Personal thoughts on current events, cultural events, Israel, Judaism, Jewish/Israel innovations and life from a Jewish perspective - read into that what you may.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Rabbis to US Ambassador: Time to 'Go Biblical' with Arabs - How Refreshing to Hear Common Sense!
(IsraelNN.com) A delegation of the Rabbinical Congress for Peace (RCP) met with U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Mr. James Cunningham, today and called for a reassessment of the entire U.S. policy vis-à-vis the Israelis and Palestinians. The rabbis told Ambassador Cunningham that it was time to try the Biblical approach to the dispute over the Land of Israel.
"The past 17 years have proven without a shadow of a doubt that every square inch ceded by Israel to the Palestinians was transformed into a platform of hatred and terrorism," RCP Director Rabbi Avrohom Shmuel Lewin told the ambassador. "In other words, the 'land for peace' formula in the Israel-Palestinian context, besides being a formula that goes against the Divine will, is ineffective, obsolete, and an exercise in futility. Most of all it is a dangerous policy that only leads to bloodshed and instability in the region and harms vital American interests in the region as well," Lewin said.
'Land for peace doesn't work'
Wow, how refreshing to hear people talk some common sense, dealing with the facts of the past 17 years.
Even more refreshing, it was uttered by a group of 350 Rabbis.
And most refreshing of all, directed at the US Ambassador to Israel.
Will it make any difference? Most probably not, but at least this was said and done. Now if only the millions of Israelis would wake up to the facts too and do something about it.
It's nice to dream...
Thursday, June 04, 2009
"Obama hasn't told Iran what would happen to them if they build the (nuclear) bomb, but he has told Israel that if they build one more house (in a settlement) then the whole roof will come down" - Dick Morris, Former Advisor to Bill Clinton
It is pretty clear to me that the US and the whole Western world is in big trouble with the US under an Obama Presidency.
The question is when will Bibi Netanyahu realize that the whole world is secretly waiting for him to decide to bomb Iran's nuclear capability and do it.
This is one of those actions where everyone in the world will condemn, but everybody will be secretly happy about it. Once again, the epitome of the hypocrisy that exists in world politics (like the UN Human Rights Commission being run by Libya, Cuba and other human rights abusers)
Will Bibi have the guts to do a Begin and pay the consequences for an action that Western world (and the Arab world) secretly want Israel to do? That is the question...
Thursday, March 26, 2009
As far as disengagement is concerned, in retrospect, there's no question that it was a mistake, in terms of Israel's security and defense. But I hesitate to call it an out-and-out mistake - without in any way minimizing the horrible human cost to the families who were uprooted - because I think we learned something we could only have learned by doing it. What no one can reasonably deny now is that the Right was right.
As someone who used to be left of center, I always believed that the Palestinians wanted the same things we did - that they sought two states for two peoples; that they wanted a country just like we did; that they wished for their children and grandchildren to flourish, just like we did. Disengagement proved to me beyond a shadow of a doubt that I was wrong - tragically wrong, but wrong nonetheless. Because what they had was an opportunity to begin to build some sort of autonomy. And it became clear that this is not what they had, or have, in mind. They are much more intent on destroying us than they are on building themselves. They're much more committed to our not having a future than to their having one.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Monday, March 23, 2009
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Sublime Heroism
Lori Lowenthal Marcus
Here's the challenge:
In your last seconds of life, with terrorists spraying bullets at you, would you:
(1) try to kill those who are trying to kill you and all your people?
(2) run for cover rather than be blown apart by bullets? Or
(3) Make Noam's choice, turn your back on the terrorists, even though you have a sidearm, and leap to lock the doors and hurl away the key, so that the murderers cannot kill the dozens of your fellow students in the
room beyond?
We will never know what choice we would make. But we do know what choice Noam Apter made, and he deserves our attention and gratitude. How often does it happen, that a soul is revealed, in its essence? The pure, virtuous soul of Noam Apter was revealed on Friday, December 27, 2002. Most of the world missed that profound moment.
Not a single mainstream media source mentioned Noam's actions, nor even his name, outside of Israel. We are so caught up in the next deaths, the next bombings and the latest number of body parts. When a sublime act of heroism occurs, we don't even notice.
Here's what happened. Listen, remember, and tell the story to others. It deserves to be told.
Boys from the Otniel Yeshiva (religious university) outside of Hebron, were hosting young men from another yeshiva, Har Etzion, for Shabbat. The boys gathered together for Friday evening services, then made their way to the dining hall. Noam Apter, 23, was in charge of the kitchen crew that night. The Otniel boys all take turns cooking and serving. Yehuda Bamberger, 20, and Tzvi Ziman, 18, were also on kitchen duty. So was Gavriel Hotter, only 17, who was waiting for his 18th birthday so that he could officially join in the complete Hesder program.
Otniel and Har Etzion are Hesder Yeshivas. Students in these schools, although religious, also serve their country with rotations in the Israeli Defense Forces. They alternate Torah study, their religious duty, with military service, their national duty.
Otniel is known as an "artsy" yeshiva, with courses that include drama and dancing. Noam's mother, Pirhiya, recently recalled his entrance interview. Noam and the admissions Rabbi spent the time discussing the book Noam was reading, Catcher in the Rye.
After sunset, the boys streamed into the dining hall. The Otniel hosts were already serving the first course of fish, salads, hummus and tehina. The plates were cleared, and the soup course was underway.
As the crew arranged the soup bowls on the platters, two terrorists dressed in Israeli military uniforms burst into the kitchen through an open service door. Their guns pumped bullets into Tzvi, Gavriel and Yehuda, who were gunned down where they stood. Tens of bullets were found in each of these boys.
But Noam.
Noam, the "one in charge," had a sidearm. But with the bullets slicing the air and his friends, he never turned to fire. Noam lunged toward the door leading to the dining room. Though already shot in the back, Noam managed to lock that door, and hurl the key out of reach. Noam's body was recovered there, at the door, riddled with bullets. But the terrorists could not get through the door to complete their mission: to gun down as many as possible of the dozens of young men inside.
This child of God, this Zionist soldier, with his last breaths, saved the lives of dozens of others, rather than his own, and rather than try to take the lives of the murderers. This is a story of humanity at its apex.
The news reports, the few that ran, referred to Noam Apter as an unnamed
"Yeshiva student" and "settler" who was one of four killed by Palestinians. Of all the print media in the United States, there was exactly one mention of this young man by name. Only The New York Post shared the miracle of Noam with its readers.
I met Noam Apter last summer, when I and several friends went to Israel on a study and solidarity mission. Noam, an adorable young man with an M-16 rifle (it isn't incongruous in Israel), accompanied us as our guard. We were a bunch of middle-aged, fairly knowledgeable, somewhat observant, mostly left-leaning American Jews. But this young man touched us all. I told him to forget his girlfriend, because I have two daughters and I wanted him to marry one of them.
I just spoke with Yossi Apter, Noam's father, to share his grief. During our conversation he remembered Noam told him what I said about my daughters. How sweet, how tragic. That trip to Israel was as close as I will ever get to knowing a hero.
If you share this story, you will be spreading the tiny drop of pure goodness and decency in the sea of madness flowing from the Middle East.
********
postscript: I still think of Noam very often, and always on Shabbat. I think about Noam, and weep, when we sing Etz Chaim.
Lori Lowenthal Marcus
Philadelphia, PA USA
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Are you the One
12Tribe Films Foundation is expanding and they are now looking for 10 marketing/advertising interns who are go getters, results oriented, love movies and care about the Jewish people and the Land of Israel.
With a presence in New York and Jerusalem, 12Tribe Films is now looking for talented students who will intern and work virtually from their homes or local coffee houses.
If you fit the bill and you are looking for a rewarding internship that will give you marketing/advertising experience, flexibility and a feeling of accomplishment, then apply today!
The application deadline is March 25th
If this internship interests you, please fill out the application form below and 12Tribe Films will contact you if they see a fit. If you want to record a video to share telling about yourself and why you are a perfect fit for this internship, then please upload it to www.wejew.com and place the link in the application form.
All questions regarding this internship opportunity can be sent to avi at 12tribefilms dot org
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
by David A. Harris
Executive Director
American Jewish Committee
January 26, 2009
You were an unknown Norwegian diplomat till this month.
No longer.
As first secretary in the Norwegian Embassy in Saudi Arabia, you recently sent out an email on your office account in which you declared: "The grandchildren of Holocaust survivors from World War II are doing to the Palestinians exactly what was done to them by Nazi Germany."
Accompanying your text were photos, with an emphasis on children, seeking to juxtapose the Holocaust with the recent Israeli military operation in Gaza.
Clearly, you are miscast in your role as a diplomat, all the more so of a nation that has sought to play a mediating role in the Arab-Israeli conflict.
In fact, you're desperately in need of some education.
Let's begin with your current posting. You've been in Riyadh since 2007.
If you're so anguished by human rights violations, perhaps you could have begun by devoting some of your attention - and email blasts - to what surrounds you.
Or were your eyes diplomatically shut?
Have you failed to notice the many legal executions, including beheadings, going on in your assigned country?
Have you ignored the often abysmal treatment of foreign workers, many from Asia, who also happen to be disproportionately counted among the victims of Saudi capital punishment?
Have you neglected the gender apartheid that surrounds you? Did you ever look out of your car to notice that Saudi women are proscribed from driving, and that's hardly the worst of it?
Have you checked the skyline of Riyadh or Jeddah lately to count the number of church spires or other non-Muslim houses of worship?
Have you bothered to inquire about the fate of homosexuals?
Okay, you were AWOL on those issues. Maybe you just didn't want to offend your hosts by speaking the truth, or maybe you're suffering from that diplomatic disease known as "localitis" or "clientitis."
But surely a woman like you, with such capacity for empathy for those in far-away places, and especially for children in danger, couldn't remain silent about other human rights transgressions, could she?
After all, could an individual so deeply moved by the plight of Palestinians in Gaza remain silent about what a New York Times columnist earlier this month described as "hell on earth" - Zimbabwe? Could a person so anguished by the fate of Palestinian children stay mum about a country where a girl's life expectancy at birth is 34, much less than half that of her Norwegian counterpart, and where the health care sector has vaporized, all thanks to the one-man rule of Robert Mugabe?
Could such a dedicated humanist possibly avert her eyes from the deadliest conflict since the Second World War, which has killed over five million people, many of them children, in the Congo in the past decade - not to mention the documented and widespread use of torture, rape, and arbitrary detention?
An observer of such acute sensitivity could hardly hold her tongue while Afghan girls attempting to go to school have been doused with acid by those who wish to deny young women access to education, reminiscent of the five years of Taliban rule, could she?
In neighboring Pakistan, where you served in the Norwegian embassy for three years, the beleaguered human rights community must have been fortunate to have such an impassioned voice for all that's wrong in this failing state. Or was that voice, perhaps, on mute?
The children of Sderot, the Israeli town near the Gaza border, have been in desperate need of just such a spokesperson as you for the past eight years.
After all, their town has been in the crosshairs of literally thousands of missiles and mortars fired from Gaza. Those Israeli children live with all the signs of trauma, knowing that, with only 15 seconds warning, they could be hit at any time in their schools, their parks, or their beds. Yet, during my visit there last week, for some reason, those children and their parents had yet to hear you speak out for them. What a pity!
And the children of Iran could use your help as well. According to human rights groups, Iran has no compunction about executing children or those who were children when their crimes were allegedly committed.
Oh, and by the way, your compassionate help would also undoubtedly be welcomed by others under the gun in Iran, including women's rights activists, union organizers, student protesters, independent journalists, reformist politicians, and religious minorities. And let's not forget, once again, the children of Israel, who, according to the Iranian president, don't have a right to live.
But wait! A Google search about you reveals nothing, not a single word, regarding your views on Zimbabwe, Congo, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sderot, or Iran. Or, for that matter, Burma, Darfur, Syria. Shall I go on?
Only Israel, faced with those who wish to destroy it, manages to prompt your impassioned correspondence and righteous indignation. Why?
No less, your stunning lack of education extends beyond the contemporary world to 20th century history, specifically the Holocaust.
Your invocation of the Holocaust to describe what's taken place in Gaza is, frankly, nothing short of obscene.
Your claim that the grandchildren of the survivors are doing to the Palestinians exactly what was done to them goes beyond any norm of decency, much less honesty.
Approve or disapprove of the Israeli military operation, but there is no basis whatsoever for such a comparison.
When Israel entered Gaza in a war of self-defense in 1967, the population was 360,000. After Israel withdrew totally from Gaza in 2005, it was estimated at 1.4 million.
Would that the Jewish population under Nazi rule had quadrupled!
When Israel entered Gaza in 1967, life expectancy for women was 46. When it left Gaza, it was 73.
Shall we even bother to discuss life expectancy for Jews under Nazi occupation?
The Second World War in Europe lasted from September 1, 1939 to May 8, 1945 - 68 months in all. That means an average monthly extermination rate of nearly 90,000 Jews.
Compare that to the total number of victims in Gaza over three weeks - roughly guesstimated at more or less 1,000 - and recall that the majority were armed fighters committed to Israel's destruction, who used civilians, including children, as human shields, mosques as arms depots, and hospitals as sanctuaries.
Believe me, Ms. Lilleng, if the "grandchildren of the Holocaust survivors" had wanted to do exactly what the Nazis did to their grandparents, they would have unleashed their full air, land, and sea power. They would have thrown the Israel Defense Forces' ethical guidelines to the wind, kicked out the UN and Red Cross personnel on the ground, stopped humanitarian transports of food, fuel, and medicine, prevented media reporting, and left absolutely nothing - and no one - standing.
Unless, of course, they needed slave labor, in which case they would have carted off the able-bodied to work in Auschwitz replicas until they dropped. Or material for ghoulish medical experimentation, in which case, in the spirit of Mengele, they would have kept Palestinian twins alive temporarily.
But Israel didn't do any of these things. It's a peace-seeking democracy dedicated to the rule of law - unlike so many of the countries whose horrific sins you blithely choose to overlook.
What are we to make of your selective moral outrage and rank hypocrisy?
You ought to take a look in the mirror and ask yourself why Israel, and only Israel, makes your blood boil and leads you to speak out, even at the risk of grossly distorting both reality and history.
The answer, Ms. Lilleng, should be painfully obvious.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Thursday, January 08, 2009
Wednesday, January 07, 2009
The Italian - throws the cup and walks away in a fit of rage.
The Frenchman - takes out the fly, and drinks the coffee.
The Chinese - eats the fly and throws away the coffee.
The Russian - drinks the coffee with the fly, since it was extra with no charge.
The Israeli - sells the coffee to the Frenchman, the fly to the Chinese, buys himself a new cup of coffee and
uses the extra money to invent a device that prevents flies from falling into coffee.
The Palestinian - blames the Israeli for the fly falling in his coffee, protests the act of aggression to the UN, takes a loan from the European Union to buy a new cup of coffee, uses the money to purchase explosives....
Monday, January 05, 2009
Sunday, January 04, 2009
Saturday, January 03, 2009
http://israelwecare.weebly
Sign up today for the online solidarity event for Israel with the powerful Qassam movie:
http://israelwecare.weebly
Keep on praying for true peace to come, but we still have a while to wait...don't let yourself be fooled again.15 years of Oslo should cure us of the false hopes that so many of us have held onto regardless of the realities on the ground
Friday, January 02, 2009
If you are so sure that “Palestine, the country, goes back through most of recorded history”, I expect you to be able to answer a few basic questions about that country of Palestine:
- When was it founded and by whom?
- What were its borders?
- What was its capital?
- What were its major cities?
- What constituted the basis of its economy?
- What was its form of government?
- Can you name at least one Palestinian leader before Arafat?
- Was Palestine ever recognized by a country whose existence, at that time or now, leaves no room for interpretation?
- What was the language of the country of Palestine?
- What was the prevalent religion of the country of Palestine?
- What was the name of its currency? Choose any date in history and tell what was the approximate exchange rate of the Palestinian monetary unit against the US dollar, German mark, GB pound, Japanese yen, or Chinese yuan on that date.
- Have they left any artifacts behind?
- Do you know of a library where one could find a work of Palestinian literature produced before 1967?
- And, finally, since there is no such country today, what caused its demise and when did it occur?
You are lamenting the “low sinking” of “once proud” nation. Please tell me, when exactly was that “nation” proud and what was it so proud of?
And here is the least sarcastic question of all: If the people you mistakenly call “Palestinians” are anything but generic Arabs collected from all over — or thrown out of — the Arab world, if they really have a genuine ethnic identity that gives them right for self-determination, why did they never try to become independent until Arabs suffered their devastating defeat in the Six Day War?
I hope you avoid the temptation to trace the modern day “Palestinians” to the Biblical Philistines: substituting etymology for history won't work here.
The truth should be obvious to everyone who wants to know it. Arab countries have never abandoned the dream of destroying Israel; they still cherish it today. Having time and again failed to achieve their evil goal with military means, they decided to fight Israel by proxy. For that purpose, they created a terrorist organization, cynically called it “Palestinian people” and installed it in Gaza, Judea, and Samaria. How else can you explain the refusal by Jordan and Egypt to unconditionally accept back the “West Bank” and Gaza, respectively?
The fact is, Arabs populating Gaza, Judea, and Samaria have much less claim to nationhood than that Indian tribe that successfully emerged in Connecticut with the purpose of starting a tax-exempt casino: at least that tribe had a constructive goal that motivated them. The so called “Palestinians” have only one motivation: the destruction of Israel, and in my book that is not sufficient to consider them a “nation” — or anything else except what they really are: a terrorist organization that will one day be dismantled.
In fact, there is only one way to achieve piece in the Middle East. Arab countries must acknowledge and accept their defeat in their war against Israel and, as the losing side should, pay Israel reparations for the more than 50 years of devastation they have visited on it. The most appropriate form of such reparations would be the removal of their terrorist organization from the land of Israel and accepting Israel's ancient sovereignty over Gaza, Judea, and Samaria.
That will mark the end of the Palestinian people. What are you saying again was its beginning?
You are absolutely correct in your understanding of the “Palestinians'” murderous motives. I am afraid however that you, along with 99% of the population of this planet have missed the beginning of WWIII (the enemy call it Jihad) quite a few years ago. The siege of the US embassy in Tehran in 1979, an event to which the latest Nobel Peace Prize winner had so miserably failed to respond, can be very well used as the day WWIII stepped out of the pages of the Koran and into the current events. I pray the United States and Israel lead the world to victory in this war. Come to think of it, there is no choice, be you a Christian, a Jew, or even, believe it or not, a Muslim.