A Guide to The Kotel and Temple Mount

A Guide to The Kotel and Temple Mount is cross-posted on Israel Blogger.

Bibi's latest, of a very long, long list, capitulation to dangerous and ridiculous Leftist pro-Arab terrorist demands was the removal of the recently set up metal detectors to the Temple Mount for Arabs. As Paula Stern aka A Soldier's Mother has complained on facebook, not only do Jews, Christians and whatevers have to undergo demeaning "inspections" to get to the Temple Mount, where we're forbidden prayers, but just to go to the Kotel we go through metal detectors and our possessions are xrayed.

For those unfamiliar with the Old City of Jerusalem, the Kotel and Temple Mount, I'll explain a bit of the "geography." The Temple Mount is in the old walled City of Jerusalem. It's an "outer section." The "outer wall" of the Temple Mount is a section of the Old City Walls. The Kotel is a "support wall" of the Temple Mount, not the ancient Jewish Holy Temple, and an inner wall in the Old City. If you look at pre-1967 Six Days War photos you won't see anything like today's large impressive plaza. It was more like a narrow street where Jews gathered to pray by that wall.

In recent decades, since the 1967 war, not only has the State of Israel removed buildings to allow for massive Jewish Prayer at the Kotel, but it installed security inspection machinery at all entrances to the plaza. Everyone goes through a personal metal detector and puts his/her bags through a special x-ray conveyor belt. That is just to get to the Kotel.

Now, if you want to ascend the Temple Mount, you go through an additional, much more extensive security inspection. Your bags will be opened, checked and frequently held by the special security staff. Tourists, Jews, Christians and anyone else who doesn't seem to be an Arab Muslim can only enter through that gate.

Muslim Arabs have other entrances to the Temple Mount which aren't from the Kotel area. That means that not only aren't they inspected before entering the Temple Mount, but they haven't gone passed through the metal detectors at the entrances to the Kotel.

Simple Arithmetic:

1 + 1 = 2 versus 0

Yes, the Arabs can bring anything they want up to the Temple Mount, whether something as safe or innocuous as food or prayer books, but also guns, knives and explosives. The Israeli soldiers/police stationed at the Arab entrances have nothing to do other than being "window dressing" to make it look like there's some security. Their only real job is to keep the non-Muslims from entering.

Back to Rules for Non-Muslims:

Non-Muslims may be able to bring food, though saying a prayer/blessing before eating may get you carted out. Prayers are forbidden, so we aren't allowed to have any prayer books with us on the Temple Mount. And of course, anything considered to be a weapon is forbidden. Remember that the bags are inspected besides personal metal detectors, rather reminiscent of airport security.

Here's another very big difference between Muslims and non-Muslims on the Temple Mount.  While Muslims can wander freely, all others are herded into groups which are supervised by "guides." These "guides" not only restrict where a visitor can go, but they constantly watch to prevent anyone from praying. Yes, I kid you not. For some totally fokokt reason, the Israeli Government has long agreed to the Wakf demand that there only be Islamic prayer on the Holiest Site for Jews.

None of this makes sense. Does it?

Why don't we have minimal Civil Rights or Religious Rights in the Holiest of Places?

It's now less than a week until the 9th of Av when for millennia the Jewish People have mourned the loss and destruction of our Holy Temples. The time has come to stop mourning and start building the Third Holy Temple. Stage one is to be fully sovereign in The Land of Israel, the City of Jerusalem and on the Temple Mount!

Mazal Tov! "Marrano" Wedding on Temple Mount

מזל טוב Mazal Tov,  Congratulations and Best Wishes to the young couple who defied the antisemitic ban on Jewish Prayers and ceremonies on our holiest site in the entire world, Har HaBayit, The Temple Mount.

WATCH: SECRET JEWISH WEDDING ON TEMPLE MOUNT IN DEFIANCE OF LAW
Tom Nisani, chair of the group Students for the Temple Mount and activities director for Israeli right-wing NGO Im Tirzu, wed fellow Temple Mount enthusiast Sara Lu on Thursday in a hidden, rushed ceremony.

Davka, unfortunately, it's here in the Holy Land and the State of Israel where Jews are so terribly and unfairly restricted.

My very best wishes to the young couple, Tom Nisani and Sara Lu. May they merit great things, many blessings and good health.

Gd willing these antisemitc laws will be quickly taken off the books, and Jews will have full religious and civil rights in our holiest of sites, all the Land of Israel and the entire world.

Finally, Consumer Protection and Warnings for Israeli Citizens Over "Green Line"

Israeli citizens like myself, who live over the "Green Line" in communities that are boycotted by some Israeli businesses are getting some legal protection.

I had to buy my washing machine from a repairman who was
an agent for a company in order to get full service coverage.

To explain how we're effectively second class citizens, it has happened to me and many others, that after choosing to purchase something, a store will suddenly announce:

"We don't deliver to ___"

At best they will give the number of someone who charges a lot more than the distance from store to location would normally cost. And then if the appliance or piece of furniture requires some installation or assembly, we have to pay privately and won't get serviced unless we deliver the malfunctioning appliance/furnishings etc. I have also discovered that the standard service renewal offers haven't been sent to me by many companies. That means that after the required/promised service contract, I have to pay privately. I have no other option. After living in Jerusalem over a decade before our move to Shiloh, I found that to be an unpleasant, unexpected and potentially expensive surprise.

Luckily the Jerusalem furniture where
I bought my couch set a number of years ago
delivered to Shiloh without any problems.

Finally, the Knesset has passed a law that requires businesses to at least warn us in advance.

Knesset passes ban on discrimination against settlers
Now, businesses that do not provide services or ship goods to residents of Jewish settlements in the West Bank will be required to clearly state and display that policy. This makes it different from race, gender, etc. The legislation will prevent a business from deliberately misleading customers about where goods or services will be available.
Businesses that fail to properly warn about their policy — for example with a sign of at least A4 size by the cash register — could be fined up to NIS 10,000 ($2,690).

OK the "advance" is at the checkout counter, but that is still better than nothing. And it must be a properly legible size. The best part is that a business that doesn't comply will be fined.

Many of my neighbors have discovered some excellent appliance shops nearby, in Jewish communities, which offer very competitive prices along with excellent service. We plan on patronizing one of them when we redo our kitchen, Gd willing. We were warned that IKEA doesn't deliver full-service assembly to Shiloh, so I'm not even checking them out. 

A half a century after the 1967 Six Days War, there are many Jewish Israeli citizens living here. The distance isn't great nor is the danger when traveling.

Integration versus Desegregation, Should People be Pushed/Forced Together?

Having grown up in the 1960's America, the concepts of Integration and Desegregation were lumped together as one, and both were idealized. Looking at them over a half a century later, most of which has been spent in Israel, I see things very differently.

...

Before continuing with this article, I must say that one of the biggest changes I've noticed during my periodic visits to New York is the lessening of racial tension in the streets and the subway. You now see New Yorkers of all colors and accents interacting comfortably together, which wasn't the case a half a century ago. You also see many very well-dressed and obviously materially successful blacks and hispanics, which means that people of all races are working and living together to a degree that was hard to imagine when I lived in New York.

...

Tennessee4Me

First of all, to distinguish the two terms, one can say that Desegregation is forced Integration, and history has shown it to be problematic and unsuccessful at best. This morning I noticed an article that reminded me of something I had experienced a few decades ago.

Black students seek nonwhite roommates, spark race debate
Students at the Claremont colleges in Southern California initiated a fresh debate about race on college campuses when they narrowed their roommate search to "POC only," specifying in a Facebook post that they wanted only a person of color to join their off-campus apartment.
When a classmate challenged this roommate criteria, the Pitzer College student who posted the notice on Facebook doubled-down. “It’s exclusive [because] I don’t want to live with any white folks,” wrote Karé Ureña, who is black...

It reminds me of a time about thirty years ago, when I shared a podium with a local Arab, and we were asked all sorts of questions about our lives and thoughts. The group was Leftist and came from the mindset of Civil Rights activist America, and for them, as you can still see today among academics, Israel was a White vs Black situation, like 1950's America.

As I remember the Arab man was the first one asked the question, which went something like:

"Wouldn't you like joint activities and events with the nearby Jews?"

His answer:

"No, why would I? I wouldn't want my family to socialize with them."

The group was horrified. That was not the answer they had expected. They projected their concept of equality and an enlightened society on Israel and especially what they called the "occupied sic territories."

Now in the 21st Century, I think that people are starting to realize that Arab muslims are not interested in integrating, whether it's here in Israel or countries they are moving to in great numbers, such as the United States, Europe etc. They are not like the Jews who fled from Eastern Europe a hundred years ago, who quickly adopted American dress and customs to fit in. And they aren't like the Asians of today using their strong work and study skills/culture to quickly climb the academic, social and economic ladders.

Back to the article, even the Black university students who are in a good college prefer to live and socialize among themselves, considering it a right for a "safe space."

Food for thought....

I Am Sick and Tired of the Anti-Jewish/Israel Hypocrisy!!

Apparently I'm not the only one just totally fed up with the lies and hypocrisy used against Israel and Jewish civil rights. Last night I saw an amazing video, highlights of a speech Caroline Glick had given.

Caroline Glick shut down the debate with this bombshell speech

Glick says here what I think and feel much better than I could ever do, so on this "short Friday" before Shabbat, I'll leave you with her. And unfortunately the recent decisions of the Israeli Government forcing Jews out of a Jewish owned home in Hebron is just more proof of how sick the situation is.

What about our civil rights? Why does not only the world, but the majority of Israeli politicians, the media, academics etc all support a judenrein Land of Israel?

PS Thanks to Marcel

Demand Civil Rights for Jews in Israel!

On the Temple Mount, we could walk but not pray.

There are two very disturbing issues going on in Israel right now. One has been going on for decades. You can probably guess that it concerns the lack of religious/civil rights for Jews to pray in the holiest place in the Jewish World, Har Habyit, the Temple Mount. And the other is much more recent. I'm writing about the cruel and inhuman methods the police used against the young men they had decided had burnt an Arab house in Duma.

Since the police couldn't find any real evidence, nor find any witnesses, they tortured and broke one of the suspects who finally agreed to say and sign anything just to make them stop.

"The sexual harassment against my client damages all that is sacred to him, his values of Torah observance and the commandments," Ben-Gvir stated, adding that his client had been sleep-deprived for an extended period of time.
"After the interrogators passed the initial stages of interrogation and my client stuck to the truth, they simply received a license to kill," he continued, adding that the interrogators may have sodomized him. "At some point four thugs entered his room, beat him, and tied him to his bed."

Torture Shrinks

"The descriptions are shocking and appalling: they tied him upside down and beat him again and again, until he screamed 'Enough! Leave me alone, let me go, I didn't do anything!'" Ben-Gvir said. "They broke him. I believe very much that there are doubts that any confession he made are usable in court. They beat him into a shadow of a person."  (Arutz 7)

They wouldn't have dared do such things to Arabs, because the Left-leaning civil rights activists would bring them to court. But they have no compunctions at all when it comes to patriots, proud Jews on the Right. The government's aim is to break them. There seems to be no difference today than when Gush Katif was destroyed, which made thousands of Jews homeless and unemployed. And then when the security forces came to destroy a few houses in Amona, the "police" had orders to make the demonstrators suffer, too. And they did, physical cruelty was rampant. Male demonstrators were beaten in their most sensitive places, and young innocent girls were grabbed indecently by men. I've heard reports of rape and definite sexual harassment.

The aim of the Left was/is to break the Right, especially the young idealists. And that is why I have no trouble believing the stories about these illegal and immoral interrogations.

This is a perversion of the old saying:

“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” (Golden Rule)

In today's Israel, the "others" are treated better than we Jews are by the unjust Justice System, and that is a big moral problem!

What is the Attraction of ISIS and Radical Islam?

For quite awhile now, the news has been full of stories about otherwise normal, even educated and affluent people who have joined ISIS and radical Islam.

Foley beheading 

The British were horrified to hear a man with a London accent announcing the beheading of James Foley last year.

British authorities launched a hunt on Wednesday for a man with an English accent who appeared in an Islamic State (IS) video purporting to show what Prime Minister David Cameron called the "barbaric and brutal" beheading of an American journalist.
A masked IS jihadist, dressed in black, who stood next to a kneeling James Foley in the video released online spoke with what sounded like a London accent.

In Israel it has been revealed that Arab teachers, not unemployed or poverty-stricken manual laborers, promoted ISIS.

Israel's Shin Bet undercover internal security agency and police said on Monday they had arrested and charged six Arab citizens, including four school teachers, with supporting and spreading the ideology of Islamic State.
The six, residents of the Bedouin Negev desert town of Hura in southern Israel, were charged with various offences and three were alleged to have planned joining Islamic State militants in Syria, a statement from Shin Bet said.
"The investigation uncovered that the suspects met secretly to discuss and promote Islamic State's ideology," Shin Bet said.
"The hard core among the activists are employed at schools in the Negev. Some took advantage of their position and attempted to plead the case for ISIS among pupils and teachers on school premises," it added. (Reuters)

A recent front page story in the International New York Times was about a young American woman who had been recruited into a radical Islamic group via the internet.

Alex, a 23-year-old Sunday school teacher and babysitter, was trembling with excitement the day she told her Twitter followers that she had converted to Islam.
For months, she had been growing closer to a new group of friends online — the most attentive she had ever had — who were teaching her what it meant to be a Muslim. Increasingly, they were telling her about the Islamic State and how the group was building a homeland in Syria and Iraq where the holy could live according to God’s law.
One in particular, Faisal, had become her nearly constant companion, spending hours each day with her on Twitter, Skype and email, painstakingly guiding her through the fundamentals of the faith. But when she excitedly told him that she had found a mosque just five miles from the home she shared with her grandparents in rural Washington State, he suddenly became cold.
The only Muslims she knew were those she had met online, and he encouraged her to keep it that way, arguing that Muslims are persecuted in the United States. She could be labeled a terrorist, he warned, and for now it was best for her to keep her conversion secret, even from her family. So on his guidance, Alex began leading a double life. She kept teaching at her church, but her truck’s radio was no longer tuned to the Christian hits on K-LOVE. Instead, she hummed along with the ISIS anthems blasting out of her turquoise iPhone, and began daydreaming about what life with the militants might be like...

I can go on and on with examples. But the question is why anyone could be attracted to such a life. In a sense it brings me back to the days of the late 1960's in the United States with the rise of the extreme radical Leftist "weathermen" group of terrorists. They did not come from the lower classes at all.

For the bombing of the United States Capitol on March 1, 1971, they issued a communiqué saying that it was "in protest of the U.S. invasion of Laos". For the bombing of the Pentagon on May 19, 1972, they stated that it was "in retaliation for the U.S. bombing raid in Hanoi". For the January 29, 1975 bombing of the United States Department of State building, they stated that it was "in response to the escalation in Vietnam".^[4]
The Weathermen grew out of the Revolutionary Youth Movement (RYM) faction of SDS. It took its name from Bob Dylan's lyric, "You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows", from the song "Subterranean Homesick Blues" (1965). "You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows", was the title of a position paper that they distributed at an SDS convention in Chicago on June 18, 1969. This founding document called for a "white fighting force" to be allied with the "Black Liberation Movement" and other radical movements^[6] to achieve "the destruction of U.S. imperialism and achieve a classless world: world communism".^[7] (Wikipedia)

Here I am dancing down 5th Avenue
Salute to Israel Parade, 1968

At the same time as they were turning extreme Left and then to terror, I was discovering genuine Torah Judaism through NCSY and YU Seminars. The 1960s was a time when many people searched for a truth and purity to enrich our lives. I couldn't understand those who had been attracted to violence and hate then, and I can't figure them out now. My fellow classmates in high school, Great Neck North, went to civil rights demonstrations, while the civil rights I demonstrated for were that of Soviet Jews.

It's clear that there is something missing in the lives of many that attract them to the focus and discipline of extreme Islam. It's very much the opposite of the prevailing, "no truth" and no absolute value system in modern life. Many people want the certainty of definite right and wrong, even when some of the principles go against the normative western morality.

I think that the world as we've known it the past seventy years or so, since the end of World War Two is about to make a radical change.

Your opinion.... comment and share, thanks.

Blacking Out of Heschel's Presence in the Selma March Typical of Black Antisemitism

American Jewry was always so supportive of the Black Rights, civil rights movement. It went hand and hand with their worship of FDR. Many of the leaders and lawyers for Civil Rights were Jewish, and Abraham Heschel's prominent place in the Selma March was always stressed. So now his daughter is upset to see that his presence is not mentioned in the new movie about it.

Rabbi Heschel with MLK, Jr. on the march from Selma in 1965. Heschel is second from right. (Image" Duke University, Abraham Heschel papers archive)
Read more at http://libertyunyielding.com/2015/01/18/selma-strikes-deleting-rabbi-heschel-religious-inspiration-selma-history-video/#DKP6QAJF5oMCt5yg.99

This "love affair" between American Jews and the blacks was always very one-sided. A neighbor of mine was one of the lawyers who went down south to investigate the disappearance and death of Civil Rights workers, like in the story depicted in Mississippi Burning. In general white Americans stayed away from the movement and American Jews embraced it.

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel (2nd from right) in the Selma Civil Rights March with Martin Luther King, Jr. (4th from right). Photo: Wikipedia.

The recently released film ‘Selma’ is facing a fresh controversy after the daughter of a famed rabbi who was a leader in the Civil Rights Movement told The Algemeiner she was “shocked and upset” by the exclusion of her father from the movie.
Susannah Heschel, a Professor of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College, whose father Abraham Joshua Heschel marched alongside Dr. Martin Luther King at the third protest march from Selma depicted in the film, said that the iconic photo of her father marching with Dr. King “has meant so much to so many people,” even President Obama.
“President Obama said to me ‘your father is our hero’, everybody knows that picture,” Heschel said. “I felt sad and I had moments when I felt angry,” she said of the omission, describing it as “tragic.”
Since its release, the film, which portrays a key turning point in the fight for civil rights in the United States, has been surrounded by controversy. Its unsympathetic portrayal of President Lyndon B. Johnson has been roundly condemned as inaccurate, and New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd described it as “artful falsehood.” (Algemeiner)

But antisemitism has played a large role in Black American society. It's just too easy for them the blame Jews, because everyone hates the Jews.


It's a shame that American Jewry has wasted so much talents, energy and money on helping others instead of supporting Israel.

Against The "Spirit of Chanukah," Davka in Israel

The story of Chanuka, the fight of the Maccabees against the Greeks and their stooges the Hellenists, is a tale of freedom fighters, Jews fighting for minimal religious rights, religious freedom. Today we are a vibrant people with influence well beyond our small numbers.

There's a disproportionate amount of Jews who receive all sorts of prizes for excellence, whether in the sciences or the arts or philosophy etc. And where are the Ancient Greeks who so terrorized us and dictated the end of Jewish observance? They are gone. Their society is history. Their metropolises are archaeological sites, while the Ancient Biblical Jewish cities are filling with Jews, building and thriving.

The only thing that really casts a pall on our great Jewish success and revival is the fact that the anti-Jewish, anti-History Left is ruling here in Israel. They wouldn't dare do this to Arabs or Leftists.

'Radical Left Crackdown': Lehava Head Released to House Arrestand
Ben-Ari: I Get Raided, Zoabi Gets Away Scot-Free

The mentality and ideology of the Israeli Left is very reminiscent of the Ancient Hellenists, Jews who identified with Greek society and culture more than they identified as Jews and Laws of Judaism.

To make it clear. None of these problems put me off from living here in Israel. There is only once way to stop it, and that is for us to be here in larger and larger numbers. That is how we influence change. Making Israel more Jewish takes time. There is no instant cure. We must not get frustrated and give up. That is the lesson of the oil on Chanukah. We will survive and get stronger, no matter how small and weak we seem.

Chag Urim Sameach!

Have an Enlightened Chanukah Holiday!!!

Israeli Left Wants Communist/Socialist Dictatorship

Getting real, the only way that the demands of the Israeli Left can be met would be for Israel to become a communist dictatorship. Freedom and democracy make for the Israel of today.

Herzog: Netanyahu focusing on 'Jewish state bill' because he can't lower housing prices
"You talk more and more and more about nationality in order to avoid addressing the inability of the public to afford buying a house."

As anybody with half a brain knows, housing prices are the result of supply and demand, freedom and democracy. The government does not have any real direct control over these things. Isaac Herzog, Leftist Labor Party leader, knows this perfectly well, but as a Leftist campaigning to unseat Likud leader Prime Minister Binyamin Bibi Netanyahu, he goes for the popular headline grabbing demands which ignore reality.

Of course, there are steps the government can do to lower some housing prices, but the process would take a long time, and we all know that Herzog himself would vote against them.

To lower housing prices, there must be low priced building in places where Jewish Israelis would love to live, such as "E1," the connection between Jerusalem and Ma'ale Adumim, linked from a 2006 article.

In the not-too-distant past, Kashriel told The Report ("Growing to Jerusalem, June 14, 2004") that "Ma'ale Adumim was established to break Palestinian contiguity," adding that "Ma'ale Adumim necessarily cuts the West Bank in two." In March 2006, however, when Kashriel meets me in his office in the impressive city council building next to the city's shopping mall, his message has been recrafted, presumably to cause as little discord with the Americans as possible, and to try to persuade me, or them, that the Palestinian and American objections to Israeli building in E1 are unfounded.
The Palestinians, he asserts, have misleadingly persuaded the Americans that E1 will split the West Bank in two, now claiming that to "not true at all." Unfurling a large map, he points out the new road, from Anata to Al-Azariya, that will facilitate Palestinian north-south traffic, and which is due to be completed in a matter of months. More roads are planned to run around the barrier to the east, in the less than 20 kilometers of wilderness the Palestinians will theoretically have between the Ma'ale Adumim bloc and the Jordanian border.

That's to show how long Jerusalem has been strangled by the Israeli Left, which in all honesty cares more for American interests than Israeli needs. If they hadn't blocked E1, prices in the Jerusalem area would be much lower today.

A few hundred more units built each year in the Gush Shiloh (bloc) would easily be full and lower prices for those who want to be a half hour from both Jerusalem and the Tzomet Yarkon (Junction.)

My area is also very popular for those who want a more rural-suburban, warm community life and easy access to Ariel and the Jordan Valley, which is a couple of minutes' east of Shiloh.

In general, building for Jews in all of the popular places in Judea and Samaria would lower prices across the board in all of Israel. And of course schools, hospitals and medical centers should also be built. Building is less expensive in all of these areas. Now that there's a university in Ariel, a hospital should be built with the required medical school (and school for nursing,) since there aren't enough spots in the existing medical schools.

But in total contradiction to their headline-soundbites, the Israeli Left has done everything in its power to stop or severely limit building where people want to buy, especially people with limited means and strong patriotic convictions.

The Israeli Leftist "solutions" to the housing problem is anti-democratic and against the principles of freedom. In Jerusalem they want to usurp ownership and control of property used for vacationing by those who live abroad. They want to fine the owners for not living full-time in their legally bought homes. The Left has been demanding that these "empty" apartments be rented to students and young families for nominal sums. That's their "solution" to the high price of housing in Jerusalem. Only fascist dictators could dream something like that up. It reminds me, if you'll excuse the expression/terminology, of when Nazis forced Jews out of their homes and when communist officials offered exit visas to Jewish owners of luxury apartments. (That's how a neighbor of mine and her mother got out of Hungary in the 1950's.)

As the "pre-election campaign" heats up, Herzog and other Left leaders are taking cheap and anti-democratic jabs at Bibi. Now, you must know that I'm not a Likud voter. I hope that this campaign with galvanize the patriotic, pro-Land of Israel for Jews Right to run and win seats in the Knesset. At present there is no Right wing party in the Knesset. Naftali Bennett's NRP newly labeled  as Jewish Home, is a Center-Right which campaigned to be in the coalition, meaning that it is more Center than Right. And the Israeli political system is supposed to be like a bell curve, with official opposition on both the Right and Left.

credit

We do not have an opposition party on the Right which skewers the Israeli Government to the Left, especially since Leftist Tsipi Livni is Netanyahu's Minister of Justice.

Leftist policies are based on heavy government interference, which frequently goes against public will. Most Israelis oppose Leftist solutions. The Israeli "silent majority" is on the Right, while the vocal media is on the Left. That's why the Left gets disproportionate time and headlines. G-d willing things will change for the better.

The USA Officially Promotes Anti-Jewish Apartheid

This shouldn't surprise us, but as part of the official reaction of the United States Government of the attempted assassination of American citizen, Yehuda Yehoshua Ben Rivka Ita Breindel Glick, may he have a refuah shleimah, complete and speedy recovery, here's the text of the United States Government:

The continued commitment by Israelis, Palestinians, and Jordanians to preserve the historic status quo at this holy site is critical; any decisions or actions to change it would be both provocative and dangerous. The Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount must be re-opened to Muslim worshipers... (emphasis mine)

Photo by Yehuda Glick, Shiloh women, including
myself, before we ascended Har Habayit.

Remember, please, that Yehuda Glick, who is now fighting for his life after being shot three times at close range, has dedicated his life to fighting for Jewish rights on Judaism's holiest spot in the world, Har Habayit, the Temple Mount.

• The Americans claim to be for equal rights for all. 
• The Americans claim to be against apartheid.
• The Americans claim to be for religious freedom.
• The Americans claim to be a friend of Israel.

For the American Government to use the attack on Glick to promote a policy that is in total opposition to American values is the epitome of hypocrisy and proof of their antisemitism.

This plus the recent anti-Israel, anti-Bibi “chickenshit” scandal shows true American policy.

But President Obama and his foreign-policy team aren’t just annoyed by the prime minister. They’ve come to view him as public enemy No. 1, using language about him and giving assessments of his policies that are far harsher than they have ever used against even avowed enemies of the United States, let alone one of its closest allies. (Commentary Magazine)

The Israeli Government must pay attention and stop listening to the USA! Nothing we do besides folding up can disappearing will please Obama, Kerry and all.

Reflecting a Bit on My First Aliyah li'Har HaBayit, Ascending The Temple Mount #2

Cross-posted on me-ander

So far I haven't gotten any pictures of myself on Har HaBayit, but I do have this one of us waiting for permission to enter, taken by Yehuda Glick, a well-known Har HaBayit activist.





photo by Yehuda Glick


Most of us photographed here are from Shiloh, which was the Jewish National and Religious Capital and resting place (location) of the Mishkan, Tabernacle for 369 years. That's before Jerusalem was declared the Capital of the Jewish Kingdom of King David. Rachel Sela of Shiloh leads groups of women, in Hebrew, on the Temple Mount. She kept us fascinated with her explanations of the Holiness and history of the site and how to behave and where it is permitted to go. Afterwards we celebrated with a festive meal in the "Hebron Quarter" which is a section of what is inaccurately known as the "Moslem Quarter." This is where many Jews from Hebron had lived. Please contact me if you'd like to join her.

Nowadays women are as active in the movement to bring more Jewish life and ritual to the Temple Mount as men. But it wasn't always so.

My husband was drafted  by Menachem Ben-Yashar, of Massuot Yitzchak, to the very small ranks of Jews who defied the authorities to go up on the Temple Mount a short time after our aliyah, move, to Israel, September, 1970.  Yes, exactly forty-four 44 years ago.

In those days, there were only men among the activists. Menachem came to speak to my husband about it, not to speak to both of us. It just wasn't a "woman's issue." Actually, it never occurred to me that I, too, should go up. They'd frequently end up being beaten and dragged by the police and even getting stitched up in the Emergency Ward. Obviously, that wasn't my "thing."

my husband's blog banner


Over the decades, things changed, and women did get involved, but I didn't. It wasn't because I disagreed with the rights of Jews to ascend the Temple Mount to pray; I firmly believed and believe that we should be there. A very small portion of the area is of such holiness that we shouldn't enter. And I also believe that it would be better that we do enter and build the Third Temple than allow the Muslim Arabs and Christian tourists to defile it.





Christian tourists enter freely, while we wait.


There's lots of space and rubble, even close to the Holy of Holies where the Muslims built their "Dome of the Rock."

Most of what is today the Temple Mount is the Herodian Extension, which doesn't have the highest level of holiness. What surprised me was how small our restricted area actually is.

I only began thinking seriously about my own aliyah l'Har HaBayit in recent years. My life has been full of other things and politically with other battles. About a year ago, Rachel and I spoke about it, and she was so shocked that I hadn't yet gone up. For younger women, raised in a more feminist time, when women do and learn many of the things men do, it's considered natural for women to ascend to Judaism's holiest spot. I felt rather silly trying to explain why it had taken me so many decades to do what felt so natural once I got up there.

One of the topics she mentioned as we walked around was the holiness of the Kotel, the Western Wall. As readers of my blogs know, I can't relate to the worship of the place and the custom to leave what I call "letters to Santa Claus."

Glimpse of the Kotel while walking up to the Temple Mount



Rachel pointed out that the "Western Wall" which Chazal, our Sages, refer to is not that Herodian built  outer wall, but the western wall of the Temple Courtyard.

Today that holy wall no longer remains. The holiness of the popular Kotel is the same as for any Jerusalem synagogue. And when praying there, we must turn slightly to the left to face the Kodesh Kodeshim, Holy of Holies.

Two final points to finish this post:

I am very glad that I finally ascended The Temple Mount. It felt right and good to do so.

But I'm outraged with every fiber of my body and soul that it is forbidden for Jews to pray there by the State of Israel!

No, We Don't Do The Thanksgiving Thing Here in Israel

picture credit

I hope that none of our Shabbat guests are expecting turkey.

In the forty-three years since we got married, boarded the Greek Lines Santa Maria  "sailed away" and made aliyah to Israel, only once did we have a "Thanksgiving" meal.  It was a few years ago when one of our neighbors decided to organize a "Thanksgiving potluck" dinner. Everybody contributed.  It was fun getting together, but there was nothing very "thanks to the USA" on  the program.

A few years after our aliyah, when we were doing Jewish Zionist youth work in England an American friend mentioned that she was having trouble finding cranberry sauce (or was it bright orange yams?)  And I asked her why she was looking for them.

"Thanksgiving!"
"Oops! I had never given it a thought since we left the states." 

That's the truth.  Now with the internet I'm very aware of Thanksgiving since so many people write about it on facebook or blog about it.  And this year especially, since Chanukah and Thanksgiving are at the same time there's even more about it in the media than ever before.   Also on facebook I've been reading of the plans of some cousins.  A few decades ago it was much, much easier to be unaware of that American Holiday.

When I was "an American" our Thanksgiving was pure family, not patriotism.  I don't even remember the food, just the crowd of cousins, plus some aunts and uncles.  I remember the joy and the jokes.  Without my cousins there's no Thanksgiving.

Should Jews be celebrating Thanksgiving?  Is it a Jewish Holiday? 

As I remember, the holiday is to celebrate the Pilgrims, early European pioneers invaders surviving difficult conditions.  They were religious Christians and established the holiday to thank god for their survival. Some were adventurers, and some were more like refugees escaping difficult economic and social conditions.  Some of those Europeans wanted more religious freedom for themselves.  Once they set up their communities they were as intolerant of other religions as their former neighbors had been of theirs. Jews weren't very welcome.  That's the real America.

WASPs, white Anglo Saxon Protestants were the ideal American until a few decades ago.  For the ideal American, "color" meant rosy cheeks.  John F. Kennedy, as popular as became after his assassination, almost didn't get elected didn't get elected United States President, because he was a Catholic, and that was just half a century ago.

President Coolidge signs
 the immigration act

In 1924 the American Government in an attempt to "undo" the increase in the Jewish population and other non-"Europeans" which had mushroomed in the twentieth century enacted the  Immigration Act of 1924.

The Immigration Act of 1924, or Johnson–Reed Act, including the National Origins Act, and Asian Exclusion Act (Pub.L. 68–139, 43 Stat. 153, enacted May 26, 1924), was a United States federal law that limited the annual number of immigrants who could be admitted from any country to 2% of the number of people from that country who were already living in the United States in 1890, down from the 3% cap set by the Immigration Restriction Act of 1921, according to the Census of 1890. It superseded the 1921 Emergency Quota Act. The law was aimed at further restricting the Southern and Eastern Europeans, among them Jews who had migrated in large numbers since the 1890s to escape persecution in Poland and Russia, as well as prohibiting the immigration of Middle Easterners, East Asians, and Indians. According to the U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian the purpose of the act was "to preserve the ideal of American homogeneity".[1] Congressional opposition was minimal.

I have no doubt that barely two decades later when the United States did its best to keep its doors carefully locked and rejected many Jews fleeing Germany that the same people and mentality ruled America.

The events of 1938 caused a dramatic increase in Jewish emigration. The German annexation of Austria in March, the increase in personal assaults on Jews during the spring and summer, the nationwide Kristallnacht ("Night of Broken Glass") pogrom in November, and the subsequent seizure of Jewish-owned property all caused a flood of visa applications. Although finding a destination proved difficult, about 36,000 Jews left Germany and Austria in 1938 and 77,000 in 1939.
The sudden flood of emigrants created a major refugee crisis. President Franklin D. Roosevelt convened a conference in Evian, France, in July 1938. Despite the participation of delegates from 32 countries, including the United States, Great Britain, France, Canada, and Australia, only the Dominican Republic agreed to accept additional refugees. The plight of German-Jewish refugees, persecuted at home and unwanted abroad, is also illustrated by the voyage of the "St. Louis."

Compare those numbers to the estimated six million 6,000,000 who were murdered directly or indirectly by the Nazis.

The Jews who made it to America and succeeded to make their lives better were lucky, but they must remember that the USA didn't encourage or facilitate their immigration.  They succeeded despite the United States Government.

I have nothing against family and friends getting together.  I even like eating turkey.  But I think that the Jewish commitment to thank the United States sometimes goes too far.

And don't forget that the American decision to join in the war against the Nazis had absolutely nothing to do with saving Jews.

Human Rights versus The Goldstone Report

Justice Richard Goldstone will never live down the outrageously unbalanced, unprofessional inaccurate UN Fact Finding Mission about the "Gaza-Israel War" he headed. For many people, his name is now the symbol of the United Nations Judicial Hypocricy and anti-Israel policies.

The NGO Monitor recently came out with The Goldstone Report “Reconsidered” – A Critical Analysis, Edited by Gerald M. Steinberg and Anne Herzberg. A large book launch was held at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center this week. The standing-room-only event also included the delayed presentation of the Begin Prize to Law Professor Alan Dershowitz, who couldn't make last winter's event. Since Dershowitz is also associated with NGO Monitor, it was a perfect shidduch to combine the two.

Speakers were: Anne Herzberg, legal advisor of NGO Monitor, Prof. Gerald Steinberg, president of NGO Monitor, Maj. Gen. Avichai Mandelblitt, Prof. Avi Bell and the very entertaining Prof. Alan Dershowitz.

Here are some excerpts I was lucky enough to film, especially considering that I had no idea what they'd be saying and when to press "on" and "off."

Huckabee - Read His Words Carefully, Please

Mike Huckabee, U.S. President wannabe, has been saying some interesting things. Instead of spoon-feeding you my take on his words, I'm going to copy/paste an article from the Jerusalem Post. It's full of Huckabee's own words. I'll just highlight the ones you should think about. Please "comment" your interpretations.

Thank you!

Aug 18, 2009 16:33 Updated Aug 18, 2009 23:56
Huckabee: 2-state solution 'unrealistic'

Palestinians have a right to a homeland, but not within the boundaries of Israel, former governor of Arkansas and 2008 GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee suggested at a meeting with reporters in Jerusalem on Tuesday morning.

Huckabee advocated for a one-state solution, thereby challenging the policies of both Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and US President Barack Obama.

Huckabee, who many consider the favorite for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012, is here on a four-day visit sponsored by Ateret Cohanim, the organization spearheading efforts to buy property for Jewish homes in east Jerusalem.

In an exchange with The Jerusalem Post, he said that while both Israelis and Palestinians have a right to a self-governed homeland, it would be impossible for the countries to live side-by-side.

"The point is that if you try to layer two governments on top of each other, there is going to be nothing but conflict," Huckabee said when asked if the Palestinians had a right to a homeland within territories currently controlled by Israel. "I don't know how that would work. That comes back to the question of how you designate two owners of the same car."

"Historically, the international community has already said Israel has a right to be here, that this is going to be their homeland," Huckabee said.

The same international community* that granted Palestine to Jews ought to decide where Palestinians should establish their homeland, he said.

"The question is, should the Palestinians have a place to call their own?" he asked. "Yes, I have no problem with that. Should it be in the middle of the Jewish homeland? That's what I think has to be honestly assessed as virtually unrealistic."

However, Huckabee backed away from a suggestion he made in 2007 that the Palestinian state could be formed in Egypt or Saudi Arabia.

"It wasn't so much of a plan, I think, as it was a speculation," he said. "I was speculating. My question was, why does it [the Palestinian state] have to be here?"

It was unreasonable for the world to expect Israel give up any of its land for a Palestinian state, he said.

"They [the Jews] have been given a tiny minuscule strip of land to upon which to call home," he said. "To ask them to further give increasing amounts acreage away for what is hoped to be a peaceful arrangement - it has not resulted in creating any level of peace."

Huckabee's one-state solution is politically to the right of the prime minister, who recently came out in favor of a two-state solution as long as the Palestinian state is demilitarized and does not pose a threat, and as long as Jerusalem remains Israel's undivided capital.

"In my vision of peace, two peoples live freely, side-by-side, in amity and mutual respect," Netanyahu in an address delivered at Bar-Ilan University in June. "Each will have its own flag, its own national anthem, and its own government."

"And how is that two-state solution working out for them?" Huckabee asked reporters on Tuesday morning.

But he said that despite his preference for a one-state solution, if he were president, he would defer to Israel's leadership on the issue.

"I would pursue allowing Israelis to self-govern. If that's what they decided, then that's their prerogative," he said in reference to a two-state solution. "The Israeli government, not another government, should decide where Jews live inside the boundary of Israel."

Huckabee, an ordained Baptist minister on his 11th trip to Israel, said he has not yet decided whether will run for the White House in 2012.

After meeting with Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat on Tuesday, Huckabee took a tour of the West Bank, starting in Ma'aleh Adumim, where Mayor Benny Kashriel explained how American policy was preventing the building of the E-1 neighborhood that would link his city to Jerusalem.

From there he went to Bet El and received an explanation of the area's historic centrality to the Jewish people from Sarah Netanyahu's brother, Hagi Ben-Artzi, and then to Har Bracha, and one of the first settlement outposts - Givot Olam near Itamar and Nablus.

The trip affirmed for him that "this is a very, very special land. It has been an amazing place to watch over the years, from the first time I saw it in 1973, through the various times until today. I continue to be amazed at places that I remember desolate at one time, now producing food, commerce and families. The dry bones have come alive," he said, in reference to the prophecy in the book of Ezekiel.

Huckabee said Israelis have the right to live wherever they want.

"It was very telling" that when his tour bus got to the outskirts of Nablus, "we couldn't go in, because Jewish people couldn't go there. Arab people can go to the Jewish parts of Jerusalem, and to Jewish parts of Israel, but the Jewish people could not go there. It was sad. I don't think a lot of Americans understand there are very seriously restricted zones," he said.

*The British Mandate no longer exists. The November, 1947 vote was just a later confirmation of previous international decisions. None of those bodies exist today. Anyway, those decisions were based on the facts on the ground that modern Zionism had reestablished Jewish Life in the HolyLand. All this is based on the Bible, recognized by both Christians and Jews.

Nu, what do you think?

How Can The Kids Learn Respect?

I grew up in America, in the 1950's, a very calm, optimistic, even boring time. It was pretty easy to teach us to respect authority, because in most places authority was benign.

Today's Israeli teens, especially those who try to follow the Torah, Jewish Law, see a very different government, military establishment.

Kids see things in black and white, and it looks very black.

The Israeli Government treats those who promote Jewish Rights in Eretz Yisrael, the Land of Israel, as enemies.

The government and military use force they wouldn't dare use against Arabs. The Israeli Judicial isn't interested in promoting even equal rights for Jews.

How can the kids learn respect when the government treats them as enemies?

Refuah Shleimah

A complete recovery

to all those injured by the armed forces

police, border guards, soldiers

While Protecting Jewish Rights

To Live In Hebron!

How Do You Feel About All These?

And when I read about the discrimination here in Israel against Jews, whether being able to live where we wish or travel where we want, I truly wonder why the international civil rights activists don't rush out here to support us. Why do these sic liberals support the repression of Jewish rights?