Obungler’s buddy Haniyeh won’t Recognize Israel

 

This is a “peace partner?”

In a Ma’an News Agency article headed Haniyeh: Palestinians will not recognize Israel ( http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=608441) Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said Tuesday that Palestinians would not recognize Israel, despite the siege on Gaza and two wars.

Is Ma’an trustworthy? Does it report PA news accurately? Ma’an was “Launched in 2005, Ma'an News Agency (MNA) publishes news around the clock in Arabic and English, and is among the most browsed websites in the Palestinian territories, with over 3 million visits per month. Considered the main source of independent news from Palestine, MNA has become the first choice for online information for many Palestinians, and is also attracting a growing international readership and interest from prominent international news organizations and agencies.”

Obungler and his lackey John Kerry each have to be deaf in both ears and blind in both eyes if they fail to see and hear Gaza’s chief terrorist’s words in the PA’s on media.

There is NO ambiguity in Haniyeh’s words. He lacks the guile of Abu Mazin in Ramallah, Fatah’s prime minister. That terrorist plays word games with U.S. agents by setting “preconditions” Israel must meet before talks can move forward, but then before anyone can sit down at a table, Abu Mazin adds yet more “preconditions.”

How is Israel supposed to discuss peace with a divided people – Hamas on one side, Fatah on the other? Haniyeh says what Abu Mazin puts into pictures – a “Palestinian” state that replaces all of Israel – a Jewish-free state at that. (Perhaps the feuding prime ministers will let the good people of Mea Sharim stay; they prefer to be under Muslim rule and never recognized Israel’s governments.)

Obungler and his minions may as well stay in D.C.; there is zero hope for a true peace agreement with the self-created “Palestinians” of Hamas or Fatah. It becomes more and more questionable it Hamas and Fatah actually represent the people they claim to control.

Bilam – Part 1 Rabbinical logic

Consider:

Man argues with G-d. He’s a saint.

Man argues with G-d and disobeys G-d. He’s a greater saint.

Man does what G-d tells him. He’s pilloried by the rabbis.

This is rabbinical logic.

Or maybe “This is rabbinical logic?”

Abraham argues with G-d about Sodom. 50, 40, 30, 20, 10.

Abraham’s wife doubts G-d; when she heard the angels say she would conceive, she laughed – out loud, and then lied about it.

Yet Sara is a saint.

Moses argues with G-d, starting with “I don’t want to go” and disobeys G-d by striking the stone for water.

Rachel steals and keeps one of her father’s idols, and she’s called a saint.

David lusts after a married woman and sends her husband off to be killed; he’s still a hero.

Solomon allows avodah zerah into Jerusalem, and he’s a hero.

So who is the one “bad guy” in the rabbinical logic.

Bilam.

Bilam who always acknowledged G-d as his god.

Bilam who told Balak’s people he only could say what G-d told him to say.

So WHY is Bilam a bad guy?

Because, the rabbis tell us, he had the chutzpah to ask G-d not once but twice if he should go with Balak’s people.

Well, the rabbis say, it should have been enough that G-d told Bilam once not to go. Why did he ask again on a later occasion?

Throughout the Torah G-d is a miracle worker. Man, a well, fire and clouds, etc. G-d also proved to be a tough “parent figure.” Gather sticks for a fire on Shabat – zip. Use G-d name (which one?) in vain – capital punishment. Fail to honor parents – capital punishment.

My point: If G-d had wanted to prevent Balak’s emissaries from reaching Bilam either the first or the second time, He could easily have “zapped” these people; killed them, sent them on a different path . . . any number of things.

Instead, G-d allowed Balak’s messengers to arrive not once but twice.

Consider. If you own a $7000 car jointly with your spouse and a dealer rep offers you $1,000 for the car will you ask your spouse “Shall we sell the car for $1,000?” If the spouse says “No,” you tell the person offering the offer is rejected.

The next day, another rep from the same dealer comes and offers you $10,000 for your $7,000 car. Are you going to take the offer to your spouse? Of course you are. Spouse may add a condition – the buyer has to leave the fuzzy dice behind – but the spouse will get an opportunity to opine on the offer. Spouse may think you’re crazy for not grabbing the offer at once, but we all know the value of “shalom byit.”

Give me a break.

G-d intended for Bilam to play hard to get to test Balak.

If G-d didn’t intend for Bilam to bless Israel neither of Balak’s messengers would have found Bilam; certainly Balak would have looked elsewhere when his first messengers returned with Bilam’s rejection of Balak’s offer.

Bilam was doing EXACTLY what G-d wanted.

He didn’t have to make Bilam play “hard to get,” and why He did make Bilam play hard to get is beyond my ken. Perhaps to show Balak’s minyans that Bilam worked for – with apologies to Hebrew National – “a Higher Authority.”

Not being a rabbi, for which we all should be grateful, I have no clue why the rabbis would take a prophet of G-d and turn him into something he, by all other accounts, was not.

I can see Moses as a bad guy (by rabbinicala logic).

I can see Abraham as a bad guy (by rabbinicala logic).

David and Solomon, kings of Israel, had blemishes.

Bilam got a bad rap from the rabbis.

Bilam – Part 2 Bilam and “camping out”

When we left Bilam in Parashat Balak, the prophet of HaShem was heading home: (Chap 24, V 25) And Bilam rose up and went and returned to his place; and Balak went his way. (Hertz Soncino).

An aside: Has there been any suggestion that we – the Israelites - knew Balak was watching us from the hill tops and that Bilam was blessing uS from those same hill tops. The Torah offers not even a hint that we knew.

We, on the other hand, decided to stay in Shittim and we allowed ourselves – under the leadership – to take on Midinite ways, mostly because the men became “involved” with the Midinite women.

Finally HaShem got angry and told Moses (Chap. 25, V4) “Take all the chiefs of the people and hang them up unto the Lord in the face of the sun.” This leads to Pinchas making a shish-kabob of “an Israelite man and a Midinite woman.”

The rabbis still are debating: Was Pinchas’ action proper? Sounds like similar debates to this day among the “common folk.”

We skip Parashat Pinchas with only a brief stop to learn the names of the Israelite man, Zimri, the son of a Shimonite leader and Cozbi, the daughter of a head of the Midinite people. Politically connected people who felt they were above the law?

Bilam comes on stage again in Parashat Matot (מטות) where he allegedly is slain when the Israelites (Chap. 31, V. 7, 8) “warred against Midian as the Lord commanded Moses.”

(For Ashkenazim, this parasha really takes off – most Ashkenazim pronounce מטות as מטוס - “matos” being Israeli Hebrew for airplane. Admittedly a bad attempt at humor.)

Back top Bilam.

We read that Moses is angry at the men who slew the Midinite men in the previously mentioned war because they failed to kill all the women. Moses tells the returning troops (Chap. 31 V 16) “Behold, these (the Midinite women) caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Bilam, to revolt, to break faith in the Lord.”

There is NO indication in bik’tav that Bilam did anything of the kind.

1) He repeatedly tells Balak he only can say what HaShem tells him to say.

2) He reportedly was on his way home – away from Midian – when we left him near the end of Parashat Balak.

3) There is no indication in bik’tav that the Israelites knew Balak and Bilam were watching from the hilltops.

4) There IS an indication that Moses and Pinchas and Aaron allowed the Midinite women to “get close” to the Israelite men – rather than immediately taking action.

5) It was Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to take enemy women, children, and animals captive after prevailing in a battle. There is nothing in bik’tav that shows Moses telling the people NOT to take captives, unlike HaShem telling Saul and his troops.

It is interesting to note that Pinchas, the son of Eleazar the priest (Chap.31, V.6) went, with the 1000 men of every tribe, carrying the holy vessels and trumpets for the alarm in his hand. So much for draft dodging religious extreme – how much more extreme can anyone be than Pinchas who killed two politically prominent people sans trial?

The bottom line, as Johnny Cochran said in defense of O.J. Simpson, “If the glove don’t fit, you must acquit.”

If we read bik’tav and put aside any rabbinical embellishments to make a prophet of HaShem into a villain, not only does the glove not fit, there is no glove at all.

True, the Torah does record Balaam’s death with the others during the war. I would suggest however, that there would be little, if any, people going around trying to identify dead enemy – and there must have been thousands if each Israelite tribe sent 1000 men. Moses didn’t seen a pilot tour; his intent was total elimination of all Midinites.

I am not a critical student of the Torah – I read it for what it says; I don’t try to read what it does not say. No conjecture. The rabbis tell us that the Torah is complete; we are not to add or detract from it. Interpret, yes, most assuredly, but add or delete – no.

I simply cannot accept that a prophet of HaShem deserves to be, can be, painted as a villain as the rabbis have portrayed Bilam.

The glove don’t fit.

Beats workin’

He came in a chauffeured gas hog.

He came sans tefillin and tallit. (Our minyan is the earliest in the county.)

He came with a document from some rabbinical organization.

He came for money.

Money for what?

To pay off his personal debts.

Not to help pay medical bills (in Israel almost completely paid by the government).

Not to help pay for yeshiva students (both yeshivas and students are on the dole)

No, to pay off “personal debt.”

Like a vacation in the United States?

He took his document to the rabbi who told the gentleman without tallit or tefillin that he (the rabbi) would put out an envelope and that those who wanted to donate would put their dollars into the envelope, do not – the rabbi admonished the man – confront individuals.

Before we finished שמע ישראל and the end of עלינו the gentleman was standing by the amud where he could carefully watch who put what into the envelope.

He was, after all, in a hurry to get to the other congregations in town – we have 8 to 10 observant synagogues and one, Young Israel, has multiple minyans. His driver was waiting for him with the motor running. No, I do not exaggerate.

Anyway, the gentleman approaches my table neighbor and – despite the rabbi’s specific instruction not to approach individuals – especially those adding their personal prayers as my neighbor was doing – put out his hand under my neighbor’s nose (blocking his view of his sedur). My neighbor, incidentally, already contributed to paying off the man’s “personal debt.”

AM I STUPID? If I have “personal debt,” I try to work to pay it off. Come to terms with my creditors. Worst case, seek a lawyer’s assistance (I know, and get farther into debt). I am NOT going to vacation in Israel; I am not going to find a chauffer with an air conditioned car to haul me around from congregation to congregation in Bet Shean – a place about as hot as south Florida this time of year.

We rail against welfare folks here in the U.S., the ones who can, but won’t, work. Yet we fund – coddle – schnorers from Israel even when they are begging for money that could be provided at home.

The guy who had 14 – or was it 17 – children who came to beg for his daughter’s dowry. Why weren’t any of his children working. Why wasn’t HE working. Because obviously thought it easier to spend thousands of dollars to come to the States.

The guy who came begging for money to pay his medical bills. Why didn’t he turn to the Social Welfare office in Israel rather than spending thousands of dollars to come to the States? (Yes, I know Israel’s socialized medicine doesn’t cover everything and Israel may not have the greatest specialists in all medical fields – although it does in most.)

I think, however, that today’s schnorer wins the title “Chutzpah World Champion.”

”America’s rabbi” needs lesson in history

 

Shmuley Boteach:
Arm Syrian rebels

R. Shmuley Boteach, trying to put words in Obama’s mouth, would have the president tell Syria’s Assad “(W)e have decided to arm the rebels in their fight.” ( http://tinyurl.com/n2n76x3)

Never mind conflicting reports about who is killing who in Syria; Boteach wants to arm the rebels who, by the way, have been accused of cannibalism – and of bragging about it.

Does Boteach really think the U.S. can buy the rebels friendship IF the rebels prevail, and as of today, 19 June 2013, that’s questionable.

Does Boteach really think if the rebels, a fragmented bunch at best, will be able to control the country and, in particular, the cease fire along the Israel-Syria border. Certainly not based on some of the rebels’ published promises.

Perhaps the real question is: Does Boteach think at all?

Obviously Boteach, who frequently reminds his readers that someone called him “America’s rabbi” and that “Newsweek and The Washington Post call ‘the most famous Rabbi in America’, is the international best-selling author of 29 books,” is ignorant of history.

He apparently fails to realize that America cannot buy friends or, for that matter, cannot defuse Muslim anger by paying off the Islamists. He pointedly ignores the lessons of Afghanistan where the U.S. armed the Taliban to fight the then Soviet Union, only to have the U.S.-provided weapons turned against U.S. soldiers.

He fails to recognize the purpose of the Monroe Doctrine – a doctrine developed to keep the U.S. out of foreign wars, “civil” or otherwise.

Botach rails against the Russian head of state’s endorsement of the Assad administration. “It’s a travesty that Russia was invited to the G8 summit, especially as Putin shamelessly disregards the pleas of the international community to withdraw his support from the criminal regime. This summit is meant to facilitate the collaboration between civilized nations for a better future. If we can’t stop the ongoing slaughter or, at least, bar Russia’s participation from the summit until they change their policy, then the forum becomes guilty of passive complicity.”

Even as he notes that the “summit is meant to facilitate the collaboration between civilized nations for a better future” he would banish the Russian to prevent any communication between his point of view and any others’ points of view. My way or the highway attitude.

Syria is NOT the United States’ problem.

Syria is NOT the G-8’s problem.

Syria MIGHT be a problem to be handled by the Arab League, although the Arab League is hard pressed to do anything other than ask non-Muslims to protect their assets.

Syria certainly is not a problem for the UN’s Blue Bonnets who are best known for turning tail and disappearing when someone says Boo!.

Hopefully, no matter what side or sides finally prevail, Syria will not become a problem for Israel, Jordan, or Turkey. Iran and Iraq – they are contributing to the problem as are Hamas and Hezbollah.

I know Boteach is running for political office.

If he really wants to get the U.S. involved in Syria’s internal problems, I hope he is soundly defeated. I understand he’s running for a local spot, but his “buddy” at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue will use a Boteach win to claim America’s rabbi and America are behind him (POTUS) in what would be Obama’s latest misadventure.

Shmuley Boteach is not this scrivener’s rabbi and, the last time I checked my passport it showed I am very much an American.

Keep on giving

Automatically a donor

I am a registered organ donor in the U.S. It says so on my driver’s license. I chose to be a donor; the “default” is not to be a donor. I favor cadaver organ donations and I “opted in” to be in the donor pool.

According to an Israel HaYom article ( http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=10055)

”New draft legislation would let Israeli doctors recover the organs of deceased Israelis even without their explicit consent, Israeli Health Minister Yael German announced on Sunday.

“German would like to transform the current opt-in system, where Israelis have to make an express wish to donate their organs upon death, into an opt-out system, in which all adults would be presumed to have granted permission to harvest their organs unless they actively choose to be taken out of the donor pool.”

In order not to be an organ donor, an Israeli would have to “opt out” when he or she renews her driver’s license.

Currently, the National Transplant Center claims, only in half of all cases where a patient was declared brain dead did the family donate the organs of their loved one. Brain death – absence of all brain activity - is the only religiously acceptable proof of a person’s demise.

Two questions arise for me.

One – What about all the Israelis who don’t drive and, therefore, lack a driver’s license?

Two – Even though Israel HaYom contends that The system is modeled on other countries' organ donation mechanisms in which all citizens are automatically added to the donor registry at a certain point in their lives, the automatic inclusion in the donor program eventually will cause grief to some families who “didn’t get the word” (that their loved one could have elected not to participate) and will burden the courts with next of kin making the “he/she wasn’t told there was an opt out option.”

Is there any guarantee that the person applying for a license will be asked “Do you want to opt out and not be a donor?” Will a heloni ask a haredi? What about language; an ulpan does not a Hebrew speaker make (although it certainly is a good beginning).

An aside: When I was taking my physical for Tzhal a guy in front of me stepped before the Xray plate. The nurse told the fellow “לנשום”. He didn’t respond. The nurse told him again – “!לנשום” – and the guy, whose hearing was OK, still didn’t do as he was told. Finally, as she told him for the third time, I pantomimed what she wanted; he breathed, she got her picture, and everyone was less or more happy. I don’t know if he had the benefit of an ulpan or if he lived in a sequestered neighborhood with people of the same language (as many Moroccans do in Bet Shean), but “לנשום” meant nothing to him. (When I was told to give a “uhr-in” sample I didn’t have a clue; the nurse should have told me “שתן” – in the end she said “pee-pee.” I did have the advantage of an ulpan and a good dictionary.

Many of the haredim who follow only their own rabbis reject “brain death” as a means to determine death, and others, who will accept transplants, reject organ donation on the grounds that all parts of the body must be buried together.

It seems to me that a continuation of the current opt IN option is the better choice; it works in the U.S.

 

Planning a long flight? Take heed.
Flying to TLV? Did you make your reservations via an on-line service? Take the following advice to heart. CALL THE AIRLINE AT LEAST 72 HOURS (3 days) BEFORE THE DEPARTURE DAY to assure you have kosher meals and the seat location you ordered online. We have a situation where the airline and the booking service are pointing their fingers at each other saying “It’s not our fault you didn’t get your meal and it’s not our fault that you were stuck in a middle seat instead of the window you online.

Hamas guards border

While Egypt clears Sinai

When Hosni Mubarak fell and Mohammed Morsi, with his Muslim Brotherhood associates, rose to power, Israelis had to wonder if the quiet along the Egyptian-Israeli border would remain or if the sound of gunfire would once again resound.

It’s hard to believe, but with Morsi at the helm, things actually are getting better for Israelis in Israel. At least for now.

Even attacks from Aza are down.

Morsi did what Mubarak never did: he sent in troops to clear some of the terrorists out of the Sinai after first working with Israel to modify cease fire terms on the number of troops allowed in the desert.

I still think the Sinai should be cleared of terrorists by a joint Egyptian-Israeli force; to my mind it would be a win-win situation for Egypt and Israel; only the terrorists would lose, and that’s a good thing.

The real surprise, though, is Morsi’s action toward Aza.

One of his first acts as president was to start destroying the tunnels from Egypt into Aza. The tunnels were the primary way weapons were smuggled into Aza, weapons used against Israel. The tunnels also were used to smuggle in people and consumer goods, avoiding Hamas’ import duties.

Now Morsi has gone beyond tunnel destruction.

He successfully pressured Hamas to cease attacks on Israel and charged it with preventing attacks by splinter groups such as the Salafists.

IT’S WORKING!

According to a Times of Israel article (http://tinyurl.com/lb8v4vm) :

Hamas established a special force of about 600 men to “safeguard public order;” it operates mostly along the Aza-Israeli border.

There has been a dramatic decline in the number of rockets fired at Israel. According to Israeli figures, since the end of Operation Pillar of Defense in November (2012), some 20 rockets or mortar shells have been fired into Israel, compared to about 150 over the same the previous year.

Egypt still has a long way to go get its own house in order, but from Israel’s perspective, the Morsi regime has to be a welcome surprise, even though Egypt currently is not a recommended tourist destination for Israelis. Currently there are no flights between Lod (TLV) and Cairo (CAI). El Al canceled its flights allegedly due to the high cost of security vs. the number of empty seats. A PalAir flight from Aza to Lod also is no more, probably more because of lack of passengers than the chance a terrorist missile bound for Israel might down a commercial flight. (You can fly from Lod to Cairo via Amman, but it’s pricy.)

No one ever expected two terrorists – Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin – to manage a peace agreement after years of war between their two countries, but they did, and while it cost Sadat his life, after Sadat and Begin inked the agreement, the greatest danger for Israelis visiting Egypt was traffic accidents. Perhaps, with Morsi in control, it will be that way again. (Too bad Israel lacks a man of Begin’s stature.)

 

Planning a long flight? Take heed.
Flying to TLV? Did you make your reservations via an on-line service? Take the following advice to heart. CALL THE AIRLINE AT LEAST 72 HOURS (3 days) BEFORE THE DEPARTURE DAY to assure you have kosher meals and the seat location you ordered online. We have a situation where the airline and the booking service are pointing their fingers at each other saying “It’s not our fault you didn’t get your meal and it’s not our fault that you were stuck in a middle seat instead of the window you arranged online.

Who’s evil? Look inward

Is Ovadia Yosef senile?

According to numerous reports, Iraqi R. Ovadia Yosef is calling Ashkenazi R. David Stav “a wicked man,” someone “dangerous to Judaism” who had “no fear of God at all.”

Electing R. Stav as Israel’s Chief Ashkenazi rabbi would be “bringing idolatry into the temple,” according to R. Yosef.

His inflammatory and derogatory statements are blamed for an attack on R. Stav by haredi youth as he was leaving a wedding in Jerusalem. (http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=10059)

Does R. Yosef know this man personally? One Web site stated that they had never met. So one assumes the Iraqi has been following R. Stav’s activities at Tzohar. One source suggested that R. Ovadia knows nothing about R. Stav but the Iraqi has become a tool of his “advisors.”

The Mizrachi rabbi may have reason for concern. R. Stav says he wants to make not only rabbinate offices more welcoming, but also remodel the Israeli face of the Jewish religion in general. “I am from the world of Torah and Zionism. I am not subordinate to the ultra-Orthodox functionaries or to the politics of the Haredi Torah world,” Stav says.

In a statement, Tzohar called R. Yosef’s remarks a testimony to “the urgent need for change across the rabbinate” and said he should “repent and ask forgiveness.”

“We protest the incitement voiced yesterday by Rabbi Ovadia Yosef,” Tzohar said. “Israel needs a rabbinate that will connect it to Judaism, and not antagonize.”

Yosef sustained criticism from several rabbis, most of them religious Zionists. Yosef has "crossed every boundary," said Rabbi Haim Drukman.

"Does he think that speaking that way about someone you've never met is ethical? Halachic? Jewish?" said Education Minister Rabbi Shai Piron. “Why? Why does Rabbi Ovadia have to curse [Rabbi Stav],” he wrote on Facebook. “Does he think that that this will bring people closer to Torah and to Judaism? Does he think that to speak this about a person he has never met is moral? Halacha? Jewish?”

Meanwhile, religious Zionist Rabbi Benjamin Lau on Monday called for all political leaders "from the president on down" to cease all meetings with Yosef. "It's a humiliation," he said.

The religious Zionist movement, the organization noted, did not need the permission of Torah sages to field candidates and “knows how to manage the religious Zionist tradition for all of Israel.”

Assuming that R. Yosef is responding to information fed him by his advisors, it remains fairly certain that R. Yosef is suffering from senility. His recent pronouncements, both within a religious context and within the political context, leave no question as to his deteriorating mental capacity.

Israel needs another Israel Meir Lau or Yosef Messas, rabbis who guard halacha while keeping it alive and in the current era.

The competition of the Ashkenazi (!) chief rabbinate – in which the Iraqi should have no voice – has turned into לשון ברע … just in time for Rosh Hodesh Av.

R. Yosef and Shas should be ashamed.

Blind in one eye

& can’t see out of the other

The fools on the Hill:  IMO – nothing “humble” about it – U.S. politicians (a) are blind in one eye and can’t see out of the other, (b) are Polyannas, (c) they are just plain “stoo-pid,” or (d) “all of the above.”

SYRIA: The fools inside the beltway want to supply arms, albeit “small” arms, to the Syrian “rebels.”

The U.S. has no business meddling in Syria’s internal affairs; its civil war. Yes, I know Iran is sending troops and I know terrorists organizations (Hamas and Hezbollah) are sending fighters, and yes, I know Russia is promising, but apparently not yet delivering, arms to the regime.

That STILL does not justify U.S. involvement in Syria.

Does anyone remember that the U.S. outfitted the Taliban in Afghanistan? Does anyone remember what the Taliban did with the U.S.-provided weapons when the Taliban kicked the Russians out? If you forgot or never cared to know, the Taliban first turned the weapons on the Afghans and then, when the U.S. sent in troops to protect the non-Taliban Afghans, the weapons were turned on U.S. boys who really had no business in Afghanistan.

The U.S. (mostly) removed Sadam Hussein from power in Iraq. To what end? So that Iraqis, with a little help from there Iranian and Islamist friends, could plant IEDs along the roadways and so that Iraqi police and army “trainees” could murder U.S. soldiers. Does anyone really think Syria would be different? The idea that “cutting the head off the snake” would resolve all the problems obviously is a bad idea. Ben Laden is gone, but Al-Qaida carries on with renewed vigor.

U.S. politicians are living in La-La land if they think removing a strong leader – a dictator such as Syria’s Bashar Hafez al-Assad, Iraq’s Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti, or Libya’s Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi - will suddenly turn the people they controlled into Friends of America? It failed to work in North Africa. It failed to work in Iraq. It failed to work in Afghanistan and Pakistan. America has no friends in Egypt. Saudia is a false friend at best. “Palestine” – both Hamas’ “Palestine” and Hezbollah’s “Palestine” both consider the U.S. an enemy, yet Washington’s fools, of both parties, continue to support it at the expense of its lone ally in the area.

IRAN just held a free and democratic election for a new Iranian president. The winner was, according to many western sources a “moderate,” cleric Hasan Rowhani.

Unlike the U.S., Iranian politicians are elected by direct vote, in theory a true democracy.

However, in Iran “democracy” is tempered, and tampered with, by the ayatollahs and, in the end, the Shi’ite Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Hosseini Khamenei, Iran's “supreme ruler.” Rowhani, like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad before him, is only a mouthpiece for Khamenei, so no matter how “moderate” the liberal press declares Rowhani to be, he is only as “moderate” as the Shi’ite’s grand ayatollah.

Iran’s rush to nuclear weapons will go on full speed ahead, even under the “moderate” who "just happens" to be Iran’s top nuclear negotiator.

The only way Iran will see political change is if the general populace throws out the ayatollahs from political power. Given the ayatollahs control of the military, a regime change is unlikely sans outside interference.

Like Syria, Iran is – not yet – the U.S.’ problem, although it is becoming an increasing danger to the U.S.’ only reliable ally in the region. Greece, Turkey, and Jordan all have their own problems to manage, and Lebanon has been Syrian controlled for decades and is a non-state of no consequence. Egypt and North Africa are in turmoil and Iraq, for all practical purposes, is in Iran’s political pocket.

AND THEN THERE’S RUSSIA that wants to be seen as a major player, a superpower returning as the phoenix rising from the ashes. As before, for every move the fools of the Kremlin make, the fools in Washington think they must make a counter-move. Russia is supporting Assad therefore the fools along the Potomac feel they must support the anti-Assad forces. With support from both parties - at last, cross aisle cooperation, even if it IS detrimental to the nation in the long term, is in play – the politicians from Chelm are preparing to arm our future enemies to fight a war in which the U.S. has no political, geographical, financial, or other interests. The U.S. “must” counter the Russians in a game of checkers . . . forgetting that in the end the game will be Chinese checkers and both Russia and the U.S. will lose.

Where is the Arab League?

Hiding behind their keffiyeh?

The Daily Tip http://www.theisraelproject.org/site/c.ewJXKcOUJlIaG/b.7711637/k.BEA8/Home.htm has two Syria-related items today (13 June 2013) that make me wonder: Where are the diplomats and brave fighters of the Arab Legion when they are needed to restore quiet to Syria?

The two “threatening” items:

The Lebanese army is threatening to retaliate against future Syrian attacks on Lebanese territory, after Damascus launched a helicopter gunship attack on the Lebanese border town of Arsal and injured two. Lebanese President Michel Sleiman called the attack “a violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty,” and the U.S. State Department issued a condemnation. Arsal, a majority Sunni town near the Lebanese-Syrian border, has been targeted multiple times in recent months by the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria and by the regime’s allies. The renewed crisis comes as Hezbollah is under increasing criticism, perhaps most pointedly in the Arab world, for dragging Lebanon into the violence in Syria. The Iran-backed terror group has vowed to fight in Syria until the regime succeeds in putting down the country’s more than two year rebellion. Hezbollah’s material and logistical support for the Assad regime, which has now repeatedly attacked Lebanon, sits uneasily alongside claims made in corners of the foreign policy community to the effect that Hezbollah is an indigenous Lebanese organization protecting Lebanese sovereignty and pursuing Lebanese interests.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon warned Wednesday that spillover from Syria’s civil war is threatening the increasingly fragile four-decade ceasefire between Syria and Israel. Observers are raising alarms about the potential collapse of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) – the U.N. peacekeeping mission which has monitored the Golan Heights region between the two countries since 1974 – in the aftermath of an Austrian decision to withdraw its troops from the force. Vienna’s contribution of around 300 troops constituted nearly one-third of the entire mission. Following Austria’s announcement, Ban Ki-moon said he was seeking hundreds of new troops from member countries, but he did not say if any volunteers had stepped forward. Both sides in the Syrian conflict have directly threatened to attack Israel from across the border that the Jewish state shares with Syria. The Bashar al-Assad regime has given Palestinian terror groups a green light to launch attacks, and the regime’s Hezbollah allies have threatened to open a “new front” on the Golan. Jihadists battling the regime have also vowed to attack Israel. Israeli officials have indicated that they will not tolerate attacks on civilian and military targets originating from Syrian territory.

Just what 21 states make up the Arab League?

Algeria

Bahrain

Djibouti

Egypt

Iraq

Jordan

Kuwait

Lebanon

Libya

Mauritania

Morocco

Oman

Palestine

Qatar

Saudi Arabia

Somali

Sudan

Syria

Tunisia

United Arab Emirates

Yemen

Several of these states came to aid in the invasion of Israel in 1948, either by sending in armies or by volunteers ready to drive the Jews to the sea, yet they cannot come together to cause a cessation of fighting in their member countries. (Nor can they come together to suppress Iran’s nuclear effort, even knowing Iran might very well use nuclear weapons against Arab League members - as well as Israel).

Two non-states are missing from the list and these two are adding fuel to the fires in Syria and Lebanon: Hamas and Hezbollah.

I guess all these brave Arab League nations are waiting for non-Muslims to do what the cowards are afraid to do - step in and risk a Muslim life to end the Muslim-killing-Muslim conflicts.

This lack of concern by the Arab League doe nothing for Islam's proclaimed "peaceful intent"; on the contrary, it shows Islam's true colors.

What am I missing?

Political correctness
trumps public health

When I was a small boy and had measles, medically rubeola, a large QUARENTINE sign went up on the door. The same went for other highly contagious diseases. This obviously was before vaccines nearly eliminated the illnesses. (Smallpox lingers in areas of ignorance and religious superstition.)

When I was a teenager I was a pearl diver in a local Walgreens. For those not in the know, a “pearl diver” is a dishwasher. I also did a little short order work and occasionally manned the counter.

Before I could don an apron for my first day at work I had to prove to Walgreens – because the State of Florida insisted upon it – that I had passed a VDRL screening.

VDRL stands for Venereal Disease Research Laboratory ; in other words, a test to see if the person being tested had, or ever had, syphilis. Although syphilis could (then) be cured by antibiotics, a trace always lingered as a Scarlet Letter.

In addition to the VDRL, a urine sample was taken to check for gonorrhea, a/k/a “clap” or “drip.” Antibiotics also are the medication of choice to eliminate this malady.

When I enlisted in the Air Force I was poked and probed six ways to Sunday.

Later, when I married, the State insisted that both my bride-to-be and I had a VDRL before we could go to the county courthouse to buy a license. Back in the day.

Today, outside of hospitals, quarantine signs have gone the way of Burma Shave doggerel, you might find one in a museum or on an on-line nostalgia site, but never on a residence door.

With Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) more rampant than syphilis or gonorrhea ever were, pre-employment tests for food handlers and prospective brides and grooms are passé.

People with common contagious diseases no longer are isolated; only a few diseases, treated in a hospital environment, rate isolation.

Maybe isolation – quarantine – never was necessary for the patient with the disease on the idea that once the disease manifested itself, the contagious stage had passed; the isolation was to protect outsiders from the caregivers in the house.

That, of course, fails to explain why tests to determine if a person is an STD carrier have been eliminated for food handlers. Likewise the elimination of premarital tests for STDs.

Are tests for HIV or AIDS required for any job?

Can a person with hepatitis be deprived of employment in a health care setting? According to the US CDC, “Hepatitis B is usually spread when blood, semen, or another body fluid from a person infected with the Hepatitis B virus enters the body of someone who is not infected.” A sneeze to crown a tuna fish sandwich will do the job.

Times they are a’changin’ – and I’m not convinced they are changing for the better.

* * * * * * * * *

For want of a light that lasts

I just changed a CFL that was “guaranteed” to last 5 years.

The US government has banned incandescent bulbs as energy INefficient to force its citizens to buy Compact Florescent Lamp bulbs – all Made in China by the way.

I keep replacing the “5 year” bulbs after anywhere from 6 months to 2 years.

I thought China already owned the United States; why are we still buying faulty products from them? Are D.C. politicians getting a kick back?

Make peace with Haniyeh and Mazin?

 

Obama & Kerry should read “Palestinian” press

The following article is from the Ma’an News Agency that, according to its own (English language) “About” page is part of the Ma’an Network, the largest independent TV, radio and online media group in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. It also broadcasts regionally via the Ma’an-Mix satellite channel. It publishes news around the clock in Arabic and English, and is among the most browsed websites in the Palestinian territories, with over 3 million visits per month. Considered the main source of independent news from Palestine, MNA has become the first choice for online information for many Palestinians, and is also attracting a growing international readership and interest from prominent international news organizations and agencies.” (http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewContent.aspx?PAGE=AboutUs)

Ma’an also offers news in Hebrew. In English or Hebrew, it deserves an occasional visit; today I saw a photo of “Israel soldiers force Muslim to drink wine at gunpoint” (http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=604267) Ma’an’s main office is in Bet Lekhem (Bethlehem) with a “sub office” in Aza (Gaza) City.

Based on the fact that Ma’an, despite its claim of independence, is the mouthpiece of those who control “Palestine,” the reporting of Aza Prime Minister Haniyeh’s speeches can be trusted to be accurate, even in translation.

Haniyeh: No future for Israel on the land of Palestine

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=603354

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh on Sunday said that Israel has no future on Palestinian land, a Ma'an reporter said.

The Gaza premier made the comments while addressing a summer camp launched by Hamas to commemorate the right of return for Palestinian refugees.

"This key tells the story of a people who have been displaced from their land and subjected to the greatest international piracy at the hands of Zionist gangs," Haniyeh told spectators.

"This key narrates the story of Palestinian steadfastness, the determination to return back to their homes, and a heritage which will not go away."

Thousands of people gathered outside the al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza City to listen to the speech. Haniyeh said that some 100,000 school students will participate in the summer camps.

A 'Miles of Smiles' aid convoy, including solidarity activists from Jordan, Libya, Bahrain and Egypt, were present at the ceremony.

And the Jewish perspective from “The Israel Project” (http://tinyurl.com/8yedr2b)

Speaking Sunday at a youth summer camp in the Gaza Strip, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh proclaimed to the crowd that Israel would be destroyed to make way for a Palestinian state. Arab media sources summed up his speech (see Ma’an article above) with the headline ‘Haniyeh: No future for Israel on the land of Palestine.’ It took place at a summer camp specifically dedicated to commemorating what Palestinians call their right of return, a diplomatic euphemism describing a scenario under which millions of Palestinian refugees – many of whom are radicalized and most of whom neighboring Arab countries have refused to settle for decades – would enter Israel. Hamas uses its summer camps to indoctrinate and train child soldiers (see http://tinyurl.com/ms4zdlm), which are then deployed against Israel in combat situations. The dynamic, under which Hamas conducts incitement in the context of providing children with paramilitary training, has confounded many human rights organizations that attempt to assess combat situations between Israel and the Iran-backed terror group. Such organization have been criticized for inflating Palestinian civilian deaths by calculating all teenage male combatants as civilian deaths, despite Hamas’s open training of teenagers for combat and the group’s boasts that it uses children as jihadists.

Even if the Arabists in the Beltway discount the “Jewish perspective” (ibid.) how can they ignore the words of Ismail Haniyeh quoted in his own media?

Anyone who thinks the Islamists want anything other than to destroy Israel is living in a world of make believe.

In Yesha (Judea and Samaria), the so-called “West Bank,” terrorist Abu Mazin, who presides as president of the “Palestinian Authority,” consistently says he is willing to talk to Israel on condition that. Every time Israel meets Mazin’s conditions, he adds another. Mazin, by the way, is considered by Obama as a “true partner” with Israel in negotiating away Israeli lands and security (http://tinyurl.com/lutnxoy).

Are Obama and Kerry really that blind to reality?
Sorry, rhetorical question.

Direct line to HaShem?

 

Messiah won't come unless haredim get our way: UTJ MK

 

Objecting to a proposal by the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee that would allow Israeli couples to register for marriage anywhere in the country and proposed amendment that would mandate the inclusion of a woman in the committee that selects rabbinical judges, MK Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judaism) harshly criticized committee chairman, MK David Rotem (Yisrael Beytenu), saying "the messiah will see what this committee is doing and he won't come!"

"This committee has become the garbage can of Judaism. All the anti-Jewish laws find you," Gafni told Rotem, himself an observant Jew. "You have always been anti-religious! You are a big hero, you talk the talk, and that is why you cannot be a representative on the Judicial Selection Committee -- that committee needs strong people."

Apparently only haredi men qualify as "strong people." All others, it appears, equate to Oscar the Grouch of Sesame Street (ר''ח שומשום) fame.

Last month, Gafni said because Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid started pushing to draft haredi males into the IDF or for national service (שרות לאומי ), Israel's security situation has drastically worsened and Syria is aiming missiles at Tel Aviv. Gafni also blamed Israel's credit rating downgrade on Lapid's "infringing on the Torah" according to Israel HaYom (http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=9893)

I'm confidant that Gafni is correct that the meshiach will delay his arrival, but not because of any decisions to which haredim might object but because of the vitriolic senat henam (לשון הרע ושינאת חינם) spewing from the likes of Gafni and his fellows in the UTJ and Shas parties. I would encourage the haredim to go back and read the works of R. Yisrael Meir (Kagan) Poupko, the Chafetz Chayim (חפץ חיים), on lashon harah and baseless hatred (לשון הרע ושינאת חינם). If the meshiach thinks twice about coming to Jerusalem - and G-d knows we need mashiach now, with the world in its precarious condition - it's because of those Jews who think only they have a direct line from HaShem. Seems to me they are modeled after Korach and Company.

A democracy, even an "Israeli-style" democracy demands respect for - and by - all citizens. It demands participation by all citizens in all aspects of the government.

After Moses died, two people led the nation: Yohasua ben Nun and Pinchas ben Afunah. Yohasua was the political leader and Pinchas was the religious leader and, unlike the politicians of today, these two apparently (there is no indication in Torah (תורה שבעל-פי) of anything otherwise) worked together. The cohanim took the field with their brothers to conquer the land. The only exceptions were for cowards. newly weds, owners of new houses and people too young or too old. Perhaps today's haredim who dodge both the IDF and national service are one of the three exempt groups.

Likewise, according to the Torah, everyone except leviim and cohanim had to support both the state and the Temple; in truth, I'm not sure the leviim and cohanim were exempt from taxation to support the state's needs (army, judges and courts, etc.).

The "bottom line" is that when we came into Israel from Egypt, everyone - without exception - participated in the conquest; everyone did their part.

If the haredim complain that the IDF is "not kosher enough" then their presence would enhance the military's kashrut. (One hopes it would reach the level of Bet Yosef/Halak vs. "just glat.") Apparently the IDF IS kosher - when last in Israel and riding cross-country buses, I noticed a number of "modern Orthodox" - male and female - in uniform and, by their gear, some in well-respected combat units.

While I don't have a lot of respect for politicians - Israeli or U.S. - I think Gafni's remark that a Knesset committee is the "garbage can of Judaism" goes to far; that suggests, at least to me, that this representative of the haredim considers all non-haredim as "garbage." He's telling us that "if you are not like me, you're garbage." Today the "garbage" is any non-haredi, tomorrow the "garbage" will be anyone not aligned with his party (UTJ), and the day after, the "garbage" will be anyone who follows any rabbi but Gafni's.

It is because of MKs such as Gafni that the political-religious parties are today in the opposition and continually losing support from the non-haredi sectors. There are political parties that are populated by observant Jews, by Jews who believe in inclusion rather than haredi's exclusion mentality.

"Garbage" MK Gafni? That's pure hutzpah and a disgrace to Judaism.

After thought Another article from Israel HaYom is headlined "Thousands of haredim protest against IDF draft in NYC" and reports on New York's Satmar haredim hitting the streets to protest a draft in a place they don't live, a place where a Satmar admor once said was not a place for (his) Jews.
( http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=9867)

I can recall a rally for Israel in Washington D.C. a few years back. As I was making my way back to the Metrorail station I saw a cluster of Satmar "hasidim" waving not an Israeli flag but a "Palestinian" flag. These are the people who have the nerve to try an tell a government they don't recognize how to deal with its population! They may be the only group of people with more absolute hutzpah than the haredi politicians in Israel.

What's the big deal?

 

Women and their place

 

Understand this scrivener stands with Bet Shamai on most issues, see http://yohanon.blogspot.com/2011/09/shamai-that-you-never-knew.html.

If you never learned more about Shamai than the few words in Pirke Avot (פרקי אבות) - in which he is horribly given short shrift in comparison to his peer, Hillel, than "you don't know Shamai."

One of the current "tempests in a teapot" in Israel is "Women of the Wall," or "WoW" for short to appease hed (headline) writers.

As I understand it, these women go, monthly on Rosh Hodesh, to pray at the kotel, the Western Wall where the second Temple once stood - and where the abomination al-Aqsa now stands. Again, it is my understanding that they stand on the women's side of the mehitzah (מחיצה).

So far, no problem.

Trouble is, some of these women insist on a wearing tallit , and others both tallit and tefillin.

This troubles the haredim.

Women are not allowed these accouterments. They are the sole purview of males, and males older than 13 years and a day. The rabbis said so. Tallit and tefillin are "men's wear" and therefore, according to Torah (תורה שבעל-פי), forbidden.

The question, of course, is "when" did tallit and tefillin become strictly "men's ware?"

We are given to understand that (at least) one of Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki's 3 daughters wore tallit and tefillin. Rabbi Shlomo is better known as Rashi. (According to a Wikipedia entry at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rashi, "While some women in medieval Ashkenaz did wear tefillin, there is no evidence that Rashi's daughters did so.")

Of course, it must be admitted that Rashi's grandson, Rabbi Yakov ben Meir Tam, contested many of his grandfather's decisions; to this day, Ashkenazim and some Sefardim/Mizrachim attach mezzuzot at a slant ( \  ) to satisfy both Rashi, who stayed with the tradition of his time and fixed the mezzuzot upright ( | ) and Tam who wanted the mezzuzot horizontal (  - ). Many men - both Ashkenazi and Sefardi/Mizrachi - don two sets of tefillin, sometimes at once, to meet both the traditional/Rashi order of klaf and to meet Tam's revised order. (See http://ott.co.il/tefillin/tefillin-of-rashi-and-rabbeinu-tam/ for an explanation of the differences.)

In my mixed congregation - we have people following Egyptian, Moroccan, Syrian, and Turkish traditions (minhagim) - we have several Ashkenazi bachelors. None of there people wear a tallit except when they have a Torah honor. This begs the question: Is the tallit required at all? Among Sefardim and most Mizrachim, boys start donning a full (albeit boy-) size tallit early on; exactly when varies by minhag.

AN ASIDE: My wife - a Moroccan - likes the idea of unmarried men praying sans tallit; she also likes to see unmarried women sans hair covering. To her, this advertises who is "eligible" and who is not. Are all women match-makers at heart?

Shabat Rosh Hodesh Tamuz (Shabat Korah) 5773 saw the WoWs at the wall along with other observant women. There were no reports of conflicts among the women.

The haredi men, on the other hand - and I make a distinction between "haredi" and "observant" Jews - once again came to harass the women . . . women on their OWN SIDE OF THE FENCE. That smacks of hutzpa and it also tells me the men only insist on the mehitzah (מחיצה) when it suits them.

Unfortunately, the haredi men seem to think they ARE Israel and only what they want must be followed; they have become the ayatollahs of Israel. In the process, both at the Wall and elsewhere throughout Israel, these men are alienating "regular" Jews - observant and heloni (non-observant) to the point that the haredim are beginning to be held in contempt, and with them, the institutions they control.

Rather than arrange a marriage via the local rabbinute, Israeli Jews (continue) to marry outside of Israel or marry in a civil ceremony in Israel. It is not a matter of marrying a person with "questionable" Jewish bona fides, it's a matter of how the people applying for the rabbinical "stamp of approval" are received. In short, many are received in a manner foreign to Shamai as he is quoted in Avoth. For the record, I am fully in favor of proving Jewishness of both partners before a wedding. I don't care how each partner became Jewish - "accident of birth" or kosher-by-Rambam conversion - just that both are Jewish.

Personally, I do NOT like to see women in tallit and tefillin. I can't find anything that prohibits a woman wearing these accouterments, but being a "traditionalist" I simply am "uncomfortable" around women thusly appointed.

The reason women are exempt - critical word, "exempt" vs. "forbidden" - from tallit and tefillin is because both are "time sensitive"; that is, the related mitzvah must be performed after and before certain (proportional) hours. The rabbis of old, in their wisdom, believed that a woman with a baby cannot be expected to put down the infant or ignore a child while she is wearing tallit and tefillin, so they exempted women from such "time sensitive" mitzvoth. Makes sense to me.

My suggestion to the haredi - ignore the WoW. They won't "go away," but you won't get an ulcer and you might even find non-haredi start to appreciate you and your convictions. They still might not agree with you, but at least some sinat henam can be avoided.

Comments in English or Hebrew to: Yohanon dot Glenn at gmail dot com

When the going gets tough The Blue Bonnets get going

 

UN "peacekeeper" withdrawal
starts, Austrians pack up tents

 

According to Israel HaYom, the Austria's are turning tail and pulling out of Syria where they were charged with maintaining a buffer zone between the Syrians and Israel. (http://tinyurl.com/lv5zryp)

"Danger to Austrian soldiers has risen to an unacceptable level," says its chancellor.

This is not the first time the Blue Bonnets have abandoned their mission. (On May 16, 1967 Nasser ordered a withdrawal of the United Nations Emergency Forces (UNEF) stationed on the Egyptian-Israeli border, thus removing the international buffer between Egypt and Israel which had existed since 1957. http://tinyurl.com/ks22dfg )

According to the Jewish Press, Israel Minister of Strategic and Intelligence Affairs Yuval Steinintz (Likud) said that the lesson is very clear, “In any peace agreement, Israel cannot rely on international forces, but only on IDF soldiers.” He added that South Lebanon, under the UN’s watch, now has 40,000 missiles embedded there pointed at Israel. The UN did nothing to stop it. (http://tinyurl.com/l46hu2g )

UNDOF Peacekeepers on the Golan (UN Photo)

Meanwhile, as the Austrians get ready to retreat to increasingly Muslim Europe, the Philippines said today (7 Jun 2013) it still was studying whether to pull its UN peacekeeping force out of the Golan Heights, after the wounding of a Filipino soldier and the withdrawal of Austrian troops there. (http://tinyurl.com/mtmn9my )

Japan and Croatia already pulled out. Fiji has promised some replacement troops but they have not yet arrived. (http://tinyurl.com/jvlavsk )

India also has troops serving in the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF), which has monitored a ceasefire between Israel and Syria since 1974. So far, there has been no reports of an Indian departure. (ibid.)

Granted, the Blue Bonnets were supposed to maintain the ceasefire between Syria and Israel, and as long as Assad was in total control, the border was less or more quiet. Now that his control is shared by rebels and Hamas and with terrorists (Hezbollah) Syria's internal war - hardly a "civil war" since there are many non-Syrians involved) - is spilling over Israeli, Turkish, and Jordanian borders. Lebanon has been a Syrian outpost for years and no longer counts as an independent nation.

It IS interesting to note that (apparently) there are NO Arab League nations involved in trying to stem the Sunni-Shiite war within Syria's borders.

According to The Arab League Web presence (http://tinyurl.com/7hfjwqz ), "The Arab League comprises of 22 members. The members are Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Tunisia, Algeria, Djibouti, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Somalia, Iraq, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Comoros, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Egypt, Morocco, Mauritiana and Yemen. The League is involved in political, economic, cultural and social programs to promote the interests of the member states. It has successfully settled some Arab disputes. It played a crucial role in limiting conflicts like the Lebanese civil war of 1958."

One has to wonder about the League's ability at "limiting conflicts" giving the conditions of several of its member states (currently including Algeria, Egypt, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Somalia, Sudan, and Tunisia).

Jordan, abutting Syria, wisely is keeping its troops at home as it faces discontent of its own. Turkey, not yet a League member state, also has reason to keep its troops within its borders as the natives become restless.

Given the number of so-called Palestinians in Syria and the fact that the Palestinian Authority is armed by the U.S., one has to wonder why Mahmoud Abbas, a/k/a terrorist Abu Mazen, doesn't send his troops into Syria to either (a) separate the warring factions or (b) extricate the "Palestinians" from the field of battle. "Palestine" is, after all, a League member.

Perhaps Obama and John McCain will decide the U.S. should send troops into Syria - but on whose side? - since, as Obama claims, the war in Afghanistan is winding down and what can he do with all these troops except send them into yet another winless war for a people who loath Americans. (Who said the Dems and GOP couldn't agree on anything.)

Maybe the Austrians are right after all. If the Muslims of the Arab League are afraid to enter the fray, why should the Austrians? Why should the UN (Useless Nobodies) hang around.

If the "rebels" gain control, Israel can expect to be attacked.

If Assad survives Israel will be forced to eliminate the Russian missiles due in 2014 while preventing any more weapons transfer to Hezbollah.

For Israel, it is a lose-lose situation, but at least Israel's politicians have - so far - had sufficient intelligence to stay out of Syria's internal war.

NSC head sans Security background

 

Obama rampant
on a field of foolishness

 

Obama is promoting Susan Rice from ambassador to the UN – a field in which she has some experience, a lot of it “unfortunate” – to head the National Security Council (NSC).

According to her bio on Wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Rice), Rice served on the staff of the National Security Council and as Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs during President Bill Clinton's second term

Rice was a foreign policy aide to Michael Dukakis during the 1988 presidential election. She was a management consultant at McKinsey & Company, a global management consulting firm, from mid-1990 when she received her degree from Oxford to early 1992 when she worked for the Clinton campaign.

Rice served in the Clinton administration in various capacities: at the National Security Council (NSC) from 1993 to 1997; as director for international organizations and peacekeeping from 1993 to 1995 and as special assistant to the president and senior director for African affairs from 1995 to 1997.

At the time of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, Rice reportedly said, "If we use the word 'genocide' and are seen as doing nothing, what will be the effect on the November [congressional] election?" Rice subsequently acknowledged the mistakes made at the time and felt that a debt needed repaying. The inability or failure of the Clinton administration to do anything about the genocide would inform her later views on possible military interventions. She would later say of the experience: "I swore to myself that if I ever faced such a crisis again, I would come down on the side of dramatic action, going down in flames if that was required."

Basically, aside from some undefined work at the NSC (1993 to 1997) – during which she also worked as

• Director for international organizations and peacekeeping (1993 to 1995)
• Special assistant to the president and senior director for African affairs (1995-1997)

Based on Ms. Rice’s CV, she has about zero experience with national security. Her management experience is equally thin. As ambassador to the UN, she took her marching orders from POTUS since she apparently has a poor relationship with the State Department. According to the bio, ”Rice had a poor relationship with State Department veteran Richard Holbrooke, whom she considered to be meddling on her turf and who in return had viewed her as incompetent.”

But she IS an Obama loyalist who denigrated John McCain’s trip to Iraq as nothing more than "strolling around the market in a flak jacket."

Actually, Samantha Power, Obama’s candidate to replace Rice at the UN, may have more NSC experience than Rice. According to her Wikipedia biography ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samantha_Power ), Power was Senior Director for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights on the National Security Council—responsible for running the Office of Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights from January 2009 to March 2013. (Note, however, that the Wikipedia bio already identifies her as the “current United States ambassador to the United Nations.”)

The candidate for the UN slot seems substantially better qualified for that job than Ms. Rice to direct the NSC.

Obama’s will be done. The only remaining question is: How much more damage to the country will he do before his term is completed.

Murderous Israelis

 

The next time you hear someone talk about how badly Israelis treat the Muslims of occupied Israel (Aza and Shimron), read the following to them. The article has been in all the Israeli media. Any emphasis is mine.

When three-year-old Noam Naor fell out the window and was pronounced clinically dead 10 days ago, his parents decided to donate his organs. One kidney was given to another Israeli child. The other saved the life of a 10-year-old Palestinian.

The operation, carried out Sunday at the Schneider children’s ward at Petah Tikva’s Beilinson Hospital, was deemed successful.

Health Minister Yael German on Sunday praised the Naor family for the life-saving act, which she called “an example” for everyone.

“In my eyes, Noam’s parents are noble and an inspiration to us all,” German said. At the hardest moment of their life, they made a difficult decision that their son’s death would bequeath life to a Palestinian child.

“Their donation is a source of pride and an example of humanity and kindness,” the minister said.

The Palestinian boy had been treated with dialysis at Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center for seven years before the match was found. The Health Ministry’s transplant center contacted Noam’s parents, and asked them if they’d be willing to donate the kidney to someone who wasn’t Israeli — specifically, a Palestinian.

“It doesn’t matter who gets the kidneys, so long as fewer children need to undergo dialysis treatments,” News1 quoted Noam’s father as saying.

The father of the boy who received the donation told the site he had “no words” that could express his feelings, but wanted to thank the donor’s family who gave his son “a new life after years of waiting.”

Chief rabbis Who Cares?

One of the several “hot topics” in Israeli politics today is “Who should be the next (Ashkenazi) Chief Rabbi.

Who cares?

The haredim – the extreme religious people – follow their own rabbis. Until his death, Yosef Shalom Elyashiv was chief rabbi to the denizens of Bene Brak and Mea Sherim, never mind that there was an official Ashkenazi chief rabbi.

Menachem Mendel , until his death, was the absolute leader of Chabad Lubavitch.

Shlomo Amar has the title if Rishion l’Tzion (Mizrachi chief rabbi), but in truth most Mizrachim and many Sefardim consider Amar a tool of Ovadia Yosef and look to the latter for rabbinical leadership.

Bottom line: Observant Jews in Israel, for the most part follow their own rabbinical leadership. NON-observant Jews in Israel generally don’t care who is wearing the crown and do whatever they can to avoid the political rabbinute.

It would be nice, however, if the rabbinical leadership could be more inclusive and less insular; if rabbinical Judaism looked for ways to accommodate today’s Jews within halacha.

There ARE rabbis – Ashkenazi, Mizrachi, and Sefardi – who DO make the effort. R. Yosef Messas (ע''ה), former chief Sefardi rabbi of Haifa, was famous – or infamous, depending on your point of view – for making an effort to “find a way” to accommodate all Jews.

In the end, naming a rabbi to be a “chief rabbi” is a political game controlled by a 150-member body of men – no women allowed - that elects the two chief rabbis; it consists of rabbis, mayors, heads of religious councils, and appointees of the chief rabbis and of the minister of religious affairs, In other words, pretty much an “old boys’ network.”

This year – chief rabbis are anointed for a 10-year stint – the selection appears to be even more politicized that in the past with the Bayt Yehudi party supporting a rabbi and making a deal with Ovadia Yosef to allow Yosef’s man, Amar, to have an unprecedented second 10-year term.

In the end, the “Who cares” status quo will remain.

Meanwhile, members of what amounts to a private club will fight among themselves to elect a person who will be “chief rabbi” of a dwindling population.

The haredim won’t accept him.

The heloni won’t accept him.

The non-traditional Jews – Conservative and Reform – won’t acknowledge them.

The anti-religious simply will ignore him as they ignore all rabbis.

But the rabbis, and now the politicians, will have an opportunity to show one and all that the Israeli religious hierarchy is all about who you know – just like everything else in Israel.