Airline Industry, Downed By Primitive Volcanoes

When we turned on the news after Shabbat, the big topic was how people are still stranded because of the volcanic ash.  Although some areas have cleared sufficiently for planes to fly, not everyone has found a flight or can leave or arrive.

For decades already we've taken for granted that air travel is safe and reliable.  Many people commute by plane, even internationally.  Flying is no longer "special," nor considered particularly dangerous.  Nu, maybe it isn't so simple...  Trains, cars, buses and boats are returning to popularity, at least in Europe.

That remindds me of those new-flangled electric books.  So much can go wrong.  I prefer paper ones.

And besides all that, don't forget:
"Man plans and G-d laughs."

Bibi, Stop Talking; Start Building

Words, words and more words.  Everyone's reporting how Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu says that no government, Right, Left or Center has ever frozen building in Jerusalem.

All I can say to Bibi is

"Prove it!  If you're not freezing building in all Jerusalem neighborhoods, then speed it up.  Streamline permit approval.  Make Jerusalem a priority for building projects, especially the more moderate priced ones with special mortgages for Israelis who don't own homes."

Unfortunately, I keep visualizing a refrigerator with a faulty thermostat.  Yes, the type that freezes the food in the fridge compartment, damaging it.  Bibi, get your thermostat fixed before you destroy our country.The more Netanyahu talks the more suspicious I get about his true intentions.  He should declare the topic closed and just build.

High School Essay Contest on Jabotinsky

נשיאות
ח"כ ראובן ריבלין – יו"ר
ח"כ אריה אלדד
ח"כ זאב אלקין
ח"כ זאב בוים
מר זאב ז'בוטינסקי
ד"ר קרני רובין
מר פלג תמיר
מר יוסי אחימאיר
גב' מרים תבין


חבר השופטים
פרופ' אריה נאור – יו"ר
פרופ' מרדכי תומרקין
פרופ' תאודור בלבריסקי
ד"ר אופירה גראווייס
גב' אמירה שטרן
מר נפתלי סילצקי
מר יוסי קיסטר


הנהלה
עו"ד מיכאל קליינר
עו"ד עמנואל ויזר
מר הרברט צווייבון

5 תלמידי תיכון יזכו ב 10,000 ₪ כל אחד

ארגון AFSI (Americans For Safe Israel) בשיתוף תנועת חירות העולמית

ועמותת "מסדר ע"ש זאב ז'בוטינסקי" מכריזים על תחרות חיבורים ארצית

לתלמידי תיכון. התחרות תתמקד ב- 5 נושאים מרכזיים:

• היחיד והאומה בתורת ז'בוטינסקי

• הרפורמה החברתית על פי ז'בוטינסקי

• ז'בוטינסקי בונה הכוח הצבאי העברי

• ז'בוטינסקי כעיתונאי ומשורר

• ז'בוטינסקי – מדינאי ופוליטיקאי

הפרס הראשון לזוכה בכל אחד מהתחומים – 10,000 ₪

בנוסף, ינתנו פרסים לבתי הספר שיצטיינו באחוז המשתתפים וברמת

עבודותיהם. הפרס הראשון – 35,000 ₪. הפרס השני – 20,000 ₪.

לקבלת פרטים והצטרפות ניתן לפנות

  For more information email: misdarj@gmail.com

Don't Underestimate The Arabs

Too many Israelis and Jews are still blinded by the flash of the 1967 Six Days War military miracles.  The logical rationalists have pegged credited Israel's resounding victory on the incompetence and primitive equipment of the enemy Arab armies.  This was a large ingredient in the unpreparedness of the IDF in the 1973 Yom Kippur War when Israel was taken by surprise and almost defeated.  Unfortunately, many of us still haven't fully internalized the uncomfortable and unpleasant lessons that the Arabs have improved  militarily.


In the post-Six Days War euphoria, Israel received more respect, adoration and friendship than any other time in its history.  Most Israelis and Jews refuse to recognize how short a time that honeymoon actually lasted.  They are not realistic, and that's a very dangerous fault.


Besides the military, the Arabs have improved their public relations.  Actually, they always attracted more adoration than we Jews and Israelis did.  Don't forget the legends of Lawrence of Arabia and Great Britain's giving the east bank of the Jordan, which had been earmarked (Balfour Declaration) to be part of the Jewish State, to that Hashemite sheik.


Jews got some pity when allied soldiers discovered the survivors of the Nazi concentration camps, but long before the November 29, 1947 United Nations vote our fifteen minutes of fame were over.  Contrary to Hillary Clinton's speech, then President Truman wasn't definitely positive about over-ruling State Department recommendations and support voting "yes" for a Jewish state, Israel.  Don't forget that his Jewish friend is credited with convincing Truman to support a Jewish State.  If there was no doubt about American support, the friend wouldn't have had to have been sent.


Israel's Foreign Ministry and Jewish American pro-Israel lobbies aren't on the ball.  Hat tip: Boris.  Today's Arab American population is knowledgeable and sophisticated and well-connected. 

Few American Islamists receive the kind of glowing media coverage given to Dalia Mogahed, executive director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies, who is sometimes described as the "most influential person" shaping the Obama Administration's Middle East message.


Mogahed, who claims to have played an important role in the drafting of President Obama's historic Cairo speech to the Muslim world, was appointed to serve on the President's Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships. The council released its final recommendations last month.

We had better open our eyes to today's reality and today's enemies, both in the military and Public Relations, lobbying. 

MK Dr. Arieh Eldad MD likes to remind people that Israel's Right is full of scientists, who analyze facts, like himself, while the Left attracts philosophers.

"Dark" Mood Here in Israel? The New York Times Reporter Should Clean His Glasses

"Mood Is Dark as Israel Marks 62nd Year as a Nation"

That's how the New York Times titled is article about this year's Israeli Independence Day.  No surprise.  I disagree.  I didn't see any darkness, depression etc, not in Shiloh nor when visiting my cousin who lives west of Ariel in the Sharon, not the Shomron.

There's lots of building here actually on projects begun before Bibi Netanyahu's dangerous building freeze.  And other projects are getting ready to start the minute it thaws.  Families are waiting for houses to be ready or empty out so they can move in.

A few years ago, immediately before and after Disengagement the mood was dark and bitter, no not like fine chocolate.  No, it was more like sour soup laced with tears.

Our Israeli Independence Day celebrations were joyous looking optimistically to the future, with G-d's help.

Jewish Israel Presentation at the Israel Center

Posted by Jewish Israel


Rabbi Dr. Sholom Gold and Jewish Israel present:

"Israel and the Evangelicals: a match NOT made in heaven"

Monday April 26th at 7:30pm at the Israel Center in Jerusalem, 22 Keren Hayesod St.

Introductory remarks by Rabbi Sholom Gold, Dean of the Avrom Silver Jerusalem College for Adults, and Rabbinic Director of Jewish Israel; followed by a presentation by Jewish Israel

Please join us!

Tradition!

One of the best things about this year's Shiloh Independence Day Celebration was that it was run by adult residents who grew up in Shiloh, second generation.

And among the young kids who performed were third generation Shilonians. Their parents also grew up here, went to school here and their grandparents were proudly watching from the audience. That's the success of the "settlement enterprise" that our adult "youth" have either moved "back home" or to other yishuvim.  Many want their kids to enjoy the same sort of childhood they had.

The Bible In Israeli Education

A bit of "trivia" from this year's International Youth Bible Contest:

1. The first prize was won by a female high school student.
2. The three top winners are all Israeli high school students.
3. Two of the top three winners come from families with a tradition of winning the Bible Contest.
4. Two of the top three winners are studying in non-religious high schools.

I challenge you to think a bit and guess which Israeli high school education framework is missing.

Nu, do you know?  The key to guessing this correctly is to know what the three basic education frameworks are:

• non-religious high schools
• ulpanot, girls religious high schools
• boys religious yeshiva high schools, even if the school itself doesn't like to call itself by the secular term "high school"

The winner is Or  Ashual.  She's a girl; yes, Or is sometimes a boy's name, too.  That means that this year the yeshiva high schools came out looking bad.  None of the top three winners come from that system.

One thing should be clear.  Nobody interested in competing in the contest with a chance of winning can count on their high school to prepare them.  It takes a lot of extra work and oodles of dedication.  Each year the contest focuses on a different aspect of the Bible. 

Also, the questions aren't simple test questions.  One has to learn how to understand and answer what the question is actually asking.  That's a skill in itself besides the material the teens must learn better than well.

Going back to the boys education.  In most yeshivot and religious high schools TaNaCh, Bible is not a priority subject.  In the yeshiva high school where I used to teach Bible was taught during the secular studies part of the day.  It wasn't considered a religious subject.  That always bothered me.  The afternoon was so jam-packed with Math, English, History, Science, Grammar, Computers, Literature etc that the Holy Bible got lost in the shuffle.  Bible should be a daily class in the middle of their morning G'morah study time in the Beit Medrash.

Our Bible is our history and the pledge by G-d giving us this Land.  It belongs to all Jews, the Bible and the Land.  I'm overjoyed that there are Israelis of all levels of Jewish observance enjoying the study of the Bible.  I hope that Elad Nachshon's and Avner Netanyahu's successes in the contest will encourage their high shcool friends to study our Bible.  It belongs to us all

Israel at Sixty-Two (62)

Dry Bones sums it up perfectly, as usual.

He just left out the heavy-handed American pressure, which he mentioned in the cartoon below.

The State of Israel can't rely on any foreign power or even World Jewry for help and support, but that's not new.  We can't even rely on our own politicians to promote what's best for Israeli security.  Knesset Speaker Ruby Rivlin made a great rousing pro-Jerusalem and settlements speech at the official Independence Day Ceremony, but he has no real power.  It's all window dressing, no more influential than the flags I've hung on my merpeset (balcony.)

Unfortunately your average Israeli is impressed and comforted by these speeches, forgetting that they are no more than words.  Even if I have no doubt that Rivlin was totally sincere  and not acting, it makes no difference.  All the pro-Land of Israel Israelis, including the Feiglin Manhigut Yehudit crowd, who voted for the Likud just got us Ehud Barak, who's an extreme Leftist dressed in IDF army fatigues.  Binyamin Netanyahu may be our Prime Minister, but we're not getting the Likud platform.  Kadima's Tsippi Livne may be in the opposition, but we're stuck with her and Labor's policies.

I don't want to leave you with a depressing Israeli Independence Day post.  That's not what I planned when I sat down here this morning before the sun was high in the sky.  Contrary to what Israel's media and politicians want us to believe, most Israelis understand that without our Land we are nothing.  Without our Land we aren't safe.  Petach Tikvah, Ramat Gan and Kfar Saba are minutes from the proposed Pseudostinian aka Palestinian sic state.  These Israeli cities won't be safe if Israel doesn't fully control the Land we have to the Jordan River.  Shiloh protects Tel Aviv.

The State of Israel is sixty-two (62) years old.  The Six Days War was just after it turned nineteen (19.)  The math is simple.  For more than two-thirds (2/3) of its existence as a modern independent state, we have been in control of Judea and Samaria.  That's the key to our continued survival.  Without our historic Biblical Land we couldn't have survived these past forty-three years.  Without our long history, we wouldn't exist at all.

Ironically, the front-runner to win today's International Youth Bible Contest is Avner Netanyahu, the youngest child of Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu.  At fifteen (15) he's two to three years younger than most of the finalists, and unlike most Israeli contestants he studies in a non-religious school.  According to the press, he has been tutored by his grandfathers who are history and Bible experts.  Maybe he should be tutoring his own father.

Over the millenium, Jewish History has never followed the laws of logic, therefore it's best not to attempt to predict the future.

חג עצמאות שמח

Chag Atzma'ut Sameach

Happy Israeli Independence Day

Israeli Flags Forever Flying!

Through thick and thin, no matter what the world wants and says. Wind is רוח ruach, spirit.

Just like we see in Jewish History, we will overcome our enemies.

We just must let our רוח ruach, spirit  prevail.

חג עצמאות שמח

Happy Israeli Independence Day

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates Admits: "The Emperor Has No Clothes!"

Gates Says U.S. Lacks a Policy to Thwart Iran

And this is an article in the pro-Obama New York Times!

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has warned in a secret three-page memorandum to top White House officials that the United States does not have an effective long-range policy for dealing with Iran’s steady progress toward nuclear capability, according to government officials familiar with the document.
...
Officials familiar with the memo’s contents would describe only portions dealing with strategy and policy, and not sections that apparently dealt with secret operations against Iran, or how to deal with Persian Gulf allies.


One senior official, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the memo, described the document as “a wake-up call.” But White House officials dispute that view, insisting that for 15 months they had been conducting detailed planning for many possible outcomes regarding Iran’s nuclear program...

Today Israel mourns its "fallen," those dead, killed by our enemies in war and terror attacks.  From Memorial Day we go straight into Independence Day, because we officially recognize that our national independence has a price, an ongoing price.  We must defend ourselves constantly, until we have no more enemies.  We won't have peace until our enemies want to be our friends and allies.  The responsibility is in their hands, not ours.  We can't trust any other country to help.

The lesson here is not to trust the United States of America to guarantee world peace. On the same hand, we can't trust their judgement, their policies concerning peace in the Middle east and Israeli security.

Who's the true fool? Danny Kaye tells and sings it perfectly.

Yisrael, batach b'Hashem

People of Israel, trust in G-d