For those who like listening to their RKBA news while multitasking, there’s a new podcast in town: TacticalPay Radio.
I was asked to listen to one of their podcasts to see what I thought. I did a little prep: looking up the episode’s guest, for instance. Then I clicked play.
The podcast is hosted by Brett Grayson, a Houston history teacher. I listened to Episode 3, which featured Sam Paredes, Executive Director of Gun Owners of California, and immediately learned that GOC is the country’s oldest firearms right Political Action Committee, predating the NRA’s ILA.
Amusing point (to me, anyway): In my prep notes, I had referred to GOC as waging guerrilla warfare for rights in “Occupied California.” I’ll be darned if Sam Paredes didn’t actually refer to California as “occupied territory,” and folks moving to Cal as leaving “free America.”
The show hit upon several points. A fair bit of time was spent on advice for dealing with RKBA debates and reporters (sound bites not easily “sliced and diced,” make it fun, educate yourself first, and tailor the message to the audience. Listen to the show for more.
And taking this episode as an indicator, you’ll probably want to listen to more. How else will you learn about Sam Paredes’ experience with zip guns?
TacticalPay Radio is currently available through Apple iTunes, and approvals for Google Play and Spotify are in process. The show is brought to us by Texas-based Tactical Payments, a credit card processing solution provider for the “for the firearms, ammunition and accessories industries.”
While much of the world celebrated New Years Eve as the start of a fresh new civil year, it is not the same for Jews. Remember, the Jewish new year, Rosh Hashanah, began at sunset on September 20th, 2017. New years eve is also known as Sylvester night. Sylvester night has long been known as a scheduled pogrom night. This column explains it very well. But here are some salient points.
This evening was, once the calendar settled on December 25th as Christmas, calculated to be the night preceding the circumcision of the child born in the “little town of Bethlehem”, therefore a call for the local peasants to engage in drinking, making merry and killing Jews.
Darkness along with the silence before a storm reigned in Jewish shteitls (small villages) that night in an attempt to make it harder to find defenseless victims, barricaded behind the flimsy doors of their huts. Torah study, which was done by the light of candles, was thus impossible.
As opposed to random pogroms and other manifestations of Jew hatred, this was a predictable yearly date.
A “Yerushalmi”, i.e. someone who lived in the Old City of Jerusalem before the State of Israel was declared, once told me that in this part of the world they would barricade their doors on Easter Sunday, knowing that the traditional Christian procession would often end in rioting against the local Jews.
Sylvester was Pope from January 31, 314 C.E. to December 31, 335 C.E. His Saint’s Day is the day he was buried, and it falls on December 31 of every year, that is since the civil solar calendar was straightened out (the Jewish calendar is a lunar one).
“On New Years Day 1577 Pope Gregory XIII decreed that all Roman Jews, under pain of death, must listen attentively to the compulsory Catholic conversion sermon given in Roman synagogues after Friday night services. On New Years Day 1578 Gregory signed into law a tax forcing Jews to pay for the support of a ‘House of Conversion’ to convert Jews to Christianity. On New Years 1581 Gregory ordered his troops to confiscate all sacred literature from the Roman Jewish community. Thousands of Jews were murdered in the campaign.
“The Israeli term for New Year’s night celebrations, Sylvester, was the name of the ‘Saint’ and Roman Pope who reigned during the Council of Nicaea (325 C.E.). The year before the Council of Nicaea convened, Sylvester is said to have convinced Constantine to prohibit Jews from living in Jerusalem.
I know that’s a lot of quoting, but I think you understand what I mean when I say it’s not the same New Years Eve commonly thought of. I want to compare history with today. Easy one first, Jerusalem. This is actually the most cheerful one of the lot. While perhaps the media would have you believe that the Arab world is united standing behind the Falestinians, that is not at all the case. They are not. Now, the UN, that is another story. No matter who it is, if Israel is involved, the UN stands behind them in condemning Israel. If Israel were invaded by something out of the movie “Independence Day” or “Men In Black” the UN would unite behind the space invaders who want to destroy all of humanity to condemn Israel. Iran slaughtering it’s citizens? Yawn. And the Israeli politicians are finally, perhaps, beginning to act like all of Israel, is well, Israel. There were two good bills passed. The United Jerusalem bill and the bill calling for Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria. You should check out the link on the United Jerusalem bill just to see the jaw dropping beautiful picture of Jerusalem they used with the article. So this New Years does show some good things happening as compared to the past.
My various sources in Paris tell me it is life for Jews in France is intolerable. The large spike in Muslim immigration has made the terrible – the horrible. Daily humiliations and the constant threat of violence are their constant companions. And it is widely known that going to the police is pointless. The police have long turned a blind eye to the war on country’s Jews.
So that part is about the same, except they attacks and killing seems to be coming from the imported Muslims and the tax part is coming from the government. Not both from the same source, not that who it comes from affects the outcome much.
So regarding at attacks, let’s look at another country which is becoming Muslim dominant, jolly old England, and specifically London. London proudly did the politically correct thing and elected a Muslim mayor. Not sure that they think it turned out all that well, well at least the law abiding citizens may not. We know islamic terror has been up under Mayor Sadiq who dismissed it as part and parcel of living in a big city. Raheem Kassam has a good column on how that’s played out for Londoners as crime has skyrocketed.
It would seem that while Christians attacking Jews has dropped way off, in fact I don’t know of any recently, there may have been, I haven’t heard of it, muslim attacks have not decreased at all, in fact they are increasing I would say.
Which brings me to a particular attack that occurred recently in Jerusalem. The was an attack against two Jewish kids in Jerusalem. In case you don’t know what a 2013 EASY attack looks like, here ya go.
A pack of Falestinians attack and the crowd grows ever bigger, even the “kids” get in on the fun. A game the whole family can play it seems.
In this particular attack, the victims were beaten. They reported it to the police, who opened an investigation and caught the “arab youths” or as we might call them, “thugs”. This column was from Arutz Sheva.
I found out later from another column that someone shared there is a bit more to it than that. They were forced to convert to Islam, to praise the terrorist organization Hamas, and curse the State of Israel and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. And all the while it was being video taped. In addition to going to the police, they went to the legal organization Honenu. Forced conversion version 2018. Side note, this is no big deal as it’s been going on in Germany and America for awhile, just minus the beating part.
I would maintain the Haredi are easy targets. Their clothing sets them apart, and it’s well known that they have no military service, and so no self defense skills. Unless of course they are attacking a lone female IDF soldier who attempts to clear them out of the road when they are blocking traffic.
Why they didn’t do that when they were attacked by the arabs I don’t kno….yeah, I do.
They don’t know their enemy. Reminiscent of Moshe Feiglin asking a the Chief of Staff who the enemy was, Hamass or the tunnel and the the Chief of Staff couldn’t answer.
My answer of course is predictable. I think all the Israeli citizens, well, all citizens, need to be allowed to carry concealed. Moshe, of course agrees with me. From August 2016 Give the Good Guys Guns and from May 2014 Gun Control? Or Citizen Control? Some governments view us as the enemy. We are not. They don’t know who their enemy is. We are people that don’t wish to experience a modern day Sylvester night. The government and the liberal leftists with their paid bodyguards think normal little people, us unwashed masses are “dangerous”. I would ask why they think that? What is it they want to do that they think we will resist, and they want to remove the most effective means of resistance we have? The tools that make us dangerous. They haven’t yet figured out it’s what’s in our head, not our hand that makes people dangerous. Dangerous. Reminds me of a conversation I had with a friend not all that long ago. A person can be dangerous, and they can be good or evil. It’s not that fact that they are dangerous you need to fear. It’s whether they are good or evil. I want to be dangerous. I want to have the ability to protect myself and my family. I want to be dangerous, I have no intention of kneeling on the ground reciting islamic conversion sentences. I want to stand on my own two feet and scream Shema at them and have them run. His point was, we have to know who we are, and what we are. To me, being dangerous is an asset. I have no desire to huddle behind a flimsy door afraid to have a light on. I have no desire to see a modern day Sylvester night, no matter who is perpetrating it.
New year, new start. I will give you this by Rabbi Johnathan Sacks, Five Ideas for Life. We are all here for a purpose I believe. We all have something we were meant to accomplish. I believe we are happiest when we know what that is and we are fulfilling that purpose. We have to know ourselves. So my goal for this year is to become better at my purpose, for my soul to become closer to what G-d created it to be. I want to be a child that makes him smile as he thinks, ah, she is catching on. I want to be dangerous, and I want to lose that ten pounds.
And so to help you stay dangerous, I have a little goodie for you. Stephen Wenger who wrote DEFENSIVE USE OF FIREARMS is making the book available as a free download! This fantastic book is out of print, so this e-version is a great way to start your new year. Thank you Stephen for permission to share!
I wish you all the bright promise the new year can bring, with hope, happiness, dreams fulfilled and all the good things that matter to you. And may you all stay dangerous, because whether it is New Years Eve or Sylvester night, depends on us.
This last week was Parshat Vayishlach, and it talks about Yaakov and Esav’s reunion when Yaakov returns from his devious Uncle Levan, who had deceived him in much the same way he had deceived his father Yitzach. He has sent his family and herds across the Jabbok, and he remained alone, waiting for daylight when he would see the brother who had sworn to kill him. The one heading his way with 400 men.
Bereshit 32: 22-32
22 The same night he arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven children, 1 and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 He took them and sent them across the stream, and everything else that he had. 24 And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. 25 When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. 26 Then he said, “Let me go, for the day has broken.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” 27 And he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” 28 Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, 1 for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.” 29 Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. 30 So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, 1 saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.” 31 The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip. 32 Therefore to this day the people of Israel do not eat the sinew of the thigh that is on the hip socket, because he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip on the sinew of the thigh.
One of the Rabbi’s commentary I read this week talked about the difference in the style of Mozart and Beethoven. He felt that for Mozart, the music simply flowed from him, light and easy. For Beethoven, he struggled to get it just the way he wanted it, writing and re-writing it, the creativity for him was a struggle. He felt Yaakov, who later became Israel, had the same kind of struggles. In fact Rabbi Sacks points out in all of Tanakh/ First Testament, none of the people were perfect, they all had their struggles.
If you want to watch a little teaching on the Parsha, here is one from Rabbi Chaim.
Struggles was already on my mind this week, I’ve recently had the chance to see a independently produced movie. I think that’s what they are called. I don’t see many movies, cause there are not many I am willing to give money to see. The last one was a 1977 movie on Operation Thunderbolt.
This one was called “Big Sonia”. And it is about an amazing 91 year old lady from Poland who is a Holocaust survivor. Big Sonia stands a whopping 4’11” tall. The film talks very little about how she came to be in the concentration camps, she was in more than one, and she endured death marches. It does say the nazis used dogs to find her and her Mother hiding in the attic of their home, as they had found others. They were hidden under the floor. When the movie needs to show something from the Holocaust, it is mostly shown in crude, meaning not detailed, animation. The nazis and dogs finding them is one of those types of scene. Another is when they are separated after they’ve been at the death camp for a while. Her Mother had a red scarf, and in the graphic, I can’t really call it a cartoon, it shows her Mother handing it off to her. This is a clip of Sonia.
Sonia runs a tailor shop that she took over from her husband after he passed away. Her mission, I would say, is she with the help of her daughter visit school, prisons, and talk to groups about the Holocaust. About living with love and acceptance so that these things can never happen again. It has had a profound affect on students, and some of the prisoners were in the film crying and talking to Leah, one of the filmmakers about how hearing Sonia’s story affected them. It was disconcerting to me that some of these prisoners seemed unaware of the Holocaust, at all. But I know another Holocaust survivor, she was Austrian who had tried to tell her story to some people at a holiday get together. Some of them did not believe her. She told me she would never speak of it again. I understand, to have gone through that, then tell it, and not be believed? But to see this tiny little woman, who had survived more and harder things than the prisoners, or school children had and how she chose to respond to them? Amazing woman. I would also mention Sonia has a sister that did survive the war. She is currently living in Israel. She spent the war not in a concentration camp, but in the forest, with the Partisans, fighting. I don’t know how that happened, it doesn’t say in the film, but boy do I wish Leah would do that story! Sonia has faced many many struggles, her most recent one was when the shopping mall where the tailor shop was located served her an eviction notice. I will just say that there are Angels that walk among us today, and while we may not know the name of the one that wrestled with Yaakov, the one in the movie is Vernon and leave it at that. This movie is being seen all across the US, actually world wide. I’m free on the 16th, I think I’d like to see it again. That will necessitate me being in Jerusalem on the 16th. Hmm.
I was thinking about this column, and struggles. We all face them in our daily lives, from different directions. Some can be family, professional, monetary, personal, health, and just “stuff we have to do” be it cutting down trees, clearing fence row or making sure one kid gets to the doctor and another to piano lessons and you need to be at work on time, and pay for it all. But as I was thinking about struggles and how Yaakov faced his, and while it seems most of his life he faced a variety of struggles, he tried, he didn’t just give up. He may have been afraid and distressed, but he kept going forward and he struggled with the Angel and won. Sonia has certainly had her struggles, to survive and cope, she continues to try to use her experience to help others.
And then I had a conversation with a friend of the book of faces tonight. We’ll call him Chris. Chris is talking about his son that I’m going to call Stuart. Stuart is a Ordnance Disposal Tech in the military. Chris had said a little about some of the scares he has had due to Stuart’s occupation. We got started talking about this because of a particular song “More than a name on a wall” by the Statler Brothers.
Chris: I try to never miss an opportunity to tell him how proud I am of him. That song tears me up probably as much as it does you. But I know that if my son should go, he’ll be escorted to Valhalla by his fellows after accomplishing far more with his life than I ever have.
Me: WE each have a part to play in this drama called life Chris. HIS part is NOT your part. Your part is not mine. We must each fulfill our parts as best we can with who we are at this time, in this place.
And that’s when it gelled for me. I am so far from perfect, and some struggles will probably be lifelong, and some I may win, some I may lose. But the ones that G-d brings to me, those I must continue to try. We all have things that matter to us, to U.S. our freedom, our country, our way of life, and our families.
And each of us has a role we can play in that. Some who would never want to write on a Blog can pick up the pen and write a letter to the editor, they can talk to a co-worker who spouts Gabby Giffords latest uniformed, illogical or stupid idea. Some can take Grandchildren or nieces and nephews out to learn to shoot. Or, they can set their nephew up with lessons to learn to shoot from a good instructor. So I’ve heard. You can support Second Amendment groups, join local grassroots Second Amendment groups, go to rallies. You can know our country’s history, warts and all, and when people try to take it from us by lying, know they are lying and speak out, write a letter, make sure what your child or grandchild is learning in school isn’t the Common Core Crap, and if it is either talk to the school or at least talk to your child and make sure they know the truth. Old school books might make dandy gifts. To lose who were are and where we came from is something that is hard to reclaim. Someone has to keep the light burning.
There is a teaching in the end of the video Parsha about Yaakov going back for some small vessels. What? He hadn’t had enough struggle already? He goes back for some Tupperware? There is a bit more to it than this, but my point is, in that in the Tupperware, was oil.
Sonia’s struggles bring forth understanding and knowledge, Yaakov’s struggle brought forth the nation of Israel, and a small container of oil.
Last week was November 29th, there was an epic struggle that took place on November 29th, 1947 These are in English.
Behind the scenes stories
And today, today. President Trump announced that the United States recognizes Jerusalem is the Capitol of Israel, and the United States will be moving their Embassy to Jerusalem. The Jerusalem Embassy Relocation Act was written in 1995, at last, finally. I admit, watching those old film clips today, and then President Trump is a very emotional experience.
Last Shabbat was Parsha Toldot. Genesis 25:19- 28:9. It talks about Yakov and Esav, when they were in the womb, born, the birth order (Esav first) and then the kind of men they each became. Esav, a skillful hunter and man of nature was favored by his father, Yitzchak. Rivka favored Yakov, who studied and basically stayed in the tents. Their desires were was different as the areas and activities they chose to pursue. .
28And Isaac loved Esau because [his] game was in his mouth, but Rebecca loved Jacob.
29Now Jacob cooked a pottage, and Esau came from the field, and he was faint.
30And Esau said to Jacob, “Pour into [me] some of this red, red [pottage], for I am faint”; he was therefore named Edom.
31And Jacob said, “Sell me as of this day your birthright.”
32Esau replied, “Behold, I am going to die; so why do I need this birthright?”
33And Jacob said, “Swear to me as of this day”; so he swore to him, and he sold his birthright to Jacob.
34And Jacob gave Esau bread and a pottage of lentils, and he ate and drank and arose and left, and Esau despised the birthright
His game was in his mouth, according to Rabbi Chaim, Esav talked a good game, a real good game. He pretended to be a serious Torah scholar to his father, but he was far from it. You think Esav was worn out from working in the fields all day? Um, probably not. He raped, murdered, and he married pagan women who sacrificed to idols in the camp. Esav didn’t love G-d, he wanted to destroy G-d’s presence in this world. Rivka had grown up in that environment, her father and her brother Levan, were both devious and deceitful. You find out just how much so when Yakov goes to Levan to meet a bride. Rivka knew BS when she heard it, she’d been there and done that. Yitzchak grew up with the faithful and hospitable Avraham and Sarah, he had much better role models, but was more innocent. When Yitzchak’s life was growing short, he called his first born son Esav to him, and asked him to go get him some game and fix it the way he liked it. I’m guessing sautéed with onions, mushrooms and Tabasco sauce? But Rivka came up with a plan to get the blessing for Yakov. One thing I’ve heard is Yitzchak was not fooled at all, but knew that Yakov would be the better character for the responsibility of the birthright. But at any rate, remember Esav had sold his birthright to Yakov for a bowl of soup and some bread. Esav had no love of his birthright, until it was gone. If you’d like to watch a short video on the Torah teaching, one is here.
It wasn’t valued? I guess I might point out to people who think Jews shouldn’t have all of the land that G-d alloted that they might want to remember G-d takes a dim view on those that don’t value their birthright. A way of living that has been good, and has sown benefits and opportunity that some discard as of no value because they don’t see the deep gift it really is. Rivka saw the birthright for the thing of value it really was. Esav wanted to claim the blessings of the birthright, but he wanted none of the responsibility. She understood about deceitful people. She’d seen bad, and wanted no part of it.
Sort of like one of my friends in school, she is from the Ukraine, and another lady I really like that is in a Torah study class I like to attend whenever I can, is from Russia. And they have no problem telling me what it was like. You could not openly worship G-d, or openly be a Jew. When talking about recipes for Matzah, my friend from the Ukraine was telling me how they fixed it. I asked what spices they used? She said “Spices? What spices? It was Russia, we were lucky if we had salt and pepper! I didn’t know what spices were until I left”. I’ve also heard her talk of the “dental care” you get under socialized medicine. But, it’s all equal, everyone is equal, everyone gets equally bad dental care. What little there is available.
“This troubling turn highlights widespread historical illiteracy in American society regarding socialism and the systemic failure of our education system to teach students about the genocide, destruction, and misery caused by communism since the Bolshevik Revolution one hundred years ago,” Mr. Smith said in a statement.
Millennials are more likely to prefer socialism and communism than the rest of the country. Fifty-nine percent of all respondents chose capitalism as their preferred arrangement, compared to 34 percent who said socialism, 4 percent fascism and 3 percent communism.
Some of communism’s luminaries are admired by millennials. Thirty-one percent said they have a favorable view of Che Guevara, 32 percent Karl Marx, 23 percent Vladimir Lenin and 19 percent Mao Zedong. Joseph Stalin is viewed favorably by just 6 percent.
In the poll, only 33 percent of millennials were able to identify the correct definition of socialism. They fared about as well as the rest of the country, which only successfully identified socialism at a 34 percent clip. Gen Z, the generation after millennials, ―was the most informed group, with 43 percent correctly identifying socialism.
Of course, I also think their college professors, especially the “cool” ones and the mainstream media play a big juicy role in this as well.
Thus the popularity of the Socialist/Communist Bernie Sanders. It seems Millinials think there is a “kinder gentler” form of socialism available. Like maybe small c? I seem to recall barry sotero, or BS for short, thinking Hugo Chavez was just dandy.
The government’s desire to control and monitor all economic activity led to the approval of a mass of inconvenient laws, which became enemies of investment, production, and innovation. The Ley Orgánica del Trabajo is just one example, which banned outsourcing, mandated 90 percent of a company’s employees be citizens, and impeded one’s capacity to remove unproductive individuals; it harms the national economy as well as the working classes. Since that legal instrument came into force last May, it has become increasingly difficult to create a job in the formal sector of the economy, while at the same time the productivity of workers has decreased at an alarming rate.
The price controls (or price-freezing process) and the fixed exchange rate (established in February, 2003) remain as a policy, regardless of the fact that they completely distort our country’s economy and against all evidence of their ineffectiveness and inconvenience.
And the Millennials and Snowflakes said to the Capitalists, “Pour into me some of that kitty stew for I’m famished and let me go eat it in my safe space so that no one might say any names or things that I don’t want to hear. I don’t want to hear about G-d and his tyrannical demands. I want the freedom of socialism where Uncle Bernie and Aunt Hillary say we get college and health care for free. I want business to pay their fair share of 99%, because I need things I can’t find a job anywhere. No company has over 3 employees these days! This Capitalism is so evil! I just hate it. I don’t want to have to do all the things that bosses want to make me do. I want to find myself. But until I do, give me some pigeon as well. Birthright? Freedom? Liberty? Of what use is that to me. Behold I’m going to die.”
Yes, yes indeed. The spirit of Esav is alive and well.
Forty-five years. It’s been forty-five years since eight buckets of chum scaled the 6 ½ foot fence with the unwitting help of some drunk Canadian athletes in to the Olympic village in Munich. When it was all said and done, I am not so sure that it had to end the way it did, with eleven of the Israeli Olympic team dead. But I do think there are some lessons worth revisiting.
I think of a tragedy as something that couldn’t have been prevented. I’m not sure this is that.
There is a documentary called One Day In September. While somethings have become known since the documentary was originally made, there are still some things in it that I’ve read elsewhere for confirmation, and somethings just are, such as the interview with the surviving bucket of chum.
Let’s exam some of those things. The entire village had no armed guards. Not a one. They wanted to show the world how liberal and progressive they were, no longer the Germany of 1936 when hitler used the Olympics to full propaganda effect. The powder blue clad “Olys” were prepared to deal with nothing more dangerous than parking tickets and drunks.
Then we can take a look at info that has come out more recently than the 1999 documentary.
The German weekly news magazine Der Spiegel wrote in a cover story in 2012 that the West German authorities had a tip-off from a Palestinian informant in Beirut three weeks before the massacre. The informant told West Germany that Palestinians were planning an “incident” at the Olympic Games, and the Foreign Ministry in Bonn viewed the tip-off seriously enough to pass it on to the secret service in Munich and urge that “all possible security measures” be taken.
However, according to Der Spiegel, the authorities failed to act on the tip, and have never acknowledged it in the following 40 years. The magazine further adds that this is only part of a 40-year cover-up by the German authorities of the mishandling its response to the massacre.
There there’s the bit about the pieceful Falistinians have been shown around the village prior to the games by the helpful East German security, so they knew the layout. Once inside the village, the chum used “stolen” keys to enter the apartments. HELLO? “Stolen” keys? Stolen from whom? I have no idea, but I do wonder if they were stolen or supplied.
Shmuel Lalkin, Israeli delegation head had told Olympic officials he did not like the location for his team, in a remote part of the village near a gate. The Olympic officials promised to provide extra security. That promise was not kept. He also asked to keep a gun with him, that was denied as well.
The Olympic committee asked West German forensic psychologist Georg Sieber to create 26 terrorism scenarios to aid the organizers in planning security.
One scenario accurately predicted what happened, but since Olympic organizers refused to implement security for any of them, it didn’t matter.
Lesson, the Olympic Committee and the German government were far more concerned with “looks” than substance. They wanted everything to appear to be “carefree games”. Appearances may matter, but not as much as substance.
The pieceful Falestinians have always claimed they did it to bring attention to their “plight”, and to win the release of 234 additional wastes of oxygen, buckets of chum. Bull Feathers. Ankie Spitzer and Ilana Romano fought the German government for years for more information. Ankie is the widow of fencing coach Andrei Spitzer, Illana is the widow of Yossef Romano. In a 2015 Daily Mail article a bit of the depravity of the chum was revealed. Yossef Romano who was killed early on when he attempted to overpower the chum was castrated and tortured. While they do not know if he was mutilated before or after he died, his widow believes it was after. In addition to this, we know many of the athletes were beaten, some so severely they had broken bones. And they claim they just came here to free their friend. No, they came to hurt and kill.
One German official tried to reason with them, he tried to convince them to take him as a hostage and let the Israeli athletes go. They had no interest.
One of the interviews on the documentary was a pieceful Falestinian who talked of the “poor refugee village” he grew up in, and how he never thought he’d live anywhere but the refugee village. But how learning to fight and kill Israelis when he was young gave his life meaning. So, one German official offered unlimited sum of money to free the athletes. That was turned down as well.
Hmmm, think about how that money could have gone to help better the lives in that “poor refugee village” that the unrepentant Falestinian droned on about. So actually, it would seem the “plight” of the poor Falestinians was important enough to kidnap Israelis at the Olympics, but not important enough to actually do anything to help them.
Lesson in this, nothing has changed. The U.S. and the U.N. fork over money to the Falestinian Authority. The Falestinian Authority does not use this money to make the lives of their people better, they use it to pay Falestinians to kill Israelis and then name streets after them and build statues of them. The Taylor Force Act passed the Senate with only four Demoncrats voting against it, Cory Booker (NJ), Chris Murphy (CT), Tom Udall (NM) and Jeff Merkley (OR). Does Hamass use the money they collect from Gazans to pay the electric bill? Nope, they build terror tunnels. Now before you feel all sympathetic for the poor Gazans, since a few puppy potty pad papers have seen fit to run some stories featuring sad eyed children and women bemoaning their lot in Gaza, you might want to look at a few of this series of articles. Not satire actually. And this is by no means an exhaustive list. Hamass has been elected by these people, more than once.
Next lesson, this is Israel’s “Peace Partner”? No, these are people that want to exterminate Israel and the Jews. Something Liberals might want to remember, Jews. Israeli or not. During the 1972 Olympic hostage situation, Mark Spitz had completed his competitions, and since Mark is Jewish, he was placed under heavy guard and shipped back to the US. There already is a two-state solution, it’s called Gaza and Israel. How’s that working out? The hostage operation was financed by Abu Mazen, head of the Falestinian Authority. Peace partner? The one President Trump is meeting with? The one he sends his son-in-law to talk with? How? I do not understand. Gentlemen, wash the blood of your hands if you shake hands with him. Lesson? He has not changed. He’s a murderer financing murder.
Prime Minister Golda Meir wanted to send a team, the German government refused. What angers me about this is the Germans had not a flipping clue what they were doing. Seriously. Their “snipers” were chosen because they had fired a gun, and given rifles inadequate for the job, they had no training. It has been denied that Golda wanted to send a team. In the documentary a smug German official laughs dismissively that of course the request to send a team was turned down. Of course.
During the attempted German “rescue” when the regular, untrained German Police went up on top of the hostage building there was a film crew across on a East German building. Everything the German police were doing was being shown live on TV. The code word “sunshine” never came. There was a TV in every athlete’s room, the Falestinians were watching the whole thing. Lesson? The media cared not one whit about the lives of the endangered Israelis. They cared only for their ratings. In fact in the documentary one person admits some of the stations had a very cynical attitude of “wow, look at the ratings”. Wow, just. The media has been an enemy of decency for a long time. If it were now they would portray the Falestinians as having a pieceful “sit-in”, not a hostage taking situation.
A bit more about the pathetic performance of the German police. There was a decoy Boeing 747 at Furstenfeldenbruch airport. The fake flight crew were German police, who decided seconds before the two helicopters landed with the hostages that their job was unsafe, they didn’t want to do it and left the plane. Telling no one. Of course since the “snipers” weren’t equipped with radios anyway, or helmets, or bullet proof vests along with their inadequate rifles and lack of an accurate count of terrorists. I suppose I really needn’t mention lack of a workable plan. Furstenfeldenbruch airport is where the remaining Israelis died, some by hand grenade, in the other helicopter they were shot. The German police forgot to ordered armored vehicles and by the time they did the vehicles couldn’t get through the roads because they were clogged with all the people in cars coming to watch. See, the police didn’t order the vehicles until the terrorists were at the airport and the shoot out was in progress. Were any of the German police who deserted their post in the 747 ever reprimanded for the desertion? No.
The three surviving terrorists were held prisoner by the Germans for a few days until a Lufthansa flight was “hijacked” with a grand total of twelve people aboard, no women or children. Germany immediately freed the murderers without consulting Israel. The agreement was between the Falestinians and Germany that they would free the killers in return for no more attacks on German soil. And how’s that working out? Appeasement did not work then, it does not work now. The German government lied for years to the families and said they had no further information, but when an anonymous source contacted Ankie’s lawyer after she had been on German television and then sent 80 pages of records, she used it to force the German government to release much of the data they had been denying ever existed, including the photographs.
And lastly, let’s look at the Olympic committee. In addition to inadequate security, not listening to warnings about an attack, they also resumed games as the hostage crisis was on-going. The games were also held the day of the airport slaughter.
During the memorial service, the Olympic Flag was flown at half-staff, along with the flags of most of the other competing nations at the request of Willy Brandt. Ten Arab nations objected to their flags being lowered to honor murdered Israelis; their flags were restored to the tops of their flagpoles almost immediately.
The families of some victims have asked the IOC to establish a permanent memorial to the athletes. The IOC has declined, saying that to introduce a specific reference to the victims could “alienate other members of the Olympic community,” according to the BBC. Alex Gilady, an Israeli IOC official, told the BBC: “We must consider what this could do to other members of the delegations that are hostile to Israel.”
Must we? Really?
The IOC rejected an international campaign in support of a minute of silence at the Opening Ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics in honour of the Israeli victims on the 40th anniversary of the massacre. Jacques Rogge, the IOC President, said it would be “inappropriate,” although the opening ceremony included a memorium for the victims of the 7 July 2005 London bombings.
In 2014 the International Olympic Committee agreed to contribute $250,000 towards a memorial to the murdered Israeli athletes. After 44 years, the IOC commemorated the victims of the Munich massacre for the first time in the Rio 2016 Olympic Village on 4 August 2016.
A memorial monument to the victims of the Munich Olympics massacre was opened to the public in September 2017, along a quiet path in Munich’s Olympic park. The memorial is carved into a grassy hill, and being inside evokes the feelings of being in both a sanctuary and a cavern.
Memorial to the Israeli Athletes of 1972
In addition to the remembrance ceremony, the IOC inaugurated a new tradition in honor of the athletes; a place of mourning to be established at every future Olympics in the Olympic village. Ankie Spitzer told reporters that, “This is closure for us. This is incredibly important. We waited 44 years to have this remembrance.”
But after all this, at the end of the documentary, the pieceful Falestinian says he is very proud of what he did. He would do it again. He is suppose to be the only one left of the 3 terrorists that survived that is still alive. He is somewhere in North Africa, with a wife and daughters. If he is not dead yet? May an Israeli bullet find him soon. Last lesson, some things never change. Do not delude yourself thinking they will.
“If you save just one life, it is as though you have saved the whole world.” I’ve been informed of this, more than once. I understand the concept, really, I do. And it’s not that I am always totally uncaring or always lack compassion. I have some from time to time, if the occasion calls for it.
The problem stems from the difference in the issues and people I think are deserving of compassion. The country seems to be so divided, and the folks on the other side of the fence have several public outlets showing sad children, grandma being thrown off a cliff in a wheelchair and any other issue you care to throw into the mix. But I have my own ideas of who I feel compassion towards, and perhaps I’m not alone in this. So I thought I might share a few thoughts on some people I think are forgotten and deserve the consideration of compassion.
This notion, that displaying an attitude of mercy towards the wicked who deserve severe punishment involves acting cruelly towards the general public, can be found in the words of Maimonides in his book The Guide of the Perplexed. In reference to the verse (Exodus 21:14), “If a person willfully schemes to kill his neighbor – he shall be (even) taken from my altar and put to death”, Maimonides writes that the wicked and calculating person (who killed intentionally and was sentenced to death) – if he seeks sanctuary among us, we must not provide him with asylum and not have mercy upon him…because compassion towards the wicked – is cruelty to all beings.
Actually that whole article is well worth reading.
It seems that the whole world right now has it upside down. The world has confused “fair” with “reality” and “compassion” with “justice” or “mercy”.
I’m pretty sure our readers of TZP are familiar with the case of Elor Azariya. The Israeli soldier who shot a Arab terrorist who had not yet been checked by sappers to see if he had bomb. The terrorist had just stabbed a solider. His goals were not questioned, he wanted to kill Israelis. Elor entered prison this week. The judges refused to stay his prison entry until it was determined whether or not he would receive a pardon. It seems interested parties torpedoed the attempt to forestall his entry into the prison system. For him, the IDF brass and judges had no compassion. For the arab terrorist, tears all around.
Compare the judges response to a 14 year old terrorist who went on a stabbing spree with his cousin in October of 2015 in Jerusalem. I can tell you סכין means “knife”, you may want to know that.
However, the judges decided that in view of his young age and in light of his rehabilitation efforts, his sentence should be shortened from 12 years to 9-and-a-half years in prison.
The soldier protecting his fellow soldiers and the citizens, no. We must prove to the world (who is going to hate our guts anyway) that we will eat our own with relish, and possibly BBQ sauce to prove how moral we are. The terrorist who stabbed people, well, compassion we must have for the “poor disadvantaged youth” taking a page straight from CNN and MSLSD.
“The judges of the court gave a tailwind to terror,” Twito said of the judges, who decided to shorten the punishment imposed on the terrorist by two-and a-half years.
“From the beginning of the affair, the State Prosecutor’s Office showed incredible incompetence when it did not ask the maximum sentence, but at the same time I was surprised to discover that the Supreme Court justices decided to ease the already-lenient punishment.”
“It is regrettable that Judge David Mintz, who wrote the verdict, chose to ease the punishment because a prison stay may have undesirable consequences for [the terrorist] – I ask what about the undesirable consequences for me? What about the trauma I went through? The damage caused me for my entire life?”
“Israel has become a haven for terrorists,” Twito said. “The judges of the court unfortunately do not understand that easing the punishment of terrorists is a judgment that gives a tailwind to terror.”
But Israel is far from the only country to suffer from this form of compassionate suicide. In France a new phenomena is taking place. Muslim that scream “Allah’s snackbar” and charge at people with guns, knives, trucks or hardened stale french bread are terrorists. Unless the victims is Jewish. Then suddenly the Muslim is “mentally ill”, not in fact, a terrorist. If a Jew is killed because they are Jewish, no worries, the poor dear was mentally ill, didn’t know what he was doing don’t you understand? We must be compassionate. That one is well worth reading as well.
And America and Canada? George Zimmerman and Darren Wilson? One a neighborhood watch person, and unpaid volunteer and the other a professional law enforcement officer. No matter what you think of either man, or their job, I think one thing that has not been successfully challenged is they were both attacked by a criminal. Criminals of which the media rushed to show cherubic pictures of when they were twelve, before the gang tats and gold teeth. Had the criminals not chosen to attack, nothing would have happened. But they did, and the media fanned the flames of “victimhood” for the aggressors. For the two men just living their lives and doing what they were suppose to be doing there was no compassion. For the people who had their business and homes burned down in the peaceful protests there was no compassion, for the firefighters shot at, the cops attacked the people attacked for their skin color, there was no compassion.
Shannon T.Watts and Bloomers, Rosie O’Crazy and all the other anti-gun people that tell us “people will be safer without guns”.
Susan Gratia Hupp, because one can never watch this video too much
She lost both her parents because she had been disarmed by politicians. So which class of people is it that will be safer if no one has guns? Oh, the criminals? Yes, yes, it will be much safer for them. Misguided youth, hate crime, profiling, it’s their culture, whatever, they attacked an easy target. For law abiding citizens just eating lunch or going to school? Not so much, no compassion for them.
The poor undocumented (unvetted) refugees. They just came here for a better life, they were escaping________. Of course we must provide, food, shelter, obamacare, schooling, clothing, transportation, obamaphones and allow them to live with dignity! And I have a feeling Canada had been looking down her nose at US a bit smugly as we elected that horrible bigot because we hate people different from us. See, I have paid attention to how the left views and talks about U.S. unwashed masses. Except now the poor refugees and heading for Canada. They are self-deporting.
And that’s the thing, no matter what country. The United States, Canada, or Bugscuffle, TX, the immigrants have to be fed, housed, given medical care and toilet paper. Who pays for this? They don’t work, they don’t have transportation, many of the recent ones don’t speak English and have no desire to assimilate and have stated clearly they will not. Which ones? Who knows. But the more of them you have the more it costs to take care of them. Who pays for it? The average John or Jane Doe, just trying to live their lives, raise their kids and potty train their dog. They probably drive an older car, can’t afford private school for their kids and eating out at McDonald’s every third week is a treat. You know why? Because they try to live within their means. And now it’s even harder because some politician with half baked social justice compassionate dreams of a legacy has mandated “we” will show compassion to ____________. Never mind the immigrant has no plans of working, assimilating or even respecting the host countries culture. Have you checked out the rape and crime stats in Sweden and Germany lately?
So, arab terrorist, criminal, illegal un-vetted immigrate, these are to be shown compassion by judges, the media, and society. Who gets none of this compassion? The people just trying their best to live their lives, do their jobs, run a business, go to school or walk down the street in Jerusalem. The people left defenseless by politicians with taxpayer funded bodyguards. For these people there seems to be no compassion.
Am I being judgmental? Yes, yes I am. I feel these are the people deserving of compassion, and more than compassion, they deserve justice. And because of this stance I am regarded as hard-hearted and unsympathetic? Ok.
I agree and understand what Maimonides was saying. When we are kind and show mercy to those that have harmed or intended to, we harm the very people deserving of the compassion and kindness. Those who were just going about their lives doing the next right thing.
The 9th of Av this year was observed on Tuesday, the saddest day of the year, with plenty of reason. The following is from Chabad.
The 9th Day of Av (the 11th Jewish month) is first mentioned in the book of Zechariah 7:3. One of four Jewish fast days, it commemorates dramatic national catastrophes (related to the destruction of Jerusalem), in an attempt to benefit from history by avoiding – rather than repeating1 – critical, moral and strategic missteps. It concludes the 21 days of predicament and lamentation, which began when the walls of Jerusalem were breached by Nebuchadnezzar (1st Temple) and Titus (2nd Temple), launching a seven-week period of consolation, ingathering and renewal.
There are many major Jewish calamities are commemorated on the 9th Day of Av:
* Unlike Joshua & Caleb, the other “ten spies/tribal presidents” slandered the Land of Israel, preferring immediate convenience and conventional “wisdom” over faith and long term vision, thus prolonging the wandering in the desert for 40 years, before settling the Promised Land;
*The destruction of the First Temple and Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon (586 BCE) resulted in the massacre of 100,000 Jews and a massive national exile;
*The destruction of the Second Temple and Jerusalem by Titus of Rome (70 CE) triggered the massacre of 1-2 million Jews and another massive national exile, aiming to annihilate Judaism and the Jewish people;
*The Ten Martyrs – ten leading rabbis – executed by the Roman Empire;
*The Bar Kokhbah Revolt was crushed with the killing of Bar Kokhbah, the fall of his Beitar headquarters south of Jerusalem in Judea and Samaria (135 CE) by Hadrian, who still afflicts us to this day by having changed the name of the land to “Falestine” as a poke in the eye to the Jews referencing their ancient enemy the Philistines. The plowing of Jerusalem, and the killing of 600,000 Jews by the Roman Empire;
*The pogroms of the First Crusade (1096-1099) massacred tens of thousands of Jews in Germany, France, Italy and Britain;
*The Jewish expulsion from Britain (1290);
*The Jewish expulsion from Spain (1492);
*The eruption of the First World War (1914);
*The beginning of the 1942 deportation of Warsaw Ghetto Jews to the Treblinka extermination camp.
This year was in some ways a more horrible than usual observance. It was just a few short days ago that the Knesset voted to take down the magnetometers. I touched on that in Neve Tzuf, but Caroline Glick does an excellent job of explaining how that decision was made. Turns out Bibi caved to….wait for it….the IDF and Shin Bet. No, I’m not kidding. This column is well worth reading. Losing and winning the Temple Mount. It actually makes a lot of sense if you remember the column Moshe Feiglin of the Zehut party wrote last year about “The Soldier Who Fired A Defense Minister”. It appears some of the people at the top levels in the IDF attended the John Kerry school of military studies. School motto “The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it.”~~George Orwell
So let’s take a quick look at that “sacred” tenet often referred to “Status Quo”. This data comes from this week’s episode of Walter’s World with Walter Bingham. This episode he had two security experts on, one of them is Alan Baker, the former Israeli Ambassador to Canada. The topic of the show is what is the status quo? Meaning what does the term itself mean.
Originally, the status quo began in the 19th century with the Turkish Ottoman Sultan who issued a decree that involved seven holy places in Jerusalem and Bethlehem and affected only Christians. It gave priority to the Orthodox. Then in 1967 when Israel won control of Jerusalem in a war it did not start a new status quo arrangement was made. Israel decided to remove the Israeli flag, army units and Rabbi Shlomo Goren from the Temple Mount and give control back to the wafq-kos. Because administering the site brings in income for them, it’s another reason they want it. Then the Chief Temple Rabbi approved Jews being sent to the Kotel to pray instead.
So about this sovereignty, Abu Mazen claims they have sovereignty, Israel claims they do. No one has had sovereignty since the Ottoman rule ended in 1922. The Jordanians didn’t have sovereignty when they took control of it by hostile take over either. Only Pakistan recognized Jordanian control, the international courts and the U.N. never did. The status quo was an informal, non-binding arrangement to enable the day to day functioning. Israel was in control after it took over control from Jordan and extended it’s laws and administration over all of Jerusalem. While it guarantees freedom of access and worship, issues of sovereignty were never mentioned. The same laws apply in Jerusalem as do Tel Aviv and Be’er Sheva. The peace treaty with Jordan made no mention of the status quo, and Jordan did not ask. Israel has FULL responsibility for security. The status quo NEVER regulated security, it regulates day to day events, like prayers. Even if you take the lowest U.N. (necessary) opinion of Israel, that they are “occupiers”, that Jerusalem is occupied territory, according to the laws of occupation, and the Hague rules of 1907 it would be Israel’s duty to maintain the public order and security. That is the opinion of International law as well.
So, how did Tisha B’Av go this year on the Temple Mount? Well, according to another one of my favorite programs, Temple Talk, it was…amazing. Rabbi Chaim said he arrived at 0610 and there were already hundreds of Jews lined up waiting to visit through the one gate non-Muslims are allowed to use. There had been speculation and trepidation that after the shameful caving of the Knesset and Prime Minister Netanyahu that the pieceful Falestinians would riot or incite violence because when they’ve done that in the past, the police reward them by shutting down the Temple Mount to……the Jews. But this year, this year was different. Very different. There is speculation that it’s the new Police Commissioner. The TT show said the police now greet you, it tends to be the same crew and they are polite and encouraging. They want everyone that comes to get to go up on the Temple Mount. The TT hosts said they were expecting the wafq-kos to really be following everyone closely and up in their faces, but it didn’t happen. The police kept the wafq-kos at a distance, there were very few muslims on the Temple Mount and the ones that were there were not allowed to cause problems. While no open prayer was allowed, the police did an outstanding job of maintaining order. The hosts of the show said that there is a Spiritual upheaval and renewal afoot, and everyone knows it, that it’s been building for decades. As it turns out, 1,263 Jews, an unprecedented number visited the Temple Mount this Tisha B’Av this year. I saw in another report the wafq-kos also said it was unprecedented, as well as unacceptable. The Israeli police have shown the way. It is possible to maintain principles, order on the Temple Mount and not cave in to terrorist demands.
I saw a movie recently, in a theater. A real one. I don’t go to many/any movies usually. I don’t think they make very good movies any more, and I’m not inclined to give my money to actors/actresses that will use it to further their bully pulpit and denigrate my values, culture and self-defense rights.
But there was a good reason I went to this one. It was made in 1977, so not a new movie. It’s called מבצה יונתן or Mivtza Yonatan. It’s about the raid on Entebbe that happened on 4th July 1976. An Air France plane was hijacked by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Falestine. There are some interesting points I’d like to bring out. One, the movie was made only a year after the event. Two, the movie was pro-Israel and pro-IDF. While it was an Israeli made movie, do you think such a thing would happen today? I don’t. Then there were some of the lines that were said in it that struck me. One was when the doctor that was on board asks one of the German female terrorists “Why? Haven’t we done enough to the Jews?” She answers they are fighting for world freedom, they aren’t fighting the Jews, they are fighting the Imperial Zionist. Another line is when Sayeret Metkal begins to plan the potential rescue options. After Yoni comes back from a meeting with the powers that be, Yitzak Rabin was P.M. at the time, his staff asks him what happened and the remark is made nothing will happen because their government will never go for it because of world opinion. After the Jews have been separated out from the other passengers one of them asks a male German terrorist what he hopes to accomplish with all this. He says the world is dirty and it needs to be destroyed and rebuilt. That the Israelis stole Falestinian land and used German money to do it. And the last line is two newspaper reporters that are waiting in Israel reporting the events. One says to the other that if the Jews give in, no one will be safe, there will be an epidemic of sky-jacking. Now, I know these are all lines in a movie, but the female German Terrorist sounds like a modern day spokesperson for the Boycott, Divest and Sanction movement. I think the male German terrorist is a bit confused, if German money was used, what was “stolen”? Not all the terrorists were German, some were pieceful Arabs. And despite this, Rabin signed the Oslo accords. He didn’t learn, and things have been worse since. And despite knowing that was the Falestinians and their supporters have been doing for a very long time, Bibi still caved. He didn’t learn either.
The United Nations Security Council convened on 9 July 1976, to consider a complaint from the Chairman of the Organization of African Unity charging Israel with an “act of aggression”. The Council allowed Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Chaim Herzog, and Uganda’s foreign minister, Juma Oris Abdalla, to participate without voting rights. UN Secretary General Kurt Waldheim told the Security Council that the raid was “a serious violation of the sovereignty of a Member State of the United Nations” though he was “fully aware that this is not the only element involved … when the world community is now required to deal with unprecedented problems arising from international terrorism.” Abdalla, the representative of Uganda, alleged that the affair was close to a peaceful resolution when Israel intervened while Herzog, the representative of Israel, accused Uganda of direct complicity in the hijacking. The US and UK sponsored a resolution which condemned hijacking and similar acts, deplored the loss of life arising from the hijacking (without condemning either Israel or Uganda), reaffirmed the need to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all States, and called on the international community to enhance the safety of civil aviation. However, the resolution failed to receive the required number of affirmative votes due to 2 abstentions and 7 absences. A second resolution sponsored by Benin, Libya and Tanzania, that condemned Israel, was not put to the vote.
Western nations spoke in support of the raid. West Germany called the raid “an act of self-defence”. Switzerland and France praised the operation. Representatives of the United Kingdom and United States offered significant praise, calling the Entebbe raid “an impossible operation”. Some in the United States noted that the hostages were freed on 4 July 1976, 200 years after the signing of the US declaration of independence. In private conversation with Israeli Ambassador Dinitz, Henry Kissinger sounded criticism for Israeli use of US equipment during the operation, but that criticism was not made public at the time. In mid-July 1976, the supercarrier USS Ranger and her escorts entered the Indian Ocean and operated off the Kenyan coast in response to a threat of military action by forces from Uganda.
But while the Temple still has not been, I hope and pray Rabbi Chaim and Yitzchk Reuven are correct and there is a spiritual awakening afoot, that the Temple Mount really will stay “In our hands”.
At the start of the movie Operation Yonatan, Yoni is training “The Unit” to rescue hostages from a skyjacked plane. The movie is in Hebrew, but it has subtitles. The command to enter the plane simultaneously through multiple windows was “אש” “esh”, meaning “fire” because they were going to commence firing upon gaining entry to the plane. Those men were willing and able to put boots to windows and boldly enter and take control for the safety and very lives of those held hostage by terrorists. That I think my friends, is the attitude we should have. We should be willing to put boots to the barriers that separate us from those people, places and things held hostage by old, timid, outdated, erroneous or terrorist beliefs or threats. Not necessarily with guns and RPGs, but with courage, knowledge and conviction in our hearts and our minds.
I will leave you with this beautiful, beautiful Tisha B’Av movie made by the Temple Institute in Jerusalem. It’s only a couple minutes long.
“אש”
1Rather than repeating? How many times have how many people given away the Temple Mount. Perhaps it should be apply, not just read.
In the meantime, a CBS headline on the events read: “3 Palestinians, 3 Israelis killed in violence over Jerusalem shrine.” Fox News reported: “3 Palestinians, 3 Israelis killed in violence over holy site.”
An NBC headline said: “Al Aqsa Mosque Clashes: 6 killed as Jerusalem Shrine Tensions Worsen.” And the New York Times: “Deadly Violence Erupts in Standoff Over Mosque in Jerusalem.”
What this means is, in the middle of Shabbat supper Friday night a 19 year old piece of חרה from a Arabic village came into the home of a family enjoying the meal, and they had gathered to celebrate the birth of a new grandchild that very morning. The terrorist knocked on the door, and as the family had invited the whole community to come share in their joy at the birth of their new grandchild, they opened the door thinking it was one of their guests. He at once began stabbing the family.
The Victims
It seems that Neve Tzuf – Halamish does have a security fence, covered with touch sensors. And if the sensors are tripped it activates an alarm and the security team from Halamish responds. And they did, according to the settlement’s security coordinator, Victor Vaknin. If the volunteers see that the fence has been breached, they call the IDF to come search the area. That didn’t happen Friday night. That part of the fence butts up against some woods, and they thought an animal had triggered it again. The bucket of chum terrorist had worn a white shirt that night, knowing he would blend in, and even if seen, no one would think anything of it. This is the same section of fence that last November three buckets of chum started a fire that destroyed 17 homes and damaged 25 others, according to Victor Vaknin. He said they have asked for additional cameras, and to close the road that the terrorists are using. They’ve been asking for seven months. I heard one report that attempted to blame the security detail for being too slow to respond to the alarm, and implied had they been quicker they might have caught him. Personally I fail to see how such speculation and attempts to deflect guilt for not being able to provide the requested additional resources onto a potential already grieving security group will improve anything.
On Monday, the military said it received the requests from Halamish and passed along its recommendations to the Defense Ministry for final approval, which it has yet to receive.
An internal document from the Samaria Regional Council’s security division revealed the existence of serious security failures in many Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.
The document presents a series of significant gaps in the security systems of dozens of communities, the cost of which would total tens of millions of shekels.
“In some of the council’s communities, the security apparatus is in bad shape and continues to deteriorate, due to the lack of a budget,” the document states.
The Samaria Regional Council noted that a budget of NIS 43.7 million ($12.25 million) will enable the renewal of the security fences, security roads and security lights in the council’s communities.
Chaim and Tzila Fogel live there as well. They are the parents of the Fogel family murdered in 2011. On March 11, 2011, two falestinian terrorists entered the home of Rabbi Ehud and Ruth Fogel and butchered them, and three of their six children. An 11-year-old Yoav, a 4-year-old Elad, and 3-month-old Hadas.
The Fogel Family
So as the bucket of chum slaughtered the family, Michal, the wife of one of the victims, 36 year old Elad Salomon, grabbed 5 small children, stuffed them in a room and as the door had no lock hung on to it and blocked it with her body. She doesn’t know for how long, and called the police. What finally stopped the slaughter was a good guy with a gun. It turns out there was an IDF solider on leave. Not only was he on leave, he was home that night. He heard the screams, grabbed his gun ran over and shot the terrorist through the window. The other victims are Elad’s father, Yosef Salomon, 70, and his sister Haya, 46. His mother Tova was also attacked and stabbed, but she is in hospital. She says the terrorist laughed in her face as he waved the knife.
The soldier’s mother explains how it happened.
In the wake of this the IDF increased patrols and nabbed 25 bucket of chum with ties to Hamass. Among them? A member of the Falestinian Authority legislative council member. You know, the F.A., Israel’s “peace partner”. The town is setting up a new outpost and blocking what they call “the road of death”. Probably a good plan since no one else seems to be helping with that.
So what has been the reaction from the arab world to the slaughter of an old man, and his two middle aged kids?
Photos of celebrations, these came from IsraellyCool. I follow good people on Twitter. You know this is the typical reaction in the arab world to the slaughter of Jews, right? They also hand out candy.
And how would you feel if your child took the life of three innocent human beings?
President Trump, I don’t think the pieceful falestinians and Abu Mazen took you seriously when you said incitement had to stop. In fact, I know he didn’t. He called for another “Day of Rage”. And the idiots listened. The bucket of chum had written on Facebook earlier that “There is no point to living without the Al-Aqsa Mosque,” had bought his knife days earlier in preparation for carrying out an attack. In fact the Falestinian Authority has picked him up 3 months ago because they suspected him of planning an attack. The metal detectors have been up a little over a week now.
Why should Americans care about getting along with Jordan and trying to curry their favor? A Jordanian soldier to murdered 3 US instructors who were there training the Jordanians in counter-terror tactics. And then Jordan lied and tried to cover it up with several different stories.
What else plays into it? Those stupid stupid UN decisions saying that Hevron, where the Cave of Machpelah is located is not Jewish. You know who is buried in the cave? Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Leah. Not Jewish? The Temple Mount, not Jewish. The U.N. is un-hinged.
It seems every time they come out with one of these stupid decisions Israelis pay the price with more arab riots.
Israel needs to stand firm on leaving the metal detectors in place. There are 11 gates for muslims to go through, there is 1 for everyone else, and it has pretty much always had a metal detector. Muslims can pray on the Temple Mount, no one else can. Any other country that had undergone attack like this would be thinking about protecting their citizens. Well, maybe not Germany, they don’t seem to care much.
And the Falestinian Authority admits they have no desire to work for peace. No metal detectors, no cameras. You have no right to stop us from killing whenever and where ever and whomever we want to. We don’t want the cameras that Jordan wanted to install because they accused Israelis of violating the Al-Aqusa and they will catch is us on tape attacking people.
And this is an old video from Moshe Feiglin, of Zehut. He’s pretty good at seeing how things will play out.
The murder scene
Here’s what I want to know. How much did I pay for this? How much money did my government steal from me to finance this slaughter of innocent people? How much per ounce of blood covering the floor the sofa and the stairs? How many hours did I work to pay for that shed blood? How much per life? How much did I pay for the Fogel family, for the Salomon family, for Hallel Yaffa Ariel who was an American citizen? How much for the two Druze police officers? Because I’m very sick and tired of it. In fact, I don’t want to do it any more. What we’ve been doing isn’t working. We give money to help the “poor suffering falestinians” and Linda Sarsour the feminist heroine (the idiots) calls for a jihad in America, they build terror tunnels in Gaza, and kill people at random. There was another stabbing attack in Petach Tikvah Monday. This time an Israeli-Arab was stabbed by a pieceful Falestinian because he thought the man was Jewish. Then Abu Mazen incites and pays the killers, with my money. They teach the children in schools to hate Jews and kill them. In the UN schools I might add.
ENOUGH. ENOUGH.
We need solutions. I have some ideas. In no particular order.
First, President Trump needs to cut ALL funding to the F.A. It gets cut by half as of NOW. RIGHT.NOW. The next attack of ANY kind, on a citizen, solider, police officer will result in the remaining half being cut by half. The next attack, it’s gone. No money at all, period. Three strikes, you’re out. And if the U.N. increases their donation to the F.A., we cut our funding, or end it, to the UN. Abu Mazen is going to pay killers. If some of the money actually did go to the people, maybe they will catch on. Oh, we kill people and we don’t have money for chewing gum. No more money for Falestine. What do we do with those funds? I’ll come back to that. The muslims in Israel that want to live in peace there may decide they have had enough of the trouble these terrorists are causing and sort some of it out themselves. I have no doubt they could.
Israeli Service dogs, fur missiles. I dearly love fur missiles.
Terrorists worst nightmare, child’s friend
The problem with this one is it takes time, and a lot of money. And as we’ve seen above, the lack of funding has already created problems. Another problem is muslims don’t like dogs. They say they are unclean. I’m not even going to swat at that low hanging fruit. But in some parts of countries where there is a large concentration of muslims, they start posting signs that you are no longer allowed to walk your dog in public parks. They will kill the dog and then the family.
I agree with Jack Engelhard, Time to deport Abbas. But I would go further. Any terrorist, rather than being paid? Their family will be deported to Jordan, or Syria, there’s lots of room there. The family will not be paid for the land, they forfeited that when they raised their child to be a killer, or when they didn’t stop it. Israel will take possession of the land forfeited by the family’s inability to live as good citizens. Think you’re going to get paid from “deep pockets Abu”? Best leave a forwarding address. No more destroying a room in the terrorists home, because they’ve been deported. But I did see a novel idea, destroy the village. It seems some of these villages have produced many terrorists. But as he says, it would call for a very strong leader.
So what to do with the funds we will not be giving the Falestinian Authority. I asked a trusted source in Israel a few questions.
To get a gun in Israel, you need a “good reason”, like some of the states here, like for example Jersey, where Carole Brown died because she was waiting for her permission slip. It is fairly common for the people in Judea and Samaria to have handguns. Rifles are only for security people or the IDF. There are places for them to get trained. I know that most do serve in the IDF, the reason I asked this question was because some might have chosen to do their national service in a different way.
So here is my proposal: America begins at once, with the one half we have cut from the F.A. to arm EVERY adult living in Judea and Samaria with a handgun. And those that need training, the excessive funds can cover that. Would you care to speculate how fast the willingness of future “martyrs” of Falestine will dissipate when they realize there is a almost 100% chance the next person they attack will kill them? And that will not stop some, I know, they want to die. But what it will do, is save the lives of the Jews living in the Biblical heartland of Judea and Samaria. No more Salomon families grieving, no more Fogel families. We have seen in America that the gun does not always have to be used, but the knowledge that your victim maybe armed is a big deterrent. And if the worst happens? As a lawyer buddy used to say, you may only need a gun once. But if you need it, you will need it very badly. And if you do not have it when you need it, you most likely will not need it again. Or something along those lines.
To those that say “Oh, I don’t want to take sides!” You’ve been taking sides, that’s why the terrorists are sure they’re going to be paid, and the money is being redirected to save lives rather than take them. Good plan.
And just to update this, I wrote most of this column only a couple days ago, that’s how fast things change. Not only have the metal detectors come down, Israel is also taking down the security cameras that have been up there quite a while. Why would they do this? It’s something we’ve never seen arabs do, called taking hostages. Yeah, I can’t even type it with a straight face.
Remember the wounded Embassy guard attacked by a 16 year old Jordanian? Well, Jordan decided the wanted to “question him” Israel said, nope, he’s got diplomatic immunity. Then the Jordanians surrounded the embassy calling for death to Israel, and the whole staff was trapped in there. Ambassador, seriously wounded guard and everyone else. And Jordan refused to let the guard go, everyone else stayed in solidarity. Well, till the mobs surrounded the embassy, then they didn’t have much choice. But the security guard and the embassy staff are safely back in Israel now. All it took was taking down the metal detectors and cameras. Living Temple Mount visitors vulnerable. Like I said, no more. No more killed at their Shabbat table and no more shot on the Temple Mount. NO.MORE.
In case you don’t know it, we are in “The Three Weeks”. This period started on th 17th of Tammuz, this year that would be 11 July. It is a fast day, and marks the date that the Romans breeched the walls of Jerusalem. It will conclude on the 9th of Av, 1st of August this year, the date that both of the Holy Temples were burned. The First Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians in 423 BCE, the Second Temple by the Romans in 69 CE, but both on the 9th of Av. There are a lot of other tragedies on the 9th of Av, but for now I’m just going to stick with the three weeks, and, the Temple Mount.
The three weeks are a time of introspections, and reflection as well as mourning.
I won’t say much about recovering sovereignty of the Temple Mount only to give it away again in 1967, we all know. But I actually had someone say to me that maybe Moshe Dayan and Levi Eshkol gave control back to the Islamic Wafko Wakf? Waqf? WakaWaka? Whaqever, because if they didn’t there would be an Arab uprising. Seriously? An Arab uprising? What do you call being attacked by, oh never mind. Israel had just defeated a massive “Arab uprising” in SIX days. I kept my mouth shut and my eyes mostly in my head. But that wrong decision, in MY opinion, wrong, and has continued to haunt Israel ever since. This last week has more than proved it. The Temple mount is so holy (3rd holiest site in islam actually) that when Israel finally gained control in 67, the area was covered in weeds and almost no one ever went there. It’s only since Jews have had access that they flock there to pray. They pray with their butts toward Al-aqsa and facing Mecca. You know, the usual sign of respect by turning your butt to something. This web site has a collection of photos and a movie if you are curious what the site looked like before Israel when it was totally under Islamic control and neither Jew nor Christian could even go there.
One week ago, on Friday the 14th there was a terrorist attack on the Temple Mount. Two pieceful falestinians ran FROM the Al-aqsa mollusk and shot two DRUZE Police officers in the back, one of them a new father. An additional officer was wounded, but I think not fatally. Druze are a sect of Arabs, NOT Jews. These two are far from the only Druze killed by the falestinians. There was a Druze police officer attacked when he responded to the Har Nof massacre. But this video can explain it far better than I can as to what happened.
So, let’s just dwell on this a moment, shall we? The killers/cowards/terrorists came from the Alka-seltzer mollusk, yes, yes, I am getting more peeved, with guns. After they killed the Druze police officers guarding the mollusk, they ran back TO the mollusk. Apparently the Jordanian Wafq either helped them, or turned a blind eye. These are the people that follow Jews and Christians who are on the Temple Mount to make absolutely sure no one says a prayer, if someone sneezes don’t even say “bless you”. I understand 58 members of the Wakf were brought in for questioning by the Police on suspicion of having supplied the weapons or help hide them. And, we know from the past that they absolutely store weapons and rocks for throwing in the Alka-seltzer mollusk. That way they are handy to throw at non-muslims and the police should the occasion arise.
The Temple mount was closed, briefly and then of course the outpouring of world condemnation, and then it was re-opened. But it was re-opened with a new improved feature. They added magnetometers, metal detectors. For muslims. You see EVERYONE else has had to go through a metal detector since I don’t know when. I had to go through them when I went to the Kotel. Jews, Christians, tourists have always had to go through them. I had to go through them to get onto the campus at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, you have to go through them to get to shopping malls, to ride the bus and your purse may be searched. This is a part of everyday life.
But then an amazing thing happened. After the metal detectors were installed, the Wakf boycotted them. They refused to go through them. Inquiring minds would like to know why? Then they urged other muslims not to go through them to go pray at Alka-seltzer. Now SOME Muslims have gone ahead and gone through them and continued to pray. But the truly wonderful thing is Jews are able to go to the Temple Mount without the Waqf. If you prefer a slightly humorous take on it, I’d read this. Humorous yes, but still plenty of truth in it. But an outrage, and absolute outrage, muslims having to go through a metal detector? UN-heard of. Except, well, like maybe Mecca, and a couple other places, in muslim countries.
Metal Detectors! Outrage!
So, now, finally after all these thousands of years can Jews, Christians, tourists, anything other than muslim pray on the Temple Mount that is in Israel’s hands? OF COURSE not!
I listened to one of my favorite radio shows today, and they were talking about Avi Dichter, Knesset member and formerly head of general security who said that Israel is sovereign and the era of the Waqf calling the shots is over. And this security expert did not seem to think that allowing Jews to pray would create a security risk.
So, it will have been one week ago today that the attacks occurred, and I have some thoughts. It was a blessing it happened on a Friday. ONLY muslims are allowed on the Temple Mount, holiest site in Judaism on Friday. Had there been Jews, or anyone else up there I can only imagine the carnage. Once again, it has been shown, someone determined to get a gun to harm others will do so, and as the saying goes, the only thing to stop a bad man with a gun, is a good man with a gun. The police did, but sadly have lost two fine men. Side note, have any of the arab leaders expressed sympathy to the families of the Druze police officers? No. I would urge Israel not to give in to the threats. It’s like the kid pitching a hissy in Walmart, you give in and it will get worse each time because they’ve learned it will work. And, personally, I think that’s why it is so bad now. The Temple Mount can not, just can not become part of another “land for peace” deal. In my life I’ve had all kinds of people give me advice about all kinds of things. Some of it I felt was not right. Not right for the time, or not the right direction. They got miffed about it. But here’s the thing, if I was right and went ahead and did it anyway, who will pay the price? Me. It costs them nothing to give the advice, only their time, and I’m grateful I have people that wish to do so, but if I do it feeling it’s wrong, they pay no price, I do. Israel may have a lot of people tell her to get rid of the metal detectors, but they will not pay the price. Israelis will. We have people tell us we don’t need to carry everywhere we go, we are paranoid. But who pays the price? We do, or our family.
But for now, I will leave you with this, this miraculous video. I got if from Aryeh of the Israeli political party Zehut, which means “Identity”.
This man is openly crying on the Temple Mount over the destruction of the two Temples. And he is NOT thrown off the Temple Mount because the Waqf are busy pitching a hissy that they can’t help more people smuggle in guns.
And this beautiful picture, no Waqf present to harass people. G-d bless Aryeh for sharing these. If prayer could be open, everyday with no worry or fear? Personally, I believe when that day comes? MANY things will begin to come right. I don’t believe G-d was pleased when Esav traded his birthright for a bowl of soup, I don’t believe he was pleased when the spies came back and gave a false bad report about the land G-d had given his children, and I don’t think he’s any happier about his children not being allowed to come and talk to him in the place that he chose. Embrace it, embrace the gift, in this three weeks of mourning, there is this tiny window of good. May it fly open and all good rush in.
Bear and I actually did NOT coordinate our columns!
Sometimes, I see a lot of different news stories that, at least in my mind, seem related. Listening to talk radio today as I was out driving to various and sundry places I had plenty of opportunity. One show I was listening to was hosted by Phil Valentine. Part of the hot topic was repeal and replace the disaster known as obamacare. I’ve seen up close and personal the effects of obamacare on some people.
And then there’s the equally foolish statement that to ditch obamacare will leave 22 million uninsured. People listen to the Congressional Budget Office after the predictions on obamacare? Astonishing! As much as finding out anyone still watches CNN.
CNN has standards? Who knew!
After I finally got home and got on email I started seeing things that to me, are tied in, as in a big government taking control of things that they should never have been in, with no repercussions or consequences.
Most traditional families, have Mom, Dad and maybe a sibling or so, even if the sibling is covered in fur. I can still remember for the first few years of my life my sibling was a dachshund. I keep pushing for another sibling. Sadly apparently I was unable to make myself clearly understood. I told them quite clearly from the time I was two, maybe less, I wanted a pony. PONY, P-O-N-Y, pony, or horse. Yes, I knew at two. At the age of three, I got a sister. S-I-S-T-E-R, sister. As you can see the two do not even sound the same. Two years later, they repeated, I got a SISTER. Sigh, they are good sisters, loved them dearly. Still love them dearly, still, I really was hoping for a horse. Families are important, they can be your support system when the world is trying to chew you like a chew toy. It doesn’t always turn out that way, and it may not be that way all the time. I think by and large, families are sort of a cohesive unit. I might pick on my sisters, as of course, I should, I’m the oldest. But you let ANYONE, A-N-Y-O-N-E, mess with one of them? I can go from 0-Bitch is 3 seconds flat, always was that way. It’s in the job description, I read it in the “Big Sister’s Manual and handbook for SOP”.
So, our first story is about Justina Pelletier, if the name sounds familiar, there is probably a reason. This was a very high profile case. From Michelle Malkin, who was on Phil’s show today talking about an unrelated issue:
Justina’s plight had become international news in Marty’s backyard. One fateful winter day in February 2013, Justina traveled with her mom to BCH from her West Hartford, Connecticut, home, seeking relief from a severe case of the flu. Ordinary sickness compounded Justina’s rare medical conditions, including mitochondrial disease and postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome. But those illnesses hadn’t stopped her from participating in school, competitive ice skating and an active family life.
Instead of receiving top-notch care and attention at BCH, however, Justina was snatched from her parents and recklessly re-diagnosed with a psychological condition, “somatoform disorder.” She was dragged from BCH’s neurology department to its infamous psych ward, where she was reprimanded for being unable to move her bowels or walk unassisted in her weakened state. At Wayside, she was harassed by a staffer while taking a shower. The physical and mental torture lasted 16 months. <Emphasis mine>
Justina’s parents were under a gag order and only allowed supervised visits by the kidnappers, Boston Children’s Hospital. Or, as Boston Children’s Hospital calls it, a ‘parentectomy,’.
“They tried to break us all,” Justina’s dad, Lou, told me at his West Hartford home, where Justina fights to recover from post-traumatic stress and physical deterioration suffered while she was held hostage.
But the arrogant, tunnel-visioned torturers failed. Thanks to an aggressive awareness-raising campaign by an eclectic coalition including Justina’s family, the Christian Defense Coalition’s Rev. Pat Mahoney, conservative media personalities and left-leaning critics of the Massachusetts child welfare bureaucracy, Justina was eventually freed and reunited with her parents.
So who else was involved in this eclectic consortium? A young man named Martin “Marty” Gottesfeld. What did Marty do? Well, he realized the publicity campaign to free Justina wasn’t working. So he with other hackers, and possibly the group Anonymous shut down the hospitals web site. Marty explained:
I knew that BCH’s big donation day was coming up, and that most donors give online. I felt that to have sufficient influence to save Justina from grievous bodily harm and possible death, as well as dissuade BCH from continuing its well established pattern of such harmful ‘parentectomies,’ I’d have to hit BCH where they appear to care the most, the pocket book and reputation.”
Marty’s been involved in a couple of other cases where he felt patients were being maltreated. No, he had never met the Pelletiers.
The next sad case is that of a 10 month old baby in that social utopia known as Englandistan. Little Charlie Gard was born with a rare genetic condition and brain damage. Unable to treat him in that socialized medicine paradise, his young parents raised the staggering sum of £1.4 million to be able to bring Charlie to non-mostly-socialized medicine America for an experimental treatment that might help the baby. Hang on to the horn folks, this isn’t going where you think, I can almost guarantee it. They are not going to be allowed to do this. Why?
Doctors at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London, where Charlie is being cared for, said they wanted him to be able to ‘die with dignity’.
The British courts ruled against the parents. The desperate parents took the case to Franceistan, to plead to be allowed to take their child to America for treatment.
But on Tuesday afternoon, the ECHR rejected a last-ditch plea and their ‘final’ decision means the baby’s life support machine will be switched off.
The ECHR announced the application to the court by the parents was ‘inadmissible’ and added that their decision was ‘final’.
How the heck does this kind of situation even arise? Well, you allow the government to control your health care and who gets it. I’ve heard plenty of how socialized medicine works in Israel. Yep, they do fabulous research, but… I would say from Justina’s case, our government is already way to big for it’s britches. Yes, the hospital kidnapped her, they’ve too much power, but they were backed by a Judge.
Continuing the “We know what’s best” even if the government don’t decide your child’s life and/or death, they most certainly have more control than I think they should. Moving back to that social paradise known as Englandistan, let’s take a look at a school.
Seriously? I mean most teenagers have probably heard a bit, they need to teach this? Oh, wait! Sorry my bad. These students are girls, 3-8 years old. It’s a private haredi school in Londonistan which has received kudos for the excellent education that it provides.
The school has been visited three times since February 2016, and told each of those times that it must incorporate the LGBT agenda into the 3- to 8-year-olds’ curriculum.
After the third time that the school refused to cooperate, the government decided to close it down. This, despite the fact that the school was praised elsewhere in the report, especially for the teachers’ “good subject knowledge and high-quality classroom resources that inspire pupils with enthusiasm for learning and to achieve well.”
Can we not just teach the 3-8 year olds how to jump rope and play dodge ball? Oh, sorry, too aggressive?
This doesn’t even begin to look at how home schooling parents have been harassed and threatened.
Children ARE the future of a country, how they are shaped will shape the country. That’s one of the reasons terrorists like to attack schools and buses, think of Beslan and Israel. If you can destroy a future generation?
You know, parents have a role to play in their children’s lives. They have unique and special gifts only they can give. It’s very difficult when the child is being raised not by it’s parents, with it’s siblings, but by “Big Brother”. They have enough trauma in life to overcome, you know, pony or horse neither one sound like “sister or brother”.
Jews. Guns. No compromise. No surrender.
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