American Thinker has a great, highly documented article about the idea of a right of return for Arabs into Israel. It is definitely a must-read.

Labels: Israel, Politics

I recently ran across some numbers on refugees in Israel and surrounding countries, and I thought it would be good to put those up on my website. To see this information, please see my Refugees page.

Labels: Israel

Jim Davila at PaleoJudaica points to two interesting opinion pieces written in Arutz Sheva and in Ynet regarding the current situation in Israel. The Israeli government has made some blundering mistakes in the past few years, not the least of which is the mishandling of the war with Hizb'allah. The author of the two articles is Elyakim Haetzni, a lawyer and a former Kenesset member. I think Haetzni makes very good connections to history in these articles—connections that most people are unknowledgeable about because of a general lack of desire to study the past. The old saying is really true: we are doomed to repeat our failures if we are unwilling to look them in the face and change our actions.

Labels: Israel

As Israel fights to protect its citizens against those who want to kill every Jew, I offer this prayer—not only for the soldiers who have been kidnapped and the families of the Israelis killed, but also for the millions of people living in fear for their lives, not sure where or when the next rocket will fall.

Acheinu kol beit yisrael
Hanetunim betzarah uvashivya
Haomdim ben bayam uvein bayabasha
Hamakom yerachem aleihem v’yotziein mitzarah lirvacha
U’meafeileh liora umeshibud legeulah
Hashta bagala uvizman kariv

"If any of our brothers, members of the house of Israel, find themselves in trouble or in captivity, whether they are at sea or on dry land, may G-d take pity on them and deliver them from their trouble to well-being, from darkness to light, from captivity to freedom, swiftly!"

Amein!

Labels: Israel

Investor’s Business Daily has published a great article that provides a wonderful follow-up on my earlier post about Islam. The author of the article says that the best way for moderate Muslims to show us that Islam is not a religion of war is for those Muslims to answer some important questions for us, for instance:

Is it true that 26 chapters of the Quran deal with jihad, a fight able-bodied believers are obligated to join (Surah 2:216), and that the text orders Muslims to "instill terror into the hearts of the unbeliever" and to "smite above their necks" (8:12)?

Is the "test" of loyalty to Allah not good acts or faith in general, but martyrdom that results from fighting unbelievers (47:4) — the only assurance of salvation in Islam (4:74; 9:111)?

Are the sins of any Muslim who becomes a martyr forgiven by the very act of being slain while slaying the unbelievers (4:96)?

And is it really true that martyrs are rewarded with virgins, among other carnal delights, in Paradise (38:51, 55:56; 55:76; 56:22)?

Are those unable to do jihad — such as women or the elderly — required to give "asylum and aid" to those who do fight unbelievers in the cause of Allah (8:74)?

Does Islam advocate expansion by force? And is the final command of jihad, as revealed to Muhammad in the Quran, to conquer the world in the name of Islam (9:29)?

Is Islam the only religion that does not teach the Golden Rule (48:29)? Does the Quran instead teach violence and hatred against non-Muslims, specifically Jews and Christians (5:50)?

This list of references is one of the most comprehensive lists I have ever seen, and the author's questions get right to the heart of the issue. Take a minute and read the whole article. If you are a Muslim, I hope you will seriously consider trying to answer these questions for us.

Labels: Islam, Israel

In case any of you are interested, Debbie Schlussel has some information on two new movies in the theatres, both produced by Spike Lee. "Inside Man" and "CSA: The Confederate States of America" are both anti-Semitic, racist, historically inaccurate, and par for the course for Lee's movies thus far.

Labels: Israel, Politics

Well, it is finally finished! As a direct result of my trial run at polyphasic sleep, I have actually finished creating the photo album from my trip to Israel. 402 pictures, 18 sections, lots of historical information, and even two videos! Take a look, and don't forget to check out the other photo albums, too.

Labels: Israel

I have been unwilling to go see Steven Spielberg's newest film, Munich because of some of the troubling things I have heard about it. After reading Commentary Magazine's thorough and informative editorial/review on the subject, I have decided I will never spend my hard-earned money in support of that film.

I think Spielberg should be ashamed of himself as a Jew for his unwillingness to tell the truth about such an important point in modern Jewish history. His desire to be evenhanded has resulted in comeplete moral equivalence, and that is unconscionable. I heartily encourage you to read this editorial/review and mention it to your friends.

Labels: Israel, Politics

So, I have been gone for just over 2 weeks to Israel. The trip was great, and I will have my pictures up sometime in the next few weeks. Thanks to everyone who has voted for me in the Israelly Cool/Jerusalem Post Jewish and Israeli Blog Awards so far. If you have not voted yet, you only have a few more days to bring me up from 3% of the vote!

Labels: Israel, Judaism

Lots of bloggers are chiming in on Steven Spielberg's new movie Munich. I think Anne Lieberman condenses the issue quite well in her post from a few weeks back. I see little difference between the lies and misinformation Spielberg is promoting and the idiotic statements made in the last few weeks by the president of Iran. Both ignore the history of the Middle East and Israel over the last 100 years. Both make killing Jews into a political issue, not a moral one—in a vain attempt at making such killings okay.

The plain fact of the matter is that the Palestinian murderers who took the lives of innocent civilian athletes in Munich do not deserve to have their thoughts voiced. They gave up that right when they made the decision to kill innocent people to further their cause. Spielberg, good Jewish boy that he is, has simply been duped into thinking that the Arabs want to talk, not that their aim is the destruction of the Jewish state and the death of every Jew on the planet. If you doubt that fact, just ask them. They do a bad job of hiding their true aims.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has also given up any rights he has to speak about the Arab-Israeli conflict since he has shown that he has absolutely no understanding of history and little connection to reality. I would venture to guess that he has never been to a Holocaust memorial, much less that he has ever read the detailed accounts of the Jews killed by Hitler and his minions. Ahmadinejad would much rather ignore that information because doing so lets him have some sick inward justification for hating G-d's chosen people and plotting to wipe them off the face of the earth.

May Hashem open his eyes or have mercy on his soul, whichever He deems more beneficial...

Labels: Israel, Politics

From the new Dry Bones blog:

Labels: Israel

This story shows the utter idiocy of the political systems in Europe. A former Israeli Army officer only avoided being arrested and tried in Britain for alleged war crimes against the "Palestinians" by staying on his airplane until it took off again from Heathrow Airport.

The "Palestinians" have a lot of power in Europe--more than they should, in my opinion. When was the last time a PLO official was arrested in Europe (or anywhere, for that matter) for the more than 100 breaches of the Oslo Accords? Or for the hundreds of attacks before that?

Labels: Israel

LGF pointed to a great article in Commentary Magazine today dealing with the facts behind the alleged Israeli shooting of a child in 2000 at the beginning of the current "intifada." The article goes into extensive detail on the events of that day and shows how the media has covered up and ignored the facts. I was becoming very aware of the problems confronting Israel at that time, and I am incensed that this issue, which was discussed at length at the time and never refuted in the media, is still having the impact that it does in Palestinian "culture."

Early on, for example, it was pointed out that the 55-second video did not show any of the normal signs consistent with wounds from high-power bullets. There was no blood on the victims’ clothes, on the wall, or on the ground. Their postures appeared wholly voluntary, with no sign of shock or trauma. As for Abu Rahmeh’s claim of a 45-minute free-for-all, experts in ballistics concurred that automatic rifles fired uninterruptedly for that length of time would reduce their victims to shreds, and the concrete block wall behind them to rubble. Nor did such behavior accord with what one knew about the ethics, discipline, and skill of IDF soldiers....

The Reuters, AP, and France-2 outtakes that I viewed show two totally different and easily identifiable types of activity at Netzarim junction: real, intifada-style attacks, and crudely falsified battle scenes. Both the real and the fake scenes are played out against a background of normal civilian activity at a busy crossroads. In the “reality” zone, excited children and angry young men hurl rocks and Molotov cocktails at the Israeli outpost while shababs (“youths”) standing on the roof of the Twins throw burning tires down onto the caged lookout; this goes on seemingly for hours, without provoking the slightest military reaction from Israeli soldiers.

At the same time, in the “theatrical” zone, Palestinian stringers sporting prestigious logos on their vests and cameras are seen filming battle scenes staged behind the abandoned factory, well out of range of Israeli gunfire. The “wounded” sail through the air like modern dancers and then suddenly collapse. Cameramen jockey with hysterical youths who pounce on the “casualties,” pushing and shoving, howling Allahu akhbar!, clumsily grabbing the “injured,” pushing away the rare ambulance attendant in a pale green polyester jacket in order to shove, twist, haul, and dump the “victims” into UN and Red Crescent ambulances that pull up on a second’s notice and career back down the road again, sirens screaming....

I also viewed a copy of the satellite feed transmitted by Abu Rahmeh late in the afternoon of September 30. In addition to the 55 seconds aired that evening, it includes a final image of the boy who would be described afterward as “killed instantly by a shot to the stomach”: in it he is seen shifting position, propping himself up on his elbow, shading his eyes with his hand, rolling over on his stomach, covering his eyes....

I encourage you to read the whole thing.

Labels: Israel