We're Burning With Anger!

Here in Israel, we're burning.

Southern Israel is suffering from a burning plague of Arab terrorism. Cheered on by various NGOs and supportive countries, the Hamas terrorist Gazans have been launching incendiary kites, balloons and other devices at Israel.

The clips and photo are from מחאת הדרום - "דין עוטף עזה כדין תל אביב"

The international media has been ignoring the terror here, but they publicize the death of rioters and terrorists as if they were innocent bystanders. Nobody cares about Israel.

Arab terrorists are burning our land, fields, orchards and more. It's only due to Gd's mercy and love for us that the fire weapons launched by the Gazan terrorists at us haven't burnt up homes, schools, clinics etc. The fact that numerous Israelis haven't been killed isn't because these weapons aren't dangerous. The Arabs want to kill us. And the world doesn't care. For that I am burning with anger!

If they Arabs cared about the Land, they'd treasure it and not burn it.

I'm burning with anger that the world sympathizes with the terrorists and not the victims.

Deja vu, so much like the 1930's and the rise of the Nazis in Germany, then Europe. Nobody cared about the discrimination and then systematic murder of the Jews living there. Nothing's new, and I'm burning with anger!

Fire on My Mind

The aishtafada has wiped out, or burnt up, the rest of my thoughts right now. Imagine a family relaxing on Shabbat, removed from all the weekday concerns, television off, cellphone off and suddenly they are roused from their relaxation, sleep, peaceful pursuits and told to grab themselves and flee their homes. Yes, on Shabbat, when they are only permitted to travel to save their lives.

Yes, this was to save their lives! They had to leave their homes, the entire community!! The Arab terrorists who value neither life, Land or property lit fires around Neve Tzuf, a Jewish town southwest of Shiloh.

The neighborhood is gone, burnt by Arab terrorists!!

Eighteen of those families now have absolutely no home. Their homes were burnt to a crisp and can't be repaired. Their possessions are gone, history. They were hosted by neighboring communities, including an impromptu Bar Mitzvah, which obviously could not take place where planned.

Many groups are doing fundraising for them do doubt. Click here for one of them.

Last night I turned on Israeli TV stations to try to get more information about the fire, news, aishtafada, but they all had their scheduled shows on. When the fires had been burning in the Haifa area, there were special broadcasts, but when there were Jewish communities in Samaria/Binyamin burning, nothing. There's more news on Facebook than anyplace else, though some is fake. But there are plenty of lies in The New York Times, too.

The "Aishtafada" Arab Arson Terror Continues

As further proof that the Arabs hate this Land and are only demanding a state to kick out Jews and form another judenrein apartheid state, they've been intentionally burning up Jewish communities all over Israel.



The Arab terrorists are getting bolder and bolder, which is making it easier to catch them in the act, but the only thing that can stop the fires would be rain, lots of rain. And only Gd can give us that.

before and after
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Arutz 7

Reuters

This is all so horrible. I've been looking at the weather forecast. Just after Shabbat it showed no sign of rain until maybe Wednesday night. Now there may be a drizzle on Tuesday. Here in the Holy Land, rain is controlled by Gd to reward and/or punish us. May we merit rain and as soon as possible, Gd willing.

Latest News: Fires are New Arab Terror Tool

At first it seemed like the fires that had begun all over Israel were just more of the periodic late summer, pre-rain fires that are almost spontaneous in climates like Israel. A month ago, after a very long dry summer, there was a bit of rain, but since then the humidity has been summer-like low, so the first fires were considered "expected."

A plane drops fire retardant on a forest fire in Nataf, near Jerusalem | Photo credit: EPA, Israel Hayom

But then the experts began to notice that the spread of new fires wasn't of "natural causes" or patterns, and on the spot investigations showed them to have been set by Arab terrorists, some who have already been caught.

Stand With Us put out a map:

Terrible fires raging in Israel that have now been confirmed by the spokesman of the fire department Yoram Levi as arson attacks. The perpetrators of these crimes have endangered thousands and caused immense damage to people's homes, lives, and of course the environment. We strongly condemn them. Praying for a swift end to the fires and the safety of all those affected.

These fires, like the peculiar lunar calendar of the Moslems, is further proof that they neither own nor love the Land. How can they destroy the flora, fauna and homes here in the Holy Land? They celebrate terror and murder, and this is just another terrorist tool for them.

The ray of true light during this terrible time is that Israel is being helped by other countries, which is so rare:

Countries send aid to fight fires across Israel
Countries that have dispatched aid so far are Greece, Italy, Croatia, Russia, Cyprus, and Turkey. The aid amounts to 10 planes. (Arutz 7)

May Gd speedily send rain to douse the flames.

Shabbat Shalom u'Mevorach
May there be a Peaceful and Blessed Shabbat for All

Davka in "Red" Haifa...

Haifa was always known as the "red city," but they weren't talking about flames and anti-fire chemicals.

Firefighting aircraft in Haifa (Photo: Evyatar Alkobi)
Ynetnews

Haifa:
As an industrial port city, Haifa has traditionally been a Labor party stronghold. The strong presence of dock workers and trade unions earned it the nickname 'Red Haifa.' In addition, many prominent Arabs in the Israeli Communist Party, among them Tawfik Toubi, Emile Habibi, Zahi Karkabi, Bulus Farah and Emile Toma, were from Haifa.

More has come out about the terror source of these fires. Yes, it's the new Arab terrorism, and davka, now there are Arabs condemning it and also hosting families, Jews and Arabs alike who've been forced out of their homes.

FIRE!! West of Shiloh by The Vineyards

Everything was going fine for me on my way home from work this afternoon. That is until I got out the tremp/ride at the Shiloh Junction. It stank, and it was full of smoke. Just across the way, to the west of Shiloh I could see smoke and some flames over the vineyard. No, this wasn't a small localized fire. It spread all around. The only thing that kept the flames low was the simple fact that there wasn't all that much to burn, not many trees, mostly low brush. The soldier waiting at the stop, at which I found myself, said that it had been going on for two hours. I could see a few fire trucks.

Deja vu, all I could think of was the fire about twenty years ago. Arabs has set the first small vineyards alight, and my son was one of the volunteers who put it out. Once the fire was out, it was decided to plant many more grapevines there, and now the area is full of grapes which are well-known for the excellent wines they make. And, yes, the same son began working that summer planting the grape vines.

Here are some pictures of the fire. I apologize for the lack of focus and composition. I, literally, couldn't see the camera's screen and just blindly aimed and shot:

PS In a news report on the internet, it claims that there are olive trees on fire. A neighbor who had been with the crew trying to put out the fire confirmed that olive trees were burnt to a crisp.

Electrical not Terrorist, Another Duma Fire

Authorities  in the P.A. Palestinian Authority  have admitted after investigation that the latest fire in the Duma village home of  the  Dawabsha clan was electrical .

(JNi.media) Palestinian Authority media reported that late Sunday night a fire broke out in a house belonging to a member of the Dawabsha family in the village of Duma, not far from Ramallah. According to early reports, some family members were injured in the fire, but later reports said there were no injuries. Also, early Arab reports blamed the fire on Jewish settlers, but after a while the head of the Duma village council, Abdul Salam Dawabsha, announced the fire started due to a malfunctioning electric system.
However, local residents told NRG that they found a Molotov cocktail inside the burnt Dawabsha house, and suggested the house—located at the center of the village, just like the other two Dawabsha burnt houses were—had been set on fire as the result of an internal conflict. The same locals noted that, contrary to the previous fire, this house was left without Hebrew graffiti smeared on the walls.
In another interesting development, 0404.co.il reports that a third Dawabsha house in Duma had a fire in February of this year, and a Dawabshe family car was also burnt in June.
This raises the question, posed so far only by “extremist” Jews, as to whether the previous arson, where a baby and later his father—of the same Dawabsha clan—were killed, may also have been the result of internal fighting. (Jewish Press)

results of an earlier fire photo credit:TOVAH LAZAROFF

It makes one wonder about the first fire that caused the deaths of a father and son.

Inspections after the fires showed that there was a lot of flammable material in their homes, including Molotov cocktails, and the clan is known for its funding. So, there's a pretty good chance that the fatal fire was a set-up made to give the impression that it was set by Jews. Also, the family compound is in the middle of the village.

Will we ever know the truth?

Fires in the Fields

It was rather strange to see black smoke coming out of the fields on our drive to Jerusalem from Netivot.

I had been trying to photograph the gorgeous sunset.

What happens down south in Israel? Since unlike the reports of fires in the rest of the country, I hadn't heard anything in the news.

I know that Israelis do have a strange, to my New York mind, and dangerous custom of burning weeds, even in residential areas, like Shiloh. It drives me nuts when there are fires in gardens, but there's no way I can stop it. My neighbors say that it keeps the snakes away.

Does anyone know more?

Memories of the JTS Library

Some of you may be surprised at this title; that's for two reasons. One is that the JTS, Jewish Theological Seminary is the academic center of Conservative Judaism, and I'm Orthodox, and another is that I'm not an academic, intellectual type. Those precious old books of Jewish Law aren't what draws me at all.  So, why am I suddenly writing about the JTS Library?

Honestly, I haven't thought about that library for decades. But just now I saw an article in the Jewish Forward about major changes in JTS and how they are packing up the library for a move.

The library at Manhattan’s Jewish Theological Seminary — Conservative Judaism’s largest rabbinic seminary — holds the most impressive compilation of Jewish historical materials outside of Jerusalem: hundreds of ancient Jewish marriage contracts, thousands of unique manuscripts, and tens of thousands of fragments recovered in Egypt from the famed Cairo Genizah.
Now, the future of this collection is a matter of heated debate in Jewish scholarly circles as JTS sells off real estate assets to help ease a years-long financial crunch. Over the next few years, JTS plans to sell two buildings now serving as residence halls to developers, along with air rights to its main campus. The school will also replace its current library building with a new library and conference center. (Forward)

I was in that library once, almost fifty years ago. I was not there to do research, study or anything like that. I was there because of a call many of us young Jewish activists got because of a major emergency. There had been a fire in the Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary, and precious irreplaceable historic books and documents had been damaged and worse.

The Jewish Theological Seminary library fire was discovered on Monday, April 18, 1966 at 10:15 AM when smoke was seen pouring from one of the small upper windows of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America library tower at Broadway and 122nd Street in New York City.
The tower, with only few small windows, was the perfect environment for a major conflagration. There were no floors separating one level from another, only steel library stacks surrounded by catwalks. The tower was like an oven and the fire spread quickly. Extinguishing it was extremely difficult, with only one entrance and stairwell from the bottom and limited window access.
Fire Chief Alfred Eckert dispatched masked firefighters to the highest floor that could be safely reached. The firefighters spread canvas tarpaulins over as many shelves of books as they could, while hook and ladder trucks sprayed water through the highest openings in the tower, cascading down to the fire below. (Wikipedia)

Jews of all stripes  gathered there to rescue and clean the books. I was one of them. We went into a massive room that smelled of the recent fire. Books and papers were charred. I don't quite remember everything we did. I do remember checking for dampness and sorting the various books and papers according to their condition.

The collection of Judaica, historically important Jewish books and documents in the Jewish Theological Seminary of America library is precious to all Jews and predates the rather modern "inventions" of Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist Judaisms. What is today in America called "Orthodox Judaism" was once the standard, the only Judaism in existance. The old books in the library are Jewish treasures for all Jews, not just for those who consider themselves  Conservative Jewish. That's why we all went running to help. I do not know how davka the Conservative Jewish library ended up with such an incomparable collection.

I hope that the JTS Library's treasures will be stored and displayed as safely as possible, so that future Jews will have them for study and research.