My Right Word

I Was A Bit Nasty (But Enjoyed It)

noreply@blogger.com (YMedad) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 19:12:00 +0000

I was on line/queue outside the Egged Central Bus Station this evening and noticed a 30-ish man making the creep-up-on-the-outside maneuver.

You know, he sort of innocently moves up on your left so that as you both approach the metal detector, he can make a move to overtake you.

Prepared, I waited until the last moment and then deftly stepped up and to my left, effectively cutting him off. I also slightly brushed him.

He made a noise and I turned around and said: "You didn't expect me to allow you to pass me".

He said something like: "that wasn't nice".

I replied: "But is was your overtaking that caused me to make a counter-overtake move".

"Well, you're elderly," he said.

So, as is usual, I said what popped into my head:

"You should only live as long as I."

Peace Now - This Way and That

noreply@blogger.com (YMedad) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 19:00:00 +0000

Several bloggers have noted the appearance of this poster a few days ago around Jerusalem:-

It's sponsored by a student group initiated by a friend of mine, Ronen Shuval, called Im Tirtzu.

Muqata's translation:

Evacuate Gilo - NOW!

Peace Now is everyone's problem!

At this rate we'll all live be living in caravans [or: caravillas]!

Provided as food for thought by Im Tirtzu and concerned Jerusalem citizens.

Oh, and if you want to see a real Peace Now advert that might get you upset, try this one:

Such nice Jews and Zionists.

A New Haveil Havalim. #244

noreply@blogger.com (YMedad) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 12:51:00 +0000

Here, at A Mother-in-Israel.

The Views Expressed Are For Information Purposes Only

noreply@blogger.com (YMedad) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 07:48:00 +0000

Sanhedrin - Great Court of 71
Rachel Eimenu 47 Jerusalem Israel
5 in Kislev, 5770 (November 22, 2009)

Declaration of Sovereignty of the Jewish Nation on Judea and Samaria, Application of Torah Law

We hereby declare in this, in front of all the nations, the sovereignty of the Jewish Nation, and mainly of the Jewish residents actively living in the regions of Judea and Samaria, more than 120 communities amounting to more than 350,000 Jews, as sovereign regions of the Jewish State, and this is apart from the Jewish residents in Jerusalem neighborhoods and in the Golan, counting for about 250,000 additional Jews, may they increase. Sixty myriads of Jews, like the number of Jews in the Land of Israel at the time of the Declaration of the State of Israel in 5708 (1948), may it prosper and flourish.

The sovereignty declared here is reserved for the State of Israel, until it is established as the state of the Nation of G-d according to the Torah of G-d, within the regions of the Land of Israel’s biblical borders.

The Torah is the foundation of the constitution of the nation of Israel as it was given at Sinai, which existed since before creation; it is the testimony of G-d’s will, His actions, and His laws.

Therefore, the applicable and obligatory law in Judea and Samaria since earliest times and eternally, like in all of the Land of Israel is the law of Torah, even if foreign entities, or Jewish entities which do not recognize this law, and act according to foreign laws recognize this.

Application of the law does not require the agreement of any political or governmental authority.

The existing laws of the State of Israel in Judea and Samaria and in the Golan may remain in force as long as they do not contradict the laws of Torah.

In order to implement the laws of Torah in action, we call to all of the communities of Judea and Samaria and the Golan to set up Courts acting in accordance with Torah law. Each Court will comprise not less than three people, who keep Torah and fear G-d, despite profiteering, of public reknown, and also are representatives of the public, having been elected in electrions held for this purpose. Recommendations on the matter of management of the election process for the courts will appear in an appendix.

The government of Israel threatens that if the Arabs and the United Nations were to declare or recognize a Palestinian State, that the State of Israel may take actions steps towards annexing settlement blocks.

Such a declaration is an admission, in a roundabout manner, that Israel has the eternal residual right to impose and to implement its sovereignty in all of the Land of Israel, and it is only due to slavery to the process called the “peace process”, and the misunderstanding of the State of Israel as being part of the family of nations, that Israel does not implement what is known to all, even in the core writings of Islam and Christianity, that the Land of Israel is the inheritance of the Nation of G-d, the Nation of Israel.

The cowardly policies of Israeli governments, at least since 5727 (1967), brought upon the Jewish Nation, and upon its sovereignty in the Land of Israel, the disaster, which continues to become more explicit after the Goldstone Report, whose essence is the founding of a foreign Arab state in regions of the Land of Israel which will be recognized by the nations of the world, organized in the United Nation. The Israeli governments, in their denial of the sovereign rights of the Jewish Nation on the Land of Israel, in opposition to the set covenants in the Torah between G-d and the forefathers of the nation, and the words of the prophets, and including international law decisions in the years 1920 and 1922, cause, as stated, disaster for the nation, in whose and for whose sake they pretend to speak.

Israeli governments have denied, due to political pressures, the sovereignty of the Nation of Israel on strips of land in the heart of its homeland, including Jerusalem, in that they did not actualize the Basic Law of Jerusalem. They preferred to refer to them as "occupied territories". This denial was made worse by the High Court, in their infamous decision that these strips of land are occupied territories are in a perpetual state of war until their evacuation. This perversion was used as justification for ethnic cleansing of the Gaza Strip by means of the expulsion and banishment of its Jewish residents, and destroying their means of livelihood. This despicable act is meant to be used as a president to permit the expulsion and banishment of Jews, and their ethnic cleansing from regions of their land, the Holy Land. These regions of land were liberated, with the help of the Creator, in war, which the Arabs initiated in the year 5727 (1967), and also in the defensive War of Independence in 5708 (1948).

This behavior presents the Jewish Nation as burglars, and its land, state, and government as war criminals.

The High Court, the Attorney General, and the haters of Israel within, aroused the recognition and courage of, what is known as the Palestinian entity, to declare statehood. Therefore the High Court, the Attorney General, and all those associated with them carry the consequences for the results and damages in life and property and removing Israel from its land, and will give accounting if and when the hand of Israel will become strengthened, with the grace of G-d.

We declare that any foreign political entity, in the regions of the Land of Israel, which is not Jewish is an illegal and temporary entity, and is destined to be uprooted.

Activities of the Israel Defense Forces against Jewish communities, their uprooting, and the exile of Jews from them, in part or whole; these actions are expressly illegal. It is easy to show that in the circumstances which have been created, according to which swaths of the Land, including the “settlement” of Gilo, are under dispute and threat of Arab and international capture.

Therefore, whoever acts towards the destruction of Jewish communities acts for the sake of foreign interests, and undermines the existence of the nation of Israel in its land, and acts against the laws of Torah, and will in the future be punished for this by the hands of Heaven.
Destruction of Jewish communities is the actualization of the call of the American government not to build in the neighborhood of Gilo. The destiny for the settlement Negohot is like that of the neighborhood of Gilo, and the destiny of the neighborhood of Rechavia and every other place in Jerusalem. Every person who is employed in the evacuation and exile and destruction is excommunicated by Heaven and excommunicated by man, and will not be designated in the community.

About this, David, King of Israel said:

Psalms 119:158 – I saw traitors, and I quarreled, for they did not observe Your word.

We are convinced that the heads of yeshivas will not be frightened from threats, and will find ways to sustain their institutions and to strengthen the trust of the yeshiva students in their chosen path, the way of Torah.

We pray that the eyes of the government, like the eyes of all people, will open up to see the difficult situation in which the nation of Israel and its state is in, and therefore it will cease any process of evacuation and plans of expulsion, and instead of this will work to spread out the flocks on the mountains of Israel, and worry for all that it is lacking.

The Jewish Nation, under its present regime, sits on the fence. It cannot, in its current state, receive any legitimacy from the nations of the world, but only earn their disdain, for it doesn’t act according to divine laws, promises and covenants, which cause, G-d forbid, the punishments and curses written in the Torah.

The Iran affair is the result of the removal of the divine image from the shepherds of Israel for many years, who withheld the Nation of Israel from recognition, study, and education that the name of G-d is called upon it, and therefore the nations of the world fear it.

As long Nation of Israel does not act according to its ways, from amidst a divine spiritual identity, in holiness and purity, expressing the national spirit, the State of Israel will not be able to overcome its enemies, and G-d forbid, the curses will be fulfilled.

Deuteronomy 28 (43) The stranger in your midst will rise up high and higher, and you will go down lower and lower… (47) Because you have not served Hashem your G-d in happiness and goodness of heart from abundance… (52) And he will trouble you in all of your gates until your fortified high walls, that you trust, come down in all your land, and he will trouble you in all the gates in all the land that Hashem your G-d gave you.

We call to all Jews and all people, and all the nations and countries of the world to repent, to avoid theft, bloodshed, and sexual sins, and to accept the yoke of Torah and commandments, every nation according to what is proper for him, and to help the Nation of Israel to cherish the dust of its land, and to erect its Temple on the Temple Mount and to call together to the G-d of Israel, G-d of the world, and to announce the abandonment of perverted ideas to establish a foreign state in the Land of Israel.

Rabbi Prof. Hillel Weiss – Spokesman Rabbi Dov Stein - Secretary

J Street Attacked - From The Left!

noreply@blogger.com (YMedad) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 07:21:00 +0000

Here.

Ha.

Insecure Dismay: Obama Threatens Israel

noreply@blogger.com (YMedad) — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 20:37:00 +0000

The White House Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release
November 17, 2009

Statement by White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs on Jerusalem

We are dismayed at the Jerusalem Planning Committee’s decision to move forward on the approval process for the expansion of Gilo in Jerusalem. At a time when we are working to re-launch negotiations, these actions make it more difficult for our efforts to succeed.

Neither party should engage in efforts or take actions that could unilaterally pre-empt, or appear to pre-empt, negotiations. The U.S. also objects to other Israeli practices in Jerusalem related to housing, including the continuing pattern of evictions and demolitions of Palestinian homes.
Our position is clear: the status of Jerusalem is a permanent status issue that must be resolved through negotiations between the parties.

And from dismay, Obama then took off and actually threatened Israel:

"The situation in the Middle East is very difficult, and I've said repeatedly and I'll say again, Israel's security is a vital national interest to the United States, and we will make sure they are secure," Obama said. "I think that additional settlement building does not contribute to Israel's security. I think it makes it harder for them to make peace with their neighbors. I think it embitters the Palestinians in a way that could end up being very dangerous."

Here, watch it:

Got that?

Israel's security is a vital interest to the United States.

The US will assure Israel's security.

But, Gilo, which he has included as a settlement, being 'expanded', does not contribute to Israel's security (and he knows?).

Moreover, it embitters Pals. (who might blow themselves up again). And that is dangerous.

So, does he take care of the real danger?

Or does he threaten Israel by intimating that the US will not care for Israel's security in the future?

Even a dovish Hanoch Daum felt the need to lash out at Obama:-

Yet this is not only the demand that we stop building in Gilo – a stipulation that nobody really intends to adhere to – that makes us lose sleep, Mr. President. It’s also the tone of your words.

You say that if we stop building in Gilo, a legitimate neighborhood in Jerusalem, Israel will become a less safe place to live in. You explain that the construction would prompt the Palestinians to commit radical acts. You are hinting to us that terrorism is a direct and unavoidable result of Israel’s conduct.

In fact, you are telling us that just as a plant grows when you water it, if we build homes in Gilo suicide bombers will explode at coffee shops. As if it’s a natural matter.

And so what if we were hit by Qassam rockets after we left Gush Katif and sustained Katyusha attacks after withdrawing from Lebanon? And so what if we got a murderous Intifada after offering the Palestinians everything at Camp David? That’s of less interest to you.

Back then you were just a senator in Chicago. It was not an issue you had to worry about. After all you are only concerned for our security, because if we stop building in Gilo quiet will prevail here. Iran will no longer threaten us with nukes, Hezbollah won’t wish us any harm, and Hamas will decide to disarm forever.

New Administrations come into office with new insights. We certainly accept that, Mr. President. But you would do well to understand at this time already, when your approval rating is at a low point of 46%, that not everything that comes to your mind will be immediately embraced here.

There are especially illogical demands – and the one that views Gilo as a settlement is one of them – that unite us Israelis from the Left and Right and remind us that at the end of the day we, and only we, are entitled to decide where we build, what we build, and what will happen in our sovereign state.

America is a good friend and it will remain such, Mr. President, even if once in a while we have to put it in its place.

And 76% or so of American Jews voted for this man.

When F.A.I.R. Isn't Fair

noreply@blogger.com (YMedad) — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 20:25:00 +0000

A left-of-center media watch group, F.A.I.R., is upset at the Washington Post.

Why?

Israeli Settlement Isn't, Says Washington Post

...The White House's muddled position on settlement expansion has been a key part of Israel-Palestine negotiations. Many headlines framed the news as you'd expect (New York Times: "Plan to Expand Jerusalem Settlement Angers U.S.", for example) .

The Washington Post, though, went with this headline today: "Housing Plan for Jerusalem Neighborhood Spurs Criticism."

The article by Howard Schneider refers to a "disputed neighborhood of Jerusalem," the "Jewish neighborhood of Gilo," a place "annexed to the city in a step not recognized by the international community."

You can read my comment there.

Frum Flim-Flam

noreply@blogger.com (YMedad) — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 19:19:00 +0000

Check out my comment on a Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld here, about getting arrested for wearing a tallit.

For a AMCHA Rabbi, I was surprised of his thinking and his lack of facts.

Rabbi Yisrael Rosen's Response to Torat HaMelech

noreply@blogger.com (YMedad) — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 18:51:00 +0000

Following up on the Torat HaMelech treatise on whether or not, and when, and if, a Jew may kill a non-Jew and in what circumstances, etc., etc., etc., Rabbi Yisrael Rosen has come out quite forcefully and sarcastically against the book and here is my scan of his piece in this week's Shabbat B'Shabbato weekly publication:

Nasrallah: Haifa Is Coming At You

noreply@blogger.com (YMedad) — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 16:39:00 +0000

Remember Hezbollah's Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah's

Ba'ada Haifa?

Which was his signal trashing of Israel - that his rockets will hit Haifa and beyond.

Here:

"We are entering a new phase in the confrontation with Israel and it is the phase of (firing rockets) beyond Haifa," Nasrallah said in a televised speech on Hezbollah's al-Manar TV.

Well, it very well might be that Haifa is coming right at him.

Haifa the city?

Naw,

Haifa Wehbe.

What? Who?

Here, read:

During her stay in Dubai last week, superstar Haifa Wehbe received a phone call from television host Tony Khalife live on New TV (broadcast last night). In the phone interview, Haifa admitted that her nomination for the spring parliament elections in Lebanon is just a rumor quoted saying: I’m very far from politics.

Yet, if people insist that I nominate myself I wouldn’t have the heart to say no. Khalife then interrupted asking: What change would you provoke in case you become a member? Haifa was confused to reply at first but then she broke her silence saying: I will attempt to work with total honesty and transparency. That’s the best change I can provoke.

If you are wondering what special attributes Haifa would bring to politics, well, here are some pics I found:

She belly-dances here (starting at 1:20)

and here she is singing, sort of:

P.S.

I once mentioned her before.

And You Wonder Why Israel Can't Make Peace With Arabs?

noreply@blogger.com (YMedad) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:42:00 +0000

Forget "occupied territory", ignore a "right of return", turn a blind eye to a "Palestinian people".

Can you imagine even playing soccer with them?

Here:-

Egypt recalls envoy from Algeria over soccer violence

Egypt has recalled its ambassador to Algeria after Egyptian soccer fans were attacked by their Algerian counterparts following the two countries' playoff match in Sudan in the 2010 World Cup qualifications, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry announced Thursday.

The incident comes days after the Egyptian government summoned Algeria's ambassador to Cairo, Abdel Qader Hadjar, to explain violence against Egyptians living in Algeria in the days leading up to Wednesday's crucial match in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, which Algeria won, 1-0.

Hadjar was summoned again Thursday, hours before a decision was issued to recall Egypt's ambassador for "consultations." The Foreign Ministry said Hadjar was informed of "Egypt's extreme displeasure with the assaults on Egyptian citizens who went to Khartoum to support the Egyptian team."

"Egypt also expressed its outrage and its denunciation after continuing reports and many appeals from Egyptian citizens residing in Algeria over the assaults and intimidation they face," the statement said.

and this:

...hundreds of young men rushed the Algerian Embassy here, vandalizing cars and stores, burning Algerian flags and injuring 35 police officers — a rare occurrence in a police state that has made gatherings of seven or more people illegal.

UPDATED

This came in through my email:-

From: No Algeria [mailto:noalgeria@gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, November 19, 2009 1:35 PM
To: companies@egyptadvertise.com
Subject: من الفيفا ... مصر في كاس العالم

لا
تستغرب ولا تستعجب ،ما ضاع حق ورائه مطالبإذا كنت ترغب في رؤية مصر في كاس العالم
2010 إفعل الخطوات التاليةنحتاج حوالي نصف مليون رسالة فقط ( ليست بالكثيرة علينا
نحن المصريين )هذة هي طريقة الشكوي التي لن تستغرق أكثر من دقيقة- اذهب على هذا
الرابط (http://www.fifa.com/contact/form.html)
2- اختار (Feedback on National Teams' Fixtures and Results)
3- اكتب
اسمك و اميلك
4- و اكتب هذه الرساله ؟ و إذا كان لديك صيغة أخري يمكنك
كتابتها
What happened in the match between Egypt and Algeria established in
the Sudan from the terrorism of the masses of Algeria and the instigation of the
Algerian football federation event does not belong to football and inconsistent
with the policy of fair play from FIFA and declared that the first thing that
happened before the game to break into the Algerian public to pitch and what
happened in the Algerian football players before the match and during the
national anthems of both teams and terrorism suffered by the Egyptian public
before and after the game in Sudan and Algeria, all this has had a clear impact
on the outcome of the game, so please FIFA reported undertaking the appropriate
decision to write off the Algerian national team or a re-match behind closed
doors
5- اكتب الكلمه التى فى الصوره
6- ثم اضغط على (submit)
تمتحاول
إرسال هذة الرسالة لكل شخص تعرفة ، الوقت مهم

Political Joke

noreply@blogger.com (YMedad) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:43:00 +0000

John Kerry's Daughter arrested for DUI.

If she moves back to Massachusetts, that's bonus points for a Senate run.

FARK

Silly UK Politician

noreply@blogger.com (YMedad) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 08:51:00 +0000

Anshel Pffer writes today about experiences with British pro-Israel groups and people, which really isn't the "lobby' Oborne sought out to lambast, and includes this example:

Last year...I covered the Conservative Party convention in Birmingham and attended a luncheon organized by the Conservative Friends of Israel in a room packed with senior party members and donors. Upon hearing I was an Israeli journalist, the shadow minister I was seated next to launched into an off-the-record attack on Conservative Leader David Cameron for being "much too wishy-washy about Israel," instead of supporting it outright. For all public and political purposes, my lunch companion is a staunch Cameron ally, but he obviously assumed that as an Israeli at a Conservative Friends event, that's what I expected to hear from him.

Silly politician. That he doesn't know that a Ha-Ha-Haaretz journalist is the last person one should talk to about staunch pro-Israel activity is a sign of lack of success by the pro-Israel "lobby" that seems not to really exist.

The Letters in Response To Cohen's Op-ed

noreply@blogger.com (YMedad) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 08:13:00 +0000

You'll recall the recent Roger Cohen op-ed I deconstructed?

Here are the letters-to-the-editor:-

Dimming Prospects for Mideast Peace?
Published: November 19, 2009

To the Editor:

“A Mideast Truce,” by Roger Cohen (column, The New York Times on the Web, Nov. 17), could leave readers with the impression that the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, is a supporter of peace and the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is an evasive hard-liner. But the facts suggest that the opposite is true.

Mr. Netanyahu has made clear that he is ready to begin negotiations immediately, anywhere, without any preconditions. By contrast, Mr. Abbas stood with Yasir Arafat in rejecting peace in 2000 at Camp David, he rejected an even more generous peace offer from Ehud Olmert last year, he rejected Mr. Netanyahu’s offer to resume peace talks earlier this year, and Mr. Abbas’s vile doctoral dissertation mocked the Holocaust as “the Zionist fantasy, the fantastic lie that six million Jews were killed” — hardly the résumé of a true peacemaker.

Moreover, Mr. Abbas’s rejection of Israel’s demand for recognition as a Jewish state and his insistence on a “right of return” suggest that his idea of a two-state solution is one resulting in two majority-Arab states, with no Jewish state.

Between Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Abbas, who is the real moderate and who is the real hard-liner?

One is reminded of the Ogden Nash verse “The Tale of Custard the Dragon,” in which characters renowned for their purported bravery cower in fear when an actual crisis occurs, while Custard, the “cowardly dragon” who “cried for a nice safe cage,” in fact proves to be a courageous hero.

Stephen A. Silver
San Francisco

•

To the Editor:

Roger Cohen’s column recounts an amalgam of Israeli-Palestinian missed opportunities and frustrations. No one is more frustrated than those of us in the Israeli public, who so often thought we were on the verge of a settlement with the Palestinians only to have our hopes dashed.

While the missteps and blunders are indeed plentiful enough to go around, Israelis ask themselves: “I’ll continue hoping for a resolution to the conflict even with a Palestinian Authority plagued by internal conflicts and I’ll even offer up more land, settlements and some peace of mind, but why do the Palestinians continue teaching anti-Semitism as part of their educational curriculum? Why do they deny a Holocaust that wiped out a third of my people about 70 years ago? Why can’t they admit my historical rights to biblical lands?”

Stuart Pilichowski
Mevaseret Zion, Israel

•

To the Editor:

When Roger Cohen points out that the wall helps Israelis who just do not want to be mixed with Arabs, he puts his finger on the reason that a perpetuation of the status quo is a bad idea. Children on both sides who grow up without knowledge of “the other” will be more, rather than less, sensitive to the needs, hopes and desires of their neighbors.

Mr. Cohen’s Band-Aid prescription is nothing but a plan to let Israelis keep on with their prosperous and separate lives while the stateless Palestinians — who tend to prefer togetherness to separation — struggle on for yet another generation in isolated and desperate misery and degradation.

An agreement has to have something in it for both sides.

Susan Hussein
Upper Montclair, N.J.

•

To the Editor:

Roger Cohen writes: “A peace of the brave must yield to a truce of the mediocre — at best. At least until Intifada-traumatized Israeli psychology shifts.”

He’s correct, but it is not because we can’t perceive ourselves as anything but victims, as he implies. Rather, we know that the fence protects us — so we can’t take it down.

The Palestinians will have to learn to live with the new situation they created with their suicide-bomber war of attrition. We don’t want to be victims again.

Barry Lynn
Efrat, West Bank

25 Years - Jonathan Pollard Incarcerated

noreply@blogger.com (YMedad) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 06:40:00 +0000

From the Young Israel newsletter:-

To many of us, November 21, 2009 may seem to be just another typical day on the calendar. The fact is, however, that this day carries with it a significance that warrants the attention of the greater Jewish community. On November 21, 2009, Jonathan Pollard will begin his 25th year in prison. It has been nearly a quarter of a century since Jonathan was arrested in 1985 and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to deliver classified information to the State of Israel, an ally of the United States.

The story behind his imprisonment is well known. Jonathan Pollard never had a trial. At the request of both the U.S. and Israeli governments, he entered into a plea agreement, which spared both governments a long, difficult, expensive and potentially embarrassing trial. Jonathan Pollard fulfilled his end of the plea agreement, cooperating fully with the prosecution. Nevertheless, Pollard received a life sentence and a recommendation that he never be paroled - in complete violation of the plea agreement he had reached with the government. On March 4, 1987, he was sentenced to the maximum penalty, life in prison.

Jonathan Pollard has repeatedly expressed his remorse publicly and in private in letters to many Presidents and others. He has said that he sincerely regrets having broken the law and is sorry that he did not find a legal means to act upon his concerns for Israel.

Jonathan Pollard’s life sentence is grossly disproportionate when compared to the sentences of others who have spied for allied nations and even when compared with sentences given to those spying for non-allied nations. Although the median sentence for his offense is 2 to 4 years, Jonathan Pollard is about to begin serving his 25th year in prison. He spent 7 years in solitary confinement in the harshest unit of the harshest prison in the Federal System - FCI Marian. Countless elected officials, individuals from the national intelligence arena and the legal world, as well as religious and community leaders, have described Jonathan Pollard’s sentence as excessive, and have called for his sentence to be commuted.

In addition, Jonathan Pollard is in poor health, having developed diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, pre-glaucoma, and arthritis while in prison.

We must take this opportunity to reflect on Jonathan Pollard’s plight and pray that his sentence is commuted so he can finally return home to Israel and reunite with his family.

The National Council of Young Israel urges people to say a prayer on behalf of Jonathan Pollard, which was composed by Rabbi Yonah Metzger, the Chief Rabbi of Israel. To view the Chief Rabbi’s prayer, click here

In addition, the National Council of Young Israel encourages people to write to Jonathan Pollard in prison. Not only do the letters to Jonathan demonstrate to him that people care very deeply about the pain and suffering that he continues to endure, they also give him the necessary strength and support to continue.

Here is Jonathan’s mailing address:

Jonathan Pollard #09185-016
c/o FCI Butner
P.O. Box 1000
Butner, NC
U.S.A 27509-1000

More On Palin - and J Street

noreply@blogger.com (YMedad) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 06:14:00 +0000

I left this comment

And add to Abe's criticism the possibility that J Street is also anti-Aliyah. If Palin's support takes into consideration a factor that Jews are and will be continuing to move to Israel, for all sorts of reasons, and that the state is still in a dynamism of being created and fulfilling its purpose as the Jewish national home, and that room is needed, then the conclusion is that J Street is anti-Aliyah. Its message is 'heck, Aliyah is dead' and that Israel should do with what it has. Security is also a large Jewish population. A small population aids J Street's demographic demonology screed.

at a JTA story that informs us:

The head of the Anti-Defamation League says J Street's attack on Sarah Palin's defense of Israeli settlements was "over the line" and questioned whether the group should be calling itself "pro-Israel."

In a call to JTA late Thursday, ADL national director Abraham Foxman called "the height of chutzpah" J Street's statement Wednesday which said "Palin's pandering to her right-wing base comes at the expense of the security of the State of Israel" and her remarks "reveal a glaring ignorance of damaging facts."

"Who authorizes them to detemine what the security of Israel is?" Foxman asked of J Street. "Israel determines its security."

"They're attacking a celebrity for supporting Israel, but not in the way they want her to support Israel," he said referring to the former governor of Alaska.

As for the charge that Palin was pandering, Foxman said that "all politics is pandering" and that one could say the same thing about the members of Congress who spoke at the J Street conference last month.

Foxman acknowledged Palin's remarks -- in which she said Jewish settlements "should be allowed to be expanded upon" because "more and more Jewish people will be flocking to Israel in the days and weeks and months ahead" -- were a "simplistic effort to be supportive of the Israeli government," but also "clear and well-intentioned" and "didn't put any lives at stake."

The ADL leader added that this was the latest of a series of actions by J Street which raised doubt about whether both parts of the organization's slogan of “pro-Israel, pro-peace” is accurate.

Chabad in The TLS

noreply@blogger.com (YMedad) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:37:00 +0000

Chabad-Lubavitch

Sir, – In his review of Dana Kaplan’s Contemporary American Judaism (In Brief, October 2), Simon J. Rabinovitch misleadingly implies that the Chabad-Lubavitch movement is well beyond the pale of mainstream Judaism when he labels it as a “messianic, proselytizing . . . sect”.

If by “messianic” Rabinovitch is referring to the hope that Chabad’s deceased leader, Rabbi Menachem Schneerson, will return as the Messiah, this has never been part of Lubavitch’s public outreach programme as it has always been a matter of great controversy within the organization. Rabinovitch also should have exercised greater caution in employing the term “proselytizing” in a secular forum like the TLS, as readers might actually think that Chabad seeks the conversion of non-Jews. Reintroducing Jews to traditional forms of religious practice can hardly be qualified this way.

KENNETH LOISELLE
Department of History, Trinity University, One Trinity Place, San Antonio, Texas 78212

Will There Be A Chanukah Miracle on Pennsylvania Avenue This Year?

noreply@blogger.com (YMedad) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:41:00 +0000

POLITICO is reporting:

...The White House's annual Hanukkah party...guest list is expected to be shrunk by more than half...this...would likely help feed feelings in some quarters of the American Jewish community that the White House is giving them the cold shoulder."

The move comes on the heels of Obama's cancellation of an appearance before the General Assembly of North American Jewish Federations last week.

The White House's decision is likely a response to tough economic times and a desire to keep the holiday festivities reasonable.

A White House official told the Post that Obama "looks forward to celebrating Hanukkah at the White House and having many members of the Jewish American community at that event."

Actually, if he increases the latkes and the number of sufganiyot, that should make up for it.

But, wait, do the J Streeters celebrate that revanchist irredentist imperialistic fanatic holiday? You know, killing goyim, reconsecrating the Temple, Hasmonean expansion of borders?

Freund Walks Too-Narrow A Path

noreply@blogger.com (YMedad) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 09:14:00 +0000

Michael Freund's most recent op-ed asserts "the annexation of all the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria...[for] these areas are ours by Divine right. The Palestinians do not hesitate to invoke their beliefs, so why on earth should we? Just think how refreshing it would be to hear an Israeli leader stand up and declare this most elementary of truths: that the Land of Israel belongs to the people of Israel because the G-d of Israel said so."

He writes:

...annexation is justified for the simple reason that this land belongs to us, and to nobody else. The act of asserting Israeli sovereignty over the Jewish communities of Judea and Samaria would mark the closing of an historical circle, reviving our formal dominion over these areas after an interlude of nearly 2,000 years...Who knows - maybe if we finally stand on principle and start affirming our faith, then perhaps we will at last begin to earn the respect and support that we so rightly deserve.

Well, although I would be the last person to ignore the founding principle of Jewish nationalism, that we are a 'community of covenant', as Professor Harel Fisch phrased it, and that covenant being the contractual configuration between the Jewish people and the ideals which define them as a people, a community, a religio-ethnic group.

The relation of Jews to its homeland is different than any other community-nation-people in that it is intrinsically religious, with ritual obligations and commandments as well as a most unique definition of the physicality of the land.

But, and there always is a but, that relationship became an historic one, one that could be proven without necessary recourse to a Divinity. We have archaeological proof, written testimony of non-Jews and other factual proof of a 3000-year old connection with the Land of Israel. Our culture, our literature, our behavior, our customs - all that makes up an anthropological reality of being Jewish - all are rooted and linked and based on our connection to the land of Israel.

That connection was recognized by the world:

Whereas recognition has thereby been given to the historical connection of the
Jewish people with Palestine and to the grounds for reconstituting their
national home in that country

and became international law.

We cannot and should not ignore that aspect of our rights as the true and just sovereign power over the Land of Israel.

We shouldn't be shy of proclaiming our recognized rights by secular institutions.

We should, in fact, drive the point home that in addition to our own conceptualizations and historical truths, the world, too, once agreed and accepted that reality, with or without a divinity.

Our national rights speak to the religious and the atheists.

We have our beliefs and they are in tandem with others' beliefs and we need to prove it to them and put in in their faces.

We have all the rights and all the justification and we need to use all of them.

Peter Hartcher vs. Anthony Lowenstein

noreply@blogger.com (YMedad) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:30:00 +0000

Antony Loewenstein, avowed anti-Zionist, criticized Sydney Morning Herald journalist Peter Hartcher for taking a free trip to Israel and reporting on it.

Hartcher's replies:

Antony Loewenstein, thanks for putting the questions to me and for giving me a chance to respond.

I don’t intend to debate the minutiae of how I do my job. Please allow me to make five points:

1. I have accepted paid travel to a number of countries over the years. I have always disclosed the fact when I have written anything as a result. It is routine for journalists to take paid travel. The question is not so much whether journalists take paid trips; it’s whether they disclose the fact. This allows readers to take this into account in forming a view. *

2. I am not a partisan in any war. Indeed, a Crikey survey of the Australian political “punditocracy” found that there was no more balanced commentator in Australia.

3. Every paid trip always has an inbuilt viewpoint. The journalist’s job is to take information from a trip, assess it in the usual way, and to draw on it as one input among many, as we do with every subject, every day.

4. My column, on the Opinion page, does not purport to be an encyclopaedic treatment of the history of the conflict between Israelis and the Palestinians. It presents, as it says in its opening, a view from within Israel, with an explanation of the Australian Government’s position, and a comment from the Palestinian delegation. I should have thought that to be self-evident. There is no hidden agenda.

5. You, by contrast, are a declared partisan in the conflict. You are not in any position to act as a neutral analyst or objective commentator. If you critique my piece, you should disclose your interest, as I have mine.

* and this is how he made it clear:

Addendum: A number of comments attach great significance to the fact that, as I pointed out at the end of the column, I travelled to Israel as a guest of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies. Some impute a hidden agenda. Earlier this year I wrote about the United Arab Emirates after travelling there as a guest of the Lowy Institute for International Policy. This attracted no comment. It is routine for journalists to accept paid travel. The question is not whether journalists take trips; it is whether they disclose them. Disclosure means that readers can take this into account in forming their views. This is the exact opposite of a hidden agenda.

BBC Broadcasts Outright Lie

noreply@blogger.com (YMedad) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:13:00 +0000

If you watch this clip of the BBC's Hardtalk, you'll hear Mustafa Barghouti not only saying: 'I believe in civil disorder' but, at about 24 seconds in, that:

"contrary to what many think, 95% of our struggle as Palestinians has been non-violent".

Go tell that to the 1000 dead of the Second Intifada, just to start the statistics off with.

Anyone know if it was corrected?

Shlomo Sands Out

noreply@blogger.com (YMedad) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 07:24:00 +0000

What a fool he makes of himself.

Watch these less-than-three-minutes.

(Kippah tip: BC)

I Thought Soros Isn't Funding J Street

noreply@blogger.com (YMedad) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:59:00 +0000

NIAC and J Street might seem at first an odd alliance. J Street is "pro-peace, pro-Israel" and NIAC is pro-engagement, pro-Iran. But J Street isn't all that pro-Israel, and NIAC will take any allies it can find in the fight against sanctions...But follow the money and the tie that binds seems to be George Soros, who provides substantial funding to both groups.

Source

Did They Read "Torat HaMelech"?

noreply@blogger.com (YMedad) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:49:00 +0000

Saw this:

Police arrested two Border Policemen on Tuesday evening on suspicion of beating an Arab East Jerusalem resident in a cemetery close to the capital's Old City.

and asked myself, did they read that religious anti-non-Jew tract, Torat HaMelech?

I seriously doubt it.

So, why are they acting criminally towards the non-Jew?

Let's Keep Politics Out Of The Army?

noreply@blogger.com (YMedad) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:41:00 +0000

In response to the sign-waving of some soldiers who are perturned at the use of soldiers for evacuating Jewish homes and in cases, destroying them in Judea and Samaria, the cry has gone up: "keep politics out of the army".

Like this example:

Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Tuesday joined those condemning the actions of the Nachshon Battalion soldiers who declared Sunday that they would not throw Jews out of their homes in what the government terms illegal outposts. "I
condemn the phenomenon of soldiers refusing to evict people at outposts. We will
not all this activity to spread. Throughout the IDF's history, we were able to keep it out of the political debate in this country, and we will continue to do so," Barak said at a Beersheva high school.

Hmmm.

And what happens on the 'other side'?

This:

The Israeli security establishment is in a state of alarm over the possible departure of Mr. Abbas, whom it considers a genuine moderate. Some of its top members are urging their government to make far-reaching offers — “not just lifting a few roadblocks,” in the words of one — that would persuade him to stay in power and resume negotiations with Israel on a solution that involves creating an independent Palestinian state.

Gee, doesn't that read like politics to you?