Thursday, December 31, 2009

Shmuley Boteach considering run for office

Shmuley: I might run for office

NEW YORK (JTA) -- Rabbi Shmuley Boteach says he is considering a run for public office after local officials failed to prevent a Libyan ambassador from moving in next door to him.

In an opinion piece published Thursday by JTA, Boteach said he was outraged that Libya’s ambassador to the United Nations, Abdurrahman Mohamed Shalgham, was permitted to take up residence in Englewood, N.J. The rabbi, best known for his book "Kosher Sex" and counseling the late pop star Michael Jackson, said that having the diplomat as his next-door neighbor has him angry enough to launch a career in politics.
"From the age of 16, all I ever wanted to be was a rabbi, someone who brings healing to broken lives and values to a needy culture. But for the first time in my life, I find myself contemplating a run for elective office. The reason is simple: The Talmud declares, 'In a place where there are no men stand up and become one,'" Boteach wrote in his JTA piece. In conclusion, he added, "I wish to remain a rabbi who informs and influences politics from the outside. But if Gadhafi’s envoy remains my next-door neighbor with the tacit blessing of my elected leaders, I will do my best to unseat them by every legal means necessary."

Back in August and September, Boteach played a lead role in the successful campaign to keep Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi from staying at a house in Englewood during the U.N. General Assembly. But Shalgham recently moved into the property, owned by his government and located near Boteach's home; the Libyan diplomat was able to do so under an agreement reached 25 years ago, according to a report in the New Jersey Jewish Standard. The deal reportedly limits the use of the Englewood property to Libya's U.N. ambassador and his family.

Boteach said he was outraged when his friend and congressman, U.S. Rep. Steve Rothman (D-N.J.), was quoted by the newspaper as saying, "And so, I hope everyone will be appropriately good neighbors.”
"Is he seriously asking me to borrow a cup of sugar from a man whose government murdered American servicemen while they danced at a disco?" Boteach wrote.

In a statement issued to JTA, Boteach did not identify a specific office that he was eyeing, but listed the issues that were most important to him.

"My consideration of a possible run for elected office, which is currently in its earliest stages of review, revolves around my profound disappointment in my city's unwillingness to take action against Gadhafi's Ambassador being my next-door neighbor and the Libyan compound not contributing a penny in local tax," Boteach said in the statement. "In addition, I am a passionate advocate of school-choice. Religious parents in my area, both Jewish and non-Jewish, can no longer afford the astronomical New Jersey real estate taxes, not a penny of which goes to their children's education. Public offices where I would be able to impact on these vital issues is what I am considering."

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If only Shmuely Boteach were passionate enough about Israel to follow Judaism to the Jewish homeland! You noted his mention of the Talmud. The Talmud also declares: “In all times, a Jew should live in the Land of Israel, even in a city where most of the inhabitants are idol worshippers, and not live outside of the Land, even in a city where most of the inhabitants are Jews.” In Eretz Yisrael, he could have plenty of Jewish neighbors and concern himself with Jewish and Israeli issues and leave the ghetto with all its woes behind. Furthermore, the Temple Mount doesn't only have hostile Muslim neighbors who aid and abet terrorism, it's polluted with their foreign objects where the House of Prayer for All Peoples is meant to stand! Doesn't that rile him? Why the woeful neglect? Run for office in Israel!

Time to 'Go Biblical' with Arabs

Rabbis to US Ambassador: Time to 'Go Biblical' with Arabs

by Gil Ronen

(IsraelNN.com) A delegation of the Rabbinical Congress for Peace (RCP) met with U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Mr. James Cunningham, today and called for a reassessment of the entire U.S. policy vis-à-vis the Israelis and Palestinians. The rabbis told Ambassador Cunningham that it was time to try the Biblical approach to the dispute over the Land of Israel.

"The past 17 years have proven without a shadow of a doubt that every square inch ceded by Israel to the Palestinians was transformed into a platform of hatred and terrorism," RCP Director Rabbi Avrohom Shmuel Lewin told the ambassador. "In other words, the 'land for peace' formula in the Israel-Palestinian context, besides being a formula that goes against the Divine will, is ineffective, obsolete, and an exercise in futility. Most of all it is a dangerous policy that only leads to bloodshed and instability in the region and harms vital American interests in the region as well," Lewin said.

'Land for peace doesn't work'

The delegation was headed by Rabbi Joseph Gerlitzky, Chairman of the RCP, who is also the Rabbi

"It's all a play of words, there is no peace process."

of Central Tel Aviv where the US embassy is located. Rabbi Gerlitzky presented the ambassador with the Halachic (Jewish legal) ruling signed by over 350 prominent rabbis in Israel that it is forbidden to give up even one inch of territory controlled by Israel today because it will bring bloodshed and instability to the region.

"In the name of the overwhelming majority of rabbis in Israel," he said, "we request of you Mr. Ambassador, to convey our Halachic message to President Barack Obama that it is time for a complete reversal and reassessment of U.S. policy in the Middle East. The 'land for peace' policy never worked and harms U.S. interests in the region and the world at large."

Click here to read the rest of the story

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It's absolutely true what the rabbis say, but why haven't they demanded the ISRAELI government remember the Law of Moses (Malachi 4:4), as Meir Kahane courageously taught, and GO BIBLICAL with Arabs (and everything else) in the Jewish homeland since the way of the UNJews, the humanist/Hellenist way, clearly hasn't worked and never would?

Lying Visions of Peace

Shimon Peres Has No Clothes: Where's the Peace?

Parents of Slain Son Cry For An End to Deadly Peace Process

THEY MUST GO

Peace Now: Arabs and Jews Must Go Their Separate Ways

Don't Expel Jews From Gaza!

Ariel Sharon: From Zionist to Traitor

Thoughts on Meir Kahane...

Israel's Only Way Out: Follow Kahane!

Christians Reject "Palestine" for the Promised Land of Israel

Christian Zionists, Jews, and Israel

EU to Conquer Anglo-Saxons and Jews

End Deadly Peace Process!

Parents of Slain Son Cry For An End to Deadly Peace Process


From: Buddy Macy
To: davidbenariel
Sent: 1/23/08
Subject: Parents of a murdered Oleh make an urgent plea

Rabbi Dr. and Mrs. Sidney Z. Lieberman lost their only son, Hillel Eliyahu Lieberman HY’D, who had fulfilled the "mitzvah" (religious obligation) of making "aliyah". He was killed by an Arab terrorist.


Rabbi and Mrs. Lieberman write this urgent plea to end the Annapolis process.

B.H.

We, the corporate body of the Jewish nation, have been privileged with the divine heritage of the Land of Israel, promised in an eternal covenant to our forefather Abraham on Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal, overlooking Elon Moreh in Samaria. As the beneficiaries of this priceless treasure, we cannot consider our Holy Land as a commodity on the international exchange. The Almighty's gift may not be surrendered for a bowl of porridge – a paltry sum of "payment," resulting from misguided vision of wished-for tranquility. We, the children of Israel, are the guardians of our Holy Land for all the generations to come until the Final Redemption. This, then, is our sacred mission, never to be forsaken. We must concentrate our efforts and gather our strength in unity, to fulfill the objective of being a light unto the nations.

In the State of Israel, we have created benefits for all humankind through the study and teaching of Torah, which is G-d’s divine message for ethical advancement of all societies. Moreover, we have shared with all nations Israel's breakthroughs in state-of-the-art medical care, pharmaceutical research, solar energy development, hydroponic farming and social justice.

Our only son, Hillel Eliyahu Lieberman HY'D, fulfilled the "mitzvah" (religious obligation) of making "aliyah," thereby trailblazing in the true pioneering spirit, the settlement of the Holy Land of Israel, just as our American forefathers had created the first colonies of this young nation in the Western hemisphere by building settlements (towns and villages). Unfortunately, as a result of the mirage of the Oslo Agreement's promises of peace that could not become a reality, a violent "intifada" left him a victim of cruel, deceitful Arab terrorism as he walked, wrapped in a prayer shawl on the Sabbath between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur in the Year 2000, to his institution of higher Torah learning, Yeshivat Od Yosef Chai, located in the Tomb of Joseph in Shechem (a.k.a. Nablus), Samaria. Once again, the conferences subsequently held on the Wye Plantation and more recently Annapolis have pressured Israel with a false promise of "peace" to result from surrounding, hostile neighbors" recognition of Israel, to surrender slices of its tiny, vulnerable land, viewable from north to south and east to west in a matter of minutes by aerial flight.

Our seven orphaned grandchildren, who commute to high school and college via Samarian highways, do not enjoy the sweet taste of the oft-promised peace. They have been detained on their daily travel by explosives planted by terrorists alongside the road, by burning tires that turn bus drivers and passengers into "sitting ducks," by suspicious packages blocking progress until a robot pulverizes the source of danger, and by sirens alerting Elon Moreh residents of a terrorist climbing up the Mountain of Har Kabir with a bomb wrapped inside the carcass of a sheep.

Surely, we Americans of all faiths care about the safety and security of "our children," locally and globally. Therefore, we are totally committed to fighting terrorism – in this post-9/11 era – with strength, not surrender; with backbone, not bending; with vigor, not veering off the vector of our goal of true peace; instead of with "piece" offerings to those who aim to murder freedom lovers throughout the world.

The Government of Israel must resist any American governmental pressure, because such interference will negate our mutual relationship of respect and honor, and our mutual plan for global peace and prosperity, for free trade zones and for a flourishing economy. Inadvertently encouraging violence violates our shared purpose for the era of peace when "nation shall not lift up sword against nation, and they shall not learn warfare anymore" (Isaiah).

Rabbi Dr. and Mrs. Sidney Z. Lieberman

To subscribe visit this link
******************************

Megillat Bush - The Bush Scroll

Lying Visions of Peace

Christian Zionists, Jews, and Israel

Cracking the Qur'an Code

Cracking the Qur'an Code: God's Land, Torah and People Covenants with Israel in the Qur'an and Islamic Tradition on sale now


        Reprint Notice:  Permission granted to redistribute this R&B Information Services item through email Lists, and to post on Internet web sites, as long as text & title are not modified.  Source (R&B Information Services) and author's copyright must be displayed.


YERUSHALAYIM, Israelite Tribal Territories of Judah and Benjamin, Kingdom of David and Solomon, United Israelite Kingdom of Judah and Joseph; Fourteenth Day, Fourth Hebrew Month of  Tevet, 5770; Yom Chamishi (Fifth Day of Week/"Thurs"-day, December 31, 2009); Root & Branch Information Services mailto:rb@rb.org.il  http://www.rb.org.il/


Dear R&B Readers ,

         Cracking the Qur'an Code: God's Land, Torah and People Covenants with Israel in the Qur'an and Islamic Tradition, (E-book first edition, by Lowell Gallin, copyright, 2009), is on sale now at"

http://stores.lulu.com/store.php?fAcctID=3743146.
      

         Cracking the Qur'an Code is based on the teachings and written in honor of Dr. Asher Eder of Jerusalem, Israel and Sheikh Abdul Hadi Palazzi www.amislam.com of Rome, Italy. Dr. Eder and Sheikh Palazzi are the Jewish and Muslim Co-Founders and Co-Chairs of the Islam-Israel Fellowship of the Root and Branch Association, Ltd. www.rb.org.il.

        Dr. Eder and Sheikh Palazzi affirm, as they have always done, that the Qur'an unequivocally states, from beginning to end, and according to the traditional Muslim commentators, that God gave the Land of Israel to the Children of Israel.

        Dr. Eder and Sheikh Palazzi also affirm Jewish sovereignty over all of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, the right of Christians, Jews and other non-Muslims to pray on the Temple Mount, and the right of Jews to live anywhere in the Land of Israel.

        Shabbat Shalom from Yerushalayim,


        Mr. Lowell Gallin

        Founder and President
        The Root and Branch Association, Ltd.
        Author
         Cracking the Qur'an Code:
        God's Land, Torah and People Covenants with Israel in the Qur'an and Islamic Tradition
        
www.rb.org.il
         mailto:rb@rb.org.il www.rb.org.il

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Tens in Neguhot

Tens of lovers of the Land of Israel, from Jerusalem, Kiryat Arba, Hevron, Gush Etzion and southern Hevron showed a Jewish presence yesterday (Tuesday) on the Neguhot road, which, as we recall, partially passes through the Palestinian Authority.

This unbearable situation, which exists for years already, must be corrected immediately and complete Israeli sovereignty must be reinstalled on the Adurayim-Neguhot road.

The car convoy departed from Kiryat Arba Hevron. Cars were proudly waving the Israeli flag. The convoy arrived at Neguhot and held a march near the place where an Arab terrorist had thrown a Molotov cocktail at an egged bus two days ago, burning the legs of an 18 year old girl .

After the march, the activists went to plant trees in the Bet Hakerem neighborhood of Neguhot where two months ago two houses had been destroyed. It was heartwarming to see how the two families had not been broken by this political destruction of their house and managed to rebuild a home (much more simple than the original ones) in which they live, despite the very harsh physical conditions.When we were there, youngsters were preparing the roof for the upcoming rain by putting plastic sheets on top of the building.

Against the government's weakness, the families in the hills of Neguhot express strength and courage.

Zionism 2010 at its best!

At a time when the political echelons show weakness and a willingness to capitulate, we, the people, must initiate activities that express and increase our Jewish sovereignty and stronghold over the Land of Israel.

The Neguhot activity was organized by Women in Green and the Action Committees of Efrat-Gush Etzion-Kiryat Arba-Hevron-southern Hebron.

For details: Nadia Matar 050-5500834, Yehudit Katzover 050-7161818

Videoclip by Rivka Ryback from Yeshabulletin (separate clip in English
and hebrew)
http://www.youtube.com/user/dobiim4444

Photos: http://www.yeshabulletin.com/FIGHT%20BACK/FightBack.htm

With Love for Israel,

Nadia Matar and Yehudit Katzover

======================
Women For Israel's Tomorrow (Women in Green)
POB 7352, Jerusalem 91072, Israel
Tel: 972-2-624-9887 Fax: 972-2-624-5380
mailto:wfit2@womeningreen.org
http://www.womeningreen.org/

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

The Plain Truth about NEW YEAR'S!

How did the celebration of New Year's Eve begin? Why is the beginning of a year placed in the middle of a dead winter? And where did the many customs surrounding it originate?

MOST people carelessly assume that celebrating New Year's Eve is a Christian custom.

But did the practice of "waiting the old year out" really come from the Bible?

Is January 1 the true beginning of a new year? Who has the AUTHORITY to determine when a new year begins?

An Ancient Pagan Custom

New Year's is one of the oldest and most universal of all pagan TRADITIONS! The custom of celebrating it has remained essentially unchanged for 4,000 years!

"There is scarcely a people, ancient or modern, savage or civilized," writes Theodor H. Gaster, in his definitive book "New Year", "which has not observed it ... in one form or another. Yet no other festival has been celebrated on so many different dates or in so many seemingly different ways."

In ancient Babylon, New Year's festivals were closely bound to the pagan feast called "Christmas" today. The little-known connection of New Year's with Christmas is made clear in our free booklet, "The PLAIN TRUTH About CHRISTMAS!" If you haven't read it before, write for it immediately.

When and how did New Year's celebrations originate? Who began the custom?

Notice the proof of history.

"Mesopotamia," writes Earl W. Count, "is the very ancient Mother of Civilization. Christmas began there, OVER FOUR THOUSAND YEARS AGO, as the festival which renewed the world for another year. The 'twelve days' of Christmas; the bright fires and probably the Yule log; the giving of presents; the carnivals with their floats, their merrymakings and clownings, the mummers who sing and play from house to house; the feastings; the church processions with their lights and song -- all these and more began there centuries before Christ was born. And they celebrated THE ARRIVAL OF A NEW YEAR!" ("4000 Years of Christmas", pp. 20-21.)

That is how it began. The celebration of New Year's began in ancient Babylonia in Mesopotamia. It was a pagan custom of ancient sun-worship 2000 years before the birth of Jesus.

The celebration of New Year's is never once commanded in the Bible. Jesus and the apostles never observed it. Moses forbade it!

Don't say "it doesn't matter." It does matter to God whether we adopt the customs of the heathen. Your Bible says, "Learn not the way of the heathen" (Jeremiah 10:2).

Click here to read more

Sheikh Palazzi Expresses Solidarity with Jews and Christian-Zionists

Muslim Sheikh Pays Solidarity Visit to the Jews of Hevron
by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz
(IsraelNN.com) Noam Arnon, a spokesperson for the Jewish community of Hevron, told Arutz Sheva about a very unusual guest who came to show his support on Monday.

Making the trip from Italy to Hevron for the second time in recent years, the head of the Italian Muslim Assembly, Sheikh Abdul Hadi Palazzi, met with local Jewish leaders in a show of solidarity. The sheikh, an Italian national who received his Islamic education from leading mainstream Saudi and Egyptian Sunni institutions, believes that his religion obligates its followers to support Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel. In support of his position, Sheikh Palazzi quotes Koranic passages and traditions that affirm God's assignment of this land for the Jews.

As Palazzi has written of himself, he is "a Zionist Muslim clergyman and a friend of the Jewish people."

"We are talking about a unique personality," Arnon told Arutz Sheva. "A man who connects warmly with everyone he meets. A very brave individual."

During Sheikh Palazzi's visit to Hevron, community leaders discussed with him ways in which Islamist fundamentalism might be curbed. "He emphasized Saudi Arabia as responsible for extremism," Arnon said. "It funds mosques in Europe and the United States and then determines who will be allowed to speak in them. In this way, Islam becomes more and more extreme, which is a dangerous trend."

In his activities in Italy, Arnon explained, Palazzi teaches what he calls "the real Islam", which he believes includes tolerance, Jewish-Muslim fellowship and Zionism. "He even organized a protest outside the Iranian embassy in Rome when Ahmadinejad talked about destroying Israel," Arnon added.

Sheikh Palazzi, who is also the Muslim co-founder of the Islam-Israel Fellowship of the Root & Branch Association, told his Hevron hosts that Italian Jews are now shifting their political positions further to the Right. In the past, according to Palazzi, Jews in Italy were primarily supporters of the Left, but a slow change in underway. Arnon said that Sheikh Palazzi believes his efforts, as a non-Jew supporting Israel, have contributed to that shift.

Click here to read more

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Sheik Palazzi expressed solidarity with this American Christian-Zionist who was detained in Jerusalem's Russian Compound and later unjustly deported from Israel (for highlighting the plight of the Temple Mount suffering under Nazi-Muslim occupation in an article published in Jerusalem).

Date: Sun, 14 Aug 2005

To: "David Ben-Ariel"
From: Istituto Culturale della Comunita' Islamica Italiana
Subject: Re: Update on visa for Israel

Dear David,
I am simply shocked by what I read. I knew the Israeli government is becoming hard, cruel and dictatorial toward opposition groups (the wife of an activists protesting against disengagement was recently sent to jail together with her month years old daughter) but I never suspected this kind of attitude was extended not only to Israeli citizens, but to Zionist American citizens visiting Israel, too. Plenty of U.S. leftists regularly visit Israel in order to campaign against Israel and to support PLO, and they are not treated in the way you were treated.

Please, accept my solidarity.

All the best,
Sheikh Abdul Hadi Palazzi
http://www.amislam.com/

Sheik Palazzi has also received and read Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall.

Sheik Palazzi on Beyond Babylon

Shaykh Prof. Abdul Hadi Palazzi
Rome, Italy (6/19/2005)

Dear Mr. Ben-Ariel,

I finished reading your valuable book and appreciated its contents. I was already informed about the Worldwide Church of God and already had the opportunity to read books by Rev. Armstrong and issues of "The Plain Truth". Although from a religious point of view I obviously disagree with some of the beliefs which your Church preaches, I surely agree with your analysis of German and Vatican in creating as a new European anti-God Empire. I would like that Europeans understand what is happening under their eyes. Thank you very much for the copies you sent me. I hope many people will have the opportunity to read your book and reflect upon its contents.

All the very best,

Shaykh Prof. Abdul Hadi Palazzi Director
Cultural Institute of the Italian Islamic Community
http://www.amislam.com/

Monday, December 28, 2009

American Detained in Jerusalem's Russian Compound

American Detained in Jerusalem's Russian Compound

Nobody arrested me. I was detained when I faithfully reported to the Jerusalem police office at 9 a.m. Monday morning, January 9, 1996 (day before my birthday) the day after The Jerusalem Post published on their front page an article shedding light on what they were doing in the dark.

After my initial interrogation of six and one half hours, the Thursday before, I reported, as demanded, to the Jerusalem police station Friday morning, Saturday morning, Sunday morning, and then Monday morning the fellow who had actually been nice to me, he said his name was Moshe, was ordered to serve me a deportation order. He expected me to sign it and, appalled, I purposely dropped the accursed paper from my hands and let it fall to the floor where it belonged! I refused to sign it.

They put me in that dungeon called the Russian Compound, built hundreds of years ago by the Turks, and which has since been toured by Israeli parliament members who say it should be torn down! I was in a cell made for ten and at one time we had twenty one people in it, with mats lying all over the floor and bed bugs crushed on the walls and everyone but me (by the grace of God) had welts on them from their bites!

We had one "bathroom" for all of us in that cell: it was a literal hole in the floor, and the shower pipe (no showerhead) was just over that hole, and a filthy sink, and everyone had to practically beg for toilet paper. I was there for over two weeks before my unjust deportation, after being brought before the Jerusalem magistrate (who refused to release me, being represented by famous Israeli lawyer Naftali Warzberger), and later before Israel's High Court who agreed there was no reason I shouldn't have been set free, that there was no risk of flight, but now they were just going to deport me since my citizenship request was denied.

The Temple Mount Faithful paid for all my legal expenses, recognizing the whole ordeal was politico-religious persecution against all of us, yet the Leftists targeted little ol' me! Why? Because I had written an article published in Jerusalem that highlighted the plight of the Temple Mount suffering under Nazi-Muslim occupation: how the Israeli police enable Muslim discrimination daily against Christians and Jews who are unable to pray or read the Bible, in peace, upon the site of the holy temples.

Is it a crime to have an abiding love for Israel? To believe what's written in the Law and the Prophets concerning the Temple and our responsibility to construct it? To mourn that it hasn't been done yet? As the Jerusalem Talmud states: "every generation in which the Temple has not been built is as if the Temple were destroyed in it...." Isn't Israel's state emblem a gold menorah in between two gold olive branches?

Must I remain in exile, banished from the Land I love, because my hope, prayer, and dream is for Israel to fulfill what that symbol represents: the Temple and Israel's destiny to become a Light to all nations?

A House of Prayer For All Peoples?

Jews Must Demand Rights to Temple Mount

Restore Israeli Sovereignty Over Temple Mount

Still at Large!

Israel's Unjust Deportation of David Ben-Ariel

Why Edward Abington, Jr. Must Be Investigated!

Blow Up the Mosques or An Expired Visa?

Dangerous Ideas?

From Toledo to Jerusalem

When Caesar Plays God: When the State Oversteps its Bounds

Sheik Palazzi expresses solidarity with David Ben-Ariel

Exposing the German-Vatican plot to occupy Jerusalem

Is Administrative Detention Just?

Will the Left strike again?

Floyd Brown of ImpeachObamaCampaign.com writes:

I have been accused of never agreeing with a leftist, but I do like to read what the left is saying if for no other reason than monitoring the enemy. Recently, I have found to my pleasant surprise many on the left are as upset with Obama as we are.

So don’t hesitate to ask your liberal friends to help us impeach Obama.

To prove my point, I am going to reprint an unedited column (profanity included) by the raving leftist professor David Michael Green. This column was first published on the unabashedly progressive Opednews.com. Green is a professor of political science at Hofstra University in New York.

Read more

************

The Leftists murdered Yitzhak Rabin and blamed it on the Right. I hope we don't see an American episode of it with the president usurper Obama/Soetoro/Obama.

Women in Green: UPCOMING ACTIVITIES

Dear Friends,

Below please find 2 upcoming activities:
1) Reminder: a car convoy to give chizuk to Neguhot in response to the increase in terror attacks in the past months. In Neguhot we will help the pioneers continue to build their homes and safeguard the land by
planting trees. Note that the time of departure is 9:30am and not 9:00am as previously announced.

2) Details about Caroline Glick's lecture in Shdema this coming Friday.

With love for Israel,

Nadia Matar and Yehudit Katzover

------------------------------------

Announcement by Women in Green and Action Committees of Efrat-Gush Etzion-Kiryat Arba Hevron

SIMPLE MATHEMATICS:

A month ago - terrorist attack at Kiryat Arba Hevron gas station
Last Thursday - murder in Shavei Shomron
Friday - attempt at stabbing attack in Machpela Cave
Today - Molotov cocktail attack near Neguhot
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/135214

FREEZE DECREES
+ removal of roadblocks
+ 2 state solution declaration
+ agreeing to release terrorists
-------------------------------------
= terror, weakness, capitulation

BUILDING

+ planting
+ removal of fences
+ marching all over

-------------------------------------
= sovereignty over Erets Israel

TUESDAY, December 29, 2009
MARCH + CAR CONVOY TO NEGUHOT

Departure at 9:30am from Kiryat Arba Hevron gas station
Until Neguhot: March, planting, building

Organized by the Action Committees of Efrat-Gush Etzion-Kiryat Arba
Hevron and Women in Green
Details: Yehudit Katzover 050-7161818 Nadia Matar 050-5500834
Miriam Fleishman 052-4295557 Yehudit Ben David 052-6699154

----------------------------------

FRIDAYS IN SHDEMA

The event in the Land of Israel Cultural Center in Shdema this past Friday started with a demand to the Prime Minister in relation to the murder of Rabbi Meir Chai HY"D. "Get a hold of yourself immediately and stop caving in to the Arab enemy" said the members of the Committee for a Jewish Shdema and Women in Green. "The murder of rabbi Chai HY"D was expected. When you open roadblocks, when you agree
to release hundreds of murderers, when you instill in the Arab enemy hopes for more and more concessions, you weaken Israel and every weakness invites another terror attack. Now, more than ever, it is our
obligation to fight with even more determination for each and every place in the land of Israel, and that is what we are doing in Shdema, among other places."

Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, Rabbi of Efrat, spoke about the parashat hashavua and described how the story is relevant to today's events.

Yehuda, expert in negotiations, wanted to soften Joseph. He told him how his father is already very old and how much he will hurt if he loses another son. In his dealings to achieve what he wanted, (i.e. Binyamin) Yehuda was making sure to use arguments that would have an effect on the person he was dealing with. Rabbi Riskin said that this was a tremendous lesson in negotiating. One needs to understand how the head of the other side is working. This is in sharp contrast to today's government that is acting like a beaten wife, added rabbi Riskin. The government thinks that if we give and give- that we also will receive. But that is not the case. We must know the mentality of the other side and stand firm on our interests and not on that from
the other side.

Rabbi Riskin was disturbed to hear about the situation in Shdema. That the Arabs had been allowed to build an entire complex despite it being area C, belonging to Shdema, with the financial help of international
organizations like USAID and we the Jews are not even allowed to fix anything let alone build. The plastic sheets that had been put up last week to protect us from the rain had been torn down. Likewise, we found a booklet in Shdema by the World Health organization whose members must have gone up to Shdema during the week , planning how to take away Shdema from us, and purposely left their traces there.

The Friday event, in which tens of people participated, was accompanied by erev Shabbat music from Eli Gilboa, resident of Kiryat Arba Hevron, and his accordion.

This coming FRIDAY January 1st, CAROLINE GLICK, senior contributing Editor of the Jerusalem Post, will be talking in SHDEMA on "Obama and Israel". The lecture will be at 10:00 am.

Caroline will be speaking in Hebrew and there will be simultaneous translation into English with earphones.

The Committee for a Jewish Shdema and Women in Green

For pictures by Rivka Ryback:
http://www.yeshabulletin.com/FIGHT%20BACK/FightBack.htm

=============================================
Women For Israel's Tomorrow (Women in Green)
POB 7352, Jerusalem 91072, Israel
Tel: 972-2-624-9887 Fax: 972-2-624-5380
mailto:wfit2@womeningreen.org
http://www.womeningreen.org/

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Peter's Vision Was About Gentiles!

Re: Unclean Christianity vs Peter's Vision
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ivan88
Good Job David Ben-Ariel. Yes, Peter's vision was not about food, but about the lost tribes of Israel dwelling in Asia & Europe considered by ordinary Pharisaical religion to be unclean because they were divorced from God in the time of Rehoboam.


The Israelites, like too many Jews, are Gentilized and need to remember our Hebrew roots and biblical responsibilities and forsake the unclean ways and polluted holidays of counterfeit Christianity. However, Peter's vision was concerning salvation being offered to legitimate ethnic Gentiles, not just Gentilized Israelites, and certainly had absolutely nothing to do with an imaginary change in the dietary laws (that have been in effect since Creation), as the traditional schizophrenic "Christian" slop goes.

Israel and Judah Must Get House in Order Before King Messiah Arrives
__________________
http://www.davidbenariel.org/

Never Forget "Palestinian" Terrorist Take Over of the Church of Nativity!

The PA Takeover of the Church of the Nativity
On April 2, 2002, as Israel implemented its Defensive Shield operation to combat the Palestinian terrorist infrastructure, in Bethlehem "a number of terrorists took over St. Mary's Church grounds and...held the priest and a number of nuns there against their will. The terrorists used the Church as a firing position, from which they shot at IDF soldiers in the area. The soldiers did not return fire toward the church when fired upon [emphasis added]. An IDF force, under the command of the Bethlehem area regional commander, entered the Church grounds today without battle, in coordination with its leaders, and evacuated the priest and nuns."33

That same day, "More than 100 Palestinian gunmen...[including] soldiers and policemen, entered the Church of the Nativity on Tuesday, as Israeli troops swept into Bethlehem in an attempt to quell violence by Palestinian suicide bombers and militias."34 The actual number of terrorists was between 150 and 180, among them prominent members of the Fatah Tanzim. As the New York Times put it, "Palestinian gunmen have frequently used the area around the church as a refuge, with the expectation that Israel would try to avoid fighting near the shrine" [emphasis added].35

And in fact this was the case. The commander of the Israeli forces in the area asserted that the IDF would not break into the church itself and would not harm this site holy to Christianity. Israel also deployed more mature and more reserved reserve-duty soldiers in this sensitive situation that militarily called for more agile, standing-army soldiers.36

On the other hand, the Palestinians did not treat it the same way. Not only did they take their weapons with them into the Church of the Nativity and fire, on occasion, from the church, but also reportedly booby-trapped the entrance to the church.37

On April 7, "one of the few priests evacuated from the church told Israeli television yesterday that gunmen had shot their way in, and that the priests, monks and nuns were essentially hostages....The priest declined to call the clergy 'hostages,' but repeatedly said in fluent English: 'We have absolutely no choice. They have guns, we do not.'"38

Christians clearly saw the takeover as a violation of the sanctity of the church. In an interview with CWNews, Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran, the Vatican's Undersecretary of State and the top foreign-policy official, asserted that "The Palestinians have entered into bilateral agreements [with the Holy See] in which they undertake to maintain and respect the status quo regarding the Christian holy places and the rights of Christian communities. To explain the gravity of the current situation, let me begin with the fact that the occupation of the holy places by armed men is a violation of a long tradition of law that dates back to the Ottoman era. Never before have they been occupied - for such a lengthy time - by armed men."39 On April 14, he reiterated his position in an interview on Vatican Radio.40

On April 24, the Jerusalem Post reported on the damage that the PA forces were causing:

Three Armenian monks, who had been held hostage by the Palestinian gunmen inside Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity, managed to flee the church area via a side gate yesterday morning. They immediately thanked the soldiers for rescuing them.
They told army officers the gunmen had stolen gold and other property, including crucifixes and prayer books, and had caused damage....
One of the monks, Narkiss Korasian, later told reporters: "They stole everything, they opened the doors one by one and stole everything....They stole our prayer books and four crosses...they didn't leave anything. Thank you for your help, we will never forget it."
Israeli officials said the monks said the gunmen had also begun beating and attacking clergymen.41

When the siege finally ended, the PA soldiers left the church in terrible condition:

The Palestinian gunmen holed up in the Church of the Nativity seized church stockpiles of food and "ate like greedy monsters" until the food ran out, while more than 150 civilians went hungry. They also guzzled beer, wine, and Johnnie Walker scotch that they found in priests' quarters, undeterred by the Islamic ban on drinking alcohol. The indulgence lasted for about two weeks into the 39-day siege, when the food and drink ran out, according to an account by four Greek Orthodox priests who were trapped inside for the entire ordeal....
The Orthodox priests and a number of civilians have said the gunmen created a regime of fear.
Even in the Roman Catholic areas of the complex there was evidence of disregard for religious norms. Catholic priests said that some Bibles were torn up for toilet paper, and many valuable sacramental objects were removed. "Palestinians took candelabra, icons and anything that looked like gold," said a Franciscan, the Rev. Nicholas Marquez from Mexico.42

A problem that arose during the siege again shows Christian fear of Muslim domination. Two Palestinian gunmen in the church were killed, and the PA wanted to bury them in the basilica. "With two Muslim bodies inside the Church of the Nativity, Christianity could be facing an absolute disaster in Bethlehem," said Canon Andrew White, the special representative of the Archbishop of Canterbury in the Middle East. "It would be catastrophic if two Muslim martyrs were buried in the church. It could lead to a situation like that in Nazareth," he said.43 Only after intensive mediation efforts were plans to bury the bodies inside abandoned.

excerpt from THE BELEAGUERED CHRISTIANS OF THE PALESTINIAN-CONTROLLED AREAS

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Globalists vs Zionists, Catholics vs Christians

Even as most Jews don’t want to be associated with those liberal and godless Jews who often make the headlines and cause great disturbances in both domestic and foreign affairs, the so-called “Zionists” (I always correct folks that Zionists and Zionism are good - that the Jews they’re referring to are evil globalists, UNJews, Hellenists), neither do Bible-believing Christians want to be falsely associated with hateful Roman Catholicism, which we know and understand and expose is nothing but the Babylonian Mystery religion in “Christian” drag, misleading the masses. The Roman Catholic Cult is not Christian!

Christian Zionists, Jews, and Israel

Roman Catholic and Protestant Confessions about Sunday

The vast majority of Christian churches today teach the observance of Sunday, the first day of the week, as a time for rest and worship. Yet it is generally known and freely admitted that the early Christians observed the seventh day as the Sabbath. How did this change come about?

History reveals that it was decades after the death of the apostles that a politico-religious system repudiated the Sabbath of Scripture and substituted the observance of the first day of the week. The following quotations, all from Roman Catholic sources, freely acknowledge that there is no Biblical authority for the observance of Sunday, that it was the Roman Church that changed the Sabbath to the first day of the week.

In the second portion of this booklet are quotations from Protestants. Undoubtedly all of these noted clergymen, scholars, and writers kept Sunday, but they all frankly admit that there is no Biblical authority for a first-day sabbath.

Roman Catholic Confessions


James Cardinal Gibbons, The Faith of our Fathers, 88th ed., pp. 89.
"But you may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you will not find a single line authorizing the sanctification of Sunday. The Scriptures enforce the religious observance of Saturday, a day which we never sanctify."
Stephen Keenan, A Doctrinal Catechism 3rd ed., p. 174.
"Question:  Have you any other way of proving that the Church has power to institute festivals of precept?
"Answer:  Had she not such power, she could not have done that in which all modern religionists agree with her-she could not have substituted the observance of Sunday, the first day of the week, for the observance of Saturday, the seventh day, a change for which there is no Scriptural authority."
John Laux, A Course in Religion for Catholic High Schools and Academies (1 936), vol. 1, P. 51.
"Some theologians have held that God likewise directly determined the Sunday as the day of worship in the New Law, that He Himself has explicitly substituted the Sunday for the Sabbath. But this theory is now entirely abandoned. It is now commonly held that God simply gave His Church the power to set aside whatever day or days she would deem suitable as Holy Days. The Church chose Sunday, the first day of the week, and in the course of time added other days as holy days."
Daniel Ferres, ed., Manual of Christian Doctrine (1916), p.67.
"Question: How prove you that the Church hath power to command feasts and holy days?
"Answer. By the very act of changing the Sabbath into Sunday, which Protestants allow of, and therefore they fondly contradict themselves, by keeping Sunday strictly, and breaking most other feasts commanded by the same Church.'
James Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore (1877-1921), in a signed letter.
"Is Saturday the seventh day according to the Bible and the Ten Commandments? I answer yes. Is Sunday the first day of the week and did the Church change the seventh day -Saturday - for Sunday, the first day? I answer yes . Did Christ change the day'? I answer no!
"Faithfully yours, J. Card. Gibbons"
The Catholic Mirror, official publication of James Cardinal Gibbons, Sept. 23, 1893.
"The Catholic Church, . . . by virtue of her divine mission, changed the day from Saturday to Sunday."
Catholic Virginian Oct. 3, 1947, p. 9, art. "To Tell You the Truth."
"For example, nowhere in the Bible do we find that Christ or the Apostles ordered that the Sabbath be changed from Saturday to Sunday. We have the commandment of God given to Moses to keep holy the Sabbath day, that is the 7th day of the week, Saturday. Today most Christians keep Sunday because it has been revealed to us by the[Roman Catholic] church outside the Bible."
Peter Geiermann, C.S.S.R., The Converts Catechism of Catholic Doctrine (1957), p. 50.
"Question: Which is the Sabbath day?
"Answer: Saturday is the Sabbath day.
"Question: Why do we observe Sunday instead of Saturday?
"Answer. We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday."
Martin J. Scott, Things Catholics Are Asked About (1927),p. 136.
"Nowhere in the Bible is it stated that worship should be changed from Saturday to Sunday .... Now the Church ... instituted, by God's authority, Sunday as the day of worship. This same Church, by the same divine authority, taught the doctrine of Purgatory long before the Bible was made. We have, therefore, the same authority for Purgatory as we have for Sunday."
Peter R. Kraemer, Catholic Church Extension Society (1975),Chicago, Illinois.
"Regarding the change from the observance of the Jewish Sabbath to the Christian Sunday, I wish to draw your attention to the facts:
"1) That Protestants, who accept the Bible as the only rule of faith and religion, should by all means go back to the observance of the Sabbath. The fact that they do not, but on the contrary observe the Sunday, stultifies them in the eyes of every thinking man.
"2) We Catholics do not accept the Bible as the only rule of faith. Besides the Bible we have the living Church, the authority of the Church, as a rule to guide us. We say, this Church, instituted by Christ to teach and guide man through life, has the right to change the ceremonial laws of the Old Testament and hence, we accept her change of the Sabbath to Sunday. We frankly say, yes, the Church made this change, made this law, as she made many other laws, for instance, the Friday abstinence, the unmarried priesthood, the laws concerning mixed marriages, the regulation of Catholic marriages and a thousand other laws.
"It is always somewhat laughable, to see the Protestant churches, in pulpit and legislation, demand the observance of Sunday, of which there is nothing in their Bible."
T. Enright, C.S.S.R., in a lecture at Hartford, Kansas, Feb. 18,1884.
"I have repeatedly offered $1,000 to anyone who can prove to me from the Bible alone that I am bound to keep Sunday holy. There is no such law in the Bible. It is a law of the holy Catholic Church alone. The Bible says, 'Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.' The Catholic Church says: 'No. By my divine power I abolish the Sabbath day and command you to keep holy the first day of the week.' And lo! The entire civilized world bows down in a reverent obedience to the command of the holy Catholic Church."

Protestant Confessions

Protestant theologians and preachers from a wide spectrum of denominations have been quite candid in admitting that there is no Biblical authority for observing Sunday as a sabbath.

Anglican/Episcopal

Isaac Williams, Plain Sermons on the Catechism , vol. 1, pp.334, 336.
"And where are we told in the Scriptures that we are to keep the first day at all? We are commanded to keep the seventh; but we are nowhere commanded to keep the first day .... The reason why we keep the first day of the week holy instead of the seventh is for the same reason that we observe many other things, not because the Bible, but because the church has enjoined it."
Canon Eyton, The Ten Commandments , pp. 52, 63, 65.
"There is no word, no hint, in the New Testament about abstaining from work on Sunday .... into the rest of Sunday no divine law enters.... The observance of Ash Wednesday or Lent stands exactly on the same footing as the observance of Sunday."
Bishop Seymour, Why We Keep Sunday .
We have made the change from the seventh day to the first day, from Saturday to Sunday, on the authority of the one holy Catholic Church."

Baptist

Dr. Edward T. Hiscox, a paper read before a New York ministers' conference, Nov. 13, 1893, reported in New York Examiner , Nov.16, 1893.
"There was and is a commandment to keep holy the Sabbath day, but that Sabbath day was not Sunday. It will be said, however, and with some show of triumph, that the Sabbath was transferred from the seventh to the first day of the week .... Where can the record of such a transaction be found? Not in the New Testament absolutely not.
"To me it seems unaccountable that Jesus, during three years' intercourse with His disciples, often conversing with them upon the Sabbath question . . . never alluded to any transference of the day; also, that during forty days of His resurrection life, no such thing was intimated.
"Of course, I quite well know that Sunday did come into use in early Christian history . . . . But what a pity it comes branded with the mark of paganism, and christened with the name of the sun god, adopted and sanctioned by the papal apostasy, and bequeathed as a sacred legacy to Protestantism!"
William Owen Carver, The Lord's Day in Our Day , p. 49.
"There was never any formal or authoritative change from the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath to the Christian first-day observance."

Congregationalist

Dr. R. W. Dale, The Ten Commandments (New York: Eaton &Mains), p. 127-129.
" . . . it is quite clear that however rigidly or devotedly we may spend Sunday, we are not keeping the Sabbath - . . 'Me Sabbath was founded on a specific Divine command. We can plead no such command for the obligation to observe Sunday .... There is not a single sentence in the New Testament to suggest that we incur any penalty by violating the supposed sanctity of Sunday."
Timothy Dwight, Theology: Explained and Defended (1823), Ser. 107, vol. 3, p. 258.
" . . . the Christian Sabbath [Sunday] is not in the Scriptures, and was not by the primitive Church called the Sabbath."

Disciples of Christ

Alexander Campbell, The Christian Baptist, Feb. 2, 1824,vol. 1. no. 7, p. 164.
"'But,' say some, 'it was changed from the seventh to the first day.' Where? when? and by whom? No man can tell. No; it never was changed, nor could it be, unless creation was to be gone through again: for the reason assigned must be changed before the observance, or respect to the reason, can be changed! It is all old wives' fables to talk of the change of the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day. If it be changed, it was that august personage changed it who changes times and laws ex officio - I think his name is Doctor Antichrist.'
First Day Observance , pp. 17, 19.
"The first day of the week is commonly called the Sabbath. This is a mistake. The Sabbath of the Bible was the day just preceding the first day of the week. The first day of the week is never called the Sabbath anywhere in the entire Scriptures. It is also an error to talk about the change of the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. There is not in any place in the Bible any intimation of such a change."

Lutheran

The Sunday Problem , a study book of the United Lutheran Church (1923), p. 36.
"We have seen how gradually the impression of the Jewish sabbath faded from the mind of the Christian Church, and how completely the newer thought underlying the observance of the first day took possession of the church. We have seen that the Christians of the first three centuries never confused one with the other, but for a time celebrated both."
Augsburg Confession of Faith art. 28; written by Melanchthon, approved by Martin Luther, 1530; as published in The Book of Concord of the Evangelical Lutheran Church Henry Jacobs, ed. (1 91 1), p. 63.
"They [Roman Catholics] refer to the Sabbath Day, a shaving been changed into the Lord's Day, contrary to the Decalogue, as it seems. Neither is there any example whereof they make more than concerning the changing of the Sabbath Day. Great, say they, is the power of the Church, since it has dispensed with one of the Ten Commandments!"
Dr. Augustus Neander, The History of the Christian Religion and Church Henry John Rose, tr. (1843), p. 186.
"The festival of Sunday, like all other festivals, was always only a human ordinance, and it was far from the intentions of the apostles to establish a Divine command in this respect, far from them, and from the early apostolic Church, to transfer the laws of the Sabbath to Sunday."
John Theodore Mueller, Sabbath or Sunday , pp. 15, 16.
"But they err in teaching that Sunday has taken the place of the Old Testament Sabbath and therefore must be kept as the seventh day had to be kept by the children of Israel .... These churches err in their teaching, for Scripture has in no way ordained the first day of the week in place of the Sabbath. There is simply no law in the New Testament to that effect."

Methodist

Harris Franklin Rall, Christian Advocate, July 2, 1942, p.26.
"Take the matter of Sunday. There are indications in the New Testament as to how the church came to keep the first day of the week as its day of worship, but there is no passage telling Christians to keep that day, or to transfer the Jewish Sabbath to that day."
John Wesley, The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, A.M., John Emory, ed. (New York: Eaton & Mains), Sermon 25,vol. 1, p. 221.
"But, the moral law contained in the ten commandments, and enforced by the prophets, he [Christ] did not take away. It was not the design of his coming to revoke any part of this. This is a law which never can be broken .... Every part of this law must remain in force upon all mankind, and in all ages; as not depending either on time or place, or any other circumstances liable to change, but on the nature of God and the nature of man, and their unchangeable relation to each other."

Dwight L. Moody

D. L. Moody, Weighed and Wanting (Fleming H. Revell Co.: New York), pp. 47, 48.
The Sabbath was binding in Eden, and it has been in force ever since. This fourth commandment begins with the word 'remember,' showing that the Sabbath already existed when God Wrote the law on the tables of stone at Sinai. How can men claim that this one commandment has been done away with when they will admit that the other nine are still binding?"

Presbyterian

T. C. Blake, D.D., Theology Condensed, pp.474, 475.
"The Sabbath is a part of the decalogue - the Ten Commandments. This alone forever settles the question as to the perpetuity of the institution . . . . Until, therefore, it can be shown that the whole moral law has been repealed, the Sabbath will stand . . . . The teaching of Christ confirms the perpetuity of the Sabbath."
Roman Catholic and Protestant Confessions about Sunday
Remember the Sabbath

Celebrating Hanukkah in the Rocket Zone of Israel

"This year, Jewish residents in the Israeli city of Sderot celebrated the holiday of Hanukkah by lighting a menorah built out of steel Qassam rockets. The rockets, which were stored away at the Sderot Police Station, are some of the thousands of Palestinian rockets that have exploded on the Israeli city in the past nine years. It was a symbolic act; one that reflected the strength of spirit that has come to define the city’s inhabitants.

For some Sderot residents, however, the celebration of Hannukah, which commemorates the re-dedication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and the Jewish people’s defeat of the Syrian Greeks over 2,000 years ago, brings back more recent memories of hardship. Read more

************
I doubt the world cares about Sderot when it's clear the "Jewish" government of Israel doesn't. If the Hellenist government cared for its Land and People, they would defeat and drive out their sworn Arab enemies as Meir Kahane reminded the nation Moses taught they must do or suffer the consequences (Malachi 4:4).
- David Ben-Ariel

************
Sderot Rally for Hope: Stop Rocket Attacks on Civilians!
Thu Dec 24 2009 06:48:57 ( 7 Tevet 5770)

From shelled to sheltered: Sderot's new reality
Thu Dec 24 2009 00:47:12 ( 7 Tevet 5770)

Tiny organization fights to make Sderot's voice heard
Thu Dec 17 2009 15:18:27 ( 30 Kislev 5770)

Sderot residents light Chanukah menorah made of Gaza rockets
Thu Dec 17 2009 12:02:21 ( 30 Kislev 5770)

National Public Radio: "Shell Shock Lingers for Israelis After Gaza War"Tue Dec 15 2009 07:13:06 ( 28 Kislev 5770)

Israel's PTA commander-in-chief

Column One: Israel's PTA commander-in-chief
December 25, 2009
Caroline Glick, THE JERUSALEM POST

Unbeknownst to most Israelis, this week marked a critical shift for the worse in the regional balance of power. While IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi was busy demanding that the government pay a ransom of more than a thousand terrorists for captive soldier Gilad Schalit, few paid attention to Iran's newest strategic successes.

Over the past week Lebanon capitulated to the Iranian axis. Turkey solidified its full membership in the axis. And Egypt began to make its peace with the notion of Iran becoming the strongest state in the region.

Less than five years after former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri was assassinated by Syria, his son Prime Minister Saad Hariri paid a visit to Damascus to express his fealty to Syrian President Bashar Assad. Days later, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki visited Beirut and began giving the Lebanese government its new marching orders.

On Wednesday, Hizbullah forces deployed openly to the border with Israel under the permissive eye of the US-armed Lebanese army. Lebanon announced that it was no longer bound by binding UN Security Council Resolution 1559 that requires Hizbullah to disarm. And Hariri announced that he will soon visit Teheran.

While Defense Minister Ehud Barak and his media echo chamber insist that Turkey has buried its hatchet with Israel, on Wednesday Prime Minister Recip Erdogan led a delegation with 10 cabinet ministers to Damascus. There, according to the Syrian and Turkish Foreign Ministries, they signed 47 trade agreements.

This Turkish-Syrian rapprochement is not limited to economic issues. It is a strategic realignment. As Assad's spokeswoman Buthaina Shaaban explained to Iran's Arabic-language al-Alam television channel, "We are working to establish close ties between Syria, Turkey, Iran and Iraq so these countries can act as one regional bloc in order to promote peace, security and stability in the Middle East, while keeping the West's dictates and lust for the region's natural and oil resources at bay."

For years Egypt has been the most outspoken Arab opponent of Iran's moves towards regional hegemony. This past summer Egypt did not hesitate to accuse Teheran of trying to overthrow the regime when it discovered a network of Iranian-commanded Hizbullah operatives planning a massive terror assault on the Suez Canal.

Yet on Sunday, Mubarak hosted Ali Larijani, Iran's former nuclear boss and current speaker of Iran's parliament in Cairo. Following their meeting Mubarak traveled to the Persian Gulf for consultations on Iran's nuclear program. Given Mubarak's poor health, the fact that his meetings with Larijani sent him flying to Saudi Arabia indicate that something of major importance has just occurred.

Many IDF commanders are happy to leave the issue of Iran to the US, which they insist is capable and willing to deal with it. But the fact is that since Iran rejected President Barack Obama's diplomatic overtures, the US has shown clear signs of strategic dissonance.

While Israel clings to the hope that sanctions might prevent Iran from going nuclear, this week that notion was exposed as a fiction. Although Obama gave the House of Representatives a green light to vote on sanctions against Iran, he quickly demonstrated that Teheran had no reason to worry.

First Obama and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry blocked discussion of sanctions in the Senate. And now - with full White House backing - Kerry is trying again to appease the Iranians by begging them to let him visit Teheran. Clearly appeasement is the only play in Obama's book.

Furthermore, China's refusal to back sanctions in the UN Security Council coupled with Lebanon's and Brazil's ascension to the council next month obviate any possibility that a harsh international sanctions regime will be instituted against Iran any time soon.

FOR ISRAEL, Iran's successful moves to preempt American threats to isolate it should have been the top news story and the main issue on the government's and the General Staff's agendas. But it wasn't. Indeed, no one seemed to notice. They were otherwise occupied.

For the past week, the government's security cabinet and the IDF's top commanders have devoted themselves entirely to discussing how many terrorists Israel will give Hamas in exchange for captive soldier Gilad Schalit. For three days, the security cabinet met around the clock to discuss this issue alone. And the most insistent advocate for accepting Hamas's demand that Israel release over a thousand terrorists has been IDF Chief of General Staff Ashkenazi.

On Monday, Channel 2 reported that National Security Adviser Uzi Arad accused Ashkenazi of acting like the president of the IDF's parents' association rather than the chief of General Staff. Arad criticized Ashkenazi for demanding that Israel ransom the captive soldier while failing to supply the government with any option to use force to rescue Schalit.

The media pounced on the Arad-Ashkenazi story like hungry wolves. The national debate was dominated for two days by the burning questions of whether or not Arad would apologize, and whether Netanyahu can continue to retain Arad's services after he insulted Ashkenazi.

Conspicuously absent from the media's coverage of the spat was any discussion of the reasonableness of Arad's criticism. So, too, the media ignored the question of what - if anything - Ashkenazi's behavior tells us about the IDF mindset and disposition as Iran consolidates its regional power.

The fact is that Arad's criticism was on point. Schalit has been captive in Gaza for more than three years. At no point has the IDF provided the government with an option for rescuing him.

A year ago, Ashkenazi sent the IDF's best combat units into Gaza. During their stay, they were not ordered to rescue Schalit. And now, a year later, Ashkenazi is demanding that the government pay for the IDF's failure to rescue Schalit by accepting a deal that will imperil the country. And he is claiming that failure to do so will constitute nothing less than an abdication of Israel's moral responsibility to its soldiers.

Following the publication of Arad's attack on Ashkenazi, the IDF's Spokesman's Office issued a statement that army commanders are fulfilling their "professional duties" by insisting that Israel ransom Schalit.

This is untrue. It is not the professional duty of IDF commanders to opine on ransom demands. They have no professional qualifications to determine the reasonableness of ransom demands. In Jewish history, the role of ransoming captives has traditionally been the writ of rabbis, not military men. The writ of military men was to rescue them.

The professional responsibility of the IDF is to provide the government with military options for achieving its strategic objectives - including rescuing Schalit. By failing to provide such options, the IDF - with Ashkenazi at its helm - has failed to uphold its professional responsibilities. Worse still, by demanding that the government endanger the country to ransom Schalit, Ashkenazi and his generals are telling us something distressing about how they define their role as military commanders.

The IDF's apparent confusion about its role is not new. It was this confusion that led the army to fail to present the government with options for defeating Hizbullah in Lebanon in 2006 or for defeating Hamas in Gaza last year.

Whereas former prime minister Ehud Olmert properly received most of the blame for Israel's poor performance in the Second Lebanon War and in Operation Cast Lead, the fact is that it was the IDF that failed to deliver the goods. The operations the IDF designed, recommended and carried out in both campaigns were not meant to defeat Israel's enemies. All they were supposed to do was demonstrate Israel's firepower. And even this wasn't done particularly effectively.

In 2006, then-chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz rejected a ground invasion of south Lebanon in favor of an air campaign. When it became clear some 24 hours into the operation that an air campaign would be incapable of defeating Hizbullah or even degrading its ability to paralyze northern Israel with short-range rockets and missiles, Halutz and his deputies refused to conduct a ground assault. And, when after three weeks of failure they finally deployed ground forces in significant numbers, they didn't know what to tell them to do.

For his part, Ashkenazi sat on his hands for months as southern Israel was pummeled with rockets and mortars from Gaza and refused to offer the government a military option for protecting the South. When last December Hamas forced his hand by announcing that it was abrogating its cease-fire with Israel, Ashkenazi grudgingly agreed to let the IDF respond to its aggression. But even then, he opted for an operational concept that had no chance of defeating Hamas. Ashkenazi rejected the notion of retaking the Gaza-Egypt border. He refused to order IDF forces into Gaza's population centers. By opting not to do these things, Ashkenazi guaranteed that the IDF would accomplish little. Consequently, even top IDF commanders acknowledged this week that the army will be forced to return to Gaza in due course. There, thanks to Ashkenazi's refusal to defeat Hamas, Israel's soldiers will face a far more formidable foe than the one they were not allowed to defeat last year.

While refusing to fight Israel's enemies, under Ashkenazi, like under Halutz before him, the IDF has enthusiastically attacked religious Zionists. Since 2002, the only sustained operation the army has carried out successfully was the expulsion of all Israelis from Gaza and northern Samaria in 2005.

When Defense Minister Ehud Barak severed the IDF's ties with the Har Bracha Yeshiva last week, he was acting on Ashkenazi's advice. Ashkenazi has promoted anti-settler commanders like Col. Yitzhak Barr. As a brigade commander in Samaria, Barr has reportedly prohibited his soldiers from fraternizing with Israeli families on Shabbat and personally refused to visit IDF Chief Rabbi Brig.-Gen. Avichai Rontzky at his succa during Succot.

EVERY DAY the dangers to Israel's security and very survival mount. At this time, the government and the people of Israel need to be able to trust in the IDF's ability to defend the country. Rather than earning that trust, those tasked with our defense are spending their time berating the political leadership for their own failures. Moreover, they are expressing a disturbing desire to pass the buck on fighting Israel's enemies while aggressively hounding Israelis.

This situation is unacceptable. Either Ashkenazi and his generals should prove they are capable of performing their jobs, or they should be replaced.

caroline@carolineglick.com

=============================================
Women For Israel's Tomorrow (Women in Green)
POB 7352, Jerusalem 91072, Israel
Tel: 972-2-624-9887 Fax: 972-2-624-5380
mailto:wfit2@womeningreen.org
http://www.womeningreen.org/

Why Such Hatred For The Plain Truth?

Re: The Plain Truth (YouTube Video)
 
 

DBA should contemplate why it is that everyone who knows him detests him.
 

Amos 5:10
They hate the one who rebukes in the gate, And they abhor the one who speaks uprightly.

Not everyone detests me [Christ in me]... only those who hate the plain truth of the Bible and history that I dare to share, only those who are hateful and dishonest and deceitful like you - folks who are left without excuse and deserve the punishment that's coming.


Will God Curse Our Countries for Christmas?

You've been warned: believe it or not! But instead of focusing on the message, taking it to heart, thanking God for bringing these truths to light and offering a way out, too many want to shoot the messenger but it will backfire on them.

John 7:7
The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it that its works are evil.

Is the Plain Truth Too Strong?

John 17:14
I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

Psalm 34:21
...they that hate the righteous shall be desolate.


 

Drunks and Whores

Shape up or get shipped out!

Plea to Diehard Catholics & Protestants to Repent
 

www.DavidBenAriel.org

Kwanzaa?

Why Kwanzaa?
By William Bowmer
From December 26–January 1, several million Americans will be celebrating Kwanzaa, a “harvest festival” first proclaimed in 1966 to celebrate blessings of African heritage. How should we view this recently-devised holiday?
(read more ...)

Friday, December 25, 2009

I am Yosef

'I am Yosef. Is my father still alive?'"

(Genesis 45:3)
Tevet 7, 5770/December 24, 2009



When brother does not recognize brother tragedy ensues. The story of Yosef and his brothers drives home this point emphatically. Yes, there was a happy ending of sorts, which we read about in this week's parasha, Vayigash, where Yosef first reveals his identity to his dumbstruck brothers, and is then reunited with his father Yisrael. But even this joyful conclusion to a painful and prolonged estrangement is clouded by the exile and enslavement which will soon engulf the children of Israel.

If there is a long-term silver lining to this gloomy episode, it is the emergence of true leadership, as exhibited by Yosef and Yehuda, who nearly come to blows as Vayigash opens. Torah is teaching us is that true leadership is characterized by recognition and love for one's brother, and, indeed, love for one's brother is a prerequisite of true leadership. Any individual seeking to impose his will upon others, whether it be a social occasion, the local school board, business, or national politics, who does not acknowledge and accept the uniqueness of others, and cherish their welfare, will be, at best, a failed leader, a false leader, and at worst, a tyrant who inflicts endless misery upon his brothers.

Torah makes it clear that conflict between brothers has afflicted man from the moment that two siblings walked the same earth. From Cain and Abel, to Yitzchak and Yishmael, and Yaakov and Esav, brotherly strife has plagued mankind. Torah makes it equally clear that only reconciliation between brothers can bring about the longed-for redemption of mankind, and this is alluded to in the story of Yosef and his brothers. True, two hundred years of servitude were about to commence, but the unity which now bound the brothers together, and their shared trust in G-d's providence, would see them through the years of bondage, and be the source of the strength of vision which ultimately break their bonds as they left Egypt forever, and set off for the promised land.

It was, in fact, the issues of trust and vision which first tore the brothers apart. Yosef was given a coat by his father which roused the jealousy of his brothers. Was it the beauty of the coat or its outrageous price tag which so incensed the brothers, or was it simply that it was a coat that, at Midrash teaches, had been handed down from generation to generation since the time of Adam, the first man. Was it the coat that they later drenched with blood that they coveted, or were they keenly aware that Yosef possessed something far more valuable: the generations-old tradition of G-d's word and G-d's protection, as embodied by the coat.

But Yosef possessed in his heart something even more precious than the coat, and this is what really drove the brothers to entertain the thought of murdering Yosef, of abandoning him to perish, and eventually to sell him to a passing caravan of merchants heading south to Egypt: Yosef possessed a dream. Yosef's dream existed for the good of the entire nation: "for it was to preserve life that G-d sent me before you." (Genesis 45:5) Yosef knew this, and this knowledge gave him the strength to persevere in the face of his brothers' hatred for him, and in the face of all the hardships he was to encounter. But his brothers, who did not possess the ketonet passim - the many-colored coat - the mantle of knowledge and closeness to G-d, understood Yosef's dreams in another light altogether. They sensed imperiousness on Yosef's part, and feared subjugation to him in the fulfillment of his dreams. Their lack of vision, their isolation, perhaps, from G-d, blinded them and drove them to violence against their brother.

We are intended to learn from the triumphs and tragedies that beset our forefathers, and not to repeat mistakes made in the past. But we can hardly expect from those who have turned their backs to our history, who have torn the beautiful coat of Yosef, as it were, to learn from what they have already forgotten. And so today, in the land of Israel, there is a younger brother with a dream and with a vision. His dream is of a vibrant Jewish nation in all the land of Israel, and at its center, the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, from which will shine forth G-d's light and the Divine truth of Torah to all the world. But today's dreamer also has brothers who are frightened and wary of his dream, and while he knows his dreams to be for the preservation of life and the good of all, the brothers fear for their own roles in the visionary landscape.

The modern nation of Israel has arrived at its own "vayigash" moment, its own existential crisis demanding the only resolution possible: the preservation of the nation, the preservation of the dream and the preservation of life on earth. In spite of all the "bad blood" between Yosef and his brothers, it was the mutual love by all of the brothers for Binyamin that both precipitated the crisis and resolved the crisis.

There are those in Israel today who seek to shy away from our responsibility to G-d and to one another, who try to flee from the destiny that Torah has spelled out for us, and to hide from the prophetic promise of the rebuilt Temple, of the Divine light which will spread forth from Zion, and of a world imbued with the knowledge of Torah. But at the same time there is a growing community dedicated to the land of Israel, the Torah of Israel, the G-d of Israel and the destiny of Israel. The time has come for us all to draw near, to reconnect as brothers, and unite as the children of Israel. Only thusly can we realize the dream.




Temple TalkTune in to this week's Temple Talk as Rabbi Chaim Richman and Yitzchak Reuven discuss the month of Tevet, one that is centered around the theme of the Holy Temple, which begins with the bright light of Chanukah, but days later turns to anguish, and examine three days in Tevet - the 8th, the 9th and the 10th, and the cataclysmic events that transpired on these days, leaving an indelible imprint on the Jewish people and the whole world: the translation of the holy Torah into Greek, the passing of Ezra and Nehemiah, and the siege against Jerusalem by Babylonian king Nevuchadnezzer.




Three Days in TevetTevet: End The Siege on Jerusalem

Three Days in Tevet: Events which took place long ago on the 8th, 9th, and 10th of Tevet, illuminate those difficulties which the nation of Israel needs to overcome today in order to advance towards her promised destiny – the building of the Holy Temple, and the bringing of G-d’s light into the world. To view this urgent message, please click here.




Dina, Daughter of YaakovThis week features the Bat Melech video teaching with Rabbanit Rena Richman, entitled, "Dina, Daughter of Yaakov: Dina plays a major role in the spiritual dynamic of the young nation of Israel." Click here to view.




Light to the NationsToday also features the new Light to the Nations teaching by Rabbi Chaim Richman, entitled, "The Holy Temple: Man-Made or Heaven-Sent, Part II: The mistaken notion that the Third Holy Temple will descend from heaven and be a temple of fire is one rooted in the diaspora, has no source in Torah, nor is ever alluded to by Rashi. To verify this truth one simply needs to visit the sources." Click here to view.




Parashat HashavuaReconciliation between brothers and sisters, parents and children, lovers and friends, all have their root in Torah. The root for the ultimate reconciliation, between G-d and man, can be seen in the story of Yosef reuniting with his brothers. Click here to view Rabbi Richman's short teaching on parashat Vayigash (Genesis 44:18-47:27).




Blessings from the holy city of Jerusalem,
Yitzchak Reuven
THE TEMPLE INSTITUTE
PO Box 31876
Jerusalem, Israel 97500