Hello? He's a MURDERER!!!!

I understand why we're all so interested in whast happens to Arafat. I understand that who takes his place is important. What I can't figure out is how any Israeli can have sympathy for him. Haaretz, as usual, leads the pack. Get this:

Arafat's image in Israeli eyes became that of the artful betrayer, a discreet coddler of suicide killers, a versatile instrument finely attuned to, if not dragged along behind, the upheavals and impulses of the Palestinian street.

'Coddler'?

So united have Israelis of all stripes become in their antipathy toward Arafat, that even as he lay near death, headlines in major newspapers were flippant, comedians - who might well have respected him prior to the Intifada - merciless.

Of course they're merciless. He's a damned murderer of Jewish men, women and children. The bastard has more Jewish blood on his hands than anyone else since Hitler. I hope they forget to give him painkillers and that he is in agony for every minute of the rest of his miserable life.

Deja Vu-Again!

The fact that Sharon got his disengagement was no surprise. The fact that the Left and the media are once again villifying all settlers, all religious Jews, all rabbis-anyone who disagrees witrh them, is no surprise. It's one big damned rerun...

So what's a surprise? The fact that after ten years of terror and four years of war, the Israelis have once again embarked on a massive land giveaway, with no breaks, no controls, no idea where the hell it will lead. And why? Well, some say demography. Hello? Afraid of an Arab majority? Have more children! Others say, it doesn't belong to us. So the Right responds, but that leaves Haifa and Tel Aviv open. The Left responds, that's demagogy. True. But it's also what the Arabs say.

Israelis are just plain dumb. Their leaders are dumber.

It will take a Divine kick in the caboose, once again, to wake them up. See Deuteronomy 32.

The Decree and America's Arm Chair Religious Zionists

In a recent interview, MK Yisrael Eichler (Agudat Yisrael) observed that there is no political logic behind the fact that Ariel Sharon is still the Prime Minister of Israel. He has broken his own word, abandoned his principles, ignored the will of his party and yet, he is still Prime Minister. He is still rushing pell mell to throw 7,500 Jews out of their homes, without getting anything in return, while rewarding the Palestinians for four (now five) years of war and murder. The only explanation, he offered, is that it's a gezerah, a Divine decree, an expression of God's inscrutible Will.

I'm beginning to agree with Eichler. How many times have we buried Oslo, only to see the Golem rise up to attack us? How many times did it look like the Temple Mount was in our hands, only to see it crumbling as we allow the Waqf to destroy it, and every trace of Jewish connection to it? Even when building the wall, we could have stood up to world pressure and given ourselves more of our own Homeland. We didn't. It all makes no human sense. It must be a gezerah.

So who's responsible? We can blame the Left, with every bit of justification. For over a decade they have waged an unceasing war against Jews, Judaism and Zionism. Their positions of power and influence in government, the courts, the media and academia have wreaked havoc on theIsraeli Jewish body politic. But they have lost the war against the Torah. The polls show that after four years of war this is a much more Jewish country than before. So what is it?

Well, certainly the rabid nature of religious and settler leaders is partly at fault. These guys are incapable od civilized discourse. They rant and rave and wave verses and citations, like someone cares. The average person is not impressed. The settler and rabbinic leadership of the settler community is essentiallty bankrupt. The pseudo-ruling on refusal to serve bears this out.

They, however, are here in Israel. I am disgusted by the armchair Zionists (especially the religious zionists) of Teaneck and Scarsdale, Manhattan and Brookline, Shaker Heights and Beverley Hills. They"ll fight to the last Israeli. They"ll celebrate Yom HaAtzma'ut with Falafel provide by Yordim. BUT THEY WON'T COME HERE! Not for me, they say. Too hard, too expensive, too God knows what. Oh. Too dangerous. Yes, as Phil Ochs once said, (in 'Love me, I'm a Liberal') we"ll send all the money you ask for, but don't ask me to come on along!

Well, they didn't come. If they had, if they would, there would have been a critical mass of Jews in Yesha that noone would have thought to expel. There would, moreover, be no (or much less) of a demographic problem. Self-satisfaction is a Jewish affliction. It's a dealy affliction. In this case, I sense that it contributes to, and justifies, the Gezerah.

I have no illusions. They won't come. They will learn though, that their existence depends upon us, and not vice versa.

Conversion Betrayal!

Today's Haaretz contained a bombshell that has me reeling. I am so angry, so disappointed that I don't know what to do with myself. Let me explain.

The Russian Aliyah, which has generally been a blessing, has one serious drawback. About 300,000 non-Jews have been admitted to Israel under the criteria of the 'Law of Return.' Many of these are the children of Jewish fathers who married non-Jewish women under communist rule, suffered as Jews and then came here. A minority are frauds, who forged papers to show allow them to fit the legal criteria and to get out of Russia. An even smaller minority are Provo-Slav anti-semites. Most of these non-Jews, however, are simply the tragic results of of seventy years of communist oppression.

Ever since their arrival, the rabbinical courts have done nothing but put up obstacles to prevent those who wish to regularize their Jewish status through conversion. The rabbis are all too often obnoxious, officious and pedantic. (I've experienced this in a different context.) Meanwhile, the lack of resolution has created an existential threat to the body politic of Israel. This is because, like it or not, the Jews of Israel are a family, a tribe. Keeping us together is the knowledge that at the end of the day, we're all brothers and sisters and can marry one another.

Over the past few years, there were very encouraging signs that legitimate Halakhic ways were under way to convert those Russians who wish to regularize their status. Things kept looking better and better. Recently, R. Haim Druckman was put in charge of the entire conversion apparatus. He's a first rate scholar and is well aware of what needs to be done, and his religious integrity is unquestioned.

Now comes the bomb! The Sephardic Chief Rabbi has issued directives changing all the rules. Not only has he made it harder to convert, for the first time he'sd authorized the nullification of conversions that he doesn't like. Now, there is plenty of precedent for being both stricter and lenient in conversion criteria. The issue is a very long, complex one. However, I am stunned at the nerve of R. Amar to call the work of other courts into question (which is a legally suspect action). I am enraged by his presumptuous dismissal of the efforts to keep the Israeli Jewish body politic whole. If he keeps this up, he will open the door wide to independent Conservative and Reform conversions.

R. Amar may be a Rav. He has shown that he is not a Hakham!

[Update: I penned this a long time ago. I have tightened the formulation to be clearer.]

An Arab Voice for Justice-And for Israel

Hatshepsut calls attention to the impassioned speech of a Lebanese Christian woman, Brigitte Gabriel, against Arab terror and in defense of Israel. She's a brave woman who calls it as it is. While Europe's Christians are letting their hearts bleed for Muslim suicide bombers, the Arab Christians in the Palestinian Authority are being slaughtered and fleeng for their lives. Frontpage Magazine has a summary of the talk, while Phyllis Chesler provides the entire video. Required reading and viewing.

YU Plans the Jewish Future-And Israel's Part of It

Hirhurim just published the following item.

RIETS in the News II

Now it's official:

Oct 15, 2004 -- Yeshiva University President Richard M. Joel today announced the appointment of Rabbi Kenneth Brander of Boca Raton, FL, as the inaugural dean of the Center for the Jewish Future, effective July 1, 2005.The Yeshiva University Center for the Jewish Future (CJF) will serve as the nucleus and central focus of YU’s educational and human-capital efforts to impact the Jewish future. The CJF will work with the university’s colleges, schools, and affiliates to shape programs--within and without the institution--that will train Jewish lay and professional leadership, develop initiatives and strengthen existing ones, create interdisciplinary and trans-disciplinary synergies, as well as deliver services to its students and the broader Jewish communities...

Very Timely. Unfortunately, Simcha missed the most important part. The article continues...

CJF is the first of a series of envisioned multidisciplinary centers at YU that will utilize the rich resources of its colleges and faculty, and focus on an array of guiding principles, including ethics, leadership, community, and Israel. The CJF will be a think-tank for Jewish public policy, leadership and partnership strategies, community strengthening in Israel and throughout the Diaspora, and lifelong Jewish education.

Is it possible that YU has finally woken up to the fact that they (and the rest of American Orthodoxy) will rise (or, G-F) fall with Israel and not vice versa? 'Let it BE'

A Sense of Humor is a Gift....

What more is there to say at this hour?

The Temple Mount is Falling Part II

So this is the latest. After undermining the Temple Mount for years (with Sharon's complicity), the Police decided that they should limit the number of Arabs to go up during Ramadan. The Arabs screamed bloody murder and said they would handle it. Sharon and the police said ok, 'We trust you' (Right!). So what happened? Haaretz reports:

Some 90,000 worshippers attended prayer services on the Temple Mount on Friday, the first of the month-long Muslim holiday of Ramadan. Chief of Police Moshe Karadi said police would increase their presence on the Temple Mount to prevent disruptions and regulate the passage of worshipers during Ramadan....

Hello?! There are usually 250,000 Muslims on Har HaBayit on Fridays of Ramadan. Noone stopped them from coming. Yet only 90,000 came! Think they know something we don't?

Al Hayyat al-jedida, oops, I mean Haaretz, continues:

The decision could help defuse the latest row to flare over the shrine. In the period leading up to Ramadan the northern branch of the Islamic movement published a manifest entitled "A new plot against Al-Aqsa," calling on all Muslim citizens of Israel to participate in mass prayers at Al-Aqsa during Ramadan.It called Israel's warnings about the alleged danger of collapse at the site an attempt on the part of "the Israeli occupation" to banish Muslims from the precinct. "Since 1967 until today Israeli governments are waging a holy war bent on destroying the Al-Aqsa mosque," it says.

I guess the bastards from the northern branch of the Islamic movement needed to cover themselves just in case their colleagues did get them all killed when the mount collapses.

On Refusal to Serve- Words of Wisdom from Ben Chorin

Ben Chorin posted an excellent response to R. Abraham Shapira's call for Religious soldiers to refuse to obey orders if ordered to evacuate Jews froom Gush Qatif. I share his conflcts. It's well said.

When once Rabbi Akiva, the greatest halachic authority of his time, tried his hand at aggadah, his colleagues responded Akiva, mah lecha etzel aggadah, klach etzel nega'im ve-ohalos! which very roughly translates as "What business do you have with agaddah? Stick to the technical stuff!" (Sanhedrin 38b). Their point was that even the greatest expert in halachah is not necessarily a master of all disciplines. Rabbi Akiva's foray into politics also did not end well. (He was the leader of the Bar Kokhba Revoly,-GbP)

I mention this because it has been reported that former Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Avraham Kahana-Shapira and about 50 other Rabbanim in the Kooknik wing of the dati-leumi camp have called on their numerous students serving in the IDF to refuse orders to evacuate Jews from Azza. Now, I have posted earlier that I am convinced that all the reasons proffered by the government for evacuating Azza are bogus. It's a bad idea. But for influential Rabbis to call for mass refusal to obey orders is a way worse idea. Mass refusal will cause an irreparable rift within the IDF and within the country. Everybody with a gripe will refuse to serve. And even if not, commanders will no longer have the luxury of assuming compliance, which itself is debilitating enough to render an army ineffective.

Here are the arguments offered in favor of, nevertheless, calling for mass refusal (along with my skeptical comments):

1. The offense being committed is severe enough to justify risking the consequences of refusal.Indeed, were the expulsion simply an ideologically-motivated attempt by a vengeful oligarchy to sacrifice a minority they don't care for, this argument might have merit. Such things happen around here, but I don't think this is the case now. Of course, those who believe that any withdrawal is by definition an ideological offense, regardless of the circumstances, view things differently.

2. That this is a bluff designed to force the government's hand; it isn't intended to be realized.What if it fails? Worse, what if it succeeds?

3. The left started.This is oh so true. Amos Oz and Yossi Sarid swore that they'd lie in front of the tanks if Arabs were ever expelled. Refusal to serve in Judea and Samaria receives ongoing favorable coverage in the mainstream media. They're a bunch of bastards and they asked for it. Now they're getting it. BUT, spite is a privilege of those who don't wish to wield true power but rather to play the role of kibitzers or, at most, spoilers. If the religious right aspires to more than that, it needs to act responsibly, not just score debating points.

That having been said, what a lousy position to be in!

Dershowitz Does it Again!

Leave it to Alan Dershowitz to show up the world's hypocrisy. In the latest edition of Jewsweek, he has an article called End the Occupation! Of course, when I first saw the title I started getting upset. Ugh!, I thought, he's trying to 'balance' his pro-Israel act. Boy was I wrong. But why report second hand. Here's his ipsissima verba:

When is the last time you heard about a demonstration on a university campus calling for the end of the Syrian occupation of Lebanon? Syria has been occupying Lebanon by force of arms for more than 20 years. Its 20,000 foreign soldiers and hundreds of "intelligence officers" rule that Muslim-Christian nation with an iron fist. No longer a democratic state -- as it was for decades under joint Christian-Muslim leadership -- Lebanon has become a terrorist state in which Hizbullah and other terrorist groups have a free hand to operate against Israeli and American civilians.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yet those who shed crocodile tears for the Palestinians -- whose leaders turned down statehood and the end of occupation of Gaza and some 96% of the West Bank in 2000-2001 -- remain silent over the Syrian occupation of Lebanon. Some, including the Palestinian leadership, even support it. This should not be surprising because many of those same hypocrites also support the continuing occupation of Kurdistan by Turkey, Iraq and Syria, as well as the continuing occupation of Tibet by China.

'Hypocrites" - I like that. Read 'em and weep!

Two Nations, One State- Israeli Suicide!

Michael Tarazi, PLO Legal adviser and propagandist, got the New York Times to publish an OpED article that calls for the dismantling of the State of Israel in favor of a Bi-National Secular State (right!). For those who don't know, this has been the PLO line all along, and shows that its damned covenant is still in effect. The article is so devious, that David Meir-Levi wrote:

Michael Tarazi must think that Americans never read newspapers (especially Front Page Magazine) or watch TV. His Op-Ed piece in Sunday’s NY Times (cf. infra, “Two Peoples, One State”, 10.3.04) presents readers with a masterpiece of mendacity. Almost every sentence is a distortion, de-contextualization, obfuscation, or outright fiction….and painfully transparent ones at that.

I'm never that relaxed. So, anyone who wants to fight this kind of screed, read how Leon Wieseltier, Barry Rubin and Caroline Glick replied both the Tarazi and to the Times for advocating genocide (again).

Gideon Levy- Yok!

FINALLY! Someone called a spade a spade. Not a Fish posted a piece by that Anti-Semite from Der Sturmer (excuse me, Haaretz), urging people to visit Sinai and ignore the Security warnings. Why? Because anytime he can mock any part of Israel's Defense Forces, Gideon Levy does. As Not a Fish notes, 'his hateful vitriol against the Israeli establishment may have cost lives. Today we get an idea of just how dangerous Gideon Levy can be.'

And this is what Levy had to say, just a few weeks ago:

This is not the first time in the past four years that the anti-terrorism unit, with its panoply of officers, has issued similar warnings, though this time the warning is said to be "graver than usual." If Israelis decide nonetheless to spend the holiday in Sinai, as would indeed appear to be the case, it will mark the continuation of a very unusual phenomenon here: Israelis are ignoring the warnings of the defense establishment, casting doubt on its considerations and not being automatically persuaded by its rationale.[…]Even if the defense establishment has solid information about Sinai, the timing of its warnings is problematic, after four years of warnings in which not a hair of the tens of thousands of Israelis who went to Sinai was harmed. After all, it's always easier to frighten people, even if it's not certain that it's necessary - what's known popularly as "covering your ass." No one pays for false warnings here, not for the scare campaign about Iraq's chemical and biological weapons, and nor for the warnings about Sinai.

Scary huh?

Who are you, Arik Sharon?

I used to be a supporter of Arik Sharon. Not anymore. I just don't know who the hell he is any more. Witness this piece by Caroline Glick.

Caroline Glick:The Assault on Democracy by Sharon
The Jerusalem Post

During his address at last month's Likud Central Committee meeting, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said repeatedly that the Likud must accept its role as the ruling party and act with national responsibility. The odd thing about Sharon's insistent assertion is that it is he, through his policies since the start of his first term as prime minister in 2001, who has done more than anyone to prevent the Likud from exerting national leadership that befits the national ruling party.It was Sharon, in collusion with Shimon Peres who prevented general elections from taking place in 2001 for the sole purpose of blocking Binyamin Netanyahu's return to the Prime Minister's Office. Using a legally dubious interpretation of the elections law as it stood at the time, Sharon and Peres connived to prevent general elections to the Knesset, keeping the fractured 1999 Knesset, in which the Likud had in place only 19 MKs versus Labor's 26, and enabling the public to vote only for the prime minister. This Sharon did despite the fact that opinion polls from December 2000 projected that Likud stood to win more than 40 Knesset seats while Labor would be decimated, dropping to a mere 15 seats. The devolution of the Oslo process into the Oslo War had brought about a complete rejection of Labor with this appeasement based ideology by voters and a clarion call for national leadership by the Likud.Yet Sharon refused to listen. What interested him was being prime minister and this he could do only by preventing voters from exercising their right to choose their representatives in the Knesset. So Sharon's first government, with Shimon Peres serving as foreign ministerand Binyamin Ben-Eliezer as defense minister was completely non-representative of the public will. The public wanted a government reflective of its sentiments - that is a right-wing government led by the Likud. Instead it had a left-wing government led by Sharon. When, in 2003, the public showed that its sentiment had not waned and the Likud won 38 Knesset seats to Labor's 19, it was clear again that the public had asked Likud to take on the mantle of national leadership and move forward with its anti-appeasement, pro-Israel agenda. But Sharon again balked. RATHER THAN leading the country on the basis of his platform, within a year he was in open warfare with his own party as he first accepted the Quartet's so-called road map, in my view the most anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian document ever brought before the Israeli government for approval, and then adopted the Labor's election-losing platform of unilateral surrender of territory to Palestinian terrorists that had just months before been completely rejected by Israeli voters. In an effort to silence criticism of his policies, Sharon has repeatedly stated that "what you see from here [the prime minister's chair] you can't see from there." The meaning here is obvious: As prime minister, I am privyto information that you - mere citizens of Israel, members of the Likud,members of Knesset and government ministers don't know. And therefore, youcan't question my judgment because of my unique perspective.Sharon's protestation of special knowledge which delivers him from the needto debate and defend his policies is matched by his insistence of viewingany opposition to his policies as a personal attack. By dismissing allopponents as either "self-serving hacks" or "extremists," Sharondelegitimizes not simply the notion of policy debate, but also the idea thatpeople can have political and even moral convictions that outweigh theirloyalty to the head of their party. So it is that every government minister who opposes Sharon's policies is criticized by Sharon and his allies assubversive, untrustworthy, self-serving and disloyal. In so doing Sharon has dumbed-down public discourse to the point where the virtues of politicians rather than the virtues of policies that will impact the lives of every Israeli for years to come has become the only acceptable focus of discussion.In behaving as he has for the past three and a half years, Sharon has harmed not only his party - which he has systematically demonized - he has harmed Israeli democracy. It is not just that on every significant political and military issue he has ignored the advice of his party members, MKs and government ministers, preferring Labor policies instead. It is that in his assertion that it is all about him, and not his policies, he has served to undermine the legitimacy of the very notion that democratic governments' policies must reflect the wishes of the voters as they made them clear on election day, not those of the politicians who serve at their consent.

Episcopalian Hypocrisy- Betraying Christian Arabs

If there were ever proof of the fact that twenty years of so-called dialogue between the establishment churches and Jewish representatives aren't worth a plug nickel, just consider the latest report from the New York Jewish Week. The Episcopalian Church, prodded by Palestinian Christians (who are stooges of Arafat), is considering divesting investments from any country dealing with Israel. Why?

Reverend Grieves cited other countries that have been the target of Episcopal Church economic sanctions, including China, Myanmar and Sudan. He said the search for more aggressive actions to change Israeli policy have been spurred by “the deterioration of conditions in the Palestinian territories. There is a deliberate kind of meanness and humiliation of the people that I find very distressing.

And how does this genius know that?

The divestment buzz began after a recent Mideast mission by the Anglican Peace and Justice Network, representing 23 provinces of the Anglican Communion worldwide, including the Episcopal Church in this country. After that eight-day visit, the group issued a statement squarely blaming Israel for the current crisis. “We conclude from our experience that there is little will on behalf of the Israeli government to recognize the rights of the Palestinians to a sovereign state to be created in the West Bank — which includes East Jerusalem — and Gaza,” the panel reported. “Israel, with the complicity of the United States, seems determined to flout international laws, whether they are the Geneva Conventions, United Nations resolutions or the most recent decision of the International Court of Justice in declaring the separation wall illegal.” The panel recommended an immediate withdrawal of Israeli forces to the 1967 borders and a “compete halt to settlement building, both new or expanded, to be followed by a process of phasing out settlements altogether.” It also demanded the “dismantling of the separation wall” and the introduction of an international peacekeeping force, and expressed dismay at “the use of United States-made weapons and aircraft provided to Israel and being used for attacks on civilian targets, which occur with increasing frequency.”

By their own admission, the Anglicans didn't meet with any Israelis! No mention of Arab terror. Know why? Because, like their ancestors, murdering Jews isn't a crime. Know why? Jews aren't people. It's really very simple. Check it out.

Asked if Palestinian suicide bombers had played a role in the current violent impasse, Rev. Grieves said, “Suicide bombings are a reaction to the continuing occupation. Israel does bear responsibility for the occupation.”

You see, when they murder us, it's our fault! The real kicker, though is the fact that while they're supporting Palestinian terrorm, the same terrorists are murdering Arab Christians. There are hardly any Christians in Bethlehem because the Muslims are raping and murdering Christians. So they left for the US and South America. Dobn't confuse these guys with facts though.

The Anglican Communion has a number of partner churches in Jerusalem and the West Bank. “The Presbyterians don’t, but they have a strong, longstanding presence in the region,” she said. “We do know that American Christian leaders listen to their Palestinian Christian partners.” She said that strong Christian advocacy on behalf of the Palestinians is necessary to balance overwhelming administration and congressional support for Israel.

The only Christians who care about their co-religionists are the Evangelicals. Period. They were here this week, to march in support of the only other people who protect Christians in the Middle East. Israel.