Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Give PA what it wants

Boycott? Please
But all or nothing

 

WHAT DO ABU MAZEN AND JOHN KENNEDY HAVE IN COMMON?

Both ordered boycotts after they stocked up on soon to be contraband goods; in JFK's case, Cuban cigars; in Abu Mazen's case, probably a personal stockpile of Bamba and Tnuva yogurts.

Abu Mazen is cutting off his people's nose to spite his face.

I seriously doubt the PA's boycott of Israeli food products will have a major impact on the Israeli manufacturers - on as is increasingly the case, the companies' Chinese owners.

In my not-at-all-humble opinion, I think Israel should help the PA by preventing ALL Israeli products from entering the PA's domain.

A sampling of the things the PA will learn to do without:

Electricity; it hasn't paid its bill in so long, the over due is counted in years, not months.

Cell phones with Israeli-developed components.

Medications, surgical tools, and medical procedures developed by Israelis or manufactured by Israeli firms such as Teva.

Coca-Cola from Israeli plants. The PA can, of course, import Coke from the Gaza plant.

Computers; most have Israeli-made chips inside.

Natural gas (when it finally becomes available). Gaza has a shoreline; let it make deals with exploration companies to look for gas off the Gaza coast.

ALL Israeli food products; products grown or packaged in Israel.

Education; no more PA students at any Israeli school, university, or graduate facility; no more PA doctors doing residency and internships at Israeli hospitals.

Force any Palestinian who has shekels to convert the Israeli currency into Jordanian dinars; they should be pleased not to have to handle Zionist money.

AT THE SAME TIME, halt entry of Palestinians into Israel to do anything more than go directly to/from the airport at Lod.

No access to Israeli medical care, not even for Abu Mazen's mother. There are hospitals in many Muslim countries as well as in Europe; it is not as if the only hospitals that will accept a PA patient are in Israel. (The Palestinians in Gaza can easily get medical care in Egypt.

To be fair, I think Israel should build a road from Ramallah to the Jordan border and close it off to Israelis - all Israelis, not just Jews. The road will be a toll road with tolls sufficient to maintain it. Israel will have to absorb the construction costs.

Water must be provided by mutual accord - unless the PA should violate any other accords - the Oslo Agreement comes to mind.

Perhaps Abu Mazen never heard the phrase: Be careful what you wish for.

If he wants to boycott Israeli products, let the boycott be for ALL Israeli products.


Thursday, February 19, 2015

Only in Israel

But there is
A difference

 

ACCORDING TO AN ISRAEL HaYom ARTICLE, The Supreme Court on Tuesday reversed the Central Elections Committee's decision to disqualify MK Hanin Zoabi (Joint Arab List) and far-right ‎activist Baruch Marzel (Yahad Haam Itanu) over their alleged incitement and racism.

One of the two wants to destroy Israel and turn it into "Greater Palestine" and has committed what in any other country would be considered treason.

The other candidate would like Israel to be "Arab-free."

The Israeli press tosses them into the same basket with the label "Extremists."

COWARDLY COURT

The article continues:

In what was an 8-1 decision, the court said Zoabi and Marzel would be eligible to run in the upcoming election despite their controversial conduct, although it did not elaborate on the specific allegations against them. In the majority opinion it was explained that in light of the constrained timetable --- with elections are less than a month away -- the rationale for the decision would be made available at a later date. (Emphasis mine.)

The Central Elections Committee, which unsuccessfully again tried to bar Zoabi from running - and was, once again, deterred by the Supremes - wanted to prevent Zioabi's candidacy for having voiced outspoken support for an armed struggle against Israel, noting that her behavior was a form of sedition and that she posed a threat to the state.

Zoabi was aboard the Mavi Marmara bringing weapons to Gaza and encouraged those aboard to resist Israeli military who ordered the ship to stop and be searched.

According to the Times of Israel, Zoabi

  *was under investigation for saying that the killers of three Israeli teens in June were not terrorists. She is also under investigation for accosting a police officer in Nazareth

  * Zoabi, who participated in the 2010 flotilla sail to Gaza organized by the Islamic IHH group in Turkey, recently angered right-wing lawmakers with articles she penned that they interpreted as advice to Hamas on how to defeat Israel and as a call for violence against Israel.

All Ms. Zoabi wants to do is destroy Israel and send it back to its pre-1948 status.

ON THE OTHER HAND, Israel HaYom reports,

The Coalition against Racism in Israel criticized the court's decision to greenlight Marzel's candidacy. "Unfortunately, the Supreme Court paved the way for (Rabbi Meir) Kahane to return to the Knesset," the groups said in a statement, referring to the leader of the Kach party who was assassinated in 1990. "Marzel has stated that he no longer subscribes to Kach's ideology but these declarations are nothing more than lip service. We believe the Israeli public will vote against racism and in favor of democracy, " the statement continued.

According to Wikipedia,

Baruch Meir Marzel is an Israeli politician. Marzel, an American-born Orthodox Jew, lives in the Jewish community of Hebron in Tel Rumeida with his wife and nine children. He was the leader of the far right-oriented Jewish National Front party. He is now a member of Otzma Yehudit. He claims he was the "right hand man" of assassinated Rabbi Meir Kahane, acting as spokesman for the American rabbi's Kach organization for ten years until it was outlawed in Israel and the US as a terrorist organization. The mainstream Israeli press regularly describes him as an "extreme right-wing activist". The "main stream" Israeli press is not identified.

Strange bedfellows before the Supremes,


Tuesday, February 17, 2015

No safe haven for Jews

Netanyahu says
Be safe in Israel

 

ISRAEL PRIME MINISTER tells Jews in France, Denmark, elsewhere to come to Israel where they will be safe.

Granted, Europe is a hotbed of anti-Semites and Israel haters.

Canada and the U.S. are not completely free of the European plague. Likewise, South America and Africa are infected.

But is a Jew really safer in Israel than "hu'l" (outside Israel)?

CAVEAT: I am a dual national (U.S. and Israel) living the the States. I'm here because of Israeli politics and strikes. I have a daughter who lives with her husband and daughter in Israel; I also have two sons who live in the U.S. with their families.

None of us are "afraid" to live in Israel or the U.S.

But to claim, as Netanyahu claims, that a Jew is safe in Israel is dishonest; it's a lie.

How many Israelis have been murdered by terrorists? How many blown up by terrorists' bombs as they sat in a café or rode a bus?

How many Israelis been murdered by knife wielding or vehicle driving terrorists while waiting for a bus or train?

How many Israelis have been injured or murdered by Muslim youth throwing rocks and cinder blocks at passing cars. For that matter, how many have been killed or injured driving in, or even near, some "religious" neighborhoods on Shabat?

How many Israelis have been killed in the last several years by missile fire from Israel's neighbors to the north and south?

The answer to "all of the above" is "Too many."

Jews born and raised in the U.S., at least the politically (vs. religiously) conservative ones, are prepared to fight back. Many are armed and are trained in the use of firearms. Having a personal weapon in Israel is almost an impossibility, so when a terrorist attacks a person with a knife or gun, the person being attacked is left defenseless - just as he would be in New York City.

While Europe has its "Muslim problem," the U.S. has its Mexican, Cuban and Haitian "problems" - drugs and territory wars. In Israel, not only is there a "Palestinian problem" there also is a Sudanese "problem."

There is a dearth of police in Israel. The only place to see more than an occasional cop is at the police station or at an "event."

I'm not "anti-Israel" and I certainly never would discourage anyone from making aliyah - my daughter did - but the reality is that Israel is probably no safer than a European country, and certainly - given gun control - less safe than the U.S. For Netanyahu to say otherwise is just another political prevarication.

 


Monday, February 16, 2015

Egypt attacks Daesh in Libya

This Sisi
Is no sissy

 

IN MY LIFETIME I HAVE KNOWN OF TWO TRUE EGYPTIAN LEADERS.

The first was a real hero, Anwar Sadat who came to Jerusalem to have tea with his former foe, Menachem Begin. I watched from my balcony in Holon as his plane - alone in the night sky - came to land at Lod, and I watched, via tv, as the motorcade made its way to Jerusalem.

Unfortunately, he was not long back in Egypt when he was assonated.

The second is the incumbent, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi.


According to an article in the UK's Guardian heded Libya and Egypt launch air strikes against Isis after militants post beheadings video,

President Sisi had vowed to ‘avenge the criminal killings’ after release of video purporting to show killing of 21 Christians, believed to be kidnapped Egyptians

The article continued

Egypt reported that its war planes had struck Isis targets in Libya, shortly after President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi vowed revenge for the release by Isis-affiliated militants of a video of a mass killing of Christians.

The statement said the warplanes targeted weapons caches and training camps before returning safely. It said the strikes were “to avenge the bloodshed and to seek retribution from the killers”.

“Let those far and near know that Egyptians have a shield that protects them,” it said.

Libya’s air force meanwhile announced it had launched strikes in the eastern city of Darna, which was taken over by an Isis affiliate last year. The announcement, on the Facebook page of the air force chief of staff, did not provide further details.

The only problem with the Al-Sisi-ordered air strike was that it came too late.

Egyptians in Libya have for some time been targets of Islamists. This time, ISIS martyred only non-Muslims.

Although late in coming, the air strike DID happen, however there was no report of causalities on the ground.

So far, neither the U.S. president nor the UN has condemned the Egyptian air raid into neighboring Libya (but then neither criticizes Egypt for its dealings with Hamas in Gaza - all condemnation is focused on Israel).

For all that, Al-Sisi is to be commended for taking an appropriate action against Daesh (a/k/a ISIS/ISIL) sending the air force of a Muslim state to seek retribution against Muslims in a neighboring Muslim state for the deaths of non-Muslims.

Al-Sisi has been at war with Daesh for months, primarily in the Sinai, but this is the first time Egypt has blatantly taken the battle to the Islamist radicals outside of Egypt's borders.

 

It's an Israeli plot - of course

Posts by Anonymous Coward User ID: 68078755 on the Godlike Productions web site naturally blame Israel for all the fighting in the region. And people like Anonymous Coward - an apt name - are allowed out of the asylums; gives one pause.


Monday, February 9, 2015

Who will be hurt?

PA boycotts Israeli food
But not power, medicine

 

WE DON'T CARE IF OUR PEOPLE HAVE TO EAT GRASS, IT WON'T BE ISRAELI GRASS.

In a Times of Israel/Start-up Daily article heded PA announces boycott of Israeli food manufacturers readers learn that The PA ruled that it would ban the sale of products made by Israeli food manufacturers Strauss, Tnuva, Osem, Prigat, and Jafora, senior Fatah official Mahmoud al-Alul said at a press conference. He said the move would take effect on Wednesday.

Al-Alul and his masters made the move in retaliation for Jerusalem’s freeze of Palestinian tax funds collected on Ramallah’s behalf.

Why are the nasty Israel's withholding tax monies? Israel claims because of the PA moves to bring Israel before the International Criminal Court for war crimes committed when it defended itself against attacks from Gaza and because the PA, in defiance of the so-called Oslo Accords, is pushing for full membership in the anti-Semitic UN. Imagine.

Ignoring the current reasons for the freeze on taxes to the PA, Israel still is owned millions of shekels for electricity, a debt that has been passed on to the Israeli electric user in the form of higher rates.

And then there is the humanitarian aid given both high ranking PA officials and their families and the average PA citizen who come to Israel for medical care unavailable in the PA controlled areas.

As for me, I will make it a point to buy the boycotted products wherever they are available; I don't care how many pounds I put on eating Osem snacks and drinking Prigat grapefruit drink.

If the PA wants to boycott some of Israel's products, I think Israel should cut off all sales to the PA. At the same time, assure that PA residents who have permits to work in Israel don't smuggle any Israeli-made products into the PA and perhaps set up currency exchanges so PA laborers exchange Israeli currency for PA currency on their way home.

To be fair, if PA residents are prohibited from receiving medical training and care in Israel, Israel must provide a corridor between Ramallah and Jordan where PA residents can go for medical care.

Unlike their sympathizers in Europe and North America who have alternatives to Strauss, Tnuva, Osem, Prigat, and Jafora products, the residents of the PA have far fewer options, albeit there ARE options.

Just a thought.


Thursday, February 5, 2015

Walk right in, sit right down

Come on in

 

THE OTHER DAY we lacked one man to complete the minyan so kaddish could be said.

I stood at the door, watching for the 10th man.

We missed the first kaddish (before hodu).

Turns out there was a guy sitting in his car, apparently unaware that when a tallit-clad man stands at the door obviously looking for something, that person is looking for The Tenth Man.

WE ARE A "NETZ" MINYAN which means we start earlier than anyone else in the neighborhood.

There's another congregation down the street and when it had a daily minyan the rabbi often could be seen standing by the street waiting for The Tenth Man. Usually if we saw him standing there as we headed home or to work from our minyan we'd turn in and make sure kaddish could be said.

It became obvious the guy who could have been our Tenth Man this morning felt uncomfortable; out of his element.

He was waiting for a semi-regular. (I've got to talk to the semi-regular about getting in on time; nice guy, young fellow, and our future.)

When the semi-regular showed up, both came inside in time for the "second chance kaddish" immediately before Bruk S'Amar (nusach Sefard).

We could tell the visitor was not a regular - he needed help to put on tefillin. With us it's not a big deal to help someone; we had a young fellow who had to have help for a couple of weeks - he couldn't get the hang of the Sefardi wrap - but he kept trying and we kept helping. He finally got it down . . . and then returned to the snow and ice of New York.

Maybe it's an "observant Jew" thing to be willing to take even a few minutes to fill out a minyan for kaddish. Or maybe it’s a matter of chutzpah to walk into a s strange synagogue sans invitation and expect to feel like you belong.

IT HAPPENED ONE TIME IN ISRAEL - in Zefat to be exact - and I was on my way to catch a bus to "net-tzha-ret", wherever that was, when a fellow standing by a courtyard gate accosted me with "We need you for kaddish; just a few minutes." I was overjoyed; someone wanted me for my body. "But," I replied, "I've already prayed." Not discouraged, he ushered me into the mourner's home.

The delay was not critical; there are relatively frequent buses from Zefat to Haifa and on to Nazareth a/k/a " net-tzha-ret." (My Hebrew was even worse then.)

From them on, I have shown up at Jewish funerals, done bikur holem (visits to the sick), and sat as a shomer for deceased Jews. My spouse and I, on vacation in Myrtle Beach SC, even managed to get invited to a brit. (Interesting event; Israeli couple who attended Chabad held the brit in the Syrian synagogue.)

BACK TO THE SHY VISITOR. I well recall my first visit to my late Father-In-Law's synagogue in Bet Shean. I would have been lost without his guidance, but due to his presence, people made room for this obviously out-of-place visitor. (To this day, when I visit Bet Shean I'm known primarily as one of Eliyahu's sons-in-law.)

It can be tough in some places where no one gives a visitor a clue where to sit or find a sedur, but in the many different congregations I've visited, only rarely has anyone been anything but kind. I go EXPECTING to be welcome.

Sometimes when I'm greeted like a long-lost rich relative I know I'm The Tenth Man, but even when I'm not, 99 times out of 100 someone will point me to a vacant spot, and if it's Monday or Thursday, I might even be offered an honor.

ON THE TOPIC OF VISITOR HONORS, why are visitors so often asked to open the ark? Which way do the doors open; is the curtain pushed to the side or is it on a pulley? Someone will have pity on the visitor and signal him instructions, but it might be better to let the visitor carry the Torah from and to the aron hakodesh.

It's a shame the guy felt so uncomfortable and out of place that he hid in his car until his friend showed up. Maybe next time he'll feel at home.

There is a here-for-a-week visitor who has found a place next to me in the back of the shul. Having heard him read Torah, I know he's no stranger to synagogues. He came in, made himself comfortable, and Baruk HaBah. THAT'S the attitude all Jews should have when they visit a "strange" congregation.


Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Image?

Muslims
Vs. Daesh

 

AS LONG AS DAESH (A/K/A ISIS, ISIL) WAS KILLING JEWS, Muslims around the world were silent. No matter that the attacks took place in Israel or someplace in Europe, or even in North America, the Muslim world was, at best, silent or, at worst, applauded as it did when Muslims piloted commercial airliners into the two Trade Center buildings and the Pentagon.

Now, however, non-Jews are being targeted along with Jews, and the world is starting to see the Islamist threat is not just against the Jews and Israel.

PERHAPS, and admittedly is is just speculation, the Muslim leadership is starting to realize that by indiscriminately targeting all "infidels" those "infidels" will start taking indiscriminate revenge on all Muslims.

TO BE FAIR I know that not EVERY Muslim is a terrorist, and I know that not every terrorist is a Muslim. Every country - and the United States is no exception - has its own homegrown crazies.

But until recently, any Muslim voices raised against Daesh have been like whispers in a hurricane.

Now, for whatever reason - the threat of backlash, the reality that the Arab world - and maybe the Muslim world as well - has had enough, is causing Muslims to speak out, boldly and loudly, against Daesh.

Imam Tareq Yousef Al-Masri speaks out against Islamist violence and tells his congregants that the reason Muslims are hated is because they hate. (A YouTube video worth watching>)

Unfortunately, there are other imans, in particular Imam Anjem Choudary of London.

In a AFP release headed Muslim Scholars Call to 'Kill and Crucify' ISIS Terrorists, Al-Azhar, Sunni Islam's most prestigious center of learning, has called for the killing and crucifixion of terrorists from the Islamic State group (ISIS), expressing outrage over their murder of a Jordanian pilot.

In a statement after the burning alive of Maaz al-Kassasbeh, the Cairo-based authority called for the "killing, crucifixion and chopping of the limbs of Islamic State terrorists".

The statement comes a month after Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi delivered a highly unusual and surprising speech to Islamic clerics at Al-Azhar University last week, in which he called on Muslim leaders to reform Islam to rid the Muslim world of terrorism.

Meanwhile, Jordan Executes Jihadist Prisoners in Response to ISIS murdering - by burning to death - a Jordanian pilot.

Jordan executed two jihadist prisoners at dawn on Wednesday, after vowing a harsh response to the Islamic State (ISIS) group's murder of a Jordanian pilot.

Would-be Iraqi female suicide bomber Sajida al-Rishawi and Iraqi Al-Qaeda member Ziad al-Karboli were executed at 4:00 a.m. local time, government spokesman Mohammad al-Momani said.

"The death sentence will be carried out on a group of jihadists, starting with Rishawi, as well as Iraqi Al-Qaeda operative Ziad Karbuli and others who attacked Jordan's interests," a Jordanian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, had told AFP.

IT IS INTERESTING to note that, as this is keyed, there are NO protests from the left-wing UN or Arab liberals, and absolute silence from Abu Mazen, all of whom would be gnashing teeth and ranting had Israel done what Jordan did.

King Abdullah II ibn al-Hussei described ISIS as a “cowardly” organization, and added that its killing of al-Kassasbeh will only strengthen Jordanians.

“We have received with all sorrow, grief and anger, the news of the martyrdom of the brave pilot Maaz al-Kassasbeh, may Allah bless his soul, at the hand of the terrorist and cowardly Daesh organization, this criminal, stray gang that has nothing to do with our true religion,” the King said in a statement quoted by the Jordan Times and in which he used an Arabic acronym for ISIS.

“At this difficult time, it is the duty of all citizens to unify their ranks and show the true character of the Jordanian people when they face hardships and plights, which will only strengthen us and reinforce our unity,” added Abdullah.

Next door, Egyptian President Al-Sisi Delivers Speech That May Change the World Forever and called to combat extremist ideology and said: “We need to revolutionize our religion.” Calling for “religious discourse that is in keeping with its times,” Al-Sisi warned that “the Islamic nation is being torn apart and destroyed” by extremism.

It might well be noted that Al-Sisi is waging an internal war with Islamists who want to remove him and restore one of their own (Mohamed Morsi). It also is worth noting that while the world castigates Israel for tightly controlling its border with Gaza, Egypt has (a) hermetically sealed its border with Gaza, (b) destroyed the smuggling tunnels from Egypt into Gaza, and (c) created a 500 meter wide by 13 km long structure-free zone according to Aljazeera. (The liberal UK Telegraph put the Egyptian move in a different light, leeding with The Egyptian authorities are demolishing hundreds of houses along its impoverished border with the Gaza Strip to create a buffer zone that will slow the flow of weapons and militants between the two territories.

Army officials told residents in the eastern Rafah area to evacuate their homes on Tuesday. They later confirmed that they planned to empty more than 800 houses – home to about 10,000 people.

Again, the UN and its friends remain silent. When Israel prevents unrestricted flow of people and goods to and from Gaza, the nation is condemned. When Egypt closes its border - not a sound.

It seems the only Muslims that stand solidly with Deash are Iranians and "Palestinians"; other Muslims are starting to distance themselves from a group that no longer limits its hatred to Israel and, to a lesser extent, the U.S.

Perhaps reality is starting to set in for the Islamic world. Perhaps.


Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Don't plant that tree

Why is this Tu b'Shvat
Different from last Tu b'Shvat?

 

USUALLY WE PLANT one or more trees in Israel on Tu b'Shvat (ט''ו בשבט). For the Israel National Fund, this is the busy season.

But not this year.

This year there will be no planting new trees, at least not religiously sanctioned planting of new trees in Israeli soil.

Why?

It's a shmita (שמיטה) year, when, once every seven years, the ground is supposed to lie fallow; unplanted and unplowed.

ONLY IN ISRAEL

Usually the expression "Only in Israel" means something crazy happened or some scientist developed a product that no one else could develop, or a researcher developed a medicine that cures a malady that predominately effects non-Jews with Middle Eastern origins - and Israel makes the formula available to "The World" for free. That's the usual "Only in Israel."

However, this year is a shmita year only in Israel and theoretically all planting, pruning, and harvesting is forbidden.

The poor in Israel - and unfortunately there are many - are allowed to collect what grows on its own for their own use, but farmers, even those who grow vegetables in a window box filled with Israeli soil, are forbidden for doing any agricultural work.

The shmita year allows Israelis and everyone else to eat Israeli produce produced before the advent of this shmita year which began on Rosh HaShana in 2014/5775.

From United with Israel:

In Exodus, the law is set forth through the following verses: “You may plant your land for six years and gather its crops. But during the seventh year, you must leave it alone and withdraw from it. The needy among you will then be able to eat just as you do, and whatever is left over can be eaten by wild animals. This also applies to your vineyard and your olive grove.” (Exodus 23:10-11).

In Leviticus (25:20-22), we are promised an abundant harvest if they adhere to these laws. Yet questions remain: how can an entire nation disregard their fields for an entire year? How can a country that is so dependent on income from its agricultural exports survive without earnings from these products? How can residents of Israel maintain a healthy lifestyle when fruits and vegetables are scarcely available?

The same source, United with Israel, goes on to explain the legal fiction of heter mechira. This ruling by Israel's first chief rabbi, Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Kook, allows Jewish farmers to sell their lands to non-Jews for the duration, similar to the way some Jews sell their hametz for the duration of Passover. (For a food processing company, that may be reasonable; for an individual, perhaps not.)

Akin to Passover, the rabbis who were uncomfortable with the heter mechira came up with A partial resolution to the controversy surrounding the heter mechira, Israel’s beit din (Jewish court system) instituted the Otzar Beit din system, through which the land becomes the property of the beit din. Farmers who work the land owned by the beit din are thus not working their “own” land during the sabbatical year. The beit din then sells all resulting produce at cost and uses the proceeds to pay the farmers. According to all rabbis, this produce still retains the holiness of the shmita year and must be disposed of properly

The shmita year restrictions apply only to the land within Israel's Biblical borders. Strawberries from Florida, as well as the Sunshine State's excellent citrus products are permitted.

There are a number of Internet sites that offer Tu b'Shvat recipes.

On that note I'll quit by wishing you a happy - and tasty - new year of trees.

From Jewfaq, the (non-edible) dates for Tu b'Shvat through 2017/5777 are:

  • Jewish Year 5775: sunset February 3, 2015 - nightfall February 4, 2015
  • Jewish Year 5776: sunset January 24, 2016 - nightfall January 25, 2016
  • Jewish Year 5777: sunset February 10, 2017 - nightfall February 11, 2017