Supporting anti Israeli initiatives in the UN doesn’t help to build trust between Israel and Ukraine
Saturday, November 12, 2022
Ukraine Votes Against Israel in the UN Again
Leftists Meltdown over Ben Gvir & Smotrich Election
Over the past few days, since President Herzog started his meetings with representatives of the different Knesset factions to hear recommendations about the next Prime Minister, every single Reshet Bet radio news report on the hour starts with a quote from somebody important demonizing Otzma Yehudit Chairman Itamar Ben Gvir.
It began with the president himself, who concluded a meeting with a hot mic comment to the Shas delegation: “There’s one issue I didn’t mention, because I don’t want to shame anyone, but you will have a problem with the Temple Mount. This is a critical issue. You have a partner that the whole world around us is anxious about. I also told him that. Between us – it’s really not for publication. I don’t want to make trouble. It’s your responsibility to speak up.”
Now, in Israeli politics, there’s hardly ever a leak or a hot mic incident that takes place without the active initiation of the person being leaked or miked. Herzog wanted his message to go viral, and it was pushed by every news outlet in the country for an entire news cycle.
They say that if you meet a lot of resistance, it means you’re doing something right. Judging by resistance alone, Itamar Ben Gvir is absolutely on the right track, including his attending the 32nd yahrzeit of his mentor (whom he never met in person) Rabbi Meir Kahane. Remember that one episode during the campaign when a follower yelled out “Death to the Arabs,” and Ben Gvir rebuked him, saying he should say, “Death to the terrorists?” It was such a succinct point, many wondered if the fan wasn’t a plant. Well, Ben Gvir repeated the maneuver at the yahrzeit ceremony, telling his audience of dyed-in-the-wool Kahanists that there are issues on which he disagrees with Rabbi Kahane – and the audience booed him, as was to be expected. Perfect.
That wasn’t good enough for State Dept. Spokesman Ned Price, who told reporters in Washington that “celebrating the legacy of a terrorist organization is abhorrent,” regardless if the other people in the room booed you for not being extreme enough (Ben Gvir said: “It’s no secret that today I am not Rabbi Kahane, and don’t support the expulsion of all the Arabs and will not pass laws for separate beaches for Arabs and Jews.”)
Price didn’t care, he stuck by “abhorrent,” insisting that “there is no other word for it – it is abhorrent. And we remain concerned, as we’ve said before, by the legacy of Kahane Chai and the continued use of rhetoric among violent right-wing extremists.”
Reuters described Ben Gvir as “a settler living in the West Bank, which Israel occupied in a 1967 Arab-Israeli war,” who “wants the Palestinian Authority, which has limited rule in parts of the territory under interim US-sponsored peace deals, dismantled,” and “also supports Jewish prayer on a flashpoint Jerusalem holy site that houses al-Aqsa mosque and which is a vestige of ancient Jewish temples.”
Kudos to Reuters for getting their facts right. They only forgot to mention that Ben Gvir and his faction were elected by half a million Israelis who didn’t choose them for the transfer of Arabs, nor for the right to Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount (if you put together all the Jews who ascended Temple mount this year you still won’t get one Knesset mandate, even if some of them went up several times). Ben Gvir was elected by Israelis across the board, many of them non-religious (he did surprisingly well in the kibbutzim) because the Lapid-Gantz government has failed to preserve law and order on the country’s streets and highways, in the periphery cities and the center, in Jerusalem, the Negev, and Galilee. Israelis don’t care about a transfer at this point, they’re OK with the Arabs staying, just don’t let them kill our women, children, and the elderly in broad daylight, thank you very much.
Meanwhile, a senior Qatari official told Reuters: “We sent a message to Israel that any escalation in Jerusalem, Gaza, or the West Bank during the World Cup will endanger the agreements with Israel.”
An estimated 30,000 Israelis will fly to Qatar to attend the World Cup between November 20 and December 18. Israel and Qatar don’t have diplomatic relations, but they reportedly signed an agreement allowing Israelis to obtain an entry visa to Qatar with proof of purchase of a ticket to one of the games.
The anonymous official’s threat against Israeli soccer fans is not a real thing, because Qatar as the host country of the World Cup cannot ban the citizens of any country, regardless of its security situation back home. This, too, is part of the mad campaign against Ben Gvir, and his partner, Bezalel Smotrich, who wants to become Netanyahu’s defense minister.
The Kan 11 and Reshet Bet radio news––both part of Israel’s public broadcasting conglomerate––have been repeating a separate mantra against Smotrich, citing an anonymous “senior security official,” who warned appointing the Religious Zionism Chairman to the post of defense minister may lead to a serious escalation and even the disintegration of the Palestinian Authority.
Did Imma Smotrich know she raised such a powerful boy?
According to the source, as far as the PA is concerned, five main issues could lead to the apocalypse: legalizing the yeshiva in Homesh; letting Evyatar residents go home, based on their deal with the Bennett government; evacuating Khan al-Ahmar based on the Supreme Court’s repeated rulings; posting a permanent security unit at Joseph’s Tomb in Shechem to protect Jewish worshippers against armed Arab rioters;
And legalizing dozens of agricultural farms and outposts throughout Judea and Samaria.
Clearly, these were not concerns communicated by the PA to this anonymous security official, it’s the Benny Gantz apparatus doing whatever it can to prevent the realization of all the promises his departing government has made or hinted at making, and never bothered to keep. The thought that Smotrich, like Ben Gvir, would just go ahead and make good on all those promises that were made in bad faith is driving the other side mad.
To sum it all up: it’s the Israeli establishment, starting with President Herzog and including everyone who has been involved in the effort to keep Israel weak and secular, who is trying to torpedo the massive turn to the right. The big question now is: will Benjamin Netanyahu side with the right-wing folks who elected him and his coalition partners, or will he once again show his true colors, skip over Ben Gvir and Smotrich and strike a last-minute deal with Gantz, Sa’ar, and Eisenkot.
Knowing Netanyahu, he could easily use the massive offensive against Ben Gvir and Smotrich to call on Gantz et al to forget past hostilities for the sake of saving the country from the extremists. It’s such a Bibi move. But it could prove to be his last popular move, as so many inside his Likud party are much closer ideologically to Ben Gvir and Smotrich than they are to him.
One thing we must learn from the relentless offensive whose purpose is to quash the dream of Jewish renewal in the land of Israel: should the national religious get past Netanyahu’s resistance and land their desired offices, they must launch a mad wave of corrective legislation, get it all in, just as that anonymous apparatchik suggested, starting with passing the override clause, disabling the Supreme Court’s thuggery.
Let us be strong and resolute for the sake of our people and the cities of our God, and God will do what He deems right. (2 Samuel 10:12)
Rabbi Tzvi Tau Huge Defender of Walder Now Being Investigated for Sexual Abuse Crimes Himself
The police are investigating a complaint that was filed recently against Rabbi Zvi Tau over alleged harassment of a woman which happened many years ago, Channel 12 News reported Thursday.
Rabbi Tau is a Religious Zionist rabbi and co-founder and president of Yeshivat Har Hamor in Jerusalem.
According to the report, the investigation is being carried out under the auspices of the prosecutor's office and, due to the time that has passed since the incident to which the statute of limitations applies, it is difficult to confirm the credibility of the complainant.
Kan 11 News reported that the investigation is being conducted by the Judea and Samaria District of the Israel Police. Rabbi Tau has not yet been summoned for questioning, and the police are considering how to proceed with the investigation.
Shulamit Bracha Landau Arrested on suspicion of molesting her students in Beitar Illit
Shulamit Bracha Landau, 50 years old, was arrested on suspicion that a few years ago she committed indecent acts on her students at a school in Beitar Illit that she managed.
So far, three complaints have been filed. The court allowed the name of the principal to be published to try and find more victims
שולמית ברכה לנדאו, בת 50, נעצרה בחשד שלפני כמה שנים ביצעה מעשים מגונים בתלמידות שלה בבית ספר בביתר עילית שאותו ניהלה. עד כה הוגשו שלוש תלונות. מעצרה הוארך בארבעה ימים
פרסום ראשון: משטרת מחוז ש"י עצרה היום (שני) מנהלת בית ספר בביתר עילית בחשד שביצעה עבירות מין בתלמידות שלה. מעצרה הוארך בארבעה ימים. ככל הידוע, עד כה הוגשו שלוש תלונות והן מתייחסות לפרק זמן שלפני חמש שנים. כעת בודקים במשטרה האם ישנן תלמידות נוספות שנפגעו מהתנהלותה של המנהלת.
המנהלת, שולמית ברכה לנדאו בת ה-50, חשודה בעבירות של מעשים מגונים. לפי הודעת המשטרה, לפני כמה שנים בהיותה מנהלת בית הספר היא ביצעה לפי החשד מעשים מגונים בכמה תלמידות שהיו קטינות. בית המשפט התיר לפרסם את שמה של המנהלת כדי לנסות ולאתר קורבנות נוספים.
מארגון מגן, המלווה את הנפגעות, נמסר: "אנו שמחים ששמה של שולמית לנדאו הותר לפרסום ומקווים שפרסום שמה יביא מתלוננות נוספות לאזור אומץ ולהתלונן נגדה. אנו מודים למשטרה על עבודה קשה ומקצועית.
"לצערנו, שנים רבות אנשים בקהילה ידעו ושתקו דבר שאיפשר לה לפגוע לכאורה בנפגעות נוספות. הגיע הזמן שחברי הקהילה יסתכלו פנימה ויבינו כי השתקה היא מקור הרע וישנו את הגישה. אנו גאים במתלוננות הגיבורות שפעלו מתוך רצון למנוע פגיעות נוספות ומחזיקים את ידם".
Friday, November 11, 2022
George Soros-backed district attorney candidates sweep elections
Far-left district attorney candidates who appeared on November ballots and received backing from billionaire George Soros have swept their elections, according to a nationwide search of records and election results.
Fox News Digital performed a 50-state search of campaign finance databases and identified at least four prosecutor candidates who received financial backing from Soros and won their November elections, including two newcomers and two candidates he’s previously backed.
Soros’ district attorney operation involves his longtime treasurer, Whitney Tymas, establishing “pop-up” political action committees in states where he targets the prosecutor races. Once set up, the financier injects money into the PACs, which tend to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars backing his preferred candidates. The PACs typically dissolve after the elections.
In some past cases, Tymas established committees on the city level, such as in Philadelphia for District Attorney Larry Krasner.
Fox News Digital’s sweep solely covered state databases, which means there could be more candidates.
The Soros-backed candidates who made it to the November elections include Kimberly Graham in Iowa. This past summer, Graham received more than $300,000 in backing from the financier in her Polk County Attorney Democratic primary election. The progressive candidate faced Republican defense attorney Allan Richards in Tuesday’s general election but easily defeated him by nearly 14 percentage points.
9/11 happened because Rabbi Kahane's murder wasn't investigated
On Thursday, during the memorial for the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, who was murdered 32 years ago, right-wing activist Baruch Marzel recalled the events surrounding Rabbi Kahane’s death.
“He was the first person murdered by Al-Qaeda. It was done in America because it wasn't investigated well by the FBI – we all know for what reasons,”
Marzel, who was a student of the late Rabbi Kahane, tells Israel National News. “The same people that did it, they’re the ones that are [behind the] bombing of the Twin Towers [on 9/11]. Thousands of Americans paid with their lives for not investigating the murder.”
“Otzma Yehudit is ours, we started Otzma Yehudi. Itamar Ben-Gvir decided to become a minister, to become an important person, and for that he told me in person that he's not continuing the way,” he explains. “He’s changed, he's different, and we never change. We want to stay where I was more than 50 years ago, to be there, to stay there, because there's a lot of people [suggesting] solutions to the terrorist problems, the problems with our enemies, but we want to finish the problem, not to deal with the symptoms. We want to finish what causes the problem, and the problem is a religious war that we have with the Muslims. I'm not saying a hundred percent of them but most of them support that all of the Land of Israel belongs to them, and they want us out of here. Every day that the State of Israel exists is a disgrace to Islam, that's why they're fighting us. They'll continue to fight us.”
Speaking about the murder of Ronen Hanania, who was killed in a terrorist attack in Kiryat Arba, he says:
“We don't have a problem only with that terrorist. We have a problem with thousands of Arabs who went out chanting that night, who made firecrackers, gave out candy, and were happy for the murder of Jews in Hebron. We have a problem not only with the people that the mayor of Hebron, that's a murderer that killed six Jews, he was elected already three times to be the mayor of Hebron, everyone that supports him because he killed Jews. He is my enemy the same way.”
When asked what the practical solution to the issue is, he responds that “we want to transfer them out of Israel.”
“How do we do it? We have to help these people not to be here, because if they're here, it's us or them. They want us out of here. It's against their religion that the State of Israel exists. It's against their beliefs and they're going to fight us. I’m not talking about a hundred percent of the Arabs. There are some Arabs that could stay. But most of them support Balad, support the Islamic movements, support Ahmad Tibi. They are enemies.”
“How do we do it? We have to help these people not to be here, because if they're here, it's us or them. They want us out of here. It's against their religion that the State of Israel exists. It's against their beliefs and they're going to fight us. I’m not talking about a hundred percent of the Arabs. There are some Arabs that could stay. But most of them support Balad, support the Islamic movements, support Ahmad Tibi. They are enemies.”
With tonight being the memorial for Rabbi Kahane, Marzel says that he is not giving up the fight, even after 50 years of activism. He also fondly recalls his time as a student of the late rabbi.
“Inside he was soft and bashful and the nicest person in the world. Also when he went out to fight he was strong like a rock. He was a very big Torah scholar, he had a lot of knowledge and he had a lot of love for the people of Israel,” he says. “We learned from Rabbi Kahane to love Jews. You love your kids, when you love someone even if they don't go exactly your way, you continue to love them, and that's why we're continuing.”
Thursday, November 10, 2022
How "Erliche Yeedin" Described Their Feelings Voting the Very First Time in Israel
Below is the emotion-laden diary entry of Rav Moshe Alpert on his feelings at the first elections in 1949.
“At 5:35 AM we woke up, my wife, my brother Reb Shimon Leib and my brother-in-law Reb Natanel Solduchil. And after we drank coffee we put on Shabbat clothing in honor of this great and holy day, because ‘This is the day the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be happy on it .’
After 2000 or more years of exile, you could say that from the six days of Creation until this day, we have not merited to see a day like this, that we are holding elections in a Jewish state. Shehechiyanu! Blessed is the One that kept us alive and sustained us and brought us to this day! So we went to the voting station near Chabashim Street with our identity cards in hand. With great and mighty joy we walked the short way there, and the entire way I walked like it was Simchat Torah and I was circling with a Torah scroll, because I was holding the identity card of our new Jewish State in my hand.
My happiness and joy knew no bounds! The assistant at the voting station brought the ballot box, and the chairman called out to me and said ‘V’Hadarta Pnei Zaken’ – ‘And you shall honor the old man’, And he told me that since I was the oldest person present, I would be the first to vote. With a thrill of awe and holiness, I handed my identity card over to the chairman, and he read out my name from my card and from the book of voters.
And the deputy chairman wrote down my name and handed me the number 1. Then he handed me an envelope and I went into the other room, where there were ballots from all the parties. And with a shaking hand, moved with holiness, I took one ballot marked “B,″ for the Religious Union party, and I placed the ballot inside the envelope I had received from the deputy chairman.
I reentered the polling room, and I showed them that I held only one envelope. Then the holiest moment of my life arrived. The moment that neither my father nor my grandfather had the privilege to experience in their lifetimes. Only me, in my time, in my lifetime, did I merit to experience such a holy and pure moment as this… What joy for me and my portion!
At 6:28 AM, we returned home and went to pray.
What a great holiday!″
Shlomo Carlebach the Legend Z"L
People all over the world talk about my father, about his songs and Torah and his legacy. And I appreciate all these. But the real truth is that when I think about him, I think about him as he was, as a person.
He had a child like quality about him. When he watched TV, he was mesmerized like he was 5. It took him 2 hours to tell a joke, just because the first 1 hour and 55 minutes, he was laughing so hard about the punchline, he had to restart it 89 times. He had a line for everything. He was particularly talented at turning a very clean room into a tornado in under 4 minutes, with all his things, mainly searching thru his papers, endless little pieces of papers that people wrote their numbers down for him, ( he pre-dated cell phones).
His suitcases were filled 80% with his sefariim, 17 % with vitamins, protein bars and interesting health gadgets that some healing person had gifted him with, and 3 % personal items like clothes or shoes, tefillin and tallis. More times than I can count, He got off a plane from somewhere hot into a snow blizzard in the dead of winter and arrived at our house in Toronto with his sandals and no socks because socks and closed shoes probably didn't make the cut in comparison to the one more sefer that could fit in.
He loved mango juice and seltzer and ate ice cream with a toothpick so it would last longer.
He loved burnt food because his mother was a horrible cook and burnt everything so if I wanted to really make him happy, I'd make him burnt eggs and burnt toast and his whole face would light up as he ate it.
He loved pools and Jacuzzis and he was famous for walking thru the hotel to get to the pool area in his buttoned up raincoat and no shoes, looking like a flasher, because a bathrobe didn't make the cut either and he only wore white button shirts and black pants and later vests. He hated ties.
He could sit on the beach with us fully clothed and get more tanned in 5 minutes than I did in 2 hours.
His laugh sounds like a wheezy engine dying, taking its last breath and it was Infectious and impossible not to laugh when he laughed even if it wasn't funny.
He walked slower than a sloth and it could take endless amount of time to get anywhere, partly because of his pace, and partly because he had to stop and hug and greet every person we passed. If we went to a restaurant, he wouldn't sit down at our table until he said hello to every person at every table.
He was a master at ping pong and always won. He was generous to a fault and could easily give away hundreds, (or thousands of dollars, if he had been paid in cash) or his coat off his back or the kippah off his head without blinking. I remember this one time, we ordered in food for dinner. My father ordered the pickled pike ( he loved herring, lox and any fish that was pickled), and hadn't eaten all day. We sat down to eat, and I quickly went to get salt from the kitchen and when I came back to the table, the dog was walking away with the entire fish in her mouth. My father just looked at me as if it was the most normal and obvious thing to give the dog his entire dinner and said " Nebach, she was so hungry."
He loved the aisle seat on the airplane and the peanuts that came with the drink and the first thing he did when he sat down in his seat was take off his shoes and put all the random things from his pants and vest pockets into the front pocket of the airplane seat in front of him.
He was always tired as sin and could fall asleep sitting, standing, or anything in between. Cars made him nervous and he held onto the handle at the top of the car window alot and said "oy oy oy oy" alot if the driver went too fast.
The first thing he said when he opened up his eyes in the morning was "Put on water for coffee". And he wasn't able to stay mad for more than 2 minutes. The 3 times he yelled at me in my whole life, after 30 seconds, he laughed and said " OK sweetest, let's make peace between me and you".
His favorite color was blue, and he had a chassidic rabbi to pray to for literally every possible situation. When we often arrived at the airport an hour or more late for a flight, we would just start praying, u could see him standing in front of the check- in clerk, whispering ויקרא הליגה רבי לוי יצחק בן שורה סאשא אניני" and more than half the time, some miracle would happen and we would get on the flight.
When I wasn't feeling well, he would say " oh sweetest, give me half your pain" And when I asked him a question, he would say, give me a kiss and then I'll tell u everything ".He rarely said No.
If I liked a boy, and he didn't think he was good enough for me, he would say " really, darling, he doesn't reach your toenails"
He called me everyday no matter where he was in the world. When he called or answered the phone, he rarely said "This is Shlomo." Usually he would say " This is the Pope" or " Hi, it's Brother Fritz". When he hung up with me, he always said "Good Shabbas" after saying I love you most, most, most.
He remembered every name of every person he ever met and even if only 2 people showed up at his concert, he would perform because he believed that u never knew who was the soul who needed uplifting at that moment.
He made regular rounds to the homeless hub under the Riverside Park by 79th st. He would walk thru there, hugging and kissing each person and he knew all their names and all their stories. When he met someone new anywhere in the world, his signature move after giving them a hug was giving out his card and saying, " Call me for no reason"
He read Danielle Steele in German. And he religiously wore Azzaro perfume and put Fa bubbles in his bath.
These are the things I think of and miss. His laugh, his smell, his walk, his soft but slightly scratchy from his beard kisses on my forehead. His wide warm hands, when he held mine.
I will always be grateful to be his daughter.
💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙
Emboldened With the US Elections, Ambassador Nides like a roach that comes out when the light turns on states 'We will fight against any attempt at annexation'
United States Ambassador to Israel Thomas Nides sent a warning regarding the possibility that the next government will attempt to annex land in Judea and Samaria. In an interview with Kan News on Thursday, the ambassador stated that he will fight against any attempt to make such a move and explained, "The United States and most of the Arab nations oppose annexation."
The ambassador opened by expressing his willingness to work with the new government, saying, "I want to start with a relationship with this government that is strong and enduring, I want to work closely with Prime Minister Netanyahu, I want to work closely with his government."
"This country is a democracy that elected a leadership and I intend to work with them," the ambassador stated, but immediately added, "That said, we have to stand up for the things that we believe in, that's what American values are about. We have a very strong alley in the state of Israel, but there will be times when we will articulate where we believe our differences are."
On Wednesday night, Ambassador Nides visited the Allenby Crossing at the Jordanian border, which, under American pressure, has begun a trial period remaining open 24 hours a day seven days a week.
Regarding the move, the ambassador said that, "It's good for the Palestinian people it's good for the Israelis and I went there last night at midnight to check things out with the head of COGAT and with the head of the Airport Authority and a lot of other people to see it for myself." He added that he is sure that the new government will continue the cooperation with him on projects to improve the Palestinian Authority Arabs' quality of life.
Ambassador Nides was also asked if he will talk with Otzma Yehudit chairman MK Itamar Ben-Gvir, whose status has been disturbing the sleep of countless senior officials in the Biden administration.
"I'm not going to make draconian statements that I'm not going to ever talk to anyone - it doesn't matter left or right, we'll see who gets to be in his position, and what positions they take. I want to see, rhetorically what they say and how they act. My job as American ambassador is to keep dialogues going, and conversations going, but push back on things that we disagree with, and I will be pushing back aggressively on things that we disagree with. But at this point, the government is not even formed so until I know and we know who has what positions and the positions they take then we will determine what conversations will take place."
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