Dumb! Dumb! Dangerously DUMB!!

One thing for sure, Israel isn't being governed by poker players.  We could use some on the team.  When negotiating one is supposed to keep one's cards close to one's chest and not let the world know what you have nor your strategy.





I've been searching for the poker scene in Five Pennies, the Red Nichols biopic starring Danny Kaye. There's a great scene in which his young daughter bluffs him, but I couldn't find it in English. Watch anyhow, since you know the "end" and can figure out what's happening.





There's an art to negotiations, very much like poker. Never give your bottom "red" line, because if you do, the other side will start from there and you'll lose from day one.


And if you plan any tricks, keep them secret. Don't publicize them in the media.  Silence is the key.  Israeli politicians, right, left and center talk much too much about their "dream plans" for "peace."

This is all so obvious to me; I just can't understand what a man of Binyamin Netanyahu's obvious intelligence and knowledge of history is doing.  Honestly, I don't think much of Ehud Barak's intelligence.  I'll never forget when he was Prime Minister and his admirers thought he was so impressive because he liked to take apart machines and put them together.  Well, that's not the sort of intelligence for a good effective Prime Minister or responsible administrator of any large organization.

Israel must demand a long, unlimited "time out" from all negotiations.  Time is our strength.  Let the Arabs come running and begging.  So far only Israel has shown any desperation or even mild interest in peace.  That means that regardless of whatever may be signed with the heavy-handed urging of the United States and Blair the final result will be more Arab terrorism and war.

If it takes another generation or more for the Arabs to want true peace, at least they will want peace.  You can't make peace with people who glorify war.

First Benji's HH and Then To Sleep!

Benji, please forgive me, but  was planning on just checking my emails before going to bed.  My husband and I and a couple of our kids had been out celebrating the lo'azi goyish date 40th anniversary of our docking in Israel as olim chadashim, new immigrants.  Where were we?  At HaGov!!!  Where else?  It's the best, very best kosher sports bar and grill in the world, and it's in Jerusalem 5 Yoel Solomon Street.

I figured I'd just glance at your Havel Havelim and blog about it tomorrow, but then I saw that you gave me places of honor, first and last, if you count the reminder for the Kosher Cooking Carnival.  For details, check out the HH, I'm conking out, dozing in the seat.

As usual, Benji, you did a great job.  Please forgive me, but I just can't stay awake long enough to say any more.

So, all you readers, please check out Benji's Havel Havelim!!

Room For More Than One More

Last night was the chanukat habayit, dedication, festive opening of our expanded neighborhood synagogue and "social/events" hall.  The shul is now officially named the Beit Knesset Noam Yonatan of Ramat Shmuel Shiloh.  It's named in memory of Yonatan Eldar, HaYa"D, who was murdered by an Arab terrorist when studying in Mercaz HaRav Yeshiva.

The hall is dedicated to the memory of Penina Siton, ZaTz"L, who died of cancer a year ago, and the expanded Ezrat Nashim, Women's Section is in memory of Yehudit Shpatz who passed away two years ago.

It's hard to think that money can only be raised when in memory of dead people, but that's the reality. 

At least now there will be room for all to pray here in our neighborhood shul.

Likud MK Tzipi Hotovely Is Making The Same Mistake As The Left

Young Likud MK Tzipi Hotovely seems to be enjoying the attention every one of her utterances now gets from the media.  She has joined the Left by producing "peace plans."  Her latest brainstorm isn't the first.  This time I'm not even going to mention her ideas, proposals, because proclamations to the media, whether logical or fantasy, won't bring us peace with our Arab enemies.

The State of Israel wants peace, is willing to live in peace with all Arabs.  We have said this numerous times, like the stars in the sky, and countless times we've made so many peace gestures, like an anorexic, we have nothing left but bare bones.  Now what's necessary for peace is that the Arabs want peace enough to stop fighting us, to stop attacking us with dangerous missiles, to stop shooting and throwing rocks at innocent Israeli civilians. 

Simply put:

Only when the Arabs want peace as much as we do will there be peace!

Tzipi Hotovely's peace plan has as much a chance to bring peace as the ones the Israeli Leftists promote.

There Are No Coincidences

I shouldn't have been been surprised when I read the email from A.Word.A.Day.

A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg


faux


PRONUNCIATION:
(foh)


MEANING:
noun: Artificial; fake; false.


ETYMOLOGY:
From French faux (false), from Old French fals, from Latin falsus (false), past participle of fallere (to deceive).


USAGE:
"During movie production, all faux weapons had to be rubber."
Amy Kaufman; T.I. Reworks His Act for Hollywood; Los Angeles Times; Aug 26, 2010.


Explore "faux" in the Visual Thesaurus.


A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
In all life one should comfort the afflicted, but verily, also, one should afflict the comfortable, and especially when they are comfortably, contentedly, even happily wrong. -John Kenneth Galbraith, economist (1908-2006)

Obama and Hillary are marketing faux peace.  There's a faux peace conference in Washington DC attended by PM Binyamin Netanyahu who is a faux leader, becuase he's not leading; he's taking orders.

Looking Forward to The Three-Day News Moratorium

At last year's Second International Jewish Bloggers Conference (will there be a third?) David Horowitz, Editor in Chief of the Jerusalem Post spoke about the news business.  He said that now that the paper is online, work can't cease for a minute.  The Jerusalem Post only closes for Yom Kippur, but he and his family are keeping more of Shabbat for their own sanity.  They need the break from the unpleasant realities of news.

As the resident hausfrau here in the jblogging capital of Shiloh, I don't really enjoy all the domestic preparations for the upcoming three day (2 days of Rosh Hashannah plus Shabbat) Jewish Holiday weekend, but I do enjoy the subsequent silence of the news, the media, the telephone etc.  Bad news can wait and good news is just as good delayed. 

I like to concentrate on the here and now of the prayers and community.

This is a reminder that the One in Charge is G-d Almighty, HaKadosh Baruch Hu, not Bibi, Obama nor Hillary.  This World, Olam HaZeh,  עולם הזה is fleeting, temporary, just preparation for the Next World, Olam HaBa עולם הבא and determines where G-d will place us.  Our actions buy our tickets.

Next Wednesday, before the sun goes down, we'll turn off and unplug the computer.  I'll light the first set of candles, take out my Machzor (Holiday Prayerbook) and pray to G-d that our Israeli politicians will transform into wise leaders and that G-d will forgive all our sins whether we properly repent or not.  We're only human, not angels.  We're riddled with faults and weaknesses.

Shabbat Shalom

Shannah Tovah
Ketiva Vechatima Tova

Gmar Chatima Tova

Housecleaning, Clean the Traitors Out

Double hat tip, IMRA from MEMRI


Israeli Knesset Member Hanin Zou'bi:
I Do Not Represent the State of Israel but the Palestinian Struggle


In an interview for the website Elaph.com, Israeli Arab Knesset Member Hanin Zou'bi of the Balad party said that she sees herself as a representative not of Israel but rather of the struggle of the Palestinian people, and as such does not recognize Israel as a Jewish state. Zou'bi attacked the Palestinian Authority, which she claimed no longer stands for Palestinian rights, and called on the PLO to effect a reform which would grant Israeli Arabs a voice in its leadership.


Following are excerpts from the interview:




Q: "...How can you expect the country in whose parliament you are a member to keep quiet about such activity [i.e. your participation in the Gaza flotilla]? In France, a member of the National Assembly would not dare to act thus against the French state..."


Hanin Zou'bi: "...My situation is different. I do not represent the State of Israel or speak in its name, but rather in the name of the [Palestinian] struggle, which does not in any way recognize Israel as a Jewish state. [I speak] in the name of a struggle that is performing a role precisely opposed to that of the Israeli Knesset, from the [Knesset's] standpoint...

entire article

Hey, Barry Obama, The Only Thing Slipping is Your Approval Ratings!

U.S. President Barack Hussein Obama claims that "peace" is slipping away, but the only thing slipping is his approval ratings.  You can't make real peace at a fancy conference table.

When there's no security, there's no peace.  And there definitely isn't security  for Jews in the Holy Land.  So roll up the fancy table cloth and carpets.  Put away the spotlights and put your tux you had cleaned for another Nobel Peace Prize back in storage.

An agreement can't be imposed.  You have a language problem. 

Forget about a shotgun wedding.  We've been shot at too much to believe your fairy tales.

I hope that Bibi gets some self-respect and the guts to stand up and leave.  Better the Israel delegation never show up.  Instead he should visit the mourners and the wounded.

The Israeli people are strong.  We've been carrying the burden while our politicians fiddle away G-d's gifts to us. 

Hillary, Not "Lost," MURDERED!

In my search for a film-clip of Bibi's disjointed reaction to the terror attack near Hebron, I found the Hillary Clinton part of it.





I find her PC euphemisms offensive.  Yitzchak Imas, his wife Talia Imas, Kokhava Even-Chaim, and Avishai Shindler, HaYa"D, were all murdered by Arab terrorists.  Everyone knows where they are.  They are buried in clearly marked graves. 

They aren't "lost."


The only person who can be considered "lost" is Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu who thought that he was going to be a "partner" in a "peace" conference, but instead he seems rather stupefied and led around like a beaten dog.





The Arabs at Obama's "conference" can't control the terrorists.  That's clear.  So, if they can't control them, there won't be peace of any shape or form.  The Israeli security situation can only get worse.  This Obama conference only emboldens the Arab terrorists.

I'm a pragmatist.  I follow the news.  Over the decades each "peace" conference and concession by Israel has only made life more dangerous for us, pushed peace further away.  Yes, this is the Middle-east where nothing makes sense.  Appease aka "peace" sic Now causes war and terrorism.

Be prepared!

Bibi, Lobotomized?

If anyone has a youtube of the interview/statement, please send the link, thanks.

This evening I saw a PM Binyamin Netanyahu unlike his usual self.  I don't like Bibi's policies, but I do think him one of the most talented speakers alive.  He was in Washington DC standing next to a very angry looking Hilary Clinton.  Instead of Netanyahu's usually well-crafted sentences and complete thoughts, he grunted a few phrases which were supposed to elucidate his feelings about last night's Arab terror attack which resulted in the murder of four innocent Jews from Beit Chagai.

Just PM Netanyahu's being there means that the pressure on him will just get worse and worse.  He won't be in control.

Look at this face.  He's miserable.

The big problem is that he's supposed to be representing us, the citizens of the State of Israel, and the only way to succeed is to "pull and Samson" and break up the conference.  Obama's conference won't bring peace.

At least it's now being said that Bibi announced to Hillary that the building freeze will soon be over.

The Entrenched Schizophrenia in The Israeli Calendar

On the whole, the State of Israel functions according to the Jewish Calendar.  Official state holidays and school vacations are all in accordance with Jewish Law and Calendar.  The biggest national clash is the opening of the school year.  That's today, September 1.  Most years that's fine for all the schools, state-religious (mamlachti-dati) and state-secular (mamlachti.)  The traditional time for the opening of yeshivot, religious Torah seminaries, is the first of the Jewish Month of Elul, the month before Rosh Hashannah, the Jewish New Year.

According to Jewish Law, our New Year is an extremely important spiritual time, an interactive spiritual time when we are supposed to make an accounting of our lives, deeds etc of the past year and beseech G-d to forgive our sins so we can begin the new year clean and pure.  That's not something done vacationing, shopping and goofing off.  So many schools and school districts must make a crucial decision, one permitted by Israeli Law.  Should school open before the first of September or not?

The schools which only open today have less than a week of school before the Rosh Hashannah vacation/Holiday begins.  That isn't enough time.

That's why many schools began earlier causing problems within families, neighborhoods etc.  Our local school district, the Benjamin Regional Council had school open this past Sunday, August 29, so there would be just over a full week of school before Rosh Hashannah.  The days will be made up as added (bridge) vacations during the year.

It may sound complicated, but it's far better than trying to live a full Torah Judaism life out of Israel.  One of our young relatives went to an American university which had been specifically targeting itself as suitable for Orthodox Jews.  She managed pretty well, except that her graduation was davka on the Jewish Holiday of Shavuot.  So, with all the faults and difficulties in Israel, there are far more advantages.

Shanah Tovah, Gmar Chatima Tovah