Iranian Aliyah

I've recently been very taken by the whole Iranian Aliyah issue that has popped up in the past week, sparked by the secret Aliyah of some 40 Jews from Iran to Israel.

I remember last year, in my English class (with the anti-semitic, anti-Israel teacher) showed us a slideshow of someone's trip to Iran, and tried to show it off as some moder, hip, really cool place to live.

The slideshow was of course sparked by the recent academic dialogue about whether the United States should attack Iran because of the influx of terrorists that are fighting American troops in Iraq, as well as their violation against stopping their nuclear weapons program.

So my teacher, always wanting to portray terrorists in a "equal" light, showed us this video in the hopes that we would think differently about Iran. As the video ended she asked us who we thought the video was aimed for, in my annoying habit of ALWAYS answering a teachers question, I answered "hardcore conservatives."

She said she didn't think so, and I realized she was right, the point of this slideshow had a much more dangerous consequence, the audience was everyone, and the goal of it was to make the idea of attacking Iran an unappealing option in the average American's eye.

Now to be honest with you I think what is going on in Iraq is just a pathetic quagmire, that will have the United States military there for a long time, all the while sucking money from China to pay for the high costs of it. But when it comes to Iran there's another agenda to consider, that namely being that they want to destroy the State of Israel.

It's funny, because they are planning to do it with nuclear weapons because of the "Zionist Occupiers," and to "save" the Arabs who live there, yet do they not realize that a nuclear weapon will kill the Arabs as well?

Oh, and regarding Iran's capability to destroy Israel with nukes, a report on Arutz Sheva last week discussed what a nuclear war with Iran would look like on the causalities side. If Iran were to C"L shoot a nuke at Israel, they would have maximum 800 thousand causalities (one Jewish life is too much but we're talking theoretically".

The response from Israel would be the complete annihilation of the entire Iranian population, and the Israeli causalities are assuming that Israel isn't able to destroy Iran's nuke while it's in the air, either way Iran would be completely wiped off the map.

But, regarding Aliyah. . .According the article posted above, the Jews of Iran left in secret under the dead of night, to escape, via a third country, to Israel.

One of the sick things that Muslim controlled countries do, and particularly to Jews, is that they do not let all the members of a family leave at one time. This enables the government to keep a hold of the tongue of the absent family member from telling what life, really is like under a Muslim leadership.

I know someone from Iran who is unable to speak about what life was like there, because he fears that if his statements were ever tied to him, the Iranian government would kill the family he has there,.

Some of the Jews who came this week, were the last members of their families to leave Iran and they explained what life is like in Iran know, they have shut down all Jewish schools, it is forbidden to learn/speak Hebrew, Jewish children are forced to go to Muslim schools and that includes Jewish holy days like Yom Kippur.

The Jewish leadership of Iran came out against the Aliyah, and were opposed to it. I think, and others agree with me, that they were just saying it to keep the dogs of the government at bay so they won't start an influx of antisemitism.

One day the curtain will fall in Iran, just like it fell in Germany, Russia, and various Muslim countries, and I'm telling you it will be just like other cases when Jews were being persecuted, just for being Jewish, and the world found out how they were being treated. They'll show sympathy for about a week, then it'll be business as usual, and they'll ignore that this ever happened.

Jews Need to Stand up for Themselves and Have Some More Jewish Pride!

Talking about the "lie" of Iranian Aliyah. And how the the source of lack of Jewish pride comes from this week's Parshah. Shabbat Shalom!


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Do We Care?

There's one thing I don't get. Why do people think that parts of davening are unnecessary, and don't require that they do them?

Take for instance Karbanot, the first part of davening. Why do people assume that it's OK to come late and that they can miss them. The truth is that this is the only part the people don't do that might have a legitimate reason, and that reason being that it's hard to get up in the morning. That's pretty much the only reason, and my response it to wake up five minutes earlier.

But there are other, more pressing things. I'm only going to highlight one today, and that's Tehllim after davening.

At about the start of the 2000 Terror War the Arabs started waging against Israel, Rabbanim in America decided that that instead of moving to Israel to show support (chas v'shalom) they would start saying 3 chapters of Tehillim after davening as a way to show support for the Jews who lived in Israel.

Over the years it's trickled down to one, and maybe they'd say an extra one if there's R"L an illness or other current serious threat.

So how's that support?

"Oh, it's optional."

That's right, leaving at the Tehillim and going home is more important than waiting, oh, about ONE AND A HALF MINUTES!!! And that's with saying two chapters of Tehillim. My Rav started saying the most common one Chapter 130 and more recently 122 for Yerushalyim.

As soon as we hit eithier the end of Kriat HaTorah, or Tachanun (depending on the day) there are people who have started to take of their tifillin and as soon as the last Kaddash finishes they are out the door ("come on, those Tehillim are optional right? They're not really part of davening right?")

YES! THEY ARE!!!

Think about it, you're saying to G-d, I've finished with my davening but I'm going to stay JUST A LITTLE BIT LONGER and prove to you that I'm sincere and am willing to say something extra to let you know that I CARE ABOUT YERUSHALAYIM!!

My rule is that you don't start taking off the tifillin until the Chazzan is completely done. And that means he has stopped talking as is able to take of his tifillin. That's just a common courtesy, to not take off you're tifillin unless the Chazzan is able to.

Care. This is the Jewish people we're talking about, and it makes me wonder if there are Muslims who are skipping out early on their prayers so they can go home and check the sports scores, or whatever, before they have to go to work of school.

Something to think about.

From a guy who wants to get a Mac. . .

Adventure at the Israeli Embassy-Part 2

Well I got to the embassy a little bit later then I did on the previous time I'd gone, this meant I had to wait in a longer line at security, and then at longer line at "The Window."

So as I was standing there (for 2 hours and only 6 people in front of me) I once again got into some interesting conversation's with the people there including an American (non-Jewish) teenager who wanted absolutely nothing to do with me and a man from India who worked for the American Embassy and for the New Israeli Fund.

So after about an hour and 45 minutes I finally made it to "The Window," and presented the additional documentation to be added to my file.

There was just one problem.

They couldn't find my file!

Somehow my file had been misplaced in the clutter they called an office. So I took it in stride and asked what I needed to do to to replace whatever was in the file. It turned out not much. I had to go back to my high school and get a letter with the dates I was in HS, and there were two forms I had to fill out.

The good news is that this should be the last trip I have to make to Washington, I can email the rest to them.
Then with G-d's help I get stuff moving at the Aliyah Center and Nefesh B'Nefesh and I move to Israel!

Adventure at the Israeli Embassy-Part 1

The first part of doing my initial stages for Aliyah is to get my passport, and Israeli ID number so I can start to be processed for Aliyah. I am (supposedly) a citizen born abroad, which means that I don't lose any benefits but I can't go solely through Nefesh B'Nefesh, I have to actually deal with government offices.

For a new citizen making Aliyah from America, the steps to make Aliyah are rather simple. Contact your local Aliyah Shliach, fill out a few forms, contact Nefesh B'Nefesh, fill out a few more forms. Then go through 3-30 years worth of junk you've collected and see what's going to Israel with you, and what's being sold, thrown away, given away, burned, etc.

A citizen born abroad goes through similar steps as a regular Oleh. My problem is that, for some reason, I was never registered as a citizen. So something that usually takes 6 months to do when one is first born, will have to be done in 3 days for me know, because I need my ID number and passport to make Aliyah.

So yesterday I went down to the embassy in Washington to see what I had to do in order to get the required information, and what paper work was needed by me in order to get.

Well, as I was driving around in 'Embassy town' in Washington, I made a wrong turn and would up surrounded by the embassies of numerous Arab countries.

I quickly turned the car around and got out of there as fast as possible. I don't know if you actually have to be in the gates of the embassy to be considered on their territory, or just parked in front. either way I didn't hear any gunshots, so I guess it's OK. (Except for the fact that they for sure got a picture of me, my car, my license plate number, me entry into the Israeli embassy. . .let's just say I won't be going back there.)

Anyways I went through security in the embassy and got in line at the ONE window in the embassy. That's it, that's all they have, one window.

So I spoke with the woman behind the desk and proudly informed her I was an Israeli.

Just one problem I wasn't in the system. According the official registry of Israel I'm not a citizen.

Now if I were to just make Aliyah, I'll have a similar problem that my sister ran into when she made Aliyah, namely that a week before my flight they will call me and tell me that my father is Israeli and therefore I am also and I can't make Aliyah without my passport and ID number.

So I then had to proceed in proving to this woman that I existed and and that my father was my father and my sister was my sister, and that, yes, I was related to both of them, so could she please tell me what I needed to do to get my ID number.

She told me that I had to tell her both my sister's and father's tudat zehut (ID) numbers. So I called my dad who had no idea what his was, called my mom and was unable to contact her. So rejected I walked back to by car and planned to come back tomorrow, after I called my sister and asked her what her number was and if there was any chance she had my father's also.

For some reason, I'm not sure why, I called the Aliyah office, and would you believe it they had both numbers for me. So I turned around and had to spend another half an hour getting through securit and waiting in line for Cranky Lady to finish with the, oh ONE PERSON who was in front of me!

But before I finish there was one positive thing that happened to me while I was waiting in line. There were a few guys who were there to get visas for studying in college in Israel for a semester. One of the guys, a secular guy, was talking to me and he mentioned that "In Israeli, everything just seems to work out. If you don't know what you're going to do about something, don't worry, you'll figure it out!"

Well I know G-d runs the world and I just needed a little reminder that if I'm supposed to be making Aliyah this summer I will be, no matter what.

So after my talk with Crazy Lady, I now have on two more things to do, (which I'll do tomorrow when I go back) and that's giver her my letter of exemption from the army, and pay a precessing fee. After that I get my ID nuber and can start being processed for Aliyah.

(B"H)

The Obstacle to Peace

Don't these idiots in Washington have anything better to do? Maybe take precautions to the economic disaster that will soon happen in America, due to a corrupt political system?

Kudos to Tzvi Fishman for the picture

Life is Precious. . .

I was almost in a serious car accident.

I was waiting to turn onto another street and there was a car coming at me from behind at approximately 50 MPH.

He then swerved out of the way at the last second missing my car by about 6 inches, and did this all while cutting off a car in the lane that he switched to.

Why do people drive like this? Do they not understand that they are driving dangerous weapons that have the ability to kill people including themselves?

What very interesting about cars is that they are the first form of transportation that the driver has complete control over. If you're riding a horse, you can force the horse to go where you want it to, and the way to persuade the horse to do this is by causing it pain. If the desire to go in another direction overrides the pain it is receiving the driver can do nothing about it.

If they were controlling a ship, they still don't have full control over what's going on, they are steering by using the currents that the water is taking them. If a hurricane comes along, they can't pull over to the side of the road and wait for it to pass, they have in effect completely lost control of their ship.

Now it is possible to lose control of a car but usually the cause is reckless driving, and the fact that someone is choosing to put the lives of both themselves as well as any passengers they have or other drivers says a lot about the person's view of the preciousness of human life.

In the states it is required to take a driver's ed course that supposedly educates you about how to safely control a vehicle, but I do not know what the requirements are in Israel. I do know that car accidents are, unfortunately, the cause of more deaths then terrorist attacks, and I think that some thought has to be put into teaching this as a way of preserving the preciousness of human life

Where the REAL Apartheid is

This from the Jerusalem Post:

This week the Bush Administration legitimized Arab anti-Semitism. In an effort to please the Saudis and their Arab brothers, the Bush administration agreed to physically separate the Jews from the Arabs at the Annapolis conference in a manner that aligns with the apartheid policies of the Arab world which prohibit Israelis from setting foot on Arab soil.

Evident everywhere, the discrimination against Israel received its starkest expression at the main assembly of the Annapolis conference on Tuesday. There, in accordance with Saudi demands, the Americans prohibited Israeli representatives from entering the hall through the same door as the Arabs.

At the meeting of foreign ministers on Wednesday, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni called her Arab counterparts to task for their discriminatory treatment. "Why doesn't anyone want to shake my hand? Why doesn't anyone want to be seen speaking to me?" she asked pointedly.

Israel's humiliated foreign minister did not receive support from her American counterpart. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who spent her childhood years in the segregated American South, sided with the Arabs. Although polite enough to note that she doesn't support the slaughter of Israelis, she made no bones about the fact that her true sympathies lie with the racist Arabs.

As she put it, "I know what it is like to hear that you cannot go on a road or through a checkpoint because you are a Palestinian. I understand the feeling of humiliation and powerlessness."

Rice's remarks make clear that for the Secretary of State there is no difference between Israelis trying to defend themselves from a jihadist Palestinian society which supports the destruction of the Jewish state and bigoted white Southerners who oppressed African Americans because of the color of their skin. It is true that Israel has security concerns, but as far as Rice is concerned, the Palestinians are the innocent victims. They are the ones who are discriminated against and humiliated, not Livni, who was forced - by Rice - to enter the conference through the service entrance.

The Bush administration's tolerance for discrimination against Israel was not merely ceremonial. Diplomatically, the conference was equally prejudicial. At Annapolis, the US joined the Arabs in placing the lion's share of blame for the absence of peace between Israel and the Palestinians on Israel. But you wouldn't know that from listening to Olmert, who is working steadily to hide what happened there.

Olmert obfuscates the truth because his political stability rests in the hands of his hawkish coalition partners Yisrael Beiteinu and Shas. Both warned before the summit that if Olmert made any concessions on either Jerusalem or the so-called outpost communities in Judea and Samaria they would bolt his coalition and so spur new elections.

Shas and Yisrael Beiteinu expressed satisfaction with the outcome of the summit. Both Shas leader Eli Yishai and Yisrael Beiteinu leader Avigdor Lieberman dismissed Annapolis as a pathetic joke and claimed that there is no reason for them to resign from the Olmert government. But these assertions are deliberately misleading.

The fact that the Israeli-PLO joint statement made no specific mention of Jerusalem, and that the government didn't announce a timetable for destroying the so-called outpost communities and expelling the hundreds of Israeli families who live in them, doesn't mean that Israel made no concessions on these issues. In fact, the Olmert government made massive concessions on these issues.

The Israel-PLO joint statement at Annapolis contains a joint pledge "to propagate a culture of peace and nonviolence; to confront terrorism and incitement, whether committed by Palestinians or Israelis."

Although Olmert, Lieberman and Yishai dismiss this Israeli acceptance of moral equivalence with Palestinian jihadists as a meaningless rhetorical concession, the government's move is rife with political and legal implications. US Ambassador Richard Jones's unprecedented meeting this week with Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch made clear that the US demands that Israeli courts interpret Israeli law in a prejudicial manner in order to demonize Israeli opponents of Palestinian statehood and the ethnic cleansing of the Jews from Judea and Samaria.

Their meeting also signaled that the US expects Israel to treat lawful building activities by Jews in Judea and Samaria and even in sections of Jerusalem as criminal acts. Since the Olmert government accepts that Israel is morally indistinguishable from the Palestinian Authority, it is hard to foresee it preventing the criminalization of its political opponents. From now on, Israelis who oppose the diplomatic moves of the Olmert government can expect to be treated as the moral equivalents of Palestinian terrorists.

At Annapolis the Americans accepted the role of sole arbiter of Israeli and Palestinian compliance with their commitments to the so-called 'Roadmap' and the peace process. They also committed themselves to reaching a comprehensive peace treaty by the end of 2008. But as former US Middle East mediator during the Clinton administration Dennis Ross has admitted, these goals are contradictory. It is impossible to both ensure Palestinian compliance and the achievement of a peace treaty in that timetable.

Writing in The Washington Post after the Oslo peace process collapsed at Camp David and the Palestinian jihad had begun, Ross explained, "The prudential issues of compliance were neglected and politicized by the Americans in favor of keeping the peace process afloat….Every time there was a behavior, or an incident, or an event that was inconsistent with what the peace process was about, the impulse was to rationalize it, finesse it, find a way around it, and not to allow it to break the process."

"What the peace process was about" for the Clinton administration was signing peace agreements. It was not about ensuring that the Palestinians were actually interested in living at peace with Israel. When Rice stated that "failure is not an option," in the coming peace process, she made clear that the same is the case for the Bush administration today. She wants an agreement. Whether the Palestinians are serious about peace or not is none of her business.

Although reporting on Palestinian non-compliance with their commitments to fight terror will harm prospects for speedy "progress," accusing Israel of filching on its commitments will actually speed things along. Alleging Israeli non-compliance will force the pliant Olmert government to make further concessions to the Palestinians.

In light of this, it is clear that contrary to Yishai and Lieberman's dismissive treatment of what happened at Annapolis, Olmert's acceptance of the Americans as both judge of compliance and guarantor of "progress" means that Israel already made massive concessions.

On Jerusalem, for instance, although Yishai is right that Jerusalem is not specifically mentioned in the joint statement, the fact is that Israel agreed to negotiate the status of its capital city by agreeing to discuss all outstanding issues. Since the Americans want a Palestinian state within a year and they know that Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas will not make any concessions on Jerusalem, they can be expected to pressure Israel to accept the Palestinian position. The thousands of Arab Jerusalemites now applying for Israeli citizenship are a clear sign that the Arabs understand that Israel has already made massive concessions on the city. And Yishai must know this.

The American status as arbiters of compliance has far reaching implications for Israel's ability to cope effectively with the security situation in Gaza and the Western Negev. Since Hamas seized control of Gaza in June, Abbas has opposed any wide-scale IDF counter-terror offensive on the area. Abbas has claimed - probably rightly - that an Israeli ground offensive in Gaza would weaken his position in Palestinian society since the Palestinians support Hamas's positions more than they support him. Given that the Americans are committed to strengthening Abbas, it is obvious that they will veto any Israeli plan to conduct an offensive in Gaza aimed at restoring security to the Western Negev.

Then there is Judea and Samaria. Lieberman claims that he can remain in the government because Olmert has yet to announce a timetable for throwing the Jews out of their homes in the so-called outpost communities. But that isn't Olmert's responsibility anymore. He ceded it to the Americans at Annapolis. They will set the timetable for expulsions, not Olmert. And it isn't only the Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria that are now at risk.

By anointing the State Department arbiter of Israeli compliance, the Olmert government gave the Americans the right to veto IDF operations in Judea and Samaria. As the guarantors of progress in the peace process, the Americans will tell the IDF where it can - or more precisely where it cannot - erect roadblocks. The Americans will tell the Israelis what cities and towns to transfer to Fatah control. They will tell Israel what guns and armor to transfer to the Palestinians, what to do with terror fugitives and when and how many terrorists it must release from its prisons.

Actually, the US has been constraining Israel's counter-terror operations in Judea and Samaria for months now. That these American efforts have harmed the effectiveness of the IDF's operations is something that Ido Zoldan's widow can attest to. Zoldan, after all, was murdered last week by Fatah terrorists who owed their ability to move about freely to Israel's decision to bow to American pressure and dismantle 24 roadblocks and curb its efforts to arrest Fatah terror bosses.

In essence, what we see in Olmert's and Livni's machinations is a repeat of Ariel Sharon's and Livni's political maneuvering in the period that preceded the withdrawal from Gaza. In both cases, Israel's senior leaders abide by the basic political understanding that a fight postponed is a fight won.

In 2004 Sharon lacked the political strength to announce openly that he was going to completely withdraw from Gaza and destroy all the Israeli communities in the area. So he allowed the Likud to hold a referendum on his plan to withdraw and authorized Livni to draft the so-called compromise plan according to which the destruction of Israeli communities would take place in four stages over several months and that each stage would require separate government approval.

By the time the Likud rejected his plan, Sharon was strong enough to ignore the will of his party. And when the withdrawal took place, far from taking place in four stages, it took place in four days. Livni and Sharon could ignore their previous commitments because when the time came to pay the piper, they had already destroyed their opponents.

Today, by pretending that the joint declaration at Annapolis was a big nothing, Olmert and Livni are repeating the maneuver. By the time they start throwing Jews out of their homes, they won't need Shas or Yisrael Beiteinu anymore.

Lieberman and Yishai are under no obligation to leave the government. They can stay for as long as they like. But they cannot pretend that by staying they are not full partners in the government's policies. As Annapolis made clear, those policies include dividing Jerusalem, destroying the Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria and compromising the security of the State of Israel.

An "Only in Israel" Story

Kol HaKavod to David Bogner the writer of the blog Treppenwitz, with this incredible "Only in Israel" story:

My cab ride to Beirut

OK, truth be told, I didn't actually take a taxi to the capital of Hezbollah-land.

But when I tried to arrange a cab to take me from Beer Sheva to my home in Efrat the other night, you would have thought that Lebanon was my destination based on the number of cab drivers who refused to accept the fare.

It was about 10:00PM and I had long since missed my regular carpool home. Under normal circumstances I would have either stayed over in Beer Sheva at a local hotel or tried to hitchhike home. But seeing as it was really late and I needed to be in Jerusalem first thing in the morning, I decided to treat myself to a taxi ride home.

So far so good... until the fun began, that is.

The process would begin with a call to the taxi dispatcher:

Dispatcher: Hallow!

Me: Hi, I need a taxi to come to [name of my company].

Dispatcher: No problem, where are you going?

Me: Efrat... In Gush Etzion.

Dispatcher: No problem... someone will be right there.

Within a few minutes a taxi would pull up and the driver would ask "Where did you say you needed to go?" I would tell him, which would result in the him saying he had to speak to his dispatcher... getting back in his cab... and promptly driving away.

This was repeated several times. One or two drivers asked if it was possible to get to Efrat without entering the 'shtachim' (territories)... while others offered excuses ranging from not having enough gas in the car to never having heard of Gush Etzion.

I was shocked. At the risk of generalizing, the typical taxi driver here tends to be the salt of the earth... an Israeli 'everyman' of sorts. As a group they tilt heavily towards mizrachi (Sephardi and eastern) origins, and even more heavily towards the political right.

I don't know exactly what I was expecting, but it certainly wasn't the abject horror that crossing the green line seemed to evoke in these normally devil-may-care men.

Finally I got a driver who, after a few minutes of reassuring, agreed to take me home.

Once we were on our way he began peppering me with a string of non-stop nervous questions:

"How far is it?"

"Are you sure?"

What's that village over there... Jewish or Arab?"

"Arab!? Is it 'problematic'?"

"What about that one?"

"You really drive this road every day?"

"Have you ever had any problems... roadside bombs... shooting... rocks... Molotov cocktails???"

"What the h... that was a Palestinian license plate on the car that just passed us! I didn't know they were allowed on the roads?!"

Oh G-d!... I see headlights behind us. Should I be worried that it might be a terrorist following us?????!"

And on and on and on...

By the time we'd passed half a dozen sleeping Arab villages and were approaching the southern outskirts of Hevron, the driver had worked himself into a state of panic about terrorists who seemed to be lurking just around every bend to turn his wife into a widow and orphan his children.

Five or six times he reached for the same empty cigarette pack, each time tossing it back on the dashboard in disgust. So finally, as much as I loathed the idea of being trapped in a car full of smoke, I suggested we pull into Kiryat Arba where he could buy himself a fresh pack of cigarettes, thinking that it might help calm his nerves.

Once inside Kiryat Arba he visibly relaxed and stared in amazement at the neat streets lined with stone-clad apartment buildings, parks and playgrounds.

"All these buildings have people living in them?" he asked me in wide-eyed wonder. When I answered in the affirmative he just shook his head and kept repeating "I didn't know... I didn't know...". Apparently he had bought into the media version of 'the territories' where everyone lives in trailers on wind-swept hilltops.

When we'd finally parked and gotten his smokes, I suggested he take a short break from driving and just sit outside enjoying the cool night air. I figured that not only would this spare me from the stink of smoke inside the cab, but it would also give me the opportunity to point out a nearby feature I had a hunch might be of interest to him.

I pointed at an electric gate in a chain-link fence that was less than 100 yards from where we were parked. "You see that gate?" I began. "Just a minute or two beyond that gate is the Ma'arat HaMachpelah (the cave of the Patriarchs)".

He stared at me as though I'd just told him that Abraham himself was waiting in the dark just beyond the fence.

"Are you serious? I thought the Arabs destroyed that during the Intifada! It still exists?!"

I explained that it had been Joseph's tomb that was destroyed by the Arabs, and that the Ma'arat HaMachpelah - the tomb of the Patriarchs - was sill very much extant.

Apparently forgetting all about the previous 45 minutes of white-knuckled terror, the driver sprinted around the car, reached through the window for the radio microphone, and called his dispatcher.

"Itzik... ITZIK... you hear me?"

The click of a far-away mic was followed by a laconic, "Shome'ah" [I hear you]

"Itzik, you'll never believe where I am. I stopped for cigarettes in Kiryat Arba and I'm parked within a few meters of the Ma'arat HaMachpelah!"

The dispatcher's voice burst over the radio... this time full of excitement and now, apparently on the public channel: "Hey Dudu, tchacho, Zvika, Hezi... everyone! Yossi's calling from the Ma'arat HaMachpelah in Hevron!"

While this wasn't exactly true (since we were still technically in Kiryat Arba), the response was immediate and electric. The radio speaker began broadcasting a competing jumble of joyful salutations from his fellow drivers in 'far-away' Beer Sheva:

"Kol Hakavod [congratulations], Yossi!"

"Zachita!" [you won!]

"Yossi, you have to say Tehilim [Psalms] for my mother at the Ma'arah [cave]... she's having an operation tomorow. [Her name is]... Sarah Bat Shifra... Sarah Bat Shifra... you hear me... Sarah Bat Shifra!"

"Aizeh Gibor [what a hero!]"

"Yossi... Tell us what you see."

"Sarah Bat Shifra... Yossi, don't forget!"

"Yossi... Hazarta B'Tchuvah? [Did you become religious?]... Kol HaKAvod!"

"How did you get there... did you get lost"

What does it look like... is it beautiful in the moonlight?"

"Sarah Bat Shifra... Yossi... Sarah Bat Shifra!"

It was like a replay of Motta Gur's famous "Har HaBayit B'Yadainu!" [the Temple Mount is in our hands!] broadcast.

Apparently forgetting completely about how frightened he had been just minutes before, the driver turned to me and asked if we could go into Hevron to pray at the Ma'arat HaMachpelah.

I looked at my watch and noted that it was after 11:00PM already... but he misunderstood the gesture.

"Don't worry", he assured me. "You're not on the meter. I have a flat-fee voucher from your company so nobody will mind if we take a short side trip."

I quickly reassured him, "No, it's not that. I'd actually love to go the the Ma'arah... I haven't been there in a few months [last time I was there was with Jameel and Psychotoddler]. But I'm almost sure they close it to visitors at 9 or 10PM."

He looked crestfallen. He stared longingly towards the closed gate leading into Hevron and into the darkness beyond, and asked, "Are you sure?"

I just shrugged and said, "Look, that's what I remember. But don't take my word for it. There's an army Jeep parked by the gate... let's go ask them."

We quickly jumped into the taxi and drove the short distance to the gate and pulled up alongside the idling Jeep. Yossi got out and had a brief conversation with the soldiers. There were some animated hand gestures from Yossi, but they were of the disappointed sort... such as one might see in the aftermath of a natural disaster. Lots of breast beating and placing of hands on the head as if in despair.

A few minutes later the driver came dejectedly back to the taxi... but instead of getting in he reached over to the recess under the radio and fished out an embroidered velvet kippah (yarmulke) and a well-thumbed book of Psalms with an ornate silver cover. Without a word he strode back towards the gate and upon reaching the chain link fence, began reciting out loud into the darkness beyond:

"Shir Lamalot... Esa Einai el heharim... mayayen yavo ezri..."

[A song of ascents. I raise my eyes to the mountains... from where will my help come? My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth... He won't allow your foot to be moved... He doesn't sleep... The protector of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps! ... ]

I sat there in the front seat listening to the taxi driver recite the 121st Psalm into the darkness beyond the fence. Although he occasionally glanced at the small silver-clad book in his hand, it was clear to me that he knew the verses by heart as there was certainly not enough light to see the small print there by the fence.

I seemed to be the only one taking any notice of the goings on. The soldiers sitting nearby in their idling jeep barely looked up from their coffee and conversation... and the two or three people standing outside the store where Yossi had bought his cigarettes didn't even glance in our direction.

I thought to myself, 'what a funny country we live in'. We're all terrified of the unkown / unfamiliar, but completely un-phased by the things we know.

The secular and religious experience emotions about each other ranging from distrust to hate because they no longer know one another. The urbanites and settlers experience similar emotions about one-another due to the same sort of unfamiliarity and disconnect.

The non-political Jews and Arabs are just as wary of each other as their more 'active' counterparts, again, due largely to the scariness of the unknown strangers. Those that live and travel in the territories are (mostly) at ease with commutes and ambulations that, for some reason, fill the hearts of Israel's city-dwellers with dread.

When my driver, Yossi, had finished reciting a few more psalms - presumably with his fellow driver's mother in mind - we resumed our journey, and within 20 minutes arrived outside my house in Efrat. I asked him if he wanted a cup of coffee for the ride back to Beer Sheva, but he shook his head and said he'd be fine.

I reviewed the return route with him and gave him my cell phone number in case he lost his way... but I could see he was writing it down mostly to humor me. Gone was the cloud of hesitancy and fear under which we'd begun our trip together. In it's place was a confident, macho mizrachi cab driver who was completely at home in his surroundings.

Almost as an afterthought I asked him if he was glad he'd taken the fare. Without hesitating he answered that he'd lived his whole life in Israel... most of it in Beer Sheva... and had never realized how close Hevron was. He told me that on his next day off from work he was going to bring his family to pray at the Ma'arat HaMachpelah. "My son's going into the army this year" he confided with a shrug. "If not now... when?" *

I couldn't agree more. As I watched him drive away I couldn't think of a better way to sum up the need for people's perspectives to change; 'If not now, when?'

* He was quoting Hillel from Pirkei Avot. The full quote is "If I am not for myself who will be for me. If I am only for myself, what am I. If not now, when?"