A Jew's view from the capital of Israel and the future site of the Third Temple, may it speedily be rebuilt.
Protesters block car on Givat Shaul Street:
Border guard policemen run after protesters on the Tel Aviv - Jerusalem Highway:
Female protester apprehended:
Water cannon blocks Givat Shaul Street:
Israeli police on motorcycles:
Smiling in spite of it all:
In an apparent response to the Jerusalem District Court decision permitting Thursday’s Gay Pride Parade in the capital, signs were pasted on capital walls during the night calling for “sanctifying G-d’s name by lowering the impure [gay pride] flags”.I already expressed my opinion that the best thing to do now is ignore the parade and to be nowhere near it when it happens. Let the homosexuals march in a Jerusalem whose shops are closed and whose sidewalks are desolate. The parade in Jerusalem is a provocation, plain and simple. They want to see the newspapers filled with pictures of black-frocked bearded Jews ripping down signs and protesting against the "innocent" gays that just wanted to take a stroll. Don't fall into their trap!
The signs add the parade will offend approximately 96% of the residents of the Holy City.
Right-wing opponents of the disengagement launched their day of massive roadblocks Wednesday morning by pouring oil and scattering nails and spikes on the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem road near Kfar Chabad.Ha'aretz headlines:
Pullout foes throw oil and nails on TA-J'lem highwayYnet also thinks they know who the culprit is:
Anti-pullout activists pour oil, place spikes on Highway 1Isn't it funny how all of these news outlets know who did this incredibly stupid and dangerous act? I must admit: I do not know who did this. At this point in time the journalists do not know who did this either, but this did not prevent them from publishing their assumptions as fact. If you ask me, this really does smell like a provocation of Israel's General Security Service (GSS), known by its Hebrew acronym as the Shabak. The memories of Avishai Raviv's escapades during the 1990s are still fresh in my mind. This act seems to be in his style: Do something that even the right wing condemns and blame it on the right wing. Only time will tell if I am correct.
Former Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon tells Knesset committee he was consulted about disengagement plan only after decision was taken; army chief says he first heard about pullout through media reports.
One of these towns was Kfar Malal, home to young Ariel "Arik" Sharon. "One Motzaei Shabbat [Saturday night], a truck arrived at the cafe, and out of it jumped a group of uniformed Haganah men, led by Ariel Sharon holding a hoe-handle. We knew him in the area as someone who always holds a hoe-handle to catch Etzel and Lechi people. They tried to break into the cafe, which was still closed because of the Sabbath. I came close to him, and he said, 'Give me some soda,' and pointed to a box of drinks on the ground. I bent down to the bottles, and then he picked up his arm and smashed me with all his might with the hoe-handle. My head was covered in blood, which dripped down all over me."Read the rest here. This is particulary interesting in light of Sharon's latest media spin.
Someone tied an orange ribbon to the side-view mirror of the police car:
Israel's mounted policemen:
A police helicopter hovers above the entrance to Jerusalem:
Orange ribbons a shekel a piece:
A high ranking police officer. In the foreground a religious Jew's black skullcap and a border-guard policeman's green beret:
The girls are urging the border-guard policeman to refuse orders:
An orange ribbon and an orange popsicle:
Soldiers who took part in razing of abandoned Gaza Strip structures Sunday say they were misled; twelve of them tried by commander, reprimanded after threatening to refuse to take part in future settlement evacuationRead the rest here. The commander is a fool for misleading his soldiers. His soldiers, even those who are pr-disengagement, will not trust him anymore.
The timing of the public debate over corruption is no coincidence. It is directly connected to the upcoming implementation of the disengagement plan. Corruption wasn't born yesterday, and every now and then, as Yoel Marcus rightly pointed out in this newspaper on Friday, there are historic developments that are of such vital importance that the state must concentrate on them at the expense of other issues, no matter how important they may be.Read the rest here.
The disengagement plan is not such a development. More and more security experts now believe that it is a sure recipe for disaster. It is defective, both from the moral point of view and from the point of view of democratic conduct, but the question of whether or not it is "good for the Jews" is a matter for another discussion.
"Some nine years ago, as a child, I immigrated to Israel with my family from the United States. We didn't come to the country to expel Jews from their homes.Exactly!
"I didn't enlist in the IDF in order to destroy communities or prepare the ground for the destruction of communities. I enlisted in the IDF to defend the state, and this action is not the role of the IDF."
The Torah says (Numbers 14:31),"But your little ones, which ye said should be as prey, them I will bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised." This verse could have been shorter: "But your little ones, which ye said should be as prey, them I will bring in ...to the land which ye have despised." Why does the Torah mention that "they shall know the land"?After davvening I went to say "Shabbat Shalom" to the rabbi. I said to him, "Perhaps the knowledge of the land is also similar to what is written (Genesis 4:1),"And Adam knew Eve his wife...".
The simple meaning is that they will know and be familiar with the land since they will merit to live in it. Having a good knowledge of the land of Israel is certainly praiseworthy. But the verse has a deeper meaning. "They shall know the land" means that they will know the value of the land of Israel, they will know the true meaning of the land of Israel.
I have never been able to figure out why somebody is proud that his reproduction system gets aroused by members of the same sex. Is having your wires crossed something to be proud of?What we all need to know is that a quorum of queers promenading down King George Street or even a slew of sodomizers striding around the city will not turn darkness to light; nor will they turn a malady into a blessing.
According to the book Boomerang, written by journalists Raviv Drucker from Channel 10 news and Ofer Shelach from the Yediot Achronot newspaper, Sharon's fear of indictment, loss of office and jail, directly led to the decision to unilaterally flee from Gush Katif and the northern Shomron. This accusation, backed up by interviews with people 'very close to the Prime Minister' is identical to charges leveled at Sharon months ago by Member of Knesset Tzvi Hendel, who virtually swore that Sharon realized he had two choices: public disgrace or abandonment of Gush Katif. He choose the latter, preferring double appeasement to a court of law. The double whammy he inflicted on his land and his people: submission to the Israeli Left, certain that they would not dare touch a prime minister implementing their life-long craving, the beginning of eviction of Israelis from Judea, Samaria and Gaza; and acquiescence to the Arab enemy. The latter learned that terror pays off. Kill Jews and get what you want.Read the rest here.
Near the Central Bus Station in Jerusalem is a tent called "Ohel Hidrabrut" or rapprochement tent. The idea of the tent is to lower the tense public atmosphere with regards to the disengagement plan by facilitating a dialogue between those of differing opinions.
I went in out of curiosity. Inside, standing in front of a group of about twenty people and delivering a lecture, was a pleasant looking, clean-shaven, kipa clad man. He had this perpetual artificial smile on his face as he spoke. I listened to him as he charted a course of deceitful rhetoric. He bombarded them us with lies, half-truths, and unproven hypotheses: The Golan Heights is stolen from Syria, modern historians claim that we did not have to fight Syria in the Six Day War, the public likes settlers from the Golan more than settlers from Judea and Samaria, and similar rubbish. He expressed his opinion that we should give large amounts of Judea and Samaria to the Arabs even though that this will not bring peace. Why? Because of humanitarian issues like making the Arabs wait at roadblocks.
"This guy is repeating the sin of the spies," I thought to myself. I raised my hand to ask a question.
"At the end of the lecture I'll answer questions," the man replied.
"Some dialogue," I thought to myself. I waited. Finally he announced that he is willing to answer questions.
"Do you know what Parsha we'll be reading this Sabbath?", I inquired.
"Are you testing me?", he asked.
"No, I am not," I answered.
"The spies," he answered.
"Parshat Shlach," I said. Then I added, "The spies also had all kinds of humanitarian and military claims why not to conquer and settle. But G-d has commanded us to do so. All of your claims are totally insignificant (beteilim umevutalim) in the light of G-d's command."
The lecturer answered me with the following claim: Rabbi Reines said that we should by land from the Arabs and not conquer it. Few people are aware of Rabbi Reines' opinion, which is in opposition to Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Kook's opinion.
I was shocked by the answer. I must admit I was not aware of Rabbi Reines' opinion. However, Rabbi Reines died in 1915(!) in Lida (near Vilna). He certainly was not addressing the current situation of land that has already been conquered. Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Kook died in 1982, in Jerusalem, and expressed his opinions with regards to the land that was liberated during the Six Day War in 1967. Before I could say anything the lecturer quickly moved on to the next question.
A young man sitting next to me quietly expressed his disgust at the ridiculous answer that I received from the lecturer. He tried his luck and asked a question:
"We are commanded to conquer the land. It is not a matter of choice. Since we can do it, we must do it."
The lecturer mentioned Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef's opinion (Rabbi Yosef once ruled that in return for TRUE PEACE it is permissible to give land to the Arabs). The young man quickly countered and said that Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef strongly opposes Sharon's disengagement plan. The lecturer waved his hand in dismissal and said, "I'm not talking about that."
I decided to leave as I had heard enough. I had seen a modern day spy. On my way home I passed the entrance to the city, which will be blocked by anti-expulsion protesters this Wednesday at 5:00 PM. With G-d's help, I will be there!
The conflict between Israel and the Palestinians will go on, and all means will continue to be used in the conflict - unless the government succeeds in explaining, first to itself and then to the public, that this withdrawal will be followed by additional withdrawals, concessions and installments.What Bar'el doesn't mention is that only the complete liquidation of Israel as a Jewish State will placate our enemies. But then again, destroying the Jewish character of the State of Israel is consistent with Ha'aretz's editorial policy.
Said one senior IDF officer yesterday: "It is clear that the hotel occupants were the provocateurs here. This is what they do at their homes in Judea and Samaria ... They feel their Sabbath is incomplete if they have not attacked Palestinians."Really Mr. Anonymous Senior IDF Officer? Perhaps they also kneed their challah dough with Arab blood?
Residents of Neveh Dekalim hotel attack PalestiniansYou have to dig deep down to see that there is another version as to what happened. Notice that unlike the Arab version, the Jewish version is put into quotation marks:
By Amos Harel, Yair Ettinger, Arnon Regular and Yuval Azoulay
Right-wing extremists living in the hotel at Neveh Dekalim in Gush Katif yesterday attacked Palestinians from the adjacent Moassi area. Three Palestinians were injured in the attack, which met a response of mortars being fired at Gush Katif.
A spokesman for the Gaza Coast Regional Council said that hotel residents had been walking on the beach when they were attacked by dozens of Arabs, and that the wounding of the Palestinians had been an "act of self-defense" by the settlers. Shortly after the incident, about seven mortars were fired at Gush Katif. There were no injuries. Light arms and an anti-tank missile were also fired at soldiers in the area.I guess Ha'aretz behaves this way because the Arabs are known for telling the truth.;-) Is there anybody in the world who takes Ha'aretz seriously? Unfortunately the answer is yes. Click here for a much more professional report of the incident.
עומק העקירה כעומק החקירהNow two journatlists back up this claim.
Two veteran journalists, based on talks with persons very close to the Prime Minister, say that the Disengagement Plan was hatched up simply to avoid Sharon's indictment in the Greek Island scandal.Read the rest here.
After a series humiliating if symbolic defeats for the government on Tuesday, when the opposition managed to pass three no-confidence measures, Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin called to disband parliament and hold early elections to replace the government.
"And they(the sages in the Sifre) said that this love requires a person to arouse others to love Him and to serve Him, like we found with (our father) Abraham."I was reminded of my college days. There was a guy who spent a year studying in Israel, where he was truly filled with the love of G-d. When he returned to the campus the following year he spent a lot of time and effort returning other students to the fold, myself included. (This student, Menachem "Kenny" Herman z"l, passed away a couple of years ago, a young man in the prime of his life. May these words be an elevation for his lofty soul.)
Why a counter campaign has not been initiated remains a mystery: Why have the public bodies behind the disengagement plan not initiated the flying of blue ribbons on balconies and cars? It isn't a complex or expensive operation. If such a call were to be heard from a prominent public figure, one can assume the spontaneous response would be significant. Yes, there would also be a need for an organizational mechanism that would produce the ribbons and take care of their distribution, but is such a task too much for the government, the left-wing parties or the secular youth movements?Does this guy really believe what he writes?
The government is in trouble. With each passing day the fact that the plan to which it owes its existence – the forcible removal of 10,000 citizens from their homes and communities and the transfer of their land to the Palestinians who have been attacking them continuously for the past five years – is seen by more and more Israelis as irrational and dangerous.Read the rest here.
This week, the polls, which over the past several months have registered a gradual yet consistent erosion of public support for the plan, showed that today only 48 percent of the public supports it.
In its attempts to defend its increasingly precarious position, the government has reacted wildly to its critics. Rather than increase public support, its moves have simply added to the general sense that the Sharon-Peres government has lost control of events and, in its zeal to defend its controversial program, it is willing to sacrifice the nation's security and its own morality.
A group of 50 rabbis have issued a call not to enlist in the reserves in the coming months, in order not to free up other soldiers to take part in the expulsion from Gush Katif/northern Shomron.Thank G-d that I won't have to deal with this issue. The army has already released me from reserve duty because of my age.
"Kitchens in small Mutzavim, where there is no one responsible for kashrut, and which can be freely entered, and anyone who enters can cook there whatever he likes, the kitchen and all of its utensils have a supposition(chazaka) of being forbidden, and one should not eat there unless it is properly kashered (Hilchot Tzava, second edition p. 315)."Now these are wise words from a wise man. Remember, among the soldiers using these kitchens are Jews who know almost nothing about Judaism, Druze, Bedouin, and even gentiles from the FSU. If you think that such a kitchen will remain kosher without supervision then you might be interested in buying the Brooklyn Bridge from me!
"The committee's main guest, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, asked the settlers slated for evacuation to voluntarily move their children elsewhere before the implementation of the pullout in order not to expose them to unnecessary trauma."I say make sure that your children see how the descendents of the Maccabees behave like the soldiers of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. Then they will know what to do when they get their draft notice.
As a new immigrant and relatively old(about 30 years old), I entered the army through "Shlav Bet." This was a program where boot camp lasts six weeks, and the participants would "graduate" at a level of "rifleman 3" (rova'i shalosh). Afterwards we were supposed to serve 2 1/2 months of active duty.
The group that I did boot camp with was almost entirely new immigrants, except for a couple of Hareidim. This was long before the "Nachal HaHareidi". I think that we had people who came from about 20 different countries. About one third of the trainees were religious, and this relatively high percentage worked to our advantage when we had to stand up for our religious rights.
Every day somebody from our group had to work in the kitchen. At first people avoided this job. Who wants to wash the dishes and clean up after hundreds of soldiers? But as boot camp progressed and became tougher, people volunteered to do kitchen duty in order to take a breather from our "sadistic" commanders and their demands.
One night the volunteer from our group was a clean shaven immigrant from Iran. Let's call him Moshe. He was busy cleaning the kitchen when the military base staff (the "Segel") decided that they wanted to party. The Segel was comprised of young soldiers (aged 18-21) who were doing their regular army duty. They had bought food from a supermarket in a nearby city. Among the things they had purchased was raw chicken liver, certified kosher by the Rabbinate. They placed the liver on the army's metal trays that are used to cook meat. Then they cooked the liver in the army oven.
Moshe was a religious Jew and he objected. He explained to the staff that chicken liver must be roasted over an open fire and that they are "treifing" up the kitchen. But the Segel members, products of the secular ghetto who think that they are experts on Judaism from what they read in Maariv, Yediot and Ha'aretz, would have nothing of Moshe's objections. "The liver is kosher and it has the certification of the Rabbinate," they answered.
After Moshe was finished cleaning he came back to the "Ma'ahal" (the group of tents where we lived) and told the other trainees what had happened. A third of the "Pluga" was now up in arms and the commanders realized they had a problem. The trainees went to the kitchen and took the tray that was "treifed up" and threw it in the garbage. The Military Rabbinate was notified.
In theory the staff members should have been put on trial in a military court for breaking army orders(Pekudat Matkal 34.0103). In practice, I don't think that anyone was punished.
