Book Review: Brother's Keeper-A Comic Book about an Old War... And a New One

As Israel is in the middle of its most difficult -and long- war since the War for Independence in 1948, I must say that the timing of Brother's Keeper by Arnon Z. Shorr is beyond perfect. 

When I first read it, I knew that I needed to involve children in the review, but then it took me awhile to find the right kids and get their parents' permission.

Brother's Keeper is based on a true story about Shorr's grandfather who had been seriously wounded in the battle for Kibbutz Ramat Rachel and survived. Today Kibbutz Ramat Rachel is a suburb of Jerusalem. Click here for Shorr's story about writing Brother's Keeper.

In many ways, Brother's Keeper reads like a classic short story, which makes it a good book to be used in the classroom for teaching literature in English speaking countries, or English as a foreign language where needed. I'm sure that my yeshiva high school students, during my teaching days, would have enjoyed the story and learned additional English vocabulary at the same time. No doubt many would have shared their own family stories. 

Brother's Keeper is a good history book for youngsters. It should be bought by schools, if not to be used in the classroom, at least available in the library. And of course, it's an excellent gift for children, both boys and girls. As you can see in the sample page, the illustrations aren't childish, and neither is the story.

Definitely, during these difficult times, we all need to read such positive stories. The added bonus is that it's a true story.

The Hebrew version of the book available as an e-book on Amazon. 

In the US, physical copies can be ordered here: http://tinyurl.com/brotherskeepercomic 

All over the world, the eBook is available here: https://amzn.to/48E6OtJ 

For educators, we’ve prepared an educator’s guide: http://tinyurl.com/brotherskeeperedguide

For more purchase information, click here.

"Speedily in Our Days..." Tisha B'Av 5779, 2019

This year, this Tisha b'Av, the time we're supposed to be mourning the destruction of our Holy Temples, I find myself mourning the fact that the vast majority of the Jewish People have no plan to build the Third Holy Temple. 

As I read the words of Eicha, I began to feel that we're too accepting of our "victimhood," rather than pushing forward and living as Gd wants. Much of this feeling is the influence of the lectures I heard the other day in Michlelet Herzog (College) Tanach/Bible Program.

Only seventy 70 years passed between the destruction of the First Temple and the construction of the Second Temple. Now over two thousand years have passed since the Second one was destroyed, and  we still don't have a Holy Temple. More than seventy 70 years ago the State of Israel was established and more than fifty years since the IDF Israel Defense Forces liberated the Temple Mount in the stupendously miraculous 1967 Six Days War.

Just a few hours ago, on Shabbat we read the Torah, Dvarim:

Dvarim I

רְ֠אֵה נָתַ֨ן יְ-ה אֱלֹ-יךָ לְפָנֶ֖יךָ אֶת־הָאָ֑רֶץ עֲלֵ֣ה רֵ֗שׁ כַּאֲשֶׁר֩ דִּבֶּ֨ר יְ-ה אֱלֹהֵ֤י אֲבֹתֶ֙יךָ֙ לָ֔ךְ אַל־תִּירָ֖א וְאַל־תֵּחָֽת׃

21- See, the LORD your God has placed the land at your disposal. Go up, take possession, as the LORD, the God of your fathers, promised you. Fear not and be not dismayed.”

Nu? It's clear to me. We're supposed to be sovereign and build for the Jewish People in all of the Land of Israel, including the Holy Temple, the Beit Hamikdash on Har Habayit, the Temple Mount.

• Gd gave us this Land for a reason.
• Gd gave us the victories in 1948, 1967, 1973 and more for us to build a country for Jews.

We must not be afraid of foreign powers. They have no power over us. We the Jewish People are Gd's People.

May we accept Gd's gifts and use them properly

במהרה בימינו

Bimhaira yameinu

Speedily in Our Days

When Terrorists are The Enemy, Pussyfooting Doesn't Help

You don't need to understand Hebrew all that well to see what's on the map. The red things represent the missiles fired by the Gazan terrorists. There are basically two targeted areas, Israel's south and up the coast until almost Tel Aviv. 

Tel Aviv is on the coast at almost the top of this map. And if you'd like to know where Shiloh is, just look to the east (right) of Tel Aviv, while your finger is moving north (up) from Jerusalem. That should give a pretty good approximation.

The history of Israel's wars have three highlighted as great miraculous victories. They are the 1948-9 War of Independence, the 1967 Six Days War and the 1973 Yom Kippur War. The first two wars were fought by Israel totally alone. We just did what we had to do, and Gd helped us to win.

The War for Israeli Independence, the ragtag army of sabras, newly arrived refugees, foreign volunteers and almost no weapons knew that had no choice other than to win. So they just kept on fighting. By the time there was a ceasefire, the State of Israel had begun to function, and the Jewish State was reborn. And without thinking twice, new immigrants were sent to live in the buildings abandoned by the Arabs who had fled. Mansions were renovated into small apartment houses, and villages kibbutz fields and orchards.

Actually, in 1967, when it was clear that the Arabs were going to attack, we surprised them by shooting first. And that's why we won, against all odds in just six days. The importance of taking the initiative was because in order to win we had to destroy the enemy air force and break them psychologically.  We succeeded beyond our wildest dreams. Nobody in the government or IDF expected not only such a rapid victictory, but nobody thought or planned for us to liberate all the Land from the Golan to the Suez Canal and eastward to the Jordan River. Once we got started, Gd took over. But instead of encouraging, or at least allowing Jews to settle in the Biblical Heartland liberated in the war, most of the Land was held for Arabs in a mistaken belief that they'd be happy to accept it "back" in exchange for peace with us.

The 1973 Yom Kippur War was a bit more complicated. Israel was taken by surprise and accepted help and advice from the Americans. That "advice" almost caused our defeat and the end of the State of Israel. We finally defeated Syria and Egypt, even liberated more Land but quickly "gave it back" in exchange for nothing.

Now the Israel Government has gone from bad to worse. Gaza has been attacking Israel for well over a decade. Their rockets are getting bigger and go further. Instead of bombing and destroying the Arab Gazan terrorists, successive Israeli Governments just keep pussyfooting around by sending warning letters, bombing empty buildings and then during periodic "ceasefires," we pay the terrorists enough money, so they have oodles to spend on war, weapons to attack us.

It's time for the State of Israel to act like a truly independent proud country. We have to flatten, destroy our enemy completely. And yes, civilians, too. Today's wars aren't like field games where the armies fight far from civilian centers. The Gazan terrorists have their rocket launching pads within residential areas, schools and hospitals. To protect the State of Israel and all its citizens, the IDF must attack without trying to protect the enemy civilians. Protecting Israeli civilians is supposed to be the priority.  It's time to fight like we mean to win, Gd willing. 

"Palestine," sic, is a "Toy!"

The Jerusalem Post had a feature article in its Friday edition titled:

ARE PALESTINIANS READY TO TELL ‘SUPPORTERS’: ‘WE'RE NOT YOUR TOY’?

No surprise, but the writer got the whole "Palestinian thing" all wrong, because it didn't get to the gut/history of the issue.

"Palestine" is the Barbie Doll, the toy invented by anti-Semitic Europeans and British who were determined to sabotage the Zionist efforts to promote Jewish Nationalism and its aim of re-establishing a Jewish State in the Biblical Holyland.

There is absolutely no history of a Palestine, people, nation, culture. And the so-called Kingdom of Jordan is even a bigger fake, invention. The British moved the Hashemites in, even though the land east of the Jordan River was supposed to be part of the Jewish state, and anointed them rulers over the nomads residing there. This was in direct contravention of the Mandate, the assignment the British had been given by the League of Nations.

But as you most probably have noticed, the world didn't care. It's very similar to the way the world powers, at the same basic time, reacted to the rising antisemitism and violence against Jews in Nazi Germany.

And after World War Two, the British did everything in their power to keep Europe's surviving Jews out of the Holyland, while simultaneously helping to strengthen the Arabs.

Yes, there was a United Nations vote November 29, 1947, supporting the establishment of a Jewish State, but it had no "teeth." The Jews would have to survive a "fire test," a war during which surrounding Arabs, armed and trained by the British, would attack them. The UN suggested a further division of land between Jews and Arabs for another new Arab state. They drew a map assigning small amounts of land in various disconnected locations for the "Jewish State." The Jewish Agency accepted it, despite the dangerous borders, but the Arabs refused insisting on more.

After the ceasefire in 1949, Jordan illegally occupied the land not in Jewish hands, including half of Jerusalem. No surprise, that there were no formal complaints by the world powers of the time or from the United Nations.

In the decades since, these same countries, diplomats and NGOs have been creating their Barbie doll, financing "her" every whim, paying for everything and turning a blind eye when their toy literally terrorizes Israel. And in 1967 when the Arab countries surrounding Israel gathered their forces and threatened destruction of the Jewish State, nobody cared or tried to stop them. The State of Israel fought a brilliant and miraculous war in which not only did it survive but it liberated all the land to the Jordan River, the Sinai and the Golan Heights. Only then did the world get angry. World powers, NGOs etc got angry with the State of Israel. And then their toy, the so-called "Palestinians" were given a makeover to look moderate and deserving.

The  so-called "Palestinians" are a toy. It never would have existed if other countries hadn't invented it. It's no more than a bloody Barbie doll.

Honestly, Israel Doesn't Need America to Survive

I have problems with the whole concept that "We need to know America has our back," Minister of Education Naftali Bennett.



Israel's greatest victories were when there was no interference/support by any foreign country, even the United States of America. The Israeli War of Independence when we had to defend ourselves against British backed Arab troops/armies and the 1967 Six Days War when Soviet backed Arab armies, tacitly supported by the United Nations and innumerable foreign countries were miraculous victories. All logic and military experts had the State of Israel written off as defeated. We had no human or diplomatic allies.

Prayers went to Gd, and Gd wanted us to win. If we depend on humans, we may lose. That is what almost happened in 1973 during the Yom Kippur War. The Nixon-Kissinger agenda was to make the USA the real power in the Middle East. It's only thanks to Gd and Jewish People that they failed.

The best response of the State of Israel to supporters like Trump and Pence is a simple "thank you for doing what is right in the eyes of Gd."

Jerusalem Field Trip to The "Underground Museum"

A couple of weeks ago, the senior citizen "vattimkim," program I attend every week had a field trip to Jerusalem. I already blogged about our visit to the Jerusalem Municipality complex at Safra Square where we saw their amazing scale model of some of the city.

Just behind Safra Square is what's known as Migrash Harusim, the Russian Compound, in which there's a police station, jail and the jail that the British used when they were occupying the Land of Israel, during the Mandate.

In that old jail is a museum dedicated to the Jewish prisoners who had been arrested, held and executed by the British before the declaration of Independence of the State of Israel. Over the almost half a century I've lived in Israel, I visited that museum a number of times. Each time there are updates and improvements to help the visitors gain a good comprehension of what imprisonment was like there during that difficult time.

Most of the Jewish prisoners had been members of the Etzel and Lechi, known as the "underground." Since members of the Haganah and Palmach cooperated with the British by informing on the Etzel and Lehi, fewer of them were jailed. Pretty much everyone in our group has a good knowledge of pre-state history and knows the historical context of the Underground Museum. Our guide had to take that into account, and she was wonderful. When members of the group wanted to enter a room that the guide hadn't planned on showing, she cooperated happily.

Most of the group I was with didn't need

This is a wonderful museum, not too large. It is easy to get to by public transportation, bus and the lightrail. The tour guides are excellent, as are the public toilets.

Biblical Yitro and The Modern Baal Teshuva Movement

Just before Shabbat my neighbor called to ask me to prepare something for our weekly Shiloh Shabbat Shiur Nashim, Women's Torah Class. Within seconds my mind filled with the verse that opens the Torah Portion of the Week, Parshat Shavua, Yitro/Jethro, Exodus 18:

1Now Moses' father in law, Jethro, the chieftain of Midian, heard all that God had done for Moses and for Israel, His people that the Lord had taken Israel out of Egypt.

אוַיִּשְׁמַ֞ע יִתְר֨וֹ כֹהֵ֤ן מִדְיָן֙ חֹתֵ֣ן משֶׁ֔ה אֵת֩ כָּל־אֲשֶׁ֨ר עָשָׂ֤ה אֱלֹהִים֙ לְמשֶׁ֔ה וּלְיִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל עַמּ֑וֹ כִּֽי־הוֹצִ֧יא יְהוָֹ֛ה אֶת־יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל מִמִּצְרָֽיִם:

It immediately connected me to the very unprecedented movement of ignorant and non-committed/observant Jews to Torah Judaism which began after the establishment of the State of Israel and became much larger after the totally miraculous, of Biblical proportions, 1967 Six Days War victory. And I also connected it to the relatively recent search quite a few Christians are making into the origins of Christianity and the theological questions and doubts this research is causing them.

As I've written here many times, I became acquainted with genuine Torah Judaism through my joining the Great Neck Synagogue Teen Club and attending Shabbatot with NCSY, National Conference of Synagogue Youth of the OU. This was in the middle of the 1960s before the Six Days War.

"Becoming religious" was the term. In those days, BT or Baal Teshuva were unknown phrases. My family was shocked and horrified at my decision to take on those mitzvot that family members had been rejecting and reducing for decades. Jewish families, and other ethnic groups, related so easily to the "Fiddler on the Roof" story of the strictly traditional Jewish family whose daughters all left the fold, in their own ways. The first half of the 20th century was a time when traditional religions were being replaced by ideologies such as socialism, communism and Liberalism.

The unprecedented and unexpected rebirth of the ancient Jewish Nation as the State of Israel in the very same Holy Land as the Bible, davka, after the devastating Nazi Holocaust was very much like what Yitro heard.  The Nazi Holocaust had caused the murder/death of six million 6,000,000 Jews, most of European Jewry, and seemed to herald the end of the Jewish People. But instead the very beginnings of Jewish rebirth began. It began getting much greater after the 1967 Six Days War, when the IDF Israeli Army, without any human or diplomatic ally, quickly defeated three well-equipped Arab armies, Egypt, Jordan and Syria. Instead of Israel being pushed into the sea, Jordan retreated to the east of the Jordan River, Egypt to the Suez Canal and Syria to the other side of the Golan Heights. Finally, the State of Israel had reasonably defensible borders.

On the spiritual front, not only more and more Jews from all over the world accepted Torah and Mitzvot, but descendants of Jews who had completely left the Jewish world suddenly returned to their Jewish roots and the Land of Israel, and that included entire communities as far away as India and Ethiopia.

Everyone "...heard all that God had done for Moses and for Israel, His people..."

It is so clear and obvious to me that we are privileged to be living in miraculous times, like those in the Bible.

Importance of the US to Israel’s National Security is Overstated!

The following headline and opening line got my blood boiling:

How Long Could Israel Survive Without America?
The importance of the United States to Israel’s national security cannot be overstated.

As far as I'm concerned such a thing is the demise of the independent State of Israel, Gd forbid.

The State of Israel owes nothing to the USA. We had our greatest victories before American President Johnson began the present relationship with Israel. The truth is that because Israel began listening to the USA, we were almost destroyed in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. But in typical "victim dependent" behavior successive Israeli governments keep on trying to be America's "best friend." In the process we are not only damaging our military industry and economy, but we confide in American officials and have lost the confidence to fight on our own and do what's best for us.

Things will only get better if we go cold turkey off of American buy in America  Shopping Coupons.

The State of Israel must wisen up and act as an independent country or the Americans will just keep tightening the noose until we are finished.

Israel's Sovereignty and Security aren't The Responsibility of POTUS Trump!

I'm sick and tired of reading and hearing about the hopes and expectations Israelis have from newly elected/inaugurated Donald Trump as President of the United States. Whatever policies and and decisions he makes really aren't the crucial ones for the security, viability and development of the State of Israel.

Israel is not part of the United States. We are neither a state nor of a "commonwealth" status in America. We're not like Puerto Rico or anything like that. The State of Israel is an independent country, which declared its independence on May 14, 1948 and is recognized by most countries and international bodies.

credit

Our existence is due to Gd's blessings and the hard work of those Zionists who were willing to leave their homes and do hard, dangerous work to build a country and economy and fight our enemies.

David Ben-Gurion at Israel's Declaration of Independence ceremony, Rudi Weissenstein - הצלמניה פרי-אור, Wikipedia

The truth is that we don't owe our existence and independence to anyone or any country. When the State of Israel was declared by David Ben-Gurion, most of the world, except for the countries attacking us, stood by expecting the State of Israel to go down in defeat. Gd had different plans. We defeated the combined Arab armies which had been supported by the British Government among others.

In the almost seventy 70 years since then, you'd think we'd learn that we really don't have any human allies. Not a single solitary country even recognizes Jerusalem as our Capital City. We are treated like utter garbage or annoyance by most countries, even those that have received our aid and training programs.

And what does the State of Israel do in response? It grovels anew...

Politicians and journalists who should know better by now are all excited over the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States, expecting him to rescue us. Forget it. Trump is so mired in multiple problems that figuring out what is going on here in Israel is far from the top of his list. And even if it was, there's nothing he can do.

It's all up to our own government led by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. If he acts with confidence for the State of Israel, making it clear that he doesn't care what the world says and does, most opposition will fade away. And if there's opposition, big deal! 

If we do the right thing then Gd will make the necessary miracles, like He did in June, 1967!

The Myth of Israel's Foreign Allies

We have no real allies to "alienate," and we've never really had any to rely on.

Even as Israel loudly tangles with Sweden, the UN, and the US envoy, Netanyahu is quietly trying to 'muddle through' amid signs of eroding US diplomatic cover.Shrill wind from Israel: Does it risk alienating its allies?

This is one of the wackiest opinion pieces I've seen of late. It really bothers me that people who know bupkes about history are accepted as qualified to write in respected mainstream media all over. Besides Israel always going to the assistance of places in trouble, like the rescue experts going right now  to Taiwan, where there was just a massive earthquake, and the crew that helped in Haiti and numerous other places. And Israel doesn't first make the decision according to how friendly the country is or how "democratic" and "humanitarian" policies are there. Israelis just run to help those in need.

And back to the "allies." We had no foreign allies during our struggle for independence from the British who had davka be mandated by the League of Nations to facilitate the establishment of a Jewish State in what Hadrian had renamed, in an effort to rebrand the Land, "Palestine."

• No country supported us.
• No country threatened Great Britain that it will recognize the Jewish State whether GB withdraws or not.
• No country treated our leaders as if they were head of a country until the War of Independence was well over.
• A "yes" vote on November 29, 1947, in the United Nations was not the same as being an ally. 

And in the spring of 1967 when after weeks of threats by Egypt, that it was going to drive Israel into the sea and destroy it, did any foreign country take steps against Egypt? No! To make matters worse, the United Nations quickly withdrew the "peacekeeping forces" that had been placed there to protect Israel.

And in October, Yom Kippur, 1973, when Egypt and Syria attacked Israel, Israel had no allies! The United States played a game trying to create a stalemate of sorts. The USA and Egypt were allies, and they didn't want us to win and they didn't want us to be destroyed. When the tables finally turned and we were victorious, the Americans were no happy, because by the end of the war, we had even more land than before. And that's why they kept pushing for Israel to give it back to withdraw.

And consider all the very undiplomatic and terribly immature sounding fits we've heard from American Presidents, Vice Presidents and Cabinet members about internal  Israeli policies. That's not the behavior of an ally. 

And I don't want to hear about all those "buy in America shopping coupons" that we get. The so-called "aid" has stickier strings than a spider's web. 

As a pragmatist, I see things very clearly, and it's about time that the State of Israel totally rethink its policies by taking into account that when push comes to shove, when we really need help, we'll be left high and dry or drowning. Both mean the same. Nobody cares what happens to the State of Israel. They'll just add a room or annex to their well endowed Holocaust Museum. 

Countdown to Israeli Independence Day!

In one more week we'll all be celebrating Israeli Independence Day!  Sixty-six 66 years since David Ben-Gurion took on the world and declared that enough was enough.  The Jewish State, aka the State of Israel was declared!

The odds were completely against us, and the world sat by watching, expecting to see a simple bloody rout. There was no way that a bunch of poor Jewish farmers, beggars and undernourished survivors of Hitler's concentration camps could defeat the Arabs who had the de facto backing of Great Britain and other countries.

Juara Haganah Museum

Ben-Gurion didn't even have a united Jewish army to fight with him. Actually, that was mostly his fault. He was so against the Etzel and Lechi during the latter years of the British Mandate that he even cooperated with the British by informing against them in a period known as the sezon, The Hunting Season.  He continued with his extreme hatred of those Jews who didn't support him politically by tricking the Etzel, led by Menachem Begin, and attacking the Altalena which resulting in the death of Jewish patriots and the destruction of valuable weapons which had been brought to liberate Jerusalem from the Arabs.

Altalena on fire

It wasn't only the Revisionists, Jabotinsky followers, members of Etzel and Lechi that Ben-Gurion tried to defeat, he also did everything he could to brainwash, deprogram religious North-African Jews from strictly observing Judaism. Children were sent to secular boarding schools to be "educated" and turned into Leftist, secular Israelis aka modern Jews.

Honestly, when I began this post, I didn't plan on rehashing the terrible side of early Israeli history. But in order to understand today's State of Israel we must remember the awful, disgraceful side, too.

When we wonder why the Israeli Left, and even Center, are so rabidly anti-Jewish Life in Judea and Samaria, and we wonder why Shabbak, Israel's "secret police" can be so cruel to fellow Jews instead of concentrating on our real enemies, and we wonder how the Israeli Judicial System can judge Patriotic Jews so unfairly, we just have to think of David Ben-Gurion.

They are the spiritual, political, immoral heirs of David Ben-Gurion.

What's the great irony here in Israel sixty-six years later? The descendants of Ben-Gurion and his followers are less interested in Israel than the descendants of those he tried so hard to destroy.

Considering all of the civil war, a battle for Jewish souls going on during the War for Israeli Independence and the early years of the state, it's even more amazing that G-d allowed the state to survive and thrive.

We wouldn't have a State of Israel if G-d hadn't supported us. There's no rational way to describe our victories in 1948, 1967 and 1973.

That's why it is so important to thank G-d with Prayers including the Hallel on Israeli Independence Day!

Israeli Independence Day Prayers in the Mishkan Tabernacle Synagogue, Shiloh

Yes, we still have a long way to go, but we won't succeed without the Help of the Almighty!

Following False gods

Here in Israel we're suffering/experiencing strange punishing weather.  Besides the stormy blizzard early in the winter, there really hasn't been much of a winter.

• Clothing stores all over the country have been holding unprecedented 70% off sales for months already, unpacking new 2014 winter fashions and immediately marking down the prices.  Savvy shoppers are buying them up, but that means that next year they will need fewer new winter clothes. And that means that the sales volume next year as well as this year will be low.  And that will result in lower overhead budgets and the firing of workers, reductions in hiring, less income for many so less spending. That's all bad for the economy.
• Insufficient rain means agriculture suffers, less fruit and vegetables, higher prices and fewer exports. That's all bad for the economy.
• A warmer than average winter means that many fruits and flowers for export won't grow well or at all. That's all bad for the economy.
• The extreme dryness makes the Land more susceptible to fires which endanger land, agriculture and human lives.
• Please add your examples of how we're endangered by the dry warm winter in the comments, thanks.

All this is because our Israeli Government has been worshiping the American one and its President Barack Hussein Obama instead of following G-d's commandments and doing what's best for the Jewish People, Jewish Land and State of Israel.

Obama's shine is fading, getting tarnished. More and more Americans have realized that he's damaging the United States of America.  

However the Ukraine crisis is resolved, it will no longer be possible to rehabilitate American credibility • Given this situation, how much stock should Israel put in promises made by Washington?

photographed from The International NY Times

Obama isn't our president.  Here in Israel we owe him nothing.  We must disengage from the USA. We have no real choice if we want to thrive and survive. Being dependent on another country isn't independence.  It's the opposite. G-d didn't make all these miracles that facilitated the State of Israel for us to follow the dictates of the United States of America.

John Judis's Truman Book Backs My Theory

Clarification: This post only deals with one small aspect of Judis's book.  I have not read the book and nor was it sent to me for a review.  I doubt if I'll ever see it in its entirety. There have been many complaints/criticisms about the book, such as by Ron Radosh referred to by comments on this post.

For the longest time I've been writing/blogging that the myth of United States President Harry Truman as great supporter of the Zionist aim to have a Jewish State made no sense to me. Here's what I wrote in Has The United States "Unfriended" Israel?:

The two dove-tailed contradictory Harry Truman stories should be looked at carefully.  On one hand, legend has it that he was a great friend of Israel.  Nu, if that was the truth, why did his old buddy, a Jew, have to use protexia, force himself into an appointment with the busy US President and beg that Truman instruct the United States Delegation to the United Nations to vote for a Jewish State?  If Truman had really been so pro-Israel, then no pressure from his friend would have been needed.

I'm a CPA's daughter.  I can frequently see facts as clearly as numbers, and if they don't add up, you just can't convince me that I'm wrong.  So I'm very excited to see that someone much more knowledgable than I has written a book proving me right!

Following is from the excerpt from Genesis: Truman, American Jews, and the Origins of the Arab/Israeli Conflict published in the New Republic.

But in the years leading up to, and in the months following, American recognition of Israel in May 1948, Truman was filled with doubt and regret about his role. The rosy portrayal of Truman’s unquestioning commitment to and constant sympathy with Israel, which is often linked to a picture of the younger Truman as a Christian Zionist, is dead wrong.
As president, Truman initially opposed the creation of a Jewish state. Instead, he tried to promote an Arab-Jewish federation or binational state. He finally gave up in 1947 and endorsed the partition of Palestine into separate states, but he continued to express regret in private that he had not achieved his original objective, which he blamed most often on the “unwarranted interference” of American Zionists. After he had recognized the new state, he pressed the Israeli government to negotiate with the Arabs over borders and refugees; and expressed his disgust with “the manner in which the Jews are handling the refugee problem.”

I'm not blogging about this to knock down Truman's reputation.  What concerns me is that American Jews and Israelis are so desperate to feel loved, to have allies that they we end up fabricating myths like the one about Harry Truman and his support for the nascent Jewish State.

Afterwards, Truman did accept Israel and considered himself a friend, but we must remember that he was prepared to instruct the American representatives to the United Nations to vote "no."  If that had happened, there's a good chance that other countries would have followed suit and Ben-Gurion would not have gotten the international support he felt necessary to declare statehood.

We must develop the confidence to act in ways best for Israel's security without checking for international approval.  We don't need more unreliable and imaginary allies.

I'm most worried by the fact that American Jews refuse to listen to the truth and prefer to cancel events that may prove their legends lies.

What Would Happen if Israel Would Say "NO!" to Obama?

It's only a few days until Chanuka.  Consider this post a Chanuka message.

Israeli politicians and even some of the media do admit that American advice, demands and policy are dangerous, wrong and worse.  Not only do the American demands brought by Secretary of State Kerry endanger the very existence of Israel, but American President Barack Hussein Obama's insistence on negotiating with the Iranians endangers the world.

Kerry has made it very clear that Obama doesn't want Israel to compromise in negotiating with the Arabs. We're supposed to give in completely to their demands, the American and the Arab demands.

Unfortunately, Israeli politicians keep insisting that we really have no choice.

"We shouldn't anger the Americans.  We need their friendship."

I disagree completely.

• We don't "need" the Americans.
• They are not acting like friends and allies.

photo credit VOA

So, what do I think would happen if Israel would finally just tell the Americans to just "stuff their turkeys" and leave us alone?

Of course, at first the American government would get angry and threaten Israel with all sorts of sanctions.  

Yes, maybe they won't give us any more shopping coupons for military equipment.  Israel will just have to improve its military industries.  That would be good for our economy, more production, export etc.  It's also very possible that the American military industry will be upset that Israel will no longer be improving its products. Israeli engineers who had to move abroad to find work will have work here in Israel.

The Americans may threaten boycotts of Israeli products, but since they use and need so much of our high tech inventions, they will find it impossible to really boycott Israel.

Within a very short period of time American politicians will be too busy jockeying for new positions and running for office. Remember that the American Presidential elections take about three years considering pre-campaign touring and fundraising, then primaries etc.  It's now three years to the next presidential elections. The clock is ticking.

For as long as I can remember, candidates campaign as if they are Israel's best friend.  How many times have we heard a candidate, a winning one, promise to move the United States Embassy to Jerusalem?  And we all know that when elected, that promise is the first one erased from the list as if it never existed.

Even Obama was sympathetic to Israel prior to being elected.

No candidate is going to campaign as anti-Israel.  It's bad politics.  Obama and Kerry will be blamed for tarnishing relations with America's most reliable  friends, Israel and Egypt.

Davidka

One of the interesting things that has come up in the "fifty years since the Kennedy assassination" has been the revelation, new to many, that in the early sixties when Kennedy was President the United States didn't sell Israel weapons or give it aid.  Israel's two greatest and most crucial victories, our 1948 War of Independence and the !967 Six Days War were achieved without American help, aid, weapons or support.

Six Days War

In the long run, Israel will be better off if we stop listening to foreign leaders.  We'd be stronger and safer. The Arabs will understand that we're here to stay.  Their threats and terror won't have any effect, so they'll go back to wherever or stay, work and obey the laws.  The ordinary Arab who lives in Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley will be very happy know that they will have the protections and services of Israeli Law. They will have to pay taxes to Israel, and once they do that their local services will improve.

Israeli sovereignty must be declared and put in practice in all of the Land we now hold.  The Palestine Authority must be weakened and warned that anything more than local municipal chores and services aren't theirs.  All international pro-Arab anarchists must be banished from Israel, declared persona non grata, including  foreign diplomats.  

Once we do this we will be on the road to peace, true peace.  It will take a couple of generations, but that's the only way.

We just have to say: NO!

Has Israel Already Been Sold Down The River?

Recently people have been in panic informing me that Israel already signed away our independence and Land and is planning on uprooting, disposing  tens of thousands or more Jews like myself.  They want to know why I'm not rioting, screaming, firebombing, rebelling etc.

I keep on checking the news sites to see if this could really be true.  As imperfect as things are here in Israel, Israel is still a democracy with over-chatty politicians and well-connected news media, so I really don't think all that much can be done, especially after the Oslo fiasco, so secretly.  Remember that the Oslo Agreement was negotiated by extreme Leftists who were not government representatives.

At least in English, I haven't seen anything very new.  We've been in Shiloh for thirty-two years and we've been hearing these scaremongering rumors for the entire time.  The summer we moved to Shiloh, 1981, the population doubled from thirty-something families to sixty-something families.  And many of us who moved to Shiloh that summer had larger and older families than the more veterans, so we truly doubled the yishuv. In a few months or less I'll be able to say that I've spent  exactly half my life here in Shiloh.  There are now over three hundred families of all ages and backgrounds.  Many of the young families are second generation.  Their children are also the second generation to be studying in our school, or more accurately schools.  The tiny three class school of eighteen kids that opened September 1, 1981, has mushroomed into an enormous school complex of two elementary schools (separate for boys and girls) each educating until the Eighth Grade.

That doesn't mean that I have faith in our Israeli Government and politicians.

The Israeli leaders have been making dangerous and foolish decisions from before the Declaration of Israeli Independence, the official establishment of the State of Israel.  Remember that David Ben-Gurion and followers accepted the United Nations Partition Plan.

The partition plan took on a checkerboard appearance. This was largely because Jewish towns and villages were spread throughout Palestine. This did not complicate the plan as much as the fact that the high living standards in Jewish cities and towns had attracted large Arab populations. This demographic factor insured that any partition would result in a Jewish state that included a substantial Arab population. Recognizing the need to allow for additional Jewish settlement, the majority proposal allotted the Jews land in the northern part of the country, Galilee, and the large, arid Negev desert in the south. The remainder was to form the Arab state.

These boundaries were based solely on demographics. The borders of the Jewish State were arranged with no consideration of security; hence, the new state's frontiers were virtually indefensible. Overall, the Jewish State was to be comprised of roughly 5,500 square miles and the population was to be 538,000 Jews and 397,000 Arabs. The Arab State was to be 4,500 square miles with a population of 804,000 Arabs and 10,000 Jews. Though the Jews were allotted more total land, the majority of that land was in the desert.

Further complicating the situation was the UN majority's insistence that Jerusalem remain apart from both states and be administered as an international zone. This arrangement left more than 100,000 Jews in Jerusalem isolated from their country and circumscribed by the Arab state.

Luckily (the Hand of G-d no doubt) the Arabs rejected it and went to war against us.  In a sense the result was a stalemate, and the ceasefire lines lasted less than nineteen years.  Also, it's important to remember that the Jordanians invaded the land on the west bank of the Jordan that was supposed to be an additional Arab state, and Egypt occupied Gaza. This illegal occupation was only recognized by two other countries, Great Britain and Pakistan.



Copyright © 1998-2013 Information Regarding Israel's Security

That status quo ended in June 1967 when Jordan, Egypt and Syria threatened Israel with total destruction.  The result of that was the dramatic Israeli victory in the Six Days War.

Elder of Ziyon

Just over six years later, 1973, was the Yom Kippur War, when G-d saved us again.  I have no delusions that any of our victories, our survival was due to human intelligence and advanced military weapons.  Nor do I have any ways of finding out what secret negotiations have been going on.  And I don't believe that G-d will always rescue us, like in the fictional "Perils of Pauline." 

We must fight and we must pray.  We don't know if G-d will allow our destruction and then wait for a new generation to be able to take over and try again.

I have not given up.  One of the reasons, the main reason I blog is to try to make the Jewish People and our true friends aware of the perilous situation we are in.

G-d willing, we will do the right things and G-d will help tip the scales in our favor.

The United Nations, United Against Israel

Israelis like to celebrate November 29 as a pre-Independence Day holiday, because that was the day when the newly established United Nations voted to approve a Jewish State.  I don't consider that act to be all that worthy of our celebration for a couple of reasons. 

• One is that even though a majority of the members of the time did vote to approve a Jewish State, none of them was willing to do anything at all to ensure that the Jewish State would actually exist or survive the onslaught of Arab armies and terrorists which tried to destroy it.

• The second reason is that we did and do not need the approval of international bodies for our legitimacy, our existence. We owe our survival and existence to G-d and only G-d.  Our victories go against all logic and rules of warfare.

These two points must be remembered.

Very soon after the establishment of the State of Israel, the United Nations quickly established an organization to fully support those Arabs who claimed to be refugees, displaced by the State of Israel, UNRWA.  Unlike all other refugee support groups, this one has made it its aim to perpetuate the refugee status and privileges of the people housed in their camps.  All other refugee support groups aim to get the refugees settled in new productive lives in new homes and locations.  So it's very, very, very clear that the United Nations, contrary to that November 29th vote is really out to sabotage the State of Israel.

There's an interesting article in the Jerusalem Post (hat tip: David Bedein's Israel Behind the News) that tells us which countries have been supporting UNRWA recently.

The United Nations Relief and Work Agency is the only UN refugee agency dedicated to a single group of people. It is the only agency that designates individuals as original refugees if they lived in the area for a minimum of two years, that acknowledges the descendants of original refugees as refugees as well, and the only one that actively encourages its clients to act on their “right of return.”

Since WWII, 50 million people have been displaced by armed conflict.

The Palestinian people are the only ones in history to receive this special treatment.

Palestinian kids sit at UNRWA school Photo: REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa

No doubt this is based on an obvious anti-Israel bias. They are counting on Israel to be destroyed, G-d forbid.  I honestly don't understand why Israel continues membership in the United Nations, an international organization that is doing all it can to undermine and destroy the State of Israel.

Tisha B'Av and The Battling Forces

I must admit that while reading the Tisha B'Av Kinot at home I dozed off.  I felt the good and evil battling away.  The proscribed readings, Eicha and Kinot, for this day of national mourning for the end of our ancient Jewish Kingdoms in the Land of Israel are very depressing and much too close to home.

Lamentations Chapter 2 אֵיכָה

ז  זָנַח אֲדֹנָי מִזְבְּחוֹ, נִאֵר מִקְדָּשׁוֹ--הִסְגִּיר בְּיַד-אוֹיֵב, חוֹמֹת אַרְמְנוֹתֶיהָ; קוֹל נָתְנוּ בְּבֵית-יְהוָה, כְּיוֹם מוֹעֵד.  {ס}	7 The Lord hath cast off His altar, He hath abhorred His sanctuary, He hath given up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces; they have made a noise in the house of the LORD, as in the day of a solemn assembly. {S}
ח  חָשַׁב יְהוָה לְהַשְׁחִית, חוֹמַת בַּת-צִיּוֹן--נָטָה קָו, לֹא-הֵשִׁיב יָדוֹ מִבַּלֵּעַ; וַיַּאֲבֶל-חֵל וְחוֹמָה, יַחְדָּו אֻמְלָלוּ.  {ס}	8 The LORD hath purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion; He hath stretched out the line, He hath not withdrawn His hand from destroying; but He hath made the rampart and wall to mourn, they languish together. {S}
ט  טָבְעוּ בָאָרֶץ שְׁעָרֶיהָ, אִבַּד וְשִׁבַּר בְּרִיחֶיהָ; מַלְכָּהּ וְשָׂרֶיהָ בַגּוֹיִם, אֵין תּוֹרָה--גַּם-נְבִיאֶיהָ, לֹא-מָצְאוּ חָזוֹן מֵיְהוָה.  {ס}	9 Her gates are sunk into the ground; He hath destroyed and broken her bars; her king and her princes are among the nations, instruction is no more; yea, her prophets find no vision from the LORD. {S}
י  יֵשְׁבוּ לָאָרֶץ יִדְּמוּ, זִקְנֵי בַת-צִיּוֹן--הֶעֱלוּ עָפָר עַל-רֹאשָׁם, חָגְרוּ שַׂקִּים; הוֹרִידוּ לָאָרֶץ רֹאשָׁן, בְּתוּלֹת יְרוּשָׁלִָם.  {ס}	10 They sit upon the ground, and keep silence, the elders of the daughter of Zion; they have cast up dust upon their heads, they have girded themselves with sackcloth; the virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground. {S}
יא  כָּלוּ בַדְּמָעוֹת עֵינַי, חֳמַרְמְרוּ מֵעַי--נִשְׁפַּךְ לָאָרֶץ כְּבֵדִי, עַל-שֶׁבֶר בַּת-עַמִּי:  בֵּעָטֵף עוֹלֵל וְיוֹנֵק, בִּרְחֹבוֹת קִרְיָה.  {ס}	11 Mine eyes do fail with tears, mine inwards burn, my liver is poured upon the earth, for the breach of the daughter of my people; because the young children and the sucklings swoon in the broad places of the city. {S}

I suggest listening to Shani Taragin's shiur Eicha, Sounds of Music.

The Jewish People, the same one that exists today, is a very ancient people. None of our long-ago national or cultural peers still exist.  Historians and theologians have written our obituary many times.  At least two other religions were invented to replace us, Christianity and Islam, and they are fighting us for our Land.  The Arabs, their international backers and even some Israelis are pushing for a so-called Palestinian State, G-d forbid, and the Vatican is making deals with the Israeli Government to take over our holy sites, like Mount Zion.

YERUSHALAYIM - Israel has secretly informed the pope and senior Vatican officials that it is ready to reach a deal according to which it will transfer sovereignty of Kever David on Har Tzion to the Vatican, along with six Christian sites around the country. In exchange, Israel will receive permission to nationalize land that is under Christian control on the shores of the Kinneret.
After heavy Christian pressure, which has been applied for the past 60 years, the government is caving in now, specifically under Prime Minister Netanyahu, and is deciding to approve agreements drafted by former deputy foreign minister Danny Ayalon. He conducted ongoing secret negotiations with  the church, along with Bahij Mansour, the head of religion in the Diaspora division of the Foreign Ministry.

The forces of good and evil, Jewish rights/religion versus western secular are fighting.  In some ways it's subtle and in other ways it gets physically nasty. The Arabs generally are up front and honest about it.  They go for the physical kill, with rocks, rifles, bombs and rocket attacks.

Some of the victims of Arab terrorism: Top Left to Right: Koby Mandell, Yehuda Haim Shoham, Esther Ohana  Center: Yosef Ishran  Bottom Left to Right: Bachor Jean, Asher Palmer and his infant son Jonathan, Stf. Sgt. Benny Meisner

It's easy to read their lips. Other enemies are more subtle. Many claim friendship and love for us, but their advice will only cause our destruction. There are also our internal enemies, Jews, Israelis who frequently speak in the terminology of our sages, but with the wrong agenda.  They are like the false prophets of Biblical times. 

I've been studying the Bible for the past few years in Matan.  I'm in the six year program Al HaPerek, in which Na"Ch, Prophets and Writings have been divided up.  We study two chapters a week, and we are now studying Yechezkel, having already finished Joshua, Samuel, Kings, Isaiah and Jeremiah.

Today's politics in the State of Israel and modern Jewish History seems so similar to Biblical Times and I find that frightening.   We Jewish People are again battling.  Will G-d decide that we must be dispersed again, or will we progress to the building of the Third Holy Temple?  I'd like to say that it's all up to G-d, but I understand that it is really up to us.  G-d created us with free will, and we therefore have the power to bring the Moshiach, Redemption. 

We are not G-d's puppets; we are free-thinking people who must make the right decisions the right moves. G-d will help us if we do so. That's how we were victorious in our early wars against the Arab attackers, the 1948 War for Israeli Independence, the 1967 Six Days War and the 1973 Yom Kippur War.  Our Salvation and our victories all come from G-d.  The message of Tisha B'Av is that if we pray to false G-ds, if we make deals with foreign leaders, if we give away our precious Land, G-d may very well decide that we're not the right generation for Redemption.  He may let us be destroyed the way He did in the past.

waiting

G-d willing we will be strong and do the right things, and G-d will forgive us for our sins. And G-d willing we will defeat those endangering us.  May G-d be merciful.  May we merit the building of the בית המקדשת Beit Hamikdash, the Holy Temple!

הֲשִׁיבֵנוּ יְהוָה אֵלֶיךָ ונשוב [וְנָשׁוּבָה] חַדֵּשׁ יָמֵינוּ כְּקֶדֶם.

Hashiveinu Hashem vinashu chadesh yameinu kikedem.

Bring us back to You, G-d, and we will return, renew our days as days of old.

TW3, That Was The Week That Was, The Best Israeli Version; IDF and the Chareidim

In less than two minutes, Latma's Hebrew's Word 12.4  brilliantly summarizes the past week's news. 



The writers bring up some excellent points.

• This week's theme is no matter how hard the Israeli media tried, they couldn't find good pictures of chareidim goofing off, ignoring the sirens on Holocaust Memorial Day.  The result was that the people most active during the sirens and who the least understand the significance of the day were the media. 

This anti-chareidi theme is related to the fact that Likud's Binyamin Netanyahu's latest/newest coalition must find a solution on how to draft chareidim into the IDF Israel Defense Forces without totally alienating the chareidim who have been locked out  of the government coalition as part of the demands of the Yesh Atid-Bayit Yehudi aka Lapid-Bennett block.

The Bayit Yehudi (Jewish Home) Party, which is the former Mafdal, NRP, National Religious Party, which had been dying a slow death until Naftali Bennett  took it over and gave it a total facelift.  One aspect of his campaign was to stress his elite fighting army service.  Actually, showing MK wannabes' IDF records was one of the two main campaign points of many parties. The other was to campaign as saviors and protectors of the elderly.  About that, I still haven't seen an increase in my state old age payments from Bituach Le'umi, National Insurance.  I'd love more money each month. It would come in very handy.

Israeli politicians and media are claiming that the unfair disproportionate burden of army service and milu'im, reserve duty is because of the chareidi exemptions, although it's actually growing faster from the secular Left, the youth too self-centered and non-patriotic to serve in the army.

It's always easier to blame the very/extreme religious aka the chareidim.  Don't get me wrong. I do think that they should serve, as should the secular Left, but this is a slow process for the better of the army and Israeli society in general.  Soldiers must be well motivated.  No doubt a large part of the Gilad Schalit fiasco is due to the fact he didn't have the mental toughness to be on the frontlines.  His father ran the campaign to get him released as if it was all the fault of Israel and Israel should pay any price no matter what the ultimate cost to security would be.

We must remember that today's Israel Defense Force isn't a peacetime army.  We are surrounded by enemy countries and international NGO's and anarchists who aim to destroy us.  Even the countries like the United States that claim to be our allies promote policies that totally endanger us.

There is absolutely no way that we can make peace with the Arabs who want us off the map and into the sea.

The Israeli War for Independence is till being fought, and we must win!

Preparing for Yom Ha'Atzmaut, Israeli Independence Day

I've been seeing Israel flags and other Independence Day "accessories" on display and sale for the past few weeks.  Now, of course, the country is really into blue and white. 

For me personally, the most important thing is for us Jews to be a free, independent confident People and function freely and with full sovereignty in Our Land.   So to spend Rosh Chodesh Iyyar, the beginning of the Jewish Month of Iyyar at Shiloh HaKeduma, Tel Shiloh with other women, wandering around the ruins, praying, studying and feasting is just the right thing to do.

Shiloh is an ancient city, the first religious and spiritual capital of the Jewish Nation thousands of years ago, well documented in the Bible.  One of the most interesting things is that Shiloh is not recorded as a city conquered by Joshua after the exodus form Egypt.  From the Biblical text, the city welcomed Joshua without a fight.  The Book of Joshua is a narrative of military victories and defeats as the generation born in the wilderness, led by Joshua and Calev take over the Land G-d promised the Jewish People from the time of Abraham.

It was a period of great learning, failures and successes.  An entire people had to not only relocate but also learn to govern, defend itself  and take full responsibility for all needs.

It was very much like the Israeli War for Independence and the early years of the state.  Sixty-five years later, it's hard to imagine how survivors of the Nazi death camps could have gone straight to battle against the warring Arabs.  How did they have the physical, mental and spiritual strength to take up arms to join with the Zionist pioneers and defend the fledgling, newly declared State of Israel?

Maybe we're actually still in that stage, or more like the time of Judges, which had followed, Judges Chapter 21. 

כה  בַּיָּמִים הָהֵם, אֵין מֶלֶךְ בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל:  אִישׁ הַיָּשָׁר בְּעֵינָיו, יַעֲשֶׂה.  {ש}

25 In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did that which was right in his own eyes. {P}

Yes, I admit that the State of Israel isn't perfect.  But that is no reason for a Jew to refuse to live here.  It's our job to make Israel a better and more Jewish country.  It's ours; we have no other.