violence and anti-Semitic attacks.
Vall’s comments came only hours after the discovery of a major attack on a Jewish cemetery in north-east France, and the execution-style murder of a Jewish man in Denmark as part of a terrorist rampage which has left two dead and dozens injured. Danish police are reportedly working on a line of investigation that links the killings at the weekend, which took place at a freedom of speech conference and synagogue in Copenhagen with the Charlie Hebdo attacks last month. (Breitbart)

Just the fact that the French Government is saying something is a great improvement over the Vichy Government... And the Danish Government has been verbally upset by the antisemitic terror attack.

G-d willing the Moshiach, Messiah is on His/Her way....