Tip of the Iceberg, or Should We Say Pyramid

There's a pretty weak joke making its rounds via email warning the Egyptians that if they destroy their pyramids, we won't rebuild them, signed, the Jews.  Yes, according to Jewish tradition we built those pyramids when we were slaves in Egypt.

My gut feeling is that the present "unrest" rioting in Egypt and the rest of the Arab world is more like the tip of the iceberg.  There's lots more underneath, yet to emerge.  And like an iceberg, it will float around, impossible to control.

That's one of the reasons that even United States President Barack Hussein Obama's latest, more carefully crafted statement about the revolt in Egypt and Hosni Mubarak's fleeing to Sharm Al Sheik may be as secure as the Titanic was before the iceberg punctured it.



Obama strongly sympathizes with the rebellion:

"...The Egyptian people have made it clear that there is no going back to the way things were: Egypt has changed, and its future is in the hands of the people. Those who have exercised their right to peaceful assembly represent the greatness of the Egyptian people, and are broadly representative of Egyptian society. We have seen young and old, rich and poor, Muslim and Christian join together, and earn the respect of the world through their non-violent calls for change. In that effort, young people have been at the forefront, and a new generation has emerged. They have made it clear that Egypt must reflect their hopes, fulfill their highest aspirations, and tap their boundless potential. In these difficult times, I know that the Egyptian people will persevere, and they must know that they will continue to have a friend in the United States of America."

Naive is my most optimistic reaction to his words. Thousands of miles safely protected in America, he won't be affected by the fall-out. It's interesting that the Mubarak family's first shelter is close to Israel, in Sharm Al Sheik and far from the United States. I wonder where they will permanently settle.

I also wonder what's next.  In no way do I share Obama's optimism.  I'm not comforted by the proper pc words of the present Egyptian rulers.  From my vantage point in Shiloh, the genuine original Biblical city, things do look very different.  No doubt, time will tell.

Synagogue Membership, Simple Capitalism

re: American Jewry

Yes, simple capitalism, supply and demand.
 
There are too related articles in The Forward.  One is about the shrinking numbers in the "liberal" Jewish memberships.  The second is about independent minyanim.

It's human nature to try to preserve the status quo, but at the same time change is constant.  I can never reconsile the contradiction between those who both believe in evolution and get all hysterical about the fact that some species are not only endangered, they disappear completely.  I find it easier to believe in G-d and accept that not everything lasts forever.

I grew up in new Bayside, New York during the 1950's and early 1960's.  The area was almost totally Jewish, lots of young families.  The main, only for quite a while, synagogue was the Oakland Jewish Center, which was affiliated with United Synagogue and was Conservative.  At that point there wasn't all that much of a difference between the Modern Orthodox and Conservative.  The two big differences were in the seating, mixed at Conservative and Conservative also had a late evening Friday night service.  Many Conservative shuls had rabbis who considered themselves Orthodox.  OJC grew and grew in membership and physical size during the years we knew it.  We moved away in 1962.  There was a large Hebrew School, which I attended three days a week.  It fit the needs and wants of most of the community.  Those who wanted a more Orthodox congregation established the Young Israel of Windsor Park, which is just a few blocks away.

During the High Holidays, Rosh Hashannah and Yom Kippur a large tent was put up for youth services.  The synagogue's large rooms and halls were all packed.  That's how I remember it.  About ten years ago, someone I know ended up there in Bayside during the Holidays.  He wanted to a synagogue to pray in, and Conservative suited him, so he went to OJC.

Forty years after my time there, he found a totally different congregation.  In a depressingly empty sanctuary some of the old-timers and their visiting children and grandchildren gathered for prayers.  They mourned the fact that the synagogue and community were dying.  The visitor was amazed.  I'm not.

I wonder how many of my Hebrew School classmates are members of American synagogues.  And of those who are, how many are members of Conservative ones?  I live in Israel as a Torah Jew.  How many of my former classmates live as Jews?  raised their children as Jews?  Our parents established and joined Oakland Jewish Center to give us a Jewish community, Jewish education and for themselves a Jewish social and religious life, which didn't make too many demands.  That may be the key.

The more demanding your Judaism, the more you need a synagogue, rabbi and community.  "Liberal Judaism" isn't all that demanding.  Kashrut is less stringent or not required.  Thrice-daily dovening with a minyan isn't the norm.  Yes, many do make efforts for Shabbat to be different from the rest of the week, but they aren't as tied to home and synagogue as the Orthodox.

Now, about the independent minyanim.  Are they family friendly or more like modern shtiblach, small private synagogues without the large overhead?  Will they "leach" away members from the more conventional shuls?  Or will some evolve into larger congregations.

Life is always in flux, and that certainly includes Jewish communal life.

Honenu, Latma and Caroline Glick

Well, to my knowledge there's no direct connection Honenu, Latma and Caroline Glick, besides the fact that they're all on my sidebar/blogroll.  Honenu is the Legal Aid group that helps Jews who have been arrested unfairly.  A typical case is when Arabs attack Jews, and then when they try to defend themselves the Jews are arrested for violence against Arabs.  There are many cases like this.

Yes, it would make good fodder for Latma's Right news, the Tribal Update, their television-on-internet satire show.   Here's their latest, Revolution in Egypt and the Supreme Court!




Please enjoy Latma whicle I translate the Honenu news  into English.

Does Mubarak Want to Die In The Saddle?

International and Egyptian political pundits (including bloggers like myself) are doing a "will he, won't he" concerning  Egypt's very unpopular President Hosni Mubarak.  Nu, will he resign or die in office, whether from natural or manmade causes? 

Instead, Mr. Mubarak, 82, a former general, struck a defiant, even provocative note. While he acknowledged for the first time that his government had made mistakes, he made it clear that he was still president and that reforms in Egypt would proceed under his government’s supervision and according to the timetable of elections in September.

You'd think at his age, he'd want a little quiet time and retire/resign, but now he refuses.  Does he realize how dangerously unpopular he is? 

Most world leaders are far removed from the ordinary folk they rule.  They don't read newspapers, nor watch the news on TV.  They get predigested, edited and carefully composed "news digests" from their staff.  They certainly don't meet with the riff-raff ordinary citizens, nor hear their honest opinions.

In a sense those leaders are sometimes misled by their advisors who, for their own reasons, want to keep the status quo, or extend their own power to cash in.

Whatever happens in Egypt will be bad news for Egypt and the world.  Egypt will be in turmoil until a ruler, whether a new one or Mubarak takes firm control.  Egypt doesn't have a culture and history of peaceful, tolerant democracy in the western sense.  There's the same problem in Iraq, which makes the American presence there dangerously useless.

And that brings me to the so-called "peace process," sic, between Israel and the Arab terrorists who are trying to destroy us.  Negotiations won't solve the problem.  At this point in time, the Arabs are incapable of keeping the peace with us.  They must evolve, develop a new culture which accepts us.  Once that happens, there won't be any need for "peace talks," nor will we need to give them our precious Land.

Shabbat Shalom u'Mevorach

Have a Peaceful and Blessed Sabbath

Mark Your Calendar, and Spread the Word

In just over three weeks, it'll be Rosh Chodesh again, the first of the Jewish month.  This year we have two months of Adar and Purim is in the second Adar, because Purim must be a month before Passover.  So I've decided that we'll have:

Women's Prayers at Tel Shiloh

Rosh Chodesh Adar II

Sunday, March 6, 2011

9:30am

Dvar Torah, Short Torah Lesson

Please come and invite family, friends and neighbors

תפילת נשים

ראש חודש אדר ב' בתל שילה

יום א' 6-3

9:30

יהיה דבר תורה קצר

נא לבוא, לפרסם ולהזמין חברות, משפחה ושכנות

The Tel Shiloh and its coffee shop - souvineer store is open daily.  For more information contact telshilo@gmail.com or call 02-994-4019.

And Who Really Is That Jordanian King Abdullah? And Whose Land is This?

I just read Arlene Kushner's latest posting, which got me thinking.  It's time to remind everyone that the king in Jordan has a very flimsy historical connection to what is called Jordan.  As I write this, "From Israel: Blowin' in the Wind" isn't yet on Arlene's site, but I trust that she'll have it up shortly and recommend reading it in its entirety.

Apparently many Arab leaders are getting nervous because of the spreading instability/unrest/demonstrations/violence and are setting up "insurance/emergency arrangements."

The news this morning was that PA president Mahmoud Abbas has secured Jordanian citizenship, as have his entire family and several other major Fatah figures such as Ahmed Qurei, Abbas’s spokesman Nabil Abu Rudaineh and Muhammad Dahlan.
According to Khaled Abu Toameh's report on this in the JPost, application for citizenship was made by PA leaders at a time when they were urging Jordan not to grant Jordanian citizenship to Palestinian Arabs so that they might "consolidate their Palestinian identity."

Jordan, itself, is a time bomb.  The skeleton, which is ignored by most international diplomats, the media and history books, is that Abdullah's family has a very recent and weak connection to the land and people they rule.

King Abdullah II, a Hashemite, sits uneasy on his throne, and fears the demographic threat of a growing Palestinian population within his kingdom.

Abdullah should be worried.  His family isn't native to the area at all.  They are Hashemites who were brought in and declared royal rulers.  Read this:

Although the Sykes-Picot Agreement was modified considerably in practice, it established a framework for the mandate system which was imposed in the years following the war. Near the end of 1918, the Hashemite Emir Faisal set up an independent government in Damascus. However, his demand at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference for independence throughout the Arab world was met with rejection from the colonial powers. In 1920 and for a brief duration, Faisal assumed the throne of Syria and his elder brother Abdullah was offered the crown of Iraq by the Iraqi representatives. However, the British government ignored the will of the Iraqi people. Shortly afterward, the newly-founded League of Nations awarded Britain the mandates over Transjordan, Palestine and Iraq. France was given the mandate over Syria and Lebanon, but had to take Damascus by force, removing King Faisal from the throne to which he had been elected by the General Syrian Congress in 1920.
In November 1920, Emir (later King) Abdullah led forces from the Hijaz to restore his brother’s throne in the Kingdom of Syria. However, the French mandate over Syria was already well planted, and Emir Abdullah was obliged to delay his pan-Arab goals and focus on forming a government in Amman. Since the end of the war, the British had divided the land of Transjordan into three local administrative districts, with a British “advisor” appointed to each. The northern region of ‘Ajloun had its administrative center in Irbid, the central region of Balqa was based in Salt, and the southern region was run by the “Moabite Arab Government,” based in Karak. The regions of Ma’an and Tabuk were incorporated into the Kingdom of the Hijaz, ancestral home of the Hashemites. Faced with the determination of Emir Abdullah to unify Arab lands under the Hashemite banner, the British proclaimed Abdullah ruler of the three districts, known collectively as Transjordan. Confident that his plans for the unity of the Arab nation would eventually come to fruition, the emir established the first centralized governmental system in what is now modern Jordan on April 11, 1921.
King Faisal I, meanwhile, assumed the throne of the Kingdom of Iraq in the same year. The Hashemite family ruled Iraq until King Faisal’s grandson King Faisal II and his immediate family were all murdered in a bloody coup by Nasserist sympathizers led by Colonel Abdel Karim Qassem on July 14, 1958. The Hashemites suffered another major blow in 1925, when King Ali bin al-Hussein, the eldest brother of Abdullah and Faisal, lost the throne of the Kingdom of the Hijaz to Abdel Aziz bin Saud of Najd. The loss, which was brought about by a partnership between Ibn Saud and followers of the Wahhabi movement, led to the establishment of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and brought to an end over one thousand years of Hashemite rule in Mecca.
Emir Abdullah soon succeeded in loosening the British mandate over Transjordan with an Anglo-Transjordanian treaty. On May 15, 1923, Britain formally recognized the Emirate of Transjordan as a state under the leadership of Emir Abdullah. This angered the Zionists, as it effectively severed Transjordan from Palestine and so reduced the area of any future Jewish national home in the region. The treaty stipulated that Transjordan would be prepared for independence under the general supervision of the British high commissioner in Jerusalem, and recognized Emir Abdullah as head of state. In May 1925, the Aqaba and Ma’an districts of the Hijaz became part of Transjordan. (complete article)

There is no "Jordanian People."  It's a very recent invention of political and diplomatic convenience, less than a hundred years old.  It's much newer than the Zionist movement, and I have no doubt that if the Jewish People hadn't begun its return to the historic Jewish HolyLand, the middle-east would have had been ignored by the western world.

And that brings me to the most important point which must not be ignored nor white-washed.  There is no such thing as a Palestinian people and history.  It's a fiction, a modern invention.  The only People to have a national history and tradition based in this part of the world is the Jewish People. 

Judaism is more than a religion.  We're a People-Religion-Nation.  We are unique.  We've survived our enemies.  We have returned to Our Land from which we had been exiled.  Statisticians have calculated that very soon most Jews will be living here in our historic homeland.  All those reports, predictions and attempts over the millennia to declare us dead are totally mistaken. 

We the Jewish People live and thrive in the HolyLand, thank G-d. 

About Egypt, Food For Thought

Listen to David Bedein's commentary here.  David is one of the best commentators about what's happening in Israel I know.

I also recommend reading:
Is a Palestinian Statehood in the Near Future a Realistic Proposition?
by Hadar Sela & Eli E. Hertz

"Creative Ideas" Won't Bring Us Peace

Bernard Avishai has a long-winded "creative" wordy article in the New York Times claiming that the Olmert-Abbas talks could bring "peace."

Yet the Israeli-Palestinian talks in 2007 and 2008 provide an invaluable template for a new, Obama-led push for peace.
...
Each told me that if new violence breaks out in Palestine, as seems quite likely, historians will look back with a sense of pathos on how narrow and, in some key areas, trivial the gaps were. “We were very close,” Olmert told me, “more than ever in the past, to complete an agreement on principles that would have led to the end of the conflict between us and the Palestinians.” Abbas said the talks produced more “creative ideas” than any in the past. He took pains to assure me that he had been most flexible on Israel’s security demands. Olmert, in retrospect, agrees, saying that Abbas “had never said no.” Olmert insisted that he had conceded to Abbas every major demand Palestinians had made for decades: a border based scrupulously on the 1967 lines, a Palestinian capital in Jerusalem and “recognition of the problem” of refugees. “I was ready to take complete responsibility and move forward forcefully,” Olmert told me. “I believed, I still believe, that I would have broken through all the barriers and won over public opinion in this country and the world.”

Nothing he says makes any sense in the real world. This isn't a computer card game, during which you can "undo" and try again, and again until you win.

The more I look at Avishai's article the more ridiculous it sounds:

"As unlikely as it might sound, now is the time. Obama’s hand in Israel has been strengthened by events in Tunisia, Egypt and Jordan."

Duh?  As the saying goes... "What is he smoking?"

Our Land and security aren't toys, clothes, commercial real estate to be traded for fun and profit.  It's crucially necessary to listen to what the Arabs are saying.  PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas says different things in English to the western media than he says to the Arabs in Arabic.  Hat tip: PMW

Abbas to Western audience:

"'I am committed to peace, but not forever,' Mr. Abbas said. 'I don't mean I will turn to violence - never. In my life, I will never do it. But I cannot stay in my office forever doing nothing.'"

Abbas to Arab audience:

"I have said more than once that if the Arabs want war - we are with them."

Abbas made the statement against violence in an interview with Bernard Avishai* writing for the New York Times Magazine. The statement was intended for an international audience and reported in the New York Times on January 27, 2011.

Abbas made the second statement not ruling out war in a meeting with Egyptian and other Arab journalists. This statement was meant for an Arab audience and reported in the official Palestinian Authority daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida on January 24, 2011.

Bernard Avishai* has fallen for a very professional con man.  Abbas knows how to play his audience, manipulate the journalists and politicians.

There will only be peace, real peace, when the Arabs want it and educate a generation plus of children to be peaceful and tolerant.  Peace will come when the Arabs stop attacking us with physical and verbal and literary weapons.  And when and if that day does come, there will be no need for conferences and negotiations.  We almost had it after the 1967 Six Days War, but Israel rejected it by offering our Land to the defeated enemy.  Now it will be much harder and take so much longer.

We should not aim for peace, because we aren't the aggressors.  For peace we must get stronger, so the enemy will recognize that they can't defeat us.  Then they will try to live in peace with us, G-d willing.  Yes, G-d has overriding control over things.  We must recognize and respect it.

Yisrael, Batach B'Hashem

People of Israel, Trust in G-d

Muslim Brotherhood? Not Neighborhood Bowling Club

How dangerous is this Muslim Brotherhood?  What is it?

The Muslim Brotherhood logo fits its motto:

"Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. The Qur'an is our law. Jihad is our way.
Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope. Allahu akbar!” [1]

· The Brotherhood’s goal is to turn the world into an Islamist empire. The Muslim Brotherhood, founded in Egypt in 1928, is a revolutionary fundamentalist movement to restore the caliphate and strict shariah (Islamist) law in Muslim lands and, ultimately, the world. Today, it has chapters in 80 countries.

“It is in the nature of Islam to dominate, not to be dominated, to impose its law on all nations and to extend its power to the entire planet.” —Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna[2]

· The Brotherhood wants America to fall. It tells followers to be “patient” because America “is heading towards its demise.” The U.S. is an infidel that “does not champion moral and human values and cannot lead humanity.” —Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide Muhammed Badi, Sept. 2010[3]

· The Brotherhood claims western democracy is “corrupt,” “unrealistic.” and “false.”
—Former Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide Muhammed Mahdi Akef [4]

The New York Times describes the Muslim Brotherhood here.

The balance of power here in the Middle East is changing for sure and the international balance for power will probably change things much more, especially when it comes to world peace.  I hope and pray that we'll all survive it.

Outgoing COS Gabi Ashkenazi at Tel Shiloh

Early yesterday morning I got a call from a Gala"tz reporter because COS Gabi Askhenazi's son and mine play on the same IFL football team.  She wanted to speak to my son about Itai, but she missed the real story which could have been our meeting Ashkenazi at Tel Shiloh. 

He is now on a "farewell tour," and as part of it, he was taken to Shiloh:

He had lunch with settler leaders and visited the biblical archeological site at Tel Shilo. Ashkenazi said, "There is no place like this in the world, where we can walk in the paths of our ancestors. Those of us who wear a uniform are a protective wall for the nation's special chain which began in the days of our forefather Abraham."

I'm not sure of his politics.  I'm not happy with what I've read about his political security ideas. In person I've only seen him at a football game when he sat just behind us.  We back the same Jerusalem Lions.  That's not politics.

No doubt that he's very angry with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.  Bibi allowed Defense Minister Ehud Barak to push him out of office earlier than necessary.  I hope he doesn't make his political decisions on that, and if he does, then he should go Right not Left.

Kehila, A JBlog Carnival

You can't have too many friends, and it's always great to socialize, even via the internet, so I'm happy to announce that besides Havel Havelim, Kosher Cooking Carnival and JPIX there's Kehila and its blog carnival.  Ya'aqov's Esser Agaroth is the place, so click and visit.

Each one is very different, because they're hosted by different bloggers and have different foci.  Blog carnivals are floating internet magazines.  There are carnivals with one host, but they are frequently more commercial or the host burns out. So please enjoy...