Sinful

Hope and Hype

The NYT stated — "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel returned from Washington (last) Wednesday to a nearly unanimous assessment among Israelis that despite his forceful defense of Israel’s security interests hopes were dashed....."

"Hopes were dashed...?"

Hope for what? President Obama's "hope hype."

Netanyahu's forceful defense ... while eliciting pride among Israelis and many Jews all over the world, and once and for all publicly and strongly stating Israel's position to the US Congress and to the Nations of the world, was an act of boldness (on the edge of arrogance).

Yes, it was inciteful to the Arabs. With the Congressional admiration and standing ovations publicized all over the world, sent a message to the Arabs and Europeans. Netanyahu must hold very very tight to his words and NOT loose grip on our Land.

"One of the widely articulated goals of his trip, where he met with President Obama and addressed Congress, was to find a way to lure the Palestinians back to direct negotiations, thereby preempting their plan to approach the United Nations in September for recognition of statehood within the pre-1967 lines."

"a way to lure Palestinians back..." the goal changed because of Obama's Thursday speech. How many times can one discuss and rehash Arab demands intending to weaken Netanyahu (any of Israel's Prime Ministers) and squeeze the Israelis further into an untenable and dangerous situation. Their announced goal and what is written in their charter (never to be altered) is the destruction of the Jewish Homeland.

Why do we have to lure them back? This is our Land, given to us by G-d as an inheritance to serve HaShem therein. G-d's promise is contingent on Jews studying Torah on the Land, and creating a moral society that observes the Shabbat and other Jewish laws.

"Giving away" any of our ancient and modern Land to a people who would desecrate the Land we are not allowed to do, and there are halachos (laws) pertaining to what we can and cannot do. We hear so much about the Sharia law of the Muslims, but G-d's laws given to us on Mount Sinai preceded and were never abrogated. The Seven laws of Bnei Noah and 613 laws for the Jewish Nation.

Why do we have to 'lure' the Arabs onto our Land and make them into a state inside our legal borders? Listen to what they say to their people. Realize how they teach their children to hate the Jews. Watch what they do. They have brought violence, hatred, and slaughtering to a universal norm. So what if they lived here once. So did the Canaanites, and they were banished by G-d from the Land with the Land given to the Jews. We are the sole inheritors caretakers for this Land. The Christians did not supersede us and the Mohammedans did not supersede us, no nation superseded the Jewish Nation on Earth!

They want to go back to '67,

well let's go back to when the Wakf handed the keys

to the Temple Mount to one of the Jewish soldiers,

as a sign of DEFEAT.

Give us back our keys to Har HaBayit!

Let's begin from there.

The Temple Mount, Har HaBayit, and Yerushalayim has belonged to the Jews since the time of Abraham Avinu. No matter who tries to destroy and malign our history it does not change the universal truths.

"Instead, the Palestinians now say, Mr. Netanyahu’s speeches persuaded them that they had no negotiating partner. They plan to intensify their United Nations efforts, leaving Israelis worried about increasing international isolation and pressure."

Palestinians: Negotiating means not compromising, not giving in on one inch, and pushing for more and more. This is NOT negotiating.

So, where IS all the negotiating?

Behind the doors of and among the American Obama Administration members!

Scheming, plotting and devising new ways

to bring down the Israeli Nation.

For all the Nations of the world to go against the Jews after they were legally mandated their historical Homeland because some thugs are churning the whole world into a pot of turmoil and destruction is

sinful.

Why I Call the PM's Speech a Blunder

Why I called it a blunder.

Because the time was ripe (vis-a-vis the Geula) to declare that since the Arabs (so-called Palestinians) are intent on the destruction of the Jews and want to steal the Jewish Land from the Israelis and the Jews all over he world, they should pack up and head for any Arab country of their choice and the State will pay for their relocation. We Jews are tired of being attacked by you! Leave us, and move on. You were only stewards until the Jews returned. And If you do not want to live peacefully and stop attacking and killing Israelis, you must go.

This is what he should have said ... humbly.

The last time of opportunity to bring the Geula was after the same 6-day war in 1967. Instead of giving the keys back to the Wakf after he conceded defeat, it was our opportunity to regain rightful ownership of Har HaBayit. Nothing but tragedy has ensued from that time forward.

This time, PM Netanyahu didn't seize this current opportunity accurately. Instead of being bombastic about '67, the time was mesugal (appropriate) for declaring our ownership of and responsibility for our Eretz HaKodesh. All according to Jewish Halacha (law).

There is the possibility that Shomayim was prepared to match courage for courage! That's my contention.

And now perhaps the Geula has been pushed off. Or will continue even more vigorously. I hope that what I sense is not so.

Egypt opening the floodgates with Gaza, ensures more and more weaponry will easily flow into Gaza in preparation for a colossal confrontation from the south.

Headlines already indicate a build-up of Alqaida forces in the Sinai. And the Palestinians are planning their 'celebrations'. They call it Naksa, the 'setback'. They are planning for Arab-infiltrators from the north, east, and southern borders, to coincide with our Jerusalem Day celebrations commemorating the '67 war victories and the reunification of Yerushalayim.

A scenario of huge proportions.

40 Billion MORE??

Business Week has an interesting article how the G-8 found $40 Billion Dollars.

For the Arabs they found more money just lying around waiting for a good cause? Not to mention the Millions for the Palestinians! The world's economy teeters on defaults and the nations throw money at terror and strife in the name of nation building or democracy building? These people who might elect the Muslim Brotherhood into power. The same group that wants the quick demise of the Jewish Nation and People? Their relatives who are regurgitating the Nazi Party to lead them into the future?


Just see this video that Israel Matzav has on his blog: About how deprived the people of Gaza are.

Where is their sechel? Oh, that's right, they are one group, a group of 8 nations, that come together to solve some of the World's problems! They are one group of one mindset. They are propping up countries that seek the end to Judaism on earth. It's in their charter, on their websites, chanted in their streets, and in the textbooks taught to children as their imperative as a Muslims.

They are anti-life, anti-goodness. They are anti-G-D.

Why not $40 Billion for starving peoples in decent countries whose only weakness is lack of ingenuity and industriousness?

Instead they feed the evil in the world.

Why are we still Reading and Writing about this?

Because it was extraordinary and jolted around the Middle East and America. Where did he get such courage, they wonder. Whatever Netanyahu made his main point, the Arabs were sure to and did attack it.

However, I think this is catastrophic because when push comes to shove, we might see quite another play on words spell across Israel and her neighbors! Just like after '67 the euphoria subsided into another unfortunate war. Netanyahu has to balance his beliefs against his elected party, and to withstand all the other politicians (misguided victims of their leftist beliefs).

All the Israeli politicians must choose which side they are on. Hopefully they will come to understand and defend our Holy Land of Eretz Yisrael, the land of their ancestors too. But do you think this will change the "already agreed upon"?

My husband is just raving about three articles he read (and is re-reading) that analyze the effects of PM Netanyahu's bombastic (:-)) presentation to the U.S. Congress. All three were in this past Friday's Jerusalem Post. Therefore, I share them here.

One is Caroline Glick about Netanyahu's "Churchillian" speech (in full):

"It is not coincidental that many American and Israeli observers have described Netanyahu's speech as "Churchillian." Winston Churchill's leadership was a classic example of democratic leadership. And Netanyahu is Churchill's most fervent pupil. The democratic leadership model requires a leader to set out his vision of where his country must go and convince the public to follow him... That is what Churchill did. And that is what Netanyahu did this week. And like Churchill in June 1940, Netanyahu's success this week was dazzling."

[Wherein she also supposedly "gives it to Peres and Livni".

Next is Worlds Apart by the Jerusalem Post's editor:

"It was never about his middle name or the color of his skin or even the views of his former spiritual leader. Israeli concerns about Barack Obama’s presidency have always revolved around the question of whether he “gets” the Middle East – whether he fully internalizes the ruthlessness of those in this region who are trying to wipe us out, and the relentlessness with which they have been battling for decades to do so. ..."

And the third is JPost's Herb Keinan (who was part of the press that accompanied the PM) in Netanyahu and the Book of Why.

"When Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu fired off an unprecedentedly sharp response to US President Barack Obama’s Middle East speech last Thursday night just two hours before boarding a plane to meet the president, it was clear this prime minister’s five-day trip to the American capital was going to be unlike any other.

And, indeed, it was. From the pre-boarding surprises that included Obama’s reference to a return to the 1967 borders and Netanyahu’s angry reaction, to the astonishing media session after their meeting in which Netanyahu essentially told Obama he was wrong...

And yet it remains full of questions. In the world of diplomacy, things don’t generally just happen. They are thought out, considered, weighed. And they have reasons. As such – when reviewing the major events of Netanyahu’s 2011 Washington trip – it’s instructive to ask one simple question: Why? "

So, now what happens?

About The Legal Borders of Israel

What are Israel's borders under international Law?

Atty. Howard Grief is the Author of The Legal Foundation and Borders of Israel under International Law. Mr. Grief tells Mark Kaplan in this Israel Independent TV News interview (in three parts) why Israel is not obligated to surrender Judea and Samaria to the Palestinian Authority, and how President Obama may be violating US constitutional law by pressuring Israel to freeze settlement construction.

For more info: Justice Now

Setting a New Precedent

I can't imagine being trapped on an airplane for more than one hour let alone seven.

Well, I just read about a Middle East airline on it's way to Beirut that was grounded for that much time and the passengers revolted. 

Could you imagine, stuffy air, no liquid to drink, no food, and the pressure of remaining in your "cubbyhole" seat for hours on end while who knows tries to figure out what happened. It's like trying to find that lost letter in the post office network!

Nerve wracking, as webster's puts it. Read about it here Passengers Stage Mutiny.

FACEBOOK helps Regurgitate Nazi Party

First seen on YWN: A group of Egyptian political activists have announced plans to set up a local version “of the Nazi party,” an Egyptian newspaper reported on Thursday.

Citing a leftist Egyptian news portal, the Al-Masry Al-Youm daily said that “the party’s founding deputy is a former military official,” and that the party would be aimed at bringing “together prominent figures from the Egyptian society.”

The report cited founding member Emad Abdel Sattar as saying that party “believes in vesting all powers in the president after selecting him or her carefully,” and that “preparations are underway to choose the most competent person to represent the party.”

Originally reported at JPost online

Surprise!

"'Al-Masry Al-Youm' report says Facebook pages launched to attract followers; Nazi parties operated secretly in Egypt during Mubarak regime."

Here we go again, FACEBOOK is up to no good again, Instrumental in resurrecting the Nazi Party. Zuckerman is aiding and abetting evil. And to top that off, Zuckerman only eats meat from animals that HE KILLS himself! As it says here!

So much for P E A C E !

1967, 1845, or 1812

A great speech, the Prime Minister sounded good,

he covered alot of ground (er, Land),

received great ovations from Congress,

but in my estimation it was a

Giant

Historical

Blunder

This was Bibi's opportunity, and Shomayim was watching, to quote the First Rashi in the Torah, and let the world know that the "Jewish People are now back on their Land. HaShem has allowed us to return to our ancestral home and we are here to stay."

This is our inheritance, given by G-d to His children. We're sorry for what the Arabs did to the Arabs in 1948 (telling them to leave, and soon they will be able to return, after we defeat the Jews).

In 1967, response to being attacked by your peace-loving neighbors, Israel fought and won the war. The world realized it was a 'miracle'

Return to pre-'67 lines is insanity.

So said Abba Eban:

“We have openly said that the map will never again be the same as on June 4, 1967. For us, this is a matter of security and of principles. The June map is for us equivalent to insecurity and danger. I do not exaggerate when I say that it has for us something of a memory of Auschwitz. We shudder when we think of what would have awaited us in the circumstances of June, 1967, if we had been defeated; with Syrians on the mountain and we in the valley, with the Jordanian army in sight of the sea, with the Egyptians who hold our throat in their hands in Gaza. This is a situation which will never be repeated in history.” - Abba Eban, Israeli Statesman, in Der Spiegel, November 5, 1969

In fact, there are quite a few interesting conversations going around the internet.

One, attributed by Reuters: Aboard Air Force Aleph, Speaking to reporters accompanying Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on his long flight to the United States tonight, Netanyahu spoke of the injustice and hardship Mexicans have endured since American forces annexed Texas in 1845. “Tens of thousands of ordinary Mexicans were driven out of their homes – the only homes they had known for centuries – and forced to live in poverty and squalor south of the border imposed by American aggression,” Netanyahu said.

“The Israeli and Mexican people agree on this: This festering wound will never heal until America takes bold steps to return to the internationally accepted lines of 1845. Clearly the settlement activity that’s taken place in occupied Mexico since then is illegal. When I meet the President tomorrow I will tell him to halt all building activity in Texas immediately. Two lands for two peoples, yes, but not on land taken by force from Mexico,” the Prime Minister said.





Asked if his hard-line stance could hurt the U.S.-Israel relationship, Netanyahu reiterated Israel’s commitment to America’s security and the unshakeable friendship shared by the two countries, then added, “But who was it who said, part of friendship is being able to tell your friend the truth. The ball is now in Obama’s court.”

Two, concerning the topic of giving 'back' land:

A little known fact. The first war the US ‘lost’ [so say the Canadians] was not Vietnam. Canada fought the US in 1812, over territory. After Obama's speech, perhaps Canadians should lobby the Harper Government to demand that the US go back to it’s 1812 borders and let Canada regain it's former land. [Wikipedia map]

From Wikipedia: The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire, including those of present-day Canada.

The British military unit commanded by British generals attacked Washington DC in 1814 and burned down the White House. The White House itself was torched, necessitating a white wash, and hence its new name, "The White House." Of course the US reestablished national and defensible borders with Canada along the St. Laurence River.

Where does the so-called 'giving back land won in wars' end?

Read Barry Rubin at Pajamas:

" ... Consider this: Israel is on the verge of having four hostile and radical regimes as neighbors–Egypt, Hamas in Gaza, a Hizballah-dominated Lebanon, and Syria (which might get worse). It’s nearest ally, Turkey, has become completely hostile and dominated by an Islamist regime that–let’s face it–doesn’t like Jews generally. Its biggest enemy in the region–Iran–is increasing its influence and heading toward nuclear weapons.

And it is at this moment that Obama asks for more concessions and risks. And who are the concessions to be made to? a radical nationalist PA which is now in partnership with the openly genocidal Hamas. ..."

If You Don't Succeed at First

Try, try ... again!

Debka is reporting Ahmad...jad survived an assassination attempt

"He came to inaugurate a unit for expanding production capacity by 4.2 million liters a day. Two people were killed and 12 injured. The blast was attributed by officials to a gas leak or "a technical fault" in one of the units . . . However, according to DEBKAfile's Iranian sources, the explosion was triggered by his pushing the button ..."

Full Report at Debkafile

President on Six Day European Tour??

But back home things are falling apart:

THE SIGNS ARE COMING FAST AND STRONG.
THREATEN US TO PUSH BACK BEYOND '67
IS THIS PART OF YOUR "SOLUTION"

Joplin Missouri Tornado DOUBLE RAINBOW



City in Ruins: NYT reports near 100 Dead from Tornado: Mile wide path of destruction, from a twister that damaged as much as 30 percent of Joplin, Missouri.

Massive Damage: Is this a picture of Joplin or Japan?

Grimsvoetn, Iceland's most active volcano erupted in time for Presidential touring. The Ash residue from this volcano is chasing the President from Ireland to safe(?) ground in Britain!



Here's a video of the volcano as witnessed from an airplane:

But an anonymous spokeswoman said "if the eruption continues at its current rate, “the U.K. could be at risk of seeing some volcanic ash later this week".

[Does this mean the President will be chased away from Europe too? After Britain he goes to France and then Poland.]



US Weather Channel forecast for May 23: Severe Thunderstorms (winds of 58 mph or greater, 1 inch or larger hail or tornadoes)

Oh, did we mention that the Presidential Cadillac, "The Beast", a bomb proof armored special made car got stuck on a ramp at the US Embassy in Dublin. The President had to abandon the car after a collision. [Its hard to tell what is really happening here, but this is the supposed video of what happened.]

Ketzaleh is the Greatest!

He says it like it is:

"Don’t fall for U.S. President Barack Obama’s magical oratory. He put a gun to Israel’s head and asked it [Israel] to commit suicide,” National Union chairman and Knesset Member Yaakov (Ketzaleh) Katz MK wrote the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) Sunday.

To Encourage Israel

What Should Israel Do Now

President Obama presented yesterday his blueprint for Mideast peace: Israel must withdraw to its pre-1967 borders. A Palestinian State needs to be created, viable and sovereign. Israel must be recognized and its security guaranteed. I wish it was otherwise, but the words of the President demonstrate profound ignorance of the reality. Let us clarify some of the vital issues at hand, not based on illusions, but on facts.

Question:

Why can't Israel just withdraw to its pre-1967 borders and put an end to the present conflict?

Answer:

The present conflict between Israel and the Arabs has absolutely nothing to do with the 1967 occupation. Consider the following facts:

1) The Palestinian Liberation Organization, known today as The Palestinian Authority, was founded in 1964 at a time when the "occupied territories" were under Jordanian control. There was not one Jewish settlement in the territories, nor any Jewish "occupation." Yet the charter of the PLO from 1964 till this very day states as its goal "the destruction of Israel."

2) What compelled Israel in 1967 to capture the territories? Five Arab countries-Jordan, Syria, Egypt, Iraq and Lebanon joined by Saudi Arabia-contrived a plan to annihilate Israel and "drive the Jews into the sea." Israel fought back and won the war, including the territories from which they were attacked.

Israel never sought to occupy the West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, or Gaza. The war which brought about the "occupation" was thrust upon Israel. Yet this crucial point is almost never conveyed in the international and American press.

Keep in mind that in 1967 the Arabs controlled 99.9 percent of the Middle East lands. Israel represented less than one-tenth of 1 percent of the land mass. But even that was too much for the Arabs. They wanted it all. No matter how many land concessions the Israelis make, it will never be enough.
3) During the summer of 2000 at Camp David, Yasser Arafat was offered by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak 98 percent of the "occupied territories" and a first time ever Palestinian state with its capital in East Jerusalem. Arafat rejected the Israeli offer and initiated 20 months of bloodshed in Israel. Arafat pocketed every Israeli concession, turned his territory into an armed camp and then launched a vicious terror war that has lasted more than three years and killed more than 1,000 Israelis.

4) In the summer of 2005, Israel withdrew completely from Gaza, which it obtained in the 1967 war. Not even on an inch of land remained under Israeli occupation. The then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon believed that with not a single Jew left in Gaza and with the Israeli occupation over, the Arabs living there would now be driven to create a functioning state, and security would increase for both sides.

Alas, the exact opposite occurred. Hamas swept into Gaza and turned it into a terrorist infrastructure, with a clear objective: to destroy Israel. The result was increased rocket attacks from unoccupied Gaza targeting Israeli civilians on a daily basis.

The widespread notion that the murder of Jews in Israel has anything to do with the "occupied territories" is a myth. The territories are merely being used as a justification to exterminate Jews and destroy their land.

Question:

Still, why can't Israel demonstrate goodwill by putting an end to the "occupation" and declaring Palestinian statehood? This would foster hope and put an end to the psychology of violence.

Answer:

For one to demand this gesture from Israel one needs to be either foolish or cruel. It is akin to demanding that a person with cancer give his malignant tumor uncontrolled rein in one part of his body. Such a "gesture" would secure his death.

Arab terror, just like the terror we experienced on 9/11, is a cancer. The thousands of fighters in the territories are not opposing Israel's right to a particular piece of land. They don't recognize Israel's right to any of the land. They do not recognize Israel's right to exist. To make peace with cancer is an act of war; to declare war against cancer is an act of peace.

Sadly, even today, the charter of the so called moderate Palestinian Authority calls for the destruction of Israel. Every single territorial concession Israel has ever made, only increased violence, and never brought peace even an inch closer. Arabs have used the ceded territory to launch attacks on Israel and murder its civilians from closer proximity. Concessions have also demonstrated to the Arabs, that terror is effective, and if the terror continues, they will receive yet more land.

Has the education curriculum in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza been altered to start teaching children about the importance of peace and co-existence? Have the Imams during their weekly sermons in the Mosques changed their jargon exclaiming that Israel is not the face of the devil? Have Arab communities stopped naming streets and quarters after suicide bombers who murdered Israeli civilians?

Sadly, nothing of this has occurred. No one in the international community even demands it as a prerequisite for peace negotiations. While Israeli schools teach that peace is our greatest ideal, in every single Arab school without exception Israel is portrayed as the enemy of G-d which must be obliterated. With these realities unaltered, giving away more territories, removing roadblocks, ceasing construction of Jewish homes, would bring more war not peace.

The creation of a Palestinian state would be a tragedy for innocent people throughout the region, Jews and Arabs alike. You don't give a state to people who want to see your children burned alive and your teenagers blown to pieces. Such people you destroy. If not, they will destroy you and thousands of more innocent people the world over.

The very negotiations about a "Palestinian state" are dangerous. It is these types of negotiations that have granted legitimacy to terrorists and have encouraged them to continue on their path of destruction.

How could intelligent people say, "In the end Israel will have to return to the negotiations table?" Israel has been negotiating land for peace for years now; it has given the Arabs virtual control over 90 percent of the territories. What has it brought Jews? Blood, blood and more blood. Clearly, another solution must be sought.

Question:

What about the moral injustice of occupation? How could Israel hold on to the homeland of another nation, the Palestinian nation?

Answer:

To call Israel occupiers of the West Bank and Eastern Jerusalem is akin to calling the U.S. occupiers of New Jersey.

First and foremost, the Bible-a book embraced by billions of Muslims and Christians as the word of G-d-states clearly that the entire country, including the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem, is G-d's eternal gift to the Jewish people. Read the Bible and draw your own conclusion.

The American people are a moral people who bow their heads before truth. It is about time that Jews begin stating the truth without shame: "Israel is occupying nothing but its own land; the Creator and Master of the entire world gave this land to the Jews."

Second, the entire concept of a "Palestinian people fighting for their ancient homeland occupied by the Jews," is nothing short of a lie, a myth that has become an accepted truth in the American press.

Let us reflect on some history:

Israel became a nation in 1312 B.C.E., 2,000 years before the birth of Islam. Forty years later, in 1272 B.C.E. the Jews conquered Eretz Israel and enjoyed dominion over the land for a thousand years. Even after the Babylonians and then the Romans put an end to the Jewish sovereignty, Jews continued to reside there throughout all of their history. In short, the Jews have had a continuous presence in the land of Israel for the past 3,300 years.

What about the "Palestinian people"? Israel did not seize the West Bank and Old Jerusalem from a "Palestinian nation." Such a nation never existed in the history of mankind. Israel captured these territories from Jordan's King Hussein and the Gaza Strip from Egypt after they declared war against the Jewish state. It was only in 1967, following the Six-day War that Arab refugees in Israel began identifying themselves as part of a "Palestinian people." One can't help but wonder why all these Palestinians suddenly discovered their national identity after Israel won the war but not during the "Jordanian occupation"?

The answer to this enigma is that there has never been a land known as Palestine governed by Palestinians. Palestinians are regular Arabs, indistinguishable from Jordanians, Syrians, Lebanese, Iraqis, Egyptians, etc., who have all lived for hundreds of years under Turkish rule, and then, after World War I, under British rule. There is no language known as Palestinian. There is no distinct Palestinian culture. There is no such an entity as a "Palestinian people."

The first time the name Palestine was used was in 70 C.E. when the Romans committed genocide against the Jews, smashed the Temple and declared the land of Israel would be no more. From then on, the Romans promised, it would be known as Palestine. This region was ruled alternately by Rome, by Islamic and Christian crusaders, by the Ottoman Empire and, after World War I, by the British.

(The name was derived from the Philistines, a Goliathian people conquered by the Jews centuries earlier. It was a way for the Romans to add insult to injury. They also tried to change the name of Jerusalem to Aelia Capitolina, but that had even less staying power.)

Mark Twain took a tour of Palestine in 1867. This is how he described that land: "A desolate country whose soil is rich enough but is given over wholly to weeds. A silent, mournful expanse. We never saw a human being on the whole route. There was hardly a tree or a shrub anywhere. Even the olive and the cactus, those fast friends of a worthless soil, had almost deserted the country."

Where was this great Palestinian nation? It did not exist. It was not there. Palestine was a region under the control of Turkey.

Many people are unaware that Saudi Arabia was not created until 1913, Lebanon until 1920. Iraq did not exist as a nation until 1932, Syria until 1941. The borders of Jordan were established in 1946 and Kuwait in 1961. To state that Israel "robbed" the Palestinian people from their homeland is simply not true.

Question:

How can Israel justify the suffering of so many innocent Arabs in the territories?

Answer:

Every decent human heart goes out to the pain of innocent Arab children, women and men. Their suffering should evoke the compassion of all moral men. But let us be clear on the matter: Their suffering has absolutely nothing to do with Israel. Their profound agony is the result of the Arab and Palestinian leaders who have in a most cynical way used them as weapons in their bloody battle against Israel, robbing them from any prospect of a brighter future.

This abuse of the Arab refugees by their leaders began back in 1948. The refugees were encouraged by Arab leaders to leave Israel, promising to purge the land of Jews. Sixty-eight percent left their homes without ever seeing an Israeli soldier.

Out of the 100 million refugees after World War II, theirs is the only refugee group in the world that was not absorbed or integrated into their own peoples' lands. As Prime Minister Netanyahu pointed out today in the White House, Jewish refugees were completely absorbed into Israel, a country no larger than the state of New Jersey. Yet the Arab refugees were intentionally not absorbed or integrated into the Arab lands to which they fled, despite the vast Arab territory. Why? Because cynical Arab leaders realized that the true value of the refugees was not as Arab brothers but as pawns to be used against Israel.

Question:

Much of the international community, the academia and the press condemn Israel. Many claim that Israel abused and sometimes even massacres Palestinians in the territories. Is it possible that Israel is right and the whole world is wrong?

Answer:

Let us not be ashamed to respond with clarity: You bet your life it's possible! It is true now and it's always been true. Abraham gave the world ethical monotheism and the whole world fought him. Moses taught the world individual freedom and universal morality and the world's super-power was against him. Just 65 years ago the entire world watched in silence as 1.5 million Jewish children went up in smoke. Was the whole world right then, too?

Universal morality and the value of life was the Jewish gift to the world. At a time when the whole world was accustomed to slaughtering children to the pagan gods, the Jewish people, alone in a hostile world, declared the word of G-d, "Thou shall not kill."

If we had listened to the world then, murder today would be legal. If we listen to the world now, terrorism tomorrow will become the norm.

How cynical, how cruel it is to accuse Israel of the massacre of civilian Palestinians. The entire culture of the Jewish state is based on the value of every single human life. Israel has always sacrificed its children in order to secure the safety of Arab civilians. Israel restrained itself for years in the territories despite ongoing killings of Jewish children, women and men.

In the history of the Jewish state, how many Jewish suicide bombers have blown themselves up in Arab communities?

How many Arab buses were blown up by Jews?

How many Arab pizza parlors, malls, discotheques and restaurants were destroyed by Jewish terrorists?

How many airplanes have been hijacked by Jews?

How many Ramadan feasts were targeted by Jewish bombs?

How many Arabs have been lynched in Israeli cities, or Arab Olympic athletes murdered by Jews? How many Arab embassies have been bombed by Jews?

How many mosques, cemeteries and religious schools were fire bombed or desecrated by Jews in North Africa, France, Belgium, Germany, England or any other country?

How many Jewish schools contain books claiming that Arabs poison wells, use Christian blood to bake pita, control world finance and are the work of the devil? How many claim that Arab elders meet secretly to plot a world takeover?

And now, the Arabs have the chutzpah to continuously accuse Israel of massacres! And the entire world follows suit?

Question:

The Arabs claim that they are fighting against the brutal Israeli occupation, which has stripped them from their dignity and humanity.

Answer:

It would be foolish to claim that "Israel never did any wrong" to Arabs living throughout the territories. Of course, Israel has made errors. Yet the fact remains that the Arabs living under Israeli rule enjoyed more civil rights than Arabs living in almost any Arab state. The Arab press in the West Bank has been among the liveliest and freest in the Arab world, and it routinely attacks its "occupier."

When was the last time a Syrian, Iraqi, Libyan or Saudi publicly attacked one of his or her leaders? How is Syria treating its protesters as I write? And Iran? And Libya?

Question:

So, what is the solution to the conflict?

Answer:

As long as the status of the entire country remains ambiguous, the terror campaign against Israel will continue. As long terrorists see the opportunity to seize more land and attack Israel from closer proximity, they will not cease their agenda. Israel should stand up and put an end to the ambivalence around Jewish ownership of the land; it must stop intoxicating the terrorists. Israel must state clearly that "Until the culture and education of the entire Palestinian population does not change, there will be no more negotiations on even a single inch of the land of Israel. We have attempted to negotiate land for peace with our neighbors; we have offered them 98 percent of the territories and an independent state side-by-side with our state. Yet they have reciprocated by sending suicide bombers to our pizza shops, cafés, supermarkets and streets. They have blown to pieces hundreds of innocent Jewish men and women. One cannot give land to leaders who have taught their people to celebrate Jewish death."

Israel should allow anybody who wishes to depart for another country to do so. Then it should go in and reclaim its permanent sovereignty over all of the territories. This will save not only countless Jewish lives, but also scores of Arab lives. It will once and for all purge the region from continuous bloodshed and terror.

Israel's concessions due to intense world pressure were foolish. Politics superseded security; morality was defeated by fear. To demand Israel's withdrawal from any territory is asking the Jewish State to help commit suicide. That it should get any encouragement from the United States or from its secretary of state is a disgrace

is similar to one demanding from a surgeon to stop the surgery before finishing because the sight of blood is repulsive. The short-term cover-up of the terror nests will only allow the long-term blossoming of the terror organizations.

The best way to bring about genuine peace in the Arab-Israeli war is by Israel putting an end to any future negotiations on the land. Israel must assume full security and military control over all of the territories under the united banner of a single country, Eretz Israel.

This is not an occupation. It is the land of Israel, given by G-d to the Jewish people. It is moral and just. Let's set the record clear once and for all: This is Jewish land, not Arab land. The Arabs who wish to desist from killing Jews will enjoy cultural and religious freedom, civil rights, gender equality and freedom of expression, privileges most of them have never experienced in their own countries. Those who cannot tolerate living under a united Jewish country should be welcomed to emigrate.

All other suggested paths are merely romantic delusions that will bring continued grief to innocent Jews and Arabs. Let all Jews and people of moral standing unite and encourage Israel in its campaign to bring life and peace to all good people in the region, Jew and Arab.

_________________

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Understanding Obama

Worth ReReading

Understanding Obama: The Making of a Fuehrer

By Ali Sina

2008/09/22

You are welcome to reproduce this article, or any of my articles on Obama, listed at the buttom, in part or in their entirety, but you must provide a link (below) to the source in this site.

I was not impressed by Sen. Barack Obama after the first time I saw him. At first I was excited to see a black candidate. He looked youthful, spoke well, appeared to be confident – a wholesome presidential package. It is so instinctive for most people to want to see blacks succeed. It is as if all humanity is carrying a collective guilt for what the ancestors of blacks endured. However, despite my initial interest in him, I was soon put off, not just because of his shallowness but also because there was an air of haughtiness in his demeanor that was unsettling. His posture and his body language were louder than his empty words.

It is surreal to see the level of hysteria in his admirers. This phenomenon is unprecedented in American politics. Women scream and swoon during his speeches. They yell and shout to Obama, “I love you.” Never did George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt. Martin Luther King Jr. or Ronald Reagan arouse so much raw emotion. Despite their achievements, none of them was raised to the rank of Messiah. The Illinois senator has no history of service to the country. He has done nothing outstanding except giving promises of change and hyping his audience with hope. It’s only his words, not his achievements that is causing this much uproar.

When cheering for someone turns into adulation, something is wrong. Excessive adulation is indicative of a personality cult. The cult of personality is often created when the general population is discontent. A charismatic leader can seize the opportunity and project himself as an agent of change and a revolutionary leader. Often, people, tired of the status quo, do not have the patience to examine the nature of the proposed change. All they want is change. During 1979, when the Iranians were tired of the dictatorial regime of the late Shah, they embraced Khomeini, not because they wanted Islam, but because he promised them change. The word in the street was, “anything is better than the Shah.” They found their error when it was too late.

Khomeini promised there would be separation between religion and state. He lied and they did not care to look into his past to see whether he actually meant what he said. Had they done that they would have seen that he always believed in caliphate and the rule of Islam. People gobbled everything he told them uncritically. They wanted to believe and therefore closed their eyes so they did not see what they did not want to see. Eyes welled when he spoke. Masses poured into the streets by the millions, screamed and shouted to greet him. People kissed his pictures. Some saw his portrait reflected on the Moon.

Listening to Obama ... it harkens back to when I was younger and I used to watch Khomeini, how he would excite the crowd and they'd come to their feet and scream and yell.

I was amused to hear a listener calling Fox News Radio's Tom Sullivan Show, (Feb 11) and saying: "Listening to Obama ... it harkens back to when I was younger and I used to watch those deals with Hitler, how he would excite the crowd and they'd come to their feet and scream and yell." ( Videos of Hitler’s speeches are available on Youtube. They are worth a look.)

Equating anyone to Hitler by highlighting the similarities between the two is a logical fallacy. This fallacy, known as reductio ad Hitlerum is a variety of both questionable cause and association fallacy. I believe it is wrong to trivialize the holocaust and the horrors of Nazism by comparing our opponents to Hitler.

However, Hitler, prior to coming to power had not killed anyone. He was insane, but few could see that. Far from it, he was seen as a gifted man and hailed as the savior of Germany. He was admired throughout the world. He appealed to the masses of people – the working class and particularly to women, and did not just inspire them, he “elevated” them. Thousands rallied to listen to his passionate speeches. They shed tears when he spoke. Women fainted during his speeches. To Germans, he was not a politician, but a demigod, a messiah. They envisioned him as truly a magical figure of majestic wisdom and glory. They worshiped him. They surrendered their wills to him. He restored their national pride. He projected himself as their savior. He ran on the platform of change and hope. Change he delivered all right, but hopes he shattered. I think it is fair to say that the Illinois senator puts the same passion in his speeches that Hitler used to put in his, and he evokes similar raw emotions in his audience. This much we can agree. Okay, we can also agree that both Hitler and Charlie Chaplin wore square moustaches. So what?

The Cult of Personality

There are other disturbing similarities. Like Hitler and Khomeini, Obama also likes to create a cult of personality around himself. As stated above, when a large number of a population is discontent, a charismatic leader can seize the opportunity and present himself as the agent of change. He can create a cult of Personality by associating himself with the idea of change. He convinces everyone that things are terrible and a drastic change is needed. He then casts himself as the only person who can deliver this revolutionary transformation that everyone is waiting for. He portrays himself as a benevolent guide; the only one who cares about people and their needs and can pull them out of their alleged misery. In reality, they have no clue about how to address the problem - have no experience, no track record. But they are convincing because they are self assured.

These revolutionary leaders need foes. They exaggerate the problems. They make everything look gloomy. They lie, cheat and slander their opponents while casting themselves as the saviors of the nation. Hitler chose the Jews to blame for everything that was wrong in Germany. Khomeini made the Shah and his westernization plans his scapegoats. Obama has chosen President George W. Bush to smear. He can rally people around himself, as long as he can instill in them the dislike of Bush and equate his rival, McCain to him. Sigmund Freud wrote, "It is always possible to bind together a considerable number of people in love, so long as there are other people left over to receive the manifestations of their aggressiveness" (Civilization and Its Discontents).

A cult of personality is excessive adulation, admiration and exaltation of a charismatic leader, often with unproven merits or achievements. It is similar to hero worship except that it is created specifically for political leaders.


Full Article

Time for a New Diplomacy

This appeared in December as a YNet op-Ed article by Yoram Ettinger. I first heard it on the Tamar Yonah show, Thursday before Netanyahu's trip to DC. It is so very relevant at this moment and in this situation that is upon the Nation of Israel. Our leaders need to do something politically brave, which just might stir the Heavens to respond.

Time for new diplomacy

Israel should adopt defiant,

politically incorrect but principle-driven strategy.

Yoram Ettinger

Secretaries of State Schultz and Baker did not agree with Prime Minister Shamir's worldview, but they respected his principle-driven tenacity. Upon concluding a meeting with then Senate Majority and Minority Leaders, George Mitchell and Bob Dole, the latter told Shamir: "Irrespective of our disagreement with your policy, we respect you, because you're tough."

The international arena does not respect Israeli prime ministers who seek popularity rather than respect, transforming Red Lines to Pink Lines, in order to avoid confrontation. The world does not appreciate prime ministers who subordinate long-term vision and conviction to short-term diplomatic and political convenience.

In contrast to the legacy of Prime Ministers Ben Gurion, Eshkol, Golda Meir, Begin and Shamir, Israel's current public diplomacy reflects frail conviction, while expressing empathy for claims made by Israel's enemies. It tolerates simplistic Western assumptions about the Arab-Israeli conflict and downplays Israel's contribution to the national security of the US.

Israel has hardly leveraged the current Arab turmoil that underscores the tenuous/violent nature of the Jewish State’s enemies and the inherent obstacles to intra-Arab peace (let alone to Israel-Arab peace.) Israel has failed to emphasize the uniquely high threshold of security requirements of the Jewish State in the most dangerous neighborhood in the world and the special role played by Israel as an outpost of Western democracies and a sole beacon of democracy.

In contrast with the Arabs who highlight their "rights," Israel highlights security requirements, while minimizing well-documented and unique ancient roots. While Israeli leaders pride themselves on their "pragmatism" and willingness to distance themselves from historical roots, they in fact undermine Israel's global legitimacy. The Jewish State ignores the lesson of King Solomon's Trial: He who agrees "to split the difference" forfeits his rights to everything.

Since 1993, the Jewish State has downplayed its moral high ground, embracing moral-equivalence. Therefore, it has legitimized the Palestinian Authority as a supposed partner for peace negotiations, despite Mahmoud Abbas’ track record: Establishing Palestinian hate-education, Holocaust denial, coordinating PLO relations with ruthless Communist regimes, co-planning of the Munich Massacre, perpetrating subversion in Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon and collaborating with Saddam's invasion of Kuwait.

Moreover, Israel has adopted the "Land-for-Peace" state of mind, in spite of the fact that the conflict has always been over the existence – and not the size – of the Jewish State. Since 1993, land conceded to the Palestinian Authority has been transformed into a platform of hate education and terrorism, fueling the conflict.
Simplistic misconceptions

The current seismic events in the Arab World beg for an Israeli public diplomacy offensive. Such events should remove the "Middle East Screen Saver," exposing the region as the role model of instability, ethnic-religious-tribal-geographic fragmentation, terrorism, violence as a norm of settling political disputes, hate culture, one-man one-revolution regimes, tenuous regimes-accords-alliances, treachery, volatility, unpredictability and uncertainty.

The deeper the uncertainty and the violence, the higher the Israeli security requirements, the more critical become the mountain ridges of Judea and Samaria, the Golan Heights of Jerusalem and of the 15 miles wide pre-1967 Israel. The Jewish State stands out as the only stable, reliable, capable, democratic and unconditional ally of the US.

The intra-Arab upheaval also removes the "Palestinian Screen Saver," revealing the Middle East order of priorities. Hence, the Palestinian issue is not the root cause of regional turbulence, not the crown-jewel of Arab policy-making, not the core cause of anti-Western Islamic terrorism and not the crux of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Regardless, Israel persists in subordinating its vision, policy, security requirements and public diplomacy to simplistic misperceptions, which are resoundingly refuted on the Arab Street in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Oman, Bahrain, Syria, etc.

But, like a deer caught in a headlights-look, Israel is glued to the "Palestinian Screen Saver." On the other hand, Arab leaders shower Palestinians with rhetoric but not with resources. They do not shed blood on behalf of the Palestinian issue. Furthermore, they consider the Palestinians a subversive element, based on PLO violence in Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Kuwait. What do Arabs know about the PLO that Israel refuses to share with the world?!

Israel has refrained from presenting the threat posed to vital American and Western interests by the proposed Palestinian state: Death sentence to the pro-US Hashemite regime; a tailwind to anti-US terrorism in Iraq and throughout the region; enhanced access by Russia, China, North Korea, and possibly Iran to the eastern flank of the Mediterranean; rewarding a regime that drives Christians out of Bethlehem; an additional anti-US vote at the UN, and an added fuel to the Middle East inferno.

The late General Alexander Haig, who was the Supreme Commander of NATO and US Secretary of State, defined Israel as "the largest American aircraft carrier, which does not require a single US soldier, cannot be sunk, most cost-effective and battle-tested, deployed in a critical area for vital US economic and national security interests, sparing the US $20 billion annually, which would be required to deploy real aircraft carriers."

Will Israel's public diplomacy leverage the aforementioned significant data, shifting to a determined, lucid, defiant, politically incorrect but principle-driven tactic, or will it persist in its hesitant, ambiguous, popularity-driven and apologetic tactic, which intensifies pressure and threats, undermines security, distances itself from peace and brings war closer?

Where is the Neshoma

The true, inherent liberation of the Soul does not depend on cutting off from the body but on its unification with G-d. (Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz: Understanding the Tanya, p. 114)

The soul fills the body, as G-d fills the world. The soul bears the body, as G-d bears the world. The Soul outlasts the body, as G-d outlasts the world. The soul is one in the body, as G-d is one in the body, as G-d is one in the world. The soul sees and is not seen, as G-d sees and is not seen. The soul is pure in the body, even as G-d is pure in the world…" (Rabbi Simeon Ben Pazi) 2/

The inner life that we experience, and the roots of thought that reach down into the darkness of the subconscious, are features of the life of the soul.

Neshama is the most elevated and purest aspect of soul and it shines at the deepest core of our being. "In my body he has kindled a lamp from his glory," begins a poem by Moses ibn Ezra, referring to the light of the neshama. In the morning prayers it says "G-d, the soul [neshama] you have given me is pure".2/


Someone once asked Rabban Gamliel where G-d could be found. “You’ve asked me something much too abstract,” said Rabban Gamliel; “let me ask you about something that’s very close to you each and every day” he said, “and ask you where it is”. “And what would that be?” the other asked. “The soul, which is with you all the time” Rabban Gamliel offered ... (Shocher Tov 103). 1/


R’ Chaim Voloshin depicts the Nephesh as being expressed (and centered) in our actions, the Ruach in our speech, and the Neshama in our thoughts (Nephesh HaChaim 1:14, 16). 1/


Others portray the Neshama as less than rooted in the body, and as something of a free agent if you will, given that it soars upwards out of the body when we sleep (Zohar 1, p. 53a, 121b; Zohar 2, p. 195b; Zohar 3, p. 25a, etc.; also see Ta’anit 11a) after which it returns to us through the nostrils in the morning and doesn’t return to the body proper until we pray in the morning (Zohar Chadash, Ruth, 90d), or to our belly once we say Viddui (the morning confession) (Zohar 1, p. 98a; also see Berachot 8a).1/


Breishit Rabbah 14:9 states, “She (the soul) has five names; Nephesh, Ruach, Neshama, Chaya, Yechidah. (The first is termed) Nephesh (which) is the blood, as is written “For the blood is the Nephesh” (Deut. 12:23). (The next is termed) Ruach for it rises and descends, as is written “Who knows the Ruach of men that rises on high” (Eccl. 3:21). (The third is termed) Neshama (which) is the disposition, for as people say, ‘His disposition is good’. (The fourth is termed) Chaya for all the limbs die and she lives on in the body. (And the fifth is termed)Yechidah for all the limbs have doubles while she is unique in the body.” (Also see Devarim Rabbah 2:37, Zohar 2:158b; Zohar Chadash 91a, and Sefer Bahir 53.) 2/


The appreciation of one’s Tzelem Elokim “self” leads to an holistic wholeness and inner tranquility. This is known as your “neshama state”. This is your state of homestasis-a state of equilibrium and inner contentment. I call it the neshama state because it is the state of being which is aligned with Hashem. When in this state you are put in the state of “being” that Hashem intended for you as your G-dly state because, while in this state, you are feeling connected to Hashem. This is a state of “daas” - knowledge of G-d - rather than merely belief in G-d. In this state you are experiencing Hashem - you are experiencing your own Tzelem Elokim. This is your closest connection to Hashem - and you feel relaxed, calm, at peace. You feel a sense of shleimus-wholeness-in this state everything is clear-you can do anything. 3/

The Secret Soul of Moshiach 4/


Sources:
1/ Rabbi Yaakov Feldman
2/ Mussar Institute
3/ Calming Anxiety
4/ Kosher Torah essay

Foreclosure on your Soul

Considering the Prime Minister is being figuratively arm twisted by the US President to give away Land that is NOT his to give away in the first place. [Actually, every Prime Minister, by every US President.]

Rabbi Y.Y. Jacobson

The Torah portion of Behar discusses the laws

concerning sale of land in the Holy Land (1).

After the Jewish people entered the land of Israel in 1273 BCE (the year 2488 since creation in the Jewish calendar), Joshua, the Jewish leader, assigned a plot of land to every tribe and family, as recorded in the book of Joshua. If a Jew fell upon hard times and was compelled to sell his ancestral field, the Torah -- the constitution of Judaism -- gave him the right to redeem it two years after the purchase date. The seller would return the money to the buyer and receive his field in return. If he did not redeem it, the field would return to him automatically with the arrival of the Jubilee year.

What was the Jubilee year? After the Jewish people completed the settling of the land of Israel 14 years after entering it, they began counting their years in cycles of fifty (2). Every 50th year was observed as a Jubilee year during which ancestral plots of land that had been sold during the previous 49 years, reverted to their original owner. Almost no sale or gift in Israel was legal for longer than 49 years.

This was the law concerning the sale of a field. What happened if a poor Jew was forced to sell an ancestral home located within a walled city in Israel? Here the law changed dramatically. This home, the Torah states, could be redeemed only until the first anniversary of the sale. Thereafter, it remained the property of the buyer in perpetuity, and did not return to the seller with the arrival of the Jubilee year (unless the buyer chose to sell the home back to the original seller.)

How about if a Jew sold an ancestral home located in an un-walled city? Here the law constitutes the "best of both worlds" of the two former cases. The home could be redeemed immediately after the sale, just like a home in a walled city. And even if it was not redeemed during the first year of the sale, it could still be redeemed afterwards, till the arrival of the Jubilee year when it returned to its original owner,
just like the law regarding the field.

Income vs. Dignity

What is the logic behind the three different laws concerning the sale of 1) fields, 2) homes in walled cities, and 3) homes in un-walled cities?

One of the great biblical commentators, the 13th century Spanish sage, Rabbi Moses ben Nachman, known as Nachmanides (3), explains the rationale in a rather moving way (4).

Selling your personal home due to impoverishment affects not your income (a home does not produce regular profits), but your dignity. Selling your field due to poverty, on the other hand, might affect your income (a field produces regular profits) but not your personal honor. To preserve the dignity of an impoverished individual who was forced to give up his home, the Torah allows him to redeem it immediately after the sale, throughout the entire first year, as soon as he comes up with the money. After the year is up, however, he certainly relocated to another home; now the buyer is entitled to hold on to his purchase as long as he wishes. It cannot be redeemed any longer.

Concerning a field however, which affects a person's income rather than his dignity, short-term redemption was unnecessary. The Torah's only concern was that the field be returned to its original owner upon the arrival of the Jubilee year, in order not to deprive a person and his family of their natural source of income.

Homes in open cities, says Nachmanides, were often used for farmers and guardians of fields. Thus, they were treated like the fields themselves and needed to be restored to their owner by the Jubilee year. Yet since their sale (just as the sale of full-fledged homes in walled cities) was embarrassing for the seller, they too could be redeemed immediately after the sale, even before the passing of two years (5).

The Psychological Dimension

All of these laws applied only when the entire Jewish nation was living in Israel, each tribe dwelling on the land designated to it (6). When the first Jewish tribes were exiled from their homeland, some 2600 years ago, the Jubilee year laws and plot-sale laws were no longer applicable. Yet each mitzvah and law in the Torah consists of a psychological and spiritual dimension, as well as a physical and real-life dimension (7). It is this dimension that is still very relevant today.

What is the metaphysical meaning behind these laws?

Selling Your Career, Home and Soul

Fields, homes located in un-walled cities, and homes located in walled cities, symbolize three aspects of our daily lives:

Fields represent a person's career and his or her day-to-day interactions and purchases in the outside world, in the "field."

Homes, situated in un-walled cities, represent a person's internal home and family life, which are not exposed for all to observe.

Homes located in walled cities, surrounded by an additional wall of protection, are symbolic of the most vulnerable and intimate space of a person's life, usually guarded by an additional fortress of privacy. This represents a person's inner relationship with his core-self, his soul. His G-d, his or her moments of prayer, meditation and transcendence.

Here, the Torah gives us a blueprint

of what transpires when we "sell" and dispose of

our careers, homes, and selves.

Goodbye Integrity

When you sell your field, i.e. when you allow your career and your daily external encounters to become tarnished by dishonesty and selfishness -- you can get away without noticing your moral degeneration for a full two years. Only after two years of moral and spiritual decay will you begin to sense the void in your life. The depravity caused by the "selling" of your integrity will begin to haunt you. Then, when you have become aware and frustrated, you can liberate your field and your life. Even if you don't, time and life's experiences are likely to do the job. In the 50th year, you will get back your field. But why wait so long?

Goodbye Love

Then comes the far more serious situation where you "sell" your home, i.e. you lose touch with your loved ones, your wife, your children and your closest friends. In your smugness you enter into your private bubble and you alienate the people closest to you. You give up your home.

“What is Home?” asked Ernestine Schumann-Heink. Her answer:

A roof to keep out the rain. Four walls to keep out the wind. Floors to keep out the cold. Yes, but home is more than that. It is the laugh of a baby, the song of a mother, the strength of a father. Warmth of living hearts, light from happy eyes, kindness, loyalty, comradeship. Home is first school for young ones, where they learn what is right, what is good and what is kind. Where they go for comfort when they are hurt or sick. Where joy is shared and sorrow eased. Where fathers and mothers are respected and loved. Where children are wanted. Where the simplest food is good enough for kings because it is earned. Where money is not so important as loving-kindness. Where even the teakettle sings from happiness. That is home. G-d bless it.

And when you dispose of your home, you will sense the emptiness immediately. Your life will just become far more shallow and artificial. Since the pain will be felt immediately, you are indeed capable of liberating your home right after the "sale."

Here again, even if you don't possess the courage to change, time and life's journey usually will change you. But why wait? Who knows what can transpire till then? Will you still have the chance to repair broken relationships?

Goodbye G-d

Then comes the third and most serious condition -- when you "sell" your most intimate space, when you become alienated from your deepest sense of self, from your inner relationship with G-d. In such an event, you can sense the extraordinary void immediately and thus liberate your soul right away. But if you wait for more than a year, you will likely lose the chance to ever liberate your inner identity again.

When you allow the external pressures or enjoyments of life to rob you of your core self, when you no longer dedicate twenty minutes a day to speak your heart out to your Creator, when you have no time for the essence of it all, you will soon lose touch with the notion that you ever had any innocence to lose. You may no longer know that there was anything to liberate.

It is painful to lose things ("fields") in life. It is far more painful to lose people ("homes") in life. But the worst pain of all is when we lose our connection with the quintessence of life and reality, with G-d. We simply can't afford to lose our souls. None of us can afford to sacrifice our few intimate moments of prayer and communion with G-d because of other responsibilities or pleasures. For without this relationship, we might one day look in the mirror and observe a living body encasing a dead soul.

1) Leviticus 25: 29-31.
2) See Rambam Hilchos Shmitah Veyovel 10:2.
3) Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman, known as the Ramban, was the leader of Spanish Jewry in the turbulent 13th century. His great Torah scholarship, heroic personal life, and incisive analysis of Jewish history and destiny remain a beacon of light through the centuries. The Ramban was born in Girona, Catalonia, Spain in 1194, and was the crown of that country's golden age of Jewish scholarship. Toward the end of his life, he moved to Jerusalem, where he passed away around 1272.
4) Ramban to Leviticus 25:29.
5) This last point is not stated explicitly in Nachmanides, but seems to be implied by the context of his interpretation. The reason a field cannot be redeemed until two years of the sale have passed, is explained by Gur Aryeh to Leviticus 25:15 and 25:31. His point is this: Redemption of property cannot take place until the sale has been fully completed. A home is purchased with the intention of living therein. Even if the buyer lives there for a single day, the purpose of the sale was accomplished and the seller can now redeem the home. A field, on the other hand, is purchased with the intention of harvesting produce to consume or to sell. Until two years have passed the sale is not complete and redemption cannot take place (Cf. Gur Aryeh ibid. for his reason why a home in a walled city cannot be redeemed after a year of the sale).
6) See Rambam ibid. 10:8.
7) See Rambam end of Hilchos Mikvoes.

DISTORTING or DESTROYING

which is the greater evil?

I am writing out of anguish because of the headlines I am reading on Arutz Sheva about this despicable government of foreigners, foreign to our Holy Jewish Torah, our Holy Heritage of ownership of the Land of Eretz HaKodesh, our Jewish History, our Jewish Mesorah, and the future and safety of Jews in Israel and all over the world. The entire government must be replaced by courageous and idealistic Jews who follow the Torah. We need Moshiach so desperately to correct the devastation these estranged Erev Rav are doing to our Holy Land and our Holy People.

Ketzeleh writes (article headlines and links below) that Bibi will uproot so many from the Land and their homes greater than the Inquisition!

Is Bibi crazy? Insane?

What is the world threatening Israel with that they think they need to retreat into another ghetto?

WHERE ARE THE LOVERS OF

Toras Yisrael,

Am Yisrael and

ERETZ YISRAEL?

Are they drowning their souls in chumus? Are they on the beaches soaking up Hashem's sun instead of fighting these turncoat quasi government representatives?

Where is the integrity and soul of a nation of people that survived the ravages of centuries of pogroms, holocausts, tortures, homelessness? Now that we are HOME, we cannot stand with humble pride and defend our right to exist on and in our Yeusha? G-d promised this Land to His Chosen People, the descendants of Yaakov Avinu, the Jewish People. Do they not believe G-d? Do they not believe there is a G-d?Where is your self respect? Have you lost all your goals, fortitude, vision, minds and souls?

It appears the Israeli Government is ‘aiding and abetting’ those who wish to see an end chv's to the Jewish People.

Could it be that the Eidah Hacharedis is speaking the Emes?

Here are some of the Arutz Sheva Headlines that should shake every Jew out of Apathy and Complacency, to do what his or her conscience calls on them to do, whatever your religious faith or level of observance.

Netanyahu: Abbas is Distorting History
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu criticized Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday, following the NYT article: “The article is a blatant distortion of historical facts which are well-known and documented,” Netanyahu said in a statement. “The Palestinians were the ones who refused the partition plan for two states while the Jews had agreed.”

Abbas is "distorting" ... Netanyahu is "destroying"

(G-d forbid)

MK Katz Shows Knesset Scope of Communities Outside the "Blocs"
“This is a very specific plan that will be remembered for an eternal condemnation among the Jewish people, with the head of the Likud drawing up a list of who will be expelled and who will not,” he said."


Knesset Rejects NU Plan for Sovereignty in Judea and Samaria
"Likud Ministers Yuli Edelstein, Dan Meridor, Limor Livnat, Michael Eitan, Gilad Erdan and Benny Begin voted against the bill." AND "Most Knesset members from Likud and Shas absented themselves from the plenum during the vote. These included Likud's Ayoub Kara, Miri Regev, Danny Danon and Tzipi Hotovely, as well as Shas's Chaim Amsallem. Jewish Home's MKs Orbach and Orlev were also nowhere to be seen, and Israel is Our Home's MKs were also missing" AND "Ministers Uzi Landau (Israel is Our Home), Daniel Hershkovich (Jewish Home), Eli Yishai and Ariel Atias (Shas) were absent from the vote."


MK Katz: Bibi Setting Up Largest Expulsion Since Inquisition’
"Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s seeming agreement to surrender Jewish communities outside of “settlement blocs” sets the stage for the largest expulsion of Jews since the Spanish Inquisition in 1492..."

The Jewish Nation is Lacking Courage

Is Glenn Beck the only sane voice in the world? He wants to Restore Courage and Stand Up for the Jewish People:

“I believe I’ve been asked to stand — in Jerusalem,” Beck told his audience recounting a list of times in history when people and nations failed to stand with the Jewish people. Beck explained, as he has often in the last year, how the life and thinking of the German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer has influenced him: “He [Bonhoeffer in 1933] asked people to stand for the Jewish people.” He told of Bonhoeffer’s call for pastors to stand with him. Only six did.”

We all need to stand with Glenn Beck this summer in the Old City to be counted among the lovers of goodness, against this evil washing over the minds and hearts of so many! You may have seen this on Israel Matzav, but its worth seeing again.

The Time To Be Counted…………. Evil Grows When Man is Apathetic

AND