December 19, 2012

3rd Intifada and what it means.



So the 3rd Intifada starts and what does this mean for Israel?

More terrorism in more places..the battle for Judea and Samaria intensifies.

So the 3rd Intifada starts and what does this mean for the U(Arab)N?

Nothing unless they decide to help fund it publicy this time.

 So the 3rd Intifada starts and what does this mean for the US?

The graphic images of more Arab/Muslim terror will distract the POTUS even more
from the failed T.S.S. goal...

So the 3rd Intifada starts and what does this mean for World Opinion?

It will not help Israel as it will only emphasize the fraudulent Arab/Muslim victimiazation program as being legitamite. No normal people could be this evil without provocation? right?

United (Arab) Nations Resolutions on Israel..not Syria?





The U(A)N continues to attack Israel, yet nothing on Syria. Syria has killed ...35,000 to 45,000 of its OWN citizens and the U(A)N says NOTHING.

The U(A)N continues to show itself to be a racist anti-World organization.
They exist only to destroy Israel.

Bibi - Withdraw from the U(A)N and let the POTUS know he needs to also, and also
to expel the U(A)N from North America.

Avi

December 18, 2012

Pollard Still Imprisoned After 27 Years: An Object Lesson for Jews?

pollard jewish

Highly redacted CIA document about Jonathan Pollard case. Click for larger version.



Highly redacted CIA document about Jonathan Pollard case.

I haven’t written about Jonathan Pollard in a while. I’m prompted to do so again by two things: a recent news report that Pollard was taken to the hospital after collapsing in his cell (he is now back in jail), and the release today of formerly classified documents about his case.

Pollard, a Navy intelligence analyst, was arrested for passing classified information to Israel in 1985 and sentenced in 1987 to life imprisonment, when the government reneged on a plea deal. The judge in the case ruled after receiving confidential information about the damage that Pollard’s spying allegedly caused from former Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger.

Weinberger’s memo to the court has now been declassified, but unfortunately the content that persuaded the judge to send Pollard to prison for life has been redacted, so we still don’t know exactly what Pollard is supposed to have done that justified his hugely disproportionate sentence. You can read more about the case here.

Some commentators think that Pollard was accused of being the source of information which led to the deaths of American agents at the hands of the Soviet KGB, when in fact this was provided by traitors Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen. But this can’t be determined from what’s left of Weinberger’s memo.

One interesting item that appears in the declassified documents are details about some of what Pollard provided:
The documents provided information on PLO headquarters in Tunisia; specific capabilities of Tunisian and Libyan air defense systems; Iraqi and Syrian chemical warfare productions capabilities (including detailed satellite imagery); Soviet arms shipments to Syria and other Arab states; naval forces, port facilities, and lines of communication of various Middle Eastern and North African countries; the MiG-29 fighter; and Pakistan’s nuclear program. Also included was a U.S. assessment of Israeli military capabilities.
The government has not provided any additional information that makes the reasons for keeping Pollard in prison clear. While he certainly is guilty of transmitting classified information to an ally, his is the only case of this kind that has resulted in a life sentence. I can’t believe, if the government actually has information to justify the sentence, that it could not be provided in a manner that would be convincing without revealing damaging secrets.

There are at least two other possible reasons for not releasing Pollard that come to mind: either:
  1. Pollard knows something which still, after 27 years, would embarrass the CIA or some other government entity or official; or,
  2. The administration believes that it is absolutely necessary to send a message that Jewish disloyalty will be treated with maximum harshness.
I’m going with number 2.

No peace, except by war

What does it take to beat Jews with metal clubs? It takes Israeli police, and it happened in Amona.
It is the stereotyped image of a Nazi or a Ukrainian smashing a Jew. Jews proved not to be inferior to Nazis in smashing their brothers. Are we brothers? Do we share values, religion, and goals? Do we even understand Jewishness similarly? What makes us brothers?
Would we address a Jewish murderer or rapist as “my brother”? As a traitor? The universal Jewish brotherhood is a convenient fiction of anti-Semites and Israeli rulers.
On other hand, the happenings in Amona were moderate. The police did not shoot at the crowd or maim the demonstrators. Girls were intimidated, but not significantly assaulted sexually. The protesters were charged with horses, but not overrun. Few were arrested for considerable time: the clear crime of opposing the police went unpunished. Our adversaries feel somewhat restrained by the idea of Jewish brotherhood. We should use that.
The Israeli government is not ready for large-scale violence against Jews. The media tolerates sporadic suppression of the nationalists, but continual clashes would undermine the government’s international credibility. Many people, foreign Christians included, support the Jewish idea rather than the Israeli government. Conservative Jews could exploit the government’s restraint twofold.
First, mobilize whatever media we can, down to the blogs; create an outcry, however squeaky, against the government’s oppression of the Jewish idea. Second, press the government. Taking a few club blows isn’t a major thing—many other Jews have suffered much more for their faith and ideals.
People obey moral restraints until they have been broken once or twice; then restraints fall. It is hard to kill one’s first enemy—the subsequent are easier. Similarly, the Jews will find it hard to disobey the government the first several times. Then, the situation will change. The protesters will know that opposing the government is possible and not very dangerous. The government’s credibility and deterrence factor will dwindle. Nationalist policemen will not hide their approval of the victorious protesters.
Many political leftists oppose economic leftism. Israeli conservatives could attract them with our free-market agenda, which is especially relevant against the background of Israeli socialism.
Leftists should be systematically shamed out of the Israeli army and police because they ostensibly repress the Arabs. Conservatives should hold incessant vigils demanding prosecution of the policemen who behaved cruelly against settlers. It is a must to undermine the resolve of the police to break the defense of “illegal” settlements.
Amona was defended in Boy Scout fashion. The next clash with the government should be organized professionally, in “no step back” mode. The defenders need not come barehanded; clubs must be met with clubs, horses with horses, bulldozers with tractors, and firearms must be answered in kind.
The Israeli government is ripping the Jewish idea apart piece by piece: Sinai, Palestinian Autonomy, Gaza, and Judea and Samaria. Otherwise decent Jews think every time that “it’s not the end,” and do nothing. No concession to the government is too small. Zero tolerance of government encroachment on Judaism is the only winning strategy. When the police arrest activists, thousands of other Jews must block the police station until the prisoners are unconditionally released. They cannot arrest all of us, nor could they force employers to fire so many people.
Russian revolutionaries killed the tsar and various ministers. Irgun killed Jewish traitors. The nationalist Jews cannot settle for peaceful opposition.

Wrong, not wrongheaded....

Leftist idealists pursue their slogans of democracy and peace. They abandon reality, or rather, they warp reality to conform to their theories. In the face of overwhelming and murderous Arab hostility they imagine moderate Arabs and designate them as peace partners.


Aren’t the conservatives similarly guilty of twisting the facts to suit their ideological needs? Probably not. Conservatives come in various ideological flavors: religious, nationalist, and militarist, to name a few. They share a common denominator: a sense of reality and the understanding that it cannot easily be changed by human efforts.
For all of human history, peace has only been achieved as a result of war or the threat thereof. Religions and civilizations have clashed, states have fought and violated peace treaties. To imagine that the nature of societies has changed drastically in our time, to attempt to outfox history, to rely on goodwill, is leftism.
Conservatives could envisage the Jewish state differently: as a religious Judea, as a Middle Eastern hegemony, as a military superpower, or as a neutral economic paradise. Those differences of opinion would surface and clash. For now, conservatives agree in their opposition to the unrealistic policies of leftist Israeli rulers. Whether the government objectives of a secular, peaceful Israel are correct or not, the policies employed to achieve them are wrong. They are divorced from reality and lead us nowhere.

http://samsonblinded.com/blog/wrong-not-wrongheaded.htm

December 14, 2012

Avi Leiberman Resigns...

So are all Israeli politicians corrupt or is it something else?

Is there a controlling faction that either controls the Police, Media or both that tries to control
Israelis leader into policy based on blackmail. Blackmail about fantasy they can make stick or in some cases
(or all) truths?

The list of indicted Israeli leaders is crazy...

Who is calling the shots?

Avi

Temple Mount - Muslim Rioting...

So there are threats of Muslim violence on the TM,  and they restrict Jews from the TM?
Why, what are they afraid of? Is Israel worried that the world will see how horrible the Muslims are?
If the Muslims threaten violence....why are they not banned from the TM?

Israel is always worried about the Arab/Muslim/Nazi's concerns and feelings.. what about the Jews?
The TM is part of Israel and should be treated accordingly. How does this weak Israeli Government let
 these cretins get away with this? Makes Israel look weak? As if even we don't believe we are entitled to
the land Hashem gave us to take care of.....

When the Arab/Muslim/Nazi's riot arrest and deport them! Period. Bye Bye!
When the Arab/Muslim/Nazi's throw rocks at Police/IDF arrest and deport them! Period. Bye Bye!
When the Arab/Muslim/Nazi's use mob violence arrest and deport them! Period. Bye Bye!

Ruthless is the only policy to win the war.

When will Israel wake up?

December 12, 2012

Jews Warned Not to Wear Kippot, Stars of David in Copenhagen

Officials in Denmark have warned Jews to avoid openly wearing Jewish and religious symbols, amid increasing anti-Israel sentiments.

Israeli and Jewish officials in Denmark on Wednesday warned Jews to avoid openly wearing religious symbols and dress when moving about Copenhagen amid rising anti-Israeli sentiments.
"We advise Israelis who come to Denmark and want to go to the synagogue to wait to don their skull caps until they enter the building and not to wear them in the street, irrespective of whether the areas they are visiting are seen as being safe," Israel's ambassador to Denmark, Arthur Avnon, told AFP.



Read More:

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/163092#.UMiu-6yulI4

December 11, 2012

Making Israel a Jewish State

Hezbollah does not fight now to destroy Israel. Rather, it fights on behalf of the “oppressed” Palestinians. Eliminate Hezbollah now, and another guerilla group will come in its stead. Someone will always stand up for their oppressed brethren.
And truly they are oppressed. They live in a state that proudly proclaims itself Jewish, whose national anthem— The Hope—is Jewish, and which welcomes Jewish, not Arabs immigrants.
It would take only fifty miles’ resettlement of the Palestinians to let both Jews and Arabs live in their own monocultural states. True, no one wants to be evicted, or even relocated to a nearby house, but sometimes there are no options. Palestinians are not some idyllic pastoral farmers for whom life is centered on the ancestral land plot. They travel to study and to work like people in any other state. They will not enjoy relocation and the loss of work opportunities in Israel, but Greek Turks, Turkish Greeks, and Polish Germans hardly enjoyed their relocation, either; yet it produced lasting peace. Modern Israel is a new state. No new state was ever founded without relocation of the locals. Transferring them fifty miles with full compensation for their property is generous without precedent. That generosity is counterproductive because it transfers the issue from statehood to the moral plane. The relocation, normal by the standards of statehood, is outrageous if only the moral context is considered. The world had no problem with Israel prompting 600,000 Palestinians to leave in 1948. That was an understandable affair in a recognizable pattern of military action and the formation of a state. Now, when Israelis implore the Palestinians to get away to Jordan and offer to pay for their transfer, that does not seem like a recognizable action of a state, and foreigners evaluate Israeli actions in a different cognitive framework, that of peaceful neighborly morality. In that framework, out of the actual context, the relocation of Palestinians does not stand up to scrutiny.
Even the secularists, who attempt to define Jewishness in terms of living in Israeli democracy, accept that Jewish and Muslim cultures are fundamentally different. Even tolerant Western societies like France or America attempt to integrate Muslim immigrants. Behind the weasel word integration is a simple thing: Muslims are different, and their Western hosts do not want to tolerate such diversity. Why should Israel? The Jews did not occupy the Middle East and exile or degrade its population. No, the Jews densely settled a minuscule place. Canada, Switzerland, and many other countries are administratively divided along ethnic lines; culture and nationality preserve their importance in the cosmopolite world. Some Christian sects in America live in their own communities without strangers, and possess more land than the Jewish state. Red Indians have full autonomy in their lands; are the Jews less distinct than Indians? Having carved out a small place for themselves, the Jews do not want to share it with aliens, hostile or not.
Russian Orthodox Christians staunchly defended their brethren in Yugoslavia. It is natural to favor one’s kin, genetic or cultural. Kin is expected to help us against the others, and we help it, too. People compete in groups, and kin is the least arbitrary group. People of the same culture are predictable and can be trusted; they share goals and enemies, and thus interests
How odd is it for a religious group to have its own state? Ask the Vatican. Britain requires of its citizens absolute conformity with the principles of the Magna Carta, and America with the Bill of Rights. Those who do not believe in the justice of those principles, and are not prepared to observe them without believing, should move. And so it is in Israel. How odd is it to fight for religion? Much less odd than training until exhaustion for years or decades, preparing for some sports competition and staking hopes on a meaningless prize.

Making a god in their image

Some like to picking and choose from the Torah, twisting it in a way that goes beyond mere interpretation, creating a religion of convenience. Their “Judaism” of love and compassion is stripped of textual proof and rejects the proofs to the contrary which abound in the Bible. Their religion is no different from Christianity, and often much narrower. To observe such basic ethical rules, one need not be Jewish, or even religious. They will assimilate as scores of Jewish sects have done before.

Many Jews, lured by Reform and Conservative scams, would lose their Jewishness, assimilate, and cease to be Jews. Some would opt for recognizable, solid theology, even if it is associated with the corrupt Orthodox establishment. A resurgence of religion has taken place among many nations; surely it could occur among Jews. Jews have tried the religions of socialism and democracy, the idols of Lenin and Stalin, and the transcendent goal of Zionism. None have worked, and they should return to the proven values, or rather symbols. Few study Judaism, while many accept it as a mascot to gather around and dissolve in the like-minded crowd.

Read More:

http://samsonblinded.com/blog/making-a-god-in-their-image.htm

When Christmas and Hanukkah Crashed

For the first time in my life, I was the only Jew in the group.


My winter break when I was 15 was a turning point in my life, although I had no idea it was coming. My dad took me and my brother to a ski resort in Canada where we enrolled in a week long ski school to improve our jumps and form. The teenagers in our group were from all over the world, and most of them were far better skiers than we were. But we kept up with the grueling exercises, skiing down mogul lined slopes with one ski and preparing for the final race scheduled for the last day of ski school.
Most of the kids were friendly, but for the first time in my life, I was the only Jewish girl in the whole group. My life had been pretty sheltered. I went to a Jewish day school in New York, lived in a mostly Jewish neighborhood and went to Jewish summer camps. I wasn't used to being the odd one out.

It was also one of those years when Christmas and Hanukkah coincided, so while everyone was discussing their Christmas plans, my brother and I pretended not to hear as we adjusted our boot settings. And we avoided eye contact with the instructor who asked us whether we were coming to the party that night. I thought about the little silver menorah in the living room of our chalet, and about the blessings that we would say that night.
That afternoon in the ski lodge I warmed my hands next to the fire and stared at the enormous pine tree decorated with hundreds of lights and shiny gold ornaments. I had never really looked closely at a Christmas tree before, and I was surprised by how beautiful it was. The lights were simply mesmerizing, and when one of the girls who I had been skiing with that day sat down next to me and asked if I was coming to the party that night, I began to reconsider. I didn't have to drink or eat anything. I could light the menorah with my family and then hang out with my ski class for a while. It seemed like it would be anti-social not to go, and there wasn't anything technically wrong with going to the party, was there?

Read More:

http://www.aish.com/print/?contentID=181977481&section=/h/c/s/g

Chanukah: A Generation in Need of Rededication

The strength and numbers of Orthodox Jews in America has never been greater, and yet any of us concerned with Judaism’s future must admit that we confront a future no less frightening than the future that was evident to Hannah’s noble sons in Modi’in all those centuries ago.
Then, Jewish ritual and belief was crushed by a dominant Greek culture that had been imposed upon but–let’s be honest–a culture gladly borne by the Jewish populace. As much as we might want to argue otherwise, we must wrestle with the understanding that the majority of the Jews of the Hasmonean Era embraced Greek culture.
While in America there is no military or cultural imposition that demands a compromise of Jewish values or practice, there is no less of an embrace of the larger, secular, non-Jewish culture.
The sad fact is, we are losing many of our children.
To believe otherwise is to willfully place blinders upon our eyes and shackles upon our hearts. Anyone who is honest and who works with Orthodox teens, even those who have received a yeshiva (Jewish day school) education, knows that too many do not find meaning, fulfillment or purpose in Judaism. They do not feel the beauty of Judaism, or the power of the halachot (laws). Instead, they chafe against a “lifestyle” they feel is restrictive and complain that being religious simply is not “fun.”


Read More:

http://www.ou.org/life/parenting/chanukah-generation-in-need-rededication-eliyahu-safran/#.UMed0ayulI4

Israeli 8th Graders’ Math Scores Ahead of All Western Democracies

Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar at a Press conference in 2010, defending his decision to raise teachers' salaries by 42%.
Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar at a Press conference in 2010, defending his decision to raise teachers' salaries by 42%.
Photo Credit: Abir Sultan/Flash 90
Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar on Tuesday morning presented data from international tests TIMSS (math and science) and PIRLS (literacy) of the The International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA).

The tests examine the abilities of eighth graders in science and mathematics as well as the capabilities of fourth graders in literacy.

According to current statistics, in mathematics, Israeli eighth graders have risen from 24th to seventh place in the world. Korea is in first place, followed by Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, Russia and Israel. This makes Israeli eighth graders the best in math in the entire western world.

Science tests show Israeli eighth grade students rising from 25th to the 13th in the world. Israeli fourth graders reading tests came up from 31st to 18th in the world.

Read More:

http://www.jewishpress.com/news/israeli-8th-graders-math-scores-ahead-of-all-western-democracies/2012/12/11/0/?print

Chanukah 2012: Guide for the Perplexed

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Photo Credit: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90
Based on Jewish Sages

1.  Chanukah is the only Jewish holiday which commemorates a Land of Israel national liberation struggle, unlike Passover (the Exodus from Egypt), Sukkot/Tabernacles & Shavouot/Pentacost (on the way from Egypt to the Land of Israel), Purim (deliverance of Jews in Persia), etc. Chanukah is the longest Jewish holiday (8 days) with the most intense level of Light (8 consecutive nights of candle lighting).

2.  The key Chanukah developments occurred, mostly, in Judea and Samaria: Mitzpah (also Prophet Samuel's burial site), Beth El mountains (Judah's first headquarters), Beth Horon (Judah's victory over Seron), Hadashah (Judah's victory over Nicanor), Beth Zur (Judah's victory over Lysias), Ma'aleh Levona (Judah's victory over Apolonius), Adora'yim (a Maccabees' fortress), Elazar & Beit Zachariya (Judah's first defeat), Ba'al Hatzor (Judah defeated and killed), the Judean Desert, etc. Unified JerUSAlem was the Capital of the Maccabees.  Chanukah is not a holiday of "occupation." Chanukah highlights the moral-high-ground of Jews in their ancestral land.
Read More:

http://www.jewishpress.com/blogs/the-ettinger-report/chanukah-2012-guide-for-the-perplexed/2012/12/10/?print

Rice’s Failure in Rwanda Precludes her from Becoming Secretary of State


U.S. ambassador to the UN Susan Rice
U.S. ambassador to the UN Susan Rice
That Susan Rice either willfully misled the American people on the Benghazi attacks, or lazily absorbed intelligence briefings without the least bit of personal involvement, is obvious. That she was covering for the Obama Administration in denying a terror attack just weeks before the election is speculative but likely. That she does not, therefore, deserve to become Secretary of State is arguable.

But what is not arguable is that she deserves to be denied the post for a different reason altogether: Rwanda. What emerges when taken together – Rice’s weak response in Benghazi, blaming the murder of four Americans on a stupid video, and her shameful lack of action in the Rwandan genocide – is a career diplomat of singular weakness, lacking the spine or muscularity to assert American moral influence in the world.

Rice was part of Bill Clinton’s National Security Team whom in 1994 refused any involvement whatsoever in the Rwanda genocide leaving more than 800,000 men, women, and children to be hacked to death by machete in the fastest genocide ever recorded. The Clinton Administration had just been spooked by the Black Hawk down incident in Somalia and wanted no further foreign entanglements. But the lengths to which they went to deny assistance to the Tutsis, with Rice being central to the decision-making process, will forever live in infamy.
Read More:

http://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/columns/america-rabbi-shmuley-boteach/rices-failure-in-rwanda-precludes-her-from-becoming-secretary-of-state/2012/12/10/?print

December 7, 2012

Reporter Alan Elsner Leaving Pro-Israel Group for ‘Ideologically Better Suited’ J Street

Former Reuters reporter and former pro-Israel activist Alan Elsner.
Former Reuters reporter and former pro-Israel activist Alan Elsner.
Photo Credit: Facebook
The Israel Project is a bi-partisan pro-Israel messaging organization with close relationships to many people spread across the Israeli political spectrum and with liberal centrist pro-Israel Democrats in the U.S. government.

TIP is perhaps best known for its polling and messaging efforts to improve Israel's image with the public, and the helicopter rides they offer foreign journalists stationed in Israel, so that the size of the country, especially in comparison to its hostile neighbors, is understood.

In what has been a stable yet rapidly-expanding organization, several changes have recently taken place at TIP that surprised the somewhat inbred pro-Israel world.

First, TIP's ubiquitous founder and president left - for good this time  - but perhaps far more shocking, the former number two at TIP has joined J Street.  Whereas TIP is focused on helping Israel improve its image throughout the world, many consider J Street to be the source of more harm to Israel's image than just about any other organization, and certainly more than any other organization which claims to be pro-Israel.

TIP was founded ten years ago by three women, one of whom became the president and remained in that position until this summer.  Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi was a communications and political consulting strategist as well as a former operative with the Democratic National Committee until she launched TIP.  After ten years, TIP grew to an organization with staff of more than 80 and with offices in three different cities - including Jerusalem - and an annual budget of up to $11 million.

The TIP Board came up with a new strategic plan last year, and Laszlo Mizrahi had already decided it was time for her to move on.
Read More :

http://www.jewishpress.com/news/reporter-alan-elsner-leaving-pro-israel-group-for-ideologicallyy-better-suited-j-street/2012/12/06/0/?print

Enlightened Reform Movement Equally Disappointed in Israel and the Palestinians

Richard J. Jacobs, Reform rabbi and president of the Union for Reform Judaism, the congregational arm of the Reform movement in North America, representing an estimated 1.5 million Reform Jews.
Richard J. Jacobs, Reform rabbi and president of the Union for Reform Judaism, the congregational arm of the Reform movement in North America, representing an estimated 1.5 million Reform Jews.
The term "Two states for two people" is beginning to emerge these days as a definition of the Jews of Israel and their recently related Jews of the United States. Yesterday we were treated to a story about an Upper West Side synagogue rejoicing in the upgrading of the Palestinian Liberation Organization to a UN member state, and today our brothers and sisters across the mighty ocean are joining with the rest of the so called "civilized nations" in condemning plans for Jews to build homes in their homeland.

Are we even related any more?
Read More:

http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/enlightened-reform-movement-equally-disappointed-in-israel-and-the-palestinians/2012/12/06/0/?print

Feiglin Davens with Minyan on Temple Mount, Arabs Silent (Video)

Moshe Feiglin davened with a minyan on Temple Mount.
Moshe Feiglin davened with a minyan on Temple Mount.
Photo Credit: Channel 10
MK to be Moshe Feiglin, who made the number 14 spot on the Likud Knesset list, on Monday morning managed to surprise many yet again when he showed up on Temple Mount with a minyan and conducted a prayer service.

For years, Israeli governments, police and, naturally, the Arab Waqf, have been preventing Jews visiting Temple Mount, warning that such an attempt on the part of Jews to connect with their father in Heaven would surely start never-before-seen riots that would sweep the Middle east in rivers of blood.

Nevertheless, despite those apocalyptic warnings, there are no actual laws on the books explicitly prohibiting prayer – because that would be a blatant violation of several Geneva conventions and UN human rights declarations, to say the least. And so the prohibitions against Jews praying at the site of our forefathers' Temple hide behind ordinances against disorderly conduct, with the cops on the spot empowered to interpret the rules as they see fit.

On Monday morning, as documented by the Channel 10 News camera, Feiglin davened with a minyan on Temple Mount and the world did not erupt in flames. Even the Muslims preferred to keep mum about it.

Feiglin's statement regarding the event was posted on his Facebook page after his primary election a week ago: "This is just the beginning, until we arrive at building the Temple on top of Temple Mount, and accomplish our goals in this land."

Looking forward to joining him next time!

VIDEO

Down With Channukah - Kahane

If I were a Reform rabbi; if I were a leader of the Establishment whose money and prestige have succeeded in capturing for him the leadership and voice of American Jewry; if I were one of the members of the Israeli Government’s ruling group; if I were an enlightened sophisticated, modern Jewish intellectual, I would climb the barricades and join in battle against the most dangerous of all Jewish holidays – Chanukah.

It is a measure of the total ignorance of the world Jewish community that there is no holiday that is more universally celebrated than the “Feast of Lights”, and it is an equal measure of the intellectual dishonesty and of Jewish leadership that it plays along with the lie. For if ever there was a holiday that stands for everything that the mass of world Jewry and their leadership has rejected – it is this one. If one would find an event that is truly rooted in everything that Jews of our times and their leaders have rejected and, indeed, attacked – it is this one. If there is any holiday that is more “unJewish” in the sense of our modern beliefs and practices – I do not know of it.

The Chanukah that has erupted unto the world Jewish scene in all its childishness, asininity, shallowness, ignorance and fraud – is not the Chanukah of reality.

Read More:

http://kahane.blogspot.com/2008/12/down-with-chanukah-december-15-1972.html

Hunting season

Hunters are often fanatical. Once a person crosses the line of terrible prohibition, he enjoys the forbidden crime wholeheartedly. Murder and violence are a strong and sweet instinct. Hunters see that the prohibition could be violated, and hunt devotedly Israeli police are the same way. The moral prohibition for a Jew to not harm another Jew is very strong. To harm a neighbor is attractive; the Torah specifically prohibits oppressing a neighbor. Like a bear who has tasted human blood, Israeli police would start hunting the right. Israeli services killed Meir and Binyamin Kahane, and Gandhi. They cooperated with Arab militants to do the job, and also with the mullahs in the Iran-Contras affair, and with the Pakistani military. Bin Laden similarly accused Israel of assassinating Azzam with the help of Arab agents. Facts tying Israelis to Sept. 11 could not be just dismissed. Kahane’s assassin organized the WTC bombing in 1993. Guards, not Yigal Amir, assassinated Rabin; clear video was censored. Rabin, his popularity dwindling, was purposefully killed in an extraordinary attempt to accuse the right and reassert the power of the leftists, all the while turning Rabin-the-scum into a martyr of peace. Baruch Goldstein, a lone shooter with three magazines, could not have killed 29 people and wounded 150; soldiers testified that they had to shoot at the crowd, and later recanted their testimonies; a weapons cache was found in the mosque, but was never investigated. They fabricated the case to accuse the right and ban Kach. The Institution and SB necessarily operate outside of legal limits, but does anyone have any idea what do the agencies do?

Read More:

http://samsonblinded.com/blog/hunting-season.htm

Don’t Just Stand There, Get Out your Candles!

The town of Ma'aleh Adumim as seen from the E1 area, with menorah up front.
The town of Ma'aleh Adumim as seen from the E1 area, with menorah up front.
Photo Credit: Yori Yanover, based on image by Olivier Fitoussi /Flash90
The cards seem to be falling, almost as planned. Our Arab neighbors asked the international anti-Israel organization, otherwise known as the United Nations, for recognition in their efforts to delete Israel from the world map. They approached the number one warrior, General Assembly, who consulted with his Defense cabinet, the Security council, which vetoed the idea, realizing the negative consequences. So the General decided to go it alone. As such, Palestine was created by General Assembly and his friends.

The key word in that last sentence is, of course, "created." From scratch. Because it never really existed. At least, not as an Arab entity. So, we’re going back to the days of "Creation" when God created the heavens, the earth, and of course, now, palestine. Israel did as expected. The UN’s greatest nemesis declared parts of "Palestine" to actually be part of Israel.

Actually, everyone already knew that the four and a half mile area labeled E1 is as much part of Israel as is Tel Aviv. The land, on the outskirts of Jerusalem, extending to Ma’aleh Adumim, is as Jewish as Rye bread. Well, almost everyone. Jodi Rudoren, in the NY Times, labels the area "contentious." Others call this "illegal Israeli settlement."

Then again, what is considered "Israeli settlement" in "conquered" "Palestinian" land? Again, Ms. Rudoren serves as a faithful messenger of world opinion. Writing about "East Jerusalem," she mentions neighborhoods such as French Hill, Ramot. Also, Har Homa, Givat HaMatos, and Pisgat Zeev.

Not too long ago, when VP Biden visited Israel, the White House flipped over when it was announced that some 1,500 new apartments would be built in Ramat Shlomo, also classified a "settlement." The plan was quickly scrapped. Until yesterday.

http://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/opinions/dont-just-stand-there-get-out-your-candles/2012/12/04/0/?print 

EU May Sanction, Boycott Israel for E-1 Building Plans

Heralding the worsening of relations between Israel and Europe, the European Union is reportedly mulling the passing of sanctions on Israel, including the restriction of marketing Israeli goods and the boycott of goods made by Jews in Judea and Samaria – as punishment for Israel’s decision to develop additional housing in areas Palestinians say should be theirs.
Following the Palestinian Authority’s unilateral request for non-member state status at the United Nations, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government announced that Israel would develop land long held by the country – currently labeled E-1 – situated between Jerusalem and the Jewish city of Maale Adumim in the Judean desert.
Europe has decried Israeli development of the land as counter to peace negotiations  European leaders have long touted as the solution to discord between Israelis and Palestinians.  The United Kingdom has threatened to recall its ambassador to Israel.   Britain, France, Spain, Swden, Denmark and Italy all called their Israeli ambassadors in to express their disapproval of Israel’s plans for growth.

Jewish Press 

Sen. Hagel Likely Obama Man at Defense, No Friend of Israel

President Barack Obama is expected to announce his nominees for secretaries of state and defense in the next two weeks, with former Republican Senator Chuck Hagel on the short list of potential choices to head the Pentagon, senior administration officials told Reuters on Tuesday.
The Republican Jewish Coalition reminded readers that, in the past, Jewish leaders have made their concerns about Hagel clear. The last time President Obama had to pick a new Defense Secretary, in 2010, a report by the Washington Jewish Week included red-flag quotes from numerous community sources – including pro-Obama Democrats:
Washington PAC Director and former AIPAC Executive Director Morris Amitay said, back then: “Hagel would be in a position to reinforce the worst aspects of the administration’s current Middle East policies, which would be very dangerous for Israel.”

Jewish Press 

The Danny Ayalon Rumor Saga Continues

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Danny Ayalon
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Danny Ayalon
Photo Credit: Miriam Alster/Flash90
With official silence still emanating out of the Yisrael Beytenu party, the rumor mill continues to grind out explanations as to why the popular Deputy Foreign Minister, Danny Ayalon, was removed from his party's list ahead of the upcoming elections.

According to Friday's Makor Rishon the reason has to do with a combination of Ayalon's media savvy, constant interaction with the news media and not always following the party line, or more specifically Liberman's exact instructions.

Makor Rishon reports that insiders say that there was tension between the two since the beginning of their term together, in part because Ayalon was popular among the foreign press due to his excellent English and personal interaction with them, and in part because of Ayalon's philosophy that the Foreign Ministry needs to interact a lot with the media in order to get their message across, while Liberman prefers to play his cards close to his chest.

Ayalon is considered one of the cutting edge politicians when it comes to using social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter.

Channel 10 had reported that Ayalon was dropped for leaking information to the press, Makor Rishon seems to confirm that this is what Liberman believed, and that over the past four years, Liberman not only excluded Ayalon from meetings, but also embedded one of his personal spokespersons into Ayalon's office whom Ayalon believed was there to report on him back to Liberman.

Sources in Yisrael Beytenu said that Ayalon knew for two days that he was probably going to be kicked out, and could have quit on his own respectfully.

Ayalon office says he was only officially informed two hours before the announcement.

Hellenism is Alive and Well in America


Canukkah-1
Sorry to spoil your Chanukah. While many people consider the leftists in Israel the Hellenists of today, the term more fittingly describes the Jews of the Diaspora who have the ability to move to Israel, but prefer to identify with the foreign country and foreign culture where they live.

This is exactly what a Hellenist is – as Webster’s Dictionary states: “A person living in Hellenist times who was Greek in language, outlook, and way of life, but was not Greek in ancestry, like a Hellenist Jew.”

This description fits the American Jew, or English Jew, or Australian Jew of today. They prefer a foreign language over Hebrew; they prefer to live in a foreign land; and they chase after foreign cultures, outlooks, and ways of living, to be just like the Americans, loving baseball, the movies, the New York Times, addicting to American TV shows, fashions, cars, Presidents, and American ambitions, just like the Hellenists did in the time of the Greeks, abandoning their holy identity as Bnei Yisrael, their own Hebrew language, their beards and Hebrew garb, to become clean shaven, tunic-wearing copies of the Greeks, going to their bawdy theaters, concerts, brothels and pubs, rushing to their sporting events held in the nude, and even extending their foreskins to hide the holy mark of their circumcisions so they would look like everyone else at the baths.

Ask any Israeli leftist what his identity is, and he will answer, an Israeli, or a Jew. Ask your average American Jew what his identity is, and he will answer, an American. This is true Hellenism. Today it’s called Americanism, that’s all.

Even the Chanukah dreidel makes this distinction clear. In the Diaspora, a kid spinning the dreidel understands that “A great miracle happened THERE.” In Israel. Not in Paris, Melbourne, or New York. He instinctively realizes that the real Jewish place is Israel. That’s where Jewish history happened, and that’s where it is unfolding today. The Jewish child naturally understands that Israel is his true home, until his parents and Hebrew school teachers and rabbis and Federations brainwash him into becoming a Hellenist like they are.

Chanukah and Purim are both holidays established by the Sages, but we only recite the joyous Hallel prayer on Chanukah. Why? Because, even though the Jews were saved on Purim, it was only a partial salvation since they were still living under the Persians in a foreign land. At the end of the dramatic victory, Ester was still living in the palace with Achashverus, the goy.

In contrast, the salvation of Chanukah and its joy were complete, for the victory led to renewed Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel and the eradication of Hellenism. Our true joy can only come when we are in the Land of Israel being our true selves, as we say in the Psalm we recite on Shabbat before Birkat HaMazone, the Grace after Meals: “When the Lord brought back the exiles to Zion, we were like those who dream. Our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongues with joyous song.” In contrast, the Sages decreed that we should recite a different Psalm during the week after eating (not that anyone bothers or wants to remember): “How can we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?”

There is no true Jewish happiness in Brooklyn or Beverly Hills. Thus, the Sages established that it be written on all Diaspora dreidels: “A great miracle happened THERE,” so that every child would know (before he was brainwashed) that true Jewish happiness, heroism, and life happens THERE, in the Land of Israel, not in foreign lands among the Greeks and their modern-day counterparts, who, instead of wearing sandals and tunics, wear Florsheims, designer sport jackets, and ties.

Happy Chanukah!

Indicators of the Road Ahead for Israel

Israeli Markava tanks returning to thier base, after morning patrol near Gaza.
Israeli Markava tanks returning to thier base, after morning patrol near Gaza.
Photo Credit: Tsafrir Abayov/Flash90
With so much turbulence about (especially now but also in the past several years), it's easy to overlook the fact that Israel has fought no wars against any Arab state since the Yom Kippur War of 1973.

As Robert Satloff notes in the first of the articles we extract below, Israel's experiences over these last four decades include "successful diplomacy with intermittent bouts of terrorism and asymmetric war against non-state actors." Looking ahead, there's more than a little reason to take a sober view of the future.

The End of the Forty-Year Peace between Israel and Arab States Robert Satloff  in the New Republic: With Hamas' strong political backing from regional states, future historians might very well view the recent Gaza conflict as the first episode of a new era of renewed inter-state competition and, potentially, inter-state conflict in the Arab-Israeli arena... The "old new Middle East" was a region of peace, trade, and regional cooperation. It reached its heyday in the mid-'90s, when Israelis were welcome everywhere from Rabat to Muscat... The "new new Middle East" is the region defined by the twin threats of Iranian hegemonic ambitions and the spread of radical Sunni extremism, where Israelis are not only unwelcome but where they are building fences along their borders to separate themselves from the fight around them... There is much the U.S. can do to postpone the return to inter-state Arab-Israeli conflict. Such a strategy begins with strengthening American-Israeli cooperation and includes such initiatives as preventing Hamas from winning a political victory over the moribund Palestinian Authority, incentivizing moderate behavior from the calculating Islamist leaders of Egypt, speeding the demise of Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria, and preventing the collapse of a wobbly Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

Hamas Tells Fatah: Let's Fight Israel Together Khaled Abu Toameh in the Jerusalem PostHamas leader Mahmoud Zahar on Monday called on Fatah to join his movement in the fight against Israel and to stop wasting time and effort with the peace process. "Our hands are extended to Fatah to join the program of [armed] resistance and the liberation of Palestine... Let's join hands and carry the rifle together."

Hizbullah TV Claims Its Rockets Can Reach Eilat  Zach Pontz in the Algemeiner: Israel's Channel 2 television broadcast a video from Hizbullah's Al-Manar TV claiming that the terror group's rockets could reach as far as Eilat. The segment, accompanied by many graphic descriptions, claimed: "Hizbullah has the following capabilities: the destruction of buildings in Tel Aviv; damage to ports and ships in the Mediterranean and the Red Sea and capability to hit specific targets with missiles on the residents and resources of Israel." Last week Hizbullah terror chief Hassan Nasrallah told a crowd: "Israel, which was jolted by Fajr-5 missiles [from Gaza] - how will it be able to endure thousands of missiles falling on Tel Aviv and other cities if it attacks Lebanon? Our campaign against Israel is from Kiryat Shmona to Eilat."

Menorah Made Up of Menorahs

Menorah Made Up of Menorahs
Photo Credit: Tsafrir Abayov/Flash90
Not exactly. What you see here is the Israeli Packer Steel Industries plant in Kiryat Malachi (yes, where the Arab missile hit an apartment a couple weeks ago), which produce steel Chanukah Menorahs for the IDF.

Last year, the company forged thirteen steel menorahs. They each weigh a little over 400 pounds and stand about 9 feet tall. They're lined up like this not so that each menorah be lighted by the "shamash" menorah, although you must admit the concept is nifty. They're standing like that waigting to be picked up by trucks for delivery to different IDF bases.

In case you were wondering, Chanukah this year starts Saturday night, December 8, after havdalah.

December 3, 2012

Reality Check: Palestine Will Remain a Non-Existent State

Arafat declared an independent Palestinian state on Nov. 15, 1988, in Algiers.
Arafat declared an independent Palestinian state on Nov. 15, 1988, in Algiers.
Originally published at Rubin Reports.

Almost to the day last Thursday, in 1988, I stood in a large hall in Algeria and saw Yasir Arafat declare the independence of a Palestinian state. And that was forty-one years, almost to the day, after the U.N. offered a Palestinian state in 1947. Twelve years ago Israel and the United States officially offered a Palestinian state as part of a compromise at deal in the Camp David summit of 2000. Arguably, despite all their errors, the Palestinian movement has made progress since those events, though it is not very impressive progress. Yet in real terms there is no real Palestinian state; the movement is more deeply divided than at any time in its history; and the people aren't doing very well.

Now the U.N. has given Palestine the status of a non-member state. The only thing that will change is to convince people even more that they are following a clever and successful strategy. They aren't.

Perhaps in 24 or 41 years there will actually be a Palestinian state.

There are two ways to respond to the General Assembly’s likely vote to so designate a state of Palestine. One of them is outrage at the absurdity of how the international system behaves. The other would be to dismiss the gesture as meaningless, even more than that, as something that will even further delay the day that a real, functioning state comes into existence.

Certainly, there are threats and dangers, for example the use by Palestine of the International Court. Or one could look at this as another step on the road to a final, I mean comprehensive, solution to the issue. Yet over all, I’ll go for disgusted and cynical as the most accurate responses.
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There are no Jewish Sectors, Only One Nation

Israelis wave flags and signs saying "Together We'll Win" during a demonstration supporting an Israeli ground operation in Gaza.
Israelis wave flags and signs saying "Together We'll Win" during a demonstration supporting an Israeli ground operation in Gaza.
Photo Credit: Oren Nahshon / Flash 90
I, like all Jews, sincerely hope that the current cease fire between Israel and Hamas will live up to its namesake. And yet, Israel still has enemies very close to its borders, and peace with them is not yet knocking at our door. In the midst of last week's war, I embarked on an emotionally profound visit to our brothers and sisters down south. The trip was planned, with the thought that they would be in need, while the rest of us should be concerned for them and yet personally find ourselves in a safer situation.

However, while down there, it seemed that it wasn't an attempt to comfort those in danger, as opposed to ourselves.

While the rockets were flying in to southern Israel daily, and creating a terrible and dangerous lifestyle for the residents of the south for nearly 12 years, this week the rockets were  reaching  as far as my own home in Gush Etzion.  Fatal rocks are thrown at an innocent women driving home, a bus blows up in Tel Aviv, and it seems that there aren't many locations in the country that are not under attack.

Going back a few years, we can add in the entire northern frontier [including Haifa] that came under attack during the days preceding and proceeding the 2nd Lebanon war. With the events in Syria of the last few weeks, it seems that almost the entire country is a target, or a highly probable potential target. It seems that Israel is at war everywhere.
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A Black Day for American Jews

Ellis Island
Today is a black day for American Jews. Why? I’m sorry to say it, but as the so-called “Palestinian Authority” is gaining entrance to the United Nations as an observer, non-voting state, the Jews of America are out playing golf or watching things on TV, instead of protesting outside the UN with all of their might. “Israel Belongs to the Jews!” their protest signs should declare. “Israel is Our State!” their banners should proclaim. But, except for the few regulars and Rabbis who always show up at the demonstrations in NY, no one is there to protest.

In the upcoming Torah portion regarding the casting of Yosef into a pit, the Torah notes: “And the pit was empty, there was no water in it.” Our Sages inform us that there wasn’t water, but there were snakes and scorpions. A vacuum doesn’t stay empty. The same is true of the Land of Israel. If the Jews of the West had responded to the calls of the Zionist Movement and come on mass aliyah, especially with the founding of the State of Israel, the Land wouldn’t have filled up with snakes and scorpions.

Now these same snakes and scorpions are demanding that the United Nations recognize that Israel is their homeland, and the Jews of America sit at home and watch on TV (a least a fraction of them, since the vast majority our totally lost), and they shake their heads and say, “The Government of Israel is to blame. They should have annexed all of the territory… they never should have agreed to Oslo….”, when, in truth, it is they themselves who are to blame for not having said good-bye to comfortable America, and France, and England, and South Africa, and Mexico, and Canada, and Australia, and returned to the Jewish Homeland to reclaim it for the Jews.

Read More:

A Black Day For American Jews...

Jewish Destiny Or Iron Dome?

Feiglin-Moshe
After the Pillar of Defense cease-fire, many now understand what we understood after the Zo Artzeinu demonstrations: The Israeli crisis is not on the continuum between Right and Left. It is on the continuum between Israelis and their Jewish identity.

We knew exactly where the Oslo Accords would lead. The huge amount of people who answered Zo Artzeinu’s calls and blocked traffic throughout the entire country understood the reality. Ultimately, we succeeded – against all odds – in electing the Right to rule. But Zo Artzeinu refused to “cash in” politically on the tremendous public credit that it had accrued. We understood that the Right also had no solution and that it was also incapable of getting off the Oslo track.

Many are angry with Prime Minister Netanyahu for signing the cease-fire. But Netanyahu’s predicament is a precise reflection of post-Oslo Israeli society. If Netanyahu had ordered a ground invasion of Gaza, soldiers would have been killed. After a short period of time he would have pulled the troops out of Gaza without significant achievements. After all, he had no intention of remaining. The retreat after many more fatalities would have ignited much more virulent criticism.

To remain in Gaza, we must first renounce the very essence of the idea of partitioning the land of Israel. We have to internalize that this is exclusively our land. We must, on a national scale, return to the land of Israel and to our Jewish identity. We must beg for the forgiveness of the Jews expelled from Gush Katif and rebuild their towns and villages with the forces that destroyed them – and bring them back to their rightful place with an honor guard.
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Writing on the Wall, Anyone? British Soccer Fans Again Face Antisemitic Slurs

( Jewish Press )
By: JTA
Fans of a popular British soccer club spewed anti-Semitic taunts and chants at fans of a second British club whose fans are sometimes referred to as the "Yid Army."

West Ham United fans on Sunday sang anti-Semitic songs about Adolf Hitler to supporters of the home team, the Tottenham Hotspurs, and referred to the stabbing last week in Italy of a Spurs fan by a West Ham fan.

"Can we stab you every week?" and "Adolf Hitler's coming to get you," the West Ham Fans chanted during the game.

The Spurs traditionally have had a large Jewish support base in London.

The Community Security Trust, British Jewry's watchdog group on anti-Semitism and hate crimes, and its security agency called on the Football Association, the governing body of soccer in England, to take action in the wake of the anti-Semitic chanting.

The Community Security Trust sits on the Football Association's working group tackling Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia in Football. The Trust plans to introduce a discussion on how campaigns against racism in soccer can be fully extended to include anti-Semitism.

"The days of English football crowds making mass monkey noises are thankfully gone, but massed anti-Semitic chanting about Hitler and gassing was clearly heard yesterday from a loud section of West Ham fans," said Community Security Trust spokesman Mark Gardner. "We have heard such abuse against Spurs before and it risks seriously compromising the work against racism at all levels of the game."

Several people at the match and others who heard about the chants via the media lodged complaints with the Trust.

From Jerusalem – Not From New York


moshe_feiglin
Israel has a simple option in response to the UN upgrade of a "nation" bereft of history that is intent on stealing our Land to non-member state status: Immediate withdrawal from the United Nations. If the UN would know in advance that Israel would respond by withdrawal, this preposterous idea would never have gotten off the ground.

The interaction between the United Nations and the State of the Jews has become the central axis of the UN's activity. Without Israel, the UN loses its raison d'etre. From our tiny little corner of the world, from our grasshopper view of all those giants, this seems patently absurd. But a check of the subjects of the majority of Security Council deliberations and decisions makes it impossible to ignore this logic-defying phenomenon: The entire world is obsessed with a tiny state that conducts itself more honorably, democratically and morally than most of the other UN members – and contributes to the world in a vast array of spheres, more than any other country.

The UN obsession with Israel is not based on Israel's ethics or actions. It is on an entirely different plane. This is how British intellectuals described their anger at Israel to the dean of the Sapir College, Dr. Ze'ev Tzachor: "We dreamed of a place in which the Book of Books would be written anew in anticipation of the redemption of the world. For you are a treasured nation. The world had great expectations, and look what you have done." (From a Makor Rishon interview written by Meir Uziel).

Brand New Jerusalem Neighborhood to Be Approved – E-1 #2?

The first totally new Israeli-built neighborhood in eastern Jerusalem since Har Homa will soon be approved, introducing 2,610 Israeli homes to an area called Givat HaMatos.

The plan does not represent a widening out of existing Jewish neighborhoods, but rather creates something totally new.

The area is located between Beit Safafa and Talpiot.  Peace Now, which called the project a "mini-E1",  decried the decision on its website: “The new neighborhood will complete the isolation between Bethlehem and East Jerusalem, and will destroy any possibility of a territorial solution in Beit Safafa and Shurafat. The Geneva Initiative proposed border will not be possible without dismantling the new Israeli neighborhood.”

Once the plan is given final approval, construction of the homes will begin.

Peace Now noted that “it does appear that the Givat Hamatos plan may allow some expansion of the existing Palestinian neighborhood of Beit Safafa on the lands that are privately owned by Palestinians.”

About the Author: Malkah Fleisher is a graduate of Cardozo Law School in New York City. She is an editor/staff writer at JewishPress.com and co-hosts a weekly Israeli FM radio show. Malkah lives with her husband and two children on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.

Hungarian Jews to Russia: Give Us Back Our Looted Torahs

Hungarian Jewry is asking the government of Russia to release between 300 and 400 Torah scrolls, covers, crowns, pointers, and other objects seized by the Nazis during World War II and then appropriated by the Red Army.

Many of the items were taken from the Hungarian National Bank, where they were being safe kept as their owners were being murdered in concentration camps and ghettos across Europe.

Some 600,000 Hungarian Jews –one out of every ten of Hitler’s Jewish victims - were murdered by the Nazis during the war.  Approximately 100,000 Jews live in the country today, including 8,000 Holocaust survivors.

The religious artifacts are just some of the items Russia is being asked to restore to its rightful owners, including art and other valuables.

Some holy scrolls have already been released to Hungary’s State Historical Museum.  A catalog of items compiled by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany lists 344 scrolls which have been returned by Russia’s Special Archive.

The Rabbinical Council of America and the Orthodox Union “Disappointed” by UN Vote


Rabbi Shmuel Goldin
Rabbi Shmuel Goldin

On Friday, Nov 30, the RCA and the OU issued the following statement, criticizing the statement made by Palestinian Authority head Mahmoud Abbas at the United Nations General Assembly yesterday, and expressing disappointment in the vote that raised the status of the Arab Palestinians to that of nonmember observer state.
The Rabbinical Council of America (RCA) and the Orthodox Union voice their disappointment in passage of the resolution by the United Nations General Assembly upgrading the Palestinian Authority to a nonmember observer state.
The RCA and OU view this unilateral move by the Palestinian Authority as damaging to the peace process and a violation of the Oslo Accords. They believe that a settlement between Israel and the Palestinians can only come through direct negotiations.
Rabbi Shmuel Goldin, president of the RCA, and Dr. Simcha Katz, president of the Orthodox Union, stated:
“Today, at the United Nations, the global community placed peace in the Mideast further out of reach.  Today, the world saw the Palestinians’ president deliver a speech that was filled with hatred and venom against Israel; a man who truly wants peace does not speak this way.    Today, supporters of Israel are grateful to President Obama and his administration, as well as to the Congress of the United States, for their strong efforts to prevent the passage of this resolution, and we thank the other nations who stood with Israel today at the UN.”
 CORRECTION: THE HEADLINE OF THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CHANGED – THE RABBINICAL COUNCIL OF AMERICA EXPRESSED ITS DISAPPOINTMENT OVER THE UN VOTE TO UPGRADE THE STATUS OF THE PA, NOT THE RABBINICAL ASSEMBLY.

Israel Launching Rabin’s E1 ‘Nuclear Option’ in East Jerusalem Construction

Israel Launching Rabin’s E1 ‘Nuclear Option’ in East Jerusalem Construction

The late Prime Minister Itzhak Rabin visiting Maale Adumim, which he was planning to connect to East Jerusalem to guarantee a contiguous Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria.
The late Prime Minister Itzhak Rabin visiting Maale Adumim, which he was planning to connect to East Jerusalem to guarantee a contiguous Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria.
Photo Credit: Maale Adimim website
A NY Times article Saturday morning revealed that "Israel is moving forward with development of Jewish settlements in a contentious area east of Jerusalem, defying the United States by advancing a project that has long been condemned by Washington as effectively dooming any prospect of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict." The Times is right, and Washington is right to be alarmed, because once the E1 zone is built and populated, the southern and northern halves of what is popularly known as the "West Bank" will be permanently severed from each other.

Of course that ignores that Israel can build a series of bridges and tunnels to ensure contiguity, if needed.

The E1 Neighborhoold is an area of some 3000 acres, stretched between Maale Adumim and Jerusalem. The area was appended to the city by none other than the late Prime Minister Itzhak Rabin, in 1994. The planned neighborhood, Mevasseret Adumim, will consist of 4,000 housing units, according to the Maale Adumim website.
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Amid International Condemnation, Israel Selling New Apartments East of Jerusalem

An Israeli activist building a stone wall on a hill in the area known as E1, opposite the Jewish town of Maale Adumim.
An Israeli activist building a stone wall on a hill in the area known as E1, opposite the Jewish town of Maale Adumim.
Photo Credit: Kobi Gideon / Flash90
Housing and Construction Minister Ariel Atias commented Saturday night on the cabinet decision to approve the construction of 3,000 housing units in Judea and Samaria, saying in the coming days his office will start selling hundreds of new housing units in Pisgat Ze'ev.

Pisgat Ze'ev, named after Revisionist Zionist leader Ze'ev Jabotinsky, the ideological forefather of the Likud movement, is the largest residential neighborhood in Jerusalem, with a population of more than 50,000. The neighborhood was established by Israel as one of the city's five ring neighborhoods on land that was annexed after the 1967 Six Day War.

Most of the international community considers Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem illegal under international law, but the Israeli government disputes this as per the Edmond Levey report which determined that Judea and Samaria rightfully belong to Israel. This report, while not yet officially state policy, is turning into a guiding document for Israeli policy.

The U.S. opposes construction in the area because it effectively sabotages a contiguous Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
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Israel’s Response to UN Recognition of Palestine: Increased Settlements Everywhere

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leads the weekly cabinet meeting at the PM's office in Jerusalem. December 02, 2012.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leads the weekly cabinet meeting at the PM's office in Jerusalem. December 02, 2012.
Photo Credit: Alex Kolomoisky/Pool/Flash90
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, today made the following remarks at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting:

"The response to the attack on Zionism and the State of Israel must reinforce and underscore the implementation of the settlement plan in all areas in which the Government decides regarding settlement.

"These are not my words. These are the words of the government of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and this is the language of the Cabinet's 1975 decision in the wake of the UN decision that equated Zionism with racism. Today we are building and we will continue to build in Jerusalem and in all areas that are on the map of the strategic interests of the State of Israel.

"The Palestinian Authority's one-sided step at the UN constitutes a gross violation of the agreements that have been signed with the State of Israel; accordingly, the Government of Israel rejects the UN General Assembly decision."