Language Note

L'esibizionista is not a Lesbian Zionist.

It's a female exhibitionist in Italian.

Just so that you know.

Some Good News

Although the Jewish public is divided on how to react to the missile fire in the south, it prefers military means over a ceasefire based on dialogue with Hamas. An overwhelming majority of the Jewish public thinks that under current conditions, Israel should not agree to Hamas's offer of a ceasefire in return for Israel stopping its attacks in the Gaza Strip and its operations against Hamas members in the West Bank.

The majority also rejects the idea of reaching a ceasefire with Hamas until Israel has effective weapons against missiles...

...Finally,it appears that the ongoing missile fire on Israel is not affecting the “national fortitude,” at least insofar as the Jewish public continues to want to liven Israel. If the missile fire has any influence in this regard, it tends more to strengthen the willingness to remain here than to weaken it.

Source.

How Israel Fights and Teachers Others To Fight Terror

...What, then, does Israel's fight against terrorism teach the United States?

We contemplated that question on Saturday morning when Talia Adar, a reserve police officer, took us on a tour of the Old City while most of our group took off for a day at the Dead Sea. After a walk through the four ethnic quarters, we followed Adar through the security checkpoint that leads to the Western Wall—regarded as one of the highest-risk areas in the Old City. We walked through the metal detector, manned by two bored-looking guards. We dutifully emptied our pockets and placed our bags on the conveyor belt of the X-ray machine.

One guard chatted on the phone, the other watched impassively as Adar, dressed in civilian clothing, walked through the detector with her gun concealed under her jacket. The alarm didn't go off; neither guard asked for her ID. After passing through the checkpoint, Adar turned back around to face the guards. "Why didn't you stop me?" she demanded, pulling out her police ID.

Adar upbraided the guards for a full minute, as they meekly made excuses. ("Well, he's on the phone …" one protested.) As she lectured them, we thought about all the barriers, cameras, and sensors; we thought about the intelligence agents and informers; and we thought about all the wizardry, gadgetry, and gimmickry that Israel puts into stopping terrorism. Yet it could all come down to this: two bored guards at a checkpoint.

"Why didn't it go off?" Adar demanded, pointing to the mute detector, topped with a blinking red light.

"The alarm is broken," one guard replied sheepishly. "They haven't fixed it yet, but we're watching the light."

Source

And You Think You've Seen It All

Source

No, not 'Heil Amerika'. Just a retirement home. In Alabama.

The story:-

From above, the outline of the Wesley Acres Methodist retirement home looks like the offensive Nazi symbol.

The building, which provides government-subsidized housing for low-income people, underwent $1 million in renovations with funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to hide its shape in 2001 after complaints about the swastika design by the late Democratic Sen. Howell Heflin, according to The Associated Press. The changes, however, only served to accentuate the swastika from the air.

Today the complaints are coming from Israeli-American researcher Avrahaum Segol, who also brought to the public consciousness a swastika-shaped barracks at the Coronado Naval Base in San Diego.

Ideas for modifications on the retirement home include covered porches and other inexpensive outdoor cosmetic changes.

Listen Carefully to Obabma's Pastor

Israel's a "dirty word".

It's "racist".

Israel is "connected" to 9/11.



Source via LGF

Did Anyone Say "Jewish Violence"?

(Kippah tip: Atlas Shrugs)

But Are They Still Under Arrest?

The BBC last night confirmed that four of its journalists have been arrested during an Irish police anti-terrorist operation in Co Donegal against dissident republicans.
It is understood the reporters and researchers were meeting leading figures connected to the Real IRA. They had been working for the BBC Northern Ireland television programme Spotlight on a programme on the recent upsurge in Real IRA terrorism.

The four were detained along with seven other men in the border county yesterday. The Garda Siochána confirmed they were being held about "ongoing paramilitary activities".

A BBC spokesman said: "We can confirm that some of those arrested in Co Donegal are BBC journalists. They were working on a BBC Northern Ireland current affairs investigation and had full editorial authorisation of the BBC's guidelines.
"Those others present were fully aware that they were BBC journalists." Security forces in Northern Ireland are on high alert over fears of a Real IRA offensive to coincide with the Queen's visit to Belfast and Armagh later this week.

Now, where is Allan Johnston when you need him?

So, Who Gets to Move?

US Ambassador to Israel Richard H. Jones told The Jerusalem Post that

the US was "concerned about where things are built in Jerusalem".

Referring to the overcrowded haredi neighborhoods in Jerusalem, Jones said he was aware of the shortage of housing, but added: "Sometimes people do have to move to a different location. They cannot always stay close to their families."

Commenting on Israeli settlements beyond the Green Line, Jones said that "Israel has commitments and it is important that they begin honoring those commitments and that is part of a dialogue, part of the Annapolis process, part of the implementation of the Road Map."

Well, well.

As I have tried to make clear, the U.S. does not recognize Israel sovereignty anywhere in Jerusalem, East or West (up or down, I am not sure).

Since he is moving soon, to other appointment, I guess he has experience in moving.

Could he be referring to moving Arabs?

Naw, why would he do that?

Jews, we seem to get his vibrations, are the only ones who have to move for the sake of peace.

Tsk, tsk.

The Kabbalah Kid

Madonna in the ring:



Source

These Are What Precious Souls Are

I had blogged about some weird actress/anarchist and friends who thought the Merkaz HaRav victims were 'nazis'.

Here's a better appreciation, written by the son of a very close acquaintance. He is Rabbi ZevReichman who visited all eight Shiva Houses of the murdered Mercaz Harav students.

Dear Friends,

Our sages teach that the Almighty climbs down into his garden to pick His roses. God chooses the most special souls to join Him in the Heavens. After spending a day visiting the eight shiva homes I am overwhelmed by the awareness of how special these souls were. The eight who were murdered were pure, holy, studious, and inspiring. They are like the eight chanukah candles, each one shining bright and revealing great holiness. What follows is a small snapshot of each one.

1) Doron Trounouch,26, was an exceptional young man. I visited his family this morning in Ashdod. They were all depressed. His father cannot speak Hebrew, he is still only fluent in Amharic. The family came to Israel from Ethiopia during Operation Solomon. His siblings also struggled with their Hebrew. They explained that Doron's passion was learning Torah. He loved to learn. He was always attached to a book of Torah. He was a student in the Yeshiva for eight years. He was planning to take tests to receive smicha this summer. His father also has a great love for Torah, he reads stories from the Torah that were translated into Amharic. Doron and his father would talk as equals about the Torah. His father told me, "I am so proud to have been Doron's father." His older brother Avi told me that Doron was the religious authority in the family. Before Pesach he would call each of his nine siblings and insist that they join the family for Pesach. On Seder night Doron would run the Seder and make sure that each member of the family knew the story of how we left Egypt. He would teach them all of how we were slaves and how Hashem freed us. He told his family all about the stories of Yosef. Avi told me, "I would not have known anything about Yosef's dreams and his interpretations if not for Doron."

In addition to teaching Torah, Doron taught his family about Israel, Zionism, and Yerushalayim. He had a passionate love for Israel and Yerushalayim. He told his family that Israel had to be a large country with many towns. He planned to live in a small town once he married. He spread this enthusiasm to all he met. Doron was an exceptional boy in his neighborhood. When he would be home for Shabbos, he would sit in the local Beit Midrash, Study Hall, and learn for eight hours in a row. After his passing, one of the neighbors wrote an obituary in the local newspaper. He described the passionate learning Doron would display whenever he was home. In addition to his family Doron spread Torah learning, and love of Israel and Yerushalayim, to the children in his community. He would volunteer 20 hours a week in the absorption center in Mevasseret Tzion. There he would guide the recent Ethiopian immigrant children along the path of Torah, love of Jerusalem, and loyalty to the State of Israel. Tens of kids wrote his family letters when they heard of his passing. One young girl wrote, "Doron I love you. You taught me about Torah and Israel. Now I promise that I will pray every day and ask Hashem to send Mashiach so that you will return to life." She signed the letter with a large hand drawn red heart.

2) Roi Roth,18, only merited to spend a few months in the Yeshiva before he was taken from us. His parents sat shiva in their home in Elkana. When I was there a group of Roi's friends from Yeshivat Mercaz Harav came to visit. One of them, who was several years older than Roi spoke first. "Roi taught me how to pray." he said. Roi would regularly pray at length. "He would frequently shed many tears during his prayers of Shmonah Esrei. He rarely finished with the others. He was usually one of the last students to leave the Beit Midrash at the end of Shacharit and Mincha. Seeing a boy cry during prayer, when it was not the high holy days, was a lesson as to what prayer can and should be." He then spoke of Roi's positive outlook, "Roi would always smile. He was upbeat. He had kind things to say. And he was brilliant. Originally I thought he was only good at prayer, but then he started to come to the classes I would give on the Talmudic topic we would be studying. He was very insightful. He was also humble. Once in the development of the class, he realized where I wanted to go and he offered the idea on his own. I told him that it was a great thought and that was my thinking as well. We continued with the class. Soon another student, who apparently had not listened before, suggested Roi's thought. A third student said, 'that was Roi's concept,' to which Roi responded, 'who cares who said it. What matters is that the true explanation of the Sugya be revealed.'"

Roi would gladden everyone. He once saw a student looking downcast. He walked over to the boy and moved the young man's lips into the shape of a smile and said "Let me see your teeth!" The day he ascended on high, Roi spent his lunch time discussing a topic of Talmud. His roommate had told him of a particular cd he was looking for. In the basement of the Yeshiva, books, cd's, and tapes are for sale. Roi went to the basement, and he saw the cd there. He climbed to the third floor dormitory room to tell his friend that he had found where he could buy the music he wanted. He then went down to the library to learn some more. The terrorist came two minutes later and turned the room of books into a slaughterhouse. Roi was found on the floor his body riddled with bullets. In his hand he was clutching his kippa. Apparently it had fallen from his head, with his last strength he stretched out and held it, he did not have the strength to put it back on his head.

3)Yonatan Eldar, 16, grew up on the street where my parents own a home. He was one of eight siblings. His five older siblings were of another generation while he was the leader of the younger group of three kids. He really blossomed in the Mercaz Harav High School (Yeshiva Litzeirim). His love was learning Torah. He developed a passion for Daf hayomi. He was very attached to reviewing the daf every day. He insisted on learning many topics the Yeshiva was not covering. He had a passion for the study of Halacha. His older brother, Yair, 26, is living in Jerusalem and studying in Yeshivat Mercaz Harav. Yair asked Yonatan if he would like to study with him. Yonatan wanted to but he was so busy with his schedule of learning that his only time available was between 6:30 AM to 7:00 AM. HIs brother was usually not awake at that time. Yonatan would wake up his brother every morning to enable their joint chavruta. Yonatan had been waiting to receive a special printing of the Talmud Nedarim to continue his Daf Yomi studies. The book did not arrive in the mail on time. It came several weeks late. Yonatan was therefore sixteen pages behind. Over the last few weeks he would put in extra time in order to make up his shortfall.

On Wednesday the Yeshiva Litzeirim went on a tiyul. When they returned at night, Yonatan made his way to the Beit Midrash to learn. One of the Rabbis in the community came into the Beit Midrash to learn. The Beit Midrash was empty. The Rabbi was tired, he stood up and started to learn out loud in order to stay awake, Yonatan was sitting during this time and concentrating on his beloved Tractate Nedarim. He had to learn the day's daf and only one more page in order to catch up. He stayed in the Beit Midrash after the Rabbi left. He was the one to turn out the lights at 1:45 AM after he had caught up to the daf. On Thursday the Beit Midrash was shut in order to prepare it for a Rosh Chodesh Adar party. Yonatan went to the library to learn his beloved daf yomi. While he was learning he was shot. His blood stained his favorite book. On Friday Yonatan was buried in Shilo together with his Tractate nedarim.

4)Yonadav Chaim Hirschfeld, 19, was one of thirteen children. His grandfather learnt in YU together with our dear Dr. Samuel Danishefsky. Yonadav was known as the pride of his class. He had just graduated Yeshiva Letzeirim and was studying in Mercaz Harav. He knew all the Mishnayot of the Shas by heart. He would review the entire Shas of Mishnayot every month. He would review the entire Tanach regularly as well. He had a passion for life and learning. He would run to the Beit Midrash. He would climb the steps jumping several at a time to enter the house of learning. He was extremely insightful. His thoughts and analysis were extremely deep. He always had a smile on his face. He would play the flute to bring joy to others.

His classmates related that Yonadav had entered the library to learn because the beit midrash was being cleared for a party. Most of the boys used the time to get some rest in their dorm rooms. Yonadav wanted to catch a few more moments of learning. The terrorist shot him in the back. He had apparently run from him and he was hit in the back. Yonadav apparently noticed that there was a sefer, Shev Shimatata that had fallen to the floor Yondav reached down and picked it up before he was killed by the terrorist. The students pointed out that Yonadav had such a radiant face it would have been impossible to shoot him while seeing him. Even evil incarnate would melt in the presence of such joy and piety. His grandfather told me Yonadav would visit him regularly. In addition, Yonadav's great grandmother, Rebbetzin Shapiro, is still alive and has an apartment in Yerushalayim, Yonadav would visit her once a week, playing his flute and bringing her joy. "I cannot believe he will no longer enter our apartment and bring us joy." his grandfather told me as tears escaped his eyes.

5) Yochai Lifshitz, 18, was considered the pride of the 41st graduating class of Yeshiva Letzeirim. Even when he was very young he displayed a serious nature and a passion for learning. When his family moved to the Old City of Jerusalem they enrolled him in the first grade class. At the end of the school year the teacher informed the class that they would now be off for the two months of summer, Chofesh Hagadol. Yochai was incensed. "Why should we not have school for two whole months?" he complained to his parents. "We can have a break for a week or two and then we should return to class" he opined. His parents explained to him that the school year was established by the ministry of education and they could not change it. "Then send a letter to Misrad hachinuch," Yochai demanded. His parents told him, "If you feel so strongly about this, you write a letter to the ministry. If you write it we will mail it." Yochai wrote a letter to the ministry. It was written in a mixture of cursive and block letters and in it Yochai demanded more school time. His parents thought the story was over.

Two weeks later an official letter arrived addressed to Yochai Lifshitz. It told him that his proposal was being referred to a committee that would study the issue. On the bottom of the letter, the minister of education added in his own hand writing, "I am so glad to see that in our day once again children in Yerushalayim have a great urge for ever more amounts of time to learn Torah. Rav Lichtenstein shlit"a, said "this was indicative of the type of person he would become." His Rosh Yeshiva said that he could write a 300 page book about Yochai's dedication to learning. Yochai was extremely devoted to coming to Tefilla. He would arrive at every service at least fifteen minutes early in order to prepare himself. Now that he was taken, Rav Lifshitz, his father said "it was a privilege for me to have him in my family. He was so special. He is now mori vrabi, my teacher and master."

6) Neriya Cohen, 15, was the youngest victim. Neriya grew up in the Muslim quarter of Jerusalem as one of ten children. Neriya loved to learn. He would always grab extra time for learning. He was always upbeat. He was extremely careful to honor his parents. He tried to keep every detail of Jewish law. "It was a true, zchut, merit, to have him in our family." Rav Cohen said. The night of the attack the family ran to the Yeshiva. They were told that someone thought he saw Neriya in the hospital. They ran from hospital to hospital for 4 and a half hours. Eventually they returned home and they received the bitter news.

7) Segev Avichayil, 16, was from Neve Daniel. Segev was very studious. He loved to learn. He had a great ability to comprehend and understand information. His father read to us from his son's notebook. In the class his son summarized it was taught that every nation has abilities just as each person has abilities. In exile one might use the abilities for good or for something not as good. In the Holy Land it is different. The abilities are either expressed for the good or they will be expressed in a negative and detrimental manner. When we davened mincha in the home, his father lead the prayers with a special emphasis on the hope that the Almighty will cause redemption and salvation to sprout anew.

8) Avraham David Moses, 16, is the closest blow to home. Avraham was a cousin of our friend Michael Ratzker. Avraham had a passion for learning. Perhaps this too started at a young age. His father, Naftali, showed us a picture of when Avraham was two; he had fallen asleep on his father's lap while his father sat at a table filled with Seforim in a Beit Midrash. Avraham always loved to learn. Once he entered high school he developed a real passion for learning. Nothing else would interest him. When his father decided to take the family on a trip, Avraham did not want to go. "I would rather sit in a Yeshiva and learn." he said. His father told him, "I am taking the family to Mitzpe Rimon, I plan to daven Shacharit in the Yeshiva there. You can stay and learn all day in the Yeshiva, while I and the rest of the family enjoy a family tiyul." Avraham David accepted his father's suggestion.

Over the last two years his father would notice Avraham whispering to himself. When he asked his son what was up, his son said, “I am reviewing Mishnyot by heart." Naftali believes that Avraham David knew half of the shas, the orders of kadoshim, moed, and taharot by heart, even though he was only sixteen! Avraham was very deliberate, he was always at peace. His teacher told us that he always felt Avraham would be a giant in Torah. Apparently God decided He needed this giant to learn with Him. The night of the attack, Avraham and Segev were learning together Tractate Megilla. The terrorist entered and began to shoot, someone heard Segev scream "Moses, GET UP!" Apparently, he was so patient and so studious he had been immersed in his studies at that terrible moment.

The Maharal writes that the number Eight is a number that represents the supernatural. It’s a number that ascends the physical and touches the spiritual realm. On the eighth day of Sukkot, Shemini Atzeret, Hashem tells us “Kashe Alay Preydatchem”, “Your departure is difficult on Me.” Today we say to Hashem that while accepting His decree, the departure of these eight martyrs creates a void within us that can never be filled. Just as the eight Chanukah candles light up the dark winter nights, the legacies of these eight pure souls will light up the lives of each of us. The main message that the families asked me to convey is the need to accept real change as a result of what happened. Today we promise to be better than yesterday, today we promise to never forget them. Shiva may end, shiva is commemorated for seven days but the lessons of these eight, the smiles of these eight and the memories of these eight will live on forever. May the memories of these eight harugey malchut stay with us to truly increase our goodness, kindness, and learning.

With blessings and tears,

Zev

New Book Tries To Argue with Merkaz HaRav Head

Here's the book:

Reckless Rites: Purim and the Legacy of Jewish Violence
Elliott Horowitz

Cloth | 2006 | $37.95 / £22.50
356 pp. | 6 x 9 | 18 halftones.

Historical accounts of Jewish violence--particularly against Christians--have long been explosive material. Some historians have distorted these records for anti-Semitic purposes. Others have discounted, dismissed, or simply ignored the evidence, often for apologetic purposes.

In Reckless Rites, Elliott Horowitz takes a new and forthright look at both the history of Jewish violence since late antiquity and the ways in which generations of historians have grappled with that history. In the process, he has written the most wide-ranging book on Jewish violence in any language, and the first to fully acknowledge and address the actual anti-Christian practices that became part of the playful, theatrical violence of the Jewish festival of Purim. He has also examined the different ways in which the book of Esther, upon which the festival is based, was used by Jews and Christians over the centuries--whether as an ancient mirror of modern tribulations or as the scriptural basis for anti-Semitic claims regarding the bloodthirstiness of the Jews.

Reckless Rites reassesses the historical interpretation of Jewish violence--from the alleged massacre of thousands of Christians in seventh-century Jerusalem to later medieval attacks on Christian symbols such as the crucifix, transgressions that were often committed in full knowledge that their likely consequence would be death.

A book that calls for major changes in the way that Jewish history is written and conceptualized, Reckless Rites will be essential reading for scholars and students of history, religion, and Jewish-Christian relations.

Elliott Horowitz, a native of New York City, is Associate Professor of Jewish History at Bar-Ilan University, Israel. He is coeditor of the Jewish Quarterly Review.

Reviews:

"Reckless Rites is an excellent read, and for a book on such a serious subject not devoid of humor. . . . [I]t's most important purpose . . . is to throw a very large bucket of cold water over the misconceptions and the willful misreading of history in which we all too easily indulge."--Rabbi Dr. Charles Middleburgh, Jewish Chronicle

"In his new book, Elliot Horowitz attempts to undermine the conventional wisdom about Jews and violence. Focusing on Purim, he convincingly shows that the image passed down over the centuries, of Jewish passivity and nonviolence during the medieval period, is, if not wrong, at least in need of correction. . . . [A] thought-provoking book, whose trees are often as memorable as the forest."--Kalman Neuman, Jerusalem Report

"The book is a valuable contribution to what appeared to be an already enormous volume of religious history. The author's presentation of a well-researched and thoroughly analyzed history of Jewish violence that accompanies a sacred festival makes this an extraordinary book."--Willem F M Luyt, Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae

"Reckless Rites is a provocative volume, rich in historical detail. Horowitz tells a story, not without humor, that attempts to connect events of the distant past with contemporary conflicts. Unusual for a work of history, Reckless Rites is also a good read."--Irven M. Resnick, AJS Review

Table of Contents:

Illustrations xi
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction 1

PART ONE: BIBLICAL LEGACIES 21

CHAPTER ONE: The Book of Esther For and Against 23
CHAPTER TWO: A Pair of Queens 46
CHAPTER THREE: Mordecai's Reckless Refusal 63
CHAPTER FOUR: The Eternal Haman 81
CHAPTER FIVE: Amalek The Memory of Violence and the Violence of Memory 107

PART TWO: JEWS LIVING DANGEROUSLY 147

CHAPTER SIX: "The Fascination of the Abomination" Jews (and Jewish Historians) Confront the Cross 149
CHAPTER SEVEN: Mild Men or Wild Men? Historical Reflections on Jews and Violence 187
CHAPTER EIGHT: Ancient Jewish Violence and Modern Scholarship 213
CHAPTER NINE: Purim, Carnival, and Violence 248
CHAPTER TEN: Local Purims and the Invention of Tradition 279

(Kippah tip: Seforim)

Well, you might think all this is academic. Right?

Think again and read here:-

Speaking at the collective funeral of all eight young victims, which took place the next day at Merkaz ha-Rav, Rabbi Yaakov Shapira, who recently succeeded his late father as head of the Yeshiva, said that “the murderers are the Amalek of our day, coming to remind us that Amalek has not disappeared, just changed its appearance.” He also saw the attack as “a continuation of the 1929 massacre,” in Hebron, many of whose 67 victims were students of the famed local Yeshiva.

Although the rabbis of the Talmud have taught us that “a man is not to be held responsible for things said in a time of sorrow” (Baba Batra, 16b), I beg to differ with Rabbi Shapira on both points. Regarding the latter, it is not likely that Abu Dhaim, who was not much older than most of his victims, ever heard of the massacre in Hebron. He was much more concerned with the 126 Palestinians, many of them women and children, who were killed by Israeli forces in Gaza during the first week of March, 2008, in their (perhaps overzealous) attempt to save the lives of Israeli women and children in Sderot and Ashkelon. By contrast, Baruch Goldstein, like most Jewish residents of the Hebron area, had been well aware of (if not obsessed with) the bloody massacre that took place some three score and five years earlier, and it is his murderous action in that same city which is is better described “a continuation of the 1929 massacre.”

With regard to the alleged Amalekite affiliation of “the murderers,” Rabbi Shapira is on even shakier ground. As every student in his yeshiva knows, the biblical Amalek was the grandson of Esau, the older son of Isaac. The Arabs, by contrast, are seen as descendants of Ishmael, the half-brother of Isaac. Rabbi Shapira presumably meant that those behind the murder of his young students were Amalekites in the metaphorical sense. But in that sense, it may be argued, so was Dr. Baruch Goldstein.

I left this comment there:

For the Bar Illan scholar: Rabbi Yosef Ber Soloveitchik wrote “I heard the answer from my father of blessed memory. Every nation that conspires to destroy the Jewish people is considered by the halakhah to be Amalek. My father added that as concerns Amalek itslef we were commanded to perform two mitzvot: (a) [for the individual] to blot out the memory of Amalek , which is incumbent on everyone [to slay] any individual member of Amalek [that he encounters], as expounded in the Torah portion of Ki Tetzeh, “You shall blot out the memory of Amalek” (Deuteronomy 25:19), and (b) [for the community] to engage in communal military preparednes for war against Amalek, as it is explained in the Torah portion of B’shalach, “The Lord will wage war with Amalek from generation to generation” (Exodus 17:16). With relation to any other nation that stands ready to destroy us, we are [now after the time of Sennacherib] commanded to wage war against it [even] whil it prepares for war against us, and our war against it is a “War of Mitzvah”, in accordance with the command of the Torah that “The Lord will wage war with Amalek from generation to generation.” However, the destruction of individuals, which is derived from the Torah portion of Ki Tetzeh, refers only to the biological descendants of Amalek. The words of Maimonides include the obligation to wipe out individuals, which does not apply to any other antion that plots destruction against the People of Israel. However, since the obligation of warring with Amalek pertains to such a nation (as well), he did not employ the phrase “And its memory has already been lost.”

And further:-

The Mossad HaRav Kook editon of Ish HaEmunah includes Kol Dodi Dofek and on page 101, RJB writes [my translation YM]: “the evil machinations of the Arabs are not directed only towards the political independence [of the state of Israel] but to the very existential essence of the Jewish community in toto. They aspire to destroy, *chaliliah*, the *Yishuv*, from man to woman, from child to infant, from bull to sheep. At one of the assemblies of the Mizrachi, I said in the name of my father, my teacher z”l, that the portion in the Torah “Hashem wages war against Amalek from generation to generation” is not limited in its community application as a *milchemet mitzva* to a certain race, but is inclusive regarding the obligation of rising up against any nation or group that is infused with irrational [crazed?] hatred, and directs its hate against *Knesset Yisrael* …In the 1930s and 1940s, this role was filled by the Nazis and Hitler at their head. They were Amaleks, representatives of the pathological animosity of the last period. Today, the masses of Nasser and the Mufti are substituting for them.”

The Illustrated Manual for Police Brutality

The New York Times is not usually a favorite of those of us who are, well, addicted to the news.

But there is always something to be thankful for, everyday. Like this picture which the paper used today:



It was taken by Sebastain Scheiner of the AP and is used here in an illustrative purpose.

It displays "Lesson #53" in the (fictitious) Police Manual for Methods of Applying Brutality.

Lesson #53 reads: "while your colleague(s) subdue a protestor, raise your right arm to his/her head level, take a step forward with your left foot, pretend to accidentally stumble, thus causing you to take a brisk and firm step forward with your right foot, thus causing your upraised right elbow to effectively smash into the protestors face. With any luck, you can even break his/her nose or at the very least, his/her glasses".

Other lessons:

#42 - When gently leading a protestor away, hold his/her hand in both of your and firmly press the his/her fingers together. With luck, you may crush a digit.

Like this:



and Lesson #77 - When carrying a demonstrator away, especially female, have two officers grab one leg each and then slowly separate as walking away.

Like this:



I found another legs version here:



And Maneuver #28, Twist Arm While Pressing Out Elbow here:-



Welcome to the Israeli Police, those guardians of civil rights and liberties.

Obama (and Olmert =O and O)

The more you learn about him, the more Obama seems to be a conventionally opportunistic politician, impressively smart and disciplined, who has put together a good political career and a terrific presidential campaign. But there’s not much audacity of hope there. There’s the calculation of ambition, and the construction of artifice, mixed in with a dash of deceit — all covered over with the great conceit that this campaign, and this candidate, are different.

...Might the country be better off with the cynicism of the Clintons than the conceit of Obama?

William Kristol

Barack Obama's Shiloh Connection

Did you know that there is a Shiloh connection to the current Democratic frontrunner for his party's presidential nomination?

Here:

...the first sermon Obama heard from Wright, the source ultimately of the title of Obama's second book and one of the central themes of his presidential campaign:

The title of Reverend Wright’s sermon that morning was “The Audacity of Hope.” He began with a passage from the Book of Samuel — the story of Hannah, who, barren and taunted by her rivals, had wept and shaken in prayer before her God [in the Tabernacle Courtyard here at Shiloh and there was only one rival, Peninah - YM]. The story reminded him, he said, of a sermon a fellow pastor had preached at a conference some years before, in which the pastor described going to a museum and being confronted by a painting title Hope.

“The painting depicts a harpist,” Reverend Wright explained, “a woman who at first glance appears to be sitting atop a great mountain. Until you take a closer look and see that the woman is bruised and bloodied, dressed in tattered rags, the harp reduced to a single frayed string. Your eye is then drawn down to the scene below, down to the valley below, where everywhere are the ravages of famine, the drumbeat of war, a world groaning under strife and deprivation.

“It is this world, a world where cruise ships throw away more food in a day than most residents of Port-au-Prince see in a year, where white folks’ greed runs a world in need, apartheid in one hemisphere, apathy in another hemisphere…That’s the world! On which hope sits!”

And so it went, a meditation on a fallen world. While the boys next to me doodled on their church bulletin, Reverend Wright spoke of Sharpsville and Hiroshima, the callousness of policy makers in the White House and in the State House. As the sermon unfolded, though, the stories of strife became more prosaic, the pain more immediate. The reverend spoke of the hardship that the congregation would face tomorrow, the pain of those far from the mountaintop, worrying about paying the light bill…

Well, that's an interesting way to get from Shiloh to Sharpesville.

And, at another opportunity, what else did BO's pastor say?

"We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America's chickens are coming home to roost,"

This, in reference to Sept. 11.

Source

Well, if I was an Afro-American preacher, I'd say that the statement about "state terrorism" is inflammatory, mendacious and downright meanspirited and sho' 'nuf is a damnable lie. It is a blank check for evil men to kill innocents.

Wright is all wrong.

How bad, then, is Obama?

Pondering Penslar

Derek J. Penslar is Samuel Zacks Professor of Jewish History and director of the Jewish Studies Program at the University of Toronto and is co-editing a documentary history of the Yishuv and writing a book on Jews in the military in modern history. Penslar is co-editor of Jewish Social Studies and The Journal of Israeli History. In short, an important Diaspora figure.

He published a diatribe in Sh'ma, entitled "Contested Space: Maps in Teaching About Israel" in which he wrote:-

I have a colleague at the University of Toronto who teaches a course called “How to Lie With Maps.” Supporters of Israel might well suggest as required reading for this course Palestinian maps that show a unitary Palestine from the Mediterranean to the Jordan with no sign of Israel’s existence.

Why?

...Israeli maps, and those produced by and for Diaspora Jews, rarely mark the Green Line that constitutes the country’s internationally recognized borders.

His practical complaint?

Jewish youth in North America are not well educated about the barrier between pre- and post-1967 Israel.

and

In Israeli schools, textbooks often excise the Green Line and include the West Bank in maps of Israel. In December of 2006, Education Minister Yuli Tamir declared that future textbooks must depict the Green Line...This knowledge is a necessary precondition for intelligent debate over the feasibility of border adjustments as a component of a sustainable Israeli–Palestinian peace accord. Tamir’s proposal set off a firestorm of protest from the Israeli right, which will not countenance any challenge to the legitimacy of the conquests of 1967. But underneath Tamir’s proposal is a sound pedagogical issue: the need to educate young people that borders are artifacts, not works of nature or God.

His solution:-

...maps that faithfully depict the constant presence of Jews and Arabs in the same landscape...Overlaying maps would display rupture and absence as well as continuity and coexistence. A map of Israel in 1953, superimposed on one of Palestine in 1947, would show new Jewish towns, suburbs, and agricultural settlements where hundreds of Palestinian villages had been. The same could be done for the post-1967 West Bank, where Jewish settlements have profoundly affected Palestinian landholding and population distribution.

Maps can also trace changing borders, both in pre-1948 Palestine and post-1948 Israel. The Green Line is but one of these borders, but it is of vast importance. It cannot be wished away. The truth, be it about intermixing of Jews and Arabs or division between Israel and its neighbors, must never be erased.

Too bad that Penslar fails to note the Carta maps in their multi-volume history of Israel including the pre-state period. These maps include all phases of Jewish settlement efforts as well as Arab villages. Of course, what cannot be seen by maps is the demographic changes of Arabs moving from either outside of the Mandate borders or from those areas which eventually were in the Hashemite Kingdom, a movement whihc also has ramifications for understanding the conflict.

But there's more. For all his academic credentials, Penslar fails the reader by writing about "the Green Line that constitutes the country’s internationally recognized borders".

What?

Not border, Professor, but rather armistice lines, a basis for future negotiations. And lines that were constantly the subject of infiltration and aggression. They counted and count for nothing. Which is what your ideology counts for as well, for there is an ideology behind your academic thinking.

Creeping Qassams

Fein Not Fine

Daniel Gordis, an acquaintance of mine with whom I had the privilege to work on a Wexler Family Foundation tour some years ago, has moved over to the Shalem Center. He hasn't changed his politics but Leonard Fein doesn't think him a "finer mensch" now:-

The reaction that I find most perplexing, even disturbing, comes from Daniel Gordis, senior vice president of the Shalem Center of Jerusalem. Gordis has developed over the last few years a niche market: He is a master at the manipulation of sentiment. In a longish essay, written in the immediate aftermath of the killings, he begins his seduction with a recap of Chaim Nachman Bialik's magnum opus, "In the City of Slaughter," a poem of more than 300 lines written after the Kishinev pogrom of 1903, a poem that indicts the Jews for their passivity.
Then he moves on to cite Natan Alterman's "Silver Salver," a poem once taught to Israeli schoolchildren lauding the brave young men and women who birthed the Jewish state. Both Bialik and Alterman perceived religion as the source of the shameful Jewish passivity, and it is that which distresses Gordis. Without religious conviction, without continuing religious discourse, he tells us, we will not know why there needs to be a Jewish state, what purposes it serves.

That's a provocative view, worthy of serious discussion. But that is not where Gordis takes the reader. Absent a clear sense of purpose, he writes, you want desperately to be "normal," and so you close your eyes to the continuing attacks, assaults, insults. "You get so used to [them] that you don't see that Jews sitting like ducks, simply waiting to be hit by homemade missiles while the region's most powerful army sits on the side and polishes its boots, is a bastardization of what Zionism was supposed to be."

His indictment, as harsh in its own way as Bialik's, goes on, step by critical step, until finally it finds its home base: "So we sit. And civilians keep getting targeted, and keep dying. And soldiers die. And Israeli towns become ghost towns…

"But George Bush most supports us, so we feel better. And the charade with Abu Mazen permits us to continue hallucinating about the possibility of peace, to pretend that the Palestinians aren't simply an utterly failed people that will never make peace in our lifetimes or those of our children, so we feel even better."

Another time, we can argue about "what Zionism was supposed to be." Just now, let us take note of what Zionism was not supposed to be: Two days after the yeshiva attack, Israel announced renewed construction of hundreds of homes in the West Bank town of Givat Ze'ev and authorized hundreds more in East Jerusalem. So much for the Road Map; so much for Israel's explicit commitments at the Annapolis conference last fall.

Zionism, then, as an act of spite; Zionism to keep a fractious coalition together; Zionism to satisfy those in the religious camp who are as far from "shameful Jewish passivity" as can be. Take your pick: a Zionism that polishes its boots, or a Zionism that spits in the face of the Other and on its own moral tradition. Either way, you lose.

Actually, Leonard, Zionism is about rebuilding the Land of Israel despite Arab terror, American pressure and unsympathtietic antagonism by Jews, even by a weak and vacillating government.

34 Years - And Nothing Changes

Here's the front page of the Maariv daily from 1974:-



The lead story is from Hebron and concerns the matter of soldiers being told to refuse an order.

The second lead story (to the left of the page - remember, this is Hebrew) is that of a group of one hunderd persons from Gush Emunim being turned out from a site at Baal Hatzor, part of an attempt to reestablish the Jewish community of Shiloh.

Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose.

(Kippah tip: Eli Merzbach)
(Language aid: RA)

I Guess Shiksas Aren't What They're Cranked Up To Be

Commenting on the Spitzer Shpritz, Dr. Laura said:-

VIEIRA: Do you think women play any role in this, Dr. Laura?

SCHLESSINGER: It's interesting. what you said about what men need -- men do need validation. When they come into the world they're born of a woman. Getting the validation from mommy is the beginning of needing it from a woman. When the wife does not focus in on the needs and the feelings sexually, personally, to make him feel like a man, to make him feel like a success, to make him feel like our hero, he's very susceptible to the charm of some other woman making him feel what he needs. These days, women don't spend a lot of time thinking about how they can give their men what they need.

VIEIRA: Are you saying women should feel guilty, like they somehow drove the man to cheat?

SCHLESSINGER: You know what, the cheating was his decision to repair what's damaged, and to feed himself where he's starving. But, yes, I hold women accountable for tossing out perfectly good men by not treating them with the love and kindness and respect and attention they need.

So, the "Shiksa Complex" is not what it's cranked up to be (Silda Wall Spitzer is not Jewish)?

House Destroying

Here's the poster, "A TIME TO DESTROY":-

The Hebrew at the top reads, in translation:

The Arab Enemy is in Jerusalem!

Arising from the 'Shiva' - and Doing an Act

Destroying the House of the Terrorist

And here's the public announcement made in its connection:

A week has passed since the massacre in the "Merkaz Harav" Yeshiva but the house of the Arab terrorist has not been destroyed yet. In the absence of any effective government, it is the people who must show the way. WOMEN in GREEN call upon all to join the call of the bereaved families to go and destroy the house, this coming SUNDAY, March 16th, 2008, at 5:00PM.

Meet in Jerusalem on the Promenade (Tayelet) of Armon Hanatziv. From there march to the house in Jabbel Mukhaber.

The more people show up, the more the demand to destroy the house will be listened to.

Even if you can't walk all the way, at least show up at the Promenade.

Buses to the Promenade: 8,12,7,74,30,163

Tel: 972-2-624-9887 or 0505500834