This is Our Land – It's Not About Tourism!

by Sara Layah Shomron

Yesterday I accompanied a friend living in Maalei Adumim on The World Likud Movement sponsored "Wine, Cheese and Water in the Heart of the Shomron" tour to support the residents of Yehuda and Shomron. We joined with people from within Israel as well as with those visiting the country in touring the communities of Elon Moreh, Yitzhar, Itamar, and Revava. Our lovely tour guide, Kareen, gave informative and detailed site explanations complete with biblical readings. The tour was well organized and I applaud all involved in putting this important event together.



The tour concluded with a "Salute to Yehuda and Shomron" at the community of Revava with speakers including the Shomron Regional Council head Gershon Mesika, Information and Diaspora Minister Yuli Edelstein, MK Danny Danon, MK Tzipi Hotoveli, Moshe Feiglin, and others. Read more here and here





I remain disappointed that there wasn't an urgent call for housing construction and development in our heartland communities. After all, these communities are strangled without housing options for young couples and families. I believe MUCH MORE is needed than a call to travel our land – we need to take possession by LOUDLY and STRONGLY calling for house construction and overall community development!

Lost in Space With Breslov

Today was Chai Tishrei, the yahrzeit of R' Nachman of Breslov. Here in Kochav Hashachar, as in many other places, all sorts of people who are connected to R' Nachman, his Torah and his hanhagot held gatherings to elevate and be elevated by his memory. I am not a Breslov type of guy. I don't go out into desolate places to meditate. I don't play a guitar or other musical instrument because my acute sense of pitch always outstripped my lack of dexterity. In addition my mode of thought is more rational and pshat-driven.
Be that as it may, I did show up for a gathering in the sukkah of the Betzalel family, a young family in Kochav Hashachar. There were memories of R. Nachman and his Torah read out along with much song and musical accompaniment.
All of the above caused me to ponder the cause of the current popularity of Breslov in today's Israel. At the risk of being wrong, always a danger when you express an opinion, I would like to give a take on the relevance of Breslov today.
Most Israelis were raised on the idea of the klal, the tzibur, the nation and society, going beyond one's individual self. Whether secular and raised on somewhat Bolshevik socialism or religious and raised on Rav Kook, the Israelis are reacting the other way and looking for the space for their own personality and spirituality. This leads to the road to both India and Uman. Those of us who grew up in America were already experiencing this fragmentation of social and political responsibility in the post-Vietnam and post-modern generation which took longer to arrive in Israel. Those who react against this trend already present in their youth and come here are motivated by Rav Kook, the Lubavitcher Rebbe and Rav Meir Kahane. They are motivated to join a cause rather than to go meditate on a hilltop.
The Rambam points out that a person who tends toward one extreme must gravitate in the opposite direction in order to reach a balance in the middle. We see this pendulaum effect in the large-scale movements of groups of people. But in order to be prescriptive for the individual it is necessary to understand both the nature of the searchings of the person involved and his or her background and at the same time be aware of the inner asperations of that very individual human soul. Then the fine-tuning of applying dosages begins. Go for the right blend of sense of truth and emotional satisfaction and intellectual sense of truth. You are invited to comment and tell us about it.

An Offering of Thanks to Hashem on Succot

The crisp autumn air blew through our schach and the multi-colored decorations in our Succah swung back and forth in the gentle breeze. Succot in Eretz Yisrael is a unique experience. In the States, I recall that only Orthodox Jews building a Succah. Not so here in Israel.

Even the marginally traditional here in Netivot opt for erecting some kind of Succah, whether it be made from wood or merely some sheets thrown haphazardly around the "pargula" covered porch. (A "pargula" is a special hand constructed latticed covering over a porch which I've never seen outside of Israel.) There are markets for the Arba Minim in many cities, and again, you can see chassideshe Jews standing next to men without tzitzit at the same stand checking out the wares.

I had an extremely moving moment this year during Succot, as I sat outside with my husband, and several children and grandchildren. The air was crisp and singing came from some neighboring Succot while music piped in from tapes came from others. The evening had just began—that hour when sunset has heralded the end of a day, yet the moon has yet to put in an appearance.

I looked around our table sated with joy at the presence of so many beloved family members, and suddenly I was thrown back almost forty years. I recalled a Succot holiday spent in upstate N.Y. (I grew up in the borscht belt.) Although it was Succot, I, alas, had no Succah that year. My parents were on the verge of becoming frum, but had not yet made that final leap of faith that requires changing of lifestyle, an incredibly difficult step to take in one's middle age. I felt absolutely bereft. Succot without a Succah, without Yom Tov meals; no decorations; no singing….. absolutely nothing. I never felt more alone or bereaved in my entire life. I was in mourning, for the Succos that never was. Or at least, not yet part of my newly Shomer Shabbos life.

I pushed aside the beige curtains and peeked outside in the twilight, the witching hour, at the mountain across from our home. My eyes took in the red, orange, purple, and yellow autumn foliage high above near Sam's Point and in the trees surrounding my home. I raised my tear-filled eyes to the sky and prayed, "Hashem, please let me have the zechus of marrying a Ben Torah and raising frum children who will never lack for a real Yom Tov or Shabbos! Please, Hashem, allow me to build my home in Eretz Yisrael!" Yes, even then barely Bat Mitzva, I knew that only Israel would sate my thirst for a truly Jewish lifestyle.

Time spiraled forward, and I found myself thrown back into my Succah in Netivot, filled with incredible angst and upset, feeling the desperation and frustration of that previous Succos holiday of yesteryear. I burst out crying. My husband was taken back and asked what was wrong. "Nothing," I answered. "Nothing at all!" Sitting together with him, our children and their children in Eretz Yisrael in OUR Succah, I could honestly answer him, "Nothing is wrong. Baruch Hashem, on the contrary….. !"

Health Care? American Rip Off!

One of the reasons we must get my parents here is the ridiculously expensive, complicated and wasteful medical situation!

As far as I'm concerned there's only one place with true quality of life and it's here in Israel.  Whether you work or don't, full-time, part or self-employed, you are covered in some sort of Health/Sick Fund.  Medications and doctor's visits are subsidized.  If you pay extra per month, expenses are even less.

It's nothing like the United States.  We get better medical coverage for less outlay, and Israel has advanced medical care.  Considering the size of our country, you don't have to travel far for the best hospitals by international standards.

A few years ago, coverage was made easier via Bituach Leumi, National Insurance.  It's sort of like Social Security and Welfare and Unemployment combined.  Even if you pay in as a very part-time worker it give you full coverage and you choose the "organization."  There are a few.  If you're unemployed the payments are part of your welfare or unemployment compensation.  When I wasn't working, mine came out of my husband's BL payments.  Actually until I get a salary, his payments cover me. 


And unlike the strictly socialist regimes or policies, like in Switzerland and I think Canada, there are private alternatives here which coexist.  That makes it something the United States should look at as a successful example.

But can you really imagine U.S. President Barack Hussein Obama stating that Israel has the best health deal, and the United States should copy it?

Hiking The Land in Memory of Avihu Keinan

Since my flight schedule was changed, I made it to the beginning of this year's Hike the Land in Memory of Avihu Keinan, HaYa"D, a Shiloh boy killed by Arab terrorists.  He was in the IDF, a soldier who excelled and taught hand-to-hand combat.  But he didn't have a chance, because his officers planned an action to minimize injury of Arab civilians at the expense of our Jewish Israeli soldiers.

Moshe, Avihu's father, vowed to march to Jerusalem and protest outside the Presidnt's Residence.  We did that during Chol Hamoed (the intermediate days of) Succot, and since then, every Succot we march from Shiloh. 

For the first few years, we marched to Jerusalem, but the past few years, we marched in the vicinity of Shiloh.  These are all pictures I photographed from the beginning of this year's march.

 

 

G-d willing, next year, the Moshiach will be here, and we'll all celebrate together with Avihu and all the other victims of Arab terrorism and those dead from other causes.

Succot Isn't The Holiday Of Freedom, Especially For Gilad Shalit

Today at our Women's Torah Class, in a neighbor's succah, we were reminded that Succot is the Holiday associated with שמחה simcha, joy.  Passover is the Holiday associated with Redemption and Freedom.

Did Gilad Shalit's family feel joy at seeing the video of him?  The video is over two weeks old, and he makes no effort to hide that he's reading his statement.



And the Arab terrorists holding Shalit make no effort to hide their plans to capture more Israelis.

"Hours after Israel released 19 female Palestinian prisoners in exchange for a video proving captive IDF soldier Gilad Schalit was alive, Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal on Friday night threatened to capture more Israeli soldiers in order to win the release of all Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons."  complete article

Our Israeli Government is handling this all wrong, as usual.

According to the Jerusalem Post, Shalit will probably be released after the Christian new year:

"A prisoner swap with Hamas for the release of St.-Sgt. Gilad Schalit will likely take place after January but before the Palestinian elections, which are to be held by June, The Jerusalem Post learned on Thursday." complete article

That's a long way off.  That turns this little performance into a dangerous and pathetic farce.  Going back to the Torah lesson of today, the first day of Succot.  Succot is for joy, at knowing that Gilad is alive.  So, does that mean that he will only be released during Passover, the Festival of Freedom?  The dates fit, according to the Jerusalem Post.

The Waller Family: “Harvesting” in Israel

Posted by Jewish Israel

It’s Erev Succot and “harvest” time in Israel...

Tommy Waller and his family of 13, plus a company of many more, are here to help with the grape harvest and do other agricultural work in or near the communities of Har Bracha, Ariel, Itamar and Shiloh.

As devout evangelicals, the Wallers have a hankerin’ for “breaking barriers” and “planting the grapes in Samaria, with the people of Israel and at the same time, chipping away at that wall”[that separates Jews and Christians]. They are “dedicated as a family to sharing the Gospel of Yeshua (Jesus) by serving the people of Israel within the agricultural settlements and Kibbutzim."

Meanwhile, the Jews are obligated to keep those fences intact and avoid avoda zarah at all costs.

It’s not that the Wallers aren’t good, moral, upstanding Christians – because they are. It’s just that the old “one new man” and "grafted" thing keeps getting in the way.

If it helps clear the air, Jewish Israel would like evangelicals (and Jews for that matter) to understand that our avoidance of a theologically-based Jewish-Christian reconciliation is not due to generations of anti-Semitic baggage. Rather, it is an halachic issue of the highest order.

Jewish Israel explores the costs involved when we partner with those who help harvest our fields with the ultimate intentions of "harvesting our souls" and laying claim to our inheritance in Eretz Yisrael...more at Jewish Israel

New Neighborhood in Shiloh!

Groundbreaking has begun on Shiloh's new housing project. 

As I've written many times, we have a serious housing shortage.  Many people want to move to Shiloh for its community, education, convenient location and other reasons.  It's amazing how many kids who grew up here want to raise their kids in Shiloh.  This building initative is by one of them.

A Hero and Heroine from Haraisha

I have a friend as dear as a sister in this endangered "settlement." Nothing could be more abhorrent than to believe that a country could contemplate ousting families twice within 4 years from their homes! Positively unbelievable and disgusting!!!

Zimra Shlessinger (hit link below to hear her eloquently describe Haraisha's plight) came on aliya as a teen with her dear family. I met her about 17 years ago when she came to work with me at the same mekif in Netivot, traveling daily the 30-40 minutes from Gush Katif. She and her dear husband, a great talmid chacam named Rav Chananel Shlessinger witnessed many miracles while living in the Gush.

For example, one day in a tiny Renault car, Zimra's husband was taking 3 prospective gerei tzedek somewhere when their car was ambushed by armed terrorists. I don't recall the exact number of shots, but about 50 hit the windshield and all of the car's other windows riddling the car with holes and shattering glass. Miraculously, outside of minor wounds from the shards of glass, nobody was killed or seriously injured. The soldiers who arrived at the scene admitted that this was a miracle.

Unfortunately, Am Yisrael worldwide did not do enough to prevent the expulsion. NOW is the time for everyone with the tiniest sense of tzedek ( justice ) to shout from all corners of the globe about the dangerous situation these brave families in Haraisha face. How can we remain silent??? Please send the clip below to everyone you know.

In addition, Zimra is desperately looking for a computer savvy yid to help her post an on-line petition on the Web. Any volunteers? (I'd love to help but sadly am barely competent at the basic thing but the most basic p.c. matters.)

If you are both capable and interested in aiding this fight by setting up a petition online, please contact Zimra at : zimra@neto.co.il

Let us prevent disgrace when at 120 we will be asked, "What did you do to prevent your brothers and sisters being expulsed from buildings built with compensation money from a previous expulsion????" It is so absolutely absurd; should this occur anywhere else in the world, everyone from the Jewish Defamation League to Hadassah ladies would be out on the streets demonstrating!! This event, chas ve'shalom, should it occur could be heartbreaking enough to cause someone to leave yiddushkeit; Eretz Yisrael or both.


PLEASE HELP! The link is clip on WEJEW

Please copy, paste and listen! Then please forward this to everyone you know so that they may e-mail politicians; etc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVo3NrDbiko

Pretty Dumb Deal

I shouldn't say "I can't believe it," because Israeli rulers constantly make dangerous deals like this one to free terrorists for information about whether Gilad Shalit is really alive or not.  All it accomplishes is more demands and more pressure and more kidnapping and attacks.

So, you may say, we're releasing female terrorists.  Is that supposed to comfort me?  Anyone who follows the news knows that the female terrorists are more ideologically vicious than the males.  And don't forget the true stories of the mothers of terrorists who proclaim great pride in their murdering children, even the ones who blew themselves up in the process.

These same Israeli politicians have no problems treating teachers like lazy factory workers, blaming us for failures in education.  The government and media are tougher on pioneering Jews than they are on Arab terrorists.

Haraisha, "The Little Engine That Could"

I grew up on the story, "The Little Engine That Could," about the small engine that took on the task that larger engines had feared trying.  Repeating the motto, "I think I can," it succeeded all the way up the mountain.


That's what I thought of when I read about the young community of Haraisha.

Haraisha-the Battle against the Silent Expulsion

Dear Friends


Last week,on our Women in Green chizuk trip to the Shomron and Binyamin outposts ,we went, among other places, to Hareisha and heard the mind boggling story of this great community in danger of having its houses demolished because of "Peace Now".


Thank you to our dear friend Timna Katz for writing the story of Haraisha in English.


With love for Israel ,


Nadia Matar - Yehudit Katzover

Haraisha

The Battle Against the Silent Expulsion

Background


Haraisha was established in 5749 (1999) during the last days of Netanyahu’s first tenure as prime minister. With the help of the Binyamin Local Council under the leadership of Pinchas Wallerstein and his successor Avi Roeh as well as residents of the nearby yishuvim of Talmon and Neria under the leadership of Rav Daniel Hershkovitz, the initial garin of Mercaz HaRav graduates struck roots. Today the community numbers over 40 families.


The families were originally housed in caravans. After some years the Housing Ministry began developing the permanent infrustructure for the yishuv, including laying the groundwork for permanent housing. The investment of the Housing Ministry was supplemented by the support of other governmental offices and ministries, including the Defense Ministry, who appreciated Haraisha’s strategic importance overlooking Ramallah to the south and east and all of Gush Dan to the west.


Once the Housing Ministry had laid the groundwork for the permanent housing, the families invested their private funds to build their homes. Like almost everywhere in the country where ownership of land is not private, the final permits weren’t obtained before construction began. As is typical throughout Israel , the eight houses were built with the expectation that the final permits would be granted at the end of the long bureaucratic process. As is also typical, the Civil Administration automatically issued destruction orders on the buildings, which are then retroactively cancelled once the approval process is completed.


Peace Now Gets Involved


Peace Now discovered this technicality and turned it into a weapon in its war against the Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria . It initiated a continual and ongoing campaign to have the “illegal dwellings” throughout Judea and Samaria destroyed. And it found an eager and willing partner in the Israeli Supreme Court. About four years ago, Peace Now filed a petition to force the state to execute the destruction orders pending on the permanent houses in Haraisha. The State responded to Peace Now’s appeal with weak equivocation. True, it asserted, the houses are illegal, but it isn’t high on the State’s list of priorities to destroy them for many and varied reasons. . . . It was the same answer that the State gave to Haraisha’s identical appeal against illegal Arab building in the neighboring village.


And wonder of wonders, the Supreme Court accepted the State’s position regarding the Arab building, but not the Jewish building. On July 7, 2009, the Supreme Court issued a precedential decision to intervene in the State’s manangment of state-owned lands by ordering it to set a time for the evacuation of the families and the destruction of their homes within four months.


The decision’s blatant discrimination in favor of Arab defendants and against Jewish ones is yet another stone in the long road the Supreme Court and its Leftist collaborators have paved leading the State along their preferred political path against the will of the people and their elected representatives.


A Simple Solution


There is a simple solution that would frustrate the fond wishes of Peace Now: the signature of the Defense Minister as the final remaining step in the long approval process for the yishuv. This is a simple procedural step since the land on which the yishuv is built is “adamot sekker”, ‘surveyed’ land that becomes state land when there are no private claimants to ownership. The land upon which Haraisha sits is indeed uncontested. Unfortunately, Defense Minister Ehud Barak shares the goals of Peace Now and is unwilling to affix his signature due to political considerations.


Ma Nishtana?


How is this struggle different from other struggles? The nationalist public has become very familiar with this drama and its unchanging cast of characters: the vicious and dishonest leftist organizations, the hostile and hypocritical Supreme Court, the dissembling government issuing its doublespeak, the hostile and hypocritical media, and the embattled and noble settlers. The public has also grown weary of the spectacle: because the ending doesn’t vary, it has started to seem like the characters are just going through the motions. Once again, the weak are overcome by the mighty because everyone realizes – especially after Gush Katif – that this is a battle that can’t be won. So the settlers are put in their place by the establishment, but leave the field vowing to fight another day – a cry that rings more and more hollow as the days pass.


Here in Haraisha, we are not weary. We are not shrugging our shoulders and saying, ‘well, what do you expect from the Supreme Court?’ We recognize that the cooperative venture between Peace Now and the Supreme Court will turn into a stealth “disengagement” if left unchallenged and unchecked. We recognize that the small fissure made by the Supreme Court’s decision will turn into a wide canyon through which the heavy bulldozers will roll to dismantle settlement after settlement. We are treating our houses as the House of Israel, Beit Yisrael, and our struggle as the struggle of the Jewish People’s right to their homeland.


Every single member of Haraisha is committed to wage this battle with total determination. We are well organized and we are serious. We will not back down, we will not make deals, and we will not compromise since we will not be on the defensive. While we will use all the tools at our disposal, including traditional lobbying and political pressure tactics, our strategy will be different.


Preventing the Destruction by Attacking the Root Cause


Haraisha has joined hands with the Regavim organization to attack the problem at its root: the hijacking of the Israeli justice system to serve the ends of the Far Left political elite, effectively bypassing the democractic process.


Though the financial cost is onerous (a mere pittance for Peace Now but a staggering sum for us), we intend to file petition after petition demanding that the Supreme Court treat illegal Arab building the same way as “illegal Jewish building.” (In truth, the two are not the same as the Arabs rarely take steps to comply with the law, whereas the Jews do everything in their power to comply.) While the Supreme Court and the media can sweep one or two such cases under the carpet, if the double standard becomes too flagrant and too stark and too public, the matter will come to a head. The Court will either have to stop playing ball with Peace Now or it will lose so much of its legitimacy that the government will be forced to step in and act.


For our legal strategy to be effective, we will need to inform the public about our campaign and to arouse their active support. To this end, we will and are employing traditional lobbying and public relations tactics.


We Need Your Help


1. By being politically active – Anyone with access to people with political influence can help by contacting those people on behalf of Haraisha.


2. Creating a public storm – Pass on the word in whatever way you can: by contacting the media, spreading the message on email lists and internet forums, etc. Even a simple conversation with the people you come in contact with on a daily basis can make a big impact in unexpected ways. Also, please participate in the public events that we will be holding. The perception of widespread public support for our cause has a big influence on politicians.


3. Fundraising – Please contribute to this cause that is the cause of all of us. Ask your families and friends to contribute. If you know of philanthropists who might be willing to help us, please pass on their names. The legal war that we’re embarking on entails significant sums.


4. Share your ideas with us – If you have new ideas or a different angle on how to conduct this struggle, we are happy to hear from you.

Aloh na’aleh . . . ki yachol nuchal la.

With G-d’s help – and united – we can do this!

The Residents of Haraisha, zimra@neto.co.il