Category Archives: Israel

Things Don’t Happen In A Vacuum

Shocked at the outrageous U.N. vote? Surprised? Just sad but think it’s none of our affair and has nothing to do with us, U.S.? Oh how I beg to differ.

You see, Obama and his evil minions made the affair. I’m surprised they didn’t have it catered, maybe it was.

Egypt originally proposed the resolution condemning Jews living in Israel, in the parts known as Judea and Samaria as well as East Jerusalem. It was proposed by Egypt at the behest of the pieceful Falestinians. After a call by President-Elect Trump to President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Egypt withdrew the resolution. It was then pushed by New Zealand, Venezuela, Malaysia and Senegal, as addressed by my colleague Y.B. This despite the fact that Israel has been more than kind to Senegal with monetary aid as well as agricultural technology.

Senegal defends their vote by saying they support the muslims in Falestine. Israel is the first on the scene when there is a catastrophe or crisis, and yet.

So let’s just take a brief look at the situation.Back in July of 2014Ben Shapiro pointed out that “This Is An Anti-Israel, “Jew Hating” Administration”

And Dr. Tsvi Sadan points out From the Soles of His Shoes: Obama’s Hostility Toward Israel He points out a very interesting little tidbit about a picture of barry.

Ever wonder how or why Samantha Powers was appointed to the UN? Well, she does favor invading Israel militarily, on the side of the Falestinians, of course.

So let’s just look at a tiny bit of history again about Judea and Samaria. Because Jews living there HAS been settled under international law. A long time ago. The whole article is well worth reading.

The only binding resolution of international law, a resolution which has never been countermanded to this very day, is the July 1922 Mandate for Palestine. Adopted by the League of Nations, that resolution recognized the “historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and to the grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country.” It called for the creation of a Jewish national homeland anywhere west of the Jordan River.

Once the League of Nations was disbanded and the United Nations formed in its stead, the international community agreed to maintain all agreements and not “alter in any manner the rights whatsoever of any states or any peoples or the terms of existing international instruments to which Members of the United Nations may respectively be parties.” [Article 80, UN Charter, emphasis added] This provision wasn’t inserted by accident; it was known as “the Jewish People’s clause” at the time it was adopted in 1945 in order to enshrine the 1922 Mandate into international law.

The Mandate for Palestine adopted by the League of Nations was the last legally binding document delineating regional borders. In Article 5 of the Mandate it explicitly states “The Mandatory shall be responsible for seeing that no Palestine territory shall be ceded or leased to, or in any way placed under the control of the Government of any foreign Power.”

The Palestine Mandate (and Iraq) was given to Britain to serve as a temporary trustee based on the resolution between the four principle Allied Powers in April 1920 at the San Remo Conference in Italy, which was signed by 51 nations. It was at that conference where the world powers adopted the 1917 Balfour Declaration (which originally allocated the eastern part of the Mandate for a Jewish state as well) creating a Jewish state. This same conference that created the Jewish state west of the Jordan River also created Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Iraq as Arab states….

Unfortunately, over the past generation the geo-political elites and the media has repeated the lie about an Arab “Palestinian state” and “illegal Israeli settlements” so many times that it has become true in the minds of so many people.

So.

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.” ~~joseph gerbils

Notice, nobody, not even the pieceful Falestinians were pitching hissy fits when JORDAN illegally occupied Judea and Samaria in Israel from 1948-1967, and EGYPT occupied Gaza. Where was the UN in light of the fact Israel’s boundaries were violated? Oh, appeasing.

“We have not taken foreign territory or any alien property, but have occupied our ancestral heritage, for some time unjustly wrested from us by our enemies; now that we have a favorable opportunity, we are merely recovering our ancestral heritage” (Maccabees 1, 15:33-34).

And so getting Egypt to push the resolution failed, Egypt refused.

So what’s a despot to do?

Get crazy Joe Biden to call the Ukraine and push them.

“[The hands] are American hands,” Elkin said, using a Biblical phrase in an interview with Ynet. “It was announced here in Ukraine that the Ukrainians really wanted to abstain, [but US Vice President Joe] Biden personally called the President of Ukraine and pressured the Ukrainians to vote in favor.”

An understandably miffed PM Netanyahu then refused to meet with Ukraine Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman. The sad irony of Groysman abounds.

And New Zealand is not just a _____________, they too, are weak ______________ because Israel’s good friend Britain pushed New Zealand. Why would they do that? I heard on a radio show once an explanation of why politicians pander to the muslim voters. Because there are so many of them. Once a certain amount of them are in a country, it’s voting is never the same. Do I know that’s what happened? No. But it’s a possibility. Also possible, the Falestinians have talked of suing Britain over the Balfour Declaration. I mean it’s not like Britain has a long proud tradition of siding with the arabs against the Jews and trying to keep Jews out of Israel. /snark.

No fool Netanyahu, Israel accuses Obama administration of helping craft, push UN censure.

But what will be the fallout?

Depends on who you are and your viewpoint. Jack Engelhard says, All bets are off after UN infamy and build baby, build. He says no reason not plow full steam ahead. I love Jack.

Fatah is jubilant. Fatah thanks UN members for giving it ‘permission’ to kill Jews

Fatah Hunting Permit, thanks barry & supporters.
Fatah Hunting Permit, thanks barry & supporters.

DEBKAfile has done a very thoughtful analysis of just what this is going to mean. UNSC resolution promotes Mid East war

As well as pointing out:

The one who abandoned Israel was US President Barack Obama – and not for the first time. During his eight years in office, Obama let Israel down at least three times on issues that jeopardized its security:

One of the first consequences of his 2011 “Arab Spring” initiative was the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak as Egyptian president and his direct promotion of the Muslim Brotherhood’s takeover of power in Cairo.

So, how did all this come to light? Well, the report from the Ukraine, and Egypt.

Egyptian report: US led the charge to pass the UN resolution The lyin’ piece of crap john kerry and that lyin’ piece of tripe susan “Benghazi was caused by a youtube video” rice.

And

Now this evidence seems to have been released by the Egyptians, in the form of the minutes of a meeting between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, National Security Adviser Susan Rice and PA officials Saeb Erekat and Ryad Mansour.

The whole report from Israellycool is pretty insightful. Bombshell Meeting Minutes Show Obama Administration Collusion With PA To Ambush Israel

But if you want a person on the street view of obama and hillary’s installation of the muslim brotherhood morsi and didn’t see Sama Elmasry‘s video after al-Sisi took over….just not sure it’s safe for work. She’s not fond of Israel either, but she’s got obama figured out a lot better than a lot of people in the US.

Israel fears barry’s not done. He’s got a few more days in office.

More fallout? I think we will see more incidents of what Y.B. just wrote about.

I mean, we’ve imported and are importing massive amounts of people from countries that do not love Jews or Christians so much. And in their minds? Apparently they view the resolution as a license. Not that they thought they needed one.

You know, we read about the horrible rise of Anti-Semitism in Europistan, and Britistan. Jews are afraid to wear a Kippah in public and some are afraid to go to Synagogue. In times past, they could and should make Aliyah to Israel, where they would be accepted and “safer” at least. Some countries make Synagogues pay for their own security. But where now, exactly are they suppose to live? Israel wasn’t big to start with. And as far as the pieceful Falestinians are concerned, the UN has just blessed their goals to make Judea and Samaria “Jew free”. Although “tripe rice” urged them not to use violence. Not because it’s wrong, but because it hurts their “cause”.

For her part, Israel needs to quit playing this game, take her marbles and annex Judea and Samaria. Then there will be no doubt as to who’s law applies. And the residents of Amona can live in peace, at least from their own government. They should do it tomorrow and tell the UN and barry to stuff it. They should then issue every resident of Judea and Samaria a rifle, handgun and plenty of ammunition. Every town gets a tank, maybe two. Let’s see how this goes.

This is the battle of the Maccabees all over again. An Israeli doctor released a statement recently that he wanted widely disseminated. The story of a pieceful Falestinian woman who was set aflame by her loving family. She was treated and given skin grafts at Soroka in Be’er Sheva. She returned for a follow up visit wearing a suicide belt to kill as many of those that saved her as she could. His point is, this is not a war of land, but a war of culture. And you can never appease that enough, you can never cede enough land. You can only submit and give up your culture to theirs.

Things don’t happen in a vacuum, there is a lot going on with this UN resolution. And, as one radio host pointed out last night, he lives in the area of Samaria, does this mean if he leaves the country he will be arrested as a international criminal?

It’s like the world wants Israel isolated, defenseless and Jews facing extreme Antisemitism unable to flee there for safety. Wait, something is ringing in the back of my mind.

But I think this resolution is a rock thrown into a pond. I think the ripples are going to spread further and wider than people ever suspected. And it was heinous and bogus to start with. From the president that has been heinous and bogus all along, leaving a “legacy” of heinous and bogus.

And, I’ll give you this video. Michael writes some good Second Amendment songs as well.

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Resolved…

jews-in-judea

An open, albeit brief, letter to New Zealand’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations, New York, United States:

Dearest Ladies and Gentlemen,

I see where, after second thoughts on the part of Mr. al Sisi of Egypt (especially in light of his cooperative venture with the State of Israel in seeking to eradicate Daesh operations in the Sinai), YOUR Permanent Mission re-introduced the latest U.N. Resolution condemning the State of Israel for not acting to establish Judea & Samaria as Jüdenrein.

Furthermore, I see where the Glorious Sun King of the Potomac has subsequently withheld his veto, consistent with his & the United Nations’ utter abhorrence for even minimal probity.

Thereafter, your vaunted body has passed said Resolution.

Screw You.  Each and every one of you.

Regards,

Y. B. ben Avraham

shomron

 

 

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Some things are worth fighting for

Chapter 3 of Maccabees 1

1 Then his son Judas, who was called Maccabeus, took his place.

2 All his brothers and all who had joined his father supported him, and they gladly carried on Israel’s war.

3 He spread abroad the glory of his people, and put on his breastplate like a giant. He armed himself with weapons of war; he fought battles and protected the camp with his sword.

4 In his deeds he was like a lion, like a young lion roaring for prey.

5 He pursued the lawless, hunting them out, and those who troubled his people he destroyed by fire.

6 The lawless were cowed by fear of him, and all evildoers were dismayed. By his hand deliverance was happily achieved,

7 and he afflicted many kings. He gave joy to Jacob by his deeds, and his memory is blessed forever.

8 He went about the cities of Judah destroying the renegades there. He turned away wrath from Israel,

9 was renowned to the ends of the earth; and gathered together those who were perishing.

10 Then Apollonius* gathered together the Gentiles, along with a large army from Samaria, to fight against Israel.

11 When Judas learned of it, he went out to meet him and struck and killed him. Many fell wounded, and the rest fled.

12 They took their spoils, and Judas took the sword of Apollonius and fought with it the rest of his life.

13 But Seron, commander of the Syrian army, heard that Judas had mustered an assembly of faithful men ready for war.

14 So he said, “I will make a name for myself and win honor in the kingdom. I will wage war against Judas and his followers, who have despised the king’s command.”

15 And again a large company of renegades advanced with him to help him take revenge on the Israelites.

16 When he reached the ascent of Beth-horon,* Judas went out to meet him with a few men.

17 But when they saw the army coming against them, they said to Judas: “How can we, few as we are, fight such a strong host as this? Besides, we are weak since we have not eaten today.”

18 But Judas said: “Many are easily hemmed in by a few; in the sight of Heaven there is no difference between deliverance by many or by few;

19 for victory in war does not depend upon the size of the army, but on strength that comes from Heaven.

20 With great presumption and lawlessness they come against us to destroy us and our wives and children and to despoil us;

21 but we are fighting for our lives and our laws.

22 He* will crush them before us; so do not fear them.”

23 When he finished speaking, he rushed suddenly upon Seron and his army, who were crushed before him.

24 He pursued Seron down the descent of Beth-horon into the plain. About eight hundred* of their men fell, and the rest fled to the land of the Philistines.

25 Then Judas and his brothers began to be feared, and dread fell upon the Gentiles about them.

26 His fame reached the king, and the Gentiles talked about the battles of Judas.

I’ll be honest, I love Hanukkah. I didn’t grow up loving it, but once I understood it, and what it meant, I fell in love with the Maccabees. The real ones, the real meaning of Hanukkah. The one Y.B. wrote about. The Hanukkah that makes me realize in every and all generations we must safeguard those things that we hold most dear. Judah knew what was at stake, he assumed command after his father Mattathias died, he and his brothers had been with Mattathias as he began the fight to save the Hebrews from the orders of Antiochus that were meant to eradicate the practice and knowledge of Judaism. To restore the land and the people to a way of live they were meant to live. But they had to survive the soldiers to do that. Judah didn’t just pray and hope for the best.

Verse 3, “He armed himself with weapons of war; he fought battles and protected the camp with his sword.”

Weapons of war was not a “bad” phrase, or a “hate speech” or used in a denigrating way. It was a fact of life. You want to live? Be prepared, because there are bad evil people out there, they do not care if you’re a pacifist or not. This phrase always makes me pause. A couple years ago I was in Tel Aviv and I was a woman with a mission. I wanted to find a model of a Centurion tank circa 1973 Yom Kippur war. I went in a toy store and looked around and a clerk, a young man, came up and asked if he could help me. They had a model battleship, and some airplanes, I couldn’t find the tanks. I explained as best as I could what I wanted. He finally got it and had a shocked and appalled look on his face. “You mean a weapon of WAR??” he exclaimed horrified. Yes, I want a tank. “We do not want weapons of war in this store!” he informed me self-righteously. I shot a sidelong glance at the battleship. Uh huh. I was pissed but it wasn’t worth the argument and I didn’t know enough good words then. I thought to myself, buddy, if it weren’t for those “weapons of war” and some of the people that knew how to wield them you’d have been in a world of hurt more than once. It was a couple weeks after that Hama$$ began firing rockets into Israel again from Gaza, the prototype of how the two state solution will work. Weapons of war can be an excellent thing you have to defend your camp.

13 But Seron, commander of the Syrian army, heard that Judas had mustered an assembly of faithful men ready for war.

14 So he said, “I will make a name for myself and win honor in the kingdom. I will wage war against Judas and his followers, who have despised the king’s command.”

15 And again a large company of renegades advanced with him to help him take revenge on the Israelites.

16 When he reached the ascent of Beth-horon,* Judas went out to meet him with a few men.

17 But when they saw the army coming against them, they said to Judas: “How can we, few as we are, fight such a strong host as this? Besides, we are weak since we have not eaten today.”

18 But Judas said: “Many are easily hemmed in by a few; in the sight of Heaven there is no difference between deliverance by many or by few;

19 for victory in war does not depend upon the size of the army, but on strength that comes from Heaven.

The Maccabees, my partisan heroes. The Warsaw ghetto partisans, the partisans of the forests, the hills, the caves. Small but determined groups that were willing to fight and risk all for freedom. Because what they fought for was what they treasured. Just as Judah knew and told us, deliverance comes from Heaven. To G-d deliverance from a few or from many is all the same. 1967, 1973 and for the Maccabees G-d does not respect political correctness or numbers and no task is too much for G-d. He’s in the miracle business and he’s very good at it. Do I know why he hasn’t granted miracles every time I think there should have been one? No. But maybe someday I will understand, or ask him. Zelmans Partisans may be a small group, but we are a small group of determined people who know what we are about and are tenacious as wolverines. We understand what we fight for.

The Maccabees were having none of this compromise our rights, compromise our Torah, our feasts our way of life, our Shabbat. No. Compromising on “evil black rifles” “high capacity (adequate capacity) magazines is the same folly. We can follow “man’s” “king’s” laws to the death, or we can live by G-d’s commands.

I was talking with a friend about wars, Israel and history. I was told that today Israel doesn’t fight to win. Not really. They fight a little. Enough to keep things at bay, enough to keep the status quo. Yes, yes, I suppose that is right. Fight that battle and get it done. Fight it fast and hard and keep the knowledge of what you are fighting for in the front of your mind. Fight to win. If you have to fight, no halfway measures.

The Maccabees didn’t fight for sufganyot or latkas, not even the yummy jalapeno cheddar ones. They fought to live as G-d commanded them. And the things that we hold most precious, most dear are the things we must be willing to fight for. I suppose one could evaluate what really is most dear to them by looking at the things they really are willing to fight for.

I have seen miracles, this time of year. I don’t believe they are limited to this time of year at all, but I have seen some rather amazing things happen this time of year. I believe G-d is still in the miracle business. And so I pray for my much loved teammates and for our members and readers a season blessed with miracles.

Happy Hanukkah.

Judah Maccabee Meme
Judah Maccabee Meme
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#Amona

We’re a little over a week out from Hanukkah. I love Hanukkah, absolutely love it. I think Christians should pay a lot more attention to Hanukkah than some do. A short synopsis is that Antiochus IV didn’t want Judaism to continue as well, Judaism. He wanted HELLENIZED Judaism, Judaism “lite”. In other words, not Judaism. The penalties for actually being Jewish AND living Jewish were very severe. Women and infants were not excepted from the bloodshed. Shabbat and festival observance, forbidden. Possession of the Torah, forbidden. And he burned all the copies he could find. Circumcision, forbidden. Ritual sacrifice, forbidden. In other words, he might, maybe let you live, but not as a Jew. Not a real one, not a Torah observant one. Going along with this was the progressives know as Hellenistic Jews. They were evil then, they are evil now. Antiochus IV did his best to eradicate Judaism and Jews from the land of Israel. He failed. He failed because of a family living in Modi-in מוֹדִיעִין

The Maccabees. The Maccabees had a Southern girl kind of attitude. Someone showed up on their farm and told them they were going to sacrifice a pig to a pagan god. They said “HELLenized NO, Judah, get the shotgun!”. From there the Maccabees opened up a can of “whoopbutt” and in the end, not only did G-d work through the Maccabees to ensure the continuation of Judaism as it was written, but they retook the Holy Temple, cleaned it out, literally, and restored and rededicated it. And Torah continued to be taught, people continued to learn it, and Jews continued to live as Jews in the land of Israel.

I’m sure my hero Judah Maccabee is absolutely astonished to find out that part of Modi-in is not in Israel. According to the PeeeeUEU, they think part of it is Jordanianishish.

These types of misunderstandings seem to be a common occurrence in Israel.

Let’s look briefly at Judea and Samaria. Biblical history, and archeological history show us Jews lived there for thousands of years. They didn’t leave on their own, they were conquered and forced to leave. When the one Jewish state in the whole world was established the arabs were offered a two state solution. They rejected it and went to war. Israel, the tiny one day old nation, won. In 1950 Jordan illegally annexed Judea and Samaria. The outrage from the UN was heard round the world. Just kidding. You know who was outraged? The annexation was regarded as illegal and void by the Arab League and others. Huh. Of course Jordan also controlled Har Habayit, the Temple Mount. And while they controlled it, it was SO important to arabs it was left to decay pretty much. Egypt occupied the Gaza strip. Israel and Jordan signed an agreement, sort of a land for peace deal. In it Israelis were to be allowed access to their holy places. From the same link:

A Special Committee was to be formed to make arrangements for safe movement of traffic between Jerusalem and Mount Scopus campus of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, along the Latrun-Jerusalem Highway, free access to the Holy Places, and other matters. The committee was never formed, and access to the Holy Places was denied to Israelis throughout the Jordanian occupation. The remainder of the area designated as part of an Arab state under the UN Partition Plan was partly occupied by Egypt (Gaza Strip), partly occupied and annexed by Israel (West Negev, West Galilee, Jaffa). The intended international enclave of Jerusalem was divided between Israel and Jordan. The Jordanians immediately expelled all the Jewish residents of East Jerusalem. All but one of the 35 synagogues in the Old City were destroyed over the course of the next 19 years, either razed or used as stables and chicken coops. Many other historic and religiously significant buildings were replaced by modern structures. The ancient Jewish cemetery on Mount of Olives was desecrated, and the tombstones were used for construction, paving roads and lining latrines; the highway to the Intercontinental Hotel was built on top of the site.

In other words, it worked out as well as all Israel’s land for peace deals have. It didn’t.

So Jordan had control of Judea and Samaria on the West Bank of the Jordan River, until 1967. When G-d gave it back to Israel along with Har Habayit. As we all know by now, Moshe Dayan promptly gave that back. In 1967 tiny Israel won back large amounts of land. But unlike any other country that won land in a defensive war, they tried trading it back to the attacking countries for peace.

But this is about Judea and Samaria and the Jordanians. While the land was under Jordanian control, Jordan awarded land to people, to have arab names listed as owners. They did not purchase the land, they have not lived on the land, they have not cultivated the land, nor have they payed taxes on it. I’m sure somewhere in Israel in a nice rural area there is a farm with my name on the title. One with a lovely horse barn and indoor riding arena. I have memories of it, I’m sure. Yes, it’s kind of like that. The “owners” in fact, may not even know they own it.

Which brings me to Amona. Amona is a little town in one of those areas. It was built with the knowledge of the Israeli government. The permits to run water and electricity were provided by the Israeli government. Established in 1995 Amona has seen her share of sorrow. More than her share. In 2006 it was decided that part of the homes there were on “private falestinian land” and they were demolished. This sentence doesn’t even BEGIN to describe what took place. Effie Eitam is actually a friend of a friend of mine, and former MK Eitam called it as a pogrom. The video story in the “Eitam” link is fascinating if you have a few minutes, but it’s not about Amona.

But the houses that weren’t demolished, were allowed to stay, all is well. Carry on, nothing to see here. Until now. Now it’s been decided due to a activist high court and the help of some anti-Israel left wing activists that Amona must go. The homes will be torn down, just like 10 years ago. Families will be displaced, just like 10 years ago. Will people die just like 10 years ago? I don’t know, please G-d no.

It’s not like things like this have never happened in the United States for political reasons. They have. During the civil war, or the War of Northern Aggression, depending, there was General order #11. A truly horrific thing of which the Lone Jack Historical Society stated:

Order #11 was the most heinous order ever issued during the Civil War. It depopulated Jackson, Cass, Bates, & part of Vernon Counties and reduced this area to ashes. It was the first time in America’s history that a United States president endorsed such a violent act against citizens within his own country.

This order was issued, not in retaliation of Quantrill’s burning of Lawrence as so many believe, but to quell a rebellion within the state that was gaining momentum, one that the Federal Government was powerless to control.

People were evicted based on where they lived, if it was a mile outside of certain areas. And all your grain and crops were taken. Pretty much along with everything else.

And, it’s not like it couldn’t happen again what with barry’s Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing, another frog in pot barry scheme. I heard Stanley Kurtz talking about this on the radio last year.

AFFH is easily one of President Obama’s most radical initiatives, on a par with Obamacare in its transformative potential. In effect, AFFH gives the federal government a lever to re-engineer nearly every American neighborhood — imposing a preferred racial and ethnic composition, densifying housing, transportation, and business development in suburb and city alike, and weakening or casting aside the authority of local governments over core responsibilities, from zoning to transportation to education. Not only the policy but the political implications are immense — at the presidential, congressional, state, and local levels.

So yes, some poor day we could find ourselves in the same predicament as Amona. And for about as sensible a reason. To fulfill some left-wing political loons vision. The high court of Israel? Left-wing. The “human rights” groups that help the poor falestinians that didn’t know they owned land or pay taxes on it to destroy a village, left-wing. The AFFH? Oh yeah, left-wing lunacy. A very potent reminder of why we don’t need or want a left-wing dominated Supreme Court.

And when is this destruction to take place in Amona? When are the people suppose to be evacuated or the government will send the troops and police to remove them? A mission that some of the police and troops have publicly said they want no part of? At the end of Shabbat, the 24th of Kislev, December 24th. The first night of Hanukkah. In Amona, there will be no joyful lighting of the hanukkiyah. No families gathering around to enjoy latkas and sufganiyot. Because a G-dless left-wing high court doesn’t even FLIPPING KNOW when Hanukkah IS??!! The holiday that celebrates Jews being allowed to live as Jews in Israel, and celebrates the miracle of the return of sanctity to the Temple. Har Habayit was AGAIN returned to the Jews in 1967 when they also won control of Judea and Samaria. But like the Maccabees of old, the current Maccabees fighting to retain control of the Jewish villages in Judea and Samaria face the Hellenized Jews of today who are more than willing to bow down and lick the feet of the EU and John Kerry and a world that will never believe that Jews belong in Israel until they themselves believe it.

So חג חנוכה שמח Happy Hanukkah Amona. Now grab you hanukkiyah and get out. Judah? Are you still around?

My anger aside, if you care to, would you please pray for Amona?

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Different tools, Different Times, Different Places

To create fire, you need a formula. Oxygen+Heat+fuel or combustible material=Fire. Tonight it’s pretty cold where I am, and the fire heating the house sure does make it more comfortable. In fact, I’d be pretty miserable without it. I remember when I was young and my family would go camping. We had one of those old Puma pop up campers, Dad and I could set it up in 5 minutes or less. Sometimes of an evening for a treat, we had a little campfire and roasted marshmallows and made s’mores. They sure did help us keep warm on some of the cool evenings. And I must say, they’re part of some lovely memories for me now.

But sometimes fires can get out of control, destroying homes, businesses, land and lives. If you have the proper tool, sometimes you can intervene while waiting for the fire department to show up and save your ____________________. Please pick applicable noun.

To do this intervention, you must first have the proper tool, which means you must know what tool to use in which circumstance. You can not treat a wood fire like you do an electrical fire or grease fire. No no. That turns out badly.

So let’s look at what type of tool to use for what type of fire.

fire-exting

Isn’t it interesting how there is no “one size fits all” approach to handling the same problem “fire”? But you also need to know how to use the fire extinguisher. It does no good at all to stand there holding it in your hands reading the directions as family photos passed down for years go up in flames. No, you need to have that bit sorted ahead of time. It’s as though you almost need to train to handle emergencies. Here’s a handy acronym I was taught.

P—Point

A—Aim

S—Squeeze

S—Sweep

Point the nozzle of the extinguisher at the BASE of the fire, aim to direct your spray of chemical and squeeze the handle sweeping the nozzle from side to side at the base of the flames.

So what’s with the Johnny Gage and Roy DeSoto impersonations?

Well, as my teammate Bear pointed out in his last column

…I haven’t seen a single call for banning the private possession of fire extinguishers. No one has screamed that zoning laws and building codes didn’t work (and apparently were actively ignored by authorities) and should be repealed.

No one raises an eyebrow over having different types of fire extinguishers, or being set up to handle different types of fire. Or even having the knowledge that there are different types of fire. When it comes to having a shotgun for hunting or killing varmints in the barn or chicken house, a rifle for killing them in the pasture and no matter how much I love those two, they will not fit in my purse, so a handgun for self defense? Why, to those in the mainstream media, or NYC that there is one of those so called “arsenals”. Who could possibly need all those guns, three of them? Well, three types. But I feel I need the three types for different situations, just like different fire extinguishers are needed for different fires. Different threats, different tools.

Just as it is not the tool, the gun itself, that is a threat, but who holds the gun, the lovely s’more generating fire that gives us a tasty family treat, can also destroy and kill. In fact, it can be used as a weapon of mass destruction.

In addition to the Oakland fire, there has been one in Tennessee. This resulted in 14 deaths in the Gatlinburg area and damage to over 1,700 structures. 700 homes and businesses were destroyed or damaged, including 300 inside the Gatlinburg city limits. The fires were spurred by dry conditions and high winds. More than 14,000 residents were displaced as the fires burned and more than 15,000 acres were incinerated.

Two juveniles were arrested. No names have been given. They were not from the Gatlinburg area, but they are from Tennessee. So I got curious. There is apparently an islamic guest house in Gatlinburg. Who’d a thunk it? But they aren’t from that area. I wonder if they are from Murfreesboro? Two hundred and four miles away, in case you wondered. Reading some of the comments under some of the articles I saw that some of the other readers had the same thoughts go through their heads.

But why would I have such thoughts? Well, it’s most likely because of what happened in Israel last week. Something called the “Fire Intifada”. The cost has been fearful for the small Jewish state.

More than two hundred fires were sparked in Israel. Part of the problem is that it has been dry and was windy, and that did help spread the fires. One hundred thousand Israelis had to flee their homes, and while there were no deaths, one hundred and twenty-two were treated for injuries. Seven hundred homes were damaged or destroyed in the one thousand seven hundred seventy three fires, twenty of which were major. Thirty-two thousand acres burned, twenty-eight thousand acres in Haifa alone. Four of the fires burning Haifa started in different parts of the city at the same time. I’m sure this was on the news nightly, right? Actually if the failing networks known as cnn and mslsd had covered it, it would have been something along the lines of “Cruel Israeli police and military stop arab youth from starting campfire to make s’mores and keep warm”.

But it did have a big coverage of twitter. The hashtag Israel is burning was very popular. That was the tag used by the gleeful arabs praying for Israel and the Zionists to burn to the ground. An iman in Canada was publicly asking allah to burn all of Israel to the ground. Deputy Defense Minister Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan believed that part of the fires were arson. Israeli police have arrested thirty-seven suspects in the fire intifada, some of which are Israeli arabs. A former Shin Bet heads, Israeli Hasson remarked this was the first time Falestinians had used a “weapon of mass destruction.”

During the fires, many countries sent firefighting crews and equipment to help the beleaguered Israeli crews. PM Netanyahu requested of Russia’s President Putin aid, and Putin responded he would immediately send giant planes to help. Greece, Italy, Croatia, Russia, Cyprus, and Turkey also sent aid to help in the battle. Even the Falestinian Authority sent crews to help. As one radio host pointed out, that was only fair since Falestinians set some of them. Notice who is not on the list? Right, the U.S. I howled on Twitter for a couple days that I could not believe we had nothing we could send that would help. As it turned out I was right, we did send a supertanker a few days into the firestorm. What I believe is different about the American aid sent, is that it came with a price tag. obama charged Israel one and a half million dollars for the use of the supertanker. Which is disgusting as whenever there is a disaster that strikes anywhere in the world Israel is one of the first to respond to offer aid and show up.

There are efforts underway to help Israelis replant the trees lost in the conflagration through the efforts of Zo Artzeinu. There is a little movie on the web site showing some footage shot by them during the fire, and the resulting damage. And yes, I’m getting trees.

It seems that what happens in Israel, is reflected in the US later. Sometimes not much later at all. That is partly why I wonder about the genesis of the fire in Tennessee. That and the fact Al Qaeda urged them to unleash hell with fires. Admittedly an old article, but that doesn’t mean that it will be forgotten or ignored.

Something else I head in the radio program was pretty interesting to me as well. In the Tanakh there is a section called Kings or מלכים or M’lakhim. I’ll give you a short story from M’lakhim 3:16-28. It’s a story of two prostitutes, each who had a baby boy. One of the babies died in the night and that mother switched her dead baby with the living baby of the other woman. The two women came before King Solomon for him to settle the dispute. The King’s response? Bring him a sword, he was going to divide the live baby and give each woman half. The real mother cried out not to kill the baby, but instead give him to the other woman. The woman who claimed the baby but had no actual love for him was fine with this solution and said go ahead. With that the wise king gave the baby to the first woman.

Because the woman claimed the child as hers but had no actual love for him, she was willing to see him put to death and burned to the ground killing all living things in the land, and trying to kill the land itself. Trees, vineyards, groves of fruit trees, innocent animals and people. Those lives had no meaning to her.

But to the woman who’s child it really was? Who bore the child, nursed it and loved it? She was willing to do anything to save it’s life. Including giving her to the other woman, calling President Putin and asking for help and paying barry one and a half million dollars for a supertanker that would have been given freely to any arab country that would have asked for it. She would do anything to save it because she loved it just that much.

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Kristallnacht

Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht

 

Kristallnacht began on 12th April 1928. The event itself took place on November 9th and 10th 1938. No, this is not a typo. When I interviewed Moshe Feiglin, leader of Zehut, he asked me when WWII started. I told him the night hitler was born. He agreed with this viewpoint. So I would maintain that Kristallnacht started on the 12th of April 1928. That was when the Reich Law on Firearms and Ammunition was enacted. That law enacted weapons purchase permits, and only authorized persons were allowed to buy and possess firearms. Mandatory registration allowed the authorities the ability to access the weapon and or it’s owner at any time. No doubt to check for “mandatory safe storage”. Manufacture and sale of weapons was also allowed only by permission of the authorities. The carrying of weapons in public also required a permit. In 1930 bladed weapons were added in. All this was to maintain only trustworthy people had weapons. Trustworthy as determined by the authorities.

In April 1933 the nazis enacted laws that prevented Jews from being in civil service, universities and most professions. In September 1935 the Nuremberg Laws were enacted. These determined who was a Jew, who wasn’t, how much Jewish, and deprived Jews of their civil rights. In fact, Jews were no longer considered citizens of Germany. When hitler first came to power and started his anti-Semitic odure the German people wanted none of it. But after time, the media, the entertainment industry, the schools and the constant blaming had their desired effect, the German people began to despise the Jews and see them as other than humans.

It was easy to begin disarming the Jews, the authorities knew who had weapons, what they were and they could go into homes at any time to search for weapons, and their owners. Or anything else they took a notion to search for. By this time since Jews were perceived as less than human or trustworthy and helpful citizens and bureaucrats doing their job were happy to join in if needed.

In March 18th, 1938 came the German Weapons Act, which superseded the 1928 laws. These in general appear more lenient. Only handguns would be regulated now, not rifles, shotguns or ammunition, and it deregulated their purchase and transfer. The legal age at which you could acquire a gun was lowered from 20 to 18 years of age, and the permits were now good for 3 years instead of 1 year. Before the more lenient laws of 38 only officials of the government and states, and employees of the German Railways were excused from the mass of hoop jumping. The laxer laws of 1938 added to the privileged group, holders of annual hunting permits, government workers, and nazis were now deemed reliable and trustworthy enough not to need gun ownership restrictions. This was determined by the authorities, the nazis. Manufacture of arms and ammunition though still required a permit. And those permits would no longer be issued to Jews. Any company even partly owned by Jews could no longer manufacture arms, or ammunition or sell them. As determined by the ……authorities.

Under all regulations though, manufactures and sellers were required to maintain lists of who bought guns, and the serial number of the gun. These records were turn into the ATF police every year for inspection.

On October 27th of 1938 Hitler ordered 17,000 Jews of Polish origin to be shipped back to Poland. They were allowed one night to leave Germany with one suitcase. They were put on a train and taken to the Polish border at Zbaszyn. There they were dropped off. Poland would eventually allow 4,000 in, but the rest were trapped at Zbaszyn with no food, virtually no money, no place to stay and no clue what was going to happen.

One of the families affected was the Grynszpan family. Zindel had moved from Poland to Hanover and established a store in 1911. When they were stranded at Zbaszyn one of the daughters sent a postcard to her brother, Herschel, who was living with his uncle in Paris. Herschel was livid when he received the postcard on November 3rd . He bought a gun and some bullets on November 6th and headed to the German Embassy intending to kill the Ambassador. The German Embassy was fresh out of Ambassador that day, and he ended up settling for the third secretary in the German Embassy, Ernst von Rath. The secretary died 2 days later on November 9th. This provided joseph gerbils (yes, I do know it’s goebbels, but this seems more fitting for the rat-faced nazi) the excuse he needed to label the act a conspiratorial attack by “International Jewry” against the Reich and, against the Fuehrer. When gerbils and nazi party officials found out about the death, gerbils gave a speech that urged all good Germans to take to the streets and make the Jews pay for von Rath’s death. Reinhard Heydrich said business could be destroyed but not looted. CNN and MSNBC The German newspapers claimed the Jews were murderers, and blamed the Jewish people as a whole for the killing of von Rath. And so the all the propaganda, the disarming of the Jews, the dehumanization erupted in a conflagration of hatred.

On the nights of November 9th and 10th the mobs throughout Germany and the territories of Austria and Sudetenland attacked Jews in the street, in their homes and at their places of work and worship. At least 96 Jews were killed and hundreds more injured, more than 2,000 synagogues were burned, almost 7,500 Jewish businesses were destroyed, cemeteries and schools were vandalized, and 30,000 Jews were arrested and sent to concentration camps. The mobs knew that it would be easy, who could fight back? And just to make sure that peace remained in Germany, the next day on November 11th new laws were passed that forbade any Jew from owning any weapon.

I read a column in Salon on line that maintains that gun control is good and wonderful, and just because hitler misused it doesn’t mean it can’t be just peachy. That the very idea of Jews fighting back is absurd. Really? באמת

I only have two words for them, the idiots. WARSAW. GHETTO.

A fearful price was paid the 9th and 10thof November 1938, but it started long before that. People live and learn.

Not so easy these days
Not so easy these days
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Hannah

“One – two – three… eight feet long
Two strides across, the rest is dark…
Life is a fleeting question mark
One – two – three… maybe another week.
Or the next month may still find me here,
But death, I feel is very near.
I could have been 23 next July
I gambled on what mattered most, the dice were cast. I lost.”

hannah-szenes-1

On November 7th 1944 a valiant young Jewsess stared down her Nazi executioners and returned to Heaven. Hannah Senesh was born in Hungary, and despite being raised in an assimilated household, felt compelled to ‘make aliya’ to the Land of Israel in 1939.  She worked in an agricultural settlement, rebuilding the dream of two-thousand years.

“My God, my God
May there be no end
To the sea, to the sand,
The splash of the water,
The glow of the sky,
The prayer of man”

When the extent of the Shoah of the Jews of Europe became evident, she volunteered to fight with the British Army, against the Axis. Soon, she volunteered again, to join other commandos and parachute back into Nazi-occupied Europe, in order to aid the underground in Hungary.

She fought for three months with Tito’s partisans, and then made her way to Hungary, only to be caught by the enemy.

Hannah was brutally, and repeatedly, tortured. Despite their best efforts, the Nazis failed to get any information from her.

“Blessed is the match, consumed in kindling flame.
Blessed is the flame that burns in the heart’s secret places.
Blessed is the heart that knows, for honors sake, to stop its beating.
Blessed is the match, consumed in kindling flame.”

When they put her before a firing squad, she refused a blindfold. A gifted poet, diarist, and writer… a brave and determined warrior against evil, lived, and resisted them, to the end.

hannah-szenes-2

“There are stars whose radiance is visible on Earth though they have long been extinct. There are people whose brilliance continues to light the world even though they are no longer among the living. These lights are particularly bright when the night is dark. They light the way for humankind.”

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Give me Land Lots of Land

I see a lot of stories daily about how carrying a concealed weapon has saved someone’s life, or the life of someone they love. These stories usually take place in a urban setting. It might be a fairly empty parking lot at 2200 or someone’s home, but most of the stories are more urban. I suppose that makes sense, more people.

But when many people think of the rural areas, they tend to think more of the tough, self-reliant type of folks, like Roy Rogers, the Cartwrights or Little House on the Prairie.

What set me down this thought path was a story I saw the other day and it reminded me of when I first moved to my current home, many, many years ago. I considered living places and found the pet deposit for two horses, a flock of chickens, four cats and three dogs was very spendy. I also am temperamentally unsuited to living in a city, so farm it was and I moved from a smaller farm to this one. When I would go to the barn to do chores I took all the dogs with me, family outing as it were. Not long after I had lived here I was coming back to the house from the barn and a man I had never seen was standing near the stock gate. Not a dog had barked, the wind must have been blowing the other direction. Nothing happened, he had heard from someone that I might be someone to talk to about training a horse. But it made me very aware of my vulnerability. No matter what else was going on in my life, this was something I needed to address. I didn’t really know any of my neighbors yet, so most people that stopped by would have been “strangers”. It was long before concealed carry laws or castle doctrine laws were in effect. It’s not that I didn’t have tools, I did. I needed to have them where they could be used. A .357 is dandy, unless it’s in the house, so I started doing things differently. But while laws weren’t in place to protect me, I could get access to the tools that would allow me to protect myself. Some states have laws protecting you only in your home or car, some, anyplace you legally have a right to be including any place on your property, not just your home.

So how did I get to thinking back all those years ago? I saw a story about yet another Jewish farmer in Israel who might be facing charges for shooting an Arab. I will never say farmers in America have it easy. I’ve known better since I was two. But farmers in Israel have a whole different set of dangers. The arabs and bedouins there cut fence, steal livestock, kill livestock, ruin orchards, poison guard dogs, attack the farmers and their families and sometimes kill them. Sadly, sometimes the government forces that are tasked with protecting the farmers seem to favor protecting the arab farmers. Whether it is yet another example of trying not to offend the world, or the police just don’t want to bother with it, I don’t know. Some farmers have been driven off their land, some have had to give up raising livestock, but it is most certain that many farmers in Israel face challenges and dangers that we over here do not face on a daily basis. The case that had been going on was of a farmer that had three arabs show up to steal his truck. He heard a noise and went outside, there they were with a metal bar and three to one odds. He fired in the air and was unaware that he had even hit one. When security forces finally showed up they found the body in a nearby field.

The mayor of the town defended the farmer, saying many such attacks occur during daily, and are repeated with no fear of reprisals. The mayor of the town thinks the U.S. has it right.

“Sunday’s shooting in Beit Elazri was justified,” Naim concludes. “It was an act of self-defense, and prevented innocent people from getting hurt. Every thief must know that he might die. It must be anchored in law, just as in the cradle of democracy, the United States, where every citizen has the right to self-defense of his body and his property, including the shooting of trespassers.”

I don’t know that we shoot trespassers all that much, but his point that we should have the right to defend ourselves, and criminals know we have the right and ability to defend ourselves, and that should slow them down some. Unless you live in a state with a lot of liberals where ever criminal life is sacred, yours not so much. This is made possible by electing liberal politicians because they think rights come from them, not G-d.

Farmers have gone to jail for defending themselves against four to one odds, for example Shai Dromi. While he was acquitted on manslaughter charges he was convicted of having an illegal weapon. It was his father’s. The good thing that came of the mess was it did start to make people aware of what the farmers face on a daily basis.

Now happily the farmer accused this time, has been cleared by the police of any wrong doing, so he won’t be spending time in jail.

Another good thing that came out of this is MKs Amir Ohana and Eitan Broshi submitted a petition that called for a emergency meeting to discuss the issue of self-defense in rural areas. Hopefully more than discussion will come of it. Since MK Ohana is involved, I am kind of thinking something more will.

Another thing I found very interesting was comments by Dr. Jodi Broder, Head of the Clinical Social Law program. I’m the one that put some of this in bold, not Dr. Broder.

Dr. Broder explained why, in his view, proactive self-defense is justified: “We, as citizens, gave the State all the rights over our defense and our property, under the assumption that it would uphold those values, but what happens when the State doesn’t defend its citizens?” he asked. In such a reality, he asserts, the right of a citizen to defend himself and his property returns to him.

Broder qualifies this assertion, however, noting, “not under every circumstance, but within the parameters of self-defense. You are allowed to defend yourself when there is an immediate danger to your life or property. In such a reality, when nobody else is around to defend you and you react in a proportional manner, not in order to punish but only to defend; when the burglar is endangering me or another or our property, I am allowed to defend as long as immediate action is required and the State is not present to supply this defense.”

In response to the question of whether there is an ethical problem with the fact that the same State that does not supply defense for citizens also limits citizens’ ability to defend themselves, Broder replied, “It is impossible to live in a situation in which there are no rules and each man is his own lawmaker. A burglar also has rights which we, as a state, choose to uphold. You may defend, but not punish.

“One of the problems in the State is that the government does not supply adequate defense of property in certain communities, and people feel existential danger and danger to their property; we may see reactions that seem disproportionate at first glance, but when you consider that the Police are probably not coming, and there’s nobody who’s going to help, and it’s my property and my life, the picture changes.”

First, I don’t think we should ever give over our rights to protect ourselves, I’m not suggesting we do so. I also find it interesting that the Israelis are allowed to use force when the criminal is stealing things. In America it’s usually only to defend life. Of course what they are stealing may well affect your livelihood, but I find this variance interesting as well. Second and I think this applies to any of us, the prosecutor in their nice warm, well lit office, reading over the police report as they thoughtfully sip their fresh cup of coffee is going decide someone’s future, or lack of one. They will decide if your response was proportional or not. Consider having someone like Kathleen Kane as the prosecutor. Kane was a Bloomberg backed anti-gun candidate. YESH! But I also see how his comments could apply to gun free zones, they chose to forbid us the ability to defend ourselves, then they have chosen that responsibility. An old discussion, I know. I’m not talking burger joints, I’m thinking more like hospitals, government buildings. Places of worship are targets as well, but I think their response to how they wish to handle these things has more autonomy, but I could be wrong. But back to the prosecutor, you have a person in their nice office, possibly who has never been in a rural area deciding what is going to happen to you based on what has already happened to you, when you were all alone at 0300 in the middle of a field.

And realistically? Whether a field in the middle of the night or supermarket parking lot during the day, it doesn’t matter much. If something bad happens, and you “need” someone else to come help you there is a good chance that may not happen in time.

Just some things to think about as election day looms and you might have a chance to ask your state candidates some questions.

Another thing that popped up as I was poking around to see how this particular farmer came out was that some of the farmers in 2008 began to band together forming modern versions of HaShomer. It was founded by Yoel Zilberman when his father told him he was going bankrupt and going to have to leave the farm. HaShomer HaChadash, The New Guardians, was formed to help protect the farmers and allow them to continue farming in a financially sound manner. It is now a big active program.

Founder Yoel Zilberman, can tell you about it. It’s a very interesting story. Subtitled, luckily.

So thinking back on when I first moved here, and looking at the dangers these farmers in Israel face daily I’ve had some thoughts. Urban or rural, we all face dangers. The dangers these Israeli farmers face are more like the things someone living in the gun free zone utopia of Chicago would face, with just about as much help from the system at times. But then any raw milk or organic farmer may have faced the same dangers in America. Only instead of from Bedouins, from a alphabet soup of state and federal agencies. The big difference is, when it’s the farmer rather than the Chicago resident that faces the danger it can affect a lot of people. The farmers produce food, and when that doesn’t happen it causes problems for a lot of people. The Israeli farmers are getting help now, not from the government so much, as regular people all pitching in to help. It’s sort of like a program we had in America for a while called “Ranch Rescue”. But the foundation of all these programs was the same as the old days of the Cartwrights and Roy Rogers. It was people pitching in to help each other to over come challenges and threats. People that weren’t relying on the system, but each other. As the weather changes and we prepare for storms knowing our neighbors and having plans and ways we could help each other might be a very good idea. We’ve had hurricanes in one part of the country, we will have snow and ice coming for other parts of the country, and then we move into tornado and rain and flood season. Sometimes you know there’s bad weather headed your way, and sometimes, it’s just there.

And because I like to end with something a little nice, here’s a short little scene from Eish Kodesh. It really is beautiful isn’t it?

https://www.facebook.com/398799110143354/videos/1192120390811218/

 

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Chag Sukkot Samach! And GET….

Or חג סוכות שמח

Sukkot is the last of the three pilgrimage festivals. The other two are Pesach and Shavuot. Those are the festivals that the Torah commands to travel to the Temple in Jerusalem.

Following Yom Kippur, which is a very solemn holiday, Sukkot is joyous. Sukkot is commanded in the Torah in Vayikra, Leviticus 23.

33 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 34 “Speak to the people of Israel, saying, On the fifteenth day of this seventh month and for seven days is the Feast of Booths 1 to the Lord. 35 On the first day shall be a holy convocation; you shall not do any ordinary work. 36 For seven days you shall present food offerings to the Lord. On the eighth day you shall hold a holy convocation and present a food offering to the Lord. It is a solemn assembly; you shall not do any ordinary work.

And

39 On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the produce of the land, you shall celebrate the feast of the Lord seven days. On the first day shall be a solemn rest, and on the eighth day shall be a solemn rest. 40 And you shall take on the first day the fruit of splendid trees, branches of palm trees and boughs of leafy trees and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your G-d seven days. 41 You shall celebrate it as a feast to the Lord for seven days in the year. It is a statute forever throughout your generations; you shall celebrate it in the seventh month. 42 You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All native Israelites shall dwell in booths, 43 that your generations may know that I made the people of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your G-d.”

Now, about this business of dwelling in booths when G-d got brought the children out of Egypt. For a time, G-d also had a booth, the tent of meeting, the Tabernacle. It was during this time while they were dwelling in the Sinai that the Ark of the Covenant was created. After the children were in the land that G-d lead them, they set up the Tabernacle and the Ark. In Shiloh. And there it remained until the first Temple was built in Jerusalem. It was to Shiloh back then that the people journeyed three times a year with their offerings. It was there that for 369 years in the 11th and 12th century B.C.E. that Jewish spiritual life was centered.

In 957 B.C.E. King Solomon began construction of the Temple on the site chosen by his Father, King David. David has chosen the spot in Jerusalem where Avraham had been prepared to offer up his son. Before King David ruled from Jerusalem, he was anointed king and ruled from Hebron. For the next 400 or so years Jews were able to go to the Temple in Jerusalem. That ended in 597 B.C.E. when Nebuchadnezzar began the siege of Jerusalem. Little point of interest about Hebron, it is the site of the oldest Jewish community in the world

So, the command is to go to Jerusalem for the festival of Sukkot. The Temple, Beit HaMikdash has been there since 957 B.C.E. And it was on that spot that the Second Temple was built.

Islam was created in the 7th century. C.E.

And this concludes the history portion of our column.

Back-story is good though.

So it is with great shock, I tell you…..forget that. There is no shock on this end. Not a shred. But I will still tell you UNESCO has decided that there is NO connection to the Jewish people on the Temple Mount, Beit HaMikdash. And the Uninformed Nitwits Erroneously Spouting Complete Ordure, (UNESCO), wrote up their little proposal in which they said the Temple Mount AND the Western Wall are EXCLUSIVELY a muslim holy site. They put their Jewish Hebrew names in brackets, making it seem as though it was not valid, just a claim someone made.

Do you ever feel like you just woke up in the middle of a Twilight Zone episode?

The response was pretty quick from some. Most Israeli politicians responded at once. In America Senator Ted Cruz and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen were joined by Jerrold Nadler in sending a letter from many in Congress to the UNESCO executive board condemning the decision and urging opposition. And to get their heads out, never mind, to get their heads on straight. While most of the world was outraged the F.A., the Falestinian Authority expressed pleasure with the announcement. No shock there.

Let me ask a question here, if mohammerhead tied his horse to the Western Wall, which is a retaining wall from the JEWISH temple, where do muslims think the wall came from he tied his horse to? Apparently mohammerhead had never taught his horses to ground tie.

So, if this piece of ordure resolution had been allowed to stand, let me tell you what it would look like. Currently on the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism, Jews and Christians are not allowed to pray. Only muslims are allowed to pray there. There are ten gates for muslims to enter. Only one for Jews and Christians, and you will stand in line to be allowed in, you can be thrown off for any or no reason. Because the Al Aqsa mosque is located there. Why?

Over the centuries, the Muslims who eventually took control of Jerusalem built two mosques on the Temple Mount, the site of the two Jewish Temples. (This was no coincidence; it is a common Islamic custom to build mosques on the sites of other people’s holy places.) Since any attempt to level these mosques would lead to an international Muslim holy war (jihad) against Israel, the Temple cannot be rebuilt in the foreseeable future.

Now you understand a bit more why the muslims wanted to build a mosque on the site of the twin towers, at ground zero?

Now, at the Western Wall, which is under Israeli control, Jews, Christians and muslims are allowed to just walk up and pray. You might have to wait for a spot to get to the wall, but that is determined by how many people are there, and how long it takes them to walk away from a spot. People just kind of line up behind people standing far enough back as to be respectful.

For a bit more on the political climate at the Temple Mount this is a good article.

But let us go back even a bit further. Let’s take a look at Hebron, shall we? Where King David ruled before he relocated to Jerusalem. In Hebron you will find the Cave of Machpelah. It is the world’s most ancient Jewish site and the second holiest place for the Jewish people. The cave is divided into three rooms, Jews and Christians have no access to the largest room except 10 days a year. Would you like to go to the cave? You will only be able to go with armed Israeli guards to protect you. You see, the muslims, the pieceful Falestinians have control of this site as well.

Now let’s go back a little further, to Shiloh. Shiloh is located in Shomron. And Shomron and Judea are what some people call the “West Bank”. It is not the West Bank, it is Judea and Shomron, or Samaria if you will. It is not “occupied territory”. It is in Israel, and there are Jews living in Israel, and some of them live in Judea and Shomron, Samaria. Caroline Glick had a column out recently regarding, basically, Israeli sovereignty. I don’t know of any other country in the world that has to justify building homes in their country. They do not have to justify to the UN, the US, the EU or anyone else when they build homes, they just do so. Part of Caroline’s column pointed out that Israel is going to have to change how it looks at things, and how it approaches solutions.

For a generation Israel’s governments have rejected the idea that we can succeed if we resist the UN. It is time that we abandon this defeatist attitude and work diligently to broker deals with member states to reduce the room for Obama and Clinton, if she is elected, to maneuver against us in the Security Council.

And

Over the past eight years of the Obama Administration, US condemnations of Israeli construction beyond the 1949 armistice lines, including in Jerusalem, have become steadily more obsessive.

This has been part of an unambiguous policy to delegitimize Israel in America. Until Obama entered the White House in 2009, there was a clear difference between the attitudes of Europe and the attitude of the United States towards us. Under Obama we have witnessed the Europeanization of American attitudes towards the State of Israel.

So far, Obama’s efforts have only been successful in the Democratic Party. Party activists have worked hand in hand with anti-Israel movements, most notably the BDS movement. In addition, several Democratic lawmakers have shown their willingness to abandon Israel, and that number is growing.

And it’s working. I recently worked a Ethnic event where many countries come together in a park, we have food sometimes, and sometimes our dance group comes and performs, usually some goodies from Israel to sell, maps, brochures and other information we give out and we answer questions. This was our first time to have some of our goods from Lev HaOlam. I was sitting there minding the table and watching people when a lady came up to the table, took a look at me, and our table and asked “how many mooooslims go to your church”? You ask the girl with the big Magen David on her shirt how many mooooslims (that’s how she said it, drawing out the ooooo) go to her “church”? Lady, you are a bit confused on your religions aren’t you? Told her none, moooooslims go to mosques. I explained this is a cultural event, not a religious event. There were people there from many countries. The point is the country the culture, our table was sponsored by the JCC, not a particular Synagogue. She then informed me that Israel is a mooooslim country. I kid you not. I informed her “It is the ONE JEWISH state in the world, and it IS JEWISH”. I perhaps was a bit adamant. She said there were more moooooslims living there than Jews. No, there aren’t.

This is a battle, and it’s not about “co-existing”. If you think it is re-read the part about how other religions that have ties to the Temple Mount, Har HaBeit, are allowed to worship there. They aren’t. Read the part about Hebron again, how others can go see the holy sites without armed guards, they can’t. You can not “co-exist” with someone that wants to wipe you out.

So here it is, Sukkot, one of the three pilgrimages when we are suppose to go to Har HaBeit. And UNESCO says it’s not Jewish.

They did back off, apparently even the Director made a statement.

UNESCO chairman Michael Verbes said, “I am aware of the connection between Israel and Jerusalem, and I will never deny it. Jerusalem’s Old City and its walls are a UNESCO world heritage site since 1982, and have been recorded as being holy to three religions. This is our stance on the issue, and it trumps all decisions that the principal committee has recently made.”

The UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova also spoke out against it, though not very strongly. Even this tepid defense of Israel has earned her death threats. She now had additional protection.

But in this article lies a key to part of the problem.

Education Minister Naftali Bennett was unimpressed by Bokova’s statement, however, saying it was not enough.

“The Al Aqsa Mosque [or] Al-Haram al-Sharif, the sacred shrine of Muslims, is also the Har HaBayit – or Temple Mount – whose Western Wall is the holiest place in Judaism,” Bokova said in a statement Friday, according to Haaretz.

No, no it isn’t Naftali. Har HaBeit is. The Western Wall is just the closest we can get to Har HaBeit right now because Moshe Dayan handed it over to the muslims. And that’s why we can’t go there for Sukkot.

But this is about far more than Sukkot, this is about a world that is buying a historically false narrative that Jews didn’t live in Israel. It’s about erasing the past so it’s easier to erase the present. It’s about attacks on Jews living in their historic homelands of Judea and Samaria and those attacks being excused by the world, the mainstream media and the democrat party as “justified” or perhaps understandable because they lived in “settlements”. They lived in the “occupied territories”. So, democratic party, liberals, media, UN, EU and UNESCO, where exactly is it you think Jews should be allowed to live. Because the same attacks in Judea, Shomron and Hebron are being carried out in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Yafo. Where is it that you think we should be allowed to build our Sukkah?

Crickets.???

Well, here’s the deal. Sukkahs are up, prayers are being said, meals are being eaten and conversation is taking place. It’s a joyous festival. So as far as UNESCO, US liberals and democrats, EU and UN? Chag Sukkot Samach, now get out of my Sukkah!

Bibi & barry discuss Sukkot
Bibi & barry discuss Sukkot
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Dear World

I’ve decided to try to be creative. I made ya’ll a movie. The reading was part of a radio program and then I spent time collecting pictures I thought would go well with each part and tried to make the timing on the photo and the reading come out right. Yeah, I love ya’ll that much. So this is my first, and possibly only, multimedia video column.

Not long after I heard this recitation as part of Walter Bingham’s radio show I heard about some Jewish leaders in Rhode Island who are lobbying some of the pro-self defense legislators in the state to make it easier for criminals to attack defenseless people. They felt that if good, law-abiding citizens did not have the means to defend themselves and criminals were aware of that, then crime rates would surely drop. That children would be safer as they watched their parents attacked, unable to have the means to mount an effective defense of themselves and their children. Well, perhaps I’m paraphrasing a bit, a little.

But I was sad to hear this. Like I said, after having heard the recitation, and hearing the cries for more defenseless victims I can only shake my head. There are those that think they can find logic in why some are attacked. Dafna Meir was attacked because she lived in Otniel. No, she was attacked because she was Jew living in Israel. The horrible photos are from the Har Nof Synagogue massacre. Not to mention Hevron. There have been attacks on Churches, Synagogues and Jewish Community Centers in the U.S. And law enforcement have managed to stop some before they happen. I read a column that says ISIS now has a hit list of 15,000 people in the U.S. One entire church is on it. Some of the people have been notified by the FIB FBI that they are targets, many have not and the list is not publicly available. I guess what with covering for Hillary and all, it takes away from the time available to let people know they are targeted by ISIS. In the article it talks about an attack that was recently thwarted at a large church in Detroit.

But as I listened to the speaker, and thought about the images I could put with the reading I can’t help but wonder if those community leaders calling for defenseless victims shouldn’t do a brief review of history, at the least a brief review of Israeli history. Seems like there is an old saying. Something about “Those who ignore the past….”

So, without further ado, your movie….סרת

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