Sunday, February 17, 2008

Obama, Democrats are on Palestinians' side.Letter to the Editor The Sun-Sentinal

The Sun-Sentinel

February 16, 2008

"Obama, Democrats are on Palestinians' side"

While the terror rocket attacks from Gaza into Israel are leading up to another major conflict in that region, the Democratic Party, partly headed by Sen. Barack Obama, continues its support for the "besieged" Palestinians.

In a talk in Iowa, given by the contender for his party's presidential nomination, Obama called the Palestinian people "the most oppressed people on Earth." Of course, the reference was that the Israelis were the oppressors.

Also, please take note that he recently stated to Paris Match (Jan. 31) that if elected, he would, "organize a summit in the Muslim world with all the heads of state, to have an honest discussion about ways to bridge the gap that grows between Muslims and the West. I want to ask them to join our fight against terrorism. We must listen to their concerns."

And recently, Dennis Kucinich and 10 other Democratic House members sent a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice calling on the United States to exert its "influence to urge Israel to end its blockade of Gaza." They claimed the human rights of the Palestinians were being violated by Israel. As a former "Jewish umbilical-cord Democrat," I wonder how my fellow Jews could still consider themselves Democrats knowing the anti-Israel bias of their party.

Alan Bergstein

Boca Raton, FL

Thank you petfa4@aol.com, caringjew@aol.com, Odel216@aol.com for forwarding.





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Earthquake Damages Temple Mount and Shechem

bs"d
 
 
So far there have been Tsunamis, hurricanes, earthquakes.....
 
To read a thorough explanation of walking in happenstance, KERI with Hashem please read the post.  What does it take us to finally speak up? 
 
By Rabbi Avraham Fischer. A publication of the Orthodox Union in cooperation with the Seymour J. Abrams Orthodox Union Jerusalem World Center
 
 
Parshat Behar-Bechukotai
May 4, 2002

As the Book of Vayikra, the book of sanctity, draws to a close, the Torah delineates the consequences of obedience and disobedience to Hashem's will. This is the Tochechah, the passage of admonition (chapter 26) that concludes the covenant of Sinai. If the people embrace Hashem's commands, the land will be blessed with prosperity, security and peace (verses 3-13). Conversely, rejecting Hashem's edicts will result in the curses of disease (verses 16-17), famine (verses 18-20), wild beasts (verses 21-22), war (verses 23-26), destruction and exile (verses 27-39).

The purpose of these warnings is to stir the people to repentance. If the people do not heed the warnings, then the disasters become increasingly more dire.

Unique to this chapter is the word KERI, appearing a significant seven times - and nowhere else in Tanach - at transition points in this passage:
And if you walk with Me KERI, and you will not desire to listen to Me, then I will add against you a plague, seven times your sins (26:21).
Malbim (R. Meir Leib ben Yechiel Michael, 1809-1877) notes that KERI is first mentioned after the two warnings of disease and famine. Upon the determining third occasion of disregarding Hashem's punishment, there follows the plague of wild beasts:.... 

For full post please visit.




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Food for Thought- Is the voice of the people properly represented.

bs"d
 
The uniqueness of Israeli democracy:
We have Mr Olmert acting as prime minister - mind: he was not elected by the people into that office - although he himself is aware of, even said, that the majority of the people does not agree with him.
Every dictator, even monsters like Hitler and Stalin, claimed the support of at least 80-90% of their people.
True, he was elected by the Knesset into that office.
Remain two questions:
 Whom do the members of the Knesset represent?
 What is democracy?
 
additional question that I have for those in the USA.  Does the voice of the Conference of Presidents and IPA properly represent the voice of the Jewish Community? R. Ticker



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All Together Now - means also Boro Park and Flatbush

All Together Now
By Arieh Eldad
 
Sderot residents blocked traffic on the Ayalon Highway this week.  I published a declaration of support, which expressed the hope that the resultant traffic jams would help Tel Avivians break out of their bubble and become aware of what ties them to the troubles in Sderot.  My e-mail inbox quickly filled with responses from angry, proud Tel Avivians.  They reminded me that Tel Aviv has been the site of attacks on coffeehouses and public buses. They pointed out that Sderot's viability derives from the economic and cultural activity of Tel Aviv; that Sderot's economy is not based on the dusty Kassam-ridden industrial zone in Sderot, but rather on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and Tel Aviv's major companies.  I cannot argue with facts. 
 
The next day the thoughtful face of Ehud Olmert visiting the Jewish Museum in Berlin peered at me from my newspaper.  Behind Olmert, one could see pictures of concentration camp survivors in striped uniforms, smiling and waving hats given them by the Red Army that freed them.  I have not been to that museum because I have not been to Berlin because I vowed never to step on that impure land.  Olmert was in Berlin.   I'm not condemning him for being there, because to speed the construction of special submarines for our navy - it is permissible to go even to Germany.  But there he stood, in front of photos of camp survivors - the symbol of a common Jewish fate: Haredim together with the non-religious; nationalist Betar youth movement members together with Communists; and even some who today would not be legally eligible to enter Israel under the Law of Return, but the Germans knew that they were Jews - and they all rose heavenward through the smokestacks.   Out of this abyss of the common Jewish fate, Olmert explained to journalists what he thought about Sderot's residents' demonstrating in Tel Aviv: "Every city has had its time to deal with the troubles they are dealing with today."
 
What were the Tel Avivians whom I tried to shake out of their bubble trying to tell me?  What was Olmert saying? 
 
They were saying:  In Israel everyone gets hit in his own time.  At some point Kiryat Shmona and Bet Shean, at some point Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem.  Therefore, Sderot's residents shouldn't come to us waving their Kassam rocket shells and blocking traffic on our Ayalon Highway.  Because more Jerusalemites and Tel Avivians were killed in the attacks on the Apropos and Sbarro restaurants and on the number 5 and 18 bus lines than have been killed in Sderot from thousands of Kassam rockets.  We have already suffered, now it is your turn.
 
Olmert's statement did not reflect a shared common burden.  It proclaimed the death of solidarity.  And it was made in front of photographs of prisoners garbed in striped uniforms, shirts bloodied by the wild animals who murdered six million.  The death of solidarity is Olmert's hope.  Only if he divides can he rule.  Were the army reservists  angry at how poorly the Second Lebanese War was managed to join with the poor residents of Dimona, and those of Sderot with those of Tel Aviv, and those of Kiryat Shmonah with those of Kiryat Arba, and the families who have lost loved ones in wars and terrorist attacks with the families abandoned to the mercy of Katyusha rockets and Kassam rockets – were they all to rise together now, on one day, not each city in its own time when it is beaten down, in shock, burying its dead, and insulted by having been abandoned – were all of them to rise in solidarity, and in full awareness of the common Jewish fate move to get rid of Olmert, he would not be able to cling to his desk.  People like Olmert survive because he who is not being beaten at a particular moment remains silent.  They are stronger than we are when we rise to protest each in his turn, and the rest remain silent, ignoring the others, complacent in their own bubbles, thankful for their good luck that this time it is not them being beaten.  The bubble is everywhere.  The Tel Avivians were understandably insulted.  Leave the new breed of Israeli alone for a minute, without a nearby attack, and he will erect a bubble around him.  These bubbles are made of shares of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, of greenhouse gases and same sex parents, of arguments about whether vegetables grown by a non-Jew in the Land of Israel during the Sabbatical year should be purchased, and of virtual "reality" television shows.  These are the bubbles that allow Olmert to stay afloat and steer our Titanic into an iceberg.
 
Israeli Army Radio should be praised for deciding to interrupt and stop its broadcasts every time a red alert is sounded in the south of the country indicating incoming rockets.  All radio and television stations in Israel should do the same.  And anyone who wonders what he can do for the residents of Sderot, and actually for himself, and in truth for all of us, should join the residents of Sderot stretched across the Ayalon Highway or the entrance to Jerusalem.  He should block whatever road he is near, or he should drive his car on Friday to Sderot, to do his shopping there, to sit there in a café, or just to be there, to talk to people.  Solidarity is a value that we need to take out of the mothballs, to shake the dust of cynicism from it, and to don it as a uniform, as one needs to do in a time of war. 




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Excel article OU website R' Nachman Kahana and fwd from R' Pesach Lerner.

bs"d

Thank you Sara Lehman for forwarding me this article by Rabbi Nachman Kahana taken from the OU website.

Rabbi Nachman Kahana writes

...In the galut, in all its ages and places, the cry of "Shema Yisrael" ascended to the highest realms of heaven as a Jewish soul parted from this world because of the fires of Christianity or the sword of Islam.

However, with our return to Eretz Yisrael the ultimate sanctification of HaShem is NOT to die for Him but to destroy all those who are identified with Amalek. As the Almighty Himself says in the Torah (Shemot 17,16):..

For complete article, a must read..

http://www.ou.org/shabbat_shalom/article/36761

Rabbi Lerner writes:

Friends—

I share with you "The Editor's View" from this week's Yated Ne'eman weekly newspaper.

I believe the editor, Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz, challenges us to care, to do more.

I encourage you to read it and to share his thoughts with your family and friends.

Please share it with your rabbis and community leaders. Copy the article and distribute it in your Shul.

We need to start thinking about and talking about the critical situation in Jerusalem, Sderot and greater israel.

 

I also included Yated's article about the secret talks taking place about dividing Jerusalem, G-d forbid.

It is an article we all need to read.

 

Please share your comments  directly to editor@yated.com

 Thank you

PL

 Rabbi Pesach Lerner

Executive Vice President

National Council of Young Israel

111 John Street   Suite 450

New York, NY 10038

212-929-1525




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