Wednesday, January 18, 2017
Tuesday, January 17, 2017
Shmuly Yanklowitz Fake "Frum" Shmendrik Rabbi rewrites prayer - to avoid blessing Trump
With Hollywood celebs, far-left activists, and even some congressional Democrats still unwilling to accept President-elect Donald Trump’s surprise victory in November's democratic elections, disavowing their new Commander in Chief with slogans like “Not My President” and a movement to boycott the inauguration, one prominent left-wing rabbi has found his own unique way to protest the president.
Shmuly Yanklowitz, a young punk,an Open Orthodox rabbi and dean of the Valley Beit Midrash in Phoenix, Arizona, has responded to the election of the 45th President of the United States by rewriting the traditional Shabbat prayer for the US President - so as to avoid actually blessing him.
Jews made it a custom to pray for the welfare of the nation and ruler in which worshipers reside. Most Orthodox prayer books in the United States contain this prayer:
“He who grants salvation to kings and dominion to rulers, whose kingdom is a kingdom spanning all eternity, who releases David his servant from the evil sword, who places a road in the sea and a path in the mighty waters, may he bless The President, the Vice President, and all the Constituted Officers of Government of this Land. The King who reigns over Kings in his mercy may he protect them from every trouble, woe, and injury, may he rescue them and put into their hearts and into the hearts of all their councilors compassion to do good with us and with all Israel, our brethren. In their days and in ours, may Judah be saved and may Israel dwell securely, and may the Redeemer come to Zion. So may it be his will, and let us say: Amen.”
Yanklowitz, who founded the Uri L’Tzedek Orthodox Social Justice organization, on Monday publicized an alternative prayer, dropping the blessing for the success of America’s president and instead accusing the incoming president of promoting white supremacy.
Yanklowitz, who founded the Uri L’Tzedek Orthodox Social Justice organization, on Monday publicized an alternative prayer, dropping the blessing for the success of America’s president and instead accusing the incoming president of promoting white supremacy.
“Because of my commitment to the integrity of prayer, starting this week, I can no longer recite or say amen to the Shabbat prayer for the success of the U.S. President,” Yanklowitz wrote.
“I felt that it was not enough to simply avoid the U.S. President in the prayer for the government but to remind myself of the billions of vulnerable people who are at risk under his rule, and challenge myself each Shabbat to build up the strength for another week of spiritual resistance.”
The prayer itself reads in part: “Guide the incoming leader of this country away from his basest instincts, thwart his plans to target certain groups and strengthen white supremacy; for You know, God, that all were created in Your image.”
“We pray that the decrees from the Executive office do not harm the innocent. We pray that any policies that are meant to harm the vulnerable in prioritization of the powerful and privileged will be quashed. Should there be plans that will merely benefit the most privileged Americans, but not all of humankind and the planet we call home, may they fail. May our nation not consort or conspire with totalitarian despots but reaffirm our commitment to freedom and democracy. Grant us the strength to demonstrate spiritual resistance, to imbue our sinews with the highest integrity. Give us the wisdom and courage to do what’s right to protect the most powerless and defenseless in society.”
In the past, Yanklowitz has criticized Jewish supporters of Trump, writing that even “engagement” with the then-GOP presumptive nominee was “an embarrassment” to the Jewish people.
“Any engagement w/ Trump is an embarrassment to the holy descendants of Abraham & Sarah, the State of Israel, & to any person of conscience.
Let's wash out our ears for even listening out of curiosity! #DumpTrump”
Monday, January 16, 2017
Bloggers could be invited to White House Press Briefings
So DIN is getting ready to work out of Washington DC ...... and will now be able to get briefed by the White House .....we will first consult our Posik .....
Talk radio hosts and bloggers could be invited to official White House press briefings once the Trump administration takes office, under a highly irregular proposal being floated that may also remove briefings from the West Wing.
Trump’s pick for White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, said on Sunday that due to “off the chart” interest in the new administration, the president-elect was considering moving briefings from the James S Brady press briefing room, which has been used by presidents to address the media since 1970, to a venue with a greater capacity.
A report published by Esquire magazine on Saturday indicated the venue could be inside the Old Executive Office Building, just west of the White House.
“I know change is difficult sometimes,” Spicer told Fox News. “But sometimes change can actually be better.”
Spicer argued the proposal would mean “you can involve more people, be more transparent, have more accessibility”. He suggested that this would mean outlets that are not traditionally part of the White House press corps would be able to ask questions during presidential press briefings.
“There’s a lot of talk radio and bloggers and people that can’t fit in right now and maybe don’t have a permanency because they’re not part of the Washington elite media,” Spicer said, “but to allow them an opportunity to ask the press secretary or the president a question is a positive thing. It’s more democratic.”
Around 200 journalists make up the White House press corps. The Brady press briefing room holds 49 seats for major media organisations, which are granted space by the White House Correspondent Association (WHCA). The Guardian is among those outlets allocated a space.
It remains unclear how the proposal would be implemented, but it is likely to be interpreted as a hostile rebuke to conventional media outlets around the country.
Jeff Mason, the WHCA president and Reuters White House correspondent, said he had a “constructive”, nearly two-hour meeting with Spicer on Sunday. Mason “emphasized the importance of the White House press briefing room” and its proximity to West Wing officials.
“I made clear that the WHCA would view it as unacceptable if the incoming administration sought to move White House reporters out of the press work space behind the press briefing room,” Mason said in a statement. “Access in the West Wing to senior administration officials, including the press secretary, is critical to transparency and to journalists’ ability to do their jobs.”
Spicer agreed to discuss any changes to the current system with the WHCA, Mason said.
During a chaotic press conference at Trump Tower on Wednesday, the first the businessman has held since July 2016, hundreds of journalists crammed into a small pen as Trump frequently lambasted certain media organisations and occasionally individual reporters. Trump was incensed by reports on a leaked and unsubstantiated dossier, which alleged frequent contacts between his campaign team and Russian authorities, and suggested the Kremlin held compromising material that could be used to blackmail Trump.
Trump was also asked by a reporter at Breitbart News what his views were on media ethics and “fake news”, to which he replied: “Some of the media outlets that I deal with are fake news more so than anybody. I could name them, but I won’t bother. You have a few sitting right in front of us.
“They’re very, very dishonest people, but I think it’s just something we’re going to have to live with. I guess the advantage I have is that I can speak back.”
According to the Associated Press, Breitbart News, branded by critics as a racist, far-right news site, was the only media organization to have a reserved seat in the front row for the conference. Steve Bannon, Trump’s incoming chief strategist and senior counselor, previously served as the site’s executive chairman.
Sunday, January 15, 2017
Jerry Nadler will not attend Trump Inauguration
The Black John Lewis said that Trump's election was "illegitimate"....and when Trump hit him back and tweeted that Lewis' district was full of crime and that Lewis was all "talk and no action," democrats started whining that Trump messed with the nation's icon!
Nadler voted for the Iran Nuclear deal, that gave Iranian murderers, nuclear weapons ..... dissing his Holocaust survivor constituents ....and now dissing his constituents again, who overwhelmingly voted for Trump!
Friday, January 13, 2017
France with 70 Euro'pishers ready to roundup the Jews again this Sunday
Honest, I thought they were kidding when I read that leaders from 70 countries were heading for Paris to once and for all solve “The Jewish Question.”
The meeting is taking place on Sunday and yes, it wasn’t put quite like that; they have it as a Paris Conference to solve the Israeli/Arab issue – as if they really have Israel’s best interests at heart. This is baloney. All they care about is some new trick to divide Israel out of existence. The paperwork has already been done.
First of all, 70 countries? How many bigots can you squeeze into one room? Apparently most of the world.
So that’s the story. They have nothing better to do than zoom in on six and a half million Jews at home in the Jewish State.
That Obama is a part if this makes is doubly obnoxious.
Trump will have to fix this and pronto.
That these Jews live with nearly two million Arabs in the only democracy in the Middle East – never mind.
That the Arab/Israeli conflict is the least important issue facing the world at the moment – forget this too.
It’s about nostalgia. The French and the rest of them can’t get over the good old days when Jews could be rounded up and TRANSPORTED to Auschwitz.
The Wannsee Conference comes to mind and if you don’t know what happened there we’ll talk about it some other time.
Except that it was at Wannsee where Hitler’s top lieutenants got together to discuss how best to TRANSPORT Europe’s entire Jewish Population.
We know the result. No amount of diplomatic double-speak can hide the fact that this is the same Europe all over again.
Why am I bringing up Wannsee when more to the point, for me personally at least, I should be bringing up Vel’ d’Hiv. This was a French indoor bicycle stadium that was used by the French as a way station, a first stop toward transport to the death camps.
Jews brought there had no food, no water, no air, no pity, no hope. They had nothing but horror. (Drancy was another and actually the first transport stop.)
The history books have it as the Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup, or The Roundup of Paris, but my family needs no history book to know what happened.
Over a period of two days and nights, July 16/17, 1942, more than 13,000 Jews were rounded up for transport – among them 4,000 children and infants.
The Gestapo were delighted. They had asked for only about half that number. The French had never been so efficient.
Our home was Toulouse. This was the Free Zone according to Vichy. Free Zone?
“Not at all,” says Sarah. “The Gestapo were all over the place. They were directing traffic on my way to school – in German.”
Jews were being picked off along the streets. Everybody waited for the knock on the door. We were next…and all of it happened awfully fast.
One day you’re a proper citizen of France surrounded by hospitable Christian neighbors. Next day you’re a criminal.
Altogether more than 70,000 Jews living in France were handed over to the Gestapo throughout the war.
My sister covers it in her memoir “Sarah and Abraham.” I tell it in my memoir “Escape From Mount Moriah.”
The film “The Sorrow and the Pity” documents France’s shame. Alain Delon tells it well in the movie drama “Mr. Klein.”
So this is a big story and it is nothing new. It is simply happening again. Once again the nations are disturbed.
They are disturbed by the fact that the Jewish people can’t be rounded up for transport. It used to be so simple.
Now the Jews have a home – Israel. This is what irks them and here they come again to fix their “Jewish Problem.”
So I have a personal say in this and I say France’s shame will endure longer than a meeting on Sunday. This is a shame unforgivable and everlasting.
Ditto the rest of this heartless world.
New York-based bestselling American novelist Jack Engelhard writes a regular column for Arutz Sheva. New from the novelist: “News Anchor Sweetheart,” a novelist’s version of Fox News and Megyn Kelly. Engelhard is the author of the international bestseller “Indecent Proposal.” He is the recipient of the Ben Hecht Award for Literary Excellence. Website:www.jackengelhard.com
70 Nations return to Paris to Condemn Israel ...... Prophetic Fulfillment
“They have said: ‘Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Yisrael may be no more in remembrance.’ For they have consulted together with one consent; against Thee do they make a covenant.” Tehillim 83:5-6 "
High ranking officials from 70 nations of the world will gather in Paris on January 15th in an attempt to force Israel to accept a two-state solution with the Palestinian Authority. By so doing, they will be fulfilling a momentous Biblical prophecy foretold thousands of years ago.
When Israeli statesman Shimon Peres passed away in September, leaders and dignitaries from 70 nations gathered in Jerusalem to pay their last respects. The symbolism is no mere coincidence; the very same number of representatives will gather in Paris, but this time to deny the Jewish connection to the Land of Israel.
“Everyone knows already what the purpose of the conference is: it will be used as another opportunity to try to impose a settlement on Israel and avoid direct negotiations between Israel and it’s neighbors,”
Rabbi Avraham Arieh Trugman, director of Ohr Chadash Torah Institute, told Breaking Israel News. “What’s interesting is that it isn’t just one or two enemies with a specific grudge, like the Arabs or the Nazis. It is 70 nations, which in Torah terms, means all of the nations,” explained Rabbi Trugman.
Rabbi Shimon Apisdorf, a prominent Jewish educator and bestselling author, told Breaking Israel News that seeing 70 nations written in the headlines caught his attention.
“There is no question that the aspect of specifically 70 nations gathering is significant, the point being Israel is not one of them,” said Rabbi Apisdorf, citing the book of Numbers.
Lo, it is a people that shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations. Numbers 23:9
“We are fundamentally different,” stated Rabbi Apisdorf. “And as a light unto the nations, we are supposed to be separate and different.”
Rabbi Trugman understood a different message in the gathering of the 70 countries.
“There is no doubt this is a fulfillment of the prophecies that in the end of days, all the nations will come out against Israel,” noted the rabbi. He quoted the commentary of Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki, an 11th century French commentator known by the acronym ‘Rashi’, on the first verse in the book of Genesis.
“1,000 years ago, Rashi said that in the future, the nations of the world will come and say we stole the Land of Israel. This is precisely what we are seeing now,” Rabbi Trugman said. “The majority of the nations say we have no claim to Israel, and the rest say we only have a claim to a small section of Israel.”
“Rashi told us how to answer this claim,” said Rabbi Trugman. “We need to remind them that the same God who created the heaven and earth gave it to them, and then he took it from them and gave it to us.”
The concept of 70 nations has its source in the 70 grandsons of Noah listed in the Bible.
These three were the sons of Noach, and of these was the whole earth overspread. Genesis 9:19
According to Bereshit Rabbah, a collection of homiletical teachings compiled around 400 CE, each nation is appointed an angel, except for Israel, which is protected by God Himself. According to Midrash Tanchuma, homiletical teachings believed to have been compiled around 500 CE, Jacob’s vision was of these national angels ascending and descending a ladder, determining the fortune of their nations.
And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven; and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. Genesis 28:12
Jacob’s vision is interpreted as a message that the nation of Israel was no longer part of this natural process. Though other nations will rise and fall, eventually disappearing into the sands of time, Israel will never disappear.
The concept of 70 nations also appears in reference to the 70 oxen offered in the Temple throughout Sukkot (the feast of the tabernacles) which the Talmud (Sukkah 55b) teaches are for the merit of the 70 nations.
In the wake of the recent United Nations Security Council resolution 2334 declaring Jewish housing in Judea, Samaria and East Jerusalem to be illegal, the outcome of the Paris conference seems certain. A two-state solution would call for Israel to relinquish territories conquered in the 1967 Six-Day War, and subsequently create a Palestinian State. This would include establishing a Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem, thereby removing the Kotel (Western Wall) and the Temple Mount from Jewish control. It is unclear whether the 800,000 Jews living over the 1949 Armistice Lines, comprising approximately 13 percent of Israel’s Jewish population, will be required to relocate, as they were when the Israeli government dismantled the communities of Gush Katif in the Gaza Strip in 2005.
Even if the 70 nations at the conference decide in favor of the two-state solution it is unclear how this plan will be practically implemented. On January 20, five days after the conference is set to take place, Donald Trump will take the seat in Oval Office, and he has already made his opinion clear that, like Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he believes the only solution to be face-to-face negotiations without pre-conditions between the Israelis and Palestinians.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/81577/return-70-nations-paris-condemn-israel/#dKYwjXQIqi0PcCAB.99
Demented John McCain actually dispatched a trusted aide across the Atlantic to get "Fake News" against Trump
Sen. John McCain said he did 'what any citizen would do' in turning the dirty dossier, which contained unconfirmed secrets about the president-elect, over to the FBI.
The Guardian charted the path of how the dossier came to be and how it was that McCain got his hands on the controversial documents.
The story of the dossier began with an investigative firm in Washington, D.C., being tapped by one of Trump's primary allies to dig up some opposition research on the Republican hopeful.
In turn, that firm outsourced the research to a 'retired western European former counter-intelligence official, with a long history of dealing with the shadow world of Moscow’s spooks and siloviki (securocrats),' explained the Guardian.
Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal identified the ex-spy as Christopher Steele.
By the time the contractor had started digging, Trump's primary opponent had dropped out. But the firm found a Democrat who wanted dirt on the now Republican nominee instead.
The Guardian pointed out that just because a Democrat was willing to pay for the information that didn't mean that said Democrat was Hillary Clinton's campaign or the Democratic National Committee.
Sometimes donors seek out this information in order to ensure they've made a sound investment.
The contractor, who the Guardian didn't name, but the Wall Street Journal identified as Steele, reportedly found the information that he dug up to be concerning. He and another ex-British diplomat, Christopher Burrows, run their own company, Orbis Business Intelligence.
'If the allegations were real, their implications were overwhelming,' the Guardian wrote.
So over the summer he delivered the intelligence he had gathered from his Russian sources, living within the country and also in the west, to former colleagues in the FBI.
The Guardian suggested he also delivered the documents to his country's own intelligence service.
As fall approached, and he heard nothing about any FBI investigation into the documents, he was persuaded to tell journalist David Corn, of Mother Jones, of their existence.
On November 18, at the Halifax International Security Forum, McCain was introduced to a 'former senior western diplomat' who had set eyes on the documents and knew who put them together, telling the Arizona Republican that the individual was 'highly reliable.'
From there, McCain dispatched a 'trusted emissary' who flew across the Atlantic to meet the source of the documents at an airport that the Guardian did not name.
The U.S. official was instructed to look for a man with a copy of the Financial Times and that's how the individuals met, with the source taking McCain's emissary back to his house and gave the American a copy of the documents.
Within 24 hours, the dossier was in Washington, though the contents of the file couldn't be verified without an investigation.
McCain, the Guardian said, was worried that his meddling might be interpreted as revenge for some of the controversial comments Trump made about him – such as knocking the fact that the longtime senator had been a prisoner of war.
However, McCain decided to hand over the documents to FBI Director James Comey on December 9.
'Upon examination of the contents, and unable to make a judgment about their accuracy, I delivered the information to the Director of the FBI,' McCain said Wednesday in a statement about that matter.
'That has been the extent of my contact with the FBI or any other government agency regarding this issue,' McCain said.
Thursday, January 12, 2017
Zionist App Can Save Your Life By Detecting Cancer Early
Thanks to Israeli technology, a simple and free app download may mean the difference between a simple 5 minute mole removal and full-blown skin cancer.
‘DermaCompare’ identifies skin irregularities with the click of a button by using your smartphone.
Watch this short video and see how Israel technology which came from the Israeli Air Force and intelligence communities, can save your life! The technology comes from aerial photography technology which was meant to help detect terrorist enemies trying to invade Israel.
In the same vein, this app can detect the cancer enemy early before it fully invades your body. Thanks Israel!
No comment from anti-Zionist Satmar feuding brothers, R' Zalman Leib and R' Aaron Teitelbaum ...
Hidden Chambers of the Me'aras Ha'Machpeilah ....
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| One of the caves found beneath the Tomb of the Patriarchs. (Courtesy Noam Arnon) |
Thirty-five years ago, a small group of Jews set out on a difficult and dangerous mission: to prove that the Biblical account of a cave in Hebron was true. One of those men tells of what they found: a secret chamber under the site, evidence that refutes the United Nations version of history supported by most of the nations of the world.
Of all the holy sites in Israel, the Machpela (Cave of the Patriarchs) in Hebron has special significance as being the oldest. A burial site for the three patriarchs and three of the matriarchs – Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, and Jacob and Leah – it marks the origins of all three Abrahamic religions.
image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Cave_of_the_Patriarchs8FINAL.jpeg
Dominated by a large, aboveground stone structure, visitors to Hebron are left wondering about the cave described in the Bible. A cave does exist, and even though its entrance is in plain sight, very few people have ever been inside.
Graham and Cruz Introduce Resolution to End Taxpayer Funding of UN--Unless...
Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) announced today they are introducing a resolution to end all U.S. taxpayer funding for the United Nations "unless and until" the U.N. reverses a measure condemning Israel.
Wednesday, January 11, 2017
Sunday, January 8, 2017
Avi Shafran ...one of the "meraglim"!
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| Avi Shafran |
"Rabbi" Avi Shafran , the Agudah blogger, has outraged the frum Jewish community with his naive, stupid, and arrogant column in Hamodia.
I decided not to write about the anti-Jewish Satmar "editorials" that appeared in Der Yid and Der Blatt, because the writers have been poisoned by their irrelevant leader and founder of their Chassidus....
In their sick editorials they praised Obama's refusal to veto the UN Resolution against Israel, and they lauded John Kerry's lies in his anti-Semitic rant explaining the US abstention vote in the UN!
Every rational Jew knows that Obama hates Satmar Chassidim with the same fervent hatred that he has for the State of Israel! He would just as soon see Kiryas Yoel burned down to the ground as he would the State of Israel,..... In the eyes of Obama ...the two feuding Satmar Brothers are equal to Bibi Natanyahu!
But these Satmar fools who are great in making Chicken soup Shmaltz Herring, and throwing towels on their shamash on Chanukah, have no clue about World politics and are only concerned with their overwhelming hatred of their fellow Jews living in Israel, and have teamed up with J Street and Reform Jewry to backstab Jews in Israel!
Avi Shafran is whole different animal, who comes across as a knowledgable representative of the Agudah, but is really pandering and tuchislekking the stupid Romanian gypsies.
In his latest column on his blog and printed in Hamodia he babbles that Obama and Kerry love Jews and backs the US abstention of the UN resolution!
Below is his crazed naive post loaded with lies that Al Jazzira promotes .....he ends his lies with that his readers should
"hatznea leches and hakaras hatov, not snubbing, sneering or insults."
Yet any person with a pulse sees that his rant is not "hatnea leches" and has no "hakaras hatov" ....
True or False?
- The U.S. abstention to the recent U.N. resolution was the first time an American administration declined to veto a Security Council resolution critical of Israel and opposed by her.
- The resolution is groundbreaking, and pledges the territory captured by Israel in 1967 to a Palestinian state.
- It would remove Yerushalayim and the Kosel Maaravi from Israeli sovereignty.
- It is one-sided, placing the blame for the stagnated peace process squarely on Israel.
- President Obama and Secretary of State Kerry have sold Israel out.
The first four are demonstrably false. The fifth, too.
Please don’t read further if you are not willing to consider a perspective different from the one you expect from this rightly respected newspaper and other “pro-Israel” news sources and organizations, including the wonderful one that employs me, Agudath Israel of America, which, like many other Jewish groups, condemned the U.S. abstention. I am resolutely pro-Israel but not necessarily in agreement with every Israeli administration’s positions. And, as I have pointed out on several occasions, while I proudly represent Agudath Israel, and convey its stances to the public and media, I exist as an individual too, and I write in these pages and in others from my own personal perspective.
Still here? Good.
Since the Six-Day War in 1967, there have been 42 U.S. vetoes of Israel-critical resolutions – but, over the course of eight U.S. administrations, including the Reagan and George W. Bush years, more than 70 “yes” votes or abstentions. The recent Security Council abstention was noteworthy, though: it was the Obama administration’s first non-veto of a critical-of-Israel resolution in its eight years, the lowest count of any president since 1967.
The recent resolution has no practical effect and takes no position that has not already been taken by the Security Council (and most of the world’s governments). It does not determine borders; it only reiterates the tired truism that Yehudah and Shomron are “occupied” territory. Technically, that is not entirely accurate, since the land was not under any state’s legitimate sovereignty before its capture, but it is true that, of all the captured territory, only Yerushalayim was annexed by Israel.
And Yerushalayim’s status, although not recognized at present by the U.N., will not change in negotiations, should the peace process ever resume. As Secretary of State Kerry said in his detailed post-vote speech, there must be “freedom of access to the holy sites consistent with the established status quo.” He reiterated that point, too, a moment later, declaring that “the established status quo” at religious sites must be “maintained.”
U.N. resolutions concerning Israel have long been consistently, notoriously and laughably one-sided. This one, though, as it happens, while calling on Israel to stop building in settlements, calls too on Palestinians to take “immediate steps to prevent all acts of violence against civilians, including acts of terror” and to “to clearly condemn all acts of terrorism.” That, at least for the U.N., is in fact groundbreaking.
As to Messrs. Obama and Kerry, consider a thought experiment. Imagine – just as a theoretical possibility – that they both actually care deeply about Israel. In fact, over his nearly 30 years in the U.S. Senate, Mr. Kerry was a reliable, stalwart and unapologetic defender of Israel. Pretend that Mr. Obama is of similar mindset. (Which he is, but if you’re convinced otherwise, just pretend.) And that they both believe, honestly and deeply, that (whatever you or I may hold to be true) only a two-state solution can ensure Israel’s security and integrity, and that continued settlement-building gives the Palestinians an excuse (unjustified, but still) to not engage in peace negotiations.
What would the two men then rightly do, with only days left for their administration, if a resolution reiterating the world’s objection to that building activity and calling for negotiations were put on the Security Council table? Veto it, against their convictions about Israel’s wellbeing? Or try to send a message, as they prepare to leave the world stage, about what they feel is best for Israel?
They might be entirely wrong about that (although they might be right). And, yes, the overwhelming blame for the lack of peace is unarguably on the Palestinian leadership and populace. And yes, all of Eretz Yisrael is bequeathed to the Jewish People.
Still and all, the American leaders’ determination to issue a final, passive call for what they believe is in Israel’s best interest does not bespeak disdain for Israel, but precisely the opposite.
Which is why all the shouts of “betrayal!” and “traitors!” and “complicit!” are so very wrong and so very sad. This is an administration that has stood by Israel time and time again for eight years, and that mere months ago forged a 10-year, $38 billion military aid package for Israel, the largest for any U.S. ally ever.
One can consider Mr. Obama and Mr. Kerry (and most Israelis, as it happens, because a clear majority are in favor of a negotiated two-state resolution) misguided, if one must. But one cannot slander them as Israel-betrayers. Must everyone be either “with us” or “against us,” “friend” or “enemy”? Can no one be with us and a friend but with a different perspective than our own?
What the outgoing U.S. administration wants from Israel isn’t capitulation to her enemies. What it has always sought is a sign of willingness on the current Israeli government’s part to simply act decisively on its declared commitment to a peace process aimed at a two-state solution. To be sure, even a restarted peace process is far from assured of success; there are many issues that could prove intractable. And yes, there have been moratoriums on “disputed territories” building in the past, to no avail. But an acceptance of yet another one, instead of a continuation of the recently accelerated pace of building, will put the ball again in the Palestinian court, and offer something to an angry world.
Yes, that world is unreasonable, obnoxious and ugly. Not to mention ridiculously hyper-focused on Israel, when so many truly unspeakable true human tragedies exist elsewhere, ignored.
So why, so many ask, should its opinion matter to us? That sentiment is what Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu expressed when he said, in the wake of the Security Council vote, that “Israelis do not need to be lectured of the importance of peace by foreign leaders” and that “Israel is a country with national pride, and we don’t turn the other cheek” and that he has had “enough of this exile mentality.”
And it is what he expressed, too, by summoning ambassadors of countries who voted for the resolution, and the American ambassador as well, to reprimand them, on the day that Christians consider the holiest on their calendar. “What would they have said in Jerusalem,” an unnamed Western diplomat later fumed, “if we summoned the Israeli ambassador on Yom Kippur?” Think hard about that.
It may feel gratifying to snub one’s nose at real or perceived enemies. Personally, though, I am atalmid, so to speak, of Rav Elchonon Wasserman and Rav Reuvein Grozovsky, zecher tzaddikim liv’racha, not of Reb Bibi Netanyahu. I believe that we are indeed in exile, in galus; that “secular Jewish nationalism” is wrong and dangerous; and that a modicum of modesty is demanded of all Jews, especially those who claim to represent other Jews. I believe that humility, not arrogance (and certainly not “kochi v’otzem yadi”) should be the operative principle of Klal Yisrael, and of anyone who deigns to lead a “Jewish state.”
Maybe, with the help of the Trump administration, Israel will be able to cow the 2.8 million Palestinians in “the territories” into submission. And maybe Hamas will not be able to seize whatever peace-seeking Palestinian hearts and minds are left. Maybe all will be well, Israelis will sleep safely and the fears of the Obama administration will prove to have been without warrant.
Maybe.
But whatever may happen in the future, what the present requires of us, al pi mesoraseinu, I believe, is hatznea leches and hakaras hatov, not snubbing, sneering or insults.
© Hamodia 2017
Terrorists kill 4 in Yerushalayim
An Israel Police spokesman has reported at least 4 killed and 13 wounded after a truck rammed into pedestrians in the Armon HaNatziv neighborhood in Jerusalem.
MDA EMTs and paramedics reported that all four of those killed - three women and on man - are approximately 20 years of age. Of the 13 living victims, three are severely injured, one is moderately injured, and nine more are lightly injured. All were transferred to either Shaarei Zedek or Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospitals in Jerusalem.
Police units at the scene are investigating.
Yakov Kaminetzki, a volunteer with United Hatzalah's EMS ambucycle unit reported, "When I arrived at the scene I saw a number of pedestrians who were run down by a large truck near the Armon Hanatziv Promenade. Some of the pedestrians were unconscious and trapped underneath the vehicle. I requested that the dispatch and command center send additional assistance including fire and rescue services as well as additional EMS responders due to the large number of injured persons. Near the vehicle were a number of other pedestrians who had sustained various degrees of injuries some of whom were in serious and moderate condition."
Friday, January 6, 2017
SHOOTING AT Ft Lauderdale Airport .... AT LEAST 5 DEAD
Gunman in custody after shooting nine - and killing three - at the Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood Airport
A gunman is in custody after a deadly shooting at the Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood Airport.
Sources tell NBC Miami that nine people have been shot and three people have died.
An airport spokesman said that the center of the incident was in the baggage claim area of Terminal 2. It does not appear that the shooter breached the TSA-secured area of the airport.
Video from the airport Friday afternoon showed hundreds of passengers corralled together on the tarmac with emergency vehicles parked outside the terminal with lights flashing.
Minutes later, he said police tol dhim there was just one shooter. By 1:30pm, the scene had settled.
'All seems calm now but the police aren't letting anyone out of the airport - at least not the area where I am,' Fleischer wrote.
The airport is one of the top 25 busiest airports in the nation.
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