Critical

This article “Critical“, reprinted with the kind permission of Reb Akiva M, of:

by Akiva at Mystical Paths

We’re going to delve into a practical analysis briefly. The situation in Israel is critical, though somewhat existential. Surrounded by enemies on all sides who have figured out a way to hit and hurt, Israel is unwilling as well as pressured by the world to avoid taking the steps that would defend herself and/or prevent further attacks.

Instead, she’ll allow herself, or pieces of herself, to be sacrificed so the Western nations can keep their oil suppliers happy and stable (as if Israel has anything to do with their stability).

But, some of her population is bleeding (S’derot and everything south of Ashdod). Some is nationalistic and insists on acting as if land actually matters. Some is national religious, and acts as if settling the Land of Israel actually matters. And some just cares about the Land of Israel.

The rest, which is the ’silent majority’? They’re just going about their lives, and as long as terrorist incidents remain ‘low’ and missile attacks remain outside where 70% of the population lives, hey, out of sight out of mind.

So what to do about those annoying segments that actually care? This isn’t speculation, we’ll define exactly WHAT WAS DONE starting with the Rabin government and continuing through the expulsion of Gush Katif…

1. Minimize the voice. No media reports. No government offices dispatched. Welcome to what’s happening in S’derot. How many rockets this week, how many people hurt this month? I don’t know, no reports IN ISRAEL.

2. Delegitimize. News reports focus on “crazy” settlers, “innocent” palestinians, “blockages to peace”. Every investigative government agency investigates, they’re is always something to find wrong, highlight it.

3. Organize trouble. Take the community trouble makers and let them run free. Have “friends” conveniently hand them trouble making resources. Make sure to have other “friends” nearby who are capturing information (video/audio) to make the evening news.

4. Make the community question itself, make the rest of the nation question the community. Take all the above together and you rob a community of it’s voice, you divide it as some say it’s gone overboard, and you make it considered either crazy, a laughing stock, or dangerous, by the rest of the nation.

This is not speculation, this is the program run several times in the past in Israel. As Jerusalem comes on the table and tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands stand to lose their homes, and murderers are to be brought within range of 90% of the Israeli population, you can be sure such tactics are already in progress.

You’ll note that almost every Israeli commentor found the situation regarding Rabbi Nati to be completely plausible and in line with PAST Israeli internal events. A few Americans wish to believe that such things must be paranoia or a scam of some sort. Those same people, however, probably scream about the lost rights due to the US Patriot Act and other similar security measures the US has taken. Yet when they see the results of such things in action, they fail to grasp it.

Can Israel Resist US Pressure?

Following are excerpts of “Can Israel Resist US Pressure?“
by Ted Belman of Arutz Sheva – IsraelNationalNews.com

The US has made Israel dependent on it.

Recently, we hear that Ehud Olmert offered to cede the Golan Heights to Syria, and I commented that the Golan is safe for now. For now; but ultimately the US will be pressuring Israel to do the deal. As Ami Isseroff points out in “Territorial Integrity: American Middle East policy and what it means for Israel“, it has always been US policy to force Israel to trade land for peace.

To accomplish its goals, the US has made Israel dependent on it for military supply and diplomatic support, in order to gain influence on Israel. Recently, in keeping with this policy, Rice advised Israel that the US would not send extra supplies to Israel, but would keep them in the US.

There are two factors that remain obstacles to US plans, however. The determination of most Israelis to not cede all the land demanded or to divide Jerusalem is one. The other is the Arab rejectionist camp of Iran, Syria, Hizbullah and Hamas – which reject peace with Israel.

One way or another, the Truth will Always Prevail!

In view of some rather distracting and annoying comments from a blogger who praises himself with having the real and only truth regarding our Holy Land, that is, Eretz Yisrael, I have thought pertinent to post a couple of details regarding the truth about Palestine.

Let’s hope that Hashem gives him some enlightenment and he can start seeing some light regarding the fallacy which he is propagating over the Internet and unfortunately creating much hatered towards the Jewish People.

“PALESTINE?”

The term “Palestine” came from the name that the conquering Roman Empire gave the ancient Land of Israel in an attempt to obliterate and de-legitimize the Jewish presence in the Holy Land. The name “Palestine” was invented in the year 135 C.E. Before it was known as Judea, which was the southern kingdom of ancient Israel. The Roman Procurator in charge of the Judean-Israel territories was so angry at the Jews for revolting that he called for his historians and asked them who were the worst enemies of the Jews in their past history. The scribes said, “the Philistines.” Thus, the Procurator declared that Land of Israel would from then forward be called “Philistia” [further bastardized into "Palaistina"] to dishonor the Jews and obliterate their history. Hence the name “Palestine.”

One more thing. Very often one hears the revisionists and propagandists finding ancient historical links between the “Philistines” (“Invaders” in Hebrew) and the Arab “Palestinians.” There is no truth to this claim! The Philistines were one of a number of Sea Peoples who reached the eastern Mediterranean region approximately 1250-1100 B.C.E. They were actually an amalgamation of various ethnic groups, primarily of Aegean and south-east European origin [Greece, Crete and Western Turkey] and they died out over 2500 years ago! Those Philistines were not Arab… and neither was Goliath! The Arabs of “Palestine” are just that… Arabs! And these Arabs of “Palestine” have about as much historical roots to the ancient Philistines as Yasser Arafat has to the Eskimos!

There was no “Arab Palestinian” history before the Arabs manufactured one shortly after 1948, and then especially after the June 1967 Arab-Israeli War! In an interview with the Dutch newspaper “Trau” (March 31, 1977), PLO executive committee member Zahir Muhsein said, “The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct ‘Palestinian people’ to oppose Zionism. It is also been a “conceptual” war for ownership of the term “Palestinian” which has been transferred over to the Arabs whereas, before 1967, “Palestine” has always been synonymous with Eretz Israel and the Land of Israel.

Archeological sites to this very day continue to yield artifacts with Hebrew writing, not some fictitious “Palestinian” or Arabic text! The so-called “Palestinian” Arabs were simply then, as they are now, Arabs no different culturally, historically or ethnically from other Arabs living in any of the 24 Arab countries from which they emigrated. The suggestion that the “Palestinians” are some sub-group of Arabs with their own unique identity is pure fiction! Great propaganda… but still pure fiction! And had not the Arabs continued to brainwash generation upon generation into believing this HISTORICAL HOGWASH about some ancient “Arab Palestinian” ties to the Holy Land, most could have gotten themselves a real life by now with much less bloodshed and suffering for everyone concerned!

The name “Falastin” that Arabs today use for “Palestine” is not an Arabic name. It is the Arab pronunciation of the Greco-Roman “Palastina”; which is derived from the Plesheth, (root palash) was a general term meaning rolling or migratory. This referred to the Philistine’s invasion and conquest of the coast from the sea.

The use of the term “Palestinian” for an Arab ethnic group is a modern political creation which has no basis in fact – and had never had any international or academic credibility before 1967.

From the moment the Jewish People re-established sovereignty in their ancient homeland, they sought genuine peace with all of their neighbors. Unfortunately, their neighbors did not wish to share a peaceful existence with them. They, like Bin Ladin today, felt that they had a religious obligation to destroy the non-Arab/Muslim Jewish State (and, for that matter, ALL non-Arab/Moslem governments in the world). The Arab campaign against Israel is rooted not in any negotiable grievances but in a basic opposition to the very existence of Jewish sovereignty in what they perceive as THEIR Middle East! The ultimate intent of the Arabs is to separate out a Jewish history from “Palestine”… and then to separate Israel from the face of the Earth.

I could go on and on producing more evidence of what is the truth regarding the fallacy of the right the Arabs claim they have over Eretz Yisrael.

Please take notice!

Archeological sites to this very day continue to yield artifacts with Hebrew writing, not some fictitious “Palestinian” or Arabic text! The so-called “Palestinian” Arabs were simply then, as they are now, Arabs no different culturally, historically or ethnically from other Arabs living in any of the 24 Arab countries from which they emigrated.

The suggestion that the “Palestinians” are some sub-group of Arabs with their own unique identity is pure fiction! Great propaganda… but still pure fiction!

And had not the Arabs continued to brainwash generation upon generation into believing this HISTORICAL HOGWASH about some ancient “Arab Palestinian” ties to the Holy Land, most could have gotten themselves a real life by now with much less bloodshed and suffering for everyone concerned!

Remember:

When we use their language (i.e. “West Bank” instead of Judea-Samaria, “occupied territory” instead of liberated Jewish lands, “settlements” instead of Jewish communities, “Palestinian” instead of Arab, “Haram esh Sharif” instead of the Temple Mount, etc.), we are allowing the enemies of Eretz Yisrael to define the issues, create or distort history and control the debate.

BARMITZVA is for LIFE!!!

From the day you become Barmitzva or Batmitzva you are a full adult member of the People of Israel, guardians of the longest surviving faith in the world.

A complete guide to Barmitzva customs

• Origins

• Tefilin

• Reading the Torah

• Celebrating

• Making a speech

• Gifts

To read a treasury of information, please click here.

Eyes Upon The Land

Our Sages teach that every Jew possesses a portion of Eretz Yisrael, the Land of Israel. The converse is also true. The land possesses a portion of every Jew.

For this is “a land which G-d… seeks out; the eyes of G-d are always upon it, from the beginning of the year until the end of the year.” And just as G-d seeks out the land, so do we.

Source: Chabad.org

In recent years, it has become common to think of the solution of the Arab-Israeli conflict in terms of the formula, “land for peace.” Phrasing the question in that manner produces a ready answer, for regardless of our love for the Land of Israel, there is no question that all sacrifices necessary should be made to achieve peace.

In the pages that follow, we will present a different approach to the issues, one rooted in the principles of our Jewish heritage, yet starkly realistic in its appreciation of what is happening on the ground in and around Israel today.

To read Online, kindly click here.

To purchase the Book, kindly click here.

The Lubavitcher Rebbe on Israel’s Security!

This amazing clip of the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s warnings against territorial compromise and concessions.

You will have shivers up your spine listening to his every holy word.

Listening to the Rebbe’s voice and seeing his face can cleanse ones soul.

In order to view, kindly click here.

Note: The clip is in Hebrew, even so, it’s worth seeing and listening.

Bush-said, “End the Occupation,” and Olmert Was Silent!

With the kind authorization of Professor Paul Eidelberg from the The Foundation for Constitutional Democracy.

25-Jan-2008

Edited transcript of the Eidelberg Report, Israel National Radio, January 21, 2008.

In his visit to Israel, President Bush had the audacity to say, “end the occupation.” He had in mind Judea and Samaria including the Old City of Jerusalem. Unsurprisingly, Prime Minister Olmert, like other Israelis who are “tired of being courageous,” was silent.

Of course, Israel requires more than courage. Leaving aside the self-serving motives of Israel’s secular elites, they are abysmally ignorant. They have no understanding of the grandeur of the Jewish heritage, hence of what should be the character of the so-called Jewish state. They know not how to deal with the Arab Palestinian problem. Many would sacrifice much of the Land of Israel in the belief that this would solve that lethal problem. Mr. Bush is also drowning in ignorance, to say nothing of Saudi oil.

Except for the benighted, including journalists or academics, it should be obvious that neither democratic politics nor political science can deal adequately with these issues. The time has come for an unconventional approach. Let’s begin with a Torah perspective.

The Torah repeatedly declares that the Land of Israel belongs to the Jewish people. God promised Abraham: “And I will give unto you and to your seed after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession” (Gen. 17:8). God gave the same promise to Isaac and Jacob (Gen. 26:3 and 28:13).

The Land of Israel is the Chosen Land (Gen. 12:1; Deut. 11:12). Strategically located, this land was chosen by God so that His ways would be made known to the world by His Chosen People. “This people have I formed for Myself, that they shall relate My praise (Isa. 43:21). This means that Israel’s world-historical function is to reveal the infinite wisdom, power, and kindliness of the Creator in every domain of existence—physical, intellectual, and moral. “For out of Zion shall go forth the Law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem” (Isaiah 2:3). Therefore, any loss of Jewish sovereignty over the Land of Israel can only be temporary. For “God is not a man that He should lie; nor a human being that he should change his mind. Shall He say something and not do it, or speak and not fulfill?” (Num. 23:19).

But when the people of Israel transgressed the Torah, they were expelled from the Land. They became a “byword among all the nations” (Deut. 28:37), scorned, tormented, and decimated, the hapless victims of anti-Semitism. Their tortured exile and temporary loss of sovereignty over the Land constituted a punishment prescribed in the Torah itself. “You shall therefore keep all my laws and social rules and fulfill them, so that the land to which I bring you to settle in will not spew you out” (Lev. 20:22). “I, Myself, will bring the land into desolation, and your enemies that settle in it will become astonished at it. But you I will scatter among the nations” (Lev. 26:27, 32).

Remarkably, the Hebrew word “astonished” (shamemu) was understood by the Jewish Sages, more than two thousand years ago, to mean that Israel’s enemies “shall be desolate” while occupying this strange land. In other words, any nation that supplants the Jews in the Land of Israel will not prosper there.

History has confirmed this prophecy. During the last twenty-five hundred years, the Land of Israel has been conquered many times by different nations. Yet, despite its extraordinary fertility, this land remained desolate no matter which foreign nation occupied or controlled it.

Especially significant or providential is the nomadic character of the Arabs who have lived in the Land of Israel and who left it in the most sorrowful desolation as Mark Twain once saw and described. Had the Arabs developed the Land and had they formed thereon a sovereign state with a distinct national culture, Jewish immigration to the Land would have been out of the question. Apparently, the Arabs were placed here as temporary residents, until the Jews, having passed through the fires of exile, could reclaim the Land and make its deserts bloom.

The Arabs, descendants of Ishmael, condemn the Jews as “aggressors” for having “usurped” the land of “Palestine.” President Bush calls us “occupiers.” This denunciation was anticipated in Rashi’s commentary to Genesis 1:1. There the question arises: Why does the Torah begin with Creation and not with the first commandment given to the Jewish people? Rashi answers:

So that if the nations of the world should [question the validity of Israel’s title to the Holy Land] and say: “You are robbers in that you have seized by force the territories of the seven nations” [of Canaan that had previously occupied the land], Israel can retort: “The entire world belongs to the Holy One, Blessed be He. He created it and gave it to whomsoever it was right in His eyes. It was His will to give it to them and it was His will to take it from them and give it to us.”

Of course, Rashi’s commentary would be dismissed by nations no more disposed to recognize the truth of biblical prophecy than to abide by the Seven Noahide Laws of Universal Morality. Why should it be otherwise, since the secular Zionists who founded the State of Israel in 1948 dismissed the Torah, the only rational justification for Jewish possession of the Land of Israel?

But as I have often shown, the concept of the sovereign “state” is foreign to the Torah. At last, however, the New Jewish Congress, recently inaugurated in Jerusalem, declared that the Land of Israel does not belong to the State but to the Nation—the Jewish People. The State is nothing more than a trustee of the Jewish People to whom this land was given by God Almighty. But if Prime Minister Olmert does not recognize this truth, what can we expect of President Bush?

Since Israel’s secular elites deem the State supreme—a fascist doctrine—and since they reject the idea that the Land of Israel belongs to the Nation, the Jewish People, logic dictates that the State, as presently conceived, must perish if the Jewish People are to retain their only homeland—Eretz Yisrael. But inasmuch as the power of the State is concentrated in its political and judicial institutions, these institutions much perish or be radically transformed.

Democratic elections alone will not accomplish this task. In fact, it is precisely democratic elections that endow Israel’s elites with legitimacy despite their treachery. No one in public life emphasizes this fact on public forums—not even Manhigut Yehudit, the Jewish Leadership movement despite its having adopted, years ago, many of the ideas and institutional proposals of the Foundation for Constitutional Democracy.

I say this not to disparage anyone, but to inform people of what must be done to save Israel. I know of no one aspiring to become Israel’s leader who has the courage and the intellectual ability to tell the people of Israel that they have been brainwashed for 60 years about Israeli democracy. Nor has anyone enlightened them about the inherent contradiction between the idea of the sovereign State and Judaism.

Israel’s reputed democracy, confronted by Arab-Islamic despotism, did not prevent Mr. Bush—a self-styled Christian—from telling Jews to end the occupation of their God-given land. Mark my words, Mr. Olmert, like Ariel Sharon, will justify withdrawal from Judea and Samaria in the name of democracy. And he will do this because Israel’s secular elites regard the State and its laws superior to the laws of the Torah, as the Jews of Gush Katif learned in their misery.

Have you heard any religious party declare, again and again, that the laws of the State are not the highest law? Have you heard of any person in public life such as Effie Eitam or Arieh Eldad or Moshe Feiglin say that those who claim the laws of the State are the highest laws are actually espousing a fascist doctrine? If the Supreme Court or the Knesset insists that the laws of the State are the highest law, then I urge the men just named—and I wish them well—to call for regime change and not just civil disobedience. Indeed, those who have not sacrificed their intellects to “political correctness” must surely know that Israel’s phony democracy, with its destructive political and judicial institutions, must perish if Israel is to survive.

Original Article can be seen at: The Foundation for Constitutional Democracy.