David D'or Sings Avinu Malkeinu at Peres' Funeral

Shimon Peres Passes Away

Baruch Dayan HaEmet:

Israel’s ninth President and former Prime Minister Shimon Peres dies at 93 after suffering a major stroke.

Israel’s ninth President and former Prime Minister Shimon Peres has passed away at the age of 93, two weeks after suffering a serious stroke and being admitted to the Tel Hashomer Hospital.

Mr. Peres was often the object of my blogging wrath. Now he will stand before the Divine Judge, who will weigh his merits and other deeds much better than a blogger.

I wonder what Peres was thinking as death approached. I cannot help but think of what is written in Berachot 28b:

When Rav Yochanan ben Zakkai was on his death bed, his students came in to visit him. When he saw them, he began to cry. The disciples asked him, "Candle of Israel, the right hand pillar, the mighty hammer, why are you crying?" Rav Yochanan ben Zakkai responded, "If I were being taken before an earthly king who is here today and tomorrow in the grave, whose anger is not a permanent anger and who if he imprisons me it will not be a permanent imprisonment, and I might be able to appease him with words or bribe him with money – would I not anyhow cry in fear? Now I am being taken before the King of Kings, the Holy One Blessed is He who is eternal. If He is angry with me, it will be an eternal anger and if He imprisons me, it will be an eternal imprisonment. If He kills me, it will be an eternal death. I cannot appease Him or bribe Him. Not only that, but I have two paths before me – one leading to Gan Eden and one leading to Gehinnom and I do not know on which path they are taking me. Should I not cry?"

May his friends and loved ones find comfort, and may we all be written and sealed for a good year.

The Significance of Israel's Presidential Election

It is easy to downplay the election of Reuven "Rubi" Rivlin. After all, the function of the President of Israel is largely symbolic. I must admit that I myself did not think too much of it.

My wife changed my mind. She said that this is also part of the redemption, that he is a big improvement over the outgoing president in many respects. I must say that I agree with her. The redemption comes little by little (qim'a qim'a), and we should not belittle any event which can be seen as a step forward.

Farewell Shimon Peres. Welcome President Rivlin!

Schalit: Free Pollard!

From jpost:

Former captive IDF soldier Gilad Schalit on Thursday joined the petition calling on President Shimon Peres to increase pressure on the US to release imprisoned Israeli agent Jonathan Pollard. Gilad's parents Noam and Aviva Schalit also signed the petition.

So far nearly 30,000 people have signed the petition, demanding that Peres act on the issue, before receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom from US President Barack Obama in the summer.

The president's office said they were working hand in hand with the campaign for Pollard's release and that Peres intends do his utmost to bring about the release of Pollard.

"As president, I see it as very important to work determinedly to bring about Jonathan Pollard's release," Peres said a week earlier.

"We are all united in the call to release him immediately. In all my meetings with president Obama and top American government leaders I raised the request to release Pollard and I will continue to do so when I meet with Obama in June."

Peres Asks Obama to Free Pollard

Thank you, President Peres:

President Shimon Peres formally asked US President Barack Obama to release Jonathan Pollard during their meeting at the White House on Sunday. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was also expected to request Pollard's release during his meeting with Obama on Monday, his office reported. Netanyahu officially asked Obama to commute Pollard's life sentence to time served in January 2011. Since then, Obama has not responded.

Peres did the right thing. What will Obama do?

Einat Wilf's Sham and Shanty

Not too long ago I learned about a Jewish member of the Knesset, Einat Wilf, who is married to a gentile. As my aunt used to say, "Such a shonda!" I previously expressed my great dismay at the fact that someone like this serves in the Israeli Parliament here (Be sure to check out the post and the comments!).

Using the power of Google I uncovered an article by Einat Wilf written over five years ago: "Mitzvot of peoplehood". In it she outlines her plan to recreate the Jewish People in her image:

"But if Peoplehood is to become the Jewish Holy Grail of identity for our age, it must emerge as an effective source of meaning and guidance in our lives.

It must have content and depth. It must go beyond who we are, to become what we must do. It must say something about how to lead a good life in this world at this time.

We all need guidance and structure in our lives. It is our human need. But when traditional guidance is no longer relevant and old structures fail, we search for new ones. If we’re truly blessed, we not only find them, we create them.

So this is our great opportunity - to create new movements, institutions and ideas that will provide Jews around the world with structure and guidance suited for a global age.

It is our chance to harness the awesome power of science, technology, instant communications and cheap transportation to be one people, undivided, in a quest to fathom what it means to be human and moral in our time.

What are the mitzvot of Peoplehood? What should we do as members of the Jewish People when we wake up in the morning? What does it mean to be a good Jew in our time? Answer this question, and you square the circle of our generation."

She's a charmer, isn't she? One who is not steeped in Torah learning and observance could easily be swayed by such sweet talk. The slick rhetoric, so disconnected with God and Torah proves that she is a protégée of Shimon Peres.

After reading her article, it is not surprising at all that she ended up "marrying" a gentile! After all, she and her friends are the ones who are going to define what Jewish Peoplehood is, what is moral, what mitzvot must be performed etc. Maybe her "husband" Richard will also put in his two Deutsche Mark.

What is surprising is that I had already seen that article way back when. Not only that, I even left a comment:

"There is only one definition of Jewish Peoplehood - that which the Torah offers. Anything else is destined to find itself in the dustpan of history . "

I did not know back then how quickly Einat Wilf would find herself in the dustpan. The house that she has built is not a holy Jewish house of "kiddushin", but an impure edifice, a sham and shanty that is condemned to collapse. Lies, even backed up with academic degrees and spoken fluently in several languages, remain lies.

We are not Slaves

From an interview with MK Michael Ben-Ari:

Ben-Ari said Kahane should be remembered as a different kind of leader, one who, unlike those who saw Israel as a shelter, believed Israel existed to spread the message that God rules the world and that Jews must reiterate that the Land of Israel belongs to the Jewish people.

“This impacts everything we do,” Ben-Ari said. “For example, the letter to the UN secretary-general.

Some say, how can we fight the US when it’s so big? Kahane said God is great and America is nothing. I don’t mean to mock or harm the US, but we aren’t the slave of any empire.”

Compare this to what President Peres says:

President Shimon Peres said that Israel cannot survive without the help of the United States, at a Jerusalem conference of the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute on Thursday.

Peres said that, "for our existence, we need the friendship of the United States of America."

Quote of the Day

President Shimon Peres:

Peres emphasized the importance of military service and said that those who serve become better citizens than those who don't, who "lose their way."

"If anyone is defending Israel, it's the army," he continued. "The state cannot allow the existence of gaps in recruitment, which endanger the state. Everyone must serve his country. Whoever wants to avoid war must have a strong army. Only a good and powerful army serves as a deterrent."

Excuse me Mr. Peres but:

Elder statesman of Israel's parliament, Shimon Peres, 83, falsified the biographical information on his official Knesset Web page to imply military service that he never performed, journalist David Bedein has claimed in the Philadelphia Bulletin.

Peres, branded as a perennial loser (having never won a major election) and now pulling out all the stops to mount a last-gasp campaign for president, describes his military record as follows:

"Military Service Haganah; IDF; Temporary Head of Naval Services, 1950"

But, Bedein claims, citing his biographer and official records, Peres never served in the IDF, the Israel Defense Forces, nor was he the "temporary head of Naval Services" in 1950.

In Peres' biography on his official Ministry of Foreign Affairs page, the facts are presented differently: "In Israel's War of Independence (1947-48), Peres was responsible for arms purchases and recruitment, and in 1948 was appointed head of the naval services."

Bedein reports that Peres was ridiculed early in his career for not having served in any military capacity in the war of independence for the nascent Jewish state. The official Israel Ministry of Defense Lexicon of Israeli Defense, published in 1976 when Peres was minister of Defense, identifies Peres as only holding a desk job at the new Israel Ministry of Defense, "responsible for naval matters," appointed to that position in 1949.

Peres' office, asked for a response on the misrepresentation of Peres on the official site of the Israeli Knesset, declined to comment.

His official biographer, Dr. Michael Bar Zohar, however, confirmed that Peres never served in the IDF, Bedein reported.

Once I had a conversation with the late Rechavam Ze'evi, may God avenge his blood. He told me that Peres never served in the IDF. I told him that I think that I once saw a picture of him in uniform. Ze'evi replied that the picture must have been taken on Purim!

Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize

The Nobel Peace Prize became a joke ever since it was awarded to Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres and Yitzchak Rabin in 1994 for the ill fated "Oslo Agreements". The Norwegians continue to prove that they have a poor sense of humor by awarding the prize to Mr. B.O. I am not laughing.



As the Hebrew saying says, a lie doesn't have legs. Sooner or later the lie will be revealed. Obama's rhetoric is out of touch with reality. Chances are that it will bring much more bloodshed than peace.

Update: More from some jbloggers:

The Weekend Roundup - The Nobel Peace Prize Jumps the Shark

Why Obama?

This isn't a joke - Obama wins Nobel Peace Price

Declining - the prize

Secret IDF Report Warned: Oslo Will Lead to Rockets on Ashkelon

This comes as no surprise:

A secret IDF Intelligence (AMAN) assessment warned as early as 1993 that the Oslo Accords would likely end with rocket attacks on Ashkelon, according to former AMAN Maj.-Gen. Yaakov Amidror. The politicians, however, were not interested. Amidror leveled the charges during a lecture at the Netanya College on Monday.

According to Amidror, who headed the IDF's Research and Assessment Division responsible for preparing the National Intelligence Assessment, the decision to go ahead with the Oslo agreements between Israel and the PLO terrorist organization was made without taking into account the military implications. The Rabin government "completely ignored" IDF assessments, Amidror claimed.

In fact, as Amidror recalled, then-Foreign Minister Shimon Peres ejected the IDF representatives from the Cabinet meeting when the ministerial vote on the Oslo Accords took place. In Amidror's view, it was symptomatic of efforts by the political echelon to close their ears to warnings from the military regarding the fateful agreement to establish an autonomous Palestinian Authority.

The secret Oslo-era AMAN report stated that the accords contained several clauses that were clearly militarily unenforceable, Amidror said. These included the right of IDF "hot pursuit" into Palestinian Authority areas in the event that the PA leadership refuses to cooperate. In the assessment of the AMAN analysts, PLO failure to uphold its end of the agreements with Israel would end with PA rockets fired at Ashkelon.

Right-wing politicians at the time echoed these very same specific concerns regarding rocket attacks from Gaza, but were dismissed by government spokespeople as "fear mongers." In the interim, thousands of PA rockets have exploded throughout southern Israel, including Ashkelon and areas to the north and east of the port city.

In Amidror's view, the political leadership knew the IDF position on the inherent dangers of the Oslo Accords, but simply chose to disregard them once the principles of the accords were agreed upon with the PLO.

A Very Bad Deal

To my great dismay the disgraceful deal that Olmert and his lowlife cronies cut with the Hizbollah has been executed. I'd like to share with you my thoughts on the matter.

1) Like I said, the deal is a disgrace: trading a despicable child killer, a few other terrorists, and the bodies of 199 dead terrorists for the bodies of two IDF soldiers and "information" on Ron Arad. This amazingly lopsided deal in favor of the terrorists will only encourage more kidnapping and terror.

2) The Israeli MSM really went to bat for this deal. MK Eitam correctly describes the phenomenon:

The media, Eitam said, "not only did not report objectively but enlisted itself completely to this campaign. It has been a long time since we saw media that was so enlisted for what it believed was the right thing to do."

They have failed miserably in doing their job once again.

3) The fact that the corrupt Kadima party would initiate such a deal is no surprise. The party was born in sin, and its policies up to now are a reflection of the low morals of its members. The attempt to spin such a deal as an example of "Jewish morality" is a boldfaced lie, as anyone who is familiar with the way Jewish law relates to the freeing of captives knows.

4) The behavior of the Labor party is consistent with the defeatist attitude and their "let's give the Arabs what they want and everything will be okay" mentality. The beginning of the State of Israel's surrender to terrorism was initiated by the Labor Party in the "Jibril Deal" during Shimon Peres' first stint as Prime Minister. This deal, in which over 1000 terrorists were released from Israeli jails in return for three Israeli POWs in Lebanon, was the spark plug of the First Intifada. It caused the death of hundreds of Israel civilians and the wounding of thousands of others.

5) Most puzzling is the behavior of Shas. How could Torah Jews support a deal that is so anti-Torah? I wish that I had an answer. Apparently the need to ensure government funding for their institutions was the deciding factor. How unfortunate it is that Shas, as well as the other religious parties when they were part of the coalition, have failed so often to serve as a moral compass for the government.

Shame on all of those that gave a hand to this deal! The nauseating behavior of the present government makes us realize how much we really need Mashiach. We want Mashiach now!

Who Said It?

Who wrote the following with regards to a "Palestinian" state?:

"The establishment of such (a Palestinian) state means the inflow of combat-ready Palestinian forces (more than 25,000 men under arms) into Judea and Samaria; this force, together with the local youth, will double itself in a short time. It will not be short of weapons or other (military) equipment, and in a short space of time, an infrastructure for waging war will be set up in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip. Israel will have problems in preserving day-to-day security, which may drive the country into war, or undermine the morale of its citizens. In time of war, the frontiers of the Palestinian state will constitute an excellent staging point for mobile forces to mount attacks on infrastructure installations vital for Israel’s existence, to impede the freedom of action of the Israeli Air Force in the skies over Israel, and to cause bloodshed among the population...in areas adjacent to the frontier-line."

The answer.

The President is Naked, and so is the Israeli MSM

The election of Shimon Peres as president of Israel is a disgrace. The man who is responsible for so much misery is being given an honor that he surely does not deserve. He was elected by a government and a Knesset that has long lost the support of the electorate.

It's interesting to see how so many Israeli MSM journalists are going all out to "explain" why Peres is fit to be president. They may be fooling themselves, but then again it is not such a big deal to fool such idiots.

See what some other jbloggers have to say.

Peres' Last Chance To Serve His Country

Simple Shimon Says:

Vice Prime Minister Shimon Peres said Wednesday morning that if he is elected President, it "may be the last chance I have to serve the country. The veteran politician also maintained that he accept the nomination because of numerous requests.

What country was he referring to? If he meant Israel, the best way for him to serve the country would be to retire.