September 30, 2009
September 25, 2009
Joseph’s Era Coins Found in Egypt
An Egyptian paper claims that archaeologists have discovered ancient Egyptian coins bearing the name and image of the Biblical Joseph.
The report in Al-Ahram boasts that the find backs up the Koran’s claim that coins were used in Egypt during Joseph’s period. Joseph, son of the Patriarch Jacob, died around 1450 B.C.E., according to Jewish sources.
Excerpts from the Al-Ahram report, as translated by Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI):
"In an unprecedented find, a group of Egyptian researchers and archeologists has discovered a cache of coins from the time of the Pharaohs. Its importance lies in the fact that it provides decisive scientific evidence disproving the claim by some historians that the ancient Egyptians were unfamiliar with coins and conducted their trade through barter.
"The researchers discovered the coins when they sifted through thousands of small archeological artifacts stored in [the vaults of] the Museum of Egypt. [Initially] they took them for charms, but a thorough examination revealed that the coins bore the year in which they were minted and their value, or effigies of the pharaohs [who ruled] at the time of their minting. Some of the coins are from the time when Joseph lived in Egypt, and bear his name and portrait.
"There used to be a misconception that trade [in Ancient Egypt] was conducted through barter, and that Egyptian wheat, for example, was traded for other goods. But surprisingly, Koranic verses indicate clearly that coins were used in Egypt in the time of Joseph...
"Research team head Dr. Sa'id Muhammad Thabet said that during his archeological research on the Prophet Joseph, he had discovered in the vaults of the [Egyptian] Antiquities Authority and of the National Museum many charms from various eras before and after the period of Joseph, including one that bore his effigy as the minister of the treasury in the Egyptian pharaoh's court…
"Studies by Dr. Thabet's team have revealed that what most archeologists took for a kind of charm, and others took for an ornament or adornment, is actually a coin. Several [facts led them to this conclusion]: first, [the fact that] many such coins have been found at various [archeological sites], and also [the fact that] they are round or oval in shape, and have two faces: one with an inscription, called the inscribed face, and one with an image, called the engraved face - just like the coins we use today.
"The archeological finding is also based on the fact that the inscribed face bore the name of Egypt, a date, and a value, while the engraved face bore the name and image of one of the ancient Egyptian pharaohs or gods, or else a symbol connected with these. Another telling fact is that the coins come in different sizes and are made of different materials, including ivory, precious stones, copper, silver, gold, etc."
The report in Al-Ahram boasts that the find backs up the Koran’s claim that coins were used in Egypt during Joseph’s period. Joseph, son of the Patriarch Jacob, died around 1450 B.C.E., according to Jewish sources.
Excerpts from the Al-Ahram report, as translated by Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI):
"In an unprecedented find, a group of Egyptian researchers and archeologists has discovered a cache of coins from the time of the Pharaohs. Its importance lies in the fact that it provides decisive scientific evidence disproving the claim by some historians that the ancient Egyptians were unfamiliar with coins and conducted their trade through barter.
"The researchers discovered the coins when they sifted through thousands of small archeological artifacts stored in [the vaults of] the Museum of Egypt. [Initially] they took them for charms, but a thorough examination revealed that the coins bore the year in which they were minted and their value, or effigies of the pharaohs [who ruled] at the time of their minting. Some of the coins are from the time when Joseph lived in Egypt, and bear his name and portrait.
"There used to be a misconception that trade [in Ancient Egypt] was conducted through barter, and that Egyptian wheat, for example, was traded for other goods. But surprisingly, Koranic verses indicate clearly that coins were used in Egypt in the time of Joseph...
"Research team head Dr. Sa'id Muhammad Thabet said that during his archeological research on the Prophet Joseph, he had discovered in the vaults of the [Egyptian] Antiquities Authority and of the National Museum many charms from various eras before and after the period of Joseph, including one that bore his effigy as the minister of the treasury in the Egyptian pharaoh's court…
"Studies by Dr. Thabet's team have revealed that what most archeologists took for a kind of charm, and others took for an ornament or adornment, is actually a coin. Several [facts led them to this conclusion]: first, [the fact that] many such coins have been found at various [archeological sites], and also [the fact that] they are round or oval in shape, and have two faces: one with an inscription, called the inscribed face, and one with an image, called the engraved face - just like the coins we use today.
"The archeological finding is also based on the fact that the inscribed face bore the name of Egypt, a date, and a value, while the engraved face bore the name and image of one of the ancient Egyptian pharaohs or gods, or else a symbol connected with these. Another telling fact is that the coins come in different sizes and are made of different materials, including ivory, precious stones, copper, silver, gold, etc."
PM Netanyahu's remarks at the U.N. General Assembly
SPEAKER: ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU
(JOINED IN PROGRESS)
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, PRIME MINISTER OF ISRAEL: The United Nations recognized the rights of the Jews, an ancient people 3,500 years old, to a state of their own in their ancestral homeland. I stand here today as the prime minister of Israel, the Jewish state. And I speak to you on behalf of my country and my people.
The United Nations was founded after the carnage of World War II, after the horrors of the holocaust. It was charged with preventing the re-occurrence of such horrendous events. Nothing has undermined that mission, nothing has impeded it more, than the systematic assault on the truth.
Yesterday, the president of Iran stood at this very podium, spewing his latest anti-Semitic rants. Just a few days earlier, he, again, claimed that the Holocaust is a lie.
Last month, I went to a villa in a suburb of Berlin called Wannsee. There, on January 20th, 1942, after a hearty meal, senior Nazi officials met and decided to exterminate my people. They left detailed meetings -- or minutes of that meeting, and these minutes have been preserved for posterity by successive German governments.
Here is a copy of the minutes of the meeting of senior Nazi officials instructing the Nazi government exactly how to carry out the extermination of the Jewish people. Is this protocol a lie? Is the German government, all German governments, lying?
The day before I was Wannsee, I was given in Berlin the original construction plans for the Auschwitz Buchenwald concentration camp. These plans -- these plans of the Auschwitz Buchenwald concentration plans, I now hold in my hand. They contain a signature by Heinrich Himmler, Hitler's deputy himself. Are these plans of the Auschwitz Buchenwald concentration camp, where one million Jews were murdered, are they a lie, too?
This June, President Obama visited another concentration camp, one of many. The Buchenwald Concentration Camp. Did President Obama pay tribute to a lie? And what of the Auschwitz survivors whose arms still bear the tattooed numbers branded on them by the Nazis? Are those tattoos a lie, too?
One-third of all Jews perished in the great conflagration of the Holocaust. Nearly every Jewish family was affected, including my own. My wife's grandparents, her father's two sisters and his three brothers and all the aunts and uncles and cousins, all murdered by the Nazis.
Is this a lie?
Yesterday, the man who calls the Holocaust a lie spoke from this podium. To those who refused to come and to those who left in protest, I commend you. You stood up for moral clarity, and you brought honor to your countries. But to those who gave this holocaust denier a hearing, I say on behalf of my people, the Jewish people, and decent people everywhere, have you no shame? Have you no decency?
A mere six decades after the Holocaust, you give legitimacy to a man who denies the murder of 6 million Jews? While promising to wipe out the state of Israel, the state of the Jews? What a disgrace. What a mockery of the charter of the United Nations.
Now, perhaps - perhaps some of you think that this man and his odious regime, perhaps they threaten only the Jews. Well, if you think that, you're wrong - dead wrong. History has shown us time and time again that what starts with attacks on the Jews eventually ends up engulfing many, many others, for this Iranian regime is fueled by an extreme fundamentalism that burst on to the world scene three decades ago after lying dormant for centuries.
In the past 30 years, this fanaticism has swept across the globe with a murderous violence that knows no bounds and with a cold-blooded impartiality in the choice of its victims. It has callously slaughtered Muslims and Christians, Jews and Hindus, and many others. Though it is comprised of different offshoots, the adherence of this unforgiving creed seek to return humanity to medieval times. Wherever they can, they impose a backward, regimented society where women, minorities, gays, or anyone else deemed not to be a true believer, is brutally subjugated.
The struggle against this fanaticism does not pit faith against faith nor civilization against civilization. It pits civilization against barbarism, the 21st Century against the 9th Century, those who sanctify life against those who glorify death.
Now, the primitivism of the 9th Century are to be no match for the progress of the 21st Century. The allure of freedom, the power of technology, the reach of communications should surely win the day. Ultimately, the past cannot triumph over the future, and our future offers all nations magnificent bounties of hope, because the pace of progress is growing, and it is growing exponentially.
It took us centuries to get from the printing press to the telephone, decades to get from the telephone to the personal computer, and only a few years to get from the personal computer to the Internet. What seemed impossible a few years ago is already outdated, and we can scarcely fathom the changes that are yet to come. We will crack the genetic code, we will cure the incurable, we will lengthen our lives, we will find a cheap alternative to fossil fuel and, yes, we will clean up the planet.
I'm proud that my country, Israel, is at the forefront of many of these advances, in science and technology, in medicine and biology, in agriculture and water, in energy and the environment. These innovations, in my country and many of your countries, offer humanity a sunlit future of unimagined promise. But if the most primitive fanaticism can acquire the most deadly weapons, the march of history could be reversed for a time. And like the belated victory over the Nazis, the forces of progress and freedom, they will prevail only after a horrific toll of blood and fortune has been exacted from mankind.
This is why the greatest threat facing the world today is the marriage between religious fundamentalism and the weapons of mass destruction. The most urgent challenge facing this body today is to prevent the tyrants of Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Are the members of the United Nations up to that challenge? Will the international community confront a despotism that terrorizes its own people as they bravely stand up for freedom? Will it take action against the dictators who stole an election in broad daylight and then gunned down Iranian protesters who died in the sidewalks, on the street, choking on their own blood? Will the international community thwart the world's most pernicious sponsor and practitioner of terrorism? Above all, will the international community stop the terrorist regime of Iran from developing atomic weapons, thereby endangering the peace of the entire world?
The people of Iran are courageously standing up to this regime. People of goodwill around the world stand with them, as do thousands of people who have been protesting and demonstrating outside this hall all of this week. Will the United Nations stand by their side?
Well, ladies and gentlemen, the jury's still out on the United Nations. And recent signs - recent signs are not encouraging. Rather than condemning the terrorists and their Iranian patrons, some here in the United Nations have condemned their victims.
This is exactly what a recent UN report on Gaza did, falsely equating terrorists with those they targeted. For eight long years Hamas fired rockets - fired those rockets from Gaza on nearby Israeli citizens - and citizens, thousands of missiles, mortars, hurling down from the sky on schools, on homes, shopping centers, bus stops - Years after - year after year as these missiles were deliberately fired on our civilians, not a single - not one UN resolution was passed condemning those criminal attacks. We heard nothing, absolutely nothing, from the UN Human Rights Council - a misnamed institution if there ever was one.
In 2005, hoping to advance peace, Israel unilaterally withdrew from every inch of Gaza. It was very painful. We dismantled 21 settlements, really, bedroom communities, and farms. We uprooted over 8,000 Israelis. We just yanked them out from their homes. We did this because many in Israel believed that this would get peace.
Well, we didn't get peace. Instead, we got an Iranian-backed terror base 50 miles from Tel Aviv. But life in the Israeli towns and cities immediately next to Gaza became nothing less than a nightmare. You see, the Hamas rocket launchers and the rocket attacks not only continued after we left, they actually increased dramatically. They increased tenfold. And, again, the UN was silent - absolutely silent.
Well, finally, after eight years of this unremitting assault, Israel was forced to respond - but how should we have responded? Well, there's only one example in history of thousands of rockets being fired on a country's civilian population. This happened when the Nazis rocketed British cities during World War II. During that war, the Allies leveled German cities, causing hundreds of thousands of casualties. I'm not passing judgment. I'm stating a fact, a fact that is the product of the decision of great and honorable men - the leaders of Britain and the United States, fighting an evil force in World War II. It is also a fact that Israel chose to respond differently. Faced with an enemy committing a double war crime, of firing on civilians while hiding behind civilians, Israel sought to conduct surgical strikes directed against the rocket launchers themselves. Now, mind you, that was no easy task because the terrorists were fighting missiles - firing their missiles from homes and from schools. They were using mosques as weapons depots, as missile caches, and they were ferreting explosives in ambulances.
Israel, by contrast, tried to minimize casualties by urging Palestinian civilians to vacate the targeted areas. We dropped countless flyers - they cannot be counted, there were so many, obviously - countless flyers over their homes. We sent thousands and thousands of text messages to the Palestinian residents. We made thousands and thousands of cellular phone calls, urging them to vacate, to leave. Never has a country gone to such extraordinary lengths to remove the enemy's civilian population from harm's way, yet faced with an absolutely clear-cut case of aggressor and victim, who do you think the United Nations Human Rights Council decided to condemn? Israel.
A democracy legitimately defending itself against terror is morally hanged, drawn, and quartered and given an unfair trial to boot. By these twisted standards, the UN Human Rights Council would have dragged Roosevelt and Churchill to the dock as war criminals. What a perversion of truth. What a perversion of justice.
Now, delegates of the United Nations, and the governments whom you represent, you have a decision to make. Will you accept this farce? Because if you do, the United Nations would revert to its darkest days, when the worst violators of human rights sat in judgment against the law-abiding democracies, when Zionism was equated with racism, and when an automatic majority could be mustered to declare that the earth is flat.
If you had to choose a date when the United Nations began its descent, almost a freefall, and lost the respect of many thoughtful people in the international community, it was that decision in 1975 to equate Zionism with racism.
Now this body has a choice to make. If it does not reject this biased report, it would vitiate itself, it would begin - or re-begin the process of vitiating itself from its own relevance and importance. But it would do something else. It would send a message to the terrorists everywhere saying terrorism pays. All you have to do is launch your attacks from densely populated areas, and you will win immunity.
And then a third thing, in condemning Israel this body would also deal a mortal blow to peace. Let me explain why. When Israel left Gaza, many hoped that the missile attacks would stop. Others believed that even if they don't stop, at the very least Israel would have made this gesture - extraordinary gesture - for peace. But it would have international legitimacy to exercise its right of self defense if peace failed. What legitimacy? What self-defense? The same U.N. that cheered Israel as we left Gaza, the same U.N. that promised to back our right of self-defense now accuses us, my people, my country, of being war criminals. And for what? For acting responsibly in self-defense? For acting in a way that any country would act with a restraint unmatched by many.
What a travesty. Ladies and gentlemen, Israel justly defended itself against terror. This biased and unjust report provides a clear-cut test for all governments. Will you stand with Israel? Or will you stand with the terrorists? We must know the answer to that question now. Now, not later.
Because if Israel is again asked to take more risk for peace, we must know today that you will stand with us tomorrow. Only if we have the confidence that we can defend ourselves can we take further risks for peace. And make no mistake about it, all of Israel wants peace. Anytime an Arab leader genuinely wanted peace with us, we made peace. We made peace with Egypt led by Anwar Sadat. We made peace with Jordan led by King Hussein.
And if the Palestinians truly want peace, I and my government and my people will make peace. But we want a genuine peace, a defensible peace, a permanent peace.
In 1947 this body voted to establish two states for two peoples, a Jewish state and an Arab state. The Jews accepted this resolution. The Arabs rejected it and invaded the embryonic Jewish state with the hopes of annihilating it. We asked the Palestinians to finally do what they refused to do for 62 years, say yes to a Jewish state. As simple, as clear, as elementary as that. Just as we are asked to recognize a nation-state for the Palestinian people, the Palestinians must be asked to recognize the nation-state of the Jewish people.
The Jewish people are not foreign conquerers in the land of Israel. It is the land of our forefathers. Inscribed on the walls outside this building is the great biblical vision of peace: Nation shall not lift up sword against nation. They shall learn war no more. These words were spoken by the great Jewish prophet Isaiah 2,800 years ago as he walked in my country, in my city, in the hills of Judea and in the streets of Jerusalem.
We are not strangers to this land. This is our homeland. But as deeply connected as we are to our homeland, we also recognize that the Palestinians also live there. And they want a home of their own. We want to live side by side with them, two free peoples living in peace, living in prosperity, living in dignity.
(APPLAUSE)
NETANYAHU: Peace, prosperity and dignity require one other element. We must have security. The Palestinians should have all the powers to govern themselves, except a handful of powers that could endanger Israel, and this is why the Palestinian state must be effectively demilitarized. I say effectively because we don't want another Gaza or another south Lebanon, another Iranian-backed terror base abutting Jerusalem and perched on the hills a few kilometers from Tel Aviv.
We want peace. And I believe that with good will and with hard work, such a peace can be achieved. But it requires, from all of us, to roll back the forces of terror led by Iran that seek to destroy peace, that seek to eliminate Israel and to overthrow the world order. The question facing the international community is whether it is prepared to confront those forces or to accommodate them.
Over 70 years ago, Winston Churchill amended what he called -- he called it the confirmed unteachability of mankind. And by that, he meant the unfortunate habit of civilized societies to sleep and to slumber until danger nearly overtakes them. Churchill bemoaned what he called -- I'm reading -- the want of foresight, the unwillingness to act when action will be simple and effective, the lack of clear thinking, the confusion of counsel until the emergency comes, until self-preservation strikes its jarring gong.
Ladies and gentlemen, I speak here today in the hope that Churchill's assessment of the unteachability of mankind is for once proven wrong. I speak here today in the hope that we can learn from history, that we can prevent danger in time. In the spirit of the timeless words spoken to Joshua over 3,000 years ago, let us be strong and of good courage. Let us confront this peril, secure our future, and, God willing, forge an enduring peace for generations to come.
(SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
Thank you very much.
END
September 24, 2009
We Are In Disarray...Or Are We?
Hello,
I am writing to you from the occupied territory of Upstate NY.
As we approach the day of Atonement, my mind wanders from personal Tsuvah to the fate of Yisrael. I will do my best on Tsuvah, but perhaps the need for Tshuvah is greatest in Israel?
Israel was deemed to be in Jewish hands as long as the HaShems Torah is followed.
It appears that what we have now is a hybrid sort of existence for the Jews of Yisrael. We live there and yet did not follow this:
Deut. 20:16-18
But from the cities of these peoples that HaShem, your G-d, gives you as an inheritance, you shall not allow any person to live. Rather you shall utterly destroy them: the Hittite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivvite, and the Jebusite, as HaShem, your G-d has commanded you, so that they will not teach you to act according to all their abominations that they performed for their deities, so that you will sin to HaShem, your G-d.
You shall not allow any person to live.
It is not to late to remove the Arabs from Yisrael. Just to begin the program will count as Tshuvah. In this day and age Yisrael can transport and pay them to leave.
Start by making it a rule that all MK's need to be Jewish period.
Then start removing them, neighborhood by neighborhood. At the same time shut off Yisrael to all non-Jews...no more Arabs allowed in to "work" etc.
No more Xtian's allowed to do more than visit. Overrun the Temple Mount and remove all non-JEWS ASAP! Notify Egypt that the Gaza East border will be shut until Yisrael begins to retake Gaza and expel the squatters.
there are many who want to do it, there are many more who will be happy to go along with it...knowing it will make them safer.
There are of course many Leftist Secular Jews that want Yisrael to be a Western country and it is well past time for them to find a Secular Country...
Moshe Feiglin has it right!
http://www.jewishisrael.org/
I am writing to you from the occupied territory of Upstate NY.
As we approach the day of Atonement, my mind wanders from personal Tsuvah to the fate of Yisrael. I will do my best on Tsuvah, but perhaps the need for Tshuvah is greatest in Israel?
Israel was deemed to be in Jewish hands as long as the HaShems Torah is followed.
It appears that what we have now is a hybrid sort of existence for the Jews of Yisrael. We live there and yet did not follow this:
Deut. 20:16-18
But from the cities of these peoples that HaShem, your G-d, gives you as an inheritance, you shall not allow any person to live. Rather you shall utterly destroy them: the Hittite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivvite, and the Jebusite, as HaShem, your G-d has commanded you, so that they will not teach you to act according to all their abominations that they performed for their deities, so that you will sin to HaShem, your G-d.
You shall not allow any person to live.
It is not to late to remove the Arabs from Yisrael. Just to begin the program will count as Tshuvah. In this day and age Yisrael can transport and pay them to leave.
Start by making it a rule that all MK's need to be Jewish period.
Then start removing them, neighborhood by neighborhood. At the same time shut off Yisrael to all non-Jews...no more Arabs allowed in to "work" etc.
No more Xtian's allowed to do more than visit. Overrun the Temple Mount and remove all non-JEWS ASAP! Notify Egypt that the Gaza East border will be shut until Yisrael begins to retake Gaza and expel the squatters.
there are many who want to do it, there are many more who will be happy to go along with it...knowing it will make them safer.
There are of course many Leftist Secular Jews that want Yisrael to be a Western country and it is well past time for them to find a Secular Country...
Moshe Feiglin has it right!
http://www.jewishisrael.org/
Just what Manhigut Yehudit has been saying all along
Israel National News: Judaism Attracts Modern Israeli Youth
Tishrei 4, 5770, 22 September 09 05:56
by Hillel Fendel
(Israelnationalnews.com) A survey of nearly 2,900 Jewish youths from around the country finds that 85% feel it is important to maintain religion and tradition.
The poll was carried out by TGI (Target Group Index) Israel, of the global TGI network of single-source market research surveys, on 2,897 young Israelis between the ages of 18 and 35. It was commissioned by L'Omek HaTodaah (To the Depth of Awareness), a public relations firm targeting youth.
The survey turned up some surprising results, especially for those who are disappointed by what appears to be an increasingly secular society. Over 71% said they plan to fast on Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), and 73% define "religious faith" as something "very important."
In addition, 84.3% say it's important to maintain religion and tradition, while nearly 60% make sure to separate meat and dairy products. Kissing the mezuzah - Torah passages affixed to the doorpost - is more popular than might be assumed; 38.5% practice this custom.
Three out of every seven - 43% - say they feel more Jewish than Israeli, and 40.4% say that bars, theaters, and the like should be closed on the Sabbath.
Ziv Poplevsky, Chairman of L'Omek HaTodaah, explained, "Despite the permissiveness and adventurousness of Israeli youth, it appears that many of them believe that there is a Jewish tradition that must be maintained and accepted. It's part of a recent trend that we call ‘pro-religion.' We see many performers, from Madonna to Evyatar Banai, who pull the crowds in this direction."
Tel Aviv's Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau attributes more significance to the findings. "I sense an increasing interest in the treasures of Judaism on the part of youth that did not grow up in the lap of Torah. Instead of grazing in foreign pastures in India, Nepal and Latin America, many of the youth are finding their way to the Jewish bookshelf and tradition."
Rabbi David Stav of the Tzohar Rabbis Organization, and rabbi of the city of Shoham, said, "We all see that there is a thirst for Judaism among the public. When I gave a talk to the public high school in Shoham, 90% of the students raised their hands when I asked who would fast on Yom Kippur - and when I asked if their parents would fast as well, far fewer hands were raised."
"There might be many reasons for this awakening," said Rabbi Stav, "including disappointment in the State institutions, disillusionment from the idols of silver and gold, or maybe even because the idols themselves returned to Judaism. But in the end there is one very simple root cause: G-d's promise that the soul will not go to waste, and will always try to awaken and rouse sparks among each of us. We are happy to be in this generation that sees this happen."
Tishrei 4, 5770, 22 September 09 05:56
by Hillel Fendel
(Israelnationalnews.com) A survey of nearly 2,900 Jewish youths from around the country finds that 85% feel it is important to maintain religion and tradition.
The poll was carried out by TGI (Target Group Index) Israel, of the global TGI network of single-source market research surveys, on 2,897 young Israelis between the ages of 18 and 35. It was commissioned by L'Omek HaTodaah (To the Depth of Awareness), a public relations firm targeting youth.
The survey turned up some surprising results, especially for those who are disappointed by what appears to be an increasingly secular society. Over 71% said they plan to fast on Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), and 73% define "religious faith" as something "very important."
In addition, 84.3% say it's important to maintain religion and tradition, while nearly 60% make sure to separate meat and dairy products. Kissing the mezuzah - Torah passages affixed to the doorpost - is more popular than might be assumed; 38.5% practice this custom.
Three out of every seven - 43% - say they feel more Jewish than Israeli, and 40.4% say that bars, theaters, and the like should be closed on the Sabbath.
Ziv Poplevsky, Chairman of L'Omek HaTodaah, explained, "Despite the permissiveness and adventurousness of Israeli youth, it appears that many of them believe that there is a Jewish tradition that must be maintained and accepted. It's part of a recent trend that we call ‘pro-religion.' We see many performers, from Madonna to Evyatar Banai, who pull the crowds in this direction."
Tel Aviv's Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau attributes more significance to the findings. "I sense an increasing interest in the treasures of Judaism on the part of youth that did not grow up in the lap of Torah. Instead of grazing in foreign pastures in India, Nepal and Latin America, many of the youth are finding their way to the Jewish bookshelf and tradition."
Rabbi David Stav of the Tzohar Rabbis Organization, and rabbi of the city of Shoham, said, "We all see that there is a thirst for Judaism among the public. When I gave a talk to the public high school in Shoham, 90% of the students raised their hands when I asked who would fast on Yom Kippur - and when I asked if their parents would fast as well, far fewer hands were raised."
"There might be many reasons for this awakening," said Rabbi Stav, "including disappointment in the State institutions, disillusionment from the idols of silver and gold, or maybe even because the idols themselves returned to Judaism. But in the end there is one very simple root cause: G-d's promise that the soul will not go to waste, and will always try to awaken and rouse sparks among each of us. We are happy to be in this generation that sees this happen."
Analysis: Netanyahu, Obama, Abu Mazen Summit: By Moshe Feiglin
5 Tishrei, 5770
Sept. 23, '09
What does Abu Mazen want?
Abu Mazen, (who holds a Soviet doctorate for his Holocaust denial thesis) wants to destroy Israel - just like every other Jew-hater in the world. Like every reasonable Moslem Arab who lives in Dar el Islam (a.k.a. the Middle East) that is polluted by the Zionist entity, Abu Mazen would also be pleased to carry on with the murders, rapes and mutilations that we all remember from the Arab riots of 1929, 1936, Israel's War of Independence - and from every opportunity that the Arabs in the Land of Israel have had to express their unique talents.
But in the meantime, Abu Mazen's immediate goal is to perpetuate the current situation. At the present, he needs Israel to prevent the Hamas from taking over Ramallah and throwing him off a local rooftop. He also has to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state - at any price. Why? Because in addition to all the honor and authority that he enjoys even now as "head of state", he would actually have to take responsibility for the Arabs of Judea and Samaria. Abu Mazen is not a pushover. He knows that as soon as there is "peace" he will interest no one. What will he do then? Take care of the sewage problem in Bir Zait?
Sound confusing? Just wait for the rest. For now, just remember that Abu Mazen needs to talk peace and to present Israel as intransigent.
What does Obama want?
The places in which Obama grew up and was educated, the mentors and events that, as per his own testimony, shaped his personality and world view - do not leave room for sweet speculation. Obama is a dangerously radical leftist who willingly subjugates himself to the most radical Islam.
Obama wants to appease all the dictators of the world - first and foremost, of the Moslem world - at Israel's expense. Anti-Semitism has always been subtly present in American governments. But the common values shared by the US and Israel had always afforded the two countries a basis for cooperation. Obama is past all that. As opposed to the previous US presidents of this generation, Obama sees no justification for Israel's very existence.
In the meantime, what is important to Obama is to talk peace and to appease the Arabs by presenting Israel as intransigent.
What does Netanyahu want?
This is the hardest question. The analysts in Israel can't seem to decide if Netanyahu would like to retreat but cannot, or if he can retreat but does not want to. As we are not mind-readers, we will try to get to the root of the matter.
What Netanyahu wants is what the State of Israel has wanted since it was established and even before that. A state wants to be normal, a country like any other country, a nation like any other nation. To accomplish that, Netanyahu needs to keep up normal relations with the US and the western world. The paradox is that the more that Israel surrenders its strategic and tangible assets (its land, settlements, army checkpoints) as well as its principles (recognition of our very right to a Jewish state) the more that the nations distance themselves from her. The more that we surrender our unique identity and destiny, the more that we insist that we seek only peace - the more that we become an international pariah.
But Netanyahu has nowhere to run. The concepts of holiness, of Israel's uniqueness and of Jewish rectification of the world are completely foreign to him. All that he can do is to continue to play the peace game and to hedge his bets that Abu Mazen will back down first.
In summary:
Abu Mazen wants to perpetuate the current situation.
Obama wants to appease Islam.
Netanyahu wants the US and the West to stop pressuring Israel.
The only one of the three who will get exactly what he wants is, of course, Abu Mazen.
Jewish Justice or no Justice: By Moshe Feiglin
Translated from Makor Rishon
"Today the world is being born, today all the creations of all the worlds stand in judgment." "And it will be determined for the countries, which for the sword and which for peace." (Rosh Hashanah liturgy)
As we enter the gates of our synagogues this Rosh Hashanah, it looks like we will also be entering the gates of the International Court in The Hague. This is the inevitable destination of a nation that insists on detaching its Judaism from its national life. If we are not interested in Jewish justice in Jerusalem, we will be treated to Western, Christian justice in Spain, England or The Hague.
When a Swedish newspaper reported that Israel's soldiers slaughtered "Palestinians" so that they could sell their organs, we didn't believe that anybody would take the bizarre story seriously. But it is actually making quite a few waves. Soon an international investigative committee will be established to reveal "the truth." After all, such serious charges must be investigated thoroughly. And who, if not the judges of enlightened Europe, are more worthy to reveal the truth with clarity and complete objectivity?
Blood libels are nothing new. There is nothing more logical about selling "Palestinian" organs than about slaughtering Christian children to use their blood to bake matzahs. So how do these absurd claims become legitimate? It is not really a matter of legal fact. It is a matter of the location of the judicial body.
When a Jew is in exile and the Christians are the judicial authority, the blood libel becomes a possibility. The question is not if the Jews slaughtered Christian children to use their blood to bake matzahs. The question is if the issue is justiciable. In the Christian courts of the Middle Ages the answer was affirmative.
Likewise, in the current organ harvest story, there is no question of revealing the truth. The only question is if the judicial tribunal that we have accepted upon ourselves will decide to judge these ludicrous accusations.
Then – in the days of the blood libels, the Jews did not have the option to choose which judicial authority they would accept. They lived under the dominion of the judicial authority that considered these libels fact. But today, the Jews willingly surrendered their own judicial authority. They chose, of their own free will, to forgo their ethical sovereignty and to deposit it in the hands of the Western world and the International Court in The Hague.
"What is the problem in Azoun?" my frustrated neighbor asked me the other day, after a steady stream of rocks and firebombs has continued to emanate from this 'peaceful' Arab village. "They bring in an entire IDF division and they still can't stop the violence? Wouldn't it just be easier to cut off their electricity?" Technically, my neighbor is right. We could easily leave the reserve soldiers at home and enjoy quiet nonetheless. But the State of Israel and the IDF are fettered to the Christian judicial dominion that we have brought upon ourselves.
As the Beijing Olympics approached, I wrote that the State of Israel, as the representative of the Jewish Nation, should boycott the games. The Chinese have established concentration camps for opponents of the radically leftist regime there. Next to the concentration camps there are "medical centers" that specialize in supplying human organs by order. No lines, no problems finding the proper match, any organ can be supplied; kidneys, corneas, hearts – the organs are always fresh and plentiful. They belong to "criminals" who have been executed but who, at the last minute repented and donated their organs as an act of atonement. How noble. In reality, the organs are harvested while the victims are still alive. That is probably the best way to keep them fresh.
I claimed that Israel - the representative of the Jewish Nation, the People of the Book who herald the ethics of the prophets – must see itself as a lighthouse of morality for the world and should not lend legitimacy to the regime of horrors in China by attending the Olympic Games.
The reactions that I received were more or less: "America, England and France are not boycotting the Olympics, and you expect Israel to boycott them?" In other words, it cannot be that we bear a more fundamentally ethical insight than the Western world. Furthermore, we are so small, so who are we to boycott the Chinese giant if the US and Europe are not doing so? In other words, morality is measured in square kilometers and the size of a country's population and army.
When charges of organ harvesting by Israel's soldiers began to emerge, I thought that it was quite "measure for measure." We rejected our universal role and refused to take a stand on the Chinese organ harvesting issue, and got it right back in our own collective face.
We are the children of the King. We do not have the privilege to stand passively at the sidelines and to be "just another country." We have only two options: One is to judge the world according to Jewish justice – the ethical justice of the prophets that must be restored to Jerusalem. The second option is, right after Rosh Hashanah, to re-lock our universal responsibility safely in our synagogues and to leave Judaism strictly in the domain of religion. If that is the option we choose, we will not be judging the world according to the ethics of the prophets. The world will judge us – in the International Court in The Hague.
September 23, 2009
Goldstone Report Is a Barrier to Peace
But fourth, and most important, it has set back prospects of peace by making it far more difficult for Israel to withdraw from the West Bank. When Israel was considering its withdrawal from Gaza, some critics predicted that the transfer of Israeli troops out of this dangerous area would encourage terrorists to fire rockets at Israeli civilians who live in close proximity to the Gaza Strip. Those who favored the withdrawal argued that if Palestinian terrorists were to fire rockets from the unoccupied Gaza, Israel would have a perfect right to do whatever it took militarily to stop its civilians from being targeted by enemy rockets. They pointed out that every country has the right to self defense under the United Nations Charter and under the rules of international law. (I favored the withdrawal, as did many liberal supporters of Israel and believed that Israel had the military capacity to respond to any rocket attacks.)
As soon as the Israeli army left the Gaza Strip, Hamas decided to launch rocket attacks on Israeli civilian targets. The Hamas website proudly proclaimed, "The Zionist Army is afraid that the Palestinians will increase the range of the new rockets, placing the towns and villages in the [Zionist] entity in danger." These Hamas rocket attacks increased over the years until more than a million Israelis were within range. Thousands were traumatized, dozens were injured and several were killed by the thousands of anti-personnel rockets that targeted children, women and other civilians. As candidate Barack Obama said when he went to visit Sderot, the town most devastated by these unprovoked Hamas war crimes:
"The first job of any nation state is to protect its citizens. And so I can assure you that if...If somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I'm going to do everything in my power to stop that. And I would expect Israeli to do the same thing."
Israel protested these rocket attacks to the United Nations, but to no avail. They increased in frequency and range.
The citizens of Israel, especially those in range of the attacks, demanded that their army protect them and not wait until a rocket hit a school bus filled with children or a nursery. Since most of the rockets were fired while children were on route to or just beginning their classes, the risk of a cataclysmic tragedy were considerable. Finally after enduring years of rocket attacks, Israel decided to undertake military action to stop them.
Just before the hostilities began, Israel offered a carrot and a stick: it reopened a checkpoint to allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza. It had closed the point of entry after the checkpoint had been targeted by Gazan rockets. (On several prior occasions, Hamas rockets had targeted Israel points of entry through which aid had been provided. It was as if Hams was deliberately trying to manufacture a humanitarian crisis. Israel's prime minister, Ehud Olmert, also issued a stern, final warning to Hamas that unless it stopped the rockets, there would be a full-scale military response.
This is the way Reuters reported it:
"Israel reopened border crossings with the Gaza Strip on Friday, a day after Prime Minister warned militants there to stop firing rockets or they would pay a heavy price. Despite the movement of relief supplies, militants fired about a dozen rockets and mortar shafts from Gaza at Israel on Friday. One accidentally struck a house in Gaza, killing two Palestinian sisters, ages 5 and 13. [T]he deliveries could ease the tensions that might have led to a military action to end the rocket attacks. Palestinian workers at the crossings said fuel had arrive for Gaza's main power plant and about a hundred trucks loaded with grain, humanitarian aid and other good were expected during the day."
Finally in desperation Israel launched an attack designed to stop the rockets. It succeeded in large part though some rocket attacks have continued. Because Hamas fired its rockets from behind human shields, it was inevitable that there would be civilian casualties, despite Israeli efforts to reduce them by making hundreds of thousands of phone calls and leaflet drops warning civilians to stay out of the streets.
Goldstone's one-sided condemnation on Israel will make it far more difficult for Israeli leaders to persuade their citizens to remove their soldiers from the West Bank. Rockets fired from the West Bank would endanger far more Israeli civilians and threaten to close the Ben Gurion Airport. Israel now knows that if it were to try to defend itself against such rockets, it would once again be condemned by the United Nations. It will now be far more difficult for Israelis who oppose a continued presence of Israeli troops on the West Bank to persuade a majority of Israelis that the army can protect them even if they leave the West Bank, without incurring the wrath of the international community.
The effect, if not the intent, of the Goldstone report will be to keep Israeli troops in the West Bank longer. President Obama was right when he said that "the first job of any nation is to protect its citizens." The Goldstone report has made it virtually impossible for the Israeli army to protect its citizens against rocket attacks from territory that is no longer militarily occupied. It encourages Israel's enemies to provoke Israeli self-defense measures, which they know will produce condemnation of the Jewish state. This is a great tragedy, for Israelis, for Palestinians and for all who favor a two-state solution and an end to the occupation.
** (http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/specialsession/9/docs/UNFFMGC_Report.pdf)
575 Pages
Holy Temple Mikveh Discovered Near Western Wall
(IsraelNN.com) A 2,000-year-old mikveh (ritual bath) has been uncovered just 20 meters from the Western Wall. Given its location just outside the Holy Temple - where untold numbers of Jews regularly immersed before entering - the newly-revealed pool is among the largest ever discovered in Jerusalem.
The mikveh was found at the site known as the Western Wall Tunnels, which has long been under excavation and study by the Israel Antiquities Authority.
It is located about 30 meters past the entrance to the Tunnels, in the general direction of the Western Wall. Once it becomes open to the public, the 11 broad steps leading down to the mikveh will be seen approximately 8 meters below floor level.
Josephus, the famous turncoat general and historian of the period, wrote that the administrative and governmental center of Jerusalem was located at the foot of the Temple, and that among the buildings there were the National Council and the Lishkat HaGazit, Chamber of Hewn Stone, where the Sanhedrin – Israel’s Supreme Court – convened. The archaeologists feel that it is possible that the luxurious hall aside the mikveh was originally one of these structures.
Leonard Cohen urged to scuttle concert
The protest followed on the heels of similar events outside of the singer’s concerts in Belfast, Liverpool and New York, where fans urged Cohen to boycott Israel in solidarity with Palestinian organizations seeking to end Israeli control over Palestinian territories and the expansion of Israeli settlements.
Instead of cancelling his performance in Israel, however, Cohen scheduled a concert in Ramallah in the West Bank.
That concert was cancelled soon afterwards, however, as Palestinian groups said Cohen would only be welcome in the West Bank if he joined the boycott of Israel.
In Toronto, film festival organizers this week decided to go ahead with their spotlight on Tel Aviv, despite the opposition of more than 50 artists, filmmakers and academics, including actors Jane Fonda and Danny Glover, and culture critic Naomi Klein, who likened the focus on Tel Aviv to a propaganda campaign for Israel.
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