Arab Terror Against Israel is Becoming a Shabbat Routine

It seems that every single week when I turn on the computer after Shabbat I discover that the Arab terrorists attempted/succeeded in attacking Israel, destroying the fragile quiet (forget about the impossible to achieve peace) we desperately crave and need.

Of course the Arab terrorists choose Shabbat to attack.  They know that our defenses are down and we're recharging our spiritual batteries. They know that the police, hospitals and army are in "Shabbat mode." It's no great security secret.  In 1973 when Egypt and Syria planned their well-coordinated attack to totally destroy us, they chose  the "Shabbat of Shabbatot," the holiest day in the Jewish Calendar, Yom Kippur. Not only weren't we ready, but our politicians running the country were fanatics in the belief that after Israel's great victory in the 1967 Six Days War the Arabs would never attack us ever again.

Luckily G-d didn't desert us, and after a very painful war we were victorious.

No doubt it's G-d that directs the Arab missiles to miss homes and Jews during these Shabbat attacks and has them land in "No injuries were reported and the IDF was searching for pieces of the rocket." and "No injuries were reported and the IDF was searching for remnants of the rocket. Earlier in the evening, a rocket landed in Hof Ashkelon and caused no injuries. " That's the phrase used time after time.

Strangely, there's an additional report in the Jewish Press from the Taspit News Agency.

Terrorists Caught Infiltrating into Itamar Approaching the anniversary of the Fogel family massacre, the IDF caught 4 armed Arabs trying to infiltrate into the town of Itamar on Friday night.
On Friday night four terrorists were caught trying to infiltrate into the town of Itamar, in the Shomron. An IDF lookout saw four suspicious figures approaching the town and sent out a unit to search for the suspects. The IDF caught three of the infiltrators who immediately surrendered, while a fourth tried to run away and was also caught. The terrorists were armed with knives, and equipment for breaking into homes. They were brought in for interrogation. Read more at: http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/terrorists-caught-infiltrating-into-itamar/2014/02/15/

Why hasn't any other site reported it?

Arutz 7

Terrorists in Hamas-controlled Gaza fired a rocket at southern Israel on Friday evening.
The rocket exploded in an open area in the Hof Ashkelon Region. There were no physical injuries or damages. The “Red Alert” siren was heard in surrounding communities before the explosion, forcing local residents into shelters.
Rocket attacks have been on the increase in recent days, especially after Hamas gave terrorists the "green light" to open fire at Israel by withdrawing its forces that were deployed to prevent such rocket fire.
On Monday, two rockets were fired at southern Israel. The first one, on Monday afternoon, exploded in an open field near the Ashkelon coast. No physical injuries or damages were reported.
Later that evening, Gaza-based terrorists fired another rocket at southern Israel.

My gut feeling is that they don't care. All these Arab terror attacks, successful or otherwise are just becoming too routine.  It's  the difference between dog bites man versus man bites dog in the news world. The media loves to harp on anything that shows Jewish reactions to Arab terror and exaggerates it into alleged "Jewish terrorism," sic.

For Israelis living in Israel's south, Shabbat has become particularly stressful.  The Iron Dome isn't the cure. We need to totally destroy the terrorist network until they beg us declaring their unconditional surrender, and we must accept it and take over and strictly govern them. Only that will bring us peace, true peace.

Remembering... Forty Years Since The Yom Kippur War, A Grave Reminder

It's now forty years plus since the Yom Kippur War, which took place in 1973.  The big lesson from that war should be that all of the political ideological "conceptions," theories, wishful thinking that were believed like a religion by the Israeli government, IDF etc. were dangerously false.

Israeli policy and defense were based on the fallacy that after our great victory in June, 1967, the Arabs wouldn't dare attack us again and that we'd be able to negotiate a real peace treaty by offering generous portions of the land we had inadvertently found ourselves "occupying."

The two-pronged Arab attack on Yom Kippur 1973 was a rude awakening which the Israeli mentality has never fully understood.  The war was a very deadly one.  We, from North American Betar, lost two close friends and still meet every winter by their graves in Mount Herzl Military Cemetery.

Time doesn't stand still for the living.  Grandchildren our dead friends also come to the annual Azkarah, Remembering Ceremony.  They give the dead life.

The only thing that doesn't seem to change is Israeli policy. Our governments are still convinced that that can somehow bribe our enemies into a peace treaty by handing over Land.  The "movers and shakers" haven't progressed since the "battle plans" of the 1967 Six Days War which just concentrated on preserving the status quo of the Auschwitz borders, which were the cease-fire lines of 1949.

For some totally illogical reason, there are Israelis who actually believe that we could survive with a version of those borders.

The family and friends who come to honor the dead every year live all over Israel, from the north to the south to the east to the west, in areas always part of the State of Israel and those liberated in June 1967.  Every year the IDF soldiers assigned to our Azkara are impressed and amazed by the fact that we still get together every single year.  It doesn't matter how busy we are, what's going on in our lives, we make every effort to visit the dead and then sit together catching up and remembering.

It saddens and frightens us that most Israelis refuse to accept reality.  We met as teenagers in Betar, the Revisionist Jabotinsky zionist youth movement.  We learned young that we can't trust the mainstream zionist leadership.  Nothing is new.

Peace won't come from American brokered negotiations, nor giving Arab terrorists more precious land. The Arabs just want us dead, and then they will destroy the State of Israel and defile the cemeteries. The world will just look on and add exhibits to their holocaust museums.  G-d forbid...

The USA Endangers Israeli Security

For decades now, ever since between the 1967 Six Days War and the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Israeli Governments have been trusting the United States with top-secret military information and asking its advice. This is a terribly dangerous policy. Two reasons:

• American and Israeli agendas aren't identical.
• The United States has absolutely no experience, nor success, in defeating enemies which aim to destroy it.  For the past fifty or so years, the American military hasn't fully defeated any army.  It got totally messed up in Vietnam and finally left with its tail between its legs.  Their experienes in Iraq and Afganistan aren't relevent for Israel's problems, nor are they all that successful.

This mistaken idea that the USA is Israel's trusted ally has been proven wrong time and again.  The friendship is terribly one-sided, and successive American presidents Perseid in  promoting policies that endanger the very existence of the State of Israel.  Unfortunately it is very hard for Israeli politicians to see and accept the truth.  They so desperately, dangerously and pathetically want us to be liked and have friends. For that we keep taking risks we shouldn't.  And that's why Israel didn't just bomb the Iranian nuclear reactor in its early stages, which it did decades ago under Menachem Begin's leadership in Iraq.  That sort of military action is only successful if it's a total surprise.  After years of public discussions about Iran's nuclear development, surprise is no longer on the menu.

Jewish Press

The Israeli Air Force probably was the source of a missile attack that destroyed a Syrian air base Thursday. The Israeli Air Force attacked and destroyed Hezbollah-bound SAM-8 missiles at a Syrian air base at the western port of Latakia early Thursday and apparently were the source of a later bombing of missiles near Damascus.
Read more at: http://www.jewishpress.com/news/israel-suspected-of-new-missile-attack-on-syrian-air-base/2013/10/31/

Apparently, Israeli authorities had confided with the Americans about military action against Syria, expecting total secrecy and discretion. The Americans blurted it out to the media angering (or was it just disappointing) Israel.

Israeli security needs are best handled by keeping secrets secret and not consulting with any outsiders.  Our greatest military victories were when we were alone.  Most people don't remember this, but in May and early June, 1967 while Jews all over the world and international sympathizers worried about the future of the State of Israel because of the vicious threats to annihilate it by Egypt and Syria, no foreign country nor the United Nations did anything to stop Egypt and Syria.  That should be a lesson, permanently engraved in our minds, psyches and policy.  Push comes to shove, we Israelis have no true reliable allies.  But we have G-d Who will protect us as long as we obey His Torah and Mitzvot.

Chodesh Tov and Shavua Tov

Have a Good Month and a Good Week

Judaism Made Simple

A few posts ago I mentioned that if I was to summarize Judaism with a few lines from the Torah, I'd pick these:

Genesis Chapter 12 בְּרֵאשִׁית א

א  וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָה אֶל-אַבְרָם, לֶךְ-לְךָ מֵאַרְצְךָ וּמִמּוֹלַדְתְּךָ וּמִבֵּית אָבִיךָ, אֶל-הָאָרֶץ, אֲשֶׁר אַרְאֶךָּ.	1 Now the LORD said unto Abram: 'Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto the land that I will show thee.
ב  וְאֶעֶשְׂךָ, לְגוֹי גָּדוֹל, וַאֲבָרֶכְךָ, וַאֲגַדְּלָה שְׁמֶךָ; וֶהְיֵה, בְּרָכָה.	2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and be thou a blessing.
ג  וַאֲבָרְכָה, מְבָרְכֶיךָ, וּמְקַלֶּלְךָ, אָאֹר; וְנִבְרְכוּ בְךָ, כֹּל מִשְׁפְּחֹת הָאֲדָמָה.	3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and him that curseth thee will I curse; and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.'

Yes, that's the gist of it.  The first line is amazingly full of meaning.
 Now the LORD said-This is not a human invented religion.
'Get thee out of thy country- You must change locations; you can't completely follow Judaism anyplace you wish.
from thy kindred/homeland/culture- They are the false ones.  It's not enough just to move.  You must change your way of doing things.  Don't demand/expect Israel to be America.
from thy father's house- My demands override your father's.  Your father should also live according to my rules, the mitzvot. 
unto the land that I will show thee.- There is only one Land you should live in.

And when we obey G-d's commands, He will make us a great nation and bless us.

I'll never forget how alone the State of Israel was in the spring of 1967.  At the time, no country or foreign leader claimed to be our friend and ally.  It was just like in 1948; they were expecting us to be defeated.  And just like in 1948, we were miraculously victorious.  Our only ally was the most important one, the One Who is all powerful and able to make the few defeat the many.  Yes, I'm referring to G-d.

Unfortunately in a sense, this great victory in the 1967 Yom Kippur War made the State of Israel more internationally popular and and it also made many  Israelis believe the praise being heaped on it.  Instead of growing closer to G-d, Israeli leaders took credit for the victory and thanked Tzahal, the IDF Israeli army.

And then in 1973, we were given another chance to prove ourselves.  We failed.  We believed the politicians and not the facts on the ground. All of the signs of impending war were explained away by our "experts" and foreign friends.  The Yom Kippur War was the worst one yet.  We were close to defeat, but instead of fighting to destroy the enemy and praying to G-d, the Israeli Government begged the Americans for assistance.  The American Government didn't want us to destroy Egypt and Syria, so they controlled the outcome to a "safe standstill." 

 And I will bless them that bless thee, and him that curseth thee will I curse; - Those three countries involved in the 1973 Yom Kippur War are all in forms of crises today, Syria, Egypt and the United States.  G-d has been giving us more and more chances to repent.  I guess that G-d doesn't want us to start all over again. We had been exiled for two thousand years, and the State of Israel is a great success in many ways.  We do have the potential for the greatness G-d created us for.  I didn't end the previous sentence with "G-d willing," because I believe that the impetus of the Redemption will be through our free will and not G-d's maneuvering. 

May we see our beautiful Land built up and full of Jews who observe the Mitzvot according to G-d's instructions.

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.

Shimon The Dangerous Peres, Wrong Again

Hat tip: Rafi, Life in Israel

President Shimon Peres,
2012 President Conference
Photo Batya Medad

40 years have passed. Most of Israel's citizens did not personally experience the shock of the fearful siren, wailing up and down, that at 2 PM ripped through the silence of the holiness of Yom Kippur. The nation was wrapped then in its fast, gathered in the synagogues, or in the privacy of their homes. The gates of heaven were not open that day, the prayers were not answered, the war broke out. The fire was on two fronts, the north and the south, by the time the siren sounded, the first soldiers had already fallen. Israel had made a mistake and was surprised, and her children gave their lives with amazing heroism and saved it from the valley of tears.  -- President Shimon Peres, at memorial ceremony on Har Herzl for the fallen soldiers of the Yom Kippur War

Israelis, like many other people tend to credit themselves and other humans for good things and blame G-d for the bad.  I see like in the complete opposite direction. We humans tend to misuse our gift of Free Will and make the wrong decisions.  I'm not talking about buying the wrong color dress,  a boring book or even a lemon  of a car.  I'm talking about dangerous things, like the Israeli Government decisions that caused the horrendous death toll in the first days of the 1973 Yom Kippur War and almost caused the destruction of the State of Israel.

Immediately after the 1967 Six Days War, the country was filled with signs thanking the IDF for the victory, even though the great victory bore no relation to the battle plans.  In simple terms, G-d took over steering the ship.  While the Israeli Labor-ked Government had always made it clear that it was perfectly satisfied with the Land under Israeli control since the 1949 ceasefire, G-d decided otherwise.  And instead of recognizing that G-d knows more than man, successive Israeli governments for the past forty-six 46 years have been begging the Arabs to take back the Land we won in a fighting for our lives and existence defensive war in exchange for a "peace treaty."

Shimon Peres personifies that faulty reasoning.  For whatever reason, G-d has made him one of the last, if not the very last of that generation that refuses to accept G-d's will.  And Peres, instead of recognizing and admitting his mistakes has continued for almost half a century taking credit for our survival and promoting his faux peace.

I'm not as optimistic as MK Elkin who thinks that Israelis have "sobered up" and recognize the futility of their quest for peace.

I think a serious step would be when we hear Israeli and Jewish leaders thank G-d for stopping the Holocaust and blaming human free will for causing the death of millions.  All of this philosophy and history are related.  That's the key.  We're still stuck in the syndrome of the "Sin of the Spies," when ten out of the twelve tribal leaders feared the challenges of liberating aka conquering the Promised Land, and they sold their faulty opinion to the masses of recently enslaved Jews.  It seems we're still sentenced to wander the desert and await a Joshua to lead us into Jewish Sovereignty in the Holy Land.

The 1973 Yom Kippur War, Israel's Greatest Moment

Most people consider the 1967 Six Days War to be Israel's greatest victory.  It was miraculous, cinematic, larger than life.  I remember it well.  But having also lived through the 1973 Yom Kippur War, I don't think the Six Days War was as great a victory.

In 1967, we had almost a full month of preparation, spiritual, emotional and military.  Of course as everyone knows, G-d changed the battle plans and even though the Israeli Government had ordered the IDF to preserve "status quo," we ended up liberating the Golan, Sinai, Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley.  The alternative was to end up a state destroyed, a postscript in history, drowning in the Mediterranean Sea as per the plans of Egypt, Syria and Jordan.

The 1967 pre-war tension and threats by the Arabs, especially Egypt, gave us time to prepare, the military and prayers of Jews all over the world. The result was a feeling of Israeli invincibility, causing the incorrect analysis of military intelligence data that almost caused the destruction of the State of Israel.  And an even more dangerous mistake in 1973 was relying on the United States of America.  In Israel's previous wars for survival we had no allies, the 1948 War for Independence and the 1967 Six Days War.

The two greatest dangers in 1973, each alone caused a potential of defeat, were haughty overconfidence and American "advice."

Israeli wars, unlike those in any other part of the world, involving all other nations, have a very strong element of G-d's Plan.  That means that classic military knowledge, training isn't what guides and predicts our victories and defeat, G-d forbid there should be a defeat.  Sending our top IDF officers to American training is a mistake.  They should be given time for religious training.  Our victories are supernatural.  By the time we civilians were breaking our Yom Kippur fast in 1973, it looked like the State of Israel would be history, but G-d helped us defeat our enemies.

Read these stories, Faith Under Fire, to see the miracles and heroes of the Yom Kippur War.

Countdown: 40 Years Since the 1973 Yom Kippur War

As a mother, I must admit that when it comes to that "The 40th Anniversary of the Yom Kippur War: A Global Conversation" (a facebook page to promote Yossi Klein's latest book) there's an element not everyone takes into account.  Those who were babies during the war are now forty years old.  My second daughter is one of them, meaning that I had two very young children to care for during the war.  We lived in Bayit V'Gan, Jerusalem at the time.  Here's the memory I posted to the site/page:

We were in Bayit v'Gan, Jerusalem. The shul was close enough to Har Herzl to hear the assembling buses. The siren went off just as my husband was about to go to shul for Mincha. Then we rushed down to the crowded miklat, shelter with our two very young daughters, and I had to find a way to explain to the elderly American neighbor, without panicking her that she needed to join us.

Memories get confused over the decades; remember that forty years is 4/5 of half a century.  So it's pretty accurate to say that the war took place almost half a century ago.  That must really sound like "ancient history" to many people.

Today Israel is an advanced high tech country, but forty years ago, we were much different.  Having a phone in one's apartment wasn't something one took for granted.  We were lucky, since we did have a phone.  My husband hadn't yet done his required army service.  He was scheduled to be drafted a few months later, so being contacted to go to the army wasn't a problem with us. 

Divisional commander Ariel Sharon  consulting with
Lt. Gen. Chaim Bar-Lev and other officers on the southern front
 (Photo credit: GPO/ Flash 90)

The standard call-up system of the time was coded messages on the radio, during the weather reports if I remember correctly.  Now, that wasn't a problem on weekdays, or even on Shabbat for the non-religious, but once the security experts in the Israeli Government finally realized that war was expected, how could they send out the messages when there was no radio on Yom Kippur, and nobody would even think about turning it on?

Somehow via the few phone calls that were made and answered, buses began to gather at central parking lots in towns and cities throughout Israel.  And when ordinary Israeli reservists heard the rumbling of the buses, they understood that there was a major emergency.  Life was in danger, Pikuach Nefesh, and radios were turned on as reservists awaited instructions.

In our apartment building, we heard the siren and began rushing down the stairs to the miklat, shelter.  I had never been in it before.  I had my infant in either a carriage or playpen and had the very difficult job of trying to get a very elderly English-speaking neighbor to join us.  The absolute quiet, as typical of Yom Kippur in that religious neighborhood made it hard to explain that we needed to be in  the shelter but reinforced that, at least at that moment, we were safe.

As details began to be revealed, Jerusalemites were amazed to find themselves in one of the safest parts of the country.  Prior to the 1967 Six Days War, Jerusalem had always been on the frontline, one awful exposed to enemy-fire border.  Sniper and terror attacks were an expected part of Jerusalem life until the Six Days War ended and the IDF liberated the rest of Jerusalem, plus Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley aka "the west bank*," sic.

One of the great miracles of the Yom Kippur War was the fact that Jordan's King Hussein opted out.   Our forces were spread so thin that we may never had survived if we had to fight on three fronts.  Among the stories I heard from my neighbors, whose husbands were serving in the army, in the playground, while we cared for our young children, was that we had garbage trucks draped with camouflage fabric "patrolling" the Jordan border.  The muffler was adjusted to make as much noise and fumes as possible to give the impression that they were dangerous fighting vehicles.  You can call them the "Davidkas" of Yom Kippur 1973.

The Davidka (Yiddish: דוידקה, "Little David") was a homemade Israeli mortar used in Safed and Jerusalem during the early stages of the 1948 Israeli War of Independence. Its bombs were reported to be extremely loud, but very inaccurate and otherwise of little value beyond terrifying opponents; they proved particularly useful in scaring away Arab forces. It is nominally classified as a 3 inch (76.2 mm) mortar, although the bomb was considerably larger.^[1][2]

Bli neder, no oath, more memories to come.

*When the late Morty Dolinsky was in charge of the Government Press Office in the 1980s, he once famously replied to a reporter, who asked for information about the West Bank, that he knew no West Bank as he banked at Leumi. Arutz 7

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.

The Threat From Syria

Thank G-d the IDF managed to liberate the Golan Heights during the 1967 Six Days War.  Without that crucial piece of land which overlooks and now protects northern Israel it's frightening to think of what could have happened to the State of Israel.  Whenever I hear/read of Israeli politicians and wannabes proposing negotiations  with Syria re: the "future of the Golan Heights," I feel sick.  How dumb and foolish these headline grabbers are...

Even though Israel defeated Syria twice, in 1967 and during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, the Syrians still unabashedly dream of destroying us. 

On May 10, Assad's leading Palestinian ally, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, said it was organizing attacks on Israeli positions in the Golan. PFLP-GC, sponsored by Damascus and financed by Iran, said it was recruiting Palestinians for combat missions. "The leadership of the PFLP-GC announces that it will form brigades to work on liberating all violated territories, first and foremost the occupied Golan," PFLP-GC said. "The Popular Front's leaders have opened the door to all Syrian citizens to volunteer in the formation of the resistance."

The Syrians not only "dream" of destroying Israel from the north; they are developing their military with Tel Aviv as their main target.

Screenshot/YouTube

Damascus has put a number of advanced weapons on standby to strike Israel, should Jerusalem hit targets inside Syria again, the UK’s Sunday Times reported Sunday.

According to the report, satellite images show Syria has readied its stock of Tishreen missiles for use against Tel Aviv.

We in Israel must keep that in mind.

Unfortunately, there are too many Leftists in positions of per and influence in Israel, and they get dangerously Pollyannaish about our enemies.  They believe that everyone has their "price" and "peace" is something you can buy with flattery and Land.  Due to their ideological orthodoxy, they consistently misinterpret our enemies.

According to the official, Israel has "underestimated" Assad's strength and the inner life force of the Syrian regime.
Currently, there are differing opinions within the defense establishment about what to expect in Syria and what outcome for its northern neighbor would benefit Israel.
The opinion that the fall of Assad and the assumption of power by the rebels would be good for Israel has become less popular recently, as it has emerged that the infiltration of extremist Jihad and al-Qaida elements is deeper and wider than was originally estimated.

These mistakes are nothing new.  That's how Syria and Egypt caught us totally unprepared on Yom Kippur 1973 when they simultaneously attacked from the north and south.  For the first few days of the Yom Kippur War, the State of Israel was in serious trouble of being destroyed.  I consider our victory then the greatest victory we ever had.

We can't just depend on miracles to save us.

"If Only..." A Book Review: "Letters to Talia" by Dov Indig

Considering the continued uncertainty in Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's coalition quest/negotiations, I see this as a good time to post my review of the English translation of the Israeli bestseller,  מכתבים לטליה Michtavim liTalya, Letters to Talia, by Dov Indig, HaYa"D.

I remember hearing about the book when it was first published in its original Hebrew, but as usual I let news of Hebrew books fly over my consciousness, since I don't expect to read them.  It's not that I don't read Hebrew at all.  My Hebrew is for labels, ads, my pay slip, letters and notices on the Shiloh email list, our weekly newsletter and the very occasional newspaper or magazine article.

I received Letters to Talia from Gefen Publishing House to review.  I don't remember if they mailed it to me or it was one of the books I picked up from them at the Jerusalem International Book Fair.  But it really doesn't matter how I got it, because it's a great book and I must tell you why.

First of all the translation by Yehuda Burdman is fantastic.  I have no idea how easily the original Hebrew read, but it was a true pleasure reading it in English.  I even carried the book around with me to take advantage of a few minutes' reading time here and there.  I don't normally do that.  My bags are always too full and my time too short for such a luxury.  But this book followed me around for the few days it took to complete reading it.

Now, what's it about?

Dear Dov,You must really be surprised to be receiving a letter from a girl you don’t know... Dov Indig was killed on October 7, 1973, in a holding action on the Golan Heights in Israel during the Yom Kippur War. Letters to Talia, published in his memory by family and friends, contains excerpts from an extensive correspondence Dov maintained with Talia, a girl from an irreligious kibbutz in northern Israel, in 1972 and ’73, the last two years of his life. At the time, Talia was a highschool student, and Dov was a student in the Hesder yeshiva Kerem B’Yavneh, which combines Torah study with military service. It was Talia’s father who suggested that
Talia correspond with Dov, and an intense dialogue developed between them on questions of Judaism and Zionism, values and education. Their correspondence continued right up to Dov’s death in the Yom Kippur War.  (Gefen)

While readying the book my mind was full of "if's."  The main "if" obviously is:

If only Dov Indig hadn't been killed in the 1973 Yom Kippur War...

Indig's analysis and predictions as to what would happen if Israel withdrew from our Land liberated in the 1967 Six Days War or what he expected would happen to the kibbutz movement, especially the secular ones, are so on target, that it's frightening.  We, Israel and the Jewish People, lost a great and brilliant talent.  There is no other way to describe him.  Yes, you must read the book to fully comprehend what a terrible loss it was to all of us as a People and Nation that he isn't with us today.

So many of the very best were killed in that terrible war in 1973.  My friends and I still mourn our Betar New York friends who were killed.  We get together every year at Mount Herzl to honor them.  From my perspective, having made aliyah with my husband in 1970, I can easily identify with Indig's friends who felt it vitally necessary to publish this correspondence.

I apologize for the fuzziness of the scan, but it is still worth trying to read this excerpt to get an idea of how perfectly Indig predicted the future:

Yes, everything Indig said about the secular kibbutz movement has happened.  That makes me even more curious about Talia, not her real name.  All that is revealed in the postscript is that after her National Service and subsequent army service, she returned to her kibbutz where she still lives.  In her letters, we discover that her best friend actually became religious, Talia is too attracted by the idea.  She's infatuated with Judaism and Dov.  In her last letter, which Dov most probably never read, she tells Dov that she will fast and go to a synagogue on Yom Kippur to pray for his safety.  It's too easy to imagine her disappointment even anger with G-d when she discovers that her prayers didn't protect Dov from death. 

Personally, I feel that Talia's decision to keep her identity a secret and not add a postscript to the book is the saddest thing of all.  We have no idea if Dov had a true positive influence on her.  It seems that she has rejected everything he stood for.  I hope I'm wrong.

I hope this has gotten you curious and highly recommend that you read the book.  It should be required reading by Jews of all ages, here in Israel and abroad.  It is perfect for book clubs and youth groups.

IDF, Bibi- It's Not Enough to "Intercept" Attacks

The best defense is a good offense!

"The best defense is a good offense" is an adage that has been applied to many fields of endeavor, including games and military combat. Generally the idea is that offensive action preoccupies the opposition and ultimately its ability to directly harm. Wikipedia

Destruction of the UAV

Courtesy: IDF Spokesman

We won't stop the attacks on Israel by "catching" and even destroying the missiles etc launched against us.  It's like the difference between shaving unwanted hairs and laser treatment or electrolysis.  Hairs will just keep on cropping up unless you destroy their source/root.

Yes, I know that some men like that "need a shave look," because there are those that say it looks virile, like uncontrollable testosterone.

It's not that I'm not relieved that the IDF has a defense system to intercept and destroy various missiles, drones etc.  I don't consider the Iron Dome to be a Messiah when it comes to Israeli security. With today's security situation it is necessary, but I'd like to get the the root of the problem.

Let's take a good look at this illustration of "how the iron dome works."  There are four stages listed.  Now, what is stage one?

#1 A rocket is fired at Israel from Gaza.

Yes, the source, the root is that there are terrorists firing rockets, missiles, weapons at Israel.  It doesn't matter how competent our "missile catchers/destroyers" are, because unless we stop stage one, we'll still be under attack.

I agree with National Union MK Michael Ben-Ari:

Amidst the praise being heaped on the IDF for shooting down a drone that penetrated Israeli airspace, one Knesset member thinks the congratulations are undeserved.
"The time has come for that the IDF Spokespersons to stop behaving like the spokesmen of the Syrian or Egyptian army, turning failures into successes," said MK Michael Ben Ari. (complete article)

We're making a big mistake concentrating on defense and ignoring a good offense. Israeli shouldn't be afraid of "first strike" attacking and destroying our enemies.  That was the main lesson we should have learned from the terrible price we paid thirty-nine 39 years ago during the Yom Kippur War.

The State of Israel was almost totally destroyed by Egypt and Syria, because political rather than military decisions were made.  We can't afford to keep on making the same mistakes.  We must destroy our enemies before they destroy us!

"Facts," Lies and the Moshiach

One of the recent Latma skits, a Caroline Glick project, centers on the distorted "numbers" when the Israeli media is "reporting" on anti-government  protests.  When low numbers are hard to hide to to the viewers they keep claiming that "many" have attended. "Many" can mean almost any number.



Ruthie Blum's latest article in Israel Hayom also mentions the reliability of stated facts. 

The late senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a former United States ambassador to the United Nations, once said, “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.”

...This was also at the root of Netanyahu’s reiteration of the number of Jews exterminated in the Holocaust — something that should be taken for granted by now. Instead, however, the only thing that seemed to be assumed this week was the attendance at the U.N. General Assembly of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose ambitions for nuclear and Islamist hegemony — proven repeatedly in word and deed — are being treated as “matters of opinion.”

So, after trying to set the facts straight, Netanyahu tried to tackle opposing opinions. “There are those who believe that a nuclear-armed Iran can be deterred like the Soviet Union,” he said. “That’s a very dangerous assumption. Militant jihadists behave very differently from secular Marxists. There were no Soviet suicide bombers. Yet Iran produces hordes of them. Deterrence worked with the Soviets, because every time the Soviets faced a choice between their ideology and their survival, they chose their survival. But deterrence may not work with the Iranians once they get nuclear weapons.”

Yom Kippur was his week, so the Israeli media had a number of programs on the 1973 war in which Israel was caught by surprise.  Our experts of the time were convinced that after our totally unexpected victory over Egypt, Syria and Jordan in 1967, the Arabs had learned their lesson and would never attack us again.  The Leftist ideologue politicians were still waiting for the Arabs to agree to take most of the Land we had liberated in "exchange for peace."

Every year more and more information is leaking out about the amount of security warnings that Israel had been getting about a military build-up against us prior to that 1973 Yom Kippur.  It has been revealed that our politicians were more afraid of being chastised by foreign governments and the United Nations for countering with a "first strike" than the Arab armies attacking our unprepared and fasting soldiers.

Here we are almost four decades later, and the curtains are up.  Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad doesn't even have to keep his plans secret.  The world doesn't care that his country is rapidly developing nuclear weapons and he plans on using them.  Israel isn't his only target.

Déjà vu, 1930's Germany, the world didn't care one iota that Hitler's Nazis were enforcing discriminatory policies against German Jews.  And they still didn't care when he started arresting and killing them.  European countries only woke up when the Nazi army invaded and took over.  The fact that simultaneously millions of Jews were being murdered was not something the allies took into account when fighting the Germans.

Yes, nothing's new.

The "world" won't "wake up" until we Jews lead the way.  Unfortunately, dangerously, we as a whole are still wimps when it comes to toughness.  Even when non-Jewish leaders take the lead, we don't know how to support them.  Ruthie Blum wrote more about Moynihan:

On Nov. 10, 1975, Moynihan stood up at the U.N. and denounced the “Zionism is Racism” resolution, calling it an “infamous act.” His forceful speech was considered controversial. U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger told him he should be “more diplomatic.” Even American Jews were slow to laud his performance. Other members of the diplomatic community shrugged at the resolution, saying its contents were “just words.”

“Words matter,” Moynihan retorted.

Last week there was a campaign for all Jews to pray at the same time for G-d to send the Moshiach, Messiah.  That afternoon a young women who was traveling with me on a bus tried to tell me about it.  I told her that it wouldn't help. 

"The Moshiach is here a lot.  He could be here right now.  The problem isn't that G-d hasn't sent him. the problem is with us, with people.  We keep rejecting him.  We have to be ready and accept G-d's orders and follow them."

There Are Plans, And There Are Plans

Just because Israel's Defense Forces have prepared to bomb Iran's nuclear facilities doesn't mean that the plans are truly operational.

Every single country has its military prepared for operations it may never order. In Hebrew, the term is "b'megurot," in the "drawer," or "closet."

Sometimes, to "shut up" military officers and keep them from nagging their superiors, they're given a unit or platoon of soldiers for their "pet" battle plans. This doesn't mean that the plans are taken seriously. It's just good management to let the overly dreaming officer play soldiers so he'll stop driving everyone nuts.

A classic case was in post Six Days War Israel, 1967. During the summer of 1973, my husband attended an unforgettable World Betar Convention. He told me that some of the older Israelis there were bragging about their IDF positions and history. Somebody got the late Gidon Shiponi to reveal his army reserves job:

"Arik Sharon and I are training men to cross the Suez Canal."

That sounded ridiculously far-fetched, even to Betarim, but that's the army, and that was Arik Sharon, and that was Gidon Shiponi. And that's probably why Arik was passed over for Ramat Kal, Chief of Staff.

Well, I don't know how many of you remember who had the last laugh.

Yom Kippur, October, 1973, Israel was shocked by coordinated attacks by Egypt and Syria, on our northern and southern fronts, the northern and southern June, 1967, cease-fire lines. Our army and politicians were in a frenzy of panic. All of our military experts had declared us invincible. We had been reassured over and over that the Arabs would never attack us again.

There was only one spot of calm, and that was Arik Sharon. He and his officers, including Shiponi of course, were fully prepared. They shocked Egypt by efficiently crossing the canal.

But I have no doubt, that most surprised were Sharon's superiors, including the politicians in the know, who had never expected those plans to go any further than some "reserve duty exercise."

The IDF file cabinets are full of "what if" plans, long past their possible usefulness. Every army has them. You have to be prepared for all possibilities. They're supposed to be kept top secret, since their effectiveness is severely reduced when the element of surprise is deleted.

It was once much easier for Israel to keep its secret plans secret. No foreign army was privileged to know anything. Israeli army officers didn't consult with foreign countries. Israel didn't ask permission. We were much stronger then.

Our security is endangered by the close contact, the close connections we now have with the United States. It's to our detriment and possible, G-d forbid, destruction. We should reject all American aid and advice. I don't want to be killed by kindness and Trojan Horses. I fear our "friends" more than our enemies.

G-d willing a Shavua Tov, A Good Week to us all.

Thirty-Five Years

Thirty-five years may be more than a lifetime for some of you. It's more than half of mine. I was a young mother of two thirty-five years ago when the Yom Kippur War "broke out."

What a strange verb to describe one of the most frightening and dangerous wars in the History of The State of Israel.

It was early Yom Kippur afternoon, and my husband was about to leave for Mincha (the afternoon prayer.) Suddenly we heard a siren. The stairwell was filled with neighbors rushing into the shelter. I was sent up to try to explain to an elderly woman, Bubby Willig, an English speaker, that she ought to join us, but I was told not to panic her.

We soon discovered that Israel had been attacked on two fronts, in the north by Syria and the south by Egypt. Our troops/soldiers (troops don't give it a personal enough sound) had been overrun, killed, captured. Israel was in mortal danger.

Miraculously, within a couple of weeks, we were victorious. It would have been easier if the government hadn't kept consulting wiht the Americans, who weren't really allies. For them it was a game trying to control all the fighting forces/armies. We did much better in the 1967 Six Days War on our own.

In the very early days of the war, our New York Betar friend, Chaim (Chuck Hornstien) Haran was killed. Almost two months later, yes after the ceasfire, Eli Solomon was killed by an Egyptian sniper. For many of us in the New York Betar crowd that made it that 100% of our friends who had fought were dead.

Since then, we gather at Har Herzl Military Cemetery every year. Now it's thirty-five years, and Baruch Hashem, bli eyin haraa, we were entertained by the antics of Eli's grandchildren. Afterwards we went to a friends' Jerusalem apartment where we toasted to:

"Friendship"

Bringing the World to Sderot

The Israeli Foreign Ministry is finally bringing foreign diplomats to see Sderot in all its damage. I guess that's part of the preparation to get NATO and other international support for the next useless war. I'm no pacifist, but if my sons are called up, I want them to fight to destroy the enemy, not לצמצם "l'tzamtzem," reduce their fire power.

I don't want foreigners involved giving us "support" with all the strings attached, like in 1973. We were almost destroyed, because Golda and Dayan kept waiting for the US to give equipment and the go ahead. Our victory was not the US's plan. In 1967, we did it alone* and in six days. *No foreign power, just G-d Almighty!

OK, I'm glad that the diplomats were brought to Sderot, and I hope they had the fright of their lives.

Foreign Ambassadors Visit Shell Shocked South But I don't want their help. Keep your strings to yourself. Try crocheting.

Can there really be peace?

Better question:
What is peace?
Can it be bought?

Taking a look at World History, we can see that "peace" has only been achieved after a war in which one side wins and wins big. The other surrenders and is willing to make peace. They're pragmatists. They have no choice.

The victorious side makes it clear that they'll hit even harder if the losers "try anything."

We, Israel, had that very chance in 1967. We were supposed to declare ourselves the victors and warn the Arabs that if they resumed the terrorism which had plagued the first nineteen years of the State of Israel, then their cities would be destroyed, and they'd be refugees in one of the three countries which had attacked Israel, Syria, Egypt or Jordan.

We were supposed to have immediately begun settling our Historic Homeland.
We were supposed to have immediately begun organized Jewish Prayers on Har HaBayit and then built a new Beit HaMikdash.

Actually, that's how Jordan's King Hussein understood it. He fought the terrorists, and he didn't join Egypt and Syria in the Yom Kippur War.

We had PEACE IN OUR HANDS, and then we gave the Key to Har HaBayit, the Temple Mount, to the Arabs, and we lost our chance for Peace. But then G-d was merciful, and in 1973, on Yom Kippur, the Arabs attacked again. A miracle happened, an even bigger miracle than in 1967, because we weren't prepared, not militarily, not psychologically, not spiritually. World Jewry weren't praying for us an entire month before the war began. It wasn't 1967, when the Arab leaders declared that they were going to drive us into the sea.

It was a regular Yom Kippur, and then suddenly bus drivers were called up, emergency. And then there was a siren, early afternoon, all over the country. Everyone went into emergency, war mode. Radios were turned on, and the men, reserve solders, listened for their codes to be broadcast, and suddenly, most of the male population, those in their twenties, thirties and early forties, of Israel were in their military uniforms and traveling to their bases, instead of wearing their white shirts and sitting in synagogue. They prayed and they fought, and G-d gave us a great miracle.

We crossed the canal and defeated the Egyptians, and we entered Syria and defeated them, too.
But again, it was rejected by Israel. We had PEACE IN OUR HANDS.

The same Israeli leadership which shot at Jews on the Altalena and handed over their fellow Jews to the British rejected True Peace.

The Israeli Government, cheered on by the Israeli media and "intellectuals," think that they can "buy peace" for Land.

The ordinary Israeli knows that something is wrong, but they have been trained to obey orders.
Do you remember the hue and cry just over two years ago, when Israeli solders were faced with the orders to exile, transfer innocent Jews from their homes?
They were told by the great moralists:

Obey orders! Follow the Laws legally and democratically passed in the Knesset!

Do you remember the hue and cry just a few weeks ago, when Israeli soldiers were ordered to throw Jewish families out of their home in Hebron?
They were told by the great moralists:

Obey orders! Follow the Laws legally and democratically passed in
the Knesset!

Those moralists would have told Yehuda HaMaccabee to be a "good Greek."
What's so moral about that?

There are times when we must follow our conscience and look for the moral compass inside of us. There are times we must take risks or we won't survive.

Avraham took his son to sacrifice, and Yitzchak lived. And we descend from them.

It is now just after Rosh Hashannah, and Yom Kippur is less than a week away. We must obey G-d's Laws and G-d's morality. Remember, because Avraham did so, Yitzchak survived and we exist today.

Gmar Chatimah Tovah