Yes, I am well aware that the posts are starting to become fewer in number, not that I don't have material to write about, just sheer lack of time to write. But I wanted to document my Aliyah process, not only for other people to hear about it and hopefully be inspired by it, but also for me so that I can look back and see how I felt about this upcoming move, which is probably the biggest decision of my life that I've completely chosen for myself.
So...the packing...Yeah, it's kind of happening. After about a month of procrastination, I took the first big step, I found two boxes and pulled up the suitcase I'm taking with me...and they've sat in my room for the past week collecting dust. I'm not sure why it is, but I have this thing about pushing stuff off to the last minute, kind of like I think that something will change as the day gets closer and the job will be somehow easier.
So I know have two weeks and a day until that plane takes off, a plane I've been waiting for for two years. And what's funny is that I'm not excited at all. Well that's not true, of course I'm excited, but I don't have that butterfly anticipations in my stomach, the "Oh wow, I'm leaving" feeling. Other people are getting excited about it "So when are you leaving?" in a very hopeful kind of way (no, they're not, I'm joking) but I have notices myself saying that's this is the last time I'll be able to do 'X'.
I wrote a few weeks ago about a bike ride I did up Greenspring in the Baltimore area. I went about 12 miles or so up that road before I turned back. I had been planning to go last week and this week as well, but I was recovering for the accident last week, and this week it looks like rain's going to hit the Baltimore area (besides I should get a start on packing). But on Tuesday, I went to drop my sister off somewhere and found that I had a free hour. An hour that I could just take to myself, without having to worry about schedules, pickups, deadlines, and other slave masters that can run our lives.
So I decided to just drive, drive up Greenspiring. Now for those of you in the Baltimore area who have never done this I highly recommend it, for those of you outised the area, you'll have to use your imagination. I don't know what it is about this road, but it seems the further you go up it the more beautiful it gets. You cross over the beltway and find yourself in a stretch of woods and a country road. I saw a dear on my way back, which reminded me of a time about 4 years ago when biking had to stop as a family of dear crossed the road.
After this winding conntry road through the woods, which kind of act like a portal into literally another world, you're really in the country passing this incredible colonial style house sitting in enormas corn fields.
This stretchs for about a mile before you're back in the woods climbing a steep hill up to this incredible vista that overlooks more farmland. It's incredible to think that this is really what America is about these rolling hills and open areas, we like to live where the action is but sometines it makes us forget about this other side of the hill. Where people live on large plots of land really touch it and appreciate what it means to be walking on grass most of the time instead of concrete.
Anyways I drove about 20 miles out and was just thinking, this will be the last time I do this, because it is. I am moving to Israel, a country where the inhabitants REALLY love their land. These farms out in the backwoods of Baltimore, don't have to worry that their land will be given away to people who want to kill them. They may take it for granted but they have a gift, Jews in Israel, Jews in general, whether they want to believe it or not, will never have that luxery of feeling that they have finished. Because we won't, not until the Beit Hamikdash is standing on the Temple Mount and the world is begging us to be their moral compass. We ourselves need to work on heading in the right direction, part of which is not just coming home to Israel, but also to do what we can to bring Torah into our lives. I heard an interesting point made, the Torah is not a book about about how we can make G-d happy, the Torah is a book on how to become a better person, and how to change the world into a positive place.
Rant done: I'm moving to Israel in 2 weeks and I can't wait!
Showing posts with label America. Show all posts
Showing posts with label America. Show all posts
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Update: Car Accident
So today I was out in Catonsville, MD selling some music equipment that I will most likely never use again, and to go to my college to pick up my transcripts.
I may have timed it wrong, and I didn't realize it until it was too late, but the time I was coming back was during rush hour. Lot's of Stop-and-Go traffic.
So there I was in the "Stop" portion of this highway traffic pattern, when a woman behind me, (who was not playing the right rules, forgot to "stop."
My car was forced 180 degrees and I was taking up 2 lanes in traffic, and it's an incredible miracle that I wasn't hit again by and on coming car in that lane (who would have hit me a lot harder than the woman behind me).
So after I checked my barrings, making sure that nothing was broken, and tested that car to see if it would still run, not knowing what condition the car was in, I managed to make my way to the shoulder of the highway.
Baruch Hashem no one was hurt. The driver of the other car was a pregnant woman with her two year old son in the back seat.
I got another dose of reminder of how G-d's hand plays in this world. The front of this woman's car was completely smashed in, with coolant leaking out from unerneath it, and the back of my car had, literally, a two inch long scratch.
We exchanged our information, and she insisted that I could leave, but I was not going to leave a pregnant woman with a two year old by herself on the side of the highway on a 95 degree day. Forger the legal aspects of it, it was just common curtisy. (Never mind the fact that she was being very emotional and I don't think would have been able to cope without someone there.)
So we got to talking, and I kind of had to laugh, because I'm moving to Israel in just over 3 weeks, and here I was on the side of 695 waiting out to see how this whole situation would turn out.
They had been planing to go to Laurel Farms, a farm in Pennsylvania where you can pick your own cherries. I kinda felt bad that I'd ruined their trip. But, as I had to remind myself, this is something that is completly out of our hands. She was frusterated about not being able to take her kid there, and (her being a Christian) I had to remind her of that.
So I'm actually waiting to hear baclk from the Rabbi about whether I have to say Birchas HaGomel or not, but I'm fine (I always wondered if and when my first accident would be) and still charging forward for that July 21st flight!
I may have timed it wrong, and I didn't realize it until it was too late, but the time I was coming back was during rush hour. Lot's of Stop-and-Go traffic.
So there I was in the "Stop" portion of this highway traffic pattern, when a woman behind me, (who was not playing the right rules, forgot to "stop."
My car was forced 180 degrees and I was taking up 2 lanes in traffic, and it's an incredible miracle that I wasn't hit again by and on coming car in that lane (who would have hit me a lot harder than the woman behind me).
So after I checked my barrings, making sure that nothing was broken, and tested that car to see if it would still run, not knowing what condition the car was in, I managed to make my way to the shoulder of the highway.
Baruch Hashem no one was hurt. The driver of the other car was a pregnant woman with her two year old son in the back seat.
I got another dose of reminder of how G-d's hand plays in this world. The front of this woman's car was completely smashed in, with coolant leaking out from unerneath it, and the back of my car had, literally, a two inch long scratch.
We exchanged our information, and she insisted that I could leave, but I was not going to leave a pregnant woman with a two year old by herself on the side of the highway on a 95 degree day. Forger the legal aspects of it, it was just common curtisy. (Never mind the fact that she was being very emotional and I don't think would have been able to cope without someone there.)
So we got to talking, and I kind of had to laugh, because I'm moving to Israel in just over 3 weeks, and here I was on the side of 695 waiting out to see how this whole situation would turn out.
They had been planing to go to Laurel Farms, a farm in Pennsylvania where you can pick your own cherries. I kinda felt bad that I'd ruined their trip. But, as I had to remind myself, this is something that is completly out of our hands. She was frusterated about not being able to take her kid there, and (her being a Christian) I had to remind her of that.
So I'm actually waiting to hear baclk from the Rabbi about whether I have to say Birchas HaGomel or not, but I'm fine (I always wondered if and when my first accident would be) and still charging forward for that July 21st flight!
Monday, June 16, 2008
In Defense of Jerusalem and Israel
A few weeks ago on Yom Yerushalayim Dr. Mordechai Kedar of Bar-Ilan University was on Al Jazeera's Arabic TV station, being confronted with the normal Arab issues, West Bank, Jerusalem, and I felt Dr. Kedar responded very well.
Of course the one critique I have is related to one line he said regarding the future of the "West Bank" and the creation of a PA state there.
Now I will admit that he did come of very strongly, not the typical apologetic Jew that we see in the media these days (click here for an example). But there still is an idea that the Jews don't belong in YESHA.
I was speaking to someone last year about this issue, and they told me that Israel was violating "international law."
Now I'm not a law student, but I have learned enough that when someone tells me something I'm not aware of to ask what their source is. So I asked them which law they were referring to.
They explained to me that Israel was an occupying entity that came into that land, started colonizing it, and started cleansing the locals from their places of birth. This was the crime they were committing.
I of course wouldn't have it, told them that I found that either they had an incredible bias for ignoring all of atrocities committed against the Jews by Arab countries in the early part of the 1900's, or they were simply ignorant of them and victims of other people who had these biases.
But furthermore, if you go by that rational that if a foreign entity (which the Jews most certainly are not) drives natives of their land and then starts colonizing that land and claiming it as their own, then you have just displaced at least 50 Million people on the East Coast of America, and even more if you branch further out west.
Because America WAS founded on this idea of colonizing the land and driving the natives out, yet I don't think that Left-Wing academics will say that the United States is occuping the natives of America (IE Native Americans), of course they probably will claim their occuping other countries, but it is certainly not for colonization. Israel, albeit with secular motivation which might be a topic for a different post, were not invading they were returning. The fact that the Jews lived previously in the land of Israel, is only in debate by anti-Semites. Anyone with an open mind who is presented with un-biased information, will find archaeological evidence of the Jews previous reign over the land everywhere. One of the reasons the Arabs will not allow archaeological research teams onto the Temple Mount is because it would disprove their claim that the Jewish Temple never existed..
Here's the Al Jazeera interview with Dr. Mordechai Kedar (in Arabic with subtitles):
Of course the one critique I have is related to one line he said regarding the future of the "West Bank" and the creation of a PA state there.
Now I will admit that he did come of very strongly, not the typical apologetic Jew that we see in the media these days (click here for an example). But there still is an idea that the Jews don't belong in YESHA.
I was speaking to someone last year about this issue, and they told me that Israel was violating "international law."
Now I'm not a law student, but I have learned enough that when someone tells me something I'm not aware of to ask what their source is. So I asked them which law they were referring to.
They explained to me that Israel was an occupying entity that came into that land, started colonizing it, and started cleansing the locals from their places of birth. This was the crime they were committing.
I of course wouldn't have it, told them that I found that either they had an incredible bias for ignoring all of atrocities committed against the Jews by Arab countries in the early part of the 1900's, or they were simply ignorant of them and victims of other people who had these biases.
But furthermore, if you go by that rational that if a foreign entity (which the Jews most certainly are not) drives natives of their land and then starts colonizing that land and claiming it as their own, then you have just displaced at least 50 Million people on the East Coast of America, and even more if you branch further out west.
Because America WAS founded on this idea of colonizing the land and driving the natives out, yet I don't think that Left-Wing academics will say that the United States is occuping the natives of America (IE Native Americans), of course they probably will claim their occuping other countries, but it is certainly not for colonization. Israel, albeit with secular motivation which might be a topic for a different post, were not invading they were returning. The fact that the Jews lived previously in the land of Israel, is only in debate by anti-Semites. Anyone with an open mind who is presented with un-biased information, will find archaeological evidence of the Jews previous reign over the land everywhere. One of the reasons the Arabs will not allow archaeological research teams onto the Temple Mount is because it would disprove their claim that the Jewish Temple never existed..
Here's the Al Jazeera interview with Dr. Mordechai Kedar (in Arabic with subtitles):
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Bikin' in the USA
Recently I pulled my bike out, fixed it up, and started to use it...heavily. I pretty much stopped using my car when ever I get a chance, and when I have to go to areas in the neighborhood I'll pull the bike out.
Now I admit I'm not as hardcore as some bike riders out there (the car keys will get pulled out when it starts to rain), but part of it may just be that I need to build my strength up again and feel more comfortable traversing city streets in my renewable energy source.
I have 3 main areas of interest outside of Torah & Judaism stuff, and one of them happens to be the environment/nature. Going back as far a I can remember my idea of a good time was going on a hike and getting lost in the woods.
Of course now I'm older and and don't have as much free time as I used to, so these trips have become less and less (although I'm hoping that they start picking up again after I get to Israel)
So today I decided to bike up one of the country roads that start in our area.
I say "country" road because for the most part it is. There is a small stretch of it that runs through the Greenspring area of Baltimore, but the majority of it is winding country road (for those of you in Baltimore the road is Greenspring).
Anyways, I biked about 15 miles up Greenspring. The terrain is pretty hilly, with good long stretches where you're straining your muscles biking up and finally getting to the top for a short sprint down the hill before you have to start climbing again.
The landscape goes back and forth from woods to corn fields to small rural areas.
At one point in the trip I stopped to take a few pictures. It was hard to imagine that I was only 6 miles from my house and everything that's been bothering me for the past few days seemed so far away.
I also thought that it was kind of sad that the average person who lives in the Greensprin
g (the area) had no idea that Greenspring (the road) led to some incredibly serene places. It really gave me a chance to at least see part of rural America before I left it.
I passed by a few farm houses and I imagined what it would be like to live there, out in this quite are, away from city noise a hustle, your profession enabling you to work out side in quite beautiful areas...
I have just over a month to go and I have a confession to make...I'm going to miss America.
Yes I really am.
Because even though this country is not home, it is still an incredible country with incredible people, and I have to give it to them for being great supporters of Israel.
Speaking of Israel, I have to throw in this last story that happened on my trip. You see Greenspring Road crosses over the Beltway (I-695) and that's usually how for the people of my neck of the woods (suburbs) have ever traveled on it. Once you get past the beltway you hit a really good stretch of woods, followed by corn fields, followed by some more woods.
It was in these woods I ran into a guy who's car had broken down on the Beltway and he was in search of a gas station. Needless to say he was going in the wrong direction for that. So I told him to turn around and head back in the following direction.
On my way back I ran into him again. I had been thinking that if I ran into him on the way back and he still needed help I would bike home and then come back with the car to pick him up.
We got to chatting at a stop light and I made my offer, but he insisted that all he wanted to do was call the tow truck and a cab.
Thank G-d I was blessed with an absolutely gorgeous day, nice an sunny in the mid 80's with no humidity, so as strangers with noting in common we shared something we had in common...the weather.
So as I do, I mentioned that net month I'm going to be biking in some much hotter climates. The conversation went like this:
Him: "Yeah were are you headed?"
Me: "Israel."
Him: "Oh, are you going to be doing some Missionary work there?"
I of course was wearing a helmet and had my Tzitit tucked in my back pocket, so there was no obvious sign that I was Jewish.
Me: "No I'm moving there, I'm an Orthodox Jew, do you need some water?"
He looked at me with shock and nodded, so I gave him my extra water bottle and a huge smile. I asked if he needed any more help and he said he was OK, we wished each other well and I went to bike down a very nice hill.
I'll admit I'm not sure exactly what happened there, but I think (hope) he was thinking more positively about Jews after that experience.
So all in all a very nice enjoyable bike trip.
Now I admit I'm not as hardcore as some bike riders out there (the car keys will get pulled out when it starts to rain), but part of it may just be that I need to build my strength up again and feel more comfortable traversing city streets in my renewable energy source.
I have 3 main areas of interest outside of Torah & Judaism stuff, and one of them happens to be the environment/nature. Going back as far a I can remember my idea of a good time was going on a hike and getting lost in the woods.
Of course now I'm older and and don't have as much free time as I used to, so these trips have become less and less (although I'm hoping that they start picking up again after I get to Israel)
So today I decided to bike up one of the country roads that start in our area.
I say "country" road because for the most part it is. There is a small stretch of it that runs through the Greenspring area of Baltimore, but the majority of it is winding country road (for those of you in Baltimore the road is Greenspring).
Anyways, I biked about 15 miles up Greenspring. The terrain is pretty hilly, with good long stretches where you're straining your muscles biking up and finally getting to the top for a short sprint down the hill before you have to start climbing again.
The landscape goes back and forth from woods to corn fields to small rural areas.
At one point in the trip I stopped to take a few pictures. It was hard to imagine that I was only 6 miles from my house and everything that's been bothering me for the past few days seemed so far away.
I also thought that it was kind of sad that the average person who lives in the Greensprin
g (the area) had no idea that Greenspring (the road) led to some incredibly serene places. It really gave me a chance to at least see part of rural America before I left it.I passed by a few farm houses and I imagined what it would be like to live there, out in this quite are, away from city noise a hustle, your profession enabling you to work out side in quite beautiful areas...
I have just over a month to go and I have a confession to make...I'm going to miss America.
Yes I really am.
Because even though this country is not home, it is still an incredible country with incredible people, and I have to give it to them for being great supporters of Israel.
Speaking of Israel, I have to throw in this last story that happened on my trip. You see Greenspring Road crosses over the Beltway (I-695) and that's usually how for the people of my neck of the woods (suburbs) have ever traveled on it. Once you get past the beltway you hit a really good stretch of woods, followed by corn fields, followed by some more woods.
It was in these woods I ran into a guy who's car had broken down on the Beltway and he was in search of a gas station. Needless to say he was going in the wrong direction for that. So I told him to turn around and head back in the following direction.
On my way back I ran into him again. I had been thinking that if I ran into him on the way back and he still needed help I would bike home and then come back with the car to pick him up.
We got to chatting at a stop light and I made my offer, but he insisted that all he wanted to do was call the tow truck and a cab.
Thank G-d I was blessed with an absolutely gorgeous day, nice an sunny in the mid 80's with no humidity, so as strangers with noting in common we shared something we had in common...the weather.
So as I do, I mentioned that net month I'm going to be biking in some much hotter climates. The conversation went like this:
Him: "Yeah were are you headed?"
Me: "Israel."
Him: "Oh, are you going to be doing some Missionary work there?"
I of course was wearing a helmet and had my Tzitit tucked in my back pocket, so there was no obvious sign that I was Jewish.
Me: "No I'm moving there, I'm an Orthodox Jew, do you need some water?"
He looked at me with shock and nodded, so I gave him my extra water bottle and a huge smile. I asked if he needed any more help and he said he was OK, we wished each other well and I went to bike down a very nice hill.
I'll admit I'm not sure exactly what happened there, but I think (hope) he was thinking more positively about Jews after that experience.
So all in all a very nice enjoyable bike trip.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Obama...
I;m actually going to go off topic from my normal rantings about things related to Israel.
It was announced that (unofficially) Barack Obama will be the Democratic Candidate in the Presidential Election.
Regardless of his politics, some of which I agree with, some I don't, just like McCain, I have to say that I am proud that a black man is running for president. Regardless of the individual candidate, I feel that America has finally reached a point where the numbers would even support a black president says a lot about how the country has changed.
I've recently become very interested in early American history, and looking back at the founding of the country and going all the way to the 1950's, America has been about freedom.
Who's freedom is another question.
Going back to the time when Black People were taken from Africa against their will to come to America to work as slaves, the American ideals have in reality only been fully available to the ruling elite and the wealthy.
The Black community has unfortunately never really graduated from this slave mentality, and this has been helped along by other people's animosity towards them.
Now however, there are enough people in America who have moved past those stereotypes enough so that they are willing to vote for a black candidate, and I have to so that I'm very proud.
This is not an endorsement of Obama in any way, this is just a post on the fact that America has moved past the negative stereotypes that have plauged it since its founding.
Now of course the question is, are people just going to replace their animosity towards Blacks to another group. Say...Jews.
But that's a topic for another post.
It was announced that (unofficially) Barack Obama will be the Democratic Candidate in the Presidential Election.
Regardless of his politics, some of which I agree with, some I don't, just like McCain, I have to say that I am proud that a black man is running for president. Regardless of the individual candidate, I feel that America has finally reached a point where the numbers would even support a black president says a lot about how the country has changed.
I've recently become very interested in early American history, and looking back at the founding of the country and going all the way to the 1950's, America has been about freedom.
Who's freedom is another question.
Going back to the time when Black People were taken from Africa against their will to come to America to work as slaves, the American ideals have in reality only been fully available to the ruling elite and the wealthy.
The Black community has unfortunately never really graduated from this slave mentality, and this has been helped along by other people's animosity towards them.
Now however, there are enough people in America who have moved past those stereotypes enough so that they are willing to vote for a black candidate, and I have to so that I'm very proud.
This is not an endorsement of Obama in any way, this is just a post on the fact that America has moved past the negative stereotypes that have plauged it since its founding.
Now of course the question is, are people just going to replace their animosity towards Blacks to another group. Say...Jews.
But that's a topic for another post.
Monday, May 26, 2008
America's Memorial Day vs. Israel's Yom HaZikaron
I've only spent one Yom Hazikaron in Israel, and it was one of the most moving experiences of my life. The yeshiva took us all to Har Herzl, hoping to give us a taste of what the day was like in Israel, knowing full well that for some of us, it would be the first, last, and only time they would be in Israel on Yom Hazikaron.
One of the famous parts of the day is the Siren, the one that goes of at night as well as the one that goes on in the morning. The entire country just stops for 2 minutes, as a tribute to all of the people who dies in Israel's wars as well as all the victims of terror attacks.
Albeit there are two groups who do not stand at attention during those two minutes. One of those groups, not surprisingly, are the Arabs.
The other group are certain (not all) chareidim/yeshivish people, who during those two minutes make sure that they are learning Torah.
Some people may knock those Jews for doing this, but I think that there's nothing better that someone could be doing than learning Torah to honor the 20+ thousand Jews who have been killed/murdered since the founding of the State.
Israel's Yom Hazikaron is a day in which the entire country feels the pain of those lost souls, and mourn them.
On the flip side you have America's Memorial Day, which is a somber day only to those families who have lost loved ones in America's wars.
Vietnam, Iraq, Kuwait, , the Revolutionary War, all of the soldiers who died in these wars are forever lost in the lives of their families.
But that's only those families.
For the rest of America, Memorial Day is a day where everyone is off of school/work. People go hiking, light fireworks, and make barbecues. The average person may not even give a second thought that hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people gave their lives in order for them to be a free person in a free country.
It's actually kinda sad about how ungrateful some people are, about this fact. We've become so obsessed with ourselves we don't even think about the things that others have done for us that we're even aware of.
So here we are on Memorial day, let's give 2 minutes to think about all of those people who have died to make this great country (hey, America may have issues, and I'm moving to Israel, but America still is a great country). We owe them that.
I'm going to go prepare the barbecue now.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Funny Bush Videos
I had to do it eventually. Ever since Bush has decided that he's G-d and has the right to give land that doesn't belong to him to the enemies of the Jews, I had to, at some point, make some fun of him.
So here you go, so hilarious Bush videos:
So here you go, so hilarious Bush videos:
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Giving Our Enemies a Voice
Enemy.
What does that word mean.
Is someone you hate your enemy?
Is someone who hates you an enemy?
In order for two people to be enemies do they have to mutually hate each other?
I just finished reading a speech given by Barack Obama to AIPAC, in which he has an interesting quote:
And therein lies the problem.
In order for a peace to be reached you need to have two sides who agree on something, something that will benefit both sides. What benefit does Iran have in stopping their nuclear program? Or funding terrorists in Israel who kill Jews?
When all you're doing is talking, the most Iran can fear is that they're going to be yelled at.
Then there's the other issue of really suave Middle Eastern men.
When Achmadinajad came to the US to speak back in September, I was struck by how smooth he seemed. If I didn't know who he was I would have thought that he was a nice guy.
But we know what kind of guy he is, he's a guy who stands on balconies and screams "Death to Israel and the Jews" to cheering crowds below.
What gain to we have by talking to them? To understand them more?
The fatal mistake the both the US and Israel are making is that they think that they're dealing with people who think like they do and have the same values as themselves.
George Bush seems to think that he can send the army into an Arab country topple the government, give them cable TV and they're going to love democracy.
As we've seen he hasn't been too successful at that.
But the number one underlying cause of every single conflict in the Middle East stems to down to three question.
How do you define evil?
What does America consider to be evil?
And is the definition of evil different for Obama, McCain, or Clinton?
Because this next president is going to have to be the one to define that question.
What does that word mean.
Is someone you hate your enemy?
Is someone who hates you an enemy?
In order for two people to be enemies do they have to mutually hate each other?
I just finished reading a speech given by Barack Obama to AIPAC, in which he has an interesting quote:
And my plan includes a robust regional diplomatic strategy that includes talking to Syria and IranLet's ask the question why do we need to talk to Syria and Iran? Because according to the United States, the plan is that is, that sometime in the future there will (theoretically) be peace in the entire Middle East. Not an unstable peace, but a real genuine peace.
And therein lies the problem.
In order for a peace to be reached you need to have two sides who agree on something, something that will benefit both sides. What benefit does Iran have in stopping their nuclear program? Or funding terrorists in Israel who kill Jews?
When all you're doing is talking, the most Iran can fear is that they're going to be yelled at.
Then there's the other issue of really suave Middle Eastern men.
When Achmadinajad came to the US to speak back in September, I was struck by how smooth he seemed. If I didn't know who he was I would have thought that he was a nice guy.
But we know what kind of guy he is, he's a guy who stands on balconies and screams "Death to Israel and the Jews" to cheering crowds below.
What gain to we have by talking to them? To understand them more?
The fatal mistake the both the US and Israel are making is that they think that they're dealing with people who think like they do and have the same values as themselves.
George Bush seems to think that he can send the army into an Arab country topple the government, give them cable TV and they're going to love democracy.
As we've seen he hasn't been too successful at that.
But the number one underlying cause of every single conflict in the Middle East stems to down to three question.
How do you define evil?
What does America consider to be evil?
And is the definition of evil different for Obama, McCain, or Clinton?
Because this next president is going to have to be the one to define that question.
Sunday, April 6, 2008
China? Who's talking About China? An End of Days Scenario
All right, I'm going to take a different approach than I have in the past (for the sake of intellectual discussion). What if what we've always thought about the Middle East is wrong? What if we thought that the problem's centered around either America occupying some Arab country or that the fact that Israel exists the reason there's turmoil in the region.
It's funny, you can talk to some people and they'll tell you that the key to peace in the Middle East is for two things to happen.
1. America stops getting involved in the region
2. Israel gives the PA Arabs Yehuda & the Shomron.
If only those two things would happen then there would be peace in the Middle East.
But is that true?
Lets start with answer number 2, Israel giving up land. Let's say we forgot about all of the historical and religious significance that the Jews have to the land. Let's forget the security nightmare an act like that would cause. Let's just say that in the perfect world, Israel gave that land with the Arabs and the Arabs started to create a thriving functional society that didn't preach hate about non-Muslims, was productive in the world market and started some kind of export business or high-tech, and helped contribute to the world economy.
Let's imagine that.
OK, you can stop laughing. I'm going to show you why the solution to peace in the Middle East is actually the exact opposite what Westerners would think. Westerners think that the "conflict" is about land. Secular Israeli's think the conflict is about land. But even if the conflict was about land the solution is not to hand the land to them on a silver platter, in fact now that the Arabs have no sovereign control over the land it is going to be pretty much impossible to create a state for them there and for them to respect Israel.
One thing that most Westerners don't understand is that the Middle East is different from the countries that they live in. Namely being the different mentalities of the two ares.
I'll give you and example, an America tourist walks into an Arab shop anywhere in the Middle East, and picks up and item and asks the Arab shop keeper how much the item costs. The Arab says $50 even though the it really only costs $10. The Arab is not trying to swindle him, he's expecting the American to barter with him.
The tourist then say "OK" and pulls out the money and hands it to the Arab.
Imagine this happening in America, the shopkeeper would be thrilled!
The Arab however feels cheated.
This American turned him into a thief, and made him feel like he cheated the American. He doesn't want to have something handed to him, he wants to work for it.
And that is the underlining difference between America and the Middle East. America is all about equality and fairness (or at least claims to be) the Middle East is about respect. Even if acquiring that respect, causes him a monetary loss.
Success in America is usually defined by how much money a person has.
But someone who's bringing millions of dollars home every year, but also has a terrible marriage and troubled kids, would you define that as success.
It's kind of refreshing to not have to judged solely by how much money you make (one of the reasons I'm moving to Israel) and just by your actual worth as a person.
But I'm getting off topic, the point I want to make is that the solution to the Arab-Israel problem is not giving the Arabs land, it's doing what we did in 1967 and kicking there butts (but with love) and forcing them to grow up and stop whining like a two year and having everything handed to them on a silver platter. If they fire a rocket at us we firs 50 back at them, if they send a suicide bomber into a Jewish city, they will know that they will cause their families homes to be destroyed and their families imprisoned. They won't be going in with the knowledge that their families are going to receive $25,000 after they become a Shahid.
This then leads to another aspect of the conflict that would rock the world if it was revealed in the world media. The Muslims (not the extremists, but your normal everyday Muslim) believes that the Torah says that the Land of Israel belongs to the Jews. They just don't consider Israeli's the Jews of the Torah.
If there was a spiritual revolution in Israel (like there is now and what has the current government so terrified) this conflict would end and we would have the potential to uniting with the Arabs and making a very strong Middle East.
And we're going to need a very strong Middle East to protect us from the next war.
What's the next war? Well I'm no prophet, and this is all hypothetical but let's look at the first issue that I presented above. America.
America has some serious problems.
Part of it has to do with the media, but a lot of it has to do with the government.
But if you think about media for a minute, why would it make headline news out of Michael Jackson molesting 12 year old boys when Russia and China were signing major arms agreements? Wouldn't it be a little bit more pressing to give out the information from two possibly lethal enemies, who, most likely are going to use this new agreement against the interests of the US.
But let's imagine, just imagine, that the conflict in the Middle East was solved. Let's say all of the religious Jews of America moved to Israel and there was a spiritual revolution that took place in the state, a revolution that changed the very nature of the state to be a religious, Torah government. Add that to every single Arab in the Middle East knowing that if one rocket attack was taken against Israel, the location that the attack came from would be flattened. Add on top of that the US getting out of the Middle East and letting the area stabilize by itself.
Then imagine that what resulted from this was a real peace. Not a peace that involved "good will gestures" but a peace that fit into the mold of the Middle East, but would be different from any peace that had ever taken place in the region before. A region that has forever been at the control of a foreign entity whose main goal was to conquer as much land as possible, now under the influence, not from an land depleting occupier, but by the inhabitants the land was originally made for. Not by an entity with a goal ton conquer, but a nation that has the goal of being a light unto the nations, and being able to bring the true light of G-d into the world and really unite the people of this world.
Imagine that.
Now imagine that except the only people who will be effected are the people of the Middle East.
Not the people in the Far East.
The people of the far East are more powerful than the people of the West. They are more focused and determined and hate people of faith.
They want to dominate the world.
America is too weak. The European countries are too weak.
They will fall fast.
Now the question is the Middle East.
Imagine if the War of Gog and Magog has nothing to do with battle between people of faith. What if it's a battle of faith, the people of G-d vs the atheists.
What if instead of having a divided Middle East, the Jews and the Arabs could unite as cousins and fight a real threat and fight in the name of G-d.
All of this is highly hypothetical of course, but what if that's what it takes to bring the Jews of the world together, and end Arab hate?
Just a thought
It's funny, you can talk to some people and they'll tell you that the key to peace in the Middle East is for two things to happen.
1. America stops getting involved in the region
2. Israel gives the PA Arabs Yehuda & the Shomron.
If only those two things would happen then there would be peace in the Middle East.
But is that true?
Lets start with answer number 2, Israel giving up land. Let's say we forgot about all of the historical and religious significance that the Jews have to the land. Let's forget the security nightmare an act like that would cause. Let's just say that in the perfect world, Israel gave that land with the Arabs and the Arabs started to create a thriving functional society that didn't preach hate about non-Muslims, was productive in the world market and started some kind of export business or high-tech, and helped contribute to the world economy.
Let's imagine that.
OK, you can stop laughing. I'm going to show you why the solution to peace in the Middle East is actually the exact opposite what Westerners would think. Westerners think that the "conflict" is about land. Secular Israeli's think the conflict is about land. But even if the conflict was about land the solution is not to hand the land to them on a silver platter, in fact now that the Arabs have no sovereign control over the land it is going to be pretty much impossible to create a state for them there and for them to respect Israel.
One thing that most Westerners don't understand is that the Middle East is different from the countries that they live in. Namely being the different mentalities of the two ares.
I'll give you and example, an America tourist walks into an Arab shop anywhere in the Middle East, and picks up and item and asks the Arab shop keeper how much the item costs. The Arab says $50 even though the it really only costs $10. The Arab is not trying to swindle him, he's expecting the American to barter with him.
The tourist then say "OK" and pulls out the money and hands it to the Arab.
Imagine this happening in America, the shopkeeper would be thrilled!
The Arab however feels cheated.
This American turned him into a thief, and made him feel like he cheated the American. He doesn't want to have something handed to him, he wants to work for it.
And that is the underlining difference between America and the Middle East. America is all about equality and fairness (or at least claims to be) the Middle East is about respect. Even if acquiring that respect, causes him a monetary loss.
Success in America is usually defined by how much money a person has.
But someone who's bringing millions of dollars home every year, but also has a terrible marriage and troubled kids, would you define that as success.
It's kind of refreshing to not have to judged solely by how much money you make (one of the reasons I'm moving to Israel) and just by your actual worth as a person.
But I'm getting off topic, the point I want to make is that the solution to the Arab-Israel problem is not giving the Arabs land, it's doing what we did in 1967 and kicking there butts (but with love) and forcing them to grow up and stop whining like a two year and having everything handed to them on a silver platter. If they fire a rocket at us we firs 50 back at them, if they send a suicide bomber into a Jewish city, they will know that they will cause their families homes to be destroyed and their families imprisoned. They won't be going in with the knowledge that their families are going to receive $25,000 after they become a Shahid.
This then leads to another aspect of the conflict that would rock the world if it was revealed in the world media. The Muslims (not the extremists, but your normal everyday Muslim) believes that the Torah says that the Land of Israel belongs to the Jews. They just don't consider Israeli's the Jews of the Torah.
If there was a spiritual revolution in Israel (like there is now and what has the current government so terrified) this conflict would end and we would have the potential to uniting with the Arabs and making a very strong Middle East.
And we're going to need a very strong Middle East to protect us from the next war.
What's the next war? Well I'm no prophet, and this is all hypothetical but let's look at the first issue that I presented above. America.
America has some serious problems.
Part of it has to do with the media, but a lot of it has to do with the government.
But if you think about media for a minute, why would it make headline news out of Michael Jackson molesting 12 year old boys when Russia and China were signing major arms agreements? Wouldn't it be a little bit more pressing to give out the information from two possibly lethal enemies, who, most likely are going to use this new agreement against the interests of the US.
But let's imagine, just imagine, that the conflict in the Middle East was solved. Let's say all of the religious Jews of America moved to Israel and there was a spiritual revolution that took place in the state, a revolution that changed the very nature of the state to be a religious, Torah government. Add that to every single Arab in the Middle East knowing that if one rocket attack was taken against Israel, the location that the attack came from would be flattened. Add on top of that the US getting out of the Middle East and letting the area stabilize by itself.
Then imagine that what resulted from this was a real peace. Not a peace that involved "good will gestures" but a peace that fit into the mold of the Middle East, but would be different from any peace that had ever taken place in the region before. A region that has forever been at the control of a foreign entity whose main goal was to conquer as much land as possible, now under the influence, not from an land depleting occupier, but by the inhabitants the land was originally made for. Not by an entity with a goal ton conquer, but a nation that has the goal of being a light unto the nations, and being able to bring the true light of G-d into the world and really unite the people of this world.
Imagine that.
Now imagine that except the only people who will be effected are the people of the Middle East.
Not the people in the Far East.
The people of the far East are more powerful than the people of the West. They are more focused and determined and hate people of faith.
They want to dominate the world.
America is too weak. The European countries are too weak.
They will fall fast.
Now the question is the Middle East.
Imagine if the War of Gog and Magog has nothing to do with battle between people of faith. What if it's a battle of faith, the people of G-d vs the atheists.
What if instead of having a divided Middle East, the Jews and the Arabs could unite as cousins and fight a real threat and fight in the name of G-d.
All of this is highly hypothetical of course, but what if that's what it takes to bring the Jews of the world together, and end Arab hate?
Just a thought
Sunday, January 6, 2008
Sunday, December 23, 2007
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.
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.
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
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
Sunday, December 2, 2007
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.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Bush-Who the HELL is Abbas you idiot?
Well Annapolis is over and it didn't have the dramatic effects that everyone was expecting. The fact the PM of Israel is ONCE AGAIN sitting down offering more land to a leader who's sole purpose in being there is to eventually be able to kill as many Jews as possible.
But this "Palestinian leader" is probably the most interesting in all of the leader's who have come to the White House before to solve "The Situation," (oh wait there was only one, Arafat. There was nobody before him).
The brainchild of Bush was that we would throw the Jews out of Gaza and then have the Arabs come in a create a stable, functioning society that would bring prosperity to the world.
I don't know who he was kidding but the fact that it's turned into a terrorist nest I think has burst Bush's bubble.
But Bush is a man who is obsessed with democracy. Democracy in Afghanistan, democracy in Iraq, and "Mr. Palestine" wants democracy in these new terror states that he stays up at night dreaming about. How do we make a democracy? Oh, I know, we have elections! Then the people will vote in a leader who I can then negotiate with.
There's just one problem with that, the Arabs voted in a terror group which was inevitable because both parties that were running were terror groups. Those STUPID people! They voted in the WRONG terror group!
There's a key difference between Hamas and Fatah, Hamas is a devoutly religious group and they answer to no one except "Allah." Bush doesn't speak that language so he can't negotiate with them.
Fatah on the other hand are not as religious when it comes to Allah, they are more religious when it comes to something that Bush can give them, MONEY!
So we have a group that has been given the opportunity to democratically vote the leader they want in order to represent them in the pathway for them to acquire a state, which they never did anything to actually deserve. They can't ever vote for the right party!
So it should make sense that you take the party that lost and that's who you're going to invite to Annapolis to make a new Middle East, because this guy is obviously backed by the people he's supposedly representing right?
Mr. Bush, get you're head out of your tush and go read a Bible (after you've spent about 2 days underwater in a mikve to cleanse yourself of all of the sins you've done)
EDITOR'S NOTE: I am going into finals and will probably not be able to post for the next 2 weeks or so.
But this "Palestinian leader" is probably the most interesting in all of the leader's who have come to the White House before to solve "The Situation," (oh wait there was only one, Arafat. There was nobody before him).
The brainchild of Bush was that we would throw the Jews out of Gaza and then have the Arabs come in a create a stable, functioning society that would bring prosperity to the world.
I don't know who he was kidding but the fact that it's turned into a terrorist nest I think has burst Bush's bubble.
But Bush is a man who is obsessed with democracy. Democracy in Afghanistan, democracy in Iraq, and "Mr. Palestine" wants democracy in these new terror states that he stays up at night dreaming about. How do we make a democracy? Oh, I know, we have elections! Then the people will vote in a leader who I can then negotiate with.
There's just one problem with that, the Arabs voted in a terror group which was inevitable because both parties that were running were terror groups. Those STUPID people! They voted in the WRONG terror group!
There's a key difference between Hamas and Fatah, Hamas is a devoutly religious group and they answer to no one except "Allah." Bush doesn't speak that language so he can't negotiate with them.
Fatah on the other hand are not as religious when it comes to Allah, they are more religious when it comes to something that Bush can give them, MONEY!
So we have a group that has been given the opportunity to democratically vote the leader they want in order to represent them in the pathway for them to acquire a state, which they never did anything to actually deserve. They can't ever vote for the right party!
So it should make sense that you take the party that lost and that's who you're going to invite to Annapolis to make a new Middle East, because this guy is obviously backed by the people he's supposedly representing right?
Mr. Bush, get you're head out of your tush and go read a Bible (after you've spent about 2 days underwater in a mikve to cleanse yourself of all of the sins you've done)
EDITOR'S NOTE: I am going into finals and will probably not be able to post for the next 2 weeks or so.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
How Great Stories Are Made
I had an interesting experience at the chiropractor's office this afternoon. My chiropractor is a frum Jew, and has mezuzot on all of the doorposts in his office.
I had just sat down to wait for the doctor when I heard the following dialogue between a father and son:
"Dad, look there's another one! What does it say on it? Sin? Shin? Daled? What is it?
"It's something that religious Jews put on their doorposts. It has verses from the Bible in it."
"Wow! I guess he really does keep the law!"
The conversation ended there, and I poked my head out a spotted a kippa-less father walking out with his inquisitive son. I figured that they were Jewish, because the kid recognized the Hebrew letters, so I'm going to keep that assumption.
I wonder how much of a Kiddush Hashem my chiropractor realized he had created. That kid is probably going to go home and walk around his house and ask "why don't we have anything on our doorposts?" Which will lead to the parents making very uncomfortable gestures at each other ("He picked this up from you!)
They might decide to stop using my chiropractor, and eventually the kid will forget about the whole experience.
I'm guessing the kid was about 8, so fat forward 12 years. This kid is a between semesters of his Junior year and he's signed up to go on a Birthright trip to Israel. He will walk the streets of Yerushalyim, (free, because the Arabs decided to pack their bags and go home to Arabia) and notice the various mezuzot that line the doorposts and entranceway's all over the city.
He will then be reminded of this experience at the chiropractor he used to go to. He will go back to America and start asking questions. The summer following his graduation, he'll head to Israel trying to find himself, somehow wind up at Aish and start learning.
He'll realize that, as a Jew, he belongs in Israel, and will send his parents an email telling them that he's not coming back.
They will of course be outraged, ("This isn't the kind of son we raised!") and will immediately hop on a plane to come to Israel to try to knock some sense into their son.
He will convince them to take the Discovery seminar, take them on some trips all over the country, and they will eventually come around to his way of thinking.
They'll then go back to America, where they will spend the next 3 years watching their son grow on the other side of the world.
On his wedding day they will also decide that they also want to stay in Israel and make Aliyah with Nefesh B' Nefesh the following summer.
They will then somehow run into Rabbi Spiro, who right a book about their story.
This all Mashiach pending of course.
Good luck kid.
I had just sat down to wait for the doctor when I heard the following dialogue between a father and son:
"Dad, look there's another one! What does it say on it? Sin? Shin? Daled? What is it?
"It's something that religious Jews put on their doorposts. It has verses from the Bible in it."
"Wow! I guess he really does keep the law!"
The conversation ended there, and I poked my head out a spotted a kippa-less father walking out with his inquisitive son. I figured that they were Jewish, because the kid recognized the Hebrew letters, so I'm going to keep that assumption.
I wonder how much of a Kiddush Hashem my chiropractor realized he had created. That kid is probably going to go home and walk around his house and ask "why don't we have anything on our doorposts?" Which will lead to the parents making very uncomfortable gestures at each other ("He picked this up from you!)
They might decide to stop using my chiropractor, and eventually the kid will forget about the whole experience.
I'm guessing the kid was about 8, so fat forward 12 years. This kid is a between semesters of his Junior year and he's signed up to go on a Birthright trip to Israel. He will walk the streets of Yerushalyim, (free, because the Arabs decided to pack their bags and go home to Arabia) and notice the various mezuzot that line the doorposts and entranceway's all over the city.
He will then be reminded of this experience at the chiropractor he used to go to. He will go back to America and start asking questions. The summer following his graduation, he'll head to Israel trying to find himself, somehow wind up at Aish and start learning.
He'll realize that, as a Jew, he belongs in Israel, and will send his parents an email telling them that he's not coming back.
They will of course be outraged, ("This isn't the kind of son we raised!") and will immediately hop on a plane to come to Israel to try to knock some sense into their son.
He will convince them to take the Discovery seminar, take them on some trips all over the country, and they will eventually come around to his way of thinking.
They'll then go back to America, where they will spend the next 3 years watching their son grow on the other side of the world.
On his wedding day they will also decide that they also want to stay in Israel and make Aliyah with Nefesh B' Nefesh the following summer.
They will then somehow run into Rabbi Spiro, who right a book about their story.
This all Mashiach pending of course.
Good luck kid.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Blog Action Day 2007-The Environment
Today is a day that the good folks at Google are trying to change the world. This year they are trying to put some emphasis in the environment. As we know, it's very important to be environmentally conscious, and I have definitely been more environmentally aware since I started
taking my Environmental Science class, and a long the way I've found some very interesting things.
Well obviously, we here in these United States used the most energy of any other country in the planet. We also have the largest amount of energy that is used per capita. This is largely due to the low energy prices, if you go to countries like England, they also use, it would seem, the same amount of energy as us. They have light and heat in their homes, they still drive the car everywhere, but why is the per capita energy use so much lower in England compared to the United States?
Well, like I said before, energy prices. It's cheap to use inefficient cars, and home heating and electrical sources. I England the cost of a gallon of gas is in the $6-7 range. Therefore they have more of en incentive to drive a more economical car.
But anyways this blog isn't about England's energy use. It's about ISRAEL.
I posted a few weeks back a flyer I had made about the ecological footprint Americans and Jews in Israel make. If the every single person in the world lived like Americans do we would need the resources of 7 planet Earths to support everyone. If everyone lived like Jews in Israel, I said that we'd need 1. (It's actually 1.2, but that sounded awkward).
But look at all of the things that Israel has done, not just for itself in the world of conserving energy, but also at what it's done for the world.
Israel developed the drip irrigation method, a way to give each individual plant, even in a large field, the exact amount of water and fertilizer it needs. That means that there is little, if any, runoff into the environment.
Israel is one of two countries, the other being Spain, that requires all residential buildings to have a solar hot water heater to heat the houses water. It's hooked up to an electrically system for the cloudy days, but the majority of the year it's sunny and hot, the perfect weather for this type of system.
OK, so that wouldn't work here in Maryland (in which I've estimated that we have approx. 45 'nice' days a year. But what about areas of the US that have similar climates to Israel's. Texas for example.
Anyways, I think that I've made my point clear, but on a closing note, If the Jews of America made Aliyah, they would not only fulfill the commandment of settling and living in the Land of Israel, they would also make a huge difference in global warming.
taking my Environmental Science class, and a long the way I've found some very interesting things.
Well obviously, we here in these United States used the most energy of any other country in the planet. We also have the largest amount of energy that is used per capita. This is largely due to the low energy prices, if you go to countries like England, they also use, it would seem, the same amount of energy as us. They have light and heat in their homes, they still drive the car everywhere, but why is the per capita energy use so much lower in England compared to the United States?
Well, like I said before, energy prices. It's cheap to use inefficient cars, and home heating and electrical sources. I England the cost of a gallon of gas is in the $6-7 range. Therefore they have more of en incentive to drive a more economical car.
But anyways this blog isn't about England's energy use. It's about ISRAEL.
I posted a few weeks back a flyer I had made about the ecological footprint Americans and Jews in Israel make. If the every single person in the world lived like Americans do we would need the resources of 7 planet Earths to support everyone. If everyone lived like Jews in Israel, I said that we'd need 1. (It's actually 1.2, but that sounded awkward).
But look at all of the things that Israel has done, not just for itself in the world of conserving energy, but also at what it's done for the world.
Israel developed the drip irrigation method, a way to give each individual plant, even in a large field, the exact amount of water and fertilizer it needs. That means that there is little, if any, runoff into the environment.
Israel is one of two countries, the other being Spain, that requires all residential buildings to have a solar hot water heater to heat the houses water. It's hooked up to an electrically system for the cloudy days, but the majority of the year it's sunny and hot, the perfect weather for this type of system.
OK, so that wouldn't work here in Maryland (in which I've estimated that we have approx. 45 'nice' days a year. But what about areas of the US that have similar climates to Israel's. Texas for example.
Anyways, I think that I've made my point clear, but on a closing note, If the Jews of America made Aliyah, they would not only fulfill the commandment of settling and living in the Land of Israel, they would also make a huge difference in global warming.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
A Strange View into a Different World
I had two experiences today that really let me take a peak into the non-Jewish world. But just happened to be during my Environmental Science lab.
Story #1
Well this story is about my missing lab partner. We were assigned lab partners about a month ago, and after one week this guy didn't show up again. He wouldn't return phone calls or emails either.
Anyways, this dude decides to show up today, all like "OK, lets get to work!"
Me, being the Jew, had a hard time telling him, "Well, you know you actually haven't been here for the entire duration of the building of the project (we're building solar hot water heaters) and we can't go back to square one to explain the whole thing to you."
My other partners and teacher took quite a different approach.
"He hasn't shown up, he hasn't done the work, he's out."
So as he was leaving the room, he announced, "Well this sucks, I'm gonna go downtown and empty my bank account out on some crack."
I was wondering what I would do it I had been put in a similar situation.
I'd probably do one of two things: either I'd go home and watch Star Trek for 6 hours or I'd go to the Beit Midrash for 6 hours (or a combination of both).
After my mind was cleared I'd go find out how to fix the problem, or I'd deal with it. I wouldn't look for some temporary fix to my problem (of course I did mention Star Trek, so maybe I would) but drugs? I mean, come on.
Obviously similar things happen in the Jewish world, but at least Jews have someone to turn to, a Rabbi, mentor, but a non-Jew without a good relationship with his parents, and who doesn't do well in school, who does he have to turn to?
Story #2
So after this incident, I went with one of my other lab partners to the Home Depot to pick up some supplies for our project. On the way over there he was listening to some music, which, to my musician ears, sounded horrible.
It wasn't just the arrangements, it the was the extreme profanity in the lyrics, I found it extremely offensive and disgusting.
But I didn't mention anything during the whole trip about it, and after we got back to campus I noticed that these colorful words were falling out of his mouth as well.
At some point in the afternoon he let out one of these swear words in front of the professor. The professor asked him to stop it, not because he was offended, but for my lab partners own good.
Then he went rambling on about how, when you get a job you can't use words like that, how it's unprofessional, blah, blah, blah.
I would have said the reason not to use swear words was that it's disgusting and vile. If you think about it, all swear words revolve around one of two things: sex & poop.
So here you're taking something that is one of the most beautiful things that a person can do with their body (you know the Gemarah does call if 'kodesh') and equating it with. . .well you get the picture.
That's what got me to stop using swear words, I used to be a real punk in high school, thought it was cool to sing Metallica (I still do, but shhhhhh, don't tell anyone) but when I realized this, I stopped. As one wise man I know put it, "It's a people express themselves, but if that's the best you can do, you have some serious problems expressing yourself. I don't think R' Moshe Feinstein ever had problems expressing himself, and I guarantee that he never used a swear word."
Anyways I thought it would be awkward to tell this to my non-Jewish lab partner, but I had to let it out, hope it didn't annoy you.
Thanks for reading (even those of us who happen to be in the back of a classroom during class right now).
I'm going to go to the Beis now and learn a daf Gemarah.
Shalom
Story #1
Well this story is about my missing lab partner. We were assigned lab partners about a month ago, and after one week this guy didn't show up again. He wouldn't return phone calls or emails either.
Anyways, this dude decides to show up today, all like "OK, lets get to work!"
Me, being the Jew, had a hard time telling him, "Well, you know you actually haven't been here for the entire duration of the building of the project (we're building solar hot water heaters) and we can't go back to square one to explain the whole thing to you."
My other partners and teacher took quite a different approach.
"He hasn't shown up, he hasn't done the work, he's out."
So as he was leaving the room, he announced, "Well this sucks, I'm gonna go downtown and empty my bank account out on some crack."
I was wondering what I would do it I had been put in a similar situation.
I'd probably do one of two things: either I'd go home and watch Star Trek for 6 hours or I'd go to the Beit Midrash for 6 hours (or a combination of both).
After my mind was cleared I'd go find out how to fix the problem, or I'd deal with it. I wouldn't look for some temporary fix to my problem (of course I did mention Star Trek, so maybe I would) but drugs? I mean, come on.
Obviously similar things happen in the Jewish world, but at least Jews have someone to turn to, a Rabbi, mentor, but a non-Jew without a good relationship with his parents, and who doesn't do well in school, who does he have to turn to?
Story #2
So after this incident, I went with one of my other lab partners to the Home Depot to pick up some supplies for our project. On the way over there he was listening to some music, which, to my musician ears, sounded horrible.
It wasn't just the arrangements, it the was the extreme profanity in the lyrics, I found it extremely offensive and disgusting.
But I didn't mention anything during the whole trip about it, and after we got back to campus I noticed that these colorful words were falling out of his mouth as well.
At some point in the afternoon he let out one of these swear words in front of the professor. The professor asked him to stop it, not because he was offended, but for my lab partners own good.
Then he went rambling on about how, when you get a job you can't use words like that, how it's unprofessional, blah, blah, blah.
I would have said the reason not to use swear words was that it's disgusting and vile. If you think about it, all swear words revolve around one of two things: sex & poop.
So here you're taking something that is one of the most beautiful things that a person can do with their body (you know the Gemarah does call if 'kodesh') and equating it with. . .well you get the picture.
That's what got me to stop using swear words, I used to be a real punk in high school, thought it was cool to sing Metallica (I still do, but shhhhhh, don't tell anyone) but when I realized this, I stopped. As one wise man I know put it, "It's a people express themselves, but if that's the best you can do, you have some serious problems expressing yourself. I don't think R' Moshe Feinstein ever had problems expressing himself, and I guarantee that he never used a swear word."
Anyways I thought it would be awkward to tell this to my non-Jewish lab partner, but I had to let it out, hope it didn't annoy you.
Thanks for reading (even those of us who happen to be in the back of a classroom during class right now).
I'm going to go to the Beis now and learn a daf Gemarah.
Shalom
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