"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

9 Days Rather Ironic, Fish Yes, Chicken No

Jewish Life is now in the midst of the "9 Days," a time of national mourning. From the 17th of the Jewish Month of Tammuz, until the 9, or more accurately the 10th, of the month of Av, we mourn the destruction of the Holy Temples and our exile from the Land of Israel.

Restrictions get more intense and end with a 25 hour fast on the 9th of Av. Restrictions during the 9 days include no parties, weddings, new clothes, listening to music, swimming for enjoyment, drinking wine and eating meat or poultry. You can eat fish.

I know that it's not the same all over the world, especially when people follow the Laws of Kashrut. Here in Israel a meat, especially poultry, meal cost less than a fish meal. Fish is very expensive here, whether buying it in the supermarket or a restaurant meal. Good cheeses also cost more. A very satisfying and pleasant meal in my favorite meat restaurant cost less than a similar fish meal in my favorite fish restaurant.

It's so ironic that the less expensive animal protein is forbidden as a sign of mourning, while the more expensive one is permitted. Eating fish is generally a treat, while chicken is an everyday, ordinary bargain menu in our house. So the halacha makes little sense to me.

My guess is that in ancient times the slaughtering of an animal or bird and the ritual preparation of their meat, plus safe storage was rather complex and not frequent. If you lived where you could easily catch fish, that was less complicated.

What do you think?

salmon and vegetables 

9th of Av Warning

I just posted a very positive optimistic blog post about the 9th of Av on A Jewish Grandmother,  Only in Israel, 9th of Av. It's on a day like today, when I have two very contradictory messages to post that I'm very happy to have a number of blogs.

The three week period of mourning leading to the 9th of Av and the fasting we do on that day are to remind us that our Land was invaded and Holy Temples destroyed.

Here we are over two thousand years later, and thank the Good Lord we are in a Jewish State. OK, true we do have enemies who unabashedly proclaim their plans to destroy us. As the world stands silently by, rather déjà vu, we have managed to miraculously defeat them time again.

There are even Jews who consider the status quo to be sufficiently good to mandate the cancellation of the fasting and mourning. I would certainly not go that far. I think that observing the fasting and mourning from the 17th of Tammuz to the 9-10th of Av as a still very necessary warning.

The commemoration of the tragedies to to make us remember, a reminder that even a Holy Temple built of heavy stone as grand as the one Herod built can be destroyed. Just read the Torah portion and Haftara our sages chose for the 9th of Av:

Complete Tisha B'Av Service, ArtScroll 

Dvarim 4:25When you beget children and children's children, and you will be long established in the land, and you become corrupt and make a graven image, the likeness of anything, and do evil in the eyes of the Lord your God, to provoke Him to anger,		דברים ד, כהכִּי תוֹלִיד בָּנִים וּבְנֵי בָנִים וְנוֹשַׁנְתֶּם בָּאָרֶץ וְהִשְׁחַתֶּם וַעֲשִׂיתֶם פֶּסֶל תְּמוּנַת כֹּל וַעֲשִׂיתֶם הָרַע בְּעֵינֵי יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ לְהַכְעִיסוֹ:
26I call as witness against you this very day the heaven and the earth, that you will speedily and utterly perish from the land to which you cross the Jordan, to possess; you will not prolong your days upon it, but will be utterly destroyed.		כוהַעִידֹתִי בָכֶם הַיּוֹם אֶת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֶת הָאָרֶץ כִּי אָבֹד תֹּאבֵדוּן מַהֵר מֵעַל הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר אַתֶּם עֹבְרִים אֶת הַיַּרְדֵּן שָׁמָּה לְרִשְׁתָּהּ לֹא תַאֲרִיכֻן יָמִים עָלֶיהָ כִּי הִשָּׁמֵד תִּשָּׁמֵדוּן:
27And the Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and you will remain few in number among the nations to where the Lord will lead you.		כזוְהֵפִיץ יְהֹוָה אֶתְכֶם בָּעַמִּים וְנִשְׁאַרְתֶּם מְתֵי מִסְפָּר בַּגּוֹיִם אֲשֶׁר יְנַהֵג יְהֹוָה אֶתְכֶם שָׁמָּה:

Complete Tisha B'Av Service, ArtScroll 

I think that the true, the real lesson of the 9th of Av is only effective if we take it as a warning. We shouldn't think that because we have a Jewish State today, which is one of the most successful countries in the world, that we will all live happily ever after. Life isn't that simple.

Our Kingdom was invaded, the Temples destroyed and we were exiled twice before.

The State of Israel is a good start, but we are still far from Redemption, far from the Messianic Era. We, the Jewish People, still suffer terrible internal strife. Although there are good Jews preparing for Kohen, Priestly, Worship at the Holy Temple, we have not yet begun building the Third Temple. We do have prayers in the Hebron Cave of the Patriarchs, but there is not yet Jewish Prayer on the Temple Mount.

The State of Israel still refuses to be sovereign on not only the Temple Mount but the entire Land of Israel.

We have such a long way to go unfortunately. I do see progress. There was a time, not all that long ago, when you couldn't even hear anyone mentioning the subjects. But still we must hurry before Gd loses patience with us and decides that we are to be exiled yet again.

Next year, Gd willing, may there be feasts, not fasts on the 9th of Av. Gd willing with full Jewish Sovereignty the Third Temple will appear as the building commences, like the Red Sea parted when Nachshon stepped in.

It's up to us!

Why THREE WEEKS to Commemorate Holy Temple?

This is also posted on Israel Blogger.

Today's the fast of the 17th of Tammuz. It's the official start of what is known as "the Three Weeks," a time of national Jewish mourning that actually observed for twenty-two days. The tragedy we mourn is greater than the destruction of both Holy Temples, which took place the same time of the year. The real tragedies were the invasion and conquering of Jerusalem by enemy powers and our loss of Jewish sovereignty.

• It's not enough just to fast twenty-five hours, like Yom Kippur, on the 9th of Av. 
• It's not enough just to fast on the 9th of Av and then continue mourning customs until noontime the following day.
• And it's not enough to just observe nine days of extreme mourning, from Rosh Chodesh Av until the 9th or noontime on the 10th.

We begin the period of mourning on the 17th of Tammuz, three full weeks before the 9th of Av even though historically we can justify beginning a week to more earlier. 

That's because the destruction of our Holy Temple and the conquest and occupation of Jerusalem and the rest of the Land of Israel and the exile of the Jewish People and the end of the Jewish Monarchy did not happen in one day or battle. It was a long process, and it took much longer than the three weeks we carve out of the Jewish Year to commemorate and remember these horrendous events.

We are commanded to remember that this great tragedy was really a series of events. The earliest causes are probably forgotten by now and can't be accurately documented. At the time, they most probably weren't even considered serious or worthy of worry. But little by little they chipped away at Jewish Monarchy, sovereignty and the Holy Temple built to worship Gd.

That is why I, and others, are so worried about the creeping dependence the State of Israel has on the United States. We must remember that we can't rely of foreign countries for our security. Our greatest victories were when we had no foreign allies, because we have Gd. 

And this is the true message of the Three Weeks, bookended by two fast days. We must remember that what may appear harmless, benign may very well be the beginning of a great tragedy, Gd forbid. It is always time to "recalibrate" and get on the right track. 

Remember that just three weeks after the 9th of Av begins the Month of Elul when we are reminded to do Teshuva, repent before Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

Reflecting on "Tisha B'Av," What Makes Me Sad...

Photographed by me 9/2014 when on
Har Habayit, the Temple Mount. These are not from the
destroyed Holy Temples. This is how the Muslims treat
our holiest site. (Photo by Batya Medad)

It's now Tisha B'Av, the 9th of the Jewish month of Av, but to be a stickler, I must say that it's really the 10. The 9th was Shabbat, and the Fast of Tisha B'Av has been postponed to the 10th. Today is considered the saddest day in the Jewish Calendar, a twenty-five 25 hour complete fast, no bathing, no clean clothes, no comfort.

Today at a Tisha B'Av class discussion in my Shiloh neighborhood, we were asked what makes us sad on this day. What do we mourn? I don't think that my answer was the one the teacher was expecting or hoping for. I'll tell you here what I mourn:

(Photo by Batya Medad)

(Photo by Batya Medad)

At this point, I don't really mourn the two destroyed Holy Temples. I mourn, or best described as in pain about something else. It pains me that after almost seventy 70 years of an Independent State of Israel, a half a century since the miraculous Six Days War in which with the Help of Gd the IDF liberated Har Habayit, the Temple Mount, we haven't yet built the Third Temple. And even worse,  we have ceded all sovereignty of the Temple Mount to the Wakf.

(Photo by Batya Medad)

In addition, entrance to Jews is very restricted, and it's davka our army and police that make sure that we are inspected in ways that non-Jews aren't. Even worse, Jews are forbidden to pray on the Temple Mount. Where is the basic civil right of "freedom of religion?"

Jews on the Temple Mount are restricted to small groups and escorted, like the KGB at the time of the USSR and North Korea today, by our soldiers, not to protect us, but to prevent Jewish Prayers!

(Photo by Batya Medad)

In June 1967, when the three Arab armies, Egypt, Syria and Jordan surrendered to the IDF after their unsuccessful war to destroy the State of Israel, we should have immediately declared full sovereignty over the Temple Mount and begun serious plans to build the Third Temple. It's very possible that if we had started the process of learning and planning, then the Holy Temple would have miraculously materialized.

Many Jews insist that Gd will create the Holy Temple, and it will suddenly appear, but I think that they are mistaken. The Temple will not just suddenly appear. Just like Nachshon had to step in the Red Sea for Gd to miraculously open and make a safe dry path for the Jewish People to cross when leaving Egypt, we must make the first daring step and begin to clear away the Muslim presence and begin to build a Third Temple. And only then will the Holy Temple miraculously appear. Gd willing may it be soon, speedily in our day...

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!!

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

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!!

The Jewish Calendar: More Awful News During the Tragic "Three Weeks"

"View of Mikdash from East to West, dominated by the gold facade of the Main Sanctuary (Heichal), as described by Josephus." (Temple model built by Catriel Sugarman)

"View of the Azara as one looks South East. Part of the Achsadra (porticos) which surround the Azara in the Sha'ar HaMayim (Water Gate) with its second story can be seen, as can be the Kiyur (copper laver), and part of the Great Altar where the sacrifices were burnt. In the distance is the East side of the Nicanor Gate."

Ten years ago, Disengagement was added to the list of tragedies that happened during the "Three Weeks" between the 17th of Tammuz and the 9th of Av." And now, the already notorious Obama-Nuclear Iran Deal has joined the list.

The Jewish Calendar is an amazing combination of the solar and lunar calendars calculated to keep Jewish Holidays in the correct season. The fact that Jewish Holidays must be in the right season according to the Holy Land, the Land of Israel is an important proof of our eternal connection to the Land. Judaism cannot be fully practiced/observed any other place in the world. Many of the Mitzvot, Torah Commandments by G-d to the Jewish People can only be observed here in the Holy Land.

Not only joyous holidays are connected to the Land, but the days of mourning are, too. It was in the midst of the difficult dry summer heat, thousands of years ago when Jerusalem was attacked and finally our Temple (actually both First and Second Holy Temples hundreds of years apart) were destroyed in this very season in drawn out battles. The destruction was completed on the Tenth of the Month of Av, and this year the fast day, traditionally the Ninth 9th of Av will be on the tenth because of Shabbat. We do not fast on Shabbat except for Yom Kippur, which is the only holiday (or fast day) that can override Shabbat.

Following are a list of tragedies that happened during the Three Weeks (Chabad site.)

The list of tragedies associated with this time period is overwhelming. Tammuz 17, the day which starts these three weeks, is the same day when, in the year 1313 BCE, the tablets containing the Ten Commandments were broken.1On that same day, some 1380 years later, the legions of Rome breached the walls of Jerusalem after a 30-month siege. For three weeks the battle raged in Jerusalem, until the city was vanquished, the Holy Temple destroyed and the Jewish people driven into exile. Thus we entered the state of galut (physical and spiritual displacement) in which we still find ourselves today.2And yet, this was only the beginning.
Three tragic weeks later we arrive at Tisha B’Av, the 9th of Av. Predominantly known as the day on which both the first and second Holy Temples were destroyed—the First Temple by the Babylonians in 423 BCE, and the Second Temple by the Romans in 69 CE—the Ninth of Av is also associated with many other horrific events, preceding the destruction of the Temples and continuing until the present.3(By a cruel irony, the day originally chosen by the Israeli government for the expulsion of thousands of men, women and children from their homes in Gush Katif and the other settlements in the Gaza Strip fell within the Three Weeks. But that date was changed due to tremendous pressure from Jews the world over, aghast that the government of Israel would add to the list of our sufferings during this tragic period.)

Temple Mount Today, Photo by Batya Medad

Temple Mount Today, Photo by Batya Medad

So, it's no real surprise that the Kerry-Obama brokered "deal" with Iran was signed by the so-called free world during the Three Weeks. According to ouir Sages, there are no random coincidences. The timing is always Siyate d'Shmaya, in the Hand of Gd. This "deal" is another sign in the descent of the Western "free" World as we've known it for the past century. There is definitely a steep decline in the power of the United States, and this is further proof.

My Arab customers in the Yafiz Shoe Store, Sha'ar Binyamin usually ask me if the shoes are "originals" or "made in China." My standard reply is that the "originals" are from China, because China today has the strongest economy in the world. They produce everything. That is further proof that the American-European alliance is in a decline.

And someday, not too far off, when all this news about Iran and China and Obama will be history, the Jewish People will reunite and build the Third Holy Temple. And then the Three Weeks, from the 17th of Tammuz until the 9th of Av will be a period of joy and celebration, G-d willing!

Temple Mount Today, Photo by Batya Medad

Temple Mount Today, Photo by Batya Medad

Temple Mount Today, Photo by Batya Medad

Ninth of Av, When Will We Ever Learn?

As I thought that I had read of enough Kinot, those sad, depressing elegies said on Tisha B'Av, the ninth day of the Jewish Month of Av, which is the date so many awful things happened to the Jewish People over the millennium, I turned on the television news.

Protection doesn't come from the Iron Dome, which only works when G-d wants it to.
Photo, Times of Israel

Oy, this year with a war going on and the three Israeli Hebrew news channels just broadcasting war news, I don't have to worry about catching a musical or comedy. I find the news much less pleasant than the most depressing readings in my special Tisha b'Av siddur.

One commentator was saying that the Arab terrorist group Hamas which controls/rules/was elected to govern Gaza is or will be telling everyone that they are the victors over Israel. They could have gone on, but Israel gave up. They won the war. Unfortunately, I agree with them. We blinked first, and we blinked on numerous occasions.

• We blinked when we sent out the warning notices to protect innocent civilians in Gaza.
• We blinked when our pilot turned back and didn't bomb a building, because he saw there were children there.
• We blinked when we suggested or agreed to ceasefires.
• We blinked when we sent in food and medical supplies.
• We blinked when we took in injured Gazans to our medical facilities.

We blinked as if we were having some sort of neurological fit/attack. The State of Israel has not acted in a way to prove to the world that we want to protect our country, our innocent civilians and our children, spouses, siblings, nephews, grandchildren, neighbors, friends who are the soldiers in the IDF. Our government has forgotten their basic main responsibility, which is to protect us!

Yossi Beilin  Photo: AFP/GETTY

At one point on television I thought I was listening to Yossi Beilin, one of the extreme Leftists involved in the illegal, although later ratified, Oslo Accords. It was just that the speaker seemed a bit too young to be him.

Danny Ayalon

The speaker, who ended up being Danny Ayalon, was talking about controlling Gaza by bringing in "effective, reliable monitors" to police it. His suggestions of Egypt and Abbas's Fatah had me wondering about his sanity. Or could I have been hallucinating? Just a very short while ago Egypt was in total turmoil, political and security anarchy. How could anyone be sure that they would be up to such a job. They are happy that Fatah is in Gaza with Israel getting the brunt of their terrorism. And how could anyone forget that just days before things "exploded" here, Fatah and Hamas signed a treaty? I found a recent CNN interview in which he described some of his ideas.

There is a very basic flaw in his reasoning, and that is "projection," when one projects their own values on other people. Israelis, especially on the Left or Center use this as the basis of their belief that we can live in peace with the Arabs, because, according to their theory, your typical Arab has the same wish for a peaceful coexistence. They keep blacking-out, deleting from their minds the pictures of Arab mothers celebrating the suicide bombings and other terror attacks by their children, because they resulted in the deaths of Jews.

In the Tisha B'Av prayers, Eicha, Kinot etc we read that G-d punishes us for worshiping foreign gods and false prophets. When will we ever learn....?

Tisha (9th of) B'Av, News,Kinot and Eicha, Lamentations all Blend into One

It's the Eve of the 9th of Av, Tisha B'Av, the culmination of three weeks of mourning for terrible tragedies that have happened to the People of Israel over the millennium on the same dates according to the Jewish Calendar.

I find that listening to the news and reading Eicha, Lamentations and Kinot all sound the same. There's a war going on here in Israel. I'm not quite sure that the name the government public relations department came out with is relevant today. First they called it an "operation," envisioning a short security "procedure," not some long dragged out war of attrition with dozens and dozens of dead IDF soldiers and the revelation to the country and world that the supposedly primitive Gazan Hamas Arab terrorists had built a very sophisticated maze-like network of tunnels leading from Gaza to various Jewish communities in the south.

Now there are reports that the government is trying to lure back residents who had fled by offering them more fortification and the stationing of elite IDF troops close by.

The government just doesn't get it. Israelis are sick and tired of this cycle of wars and ceasefires. We want to do the job and destroy our enemies to the point of surrender. Instead the government is strengthening the terrorists by giving them chances to reload. Even worse, we are feeding them and giving them medical supplies. I wish this was a joke. But remember that on Tisha b'Av, we must be serious, mourn and study the tragedies that have befallen us.

The Government Press Office (GPO), today (Monday, 4 August 2014), held a foreign press tour, for two dozen media crews, of Kerem Shalom Crossing, where hundreds of trucks laden with food, medicines and fuel enter the Gaza Strip as humanitarian aid.

In the last 24 hours, many such trucks have entered the Gaza Strip. The Israel Electric Corp. has joined the effort and today delivered ten generators to UNRWA.

The deputy head of security at the crossing, Yair Ben Or, briefed the journalists and explained the daily routine at the crossing: "The crossing has operated continuously throughout Operation Protective Edge. Our employees have worked under daily mortar fire in order to provide necessary equipment to the Gaza Strip. Most of the supplies are medicines, bedding, clothing, agricultural produce and medical equipment."

It's obvious that we have lost our moral compass. As Jews the arrow is supposed to point to G-d and the Torah. We aren't supposed to make helping our enemies and trying to impress antisemites, foreign leaders etc. We are supposed to have ourselves, our country as numero uno, number one priority. If not, we will lose the Land, G-d forbid. That is the reason we are required to read these depressing texts on this day, while our stomachs are protesting that they want more...

We are reminded that the rich can lose it all if that is what G-d wants. Eicha איכה Lamentations Chapter 1:

ג  גָּלְתָה יְהוּדָה מֵעֹנִי, וּמֵרֹב עֲבֹדָה--הִיא יָשְׁבָה בַגּוֹיִם, לֹא מָצְאָה מָנוֹחַ; כָּל-רֹדְפֶיהָ הִשִּׂיגוּהָ, בֵּין הַמְּצָרִים.  {ס}	3 Judah is gone into exile because of affliction, and because of great servitude; she dwelleth among the nations, she findeth no rest; all her pursuers overtook her within the straits. {S}
ד  דַּרְכֵי צִיּוֹן אֲבֵלוֹת, מִבְּלִי בָּאֵי מוֹעֵד--כָּל-שְׁעָרֶיהָ שׁוֹמֵמִין, כֹּהֲנֶיהָ נֶאֱנָחִים; בְּתוּלֹתֶיהָ נּוּגוֹת, וְהִיא מַר-לָהּ.  {ס}	4 The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn assembly; all her gates are desolate, her priests sigh; her virgins are afflicted, and she herself is in bitterness. {S}
ה  הָיוּ צָרֶיהָ לְרֹאשׁ אֹיְבֶיהָ שָׁלוּ, כִּי-יְהוָה הוֹגָהּ עַל רֹב-פְּשָׁעֶיהָ; עוֹלָלֶיהָ הָלְכוּ שְׁבִי, לִפְנֵי-צָר.  {ס}	5 Her adversaries are become the head, her enemies are at ease; for the LORD hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions; her young children are gone into captivity before the adversary. {S}
ו  וַיֵּצֵא מן בת- (מִבַּת-) צִיּוֹן, כָּל-הֲדָרָהּ; הָיוּ שָׂרֶיהָ, כְּאַיָּלִים לֹא-מָצְאוּ מִרְעֶה, וַיֵּלְכוּ בְלֹא-כֹחַ, לִפְנֵי רוֹדֵף.  {ס}	6 And gone is from the daughter of Zion all her splendour; her princes are become like harts that find no pasture, and they are gone without strength before the pursuer. {S}
ז  זָכְרָה יְרוּשָׁלִַם, יְמֵי עָנְיָהּ וּמְרוּדֶיהָ--כֹּל מַחֲמֻדֶיהָ, אֲשֶׁר הָיוּ מִימֵי קֶדֶם; בִּנְפֹל עַמָּהּ בְּיַד-צָר, וְאֵין עוֹזֵר לָהּ--רָאוּהָ צָרִים, שָׂחֲקוּ עַל מִשְׁבַּתֶּהָ.  {ס}	7 Jerusalem remembereth in the days of her affliction and of her anguish all her treasures that she had from the days of old; now that her people fall by the hand of the adversary, and none doth help her, the adversaries have seen her, they have mocked at her desolations. {S}

Waking Up to Horrific News, Hadar Goldin, HaYa"D

Hadar Goldin, HaYa"D (family)

Yes, I'm up early after little sleep and that's the news. From everything the IDF has been able to find out, Hadar Goldin, HaYa"D was killed in battle and left on the field.

Hadar's twin and sister
(from my tv screen)

The last thing I saw last night on television, or the last image I have in my mind is of his twin brother stating that he feels that Hadar is alive.  If Hadar was dead, he'd feel it.  I was convinced, certainly more convinced than I was of the well-prepped statements of the families, especially the mothers of the three kidnapped boys just over a month ago when they would fill our screens with yearnings to have their boys back home.

I went to bed pretty late last night, and like everyone else, I barely slept hoping and praying to wake up to good news this morning. But our news just gets blacker and blacker. This is not the summer vacation people had been planning.

We are now in the period of the Jewish Calendar that has too much historic precedent as a time of bad news. It's the beginning of the Month of Av, and we are now in the week of Tisha (the 9th of) b'Av, the most mourning and restrictive of fast days. The restrictions are similar to that of Yom Kippur, but instead of inspiring prayers, we read of tragedies, איכה Aicha, Lamentations:

א  אֵיכָה יָשְׁבָה בָדָד, הָעִיר רַבָּתִי עָם--הָיְתָה, כְּאַלְמָנָה; רַבָּתִי בַגּוֹיִם, שָׂרָתִי בַּמְּדִינוֹת--הָיְתָה, לָמַס.  {ס}	1 How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! How is she become as a widow! She that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary!{S}
ב  בָּכוֹ תִבְכֶּה בַּלַּיְלָה, וְדִמְעָתָהּ עַל לֶחֱיָהּ--אֵין-לָהּ מְנַחֵם, מִכָּל-אֹהֲבֶיהָ:  כָּל-רֵעֶיהָ בָּגְדוּ בָהּ, הָיוּ לָהּ לְאֹיְבִים.  {ס}	2 She weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks; she hath none to comfort her among all her lovers; all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they are become her enemies. {S}
ג  גָּלְתָה יְהוּדָה מֵעֹנִי, וּמֵרֹב עֲבֹדָה--הִיא יָשְׁבָה בַגּוֹיִם, לֹא מָצְאָה מָנוֹחַ; כָּל-רֹדְפֶיהָ הִשִּׂיגוּהָ, בֵּין הַמְּצָרִים.  {ס}	3 Judah is gone into exile because of affliction, and because of great servitude; she dwelleth among the nations, she findeth no rest; all her pursuers overtook her within the straits. {S}
ד  דַּרְכֵי צִיּוֹן אֲבֵלוֹת, מִבְּלִי בָּאֵי מוֹעֵד--כָּל-שְׁעָרֶיהָ שׁוֹמֵמִין, כֹּהֲנֶיהָ נֶאֱנָחִים; בְּתוּלֹתֶיהָ נּוּגוֹת, וְהִיא מַר-לָהּ.  {ס}	4 The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn assembly; all her gates are desolate, her priests sigh; her virgins are afflicted, and she herself is in bitterness. {S}
ה  הָיוּ צָרֶיהָ לְרֹאשׁ אֹיְבֶיהָ שָׁלוּ, כִּי-יְהוָה הוֹגָהּ עַל רֹב-פְּשָׁעֶיהָ; עוֹלָלֶיהָ הָלְכוּ שְׁבִי, לִפְנֵי-צָר.  {ס}	5 Her adversaries are become the head, her enemies are at ease; for the LORD hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions; her young children are gone into captivity before the adversary. {S}

It's a wake up call.

And we must listen.

Since June 1967 when the three Arab armies surrendered to the IDF after just six days of fighting, trying to destroy the State of Israel, our military experts have believed the myth that we are invincible. That is a very serious mistake on our part. That mistake caused the Arabs to attack just six years later on Yom Kippur, 1973.

Our victory in 1967 was a miracle. All military experts from all over the world say it outright.  It wasn't because the State of Israel and the IDF were stronger and more superior than the Egyptian, Jordanian and Syrian armies. Israel's battle plan at the time was just to preserve status quo and if add any land, it was just to be in Jerusalem, so we would have access to the "Wailing Wall, " the Western Wall, the Kotel,  of the Hordus expanded Temple Mount. G-d interfered and helped Israel win a decisive victory. Since then we have sinned by not embracing the gifts of our Land that G-d had given us.

We have another chance to repent. We must fight this war as a war for survival and not as if we're playing a game of Touch Football for Kids. Let's start fighting like soldiers and not like cricket players! 

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.