Happy Birthday Beloved Israel

It's pretty simple really - I love this place! I love the people, I love the Land, I love the State. I love the feeling of waking up in this Land and breathing air here. I love the food, I love the smell. I love the history, I love that it's mine! We are home, we are building, we are getting better all the time. No excuses or qualifications necessary! I love the flag, and the birds, and the sky, and Jerusalem. I love that my father and grandmother are buried here, I love that the Matriarchs and Patriarchs are buried here. I will dedicate my life to making this place great. Join me...

Video Blog: Witness NeoZionism - 43 New Members of Israel and the IDF

At Kumah we call it NeoZionism. It's that spirit of giving it all to rebuild our Homeland. Witness it yourself in this video. 43 young adults (age 20, plus or minus - usually minus - 3 years) gave up the "good life" in America to join the IDF. The ingathering of the exiles is well in progress as our Nation is infused with this new energy, this new passion, for returning home and contributing to the growth of the Jewish Nation.

Be afraid, be very afraid... NOT!

While browsing the fine literary selection of the magazine rack at the airport recently, my eyes were snagged immediately by an interesting cover of that week's issue of the Atlantic. It featured a twisted merging of the Israeli and palestinian flags (above) and read, “Is Israel Finished?” While covering a plethora of issues that Israel is facing, the theme that tied it all together was a big problem Olmert has been facing lately. What is this problem that has beset our beloved prime minister (the good Lord has yet to grant us a “sarcasm” font)? It's not incredibly low popularity ratings, and it's not the fact that he's under numerous investigations, heck it's not even that he has been charged with the duty of running a country when he apparently hasn't the faintest clue how to. No, Olmert's big problem is that after Israeli author David Grossman sadly lost one of his sons in the war with Hezbollah, Olmert in turn lost his support.

Article author Jefferey Goldberg seems to think this is a problem because the pace of the nation is apparently set by what the novelists write in their books. While I'm sure they are entertaining, I've never personally read one of Grossman's works, or even heard of him before reading this article, for that matter. There does happen to be a book that DOES shape my opinions on this country though- it's called the Torah and it's author goes by the pen name of G-d. The fact that Mr. Goldberg, for the purposes of his article at least, puts more emphasis on one author and not the other is a telling sign of a problem I see with the people who on the one hand are invested in Israel emotionally, residentially, or otherwise yet don't have Hashem guiding them.

Goldberg's article is riddled with fear. He cites fear that Israel isn't safe; fear that the arabs under Israeli jurisdiction will soon outnumber the Jews, and fear that the very existence of the state is in danger. He says that Olmert feels things would be better for him if he could only get Grossman back on his side. Grossman himself feels things would be better for Israel if we could make more concessions to the palestinians and express more love to them. Never mind the fact that Grossman giving his haskama to Olmert wouldn't change all the mistakes he's made and magically turn him into an actual leader. And also never mind that people who have been raised by every element of their society since childhood to believe we are descendants of pigs and apes who have stolen their land and whose murder guarantees them a spot in paradise will most likely not be satisfied with some land concessions, especially seeing as such strategies have historically and utterly failed time and time again.

But that's the problem with those who don't recognize Hashem. If you don't believe G-d will help you then you turn to everyone other than G-d for help instead. Everyone from novelists to your embittered enemies with a seething blood lust against you. The thing is, most people, no matter how stupidly they may act, aren't truly and utterly stupid. Deep down people know that there is no salvation in novelists, and there is no salvation in enemies. And that's where their fear comes from. For, from deep within comes a voice of reason which screams out that these false gods will offer no protection and there's nothing like a good voice of reason to keep you up at night. But there is hope. Rebbe Nachman of Breslov famously taught, “Know that the whole world is a very narrow bridge, but the main thing is not to be afraid.” That's because with the knowledge that G-d supports you, there truly is nothing to fear in this world.

Furthermore, the Torah itself says in Psalm 81, “Listen, My nation, and I will attest to you; oh Israel, if you would but listen to Me. There shall be no strange god within you, nor shall you bow down to an alien god. I am Hashem, your G-d, who elevated you from the land of Egypt, open wide your mouth and I will fill it. But My people did not heed My voice and Israel did not desire Me. So I let them follow their heart's fantasies, they follow their own counsels. If only My people would heed Me, if Israel would walk in My ways. In an instant I would subdue their foes, and against their tormentors turn My hand.” Strange how things written thousands of years ago can be so applicable today eh? We, as the nation of Israel have a clear promise from G-d that He will love and protect us, and we have no need to rely on fake leaders, intellectual armchair diplomats or the mercy of those sworn to destroy us. It's about time we stopped being afraid, and started putting our trust where we will get actual results. If not, Israel may as well be “finally finished”, G-d forbid.

"I don't think aliyah is on the agenda of Israeli society"

Just as the Aliyah Revolution is moving into high-gear, two good ole' post-Zionist pessimistic articles decrying that Aliyah is dead appear on the scene. Doesn't the Sitra Achra ever get tired?

"The End of Aliyah?" by Dina Kraft

With Israel facing the end of the era of mass aliyah of need, can aliyah of choice sustain the idea of Diaspora Jewish immigration to the Jewish state?

TEL AVIV (JTA) -- Founded with the express purpose of "ingathering of the exiles" -- but with no more large groups of Jews to save -- Israel is facing the end of the era of mass aliyah.

Recent reports that the Jewish Agency for Israel was considering shutting down its flagship aliyah department have prompted discussion about the future of immigration to Israel even as agency officials quickly denied the department was closing.

"Israel cannot throw away the idea of aliyah because it is one of basics of the ideology of having a Jewish state," said David Raz, a former Jewish Agency emissary abroad. "You have to create a situation that people will want to come, from the element of being together with Jews. But it's not simple. There is a trickle, but basically from the free world the majority does not want to come.”

The crux of the matter is that immigration of necessity -- also called “push aliyah” -- is largely at its end, with few Jews left in the Diaspora who need the Jewish state as a haven from persecution or dire economic straits. The Jews of the Arab world fled to Israel in the 1950s, Russian-speaking Jews flocked here in the 1990s and Ethiopians came over the course of the past 25 years.

With nothing pushing mass immigration of Jews today, all that remains are the few immigrants of choice -- also known as “pull” immigrants. Officials involved with aliyah say they expect no more than 15,000 or so new immigrants to Israel this year.

"You have Jews in the West who live very comfortably under pluralistic governments that give them unprecedented social and economic opportunities and let them live Jewish lives,” said Uzi Rebhun, a demographer at Hebrew University’s Institute of Contemporary Jewry. “In turn, aliyah to Israel has gone down.”

With the pool of potential push immigrants drying up, officials like Oded Salomon, the director-general of aliyah and absorption for the Jewish Agency, are thinking about how to pull Jews to Israel in new and different ways.

Salomon says the focus now is on educational programs that bring young Jews to Israel in the hope of fostering lifelong connections to the Jewish state and creating new immigrants.

The Jewish Agency wants to create a special visa for visiting Diaspora Jews who want to explore the idea of aliyah by living in Israel for a few months. Such arrivals would be assisted with finding volunteer or work positions and Hebrew study.

Aliyah officials also are embracing the notion of “flexible aliyah” in which immigrants split their time between Israel and the Diaspora. About 10 percent of immigrants who have made aliyah with the assistance of Nefesh B'Nefesh, which facilitates aliyah from North America and Britain with cash grants and assistance, divide their time between Israel and jobs abroad.

Other ideas to attract a new kind of aliyah being discussed include retirement communities near Eilat for American Jewish retirees to the creation of an all-French-speaking town.

Israel has experienced other periods of sluggish immigration, such as the 1970s and 1980s, but in those eras there were large communities of Jews unable to emigrate and come to the Jewish state, such as those in the Soviet Union.

Today, however, the Jews who remain in the former Soviet Union are either too old to immigrate or prefer to stay put in countries where improved economies and more democratic freedoms have made life in the Diaspora more attractive.

Mass immigration from Ethiopia -- where politics, economics and religious ideology sent tens of thousands of Jews to Israel over the past quarter century -- is expected to end some time this summer. The Jewish Agency plans to shut its Ethiopian offices and bring home its staff when the last arrivals come.

Yuli Edelstein, the former Soviet refusnik and prisoner of Zion who later served as Israel's absorption minister, said Israel must make sure it can provide both meaningful professional opportunities and meaningful Jewish life if it wants to see significant immigration to the country.

"This is a real period of rethinking," Edelstein told JTA, noting the economic and professional opportunities Jews have in the West. "Without a Jewish motivation for being here, it will be much more difficult to attract people."

Among Israelis, too, the ethos of aliyah has dampened in recent years, a far cry from when it was described by the drafters of Israel's Declaration of Independence in 1948 as the part of the vision of "the prophets of Israel.”

"I don't think aliyah is on the agenda of Israeli society," Rebhun said.

Despite the country's founding mission, he said, "Sixty years after the State of Israel was established, most Jews still live outside of Israel."

Sergio DellaPergola, a demographer from Hebrew University who also is associated with the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute, a Jerusalem think tank, says many potential immigrants are put off by the bureaucracy and difficulties of Israeli life, not to mention Israel’s security situation.

DellaPergola says major reforms are needed to help ease the path of immigrants, especially when it comes to accepting degrees and professional credentials earned abroad.

Despite plans for a new set of tax breaks for new immigrants and other ideas to help pave the way for potential immigrants, at the end of the day immigrants will come to Israel only if they see in the Jewish state the promise of a fulfilling Jewish life, DellaPergola said.

"If it's a country just like any other,” he said, “then why come here?"

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"Jerusalem And Babylon / The numbers are on the wall" by Anshel Pfeffer

I don't know if anyone ever tried to work out the average age of Israel Prize recipients, but the profile is fairly standard. A man or woman in their seventies or eighties, hailed for decades of service in academia or some other worthy pursuit and for his or hers past contribution to Israeli society. Sad but true, this is usually a pre-obituary, almost-last honor, to a deserving individual long past the prime of life. The occasional practice of rewarding an organization with one of the prizes, is fairly ridiculous.

Public bodies, even if they are voluntary, are there to serve a purpose, we should expect them to fulfill it better in the future, and their workers reward should be a job well done. But Education Minister Yuli Tamir obviously doesn't think so, as the Israel Prizes commission in her ministry announced this week that this coming Independence Day, a whole raft of organizations, ranging from youth movements and womens groups, to the Manufacturers Association of Israel will be duly honored. But in one case, it seems that the organization to receive the prize is very similar to the more traditional laureates.

Founded in 1929, the Jewish Agency is also on the brink of octogenarianism, with a proud past in which it played a crucial role and gave decades of loyal service to the nation. But now it seems in the autumn of its life, and many of its stalwarts are openly predicting that the grim reaper may just be around the corner.

The cruel joke is that it was the very event that will be commemorated on prize-day, the foundation of the state in 1948 that signaled the end of the Jewish Agency's heyday. In one fell swoop, it went from being the government-in-waiting to an organization that had lost its most basic raison d'etre. A sovereign state has its own official agencies, all of a sudden, the Jewish Agency lost its primacy in the fields of foreign relations, education, settling the wilderness and developing infrastructure, to the new government ministries.

Its chairman, David Ben-Gurion, had now become the first prime minister and he had a real country to run. Not surprisingly, the new definition of the Jewish Agency's role, in 1950, consisted basically of important tasks that the new government, eager to build up diplomatic relationships with the world, wasn't comfortable with.

An issue of control

So the Jewish Agency was tasked with encouraging and enabling the Jews of the world to make aliyah and promote Jewish-Zionist education throughout the Diaspora. As an added bonus, the Agency would not get government budgets but had to do its fundraising outside Israel through the Jewish federations in North America and Keren Hayesod with the local Zionist organizations in other parts of the world. This of course didn't mean that the government and the various Israeli political parties relinquished control of the Agency. Senior posts were allocated according to party lines and the prime minister always had the last word on the appointment of the chairman.

An uneasy alliance had to be created between the government and the major donors and the multi-layered structure of the World Zionist Organization and the Agency's board of governors came into being.

This creature of compromise and circumstance was never an ideal creation, but while it was still clear that the agency had a definite role, facilitating aliyah from around the world, it at least had a justification. Today it is becoming increasingly clear that that role is a thing of the past. Aliyah from the former Soviet Union is down to a trickle and the government has decided that the emigration of the Falashmura will end in three months.

The Jewish people is basically divided today between Israel and a string of communities in Western or rapidly Westernizing countries. In such an environment, the decision to make aliyah is an increasingly individual one. The Agency has realized this and adopted a new credo - "aliyah by choice." But how does one motivate people to make that choice?

The days of proselytizing for aliyah are over, the most that can be done is to make things easier for those who have already made the choice. Private organizations like Nefesh b'Nefesh and Ami, and also the Absorption Ministry have realized that and are gradually encroaching on the Agency's turf. Talk off-record to agency officials, at all levels, and they also understand this. Within the Agency, plans are being made to restructure the Aliyah department, effectively breaking it up to components which will be merged into the Education and Israel departments, primarily due to a shrinking budget, caused by a decline in donations and the weak dollar.

What is needed is a public facing of the facts. These changes should have been underway even if there was no budgetary necessity. In an era in which the main challenge facing the Jewish world is creating frameworks for identity and knowledge, the Jewish Agency has a role to play as pipeline between Israel and the Jews of the world, it can be a central role, but first it must admit as much to itself, its donors and potential clients.

In today's global Jewish society, the Jewish Agency has no direct way of significantly affecting aliyah to Israel. Its only future is as an international vehicle of Jewish and Israeli education. If the Agency's leaders carry on claiming that aliyah is still its central mission, the Israel Prize will indeed be only a recognition of past achievements.

Only Israeli Judaism is Authentic!

So said Israeli author A.B. Yehoshua in May 2006, at the American Jewish Committee's (AJC) Centennial Symposium.

He reiterated similar sentiments in the clip below.



Unsurprisingly, many both in Israel and the world Jewish community disagreed.

In response, the AJC complied a booklet of responses, both for and against what A.B. Yehoshua said, entitled: The A. B.Yehoshua Controversy: An Israel-Diaspora Dialogue on Jewishness, Israeliness, and Identity

It makes for a good read.

15 Seconds With The President

There's a lot of hubbub surrounding the visit of US President George W. Bush.

The Post-Zionist Left, face it, is wetting itself with anticipation over the prospect of Bush backing Israel into a corner and, as the uberscuzzy editor of Haaretz so Haaretzly put it, raping our country of any last vestiges of meaning or dignity. They're hoping Bush will pizzazz the land right out from under us, hacking away at the most biblical of our biblical lands, and ultimately bringing down the Zionists, who are like so many pesky cockroaches revealing themselves after a bug bomb.

This morning, as our mountaintop was covered with a welcome low-hanging cloud after some much needed nighttime rainfall, we heard a familiar sound - the approach of a Blackhawk.
Because of our proximity to both Ramallah and Baal Hatzor, as well as our possession of a nice, uninhabited flat space, we are frequented by practicing pilots, who land and take off, land and take off.

As we were listening to the buzzing and swooshes, my husband commented to me that perhaps they are practicing bringing in Bush - after all, Bush's entourage is rumored to be planning a Ramallah visit, making a helicopter landing and drive through Beit El somewhat likely. Olmert's government is going to be doing everything in its power to keep Bush away from any real people or places during his visit (we wouldn't want the endearing qualities of the Jewish people to get in the way of our cold, heartless peace plans, now would we?), so it's quite possible that he will be whisked above the annoying realities, and come to Ramallah via helicopter.

So I asked my husband: "What if he does land here, and we have the chance to speak to him for 15 seconds? What would you say?" That got us thinking.

By the by, you never know. I recommend that you all prepare 15 seconds worth of material - who knows if G-d will make you the shaliach for His message to this King of America.

What would you say? "Free Jonathan Pollard!" "Go back to Texas!" "Please, don't divide Jerusalem - you don't want that kind of Wrath, trust me."

So I leave it to you: What would YOU say to President George W. Bush if you ran into him in Israel?

To Reverse the Rebirth

By Stan Goodenough, a Christian Zionist:

It will not surprise me at all if, when US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice returns to Israel next week to invite participants to the Annapolis 'Conference on the Creation of Palestine on Jewish Land,' that the date she has chosen to convene the event turns out to be November 29.

As Rice sees things, the irony of this choice of date would be positive, injecting some sense of hopefulness into the long-hopeless US-pushed pursuit of Arab-Israeli peace.

The State Department could spin November 29 to generate optimism: It would mark a return to the past, they could say; the chance to heal the sore at its source; a reversal of the disastrous decisions that ignited and continue to fuel the unending conflict in the Middle East.

For Bible-believing Christian Zionists, to hold this conference on November 29 would support what many of us already hold to be true: that the real aim of the land-for-peace process (whether Rice and her president know it or not) is the reversal of something different: the rolling back of the process of Israel's physical national restoration which God Himself has ordained and brought about.

As such, it is doubly futile - for who do the Quartet and the UN Security Council think that they are to go against the very will and purpose of the LORD of hosts?

Certainly, if November 29 is the date drawn, it will not be a mere coincidence.

It was on November 29, 60 years ago, that all creation appeared to hold its breath.

On that day in 1947, the nations watched, the Jews prayed, and the Arabs oiled their guns.

On that unprecedented day in the history of nations, the UN voted 33 to 13 (with 10 abstentions) to divide the British-mandated area called "Palestine" between the Jews and the Arabs laying claim to it.

Like a massive final contraction after years of birth pangs, General Assembly Resolution 181 opened the way through which the ancient nation of Israel could finally be reborn on its historic homeland.

Not that the battle for her independence was over. Within hours of the partition vote Israel's enemies began searching for a way to rescind and annul that decision.

But they were wasting their time. Less than six months later, on May 15, 1948, the State of Israel came into being on it's God-given land.

It was as foretold by the prophet Isaiah thousands of years before:

"...Who has heard such a thing?
Who has seen such things?
Shall the earth be made to give birth in one day?
Or shall a nation be born at once?
For as soon as Zion was in labor,
She gave birth to her children..."
(Isaiah 66:8)

From that day to this, those who hate Zion (and in truth they really hate the LORD who has chosen Zion) have sought to destroy her.

The surrounding Arab states have attacked Israel time and time again. The "Palestinian" Arabs have waged a relentless terrorism and propaganda campaign against the Jewish state to demoralize its citizens and delegitimise it in front of the international community. The industrial powers have sided "pragmatically" with the oil-rich Arabs and have pushed Israel into prejudicing its security and surrendering its millennia-old claim to its land.

The currently Christian-led United States is leading the charge and, for the Bush administration, decision day is already past.

Some die-hard Christian Republicans still insist that Bush and Rice are sincerely acting in what they believe to be Israel’s ultimate best interests. Even if they are [which I personally have a hard time hanging on to - Ed] they have gotten into bed with other "western" leaders who long ago ran out of patience with this "shxxty little country".

Leaders like European MP and former French Prime Minister Michel Rocard, who reportedly told an audience in Cairo on June 17, 2004, that "the origin of the Palestinian problem is in the promise given by the British to the Jews to establish a nationalist state on the basis of the religious conviction that the Jews have a right to this land… It was an historic error on the part of the British to make such a promise, but this now belongs to history."

Such sentiments have also infected morer "ordinary" men on the street. On July 18, 2006, Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen wrote: "...Israel itself is a mistake. It is an honest mistake, a well-intentioned mistake, a mistake for which no one is culpable, but the idea of creating a nation of European Jews in an area of Arab Muslims (and some Christians) has produced a century of warfare and terrorism of the sort we are seeing now."

Yes, 60 years ago this month, a reluctant gentile world still somewhat shaken up by the horrific sights revealed by the liberation of Hitler's Death Camps, scraped together just enough compassion to support the establishment of a homeland for the Jews.

That compassion has long gone.

Israel is not much more than a nuisance; a thorn in the side of the world. The nation's Jews, then, must be made to pay, compensating the Arabs and mollifying them, so that the threat Israel's policies pose to world peace will be removed.

For the Islamic world, what the US wants to achieve at Annapolis is just phase one of the plan that will excise the Jewish cancer once and for all from their midst.

The creation of Palestine may appear to be more or less the belated implementation of Resolution 181. But not to forget, as Arafat used to say: the Arab world rejected that resolution, rendering it void.

For them, establishing a Palestinian state is not correcting that misstep. It is preparing for the correcting and erasing of the entire "mistake" that enabled Israel's rebirth.

How encouraging then to know beyond any shadow of a doubt, that the Shepherd of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps; that He is and will continue to defend her; and that He who brought Israel safely to the time of her physical rebirth nearly has promised to also bring her to her glorious, national, spiritual rebirth, right here in her land.

The only One who is going to be doing any "rolling up" is Israel's God. And it is the self-important and arrogant nations He will gather, to place inside and crush in the wine press of His wrath.

For they have scattered His people and they have divided up His land.

Let's Just Cancel the Country

"A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear. The traitor is the plague." Cicero 42 B.C.E.

Now read this:

Mocking Asian Jews, Gov't Minister Favors Selective Aliyah

Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit (Kadima) struck a blow to one of the central pillars of Zionism Tuesday, calling for an end to automatic citizenship for Jews who make aliyah (immigrate to Israel).

Addressing the governing board of the Jewish Agency, Sheetrit said that funds should be directed to helping immigrants already living in Israel instead of absorbing “lost tribes” from Africa and Asia. “Don't go finding me any lost tribes, because I won't let them in any more," he declared. "We have enough problems in Israel. Let them go to America."

Sheetrit said that new immigrants should not automatically receive citizenship, but have a five-year waiting period, take a pledge of allegiance and pass a Hebrew-proficiency test prior to becoming Israeli.

He specifically referred to a rise in cases of neo-Nazism among Russian immigrants, some one million of which immigrated to Israel in the past 16 years. Three to four hundred thousand of the Russian immigrants are non-Jews recruited by the Jewish Agency using Jewish donor funds.

As it stands, the Law of Return, passed in 1950, mirrors the classifications of “Jewish descent” outlined in the Nazi Nuremberg Laws, with the intention that anyone who would have been persecuted as Jewish by the Nazis be granted refuge in the Jewish State.

Under this law, the Jewish Agency has been accused of taking advantage of the Law to recruit non-Jews with tenuous connections to the Jewish people – via one grandparent or the marriage of relatives to a Jew – promising them a better economic situation so as to increase the numbers of immigrants it can report having brought.

Many groups have called for the Law of Return to be amended to open Israel's doors only to those considered Jewish by Halacha (Jewish Law).

The Interior Minister is, however, calling to make aliyah harder for all Jews. The ministry proposes to change the Law of Return to reflect absorption policies of other Western countries. "I want to see that he is not a criminal, that he is learning Hebrew and that he is here for five years before receiving citizenship," Sheetrit said.

The Jewish Agency said in response that "the State of Israel must remain open to any Jew, without any conditions” and continues to support the Law of Return in its current form.

Sheetrit said the funding spent on encouraging aliyah should be used to help immigrants already living in Israel, “whose lives are miserable.”

Michael Freund, who heads the Shavei Israel organization, which assists groups of Jewish descent in converting and moving to Israel called Sheetrit’s remarks “post-Zionism in its ugliest form.”

“Essentially, Mr. Sheetrit has lost sight of what Zionism and Israel are all about. The country was founded on immigration and meant to serve as a refuge for the entire Jewish people,” Freund said. Freund pointed out that Sheetrit’s own family, immigrants from Morocco, would themselves bear the brunt of his callousness had he been Interior Minister at the time of their aliyah. “It is as if he has forgotten everything that he and his family and millions of other immigrants went through.”

Commenting on Sheetrit’s mocking of descendents of the lost ten Jewish tribes, Freund alleged that Sheetrit has refused to study the issue or even meet with members of communities such as the Bnei Menashe, who have been converting and moving to Israel from northeast India. “Sheetrit is, unfortunately, exploiting recent news reports about the discovery of neo-Nazis among recent immigrants to Israel as an excuse to keep out other unrelated groups that sincerely want to tie their fate with the people of Israel. These are apples and oranges. One has absolutely nothing to do with the other.”

Freund went one step further: “Mr. Sheetrit has no place serving in the government of a Zionist Jewish state There is a strong element of racism and ignorance that runs through Mr. Sheetrit’s thinking on this issue. A person’s country of origin or the color of their skin has nothing whatsoever to do with their Jewish identity – nor should it. The return to Zion is a Divine process that is greater than any one man or institution. And no one, not even a minister in the cabinet, can stand in its way. The return of the Bnei Menashe to Israel can and will continue."

Israel's Chief Rabbinate recognized the Bnei Menashe as "Descendants of Israel" in March, 2005 and sent a a beit din (rabbinical court) on its behalf to the region to formally convert them to Judaism.

Germany: Home, Sweet Home

Recently, there were a number of articles discussing the dramatic increase in the number of Israelis applying for German citizenship.

Sharp rise in Israelis seeking German citizenship - Yediot Achronot

'Sweet revenge,' say new Germans - Ha'aretz - (One of the most depressing articles I have read in quite some time.)

Below are some selected quotes from the articles:

* "The grandparents did not want to be German for obvious reasons. They taught their children that being German was a bad thing. But this is the first generation which thinks differently," said Katy Elmaliah, whose law firm in Tel Aviv helps young Israelis get German passports.

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* "For my mother and my father the memories of the past are too hard. They would never want to be German but for me it is important that I can have a European passport," he said. "I have no problem being German."

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* Holding her brand-new German passport, Avital Direktor, 29, of Azor, just had to laugh. "What a crazy world," she thought to herself. "Germany's soil is drenched with my family's blood, and in spite of it all, I got German citizenship. I see it as taking revenge on Hitler. Sweet revenge..."

"Now, I will be able to pass it on to my children," she added.

Avital said she is not surprised by the sharp rise in demand for German citizenship among Israelis. "Look at what's going on here. Ours is a land that devours its inhabitants. The obtuseness to the needy, the corruption. People are dying to get out of here..."

Avital hopes to study to be a sound technician in Germany. "Here, it's expensive like you wouldn't believe, but there, I'll get it practically free of charge. I had intended to study it in Israel, but I just can't afford it financially," she explained.

According to Avital, most of her friends supported her decision to apply for German citizenship. "They said they wished they could get a German passport, too, and asked me what I was still doing here in Israel."

All of the above makes the following story almost seem logical:

Berlin Jewish Center builds replica of Western Wall

”This is a symbolic part of making Berlin a central hub of Jewish life again,” the center’s executive director, Rabbi Yehuda Teichtal told the Associated Press on Wednesday.

In light of the above, consider these verses from the book of Judges (2:10-11):

And in time, death overtook all that generation; and another generation came after them, having no knowledge of the Lord or of the things which he had done for Israel. And the children of Israel did evil in the eyes of the Lord...

Some things never change.

Brainwashing a Nation

Former KGB agent and Soviet defector Yuri Alexandrovich Bezmenov explains Communist psychological warfare methods and results - does this sound familiar?

Sin of the Spies Continues

Just in time for Parshat Shelach (Part II):

Newsflash: Eretz Yisrael Rejects Avraham Burg!


Shortly after the end of World War II, at a Shabbat table in Jerusalem, the discussion turned to the regrettable phenomenon of visitors who tour the Land of Israel, and then return home badmouthing the country. "These tourists complain about the heat, the poverty, the backwardness, the government - and discourage other Jews from moving here," lamented one of those present. The room became quiet. Rabbi Tzvi Yehudah Kook, son of Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook, the first chief rabbi, responded by relating the following parable.
"There was once a wealthy man who desired to marry a certain young lady. She was the most beautiful girl in town, and was blessed with many talents and a truly refined character. Since her family was not well-off, they were eager about the possible match with the wealthy man.

The young woman, however, was not interested in the match. Rich or not, the young man was coarse and ill-mannered. She refused to meet with him.

The father, anxious that his daughter should get married, pressured her to meet with the young man. 'After all, one meeting doesn't obligate you to marry him!' To please her father, the young woman agreed.

The following Shabbat, the fellow arrived at the house as arranged. A few minutes later, the girl made her entrance: her hair uncombed, wearing a crumpled, worn dress and shabby house slippers. Appalled at her disheveled appearance, it didn't take long before the young man excused himself and made a hurried exit.

"What everyone says about this girl - it's not true," exclaimed the astonished young man to his friends. "She's a hideous old hag!"

Rabbi Tzvi Yehudah then explained his parable. Superficially, it would appear that the young fellow had rejected the young woman. But in truth, she had rejected him. So too, the Land of Israel does not display her beauty to all who visit. Not everyone is worthy enough to merit seeing the special qualities of Eretz Yisrael. It appears as if the dissatisfied visitors are the ones who reject the land - but in reality, it is the land that rejects them.

[Rav Chanan Morrison- Adapted from "Malachim Kivnei Adam" by Rabbi Simcha Raz, pp. 227-278, 230

Kumah's Pro-Hebron Demonstration

Yesterday's anti-"Peace Now" protest in Hebron was awesome. Our Kumah bus, sponsored by National Young Israel - USA took us to Hebron where "Peace Now" came to mark 40 years since the Six Day War by calling for Jewish Hebron to be destroyed. We came to let them know that "This Land Is Our Land" and that we will now let this horrific demonstration go unchallenged. Though the day was hot, and the mood tense, we had a great time raising the flag of Israel in Hebron, speaking with the media, meeting the brave folks of the area, and of course, visiting the holy sites, and even eating a pizza in Gutnick Hall outside the cave of the Patriarchs. Check out the pictures by clicking here.

Hayeenu KeCholmim - "We Were As Dreamers"

So Yossi Benayoun, a 27-year-old star from Dimona is following the Israeli dream - to be a success in Chutz La'aretz. What a role model for our youth. Any poor kid from Dimona will always know - one day, if your lucky, you can grow up and leave Israel - and maybe you'll get to play for West HAM!

From YNET:

Yossi Benayoun, West Ham United's midfielder, is now the highest-paid Israeli sportsman ever. Forever known as "the kid from Dimona", Benayoun, 27, has certainly grown up. He now has a five-year contract grossing him about $4.5 million a year.

"If someone would have told me, back when I was playing in Israel, that this is the way my career would be going, I would have believed them immediately...I've had a lot of dreams come true. This is one of them," said Benayoun Saturday.

In 2002 Benayoun joined Spain's Racing Santander, but he never forgot his childhood dream - to play in the English Premier League. Two years ago his dream came true, when he joined West Ham United. "I've always had people doubt me," he said, "but I only have one person to prove myself to - me," he said Saturday. "I believe I can make it even further. My dreams are far from over."

Imagine if Benayoun would have come out with a different statement:

"I appreciate the British offer, but I'm a proud Israeli, and after 2000 years of exile, I have the privilege and the responsibility to play in Israel, to put Israeli soccer on the map, and to give hope to the Israeli youth! AM YISRAEL CHAI!!!"

Alas, Binayoun has a different dream.
Hayeenu KeCholmim...

Why should anyone care about Sderot?

With no end in sight to the 6 year long rocket assault on Sderot, Ari Shavit of Ha'aretz elaborates upon why those in Israel should give a damn:

It should not have been like this. Sderot is not Gush Katif. There is no debate. On the contrary: Sderot is a "Green Line" city. Sderot is a post-withdrawal city. Sderot is the righteous Israeli city after the occupation. Sderot is the future

Which leads us to Shavit's main point. Why should Israelis care about Sderot?

The attack on Sderot is a strategic attack on peace. It is an attack on the two-state solution. If the attack succeeds, there will be no chance of any future withdrawal. If the attack succeeds, the occupation will be perpetuated.

In Shavit's world,, one should care about Sderot, not because of the responsibility one Jew has for another - or even that of one human being for another, nor is he driven by the pursuit of justice. The sole reason one should care about Sderot is because if Sderot falls, so does the "peace process".

While Shavit makes the distinction between Sderot and Gush Katif clear, he fails to grasp a major distinction existing between Israel and the Arab world, which serves as the root cause for the tragedy that is Sderot.

If one looks at the "Palestinian Authority" map above, there is no green line. No distinction is made between Gush Katif and Sderot. No distinctions are needed for the simple reason that the entire Land of Israel (Palestine) belongs to them - to Islam.

If one looks at the nobility of Israeli society, what does one find? As Shavit puts it:

Sderot should have been the apple of the eye of all those preaching withdrawal in the past, and of everyone who still believes in withdrawal. Sderot should have been the city of peace writers and peace singers and peace industrialists. A "peace now" city. A city of Israeli solidarity. A city of mutual responsibility. A city where strong Israelis stand together with Israelis who are less strong in the face of Islamic zealotry.

Yet, what one finds amongst the vast majority of Israels elite is a group who questions the very right of the Jewish People to a Jewish State in the Land of Israel. After all, can it be said that Gush Katif is really anymore "occupied territory" than Sderot? Certainly there's no difference in the eyes of the Arabs. Which is why, if, as Shavit puts it, Sderot is Israel's future, then it's clear that Israel's nobility has already abandoned ship.

When Ariel Sharon said that the fate of Netzarim is that of Tel Aviv (April, 2002), he was not mistaken. Until the Jewish People recognize their absolute right to the Land of Israel and show that they are willing and able to enforce that right, there will be no peace. Not in Gush Katif. Not in Sderot. Not in Jerusalem and not in Tel Aviv.

The time has come for us - those who still believe in this fundamental and historic truth - to assume the leadership and responsibility of this country and to do so before Sderot falls.

Another Kassam Murder In Sderot

Today's victim was Oshri Oz, 36, of Hod HaSharon, an employee of the Sderot-based "Peretz Bonei HaNegev" construction company. Survived by his pregnant wife and 3-year-old daughter, Oshri was Israel's tenth fatal casualty of a Kassam rocket in the past three years - and the second in the past week.

Do you know what's sick?
What's sick is that we barely care, and will barely remember his name.



My wife lit a candle to honor his memory... Do whatever you can...

Here is a stupid idea that I came up with. Learn the following list of animal's names in Hebrew (if you do not already know them). When you use one of these Hebrew words in the future, remember that you learned that word the day when Oshri Oz was murdered in Sderot. Maybe in this small way he will be remembered, and his death won't be completely meaningless...

Every Jew is responsible for one another? (Kol Yisrael areivim zeh la'zeh?)

Drivers ignore dying man on road



(Click here if video doesn't download.)

Shocking.

Disturbing.

Appalling.

These are just a few of the words that come to mind.

Can it be that Israeli society has become so cold, unforgiving and apathetic (as Avi Dichter, Israel's Internal Security minister, asserts)?

Before casting blame and making sweeping judgements, it's important to place this tragic event in the proper context.

On the morning of March 13th, 1964, 29 year old Kitty Genovese was brutally murdered just outside her New York apartment.

For over 30 minutes, 40 of Ms. Genovese's neighbors watched the brutal attack, doing absolutely nothing. Only 35 minutes after the attack had begun did someone finally call the police.

In order to determine if New Yorkers were in fact cold and heartless, or, if perhaps there was another explanation as to why no one responded to Ms. Genovese's cries for help, a series of experiments were conducted.

The researchers consistently found that as the number of bystanders increased, the likelihood that any one of them would help decreased.

This phenomenon is known as the "bystander effect".

If we are by ourselves when an emergency occurs, we perceive ourselves to be 100% responsible for taking action. However, when there are 10 bystanders, we each perceive ourselves to have only a tenth of the responsibility. The higher the number of bystanders, the less obligated each individual is likely to feel to intervene.

Another explanation given is...

If we are unsure of our own perceptions and interpretations, or if the situation is ambiguous, we look to others for help in defining what is going on. If others appear calm, we may decide that whatever is happening doesn't require our assistance.

When these findings are applied to Israel society, I believe that we can better understand why this tragic event occurred, and how similar occurrences can be prevented in the future..

Frankly, over the last two decades, as corruption and deceit infected many of the seats of power within Israeli society - particularly the government - average Israelis came to feel that they were no longer able to make a difference. Israeli society was now ruled by the law of the jungle - everyone for themselves and the survival of the fittest - and whoever didn't play by those rules would come to be viewed as friers / (suckers) - the absolute worst thing you can call an Israeli.

It is not a matter of Israeli society being populated by cold and heartless individuals, quite to the contrary. However, the foreign values that have consciously been imported from abroad (courtesy of Israel's ruling elites), such as individualism and materialism have come to replace the authentic Jewish values of self-sacrifice and of caring for the needs of the community.

We are taught in Pirkei Avot (Ethics of our Fathers, 5:22):

Whoever possesses these three qualities belongs to the disciples of Abraham our father: a generous eye, a humble spirit, and a meek soul.

But he who possesses the three opposite qualities--an evil eye, a proud spirit, and a haughty soul--is of the disciples of Bilam the wicked.

So, what is the solution?

I believe that each and every one of us needs to take upon themselves a sense of personal responsibility for making the Jewish State of Israel the best it can possibly be.

True, there are many challenges within Israeli society, and we can't possibly overcome all of them with our limited abilities and resources, but, returning once again to Pirkei Avot, 2:21:

It is not incumbent upon you to finish the task. Yet, you are not free to desist from it.

"Post" or "Anti" Zionism?

State Sponsored Anti-Zionism
(Too bad we don't we have a Label for "Jewish Self-Hatred")

My Prediction Fulfilled: Peres Says to Prepare Our Move into the Sea

Peres calls to start planning for the "day after" we are thrown into the sea

I SO called this less than a month ago in this post:

We really may see a day when "pragmatic" voices will suggest that we use modern technology to really allow the Arabs to drive us into the sea, where we can live comfortably on man-made landmasses and cruise-ships. ("It is the only way to allow the Muslim world to save face," they will explain. "They were promised by their leaders that they would drive us into the sea and once we are all there, their hatred will subside and we can totally visit mainland, including Hevron and Jerusalem, until nightfall, when we must return to our dingies.")

[Disclosure: Though I work at A7, I had no contact with the author about the story prior to its publication and I don't believe he saw my original blog post either]

Post-Pesach Links That Make You go Kumah

Haaretz offers a fairly accurate reading of the extra-parliamentary lay of the land among the Land of Israel groups, as well as weekly "parsha" sheets (though they forget Yechiel's).

Ari Shavit stops short of offering the explanation for what brought us to the place his disillusioned soldiers describe. “No, the war didn't start this. The war didn't cause the crisis…" He can’t quite put his finger on it. Here's a hint, Ari. The D word – no, not that one - you used that plenty. I'm talking the meaningless one Eyal Arad came up with that sounded way better than retreat.

Omedia launches in English. Covers the leftist/Arab assault on Sde Boaz orchards.

I could have sworn I heard Channel 2 TV call the new Jewish property in Hevron Beit Hameriva (Conflict House) as though that were its name (the real name is Beit HaShalom - Peace House). I though I must have misheard. Turns out I didn't. Ruti Avraham explains (in Hebrew A7).

Aviad Vissouly weighs in on the legal aspects of Israel negating the right of Jews to purchase property (also Hebrew A7).

ADDeRabbi makes me laugh with: "I was simply surprised that carrying in a ‘carmelis’ would be someone’s ‘line in the sand’ (sorry, bad pun) for observance."

A Really Bad Beer Ad

Meet Kevin Peraino. I'm fairly certain (though not completely) that Kevin is not Jewish. Hey, nobody's perfect. Mr. Peraino is also a journalist for Newsweek - their Jerusalem Bureau Chief actually. And this Newsweek reporter understands Israel's purpose better than many, many, many Jews do.

Flashback: The early Zionist dreamed of building a nation where "Jewish criminals are arrested by Jewish police officers, tried before Jewish judges and incarcerated in a Jewish prison." When that occurred, they declared, we will have become a "nation like any other."

But the Zionist dream of being "a nation like any other" is perhaps the most destructive idea a Jew can come up with. Indeed it is this very thought process that led to the post-Zionist movement. It is this thought process that leads Jews to uproot Jewish families and Jewish communities from holy Jewish soil all in the name of being accepted on the world stage. Being accepted as "a nation like any other."

The Jews are not a nation like any other. We are, in fact, a nation unlike any other. We are a light to the nations. Israel's purpose is to promote G-d to the world. Simply that and nothing more. Even if we Jews don't know it - the rest of the world sure does.

Take David Saranga, the Israeli consular official based in New York. Did you hear his latest ploy to help tourism, particularly for the 18-35 male demographic? "...what's relevant to men under 35? Good-looking women," he says. Yep. That's what Israel should highlight about itself.

Benny Elon rightly calls that a waste of money. "It's the only state where you can take the Bible as your tourism guide." Think, Saranga, think!

And though he doesn't agree with Elon, even Alan Dershowitz admits it's "completely not the way to go. I can see models anywhere." One commenter on Newsweek's site wrote that it looks like a really bad beer ad.

And that is exactly the point. Once Israel becomes "a nation like any other" we are thrust onto a world scale we have no right being on. On that scale, Israel appears to be a pretty crummy nation with nothing special at all. Hence the post-Zionists. But if we stay on the scale we are supposed to stay on, the "light-to-the-nations" scale we are untouchable! When we promote G-d, no nation anywhere can come close in terms of history, culture, food, family life, beauty, and spirituality. Indeed we have something no other nation has.

Kevin Peraino ended his article with this sentence: "The reality of Israel is often having to choose: go with the girl, or go with God."


---
I'm pasting the Newsweek article below in case it "disappears" from their site.

Girls: Israel's racy new PR strategy
Israel flirts with a racy new public-relations strategy.
By Kevin Peraino
Newsweek

April 9, 2007 issue - Jim Malucci has two tattoos, one on each bulging bicep. On the left one, the photographer for Maxim magazine has etched an image of a seductively dressed pinup; on the right, he has stenciled the words GO WITH GOD in Portuguese. He leans on his left arm and points his camera at a model in a bikini on the Tel Aviv beachfront. "That's hot, that's wicked," says Malucci, as the model shifts her hips and parts her lips. "I wanna see the curves. That's it, honey. On your knees, legs apart. Nice arch in your back-boom!" The flash flickers as the sun drops toward the Mediterranean. A Hassidic man in a black hat accidentally steps into the frame. "Love the guy with the hat!" Malucci says, chortling.

Taking in the scene, David Saranga can't help but grin. The Israeli consular official based in New York approached Maxim six months ago. His proposal: the government and other pro-Israeli groups would fly a camera crew across the Atlantic in an effort to remake the Jewish state's public image. Israel's reputation had suffered after last summer's war with Lebanon; in a recent BBC poll taken in 27 countries, 56 percent of respondents considered Israel a "negative influence" in the world, higher than both Iran and the United States. But Israel's real PR problem, according to Saranga, is that Americans-particularly men aged 18 to 35-either associate the country with war or holy relics, or don't think of it at all. "We have to find the right hook," he says. "And what's relevant to men under 35? Good-looking women."

Saranga's effort is the latest volley in a long-running battle over how to sell Israel to the world. Tourism is a nearly $2 billion-a-year industry in Israel, and the art of public relations is something of a national obsession. In Hebrew it's called hasbarah, which means "explaining." For a country that's always craved international acceptance, hasbarah was "the first growth industry of Israel," the American author Richard Ben Cramer wrote. "We almost have a psychological disorder when it comes to public image," adds Eytan Schwartz, the first winner of Israel's top-rated reality TV show, "The Ambassador." Schwartz's prize is proof of that: the winner of "The Ambassador" gets to become a public-relations flack.

Still, by definition, hasbarah is open to interpretation. One of the central dilemmas is which aspects of Israel's wildly diverse society to emphasize. Israelis disagree about which is more likely to appeal to Americans-Tel Aviv's freewheeling, secular charms, or Jerusalem's holy sites. Settler leader Benny Elon, a former tourism minister, says he considers ads touting Israel's beaches a waste of money. For Elon, it isn't only a cultural issue; it's also bad business. Tourists in search of sunshine will always favor the French Riviera or the Caribbean. Israel's "unique selling proposition" is its religious heritage, says Elon. "It's the only state where you can take the Bible as your tourism guide." A recent study by the consulting firm Ernst & Young recommends that the Jewish state target American evangelical Christian tourists-one of Elon's pet projects.

Yet trying too hard to lure Christian tourists could end up alienating secular liberals. "Benny Elon is just dead wrong," says Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz, author of "The Case for Israel." "It puts Israel in the camp of arch-conservative people." Already, a recent study by the New York marketing firm Wunderman has concluded that Israel's "brand" is perceived similarly to those of Philip Morris and the NRA. Ultimately evangelicals' support for Israeli tourism will evaporate, says Dershowitz; Christians will eventually become "disappointed" with the Jewish state as their interests diverge. But even Dershowitz thinks the idea of paying to fly a magazine crew across the Atlantic is a little over the top: "Completely not the way to go. I can see models anywhere."

Saranga insists his campaign is just smart niche marketing. "You have to match the message to the audience," the diplomat says. And his supporters argue that the Jewish state's diversity is one of its strongest selling points. Ultimately, says Dershowitz, "Israel is both countries ... a country where models pose at great holy sites." The tattoos on shooter Jim Malucci's biceps make the balance look easy to find. But marketing budgets are finite, and cultural rifts aren't so easily bridged. The reality of Israel is often having to choose: go with the girl, or go with God.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17888451/site/newsweek/