Israel's Memorial Day Isn't Just About Dead Soldiers

My husband and I made aliyah in 1970 to a very different Israel. The State of Israel was just twenty-two 22 years old. It had recovered from the early days of rationed food and finally, post 1967 Six Days War, had defensible borders and a Capital City that wasn't jaggedly ripped and threatened daily by enemy snipers. New neighborhoods, like a regal crown, were under construction in recently liberated Jerusalem, and a new road safely and relatively quickly connected it with the more affluent coastal plain, including Tel Aviv. 

In those days, Israel's Memorial Day only commemorated, remembered soldiers who had been killed during army service. It took almost fifty years, 1997, to broaden it officially and rename it Yom HaZikaron LeHalelei Ma'arkhot Yisrael ul'Nifge'ei Pe'ulot HaEivah יוֹם הזִּכָּרוֹן לְחַלְלֵי מַעַרְכוֹת יִשְׂרָאֵל וּלְנִפְגְעֵי פְּעֻלּוֹת הָאֵיבָה‎,  'Memorial Day for the Fallen Soldiers of the Wars of Israel and Victims of Actions of Terrorism.' That means that victims of terrorism are included, too. Not only are terror victims included in the ceremonies, but the families get more help from the government than previously.

Please don't think that there's always that much difference between the heroism of the dead soldiers and dead civilians. Some of the dead soldiers had spent their army service at very safe desk jobs, or were killed in civilian-type accidents, and some of the civilians died trying to save others in a terror attack. And we must all remember that Arab terrorists don't distinguish between soldiers and civilians. For them there's no difference between a toddler, bus driver and sniper, as long as there's a chance that they are Jewish/Israeli.

Unfortunately, as part of the antigovernment campaign, the opposition has demanded that no minister who hadn't done active army service represent the government in memorial ceremonies. By making such a distinction, the antigovernment activists are going back a quarter of a century and removing victims of terror from Israel's Memorial Day.

Unfortunately, many people who should know better have joined them. I'm rather surprised at Miriam Peretz among others. Peretz has joined the antigovernment campaign to marginalize/boycott the democratically elected government. 

There are all sorts of opposition groups campaigning hard against the government, and one of their "weapons" is that many of the prominent government ministers had never served in the IDF (not that they ever protested about Shimon Peres) and therefore have no right to publicly mourn/speak at Memorial Day ceremonies/events. 

This opposition totally ignores that Memorial Day also mourns victims of Arab terror. Arab terrorists don't distinguish between soldiers and civilians, men and women, adults and children, Jews and non-Jews nor Israelis and tourists. 

Why is the opposition making two or more classes of victims? Where's the unity? According to Jewish Law and custom, the dead are buried wrapped in simple cloth, preferably without even a coffin, because there shouldn't be distinctions between rich and poor, prominent citizens and ordinary people. IDF dead are buried in the simplest wooden coffin to constructed to disintegrate quickly into the earth, because not all the dead bodies can be neatly wrapped up in the traditional shrouds. 

All dead are equally dead; don't distinguish. 

Israelis mourn on Memorial Day, each in their own ways. Some of those we mourn were killed as Israeli soldiers, while others were civilians, random victims of Arab terrorism, and other stories are much more complex. 

There's something else, which is very important to me:

I have been saying for a long time that the present coalition should publicly apologize for their horrendous behavior when they were in the opposition last year. That would be a good step in unifying the citizens of the State of Israel.

Holocaust, "HaShoah" Thoughts after a Visit to Yad Veshem

I wasn't raised with any awareness of the Holocaust, the Nazi murder of six million 6,000,000 Jews during World War Two. It's not that they were hiding any past, not at all. My parents were born in the USA, born in Brooklyn, New York, the same place I was born. Their parents all immigrated to the United States early in the 20th century. After the war, no surviving relatives joined them in New York. From what we can surmise, close to eighty 80 years later, none of the family which had stayed in Europe survived the war. 

Until very recently I felt rather shut out of Holocaust memorials. You had to be a survivor, pre-death camps escapee or descended from them to have a story. Since those who had actually experienced the Holocaust are quickly reaching the end of their lives and their children are grandparents and great-grandparents, their stories of survival and revenge over the Nazis have become legendary and inspiration for the growing genre of Holocaust literature. 

Ever since I first began learning about the Holocaust, as a child when The Diary of Anna Frank became popular and a short time later when Adolf Eichmann was captured then tried in Israel, the Holocaust seemed no more connected to me than Judah Maccabee of the Chanukah story. 

My parents did have relatives who had been living in Europe, mostly Belarus, which was then part of the Soviet Union. After World War Two, nothing was heard from them; they weren't found. In recent years, when I tried to join the Holocaust talk, I was told that my family story didn't count. I'm not in the club, since none of my relatives survived.

Last week I met a visiting cousin and his wife in Yad Vashem. Yad Veshem isn't my favorite place. That's because during my last visit, quite a while ago, I found myself very upset by their use of words about which I blogged Words, They Were All People and Praying to a Non-god. Please read them and tell me what you think in the comments, thanks.

We were taken around by one of their guides and given a very good history lesson. We passed a map of Belarus, and I managed to find Rogachev the city where both of my grandmothers had lived before moving to the United States. 

My paternal grandmother, Anna Brynien, was the second of six daughters. The four eldest and their parents immigrated to New York early in the 20th century, but my grandmother's two youngest sisters had been enthusiastic communists so they stayed in the Soviet Union. My maternal grandmother, Ida Vishnefsky, was from a large, relatively wealthy family. Her father was what was known as a barber-doctor. Everyone stayed in Belarus except my grandmother and one brother, who had immigrated to London. My grandmother followed her first husband to New York with their eldest daughter after visiting her brother in London. When the war ended, no survivors from my grandmothers' families were found.

My maternal great-grandfather
Vishnefsky

my maternal great-grandmother
Vishnefsky

One of the exhibits we toured was the Hall of Names dedicated to the dead.  I'm not sure that any of my missing family members are included in the names, but our guide told us that there are still boxes waiting for more names. 

Doesn't that make me and my cousins and children and grandchildren part of the Holocaust story?

The greatest tragedy of the Holocaust is that so many Jews may have no descendants; they didn't survive. That's what happened to my parents' aunts, uncles and cousins. The survivors in my family left Europe before the Nazis were a power. That's how my family survived. 

Hitler's plan was to kill all Jews, not just European ones. He had envisioned conquering the world; thank Gd he failed. 

The Jewish People have survived and thrived. Despite the murder of Six Million Jews by Hitler, the State of Israel was established with the Help of Gd just a very few short years after the Nazi defeat. 

The Jewish People survived and that makes ALL JEWS SURVIVORS!

Thank Gd, because Gd is our secret weapon.

Conversion to Judaism- Letter to Jerusalem Post Magazine

I wrote this letter to the Jerusalem Post, which they published, in response to Levi Cooper's The story of a crying child and the evolution of Chabad.

What do you think?

I'm Being Targeted

Apparently someone is targeting my old posts here, when I had commented on facts, news reports of Arab terrorism. Then they report them to Blogger as going against "community guidelines", and the blogger police automatically "unpublish" the posts. Each time I discover this, I contest it. The first was republished. I'm waiting to see what happens with the most recent ones.

Apparently Blogger doesn't read the posts carefully before unpublishing.

Does anyone else have these problems?

Where's Blogger going?

Israel's Judicial Reform Explained

 Here is the clearest explanation of the need for Judicial Reform in Israel:

Please listen carefully.

Challenge to All Who Think Judicial Reform for Israel is Dangerous

Just a simple challenge to help clarify what's happening in Israel. 

All I want to know from you...

Please list five 5 democracies, five democratic countries, that have a judicial system like Israel's is now. 

The points that have to coincide (be the same) are:

1- Sitting justices choose who will be new justices.
2- Justices can decide according to their concept of "reasonableness." This includes overriding all parliament decisions, total veto power.
3- Cases for the Supreme Court can go there directly, without first going through lower courts
4- Attorney General can veto all sorts of government decisions unilaterally. Again with the rationale of "reasonableness."

Israeli Flags waving at the entrance of Mamilla Mall, not far from 
what had been the border between Israel and Jordanian Occupied Jerusalem from 1949-1967

Politics vs Democracy: Why The Left Doesn't Want Judicial Reform

 

Israel just had elections a few months ago, the 1st of November, if I remember correctly. The present coalition has only been in office a very short time, and the streets are full of Leftist political rabble-rousers.  Gevalt, why am I using such a weak, harmless term for them?

The truth is that foreign anti-Israel money/backers are trying to destroy the country. They've crafted slogans that totally mask/distort their true aim. The vast majority of the demonstrators haven't a clue as to the truth, nor the meaning of democracy.

Yes, they claim they're for DEMOCRACY, but their very being on the streets demanding that the legally DEMORATICALLY  ELECTED government surrender to their demands is totally absurdly UNDEMOCRATIC.

Bibi Netanyahu's not handling this with the skill and competence he once had. He's of retirement age, and it shows. 

Contrary to the demonstrators' main slogan, Israel's present way of choosing judges is undemocratic and unknown in any of the world's democracies. Israel's "founding fathers" were controlled by a cadre of Leftists, socialists who wanted to make sure that if any of the Revisionists the forerunners of the Likud would ever form a ruling coalition, the Judicial System would remain Leftist. That's why they came up with the idea that the High Court Justices and members of the "Bar" have a majority of the votes in choosing replacements. 

I may not agree with their policies and priorities, but I wouldn't call them stupid. That's why even though for most of the past forty-five 45 years the Likud has been able to make more Right wing coalitions, they have been stymied policy-wise by the Leftist High Court.

When former President of Israel's High Court demands that it is of the utmost importance that the court remain "independent," he means that the court must be the true ruler of the State of Israel. Barak invented a principle of "reasonableness" to decide if a law should stand or not. That's his euphemism for being consistent with his political ideology, not any law or legal precedent. He set himself up as an unelected dictator, and then passed the powers to his replacements, whom he put into power. Is that democracy?

Judicial Reform is an attempt to correct this political anomaly and make Israel more like other democracies. But to be honest, it doesn't go far enough. It's still based on the old system but will give a bit more votes to the Knesset members. And considering that the justices don't resign/retire all that quickly, it will take a long time for us to see any real differences. Of course the sitting justices will claim the law "illegal." 

But in the meantime thousands of Israelis are having fun at "street carnivals" trying to take down the legally elected government and sowing chaos in the country. Obviously, they are wealthy enough to take off from work, or someone is....

. 

Purim's Over, Rosh Chodesh Nissan is Soon

 

It's so true that time doesn't stand still. Late winter wild flowers are providing gorgeous decoration in my neighborhood. Last night we finished with Purim celebrations, and now the month of Nissan, and then  the Passover holiday are just around the corner. 

As you can see in the graphics above, Rosh Chodesh Nissan is just two weeks away on Thursday, March 23, 2023 8:30am. Join us.

ראש חודש ניסן

יום ה' 23\03\23 8:30

מתחילות ביחד בהלל ואחר כך מוסף

כולן מוזמנות

We celebrate with Women's Prayers singing Hallel out loud together and then a quiet Musaf. If you're joining us, please say the Shacharit prayer beforehand.

We meet in Shiloh Hakeduma, Ancient Shiloh at Tel Shiloh, the exact location of the Biblical Tabernacle; yes, Chana prayed here, too. Shiloh's where Joshua established the first Capital City of the Jewish Nation until Samuel the Prophet was told by Gd to appoint David as King. King David then united the Jewish People with a new Capital City, Jerusalem.

Shiloh Hakeduma is a well developed and maintained archeological site. There are lots of activities for visitors of all ages. For more information click or contact them 02-5789122 or visit@telshilo.org.il.

Antidemocracy Rioters Disrupt Life in Jerusalem -- The Truth About Judicial Reform

Black day for Israeli democracy and liberty. 

Please get this right. I'm talking about the attempt by the elitist Israeli Left to overthrow the legally elected government. 

Democracy is a numbers game. It means that if you get the most votes, you've won. In Israel, to be more precise, if you can create a coalition of a majority of the 120 Members of Knesset, 61 or more that's a legal government. THAT'S DEMOCRACY! 

If you didn't get enough votes to create a coalition, if you don't have the MKs, you've lost. That's it. Very simple. Try harder next time. Marching and screaming in the streets won't give you the right to rule. If you insist on demonstrating, then you're acting like fascists or worse. I don't know why those demonstrators on Monday took black flags, but it really showed their true color. 

They can scream all they want, but grow up! That won't give them more votes, more MKs. Rule by taking over the streets? That's dystopia, not utopia.

The antidemocracy anti-judicial reform protests on Monday stopped public transportation and inconvenienced, to put it mildly, tens of thousands or more ordinary Israelis like myself. I had been at the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens with the Ayelet Chapter of Amit Women and discovered that bus service to the center of Jerusalem or Ammunition Hill, where I needed to get a bus home to Shiloh, had been stopped. Yes, the buses were stopped because of those demonstrators.

Thank Gd, I found the physical strength to walk, and please remember that in a few months Gd willing I'll be 74, towards the lightrail on King George and Yaffo. I finally caught a bus on King George and took it less than two stops. Why less? That very junction where I needed to transfer from the bus to the lightrail had been taken over by the mobs, and the bus had been forced to stop, and the lightrail stopped, too.

Since the rioters had stopped public transportation, I was forced to keep walking and finally caught a bus at the Buchari Shuk.

It was clear that the demonstrators were having fun, but lots of ordinary Jerusalemites and visitors like myself were inconvenienced and angry. I saw people trying to explain to the rioters that they were interfering with our human rights, but... you can finish the sentence...

These antigovernment demonstrations/riots have been going on since Netanyahu's previous administration, then stopped when he was out of office and now resumed. Now they're harping on the Judicial Reform issue. They claim that the judges need "independence." That's absurd! 

Do you know what they mean by it? They mean that judges should use their "judgement," their personal ideology/philosophy to decide what's right and just. They don't decide according to law. They decide if a law suits their moral, political opinions. That's means that the courts are political, not legally based. Not only that! They get to choose their replacements. It's not the elected Knesset Members who choose judges, it's the judges themselves. That way, although the judges don't hold the opinions of the majority of the citizens, they can perpetuate their ideological power over the citizens and the elected government. 

Does that sound kosher to you?

Who made them god? 

Most of us ordinary Israelis are too busy getting through our busy days to take to the streets, like the elitist Leftists. Also, we did our patriotic duty, voted. There's a coalition that holds the ideology of the majority of Israelis. We definitely need Judicial Reform, so our courts will be based on law, not politics.

Why should the minority have the right utter chutzpah to overrule the majority?

Davka, very much like last week's Torah Portion, Yitro, someone who isn't Israeli explains our situation very well, Mark Levin. Please listen to what he has to say.

Book Review: Deceit of an Ally, by Bruce Brill

Bruce Brill invested considerable time in writing this must-read book, Deceit of an Ally: A Memoir of Military Anti-Semitism, NSA’s Secret Jew Room and Yom Kippur War Treachery, but it was certainly worth the wait! I'm acquainted with Brill and must admit that I've been waiting decades for the full story. Deceit of an Ally is a combination memoir and exposé. It's the true background story of the 1973 Yom Kippur War in terms of the American involvement, and there definitely was American involvement. It's the story that powerful people have wanted to keep secret, but we need to know the truth. 

Deceit of an Ally proves yet again that even paranoids have enemies.

I've been in Israel since 1970, and during the 1973 Yom Kippur War I suspected something very fishy in American policy. After reading Brill's book, it's confirmed that I'm a realist, not paranoid.

 In 1973 Bruce Brill was working for the US National Security Agency (NSA), and he was told by his supervisor that  Israel was going to be attacked. Brill did not contact the Israeli Embassy. He figured that he wouldn't be taken seriously, and it wasn't his job. I also think at the moment he wondered if the guy was really serious. Had he warned the Israelis, he would have been sitting in jail just like Jonathan Pollard about a decade later. Afterwards Brill no longer felt comfortable working there, and within a few years, made aliyah, (moved to Israel.)

The more than two thousand six hundred 2,600 tragic, unnecessary Israeli deaths due to Israel's being totally surprised and unprepared Yom Kippur 1973 has haunted Brill ever since. 

Deceit of an Ally is the result of years of research, interviews, painstaking and frustrating search for the truth. How could Israel not have seen the signs that Egypt and Syria were planning to attack? There had even been a contingency plan to meet an Egyptian attack that would have saved many soldiers' lives and given Israel a better and quicker chance to defeat the Egyptians. Who were the high level Americans who had told the Head of Israeli Military Intelligence General Eli Zeira that Israel had nothing to worry about? Trusting Zeira's assessment, the plan wasn't implemented by the IDF.

This true story, Deceit of an Ally,  is more suspenseful than the best mystery or detective story, but unlike a fictional book, we're still left with questions. It's real life and can't be neatly wrapped up. 

I highly recommend Deceit of an Ally and wonder if Brill will get more information in order to write a sequel, maybe with the answers to our questions. Read Brill's story; I consider it required reading if you're not afraid of the truth. 

You can also get the book in kindle from Amazon.

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Aleichem Books (October 26, 2022)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 346 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 965930420X
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-9659304202

Goyishe Chutzpah!

I've always opposed the celebration of the 29th of November, 1947, when the infant, newly established, United Nations voted "approval" of a Jewish State. This "state" they approved of was to have such absurd borders that its days were numbered, since it wouldn't be viable. 

A short few decades before the Balfour Declaration had declared that the British Mandate would establish a Jewish State in what they called Palestine, which was then an undeveloped piece of Land on both sides of the Jordan River. At that point there was trickle of Jews trying to establish agricultural settlements and bring the barren land back to life. 

There had always been a Jewish presence in various cities, even after the destruction of the Second Holy Temple. Zionist pioneers began changing the Jewish attitude towards Jewish sovereignty. The Arab communities were mostly in a few Arab cities and villages, plus some nomads. There was no history of local Arab nationalism.

Great Britain went against its mandate to establish a Jewish State in the land by bringing in a foreign clan, the Hashemites, and invented the kingdom of Jordan sic on the eastern bank of the Jordan River. And then to make matters even worse for the Jewish People, the members of the United Nations decided to invent a second Arab to share the western side of the Jordan River with Israel. But as I stated earlier, nobody expected the Jewish State to survive. That made it easy for countries to vote on the 29th of November, 1947, for a Jewish State. Because the truth is that those countries didn't really want a Jewish State to exist. Maybe a few did think a Jewish State should exist, but that nascent state wasn't given a fighting chance. Britain armed the Arabs and trained them in warfare, and no country gave the State of Israel any help.

Here we are seventy-five 75 years later, and things haven't changed much. The United Nations condemns Israel more than it condemns any other country, and our so-called allies are having fits because Israel hasn't returned land to the Jordanian aggressor from the 1967 Six Day War. They call Israel an apartheid country, but insist that Judea/Samaria be free of Jews. The latest is that they're condemning Israel for giving recognition to a few Jewish communities. They act like they're our bosses, and that they have approval rights for what we do. 

Goyishe Chutzpah for Sure!

A new building project in Shvut Rachel, just east of Shiloh