BDS against SodaStream backfires as headquarters moves to Southern Israel causing 900 Palestinians to lose their jobs

The Boycott, Divestment and Sanction (BDS) campaign against West Bank based company SodaStream, backfired as it announced the move of its headquarters to Southern Israel.

While the BDS crowd will be happy with this move, since SodaStream will now be based in an area of ​​Israel that is not disputed by the Palestinians, there is a very real possibility that the 900 Palestinians employees will lose their jobs as a result.

The company will move its entire factory sometime next year, and while it will continue its practice of equal opportunity hiring, there is a high probability that the Bedouin and African communities in the region will be the lucky recipients of employment in SodaStream instead of Palestinians.

SodaStream produces home carbonation systems that enable users to convert tap water into sparkling water in more than 100 flavors.

A Palestinian worker slammed the BDS movement, saying that the group is only harming Palestinians by causing them to lose their high paying jobs at Israeli companies operating in the West Bank.

Unlike Satmar, Abbas Blames Hamas For 2,100 Dead, 10,000 Injured, 50,000 Homes Destroyed

It seems that Abbas is moving away from the Satmar Shita, that the Zionists were responsible for  the war between Israel and Gaza.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has accused Hamas of needlessly extending fighting in Gaza, causing a high death toll.

Abbas told Palestine TV in remarks broadcast Friday that “it was possible for us to avoid all of that, 2,000 martyrs, 10,000 injured, 50,000 houses (damaged or destroyed).”
Israel and Hamas terrorists fought for 50 days before reaching a truce on Tuesday.

More than 2,100 Palestinians were killed, including hundreds of civilians. Seventy one people on the Israeli side, including six civilians, were killed.

Several Egyptian mediated cease-fire attempts failed. Hamas eventually accepted almost the same truce offered at the beginning.

Abbas’ Palestinian Authority formed a unity government backed by Hamas earlier this year. Abbas questioned the future of that arrangement in the interview.

Cell Phones For All Students In Israel, No Black Hats And No Jackets On Hikes Says Hatzoloah

Why anybody has to be told that, I'll never figure out, but the Roshei Yeshivos who don't go on hikes, banned cell phones for their students. 

Now! because of the terrible tragedy, they are singing a new tune!
These Torah leaders, instead of being pro-active, wait for a tragedy to react.

Parents should tell their children that a phone is a must, whether they are in Israel or the USA. We now live in a new world order, where a phone is no longer a luxury but could actually save your life.
And if Aron Sofer would have had a smart phone with a GPS app, he would be learning  in Yeshiva now!

In the aftermath of Aaron Sofer’s death, United Hatzalah founder and president Eli Beer urged Israeli yeshivos to make sure that all Students carry cell phones with them whenever they leave the yeshiva in an interview that aired Thursday night on Zev Brenner’s Talkline radio program.

“Today carrying a phone could be a lifesaving situation,” said Beer. “A phone today is not just a tool of business or pleasure.”

Sofer did not have a phone with him when he left Rav Tzvi Kaplan’s yeshiva on Friday to go for a hike in the Jerusalem Forest. Beer hopes that future tragedies could be averted by insisting that all students carry cell phones with them whenever they leave school grounds.
“You dont go to a places like a desert of forest or wherever it is without a phone,” said Beer. “I’m not here to advertise phones, but I’m saying that it could save lives.”

United Hatzalah offers an SOS app that sends out a distress call to United Hatzalah and tracks the user’s location via GPS technology. While the app , which was released after the kidnap and murder of the three Israeli teens in June, is currently available on United Hatzalah’s website for all major smartphones, plans are underway to have it loaded onto kosher phones as well.
“We are looking into new technology and are working with all the major phone companies so that we can pack it into all phones so that every Israeli student can have it,” Beer told VIN News. “I’m not saying that yeshiva students should use their phones every day. But a phone isn’t a luxury. It is a lifesaver.”

Beer noted that with the possible exception of some desert areas, phones with the SOS app should be able to send out distress signals anywhere in the country.
“The majority of the country has cell phone servicBeer also noted that it is crucial to follow safety rules when hiking, which include dressing properly for the Israeli heat and sun.
“Proper shoes are a must,” said Beer. “Dress shoes that you wear in yeshiva have slippery soles and you can’t wear shoes like that to go hiking. You wouldn’t go ice skating in dress shoes and you shouldn’t wear them to go hiking either.”

Beer suggested that anyone going hiking carry a minimum of four liters of water with them to prevent dehydration, something that can be further exacerbated by the typical garb worn by yeshiva students.
“You need clothing that is lighter than the regular clothing you would wear in the beis medrash,” said Beer. “You don’t realize how heat eats you up from the inside when you are wearing black, which collects the heat.
People don’t realize just how hot it gets here and you get dehydrated very, very fast. You need to fight that by wearing white clothing and light clothing. You need a hat, even a baseball cap, but it has to be light colored.”

Finally, Beer added that cell phones are a must-have on any hike.
“If you don’t feel well, chas v’shalom, or if you get lost or for anything that happens, having a phone can save your life,” said Beer.

The SOS app, which is available for free, has been downloaded by 60,000 people since its release, according to The Jerusalem Post. It is for use in Israel only and can be downloaded at http://sos.nowforce.com/?locale=en-us.e, but even in a place where there is no service, police could still search where the phone last had reception further narrowing the search area,” explained Beer.

Saul Klausner of 5 Towns drowns in Vacation Village Pool

 Five Towns man died yesterday afternoon after being found at the bottom of a Loch Sheldrake swimming pool.

Saul Klausner reportedly spent approximately 30 minutes in a hot tub at Vacation Village before going into the swimming pool. He was found at the bottom of the pool at approximately 5 PM by a teenage girl who ran to get help.

Hatzolah, Fallsburg police and New York State troopers all responded to the emergency call and Hatzolah began CPR at Vacation Village. Klausner was transported to the Loch Sheldrake fire station where he was airlifted to St. Francis hospital in Poughkeepsie, where he was pronounced dead.

“They worked on him extensively for a while,” Yanky Meyer of Misaskim who was on the scene told VIN News. “They got a pulse, lost the heartbeat while they were flying and got it going again on the way to St. Francis.”

Klausner, a chazzan who lived in Lawrence  was 71 years old.
Residents of Vacation Village were distraught as word of Klausner’s death spread over Shabbos.
“He was a fine man and it was a pleasure to know him,” said Vacation Village resident Naftali Faska.

Klausner is survived by his wife Susan and two children. The levaya will take place on Sunday at noon at Boulevard-Riverside Chapel in Hewlett

Satmar says that Israel started all the wars with the Arabs!

This week's Der Goy (Der Yid), the Yiddish News weekly published by the Zalonie Faction of Satmar, says, that  all the wars since 1948 until 2014, between Israel and the Arabs, 
were started by the Zionists. 
This they write as a matter of fact. 

Just to be very clear, this is the view of all anti-Semites and the murderous Arab world! Not only that, this is the view of the liberal Reform and Conservative Jews as well.
In fact, there are a lot of similarities between Satmar and the Reform movement, both of them reject Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people. The first thing that the Reform movement did was to remove the word Tzion from their siddurim.

So Satmar is now aligned with all haters of Jews!

I will loosely translate the 2 paragraphs of the above article published this weeks issue,Parshas Shoftim!

My comments in red!

" We had previously explained in an earlier article, that all the wars that the State of Israel had with their Arab neighbors, resulted in the spilling of blood, and could have been avoided in most cases.  
(DIN: Tell us one case that any war that Israel had with the blood thirsty Arabs could have been avoided?
1948? When the Arabs attacked Israel? 
1967? When Israel was surrounded by thousands of tanks and Egypt blockaded the Gulf of Akaba?
Read what surrounded Israel on the eve of the 67' war...

When Egypt massed approximately 100,000 of its troops in the Sinai, including all of its seven divisions (four infantry, two armoured and one mechanized), four independent infantry brigades and four independent armoured brigades. No fewer than a third of them were veterans of Egypt's continuing intervention into the Yemen Civil War and another third were reservists. These forces had 950 tanks, 1,100 APCs, and more than 1,000 artillery pieces.

Syria's army had a total strength of 75,000 and amassed them along the Syrian border.

Jordan's army had 55,000 troops and 300 tanks along the Jordanian border, 250 of which were U.S. M48 Pattons, sizable amounts of M113 APCs, a new battalion of mechanized infantry, and a paratrooper battalion trained in the new U.S.-built school. They also had 12 battalions of artillery and six batteries of 81 mm and 120 mm mortars.

Let's skip to the present Gaza war... Hamas was throwing missiles at Israel for over 10 years!

What would Satmar do, if Belz threw missiles from Woodberry Commons at Monroe?

Or if Lubavitch threw Missles into Williamsburg?)

There were many opportunities  [to avoid war],
(DIN: When, tell us when?) but the Zionist haughtiness, drove them to needless war, to show [the world] their prowess, and their ambition. All this [going to needless wars] knowing in advance that this cannot be accomplished without the spilling of blood, and would cost the life of Jewish souls, and that Jewish blood would be spilled.

The Zionist propaganda machine, manipulated the news in their favor, to the Jews living in other parts of the world.
(Din: what are they smoking? The entire media was against Israel)
The victories of the IDF, was magnified and trumped up, but they hid the cost of how many Jewish souls this victory actually cost! How much needless Jewish sacrifices, just for the glory of the politics of an IDF general that led them like sheep to the slaughter.
(Din: Don't get me started on, who led who, "like sheep to the slaughter." Ask thousands of murdered Hungarian Jews who were advised by the Satmar Rebbe to stay in Europe, while Hitler's armies were rounding up all Jews)
And because of this [the action of the IDF general] Jews living in Chulz L'aretz were swayed to the Zionists, they became intoxicated with the false IDF victories and successes , and were caught in the storm of the street, and danced and celebrated."
(DIN: What a sick and perverted comment)

ISIS Commits MASS SLAUGHTER – Murders HUNDREDS of Syrian Soldier Prisoners

Remember the words of  President Hussain Obama

"The most beautiful sound I have ever heard is the Muslim call to evening prayer." 

ISIS TERRORISTS COMMIT ANOTHER MASS SLAUGHTER–
The violent jihadists captured hundreds of Syrian soldiers, marched them mostly naked into the desert and slaughtered them.

Aaron Sofer found dead in Yerushalyim.

The body of Aron Sofer, the 23 year old yeshiva bochur who went missing on Friday, has been found in the Jerusalem Forest in Ein Kerem.

It  has been confirmed that Sofer’s body was located by United Hatzolah volunteers who were among the many that took part in the massive search for the missing Lakewood resident.
“We were going through a completely new area that we hadn’t searched before,” Eli Beer, founder of United Hatzolah told VIN News. “This was east, towards Ein Kerem a few miles away. After about two hours of searching one of our volunteers found him near a tree and he called for help. Other volunteers came and they saw he wasn’t alive, hadn’t been alive for a while.”

Initial reports say that Sofer’s body shows no signs of violence. While Beer said that no details were being released at this time and that it was too early to say whether or not terrorism played a rule in Sofer’s death, it appears not to have been a factor.
“It is impossible to know at this time why he passed away,” said Beer. “He was found whole, on the floor, and had not been alive for some time. There was a small cliff nearby. It could be he fell, it could be he was dehydrated. It is too early to rule anything out but it looks like it was not terrorism.”
Police, Hatzolah and Zaka are all on scene at the location where Sofer’s body was found.

Sofer’s parents were brought to United Hatzolah headquarters in Romema where they were told of their son’s passing.
“He was found a long way from where he disappeared,” said Beer. “No one ever thought that this area was even a possibility.”

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld confirmed to the media that authorities were in the process of identifying the body.
Rosenfeld would not say whether there were any signs of foul play.

Reb Mordechai Dovid Ungar, Rebbe from Bobov 45 Wants Peace! Video

Maybe Moshiach will finally come!

 Reb Mordechai Dovid Unger the "Bobover Rebbe" of 45th Street lost the Din Torah, and will no longer be called Bobover Rebbe. Inside reports suggest that he is ready to accept the Bais Din's decision and wants Shalom with his uncle, Reb Ben Zion Halberstam, the Bobover Rebbe from 48th Street!

The pressure is now on the Satmar Brothers to make peace, but I hear that they will sooner make peace with the Zionists before they talk to each other!
I'ts not in their DNA to make Shalom, since none of their ancestors going all the way up to Yerovom ben Navot, ever entertained making peace with any of the presumed enemies!
So if that ever happens, I will grab my wide gartle, and purple socks and run towards the guy on the donkey and yell at the top of my lungs "Moshiach, You are finally here!"

Video of Aaron Sofer taking Light Rail to Hike!

It's not Iron Dome [saving us] it's Hashem

By Guest Writer :The Jewish Worker

So writes Chaim Cohen in a column on the Charedi website Kikar Shabat. He is upset that all we hear about in the news is praise for Iron Dome and that no one gets up and says that we are being saved by Hashem in the merit of our Torah learning and mitzvos. He even claims that Hamas believe this quoting an interview on CNN where he claims that someone from Hamas said that their rockets are very accurate and that 80% of the rockets are diverted to uninhabited areas by your god.

I have a few issues with this article
.
1. Why is it that when it comes to the good things done by the government they always come from Hashem but yet the bad things are always from the government? 

If you really believe that Iron Dome has little to no role in protecting us, it is all from hashem then where is that faith when it comes to other things like government money? 

Why scream, kick and yell when the government cuts funding, after all that also comes from Hashem? 

Why bring in the top heart specialist to treat R' Elyashiv (see Should we go to the best doctor?) when everything is from Hashem?


2. As many people pointed out in the comments on Kikar Shabbat, there was no such interview on CNN, it looks like he simply made it up. The claim that their rockets are accurate is laughable and ridiculous. Everyone knows that their rockets are very inaccurate especially the home made ones and therefore 80% landing in uninhabited areas is perfectly reasonable.


3. Where is the Hakaros Hatov to the soldiers and the defense establishment? 
Soldiers are dying in Gaza protecting him and his family and is pontificating about having faith.


4. His argument is silly. He can claim anything but he has no way to prove it.

Updated 10:30PM

R' Aviner has what I believe is a much truer Torah perspective. He says that we need to understand that Iron Dome is from Hashem. He quotes a Ran in his Derashos (10) where the Ran explains that in truth a person should be able to say that כחי ועוצם ידי עשה לי את החיל הזה because we see that different people have different talents and some people are truly gifted. However, the Torah tells us that we need to remember that these כוחות are from Hashem and therefore ultimately it is all from hashem. This is the way that we need to look at Iron Dome, Hashem gave the Jews who built the system the intelligence and skill to build it. Therefore, Iron Dome is itself a נס  and worthy of praise.

Part 2

The article  It's not Iron Dome [saving us] it's Hashem, where Chaim Cohen claimed that Hashem is diverting the Hamas rockets to non-inhabited areas and that our hishtadlus (Iron Dome) has little to no effect, started me thinking about this question. 

The article is perfect example of the current Charedi approach that a leaf doesn't fall without it being decreed from heaven (see my post Hashgocha Pratis, what does it mean? for an elaboration of this). I believe that this shita has taken over the Charedi world in the last 50 years for the following reasons:

1. It is theologically simple. It is a very black and white answer which fits into the current Charedi mindset and it promotes emuna peshuta
2. It is as the Chinuch wrote far-removed from the intellect, which fits the current anti-intellectual climate
3. It fits very well with a Torah only mindset. If everything (even a leaf falling) is from Hashem then Torah only makes a lot of sense. Everything else doesn't count anyway.

While this shita is certainly legitimate and has it's sources, it creates a lot of serious questions about man's role in the world. 

Basically, according to this shita, man has no real role in the world. This world is simply a test and nothing that man does has any real effect (see R'Dessler). 

The problem is that we see with our own eyes that this isn't true. Of course R' Dessler says that we are simply mistaken and it is all a test, but I think that most people have a very hard time with this. We see that people take initiative and do things and do have success. People work hard and get promoted for their hard work, get good grades and based on that get high paying jobs, etc. While this shita may have made sense for people in earlier times when man had basically no control over anything, today, when we do have limited control, and we can see the direct results of our actions this shita is much more difficult to accept.

In fact, even in the real Haredi world we find that this shita is not accepted when it comes to certain things, medicine for example. 

Haredim many times move mountains to see the top specialist in the field (for a famous case see Should we go to the best doctor?). However, according to R' Dessler (and the Chazon Ish) this really should be considered too much השתדלות and a lack of בטחון.After all, Hashem is doing the healing not the surgeon and once we have done our השתדלות, going to the doctor and having the surgery, why should it matter whether the surgeon is the best in the world or simply Joe surgeon who is competent? As long as we do our השתדלות to avoid requiring a נס, the rest is a גזירה מן השמים. If the גזירה is that the surgery will be successful, then it will be successful even if done by the average surgeon, and if the גזירה is that it won't be successful then it won't help that you have the best surgeon.

In fact, what does it actually mean that someone is considered the best surgeon? After all, הכל בידי שמים, our success is actually an illusion to make it look like it is our skill. In fact, our success in worldly matters is simply a גזירה מן השמים so the fact that he successfully operated is not due to his skill but due to the גזירה מן השמים. This is essence Chaim Cohens claim against Iron Dome, all hishtadlus is simply an illusion and doesn't really matter.

There is however, a different approach, that while there certainly is hashgacha in the world, man also has the ability to take initiative and accomplish things. As I pointed out yesterday, the Ran in his Derashos (10) explains that in truth a person can say that כחי ועוצם ידי עשה לי את החיל הזה as long as he recognizes that his raw talents come from Hashem. because we see that different people have different talents and some people are truly gifted. With this approach, Hashem has given every person certain כוחות and it is up to us to use those כוחות in the world. According to this approach, Iron Dome itself is from Hashem because he gave the designers and implementers the intellect and skill to build it. However, it didn't just come down from heaven, people had to actually use their initiative and skills to make it happen.

This is much more theologically complex position, but ultimately one that fits in much better with the way we see the world working and I believe gives more meaning to what we do in our lives.