tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22538353805511028222024-03-18T19:53:21.919-07:00Judean RoseAt Judean Rose you get a little bit of this and a little bit of that: food, politics, cognitive science, genealogy, religion, education, and family are all grist for my (writing) mill.Varda Meyers Epstein (Judean Rose)http://www.blogger.com/profile/17159600299817776906noreply@blogger.comBlogger151125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2253835380551102822.post-80132105784556655782020-11-01T08:43:00.008-08:002020-11-01T12:15:14.405-08:00Joe Biden: Gaffes, Lifelong Stutter, Or Cognitive Decline?<p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfuCbgo12YNEQ7NDZy2oCBuuVKKfSd5cZmXvgHQ60F3A8SnHDJyJ4dK9HKfd6ly2wNB1n63Lqwh2OgFrpzPeJN7snAFrwlIXK6dmflXjQZNn1EfSwFa-qT1EwnYB-FpB2zoEe03nHPvahZ/s1600/joe-biden-cough-removes+mask.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfuCbgo12YNEQ7NDZy2oCBuuVKKfSd5cZmXvgHQ60F3A8SnHDJyJ4dK9HKfd6ly2wNB1n63Lqwh2OgFrpzPeJN7snAFrwlIXK6dmflXjQZNn1EfSwFa-qT1EwnYB-FpB2zoEe03nHPvahZ/w400-h225/joe-biden-cough-removes+mask.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Joe Biden’s on-air jumbled utterances and odd behavior were
first termed “gaffes,” now they are a lifelong struggle with a “stutter.” It
appears, however, to be just another gambit to get the Democratic nominee
elected. How do we know? </p><p class="MsoNormal">A google search for “Joe Biden stutter” brings up lots of
hits, for instance <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/2253835380551102822/8013210578455665578">here</a> and <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/2253835380551102822/8013210578455665578">here</a>,
but none of these articles mention Biden’s aneurysms and how they are likely to
have affected his speech. The word “aneurysm” does not appear, for instance, in
the <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/2253835380551102822/8013210578455665578">Atlantic</a> article
or in the <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/2253835380551102822/8013210578455665578">New
York Times</a> article on Joe’s “stutter.” And when Lara Trump dared
to mention Biden’s “cognitive decline” on the air, <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/2253835380551102822/8013210578455665578">Jake
Tapper ended the interview</a>. <o:p></o:p></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Jake Tapper calls out Lara Trump for openly mocking Joe Biden's stutter. <br /><br />Lara says, "First and foremost I had no idea that Joe Biden ever suffered from a stutter. I think what we see on Joe Biden on stage is very clearly a cognitive decline."<br /><br />Tapper isn't having it. <a href="https://t.co/qGlfOLzd3k">pic.twitter.com/qGlfOLzd3k</a></p>— The Recount (@therecount) <a href="https://twitter.com/therecount/status/1317821677481459712?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 18, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<p class="MsoNormal">Joe Biden’s mental deficits, it seems, must be <b>hidden from
view</b>. Especially this close to the election. He’s almost there, that
much-desired event, a Democrat in the White House. Let’s keep <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/10/14/hunter-biden-emails-show-leveraging-connections-with-dad-to-boost-burisma-pay/">Hunter
Biden’s laptop</a> out of this. And any damage to Joe’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broca%27s_area#:~:text=Broca's%20area%2C%20or%20the%20Broca,functions%20linked%20to%20speech%20production.">Broca
area</a>, of course.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The suggestion that Joe Biden may have <a href="http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2020/07/we-need-to-talk-about-joe-judean-rose.html">brain
damage</a> is not new. Nor was it cooked up by desperate Republicans
anxious to win the election. Jill Biden, in fact, makes reference in her
autobiography to that scary time after Joe’s second berry aneurysm:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">"Our doctor told us there was a 50-50 chance Joe
wouldn't survive surgery," she wrote. "He also said that it was even
more likely that Joe would have permanent brain damage if he survived. And if
any part of his brain would be adversely affected, it would be the area that
governed speech."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">It is certainly plausible that Joe Biden battled a stutter
from childhood. But it is a fact that Biden suffered two berry
aneurysms in adulthood for which he underwent two separate brain surgeries that
may well have affected his speech. So why not mention that fact in articles
covering Joe’s speech issues during this presidential campaign?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">It may be because Joe’s word hiccups aren’t the sort of
hiccups that bear any obvious connection to a stutter. Not remembering Obama’s
name, or the year he, Biden, served as vice president, would not appear to have
any connection to a stutter. </p><p class="MsoNormal">
</p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BarelyThereBiden?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BarelyThereBiden</a> spent the last year forgetting Obama’s name, who the last President was, and when he was Obama’s VP.<br /><br />Will Joe even remember he has a fundraiser with Obama tonight?<br /><br />When Obama told Joe “you don’t have to do this,” he meant it.<a href="https://t.co/qLosBxWM2f">pic.twitter.com/qLosBxWM2f</a></p>— Trump War Room - Text TRUMP to 88022 (@TrumpWarRoom) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/1275538911775854592?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 23, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Thread. <br /><br />On multiple occasions, Joe Biden has forgot Barack Obama’s name. <br /><br />"By the way, are you gonna stick with President on the following, President [awkward pause], the last guy, on this issue?"<a href="https://t.co/SUUXnsJpwy">https://t.co/SUUXnsJpwy</a></p>— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) <a href="https://twitter.com/SteveGuest/status/1235679030113955846?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 5, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
Nor would a stutter appear to be responsible
for Joe Biden falling asleep (!) while being endorsed by Hillary Clinton.<o:p></o:p><p></p>
<iframe allow="encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="true" allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="658" scrolling="no" src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FDonaldJTrumpJr%2Fvideos%2F269297937417028%2F&show_text=1&width=380" style="border: none; overflow: hidden;" width="380"></iframe><div>Is it a stutter that made Joe Biden refuse to share the
results of his most recent <a href="https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/505562-biden-must-release-results-of-his-cognitive-decline-tests-voters-need-to">cognitive
assessment tests</a>? Was it a stutter that had Joe Biden regaling the public
with tales of nurses blowing into his nostrils? Or strangely, calling a college
student at a campaign event a “lying dog-faced pony soldier?” <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">.<a href="https://twitter.com/JoeBiden?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JoeBiden</a>: "I had nurses at Walter Reed hospital who would bend down and whisper in my ear, go home and get me pillows. They would … actually breathe in my nostrils to make me move, to get me moving.” <a href="https://t.co/hxW1UYs7Ba">pic.twitter.com/hxW1UYs7Ba</a></p>— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) <a href="https://twitter.com/tomselliott/status/1286013478319382528?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 22, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">‘You are a lying dog-faced pony soldier:’ Joe Biden says to a woman at a campaign event in New Hampshire after asking if she had ever been to a caucus <a href="https://t.co/yTfLtve4df">https://t.co/yTfLtve4df</a> <a href="https://t.co/O4CG8KsZaA">pic.twitter.com/O4CG8KsZaA</a></p>— Reuters (@Reuters) <a href="https://twitter.com/Reuters/status/1226737558257750016?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 10, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<p class="MsoNormal">Now, in the final countdown, with only days to go, Biden's ability to string words together seems to be deteriorating rapidly, for instance when he spoke about healthcare, here.</p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Joe Biden: “Barack and I think it’s a right for people to have badakathcare.” <a href="https://t.co/UqWELjSAMN">pic.twitter.com/UqWELjSAMN</a></p>— Trump War Room - Text TRUMP to 88022 (@TrumpWarRoom) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/1322643443722657794?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 31, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>Here, the slip occurs at about 10 seconds in. It is impossible to make any sense of his words, though the words themselves are clear and there is clearly no stutter.<div><div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Interesting quotes from Biden’s visit to the Fort Lauderdale campaign field office earlier today. <br />Biden says point-blank that Trump is sending Cuban-Americans (very powerful voting bloc in the state) back to Cuba. <a href="https://t.co/pQRSCT4LNj">pic.twitter.com/pQRSCT4LNj</a></p>— Ernest Scheyder (@ErnestScheyder) <a href="https://twitter.com/ErnestScheyder/status/1321944726522765314?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 29, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
No "stutter" here, but one long run-together nonsense word, that was probably supposed to have something to do with "international pressure" but in what context, no one will ever know. It's buried in the nonfunctioning recesses of Joe Biden's gray matter.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">BIDEN: “I’ll lead an effective strategy to mobilize trunalimunumaprzure.”<br /> <a href="https://t.co/TAkj7bJndN">pic.twitter.com/TAkj7bJndN</a></p>— Eddie Zipperer (@EddieZipperer) <a href="https://twitter.com/EddieZipperer/status/1322218253247303681?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 30, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><div>The words come out all right. There's no stutter. But what does any of it mean?</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/njJsY30id7o" width="320" youtube-src-id="njJsY30id7o"></iframe></div><div><br /></div>And this? This is not a stutter but a TIME WARP! He's back in the Bush era. But no. He knows it's wrong, but for the life of him, cannot put his finger on Donald Trump's name. It's escaped!</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9EMq42gdJQM" width="320" youtube-src-id="9EMq42gdJQM"></iframe></div><div><br /><div>For all we know, Joe Biden may indeed have a stutter, but
that does not explain the various issues we see and hear during his public
appearances. Biden very clearly has cognitive deficits. This is understandable
after two aneurysms and subsequent brain surgeries. All the things we see and
hear in relation to Joe Biden are well-explained by mental deficits. But not by
a lifelong stutter. Nor does it pass muster that the many articles explaining
away his frequently odd behavior would fail, at least in passing, to mention
his brain incidents and subsequent surgeries.</div><o:p></o:p><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Why does the media hide these important facts about the
state of Joe Biden’s brain from the voting public? There can be only one
reason: they don’t want you to know. Because <b>if the voting public suspected the
presidential candidate had cognitive deficits, they might not vote for him</b>. And
the thing is they are so close! They just need Biden to win the election, and
then they will be free to push home their radical, pro-Communist, <a href="https://english.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2020/10/15/joe-biden-says-his-administration-would-honour-muslim-contributions">Muslim-loving</a>,
<a href="https://jcpa.org/article/understanding-resolution-2334-obama-administration-betray-israel-un/">anti-Israel</a>
agenda.<o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0mgQaFlo_p8" width="320" youtube-src-id="0mgQaFlo_p8"></iframe></div><p class="MsoNormal">It’s not good when the media hides basic facts about a presidential candidate.
That holds true whether the facts are in regard to the contents of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-campaign-calls-on-joe-biden-to-respond-to-report-that-hunter-biden-under-criminal-investigation" target="_blank">HunterBiden’s laptop</a> or Joe Biden’s cognitive deficits. These efforts to hide the
truth tell us that American democracy is at stake.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">We can only hope that when it comes to telling us which
candidate is ahead in the race for president, here too, the media is simply a
lying, dog-faced pony soldier.<o:p></o:p></p></div></div></div>Varda Meyers Epstein (Judean Rose)http://www.blogger.com/profile/17159600299817776906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2253835380551102822.post-90854795629104801042020-01-30T07:50:00.000-08:002020-10-28T10:13:43.087-07:00Btsalmo Demands Firing of Sabado Cartoonist After Antisemitic Cartoon<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR276pZ3nXVUpMPzy1s2llAFe7wcAV-_Lrj4VBqFaO6wnPP-TEmIDfOf-7VqpVV-4XhygrtzrB5um6D-ZWMPpHlsnhFz3uXhY_TxrGleiv9Uy-KfPGsta-kIF_sf_vw0J8-yT84YmvOlkY/s548/1580392003163_1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="548" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR276pZ3nXVUpMPzy1s2llAFe7wcAV-_Lrj4VBqFaO6wnPP-TEmIDfOf-7VqpVV-4XhygrtzrB5um6D-ZWMPpHlsnhFz3uXhY_TxrGleiv9Uy-KfPGsta-kIF_sf_vw0J8-yT84YmvOlkY/w400-h263/1580392003163_1.png" width="400" /></a></div><p>Btsalmo, a human rights organization based in Israel, has written to the editor of <em>Sabado Magazine</em>, demanding the dismissal of cartoonist Vasco Gargalo for his cartoon of a “Palestinian” Holocaust. The cartoon depicts Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shoving a PA flag-draped coffin into an oven bearing the infamous slogan from the gates of Auschwitz, <em>Arbeit Macht Frei</em>, “work will set you free.”</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjrFXAxYKd3nlr0ZLhUuwzR-5o5SFLB7e4X9wOPAllwgoGsL7zOcaqW-brRrbxRsn-HpyE1qCoyPCHyga99AAiTT_c5FRxniVpX7KRua-u6_qYuzQSzXByW3dZP02PBTYJiB-67BORkgpy/s548/1580392003163_1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="548" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjrFXAxYKd3nlr0ZLhUuwzR-5o5SFLB7e4X9wOPAllwgoGsL7zOcaqW-brRrbxRsn-HpyE1qCoyPCHyga99AAiTT_c5FRxniVpX7KRua-u6_qYuzQSzXByW3dZP02PBTYJiB-67BORkgpy/w400-h263/1580392003163_1.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>The letter to the executive editor of <em>Sabado</em> was copied, among others, to the Portuguese Prime Minister, the Ambassador of Portugal to Israel, Israel’s prime minister, and the Israeli Ambassador to Portugal. Btsalmo CEO <a href="http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2020/01/shai-glick-and-btsalmo-unmasking.html">Shai Glick</a>, notes in the letter that the cartoon qualifies as both Holocaust denial and minimization according to the official International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIBwn45GZoSmidW8sHmKbMdW0E6TS3gD9jVNt18TcHuNOI7XzB07ewuOwWMSv-bgdhBx3s4o0QOpRJx3TTM-IXypAuE4AYLEAhayG4o_qCM0jJ2JtAVtTEn_PKczOFGXKgyHw5vgW2GMLK/s2000/0001-1414x2000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2000" data-original-width="1414" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIBwn45GZoSmidW8sHmKbMdW0E6TS3gD9jVNt18TcHuNOI7XzB07ewuOwWMSv-bgdhBx3s4o0QOpRJx3TTM-IXypAuE4AYLEAhayG4o_qCM0jJ2JtAVtTEn_PKczOFGXKgyHw5vgW2GMLK/w453-h640/0001-1414x2000.jpg" width="453" /></a></div>Varda Meyers Epstein (Judean Rose)http://www.blogger.com/profile/17159600299817776906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2253835380551102822.post-5211863140736228262018-10-17T08:14:00.000-07:002020-10-28T10:10:39.772-07:00Israel: No Need for a GA Makeover<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsMl9h2AynPRoEZ07m2wst8a2ylQ6N5fErJNPn7eNHl27jdu1fG1n6SuaNZMuDr-qYxjcrBKlZ00hwCzRAdj8xHqT6oDBkKWtzOgQMPPbRsCivNvFBvpcRtPHUAQnAp2Z8VwEUnCsp76w8/s800/GA-Billing-Screenshot-e1539788639192.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="299" data-original-width="800" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsMl9h2AynPRoEZ07m2wst8a2ylQ6N5fErJNPn7eNHl27jdu1fG1n6SuaNZMuDr-qYxjcrBKlZ00hwCzRAdj8xHqT6oDBkKWtzOgQMPPbRsCivNvFBvpcRtPHUAQnAp2Z8VwEUnCsp76w8/w400-h150/GA-Billing-Screenshot-e1539788639192.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>The General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of America, to be held this coming week in Israel, has created a bit of a ruckus here in Israel. For one thing, the Tel Aviv venue is thought to betray an agenda. Important gatherings like this should be held in Jerusalem, in order to underscore the idea that the Holy City is the capital of the Jewish State. There’s a feeling that the choice of Tel Aviv over Jerusalem is meant to be “in your face” to President Trump, who moved the United States embassy in the opposite direction, something much desired by both Israeli and American Jewry up until now. Writer Caroline Glick believes the entire event is meant as an <a href="https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Column-One-Jewish-Federations-we-need-to-talk-568714">anti-Trump protest</a>.</p><p>But there are other concerns. The GA has billed the event as “Israel and the Diaspora: We need to talk,” going on to describe what the organizers apparently see as a rift between Israeli Jews and American Jews. This rift, as they define it, seems to be about the <a href="http://www.judeanrose.com/2016/08/03/my-israel-the-liberal-lie/">liberal </a>views of American Jews versus the conservative beliefs of most Israelis; the religious pluralism of American Jewry versus the Orthodox status quo in Israel; and finally, the desire of American Jewry for a two-state solution, something both Israelis and Arabs have rejected.</p><p>Do these issues really need discussion? If American Jews are liberal, believe in religious pluralism, and tolerance, why should there be any rift at all between the two communities? In a tolerant, liberal culture, is there not room for other beliefs, conservative or otherwise? And if not, is it really a tolerant, liberal culture that shuts out all other viewpoints?</p><p>If one believes in religious pluralism, shouldn’t that person believe that Israelis have a right to choose how they wish to run their religious affairs? If the shul that Israelis do not attend is Orthodox, is this something that liberal American Jews are unable to tolerate? Israel provided an egalitarian prayer space at American Jewry’s request/demand. The space is almost always empty of people. But the regular Western Wall Plaza, with its separate spaces for men and women, is packed, day and night, with prayerful Israeli Jews.</p><p>Would the organizers of the GA have us believe there is something wrong with Jews coming to the Wall in throngs, and praying according to Orthodox custom? We aren’t stopping them from praying as they wish. So why are they so bothered by our pervasive orthodoxy by choice? Do they wish us to be more religiously diverse? If so, is this not a form of coercion? Are we incapable of making our own religious choices that we need to be Big Brothered by American Jewry?</p><p>As for the two-state solution, none of the actors in the region want this. It’s an unworkable idea. Yet American Jews keep telling us we need to do this, as though we are incapable of formulating our own ideas about the things that directly affect our quality of life and security. It’s paternalistic. And simplistic. Because they are unable to even adequately explain why they demand we do this thing, since it makes no sense. Adherents of the two-state solution would seem to be ignorant of the fact that no one in the region wants this “solution.” And they just continue to repeat the idea wherever they are presented with a platform.</p><p>Why can’t the Federation come to Israel and appreciate that we have our own society and say vive la difference and live and let live? Are we not a sovereign nation to which they have pledged their support? And speaking of support, my personal bugaboo with the Federation is its refusal to fund projects in areas over the Green Line that Israel won in a defensive war in 1967.</p><p>Judea and Samaria are indigenous Jewish territory. Judea, where I live, takes its name from the Jewish people. The territories are our ancestral heritage. How can a major Jewish organization take the stance that Jews have no right to settle in their indigenous territory? It’s not only an affront to history and our biblical narrative, it’s the complete opposite of what it means to be a liberal.</p><p>Liberals are supposed to fight for indigenous land rights, are they not? Instead, liberals tell Israeli Jews they are somehow in the wrong for building homes in these areas. They tell them that the area must remain Jew-free, because settling the area is a provocation to Arabs, or unhelpful to a nonexistent peace process with a declared enemy.</p><p>How does it conform to the liberal standards to tell any group of people that it is wrong for them to live in this place or that? Would you tell Baptists they have no right to live in Ohio? Or blacks that they have no right to live in Boro Park? These directives would be deemed politically incorrect, intolerant, illiberal. Yet the Federation has no trouble telling Jews that they have no right to live in Judea. That it is somehow evil for them to build homes and lives on land that belonged to their ancestors.</p><p>The truth is, there is no rift, and nothing to talk about. American Jews must realize that in order to be true to their liberal ideals, they must support Israel not just with money, but for its views in all spheres, especially those that are at variance with their own. This is the truest expression of liberal values: to appreciate that at 70 years old, Israel is quite capable of deciding its societal norms and beliefs.</p><p>We’ve grown up. And we’ve earned the right to live our truth.</p><p>Come to Tel Aviv instead of Jerusalem if you must. But note that Israel is in no need of a makeover. We ask you instead, to open your (liberal) hearts and minds to the reality and beauty that is Israel, and like us just the way we are.</p>Varda Meyers Epstein (Judean Rose)http://www.blogger.com/profile/17159600299817776906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2253835380551102822.post-31157966262944529692018-09-17T23:42:00.000-07:002020-10-28T10:07:51.046-07:00Grieving Ari: A Journal<p><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRKbBkUIooUGPOVMwffzMIRPu5byPEkxcJlpMVwg7v_G0qJpfuO2L1UxXw_N9F4mL5qq31_Ycv-cWC1iZh5bMEm7ss4XcFaL5XMMQuOrkdnMKhonIzo4KS8FKXi9SOguQkLHjobQtP9cgr/s685/Ari-Smiling.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="626" data-original-width="685" height="365" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRKbBkUIooUGPOVMwffzMIRPu5byPEkxcJlpMVwg7v_G0qJpfuO2L1UxXw_N9F4mL5qq31_Ycv-cWC1iZh5bMEm7ss4XcFaL5XMMQuOrkdnMKhonIzo4KS8FKXi9SOguQkLHjobQtP9cgr/w400-h365/Ari-Smiling.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>Many people said that reading my Facebook posts cataloging my grief after the tragic murder of Ari Fuld, HY”D, helped them to process their own feelings of loss. The feelings slowly came out, and as they did, I had nowhere to put them but Facebook. It was a strong need to talk about the grief process.<p></p><p>I decided to gather these posts here together in one spot so that even people outside of Facebook might read them. (I am omitting some of the first angry posts that yell at Ari’s enemies, as I’m not sure these outbursts are helpful to anyone.)</p><p><iframe frameborder="0" height="249" scrolling="no" src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fvardae%2Fposts%2F10217498129753697&width=500" style="border: none; overflow: hidden;" width="500"></iframe><br /><iframe frameborder="0" height="163" scrolling="no" src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fvardae%2Fposts%2F10217498314158307&width=500" style="border: none; overflow: hidden;" width="500"></iframe><br /><iframe frameborder="0" height="191" scrolling="no" src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fvardae%2Fposts%2F10217499577349886&width=500" style="border: none; overflow: hidden;" width="500"></iframe><br /><iframe frameborder="0" height="173" scrolling="no" src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fvardae%2Fposts%2F10217500068962176&width=500" style="border: none; overflow: hidden;" width="500"></iframe><br /><iframe frameborder="0" height="217" scrolling="no" src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fvardae%2Fposts%2F10217500075122330&width=500" style="border: none; overflow: hidden;" width="500"></iframe><br /><iframe frameborder="0" height="211" scrolling="no" src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fvardae%2Fposts%2F10217500091442738&width=500" style="border: none; overflow: hidden;" width="500"></iframe></p><blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/Bn1f-zggb32/?utm_source=ig_embed_loading" data-instgrm-version="12" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5) 0px 0px 1px 0px, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.15) 0px 1px 10px 0px; margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0px; width: calc(100% - 2px);"><div style="padding: 16px;"><p> </p><div style="align-items: center; display: flex; flex-direction: row;"></div><div style="padding: 19% 0px;"></div><div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0px auto 12px; width: 50px;"></div><div style="padding-top: 8px;"><div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div></div><div style="padding: 12.5% 0px;"></div><div style="align-items: center; display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px;"></div><p> </p><p style="margin: 8px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 4px;"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Bn1f-zggb32/?utm_source=ig_embed_loading" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">Normalcy after tragedy. Baking cookies. Too soon.</a></p><p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0px 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">A post shared by <a href="https://www.instagram.com/epavard/?utm_source=ig_embed_loading" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px;" target="_blank"> Varda Epstein</a> (@epavard) on <time datetime="2018-09-17T17:39:49+00:00" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;">Sep 17, 2018 at 10:39am PDT</time></p></div></blockquote><p><script async="" defer="" src="//www.instagram.com/embed.js"></script></p><p><iframe frameborder="0" height="280" scrolling="no" src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fvardae%2Fposts%2F10217500669457188&width=500" style="border: none; overflow: hidden;" width="500"></iframe><br /><iframe frameborder="0" height="306" scrolling="no" src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fvardae%2Fposts%2F10217500774019802&width=500" style="border: none; overflow: hidden;" width="500"></iframe><br /><iframe frameborder="0" height="389" scrolling="no" src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fvardae%2Fposts%2F10217500811620742&width=500" style="border: none; overflow: hidden;" width="500"></iframe><br /><iframe frameborder="0" height="293" scrolling="no" src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fvardae%2Fposts%2F10217501407115629&width=500" style="border: none; overflow: hidden;" width="500"></iframe></p>Varda Meyers Epstein (Judean Rose)http://www.blogger.com/profile/17159600299817776906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2253835380551102822.post-48566012263910673822018-09-08T23:21:00.000-07:002020-10-28T10:03:47.599-07:00Mudar Zahran Plays Hide the (Israeli) Flag<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiee4c1PiIRAB9WBPWdvYWR-ZrJZaPDVsfjSHTRF-0nkGzi6GCoY82uF6miQwWhy1-0gS3e0PqbVH-IHjGcsHPV0ObwYFxnEF1aifcDLhajViaWXjvDg6GpiSxMfla-QFu3oQjubMXM6QTq/s448/Flagless-Signless-Mudar.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="280" data-original-width="448" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiee4c1PiIRAB9WBPWdvYWR-ZrJZaPDVsfjSHTRF-0nkGzi6GCoY82uF6miQwWhy1-0gS3e0PqbVH-IHjGcsHPV0ObwYFxnEF1aifcDLhajViaWXjvDg6GpiSxMfla-QFu3oQjubMXM6QTq/w400-h250/Flagless-Signless-Mudar.png" width="400" /></a></div><p><a href="http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2017/09/mudar-zahran-and-right-wing-jewish.html">Mudar Zahran</a> recently addressed a <a href="http://judeasamaria.eu/category/news/">conference</a> of the Friends of Judea and Samaria in the European Parliament.</p><p><iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" scrolling="no" src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fruth.daskalopoulou%2Fvideos%2F10161031806805413%2F&show_text=0&width=560" style="border: none; overflow: hidden;" width="560"></iframe></p><p>The Friends of Judea and Samaria is a tiny lobby comprised of just <a href="http://judeasamaria.eu/support/">14</a> of the 715 members of the EU Parliament. The aims of this miniscule group are noble: they want the EU to stop funding Arab terror and to “abolish trade barriers of the European Union imposed on Jewish goods from the West Bank (Judea and Samaria).” But what on earth does any of this have to do with <a href="http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2017/10/mudar-zahran-confidence-man-judean-rose.html">Mudar Zahran</a>, the man who has duped the Jews into thinking he is the future ruler of Jordan?? And why did Zahran, after the fact, remove the Israeli flag and the sign that says Friends of Judea and Samaria from his own photos and video of the event?</p>
<iframe allow="encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="true" allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="517" scrolling="no" src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fmudar.zahran%2Fvideos%2F2233264100287831%2F&show_text=1&width=560" style="border: none; overflow: hidden;" width="560"></iframe> <div><br /></div><div>Zahran’s name is nowhere to be found on the list of speakers for the event. Attendees instead, are vaguely told they will be addressed by Jewish and Arab businessman about their cooperation in Judea & Samaria.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirjQPJ4caiBaStIJogtJemraiHxpvfHZg3_0BtIep6a8FGS_YPH_b0vrYdfze5d5mFIIIiZf9wBPbOP9V2Xi3FVrrQ9IsCysFO1tbgVWBikZHEfGHWoWL3-zIKjtA0cAWp0wlPYDvoRSj9/s300/List-of-speakers-300x247.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="247" data-original-width="300" height="329" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirjQPJ4caiBaStIJogtJemraiHxpvfHZg3_0BtIep6a8FGS_YPH_b0vrYdfze5d5mFIIIiZf9wBPbOP9V2Xi3FVrrQ9IsCysFO1tbgVWBikZHEfGHWoWL3-zIKjtA0cAWp0wlPYDvoRSj9/w400-h329/List-of-speakers-300x247.png" width="400" /></a></div><div>Zahran is not a businessman and has no ties to Judea and Samaria. Mudar Zahran is a <a href="http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2017/10/mudar-zahran-khaled-abu-toameh-and.html">welfare recipient </a>living in the UK.<p>Here is Mudar, claiming he spoke to the EU Parliament.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7U_J__vH6xEGt-PSpoEeL78fHMwWFKuOsp51hL8NWD7m8_SWAsUhHLIxTcn-Ifmb2u7xuAVZ1aJCo3os4jZoeT1wbbAsHObC6iPTZvF9ruTYBCh-uAoYtoLoZU_h8vN1fl8mfgW144HtO/s300/Claims-he-spoke-to-EU-Parliament-300x199.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="199" data-original-width="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7U_J__vH6xEGt-PSpoEeL78fHMwWFKuOsp51hL8NWD7m8_SWAsUhHLIxTcn-Ifmb2u7xuAVZ1aJCo3os4jZoeT1wbbAsHObC6iPTZvF9ruTYBCh-uAoYtoLoZU_h8vN1fl8mfgW144HtO/s0/Claims-he-spoke-to-EU-Parliament-300x199.png" /></a></div><blockquote><p><i>Our speech in the European Parliament – Foreign Relations Committee – 4 September 2018</i></p><p><i>“This is our last communication to the European Union, either stand with us and renounce the regime of Abdullah and Abbas, advocates of extremism and terrorism and anti-Semitism, otherwise you will go out</i></p><p><i>“We want peace and cooperation with Israel, the interest of our people and Israel is shared, and Israel is blessed only when we thrive and we thrive when Israel thrives.”</i></p></blockquote><p>Fact check: Zahran didn’t speak to the EU or its Foreign Relations Committee. He only spoke to some 20 people, specific to the Friends of Judea and Samaria in the EU Parliament.</p><p>Here is a photo of him speaking at the conference in which you can clearly see the Israeli flag and the identity of his host: Friends of Judea and Samaria in the European Parliament.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj93EizEUiVcUn8EXQwOrnSQMISzVvtTCIfDmLVhNo44KuS4A8ffiFxIAWIefB_eMGlCvLWz7cdd8YgmowvRXXoDJynrRcHy6D9n7uyqdGVqJDbz7IaIkFLJJwlvfwY9FJ1DCFcWRw24UQF/s300/Photo-with-Israeli-Flag-300x169.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="169" data-original-width="300" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj93EizEUiVcUn8EXQwOrnSQMISzVvtTCIfDmLVhNo44KuS4A8ffiFxIAWIefB_eMGlCvLWz7cdd8YgmowvRXXoDJynrRcHy6D9n7uyqdGVqJDbz7IaIkFLJJwlvfwY9FJ1DCFcWRw24UQF/w400-h225/Photo-with-Israeli-Flag-300x169.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>Here is Mudar Zahran’s doctored photo in which the flag and all mention of the host organization is removed.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia-LmvukfFIiO3ECmLMY4jU-D0liSkXh4iQTAEhhqyjEPIeGxWwWkScu5ds55gb2hCk5GLg7teQp-D5-ayBO19FMUIFe3xzYrQpFOzoKv5akVJJ6y8mBfx4RYduAvgHZPuwdW4AzugSqZ7/s448/Flagless-Signless-Mudar.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="280" data-original-width="448" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia-LmvukfFIiO3ECmLMY4jU-D0liSkXh4iQTAEhhqyjEPIeGxWwWkScu5ds55gb2hCk5GLg7teQp-D5-ayBO19FMUIFe3xzYrQpFOzoKv5akVJJ6y8mBfx4RYduAvgHZPuwdW4AzugSqZ7/w400-h250/Flagless-Signless-Mudar.png" width="400" /></a></div><p>It is very sad that <a href="https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10155503151851956&id=588646955">Jews continue to promote a fraud</a> who doesn’t even acknowledge or appreciate their hosting him. That fraud now extends to members of the European Parliament, who have been exploited and lied about in this small man’s quest to gain legitimacy.</p><p>Perhaps the worst part of this is that now the Friends of Judea and Samaria in the European Parliament, this very small lobby of MEPs willing to work on behalf of Israel, now think that Mudar Zahran is a credible entity. One can only hope they will not fund his lifestyle.</p></div>Varda Meyers Epstein (Judean Rose)http://www.blogger.com/profile/17159600299817776906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2253835380551102822.post-54285994669114109212017-08-13T10:47:00.000-07:002020-10-28T09:54:55.989-07:00WATCH: Tawil Fadiha, Minister of Uncontrollable Lies<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-vqKZg76dk01OtBMM45HD9b5IU_CzZnu3LklbySaW4P8owsjC99Fa-PpTr70BAxLbT_stEYtB4P0JX0PRVGl9elR5cZPMN7vkO42tpWyUSrZK3j-Y6enIiwyQrqv_UCbW1fyUYEu0p2x-/s1366/Tawil-Fadiha.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1366" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-vqKZg76dk01OtBMM45HD9b5IU_CzZnu3LklbySaW4P8owsjC99Fa-PpTr70BAxLbT_stEYtB4P0JX0PRVGl9elR5cZPMN7vkO42tpWyUSrZK3j-Y6enIiwyQrqv_UCbW1fyUYEu0p2x-/w400-h225/Tawil-Fadiha.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>Tawil Fadiha, was probably the late, lamented <a href="http://www.latma.co.il/enpage.aspx?id=47">Latma’s</a> most popular character. And that’s no small thing. For those of us in the trenches fighting the media bias against Israel, Latma was everything. It was our comic relief amidst the terrible frustration of not being heard, though we were telling the truth. We waited with eagerness for each new installment and we were downright crushed when the show lost its funding (<a href="http://www.jpost.com/National-News/Latma-ends-pioneering-online-satirical-newscast-322951">in a really sneaky way</a>).</p><p>So it’s a big deal that our beloved Tawil Fadiha, Palestinian Minister of Uncontrollable Lies is back with a new song on behalf of the <a href="http://legalgroundscampaign.org/en/">Legal Grounds Campaign</a> organization, an Israel advocacy group. Could this be the beginning of a serious Latma comeback? Doesn’t seem so, but let’s just enjoy this rare gem for what it is–a delightful takedown of the fake Arab narrative. (When is the last time you heard satire reference the San Remo Conference or the Temple Mount?)</p><p><iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" scrolling="no" src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FHalleluHeb%2Fvideos%2F1933971160207152%2F&show_text=0&width=560" style="border: none; overflow: hidden;" width="560"></iframe></p><p>Wish you could see some more Latma? “We Con the World” was the Latma clip that went seriously viral, satirizing the Mavi Marmara incident and garnering some 6 million views. Youtube took it down for copyright violation, even though there is no copyright issue in borrowing songs for satire. <a href="http://carolineglick.com/">Caroline Glick</a>, the journalist who founded Latma (and appears in the clip), fought like a lioness until they put it back up.<br /><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FOGG_osOoVg" width="320" youtube-src-id="FOGG_osOoVg"></iframe></div><br /><p><i>h/t Aharon Epstein</i></p>Varda Meyers Epstein (Judean Rose)http://www.blogger.com/profile/17159600299817776906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2253835380551102822.post-24911503567526734972017-07-26T12:50:00.000-07:002020-10-28T09:53:09.808-07:00It Came So Close: The Halamish Massacre<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYoI8PrjUq0tblHC1wHa_6Ll-qwxwUyhkf_vl37aQkyMTgfRTDVwSVLu0Wp-nHeG9daiQFCQIEvASPADxJTOPnk3Ypq0TXL5_pcdXdgwTtpW6fMy3_TtOtlQX5D8s73JDHJ8CNSu4oePFO/s667/Elad-and-Michal-Salomon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="397" data-original-width="667" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYoI8PrjUq0tblHC1wHa_6Ll-qwxwUyhkf_vl37aQkyMTgfRTDVwSVLu0Wp-nHeG9daiQFCQIEvASPADxJTOPnk3Ypq0TXL5_pcdXdgwTtpW6fMy3_TtOtlQX5D8s73JDHJ8CNSu4oePFO/w400-h238/Elad-and-Michal-Salomon.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>After a terror attack, the connections come out. Israel is a small country. You almost always have some sort of connection to the victims.</p><p>With the <a href="http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/232830">Salomon family of Halamish</a>, a friend I think of as a brother informed me that the young soldier who neutralized the terrorist through the kitchen window, a hero by all accounts, was his wife’s cousin, as is the young hero’s mother.</p><p><iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2VUrGZYGoic" width="560"></iframe></p><p><iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CKXvM4zYx5w" width="560"></iframe></p><p>That was a nice connection, so to speak. One to make me feel pride by association. A comfort in the midst of grave horror.</p><p>But then a friend messaged me on Facebook. She wrote:</p><blockquote><p>“Varda. Friday night, after we finished our Shabbat meal, some kids came to pick up our 12-year-old son Micha on their way to the youth gathering. One of those kids was Nitzan Davidi*, the niece of Michal Salomon. The Davidi* family lives not far from us.</p><p>“Later we heard there had been a <em>pigua</em>, a terror attack, but there were no details yet. Not until after Shabbat, when my husband came home from the synagogue and announced, “The Davidis have a new widow and her children in their home.”</p><p>“Nitzan’s mother is the sister of Michal Salomon.</p><p>“I was sick to my stomach, hunched over with terrible stomach cramps all that night. I know it’s not about me but—it came so close. Nitzan in our home while her uncle was being <em>slaughtered</em>.</p><p>“I went for a walk with my husband Saturday night, the night after the slaughter, to get some fresh air. We passed the Davidi home. People were milling about. Like a house of mourning. Then I saw the double stroller. I don’t know why that stood out for me, the stroller, but I was thinking: ‘Why a double stroller? Who, in the Davidi family, needs one of THOSE.’</p><p>“Later that night I read that the Salomons had one-year-old twins. One-year-old twins! What kind of monster kills a father! Sick. Just SICK.</p><p>“The whole thing was just so very close to home. I was consumed with the thought that Nitzan was in our home at the time of the slaughter, completely unaware. Just a normal kid on a Friday night, picking up her friends for a get together.</p><p>“I kept imagining Nitzan coming home happy and tired, going to sleep, and then waking up to the phone call and the keening.”</p></blockquote><p>We both contemplated that for a minute. A young girl being woken from her Shabbat sleep with the worst possible news. Her home transformed to one of deep mourning.</p><p>My friend’s experience seemed to touch me by association. The murders in Halamish, the plight of the young widow and her children were more real than ever. I began to imagine the kids hearing their father, grandfather, and aunt being slaughtered, the screams. How would they ever be normal?</p><p>It was setting in, the horror, in a new way. There was a new association now. I felt like I knew the family. I could picture the Davidi family. The house. The stroller.</p><p>On Tuesday my friend had more to tell me. She eased into it with small talk about diet, mine and hers, working her way around to the terror attack.</p><blockquote><p>“Nitzan’s father, the brother in-law of Michal Salomon? We were chatting and got to talking about the massacre, of course. It’s hard to think about anything else. Yaron* said that terrorists dope themselves up with drugs before they do their thing. They have to be high to do it.”</p></blockquote><p>I shrugged, “Everyone knows that.”</p><p>“Well, I didn’t,” she said.</p><blockquote><p>“Anyway, Yaron described the attack to me! He said that Elad [Salomon, Michal’s husband] had the terrorist in a bear hug as the terrorist was stabbing him. Thirty times the terrorist stabbed him in the back. Then he went to work on his <em>face</em>.</p><p>“I managed to ask Yaron about Nitzan. ‘When did she know?’</p><p>“‘Oh, she was already in bed and sound asleep when we got the call,’ he said.”</p></blockquote><p>There was a pause while my friend let that sink in for me. Observant Jews don’t use the phone on Shabbat. There is only one reason a phone rings like that. It was Michal calling, telling them what had happened.</p><p>It’s good that Nitzan was able to sleep through that night, I thought. One more night of childhood innocence before learning of the evil that had hit her aunt and uncle, HY”D, may Hashem avenge the blood of the Salomons.</p><p>I know that all Jews are related to each other multiple times. We’re a small nation that was forced to marry cousins in the Diaspora. So I knew in theory that I was related to Michal Salomon, to her husband Elad, his father and sister, and to Nitzan and Yaron, too.</p><p>Now I felt it, as well.</p><p>These are the details you don’t see in the news. These are the quiet, intimate, awful details that are whispered, that almost aren’t whispered, so painful are they to speak of.</p><p>Most of us have been thinking about the brave soldier, thinking of Michal Salomon, her courage and strength in taking her children upstairs to the bedroom, locking the door, calling the police.</p><p>But now I am thinking of something else: there’s a different picture in my mind, the one that explains all that blood on the floor that we saw in the photos. I’m thinking of Elad, holding the terrorist in a bear hug with all his might, trying to keep him from hurting anyone else, taking all that pain, being stabbed thirty times in the back, and then finally, as his strength ebbs away, being stabbed repeatedly in the face, his final memory one of a knife coming much too close, so close, so many times.</p><p>And we don’t even know how it went with Elad’s father and sister.</p><p>It’s personal, you see. This massacre of a Jewish family. It hurts.</p><p>This is my family, even if I never knew them. This terrorist that came to hurt this beautiful family? He acted out of pure evil. His soul is black as tar. A monster, not a human being.</p><p>And now there is a new widow who must try to heal children who heard their father, grandfather, and aunt being slaughtered. Michal must try to make their nightmares go away while mourning the love of her life. But the nightmares will never disappear.</p><p>That is who they will always be, the Salomon children, from here on in. They and their mother: they will always be those nightmares. The massacre of Halamish.</p><p>And it all feels much too close.</p><p>*Names changed</p>Varda Meyers Epstein (Judean Rose)http://www.blogger.com/profile/17159600299817776906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2253835380551102822.post-25384105134270540392017-07-24T08:49:00.000-07:002020-10-28T09:51:14.580-07:00WATCH: Yahud Always Lie<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvDL6NJlzip-ytA-BQ1-lb13iJ_IBvHi5B9UeVvT8QNMHldTk67k3wP4edchMNGLUDnSmi7t0ikdFeSU7_EzJoHZL-Vx6UloGn_MIFd9Pf5vOoJZ0mP5thuQKng4cQ-F9_h6eYOrgCecov/s800/Yahud-Always-Lie-e1500912122754.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="382" data-original-width="800" height="191" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvDL6NJlzip-ytA-BQ1-lb13iJ_IBvHi5B9UeVvT8QNMHldTk67k3wP4edchMNGLUDnSmi7t0ikdFeSU7_EzJoHZL-Vx6UloGn_MIFd9Pf5vOoJZ0mP5thuQKng4cQ-F9_h6eYOrgCecov/w400-h191/Yahud-Always-Lie-e1500912122754.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>A German reporter presses an Arab woman, Maria Abunismeh, in order to understand the Arab objection to enhanced security measures on the Temple Mount, in the clip below. He asks: “So many people in Germany don’t really understand. They say, you know there was a <a href="http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Timeline-of-Temple-Mount-terror-and-tensions-500314">terror attack</a>, two policemen were killed by weapons that were inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound. They came out, shot the policemen, and went inside. Why don’t you want these security metal gates, at the entrance?”</p><p>Her response?</p><p>“No, no. What they say it’s not true. Do you believe them? They say everything. Many stories say. But this is our Aqsa, this holy place. This is all Muslim.”</p><p>The German reporter responds, “So which part don’t you believe? That the policemen weren’t killed?” and this goes on and on, with Maria spinning her wheels weaving a nonsensical story, the German reporter trying to understand exactly what it is she believes.</p><p>The money quote? Maria, explaining that the official story about the terror attack and the need for heightened security are bogus, says, <strong>“Yahud always lie.”</strong></p><p>Get that? Not “Israelis.” But “Jews.”</p><p>“Yahud” being Arabic for “Jews.”</p><p>But watch for yourselves. See how Maria weaves her story to an (illogical) conclusion: The dead policemen shot themselves!!!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/B3Oq9-OKRiU" width="320" youtube-src-id="B3Oq9-OKRiU"></iframe></div><p><i>Hat tip Aharon Epstein</i></p><p><br /></p>Varda Meyers Epstein (Judean Rose)http://www.blogger.com/profile/17159600299817776906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2253835380551102822.post-91793274708212829412017-06-15T14:41:00.000-07:002020-10-28T09:49:29.924-07:00Why Wonder Woman Must At All Costs Be Banned<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDnQe2aR7FP-dqdPI1laBqiUj-i19GknpURhfVgubaDF7jMbvLPAd8lcQX3dltMhT1D5O3EA1jQuz86EZ_Ysl74ZF7CPZkx9qH7zXiiBhy2gnRQ0R7_YaPqrKfQVslwuAoWn39DFhtMIKS/s1200/first-look-gal-gadot-chris-pine-wonder-woman-min.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="630" data-original-width="1200" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDnQe2aR7FP-dqdPI1laBqiUj-i19GknpURhfVgubaDF7jMbvLPAd8lcQX3dltMhT1D5O3EA1jQuz86EZ_Ysl74ZF7CPZkx9qH7zXiiBhy2gnRQ0R7_YaPqrKfQVslwuAoWn39DFhtMIKS/w400-h210/first-look-gal-gadot-chris-pine-wonder-woman-min.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>Now that I’ve seen Wonder Woman I know exactly why Lebanon, Tunisia, and Algeria have <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2017/06/08/wonder-woman-suspended-in-tunisia-pulled-from-film-fest-in-algeria-following-ban-in-lebanon.html">banned</a> the movie (and <a href="http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/231061">Jordan</a> wanted to but couldn’t figure out how to legally do so). Gal Gadot is STUNNING and JEWISH and ISRAELI and her character Wonder Woman is STRONG and BRAVE and GOOD.</p><p>Just like the IDF.</p><p>The Arab world that slanders and hates us simply can’t take it that instead of being the evil thing they say we are, this movie, as embodied by Gal Gadot, portrays us as the good guy, the righteous ones. The ones who don’t like to fight but who are not going to shy away from making things right in the world. And if that means killing bad guy jihadists then we’re going to go full on CRAZY on them until they are DEAD and the world is SAFE.</p><p>Because that’s who we are. We’re JEWS.</p><p>The Jews brought morality to the world with our God-given Torah. Before the Torah, there was no concept that stealing or murder or sleeping around was wrong. We brought all that to the world.</p><p>The world? They can try to smear Israel and the IDF all they want, but we know who we are and Gal is a symbol of that, a symbol of morality.</p><p>We treat minorities in our country with utmost respect and tolerance.</p><p>We are the good guys.</p><p>And they just can’t handle that.</p><p>They don’t want their people to see that on a screen. Jews <em>good</em>? Can’t allow our people to see or know that. Even if it’s just a fantasy, just stunts and trick photography.</p><p>Because that film sums up the struggle of Israel and the Jewish people as a force for good in the world.</p><p>And Gal was chosen out of all women to play that role.</p><p>Because she is absolutely perfect.</p><p>Because she is who she is.</p><p>A strong, Jewish woman. Kind and good.</p><p>Thank you <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharon-katz-88902294/?ppe=1">Sharon Katz</a> for bringing 125 women together to cheer for Gal at Cinema City in the heart of the holy Jewish city, Jerusalem.</p>Varda Meyers Epstein (Judean Rose)http://www.blogger.com/profile/17159600299817776906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2253835380551102822.post-43081786617469256032017-03-02T12:25:00.000-08:002020-10-28T09:48:20.783-07:00Apartheid: You Keep Using That Word<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGw7K5hKn79rrBjKn0yXzpdIWowVhxSUkc_7OL5n7w5zrlywvVglumlky76VBvxq8ocUXSj61iXo8zG2sE__wEnlPXEcdII-eAG6qDOGQyv6DijUWm_KE7vcDhMvZpvlkxcnzsxs8gKu4f/s960/Boycott-Apartheid-Israel-Sign-SA.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="724" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGw7K5hKn79rrBjKn0yXzpdIWowVhxSUkc_7OL5n7w5zrlywvVglumlky76VBvxq8ocUXSj61iXo8zG2sE__wEnlPXEcdII-eAG6qDOGQyv6DijUWm_KE7vcDhMvZpvlkxcnzsxs8gKu4f/w301-h400/Boycott-Apartheid-Israel-Sign-SA.jpg" width="301" /></a></div><p>This disturbing sign labeling Israel “Apartheid” was spotted by my eyes on the ground in South Africa, Gillian Hirschfield Lawrenz. She wrote: “Seen today outside Oliver Tambo International airport in Johannesburg.”</p><p>It remains mind boggling to me that anyone in South Africa could compare the state of Arab Jewish relations in Israel with that of South Africa during the Apartheid era. In Israel, Arabs are treated in the same hospitals as Jews and even share rooms. Arabs shop alongside Jews in supermarkets and malls. Arabs ride alongside Jews on our trains and buses. We have Arab justices in the Israeli supreme court, and Arab members of Knesset.</p><p>Did you have all that in South Africa during Apartheid? Black judges in your high courts? Blacks shopping alongside whites? Blacks sharing hospital rooms with whites? Could blacks ride on buses with whites, sharing a seat perhaps?</p><p>Of course not. In the South Africa of the Apartheid era, whites looked down on black people. Black people were forbidden to mix with whites. And there isn’t anyone alive in South Africa who does not know this.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/BfeJHt91cWw" width="320" youtube-src-id="BfeJHt91cWw"></iframe></div><p>But you know where there is Apartheid in Israel? Wherever Arabs live, play, and work. Jews dare not ride Arab buses or enter Arab villages, or they’ll be LYNCHED. That’s not just talk. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000_Ramallah_lynching">It has actually happened</a>.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW4lYmoHYVPZSabNNw4_9_ZgF5nNx40EIKMiRh62BrSaFutX1iqC9xuqSvjYfY4f4T6ePKFGkKK2d7qqz_4MhOszkXwx4XX9w1MZTNoBft85Ms0gq_yfQ5gQ2rG4LXyGiiAW8RCi7j69c1/s268/Ramallah-lynch01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="170" data-original-width="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW4lYmoHYVPZSabNNw4_9_ZgF5nNx40EIKMiRh62BrSaFutX1iqC9xuqSvjYfY4f4T6ePKFGkKK2d7qqz_4MhOszkXwx4XX9w1MZTNoBft85Ms0gq_yfQ5gQ2rG4LXyGiiAW8RCi7j69c1/s0/Ramallah-lynch01.jpg" /></a></div><p>It is, by the way, against the law for Jews to enter PA territory. There are warning signs outside of every Arab village.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMB908zj1bOMHof8nTKAGwJ0sp9NsHV9Dj_RB5EzNdBlDNzWFn8i1UKbM_BqpwLxnphFITYz6ndxbKmXP7MF7vSWTdn1cfS452VWxxaTFGgpyCp0Jfh2Fl2bJS-O0Po9-r6qAX4TUVE9nE/s610/Sign-Entry-Forbidden.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="610" data-original-width="480" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMB908zj1bOMHof8nTKAGwJ0sp9NsHV9Dj_RB5EzNdBlDNzWFn8i1UKbM_BqpwLxnphFITYz6ndxbKmXP7MF7vSWTdn1cfS452VWxxaTFGgpyCp0Jfh2Fl2bJS-O0Po9-r6qAX4TUVE9nE/w315-h400/Sign-Entry-Forbidden.jpg" width="315" /></a></div><p>Note that the sign references “Israeli citizens.” Here’s a newsflash for you: no one is going to arrest an Israeli Arab for visiting his cousins. Where you see “Israeli citizens” read “Jew.”</p><p>Note also that the reason Abbas doesn’t want Jews to build settlements is because he not only wants Jewish territory, but wants it Jew free, or as they said in Nazi Germany, <em>judenrein</em>. Which is ironic, considering that Israel, on attaining statehood, didn’t expel its Arab populace. That’s right. All those supposed Arab “refugees” are those who left (and their children and children’s children) at the behest of the Arab states that attacked the new State of Israel. They said, in essence, “Get out of the way. We’re going to whup Jewish butt and then you can return home.”</p><p>Those Arab “refugees” left of their own volition. No Jew made them leave. That’s not how we roll.</p><p>Apartheid? They keep using that word. And in South Africa they know exactly what it means. Which means they’re simply <a href="http://www.judeanrose.com/2016/09/15/wosm-lies-damned-lies-baha-alyan-leadership-course/">LYING</a> Sons of You Know Whatsies.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/G2y8Sx4B2Sk" width="320" youtube-src-id="G2y8Sx4B2Sk"></iframe></div><p><br /></p>Varda Meyers Epstein (Judean Rose)http://www.blogger.com/profile/17159600299817776906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2253835380551102822.post-68199369028194735152016-12-14T11:13:00.000-08:002020-10-28T09:41:22.120-07:00The Thank You Note: Because Real Men Understand Jewish Sisterhood<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSWDmv15mqoLr5kGqAWOo9rIxfeGP64VE8FF7VWOS-aZ36f_zCyNrD0doI1JNM2XYiQxvGxCtm289vl2Bty77Zq8dnTIwzIIMm70aRHB-BUdT60PqQk5bGNOyh52WM2hGlmB0pToj6qj1q/s800/Steinhart-Family-e1481742715644.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="532" data-original-width="800" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSWDmv15mqoLr5kGqAWOo9rIxfeGP64VE8FF7VWOS-aZ36f_zCyNrD0doI1JNM2XYiQxvGxCtm289vl2Bty77Zq8dnTIwzIIMm70aRHB-BUdT60PqQk5bGNOyh52WM2hGlmB0pToj6qj1q/w400-h266/Steinhart-Family-e1481742715644.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>You’re about to read the most amazing thank you note ever. But first some background:</p><p>For the past half a year, I’ve been involved in the most amazing theater project. A brand new theater company, the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/wpcjerusalem/?fref=ts">Women’s Performance Community of Jerusalem</a>, put on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1793742067574510/">Count the Stars</a>, an original musical by and for women. The musical is based on the journey of Abraham and Sarah, the Jewish patriarch and matriarch. We women of Jerusalem and Greater Jerusalem, rehearsed twice a week, week in and week out, for six months at the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/OUIsrael/?hc_ref=SEARCH">OU Israel Center</a>.</p><p>During this time, the cast, comprised of women and girls of all ages, forged a powerful bond. Most of us had performed in a variety of shows through the years, but never did we experience such unity as we did this time around. There was just something special here. Something remarkable.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO2kuuAN-UqDshoPiMeHqbdleiAtm4WUi2Q6okUk62Rf58X_-OaaI2wR14Vz9tcQ-sk6Wh4auXao0BoifIjDlwYc-0UbDSoxPVQ76cV_KI9AHPVzlFC1rUFbPbb7eWAZfglINwmFAeLk0-/s960/CTS-Backstage-Fun.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="960" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO2kuuAN-UqDshoPiMeHqbdleiAtm4WUi2Q6okUk62Rf58X_-OaaI2wR14Vz9tcQ-sk6Wh4auXao0BoifIjDlwYc-0UbDSoxPVQ76cV_KI9AHPVzlFC1rUFbPbb7eWAZfglINwmFAeLk0-/w400-h225/CTS-Backstage-Fun.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Some Count the Stars backstage fun<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div>One cast member thought it was about the lack of ego among the performers. I thought it was about the dynamism of one of the founders of the performance company, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharon-katz-88902294/">Sharon Katz</a>. Or perhaps it was about the fact that we were doing something totally new in theater, something new and Jewish, and doing it in the heart of the holy city of Jerusalem.<p>Whatever <em>it</em> was, that special something, and whatever the reason for it, it continues. We had our four performances at the Gerard Behar Theater. We had our cast party at the OU Center. And still, we’re just not ready or willing to say goodbye. That’s why we have a Chanukah party scheduled. We don’t want to see the holy atmosphere, the Jewish sisterhood we found here in Jerusalem, to dissipate.</p><p>This is something that must be nurtured, treasured, and indulged.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ-OkPgfz-F3bluBkhs7ag9X7QtKeAbzsgeq8B5eMT8USB2PGSTSJ-95n0NwdKeXSazGQxJfuOG8kI4VXol8pN1tpHvTM6llJnkChnYG3XopivB2PLmKYiiP1JdU1gKaDuMGelVC3HYlJH/s1500/Step-Into-the-Light.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1500" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ-OkPgfz-F3bluBkhs7ag9X7QtKeAbzsgeq8B5eMT8USB2PGSTSJ-95n0NwdKeXSazGQxJfuOG8kI4VXol8pN1tpHvTM6llJnkChnYG3XopivB2PLmKYiiP1JdU1gKaDuMGelVC3HYlJH/w400-h266/Step-Into-the-Light.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>Now I’d like to say that even though I have a full time job, I felt pretty free to pick up and leave for rehearsals at the end of a work day. My kids are older. They can fend for themselves. I don’t know if I could have managed if they were younger. It was a big sacrifice for the women in our cast who are still raising young children. Or rather, it was a big sacrifice for their <em>husbands</em>.</p><p>Just how big a sacrifice became clear at our cast party, when our director, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/shifrapenkower/">Shifra Penkower</a>, read us a letter from the husband of one of our cast members. It seems that Betsalel Steinhart, a licensed tour guide and Jewish educator, sent this letter to the production crew with the specific intent that it be read aloud to the cast. He meant to surprise his wife Shoshana, a petite dancer who in real life, is an occupational therapist at Alyn Hospital Pediatric & Adolescent Rehabilitation Center.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr0bH52aAvbRO6kAXhID08cIjyOBwZrAH-2lc8ZR9STXT37Sdf8wdBAzXc0_beVtE_ehyphenhyphenMN9dBLXeCTTDeZUOfLc9_z34z9bmLdyEfL1XF8zo8DceL6SbfgLjsganQsCdtBkfNgksYNKTN/s800/Steinhart-Family-e1481742715644.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="532" data-original-width="800" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr0bH52aAvbRO6kAXhID08cIjyOBwZrAH-2lc8ZR9STXT37Sdf8wdBAzXc0_beVtE_ehyphenhyphenMN9dBLXeCTTDeZUOfLc9_z34z9bmLdyEfL1XF8zo8DceL6SbfgLjsganQsCdtBkfNgksYNKTN/w400-h266/Steinhart-Family-e1481742715644.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Steinhart family<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p><br />He certainly succeeded. I watched her out of the corner of my eye as the letter was read. She was moved to the core. She was actually shaking with emotion.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCtnL5Z2ir6I11UAJO3D319iD-ORRoPis3fmDxPJIwGcMLw47qy5VSe46EXXel67LvXuZc5EyFROcpwY7aLdn6y6ecoPGnfrbF2zDJ-62YX1a_EVVGyvNrtRGCfoPDbS3KB68LJEow3YAP/s1500/Chanson-Damour.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1500" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCtnL5Z2ir6I11UAJO3D319iD-ORRoPis3fmDxPJIwGcMLw47qy5VSe46EXXel67LvXuZc5EyFROcpwY7aLdn6y6ecoPGnfrbF2zDJ-62YX1a_EVVGyvNrtRGCfoPDbS3KB68LJEow3YAP/w400-h266/Chanson-Damour.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>Here is the letter:</p><blockquote><p><i>Tuesday December 6th. BS’D.</i></p><p><i>To the wonderful women of Count the Stars, from the long lost men in your lives…</i></p><p><i>I think I am speaking on behalf of all the Count the Stars men when I write these words. True, I have never met them, your husbands, boyfriends, fathers and sons, and can only see my wife, Shoshana, as she went through the last six months, but I am hazarding a guess that this applies to us all.</i></p><p><i>I am sitting in my quiet house, as a few miles from here the last performance is winding down. My kids are sleeping or reading, and my wife, as usual, is not here.</i></p><p><i>I have two words for you all, the two words that have defined our nation since our matriarch Leah in this week’s Parsha named her fourth son Yehuda-Judah, meaning I will thank G-d, and eventually became the name of our people, Yehudim.</i></p><p><i>Thank you.</i></p><p><i>Thank you to Hashem for giving you the strength and ability to do what you did.</i></p><p><i>Thank you for your dedicated, hard work. Especially to the team of Shifra, Sharon, Bati, Judy, Ellen & Avital, but to you all.</i></p><p><i>Thank you for putting on such a beautiful show that inspired so many.</i></p><p><i>Thank you for raising the lives of the women in our lives who mean so much to us, despite the price we have paid (Laundry-help!-What are delicates??? What should I make for dinner??? Is there a limit to how many times I can order pizza??? Which kid wears what size and which clothes?? Where is the cleaning fluid?? Ahhhhhh!!!)</i></p><p><i>Thank you for fanning that spark of creativity that burns within the women in our lives, that sent them to the tryouts for Count the Stars so long ago, and enabling that spark to become a burning flame of intense exuberance.</i></p><p><i>Thank you for the satisfied exhaustion that was on the faces of our women, when returning home late after yet another crazy practice, with the tiredness that only comes from doing something so fulfilling.</i></p><p><i>Thank you for giving them the opportunity to glow, to shine, to sing, to act, to dance, to radiate joy and happiness, to release all their tensions on stage as they gave their all, and to become the parts that they played with all that entails.</i></p><p><i>Thank you for giving expression to the confident, radiant smile that my wife only wears when she is in dance mode. One is only really in full flower when one is expressing their creative essence, and you gave them this chance to do so.</i></p><p><i>Thank you for caring about each other.</i></p><p><i>Thank you for building a kehilla, which by nature of its existence and the shared values that its members embody, brings forth a greater meaning and a more permanent sense of connectivity: you will never forget this, in essence.</i></p><p><i>Thank you for giving the religious women, who yearn for the opportunity to do the dances and sing the songs that maybe they wouldn’t feel comfortable doing in front of men, that opportunity to do so.</i></p><p><i>Thank you for returning our women to us, each invigorated and inspired in her own way.</i></p><p><i>Thank you.</i></p><p><i>Our one complaint? We just wish we could have been there to see you…and in that, I definitely speak on behalf of all the men.</i></p><p><i>May Hashem grant you all the strength to continue and to perform again and again,</i></p><p><i>We love you all, and welcome you back with open arms,</i></p><p><i>Betsalel Steinhart</i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimHMQQR3FI2yZ9e_W88s4l882NpjVUo9bzt8FJ4zE3yd7Ik-Ouu9fqLxOjKmdelNxCNTS2QBFmW-cp17fz5sTxPI3f68x2tx-h1koWLrejdkP2sz-hsIRl9Iyq1qCvAYlcEJBQfZ9TmT4W/s1152/Hagar-at-the-Well-768x1152.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="768" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimHMQQR3FI2yZ9e_W88s4l882NpjVUo9bzt8FJ4zE3yd7Ik-Ouu9fqLxOjKmdelNxCNTS2QBFmW-cp17fz5sTxPI3f68x2tx-h1koWLrejdkP2sz-hsIRl9Iyq1qCvAYlcEJBQfZ9TmT4W/w266-h400/Hagar-at-the-Well-768x1152.jpg" width="266" /></a></div><br /><p></p></blockquote><p>It was such a beautiful letter that I felt the need to share it with the world, here in this space. It is not too many men that could or would write such a letter.</p><p>Which proves the point I’m trying to make.</p><p>We did something special here with this show. Something that is difficult to put into words. Something that I feel could only have happened in the Holy City between Jewish sisters.</p><p>And we should definitely keep it going somehow, do more shows, create more magic, make the bible come to life on the stage, make it enjoyable, and do it all with a whole heart, in happiness and love and sisterhood.</p><p>We made something real here.</p><p>And it took a real man to see that.</p><p>Bless you, Betsalel Steinhart, for seeing us.</p></div>Varda Meyers Epstein (Judean Rose)http://www.blogger.com/profile/17159600299817776906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2253835380551102822.post-75920189781028490992016-10-05T12:19:00.000-07:002020-10-28T09:21:54.241-07:00ABC Does a Switcheroo and Tells A Whopper of a Lie<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjupZ_BPyoXfEFEtAIfk9ccyWWCaAGaMxVykL7RiwVpgtMufQpDixSXgC9d9bQIDf5LZPxYrzJpLpGMNOFE53tisjNMtbclCM7P3hG36pCHic_6eZySqmFV7qZucXoNBO9bRAePoHMGcQlY/s995/ABC-A-Kind-of-Lie.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="563" data-original-width="995" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjupZ_BPyoXfEFEtAIfk9ccyWWCaAGaMxVykL7RiwVpgtMufQpDixSXgC9d9bQIDf5LZPxYrzJpLpGMNOFE53tisjNMtbclCM7P3hG36pCHic_6eZySqmFV7qZucXoNBO9bRAePoHMGcQlY/w400-h226/ABC-A-Kind-of-Lie.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p>ABC lied today.</p><p>Somewhere between a school filled with panicked children and the mayor’s house, this morning a Qassam rocket, shot with malice and intent to kill as many Jews as possible, struck hard. Buildings were damaged. Cars were damaged. And many people were treated in hospital for shock. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hktPY3zyz7E" width="320" youtube-src-id="hktPY3zyz7E"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QAEVLREnxLE" width="320" youtube-src-id="QAEVLREnxLE"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p>But this is not what was reported in the mainstream media.</p><p>As ABC has it, <a href="http://web-old.archive.org/web/20161005235049/http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/rocket-gaza-lands-southern-israeli-city-injuries-42579207"><em>Israel struck Gaza</em></a>.</p><p>That’s not the whole headline. But you don’t need the whole headline. You’ve got the facts in the order ABC wants you to have them.</p><p>And ABC wants you to have the facts in that order because ABC wants you to think Israel struck out at Gaza in a vacuum, without reason.</p><p>And if you don’t buy that, then at least ABC wants you to think of this not as a strike by Arab terrorists against Jewish schoolchildren or the mayor but as some sort of squabble between very mismatched sides.</p><p>On the one side there is Israel with its huge army with planes and technological know-how. On the other side, you have these lone poverty-stricken, oppressed Gazan refugees who have these dumb homemade rockets made out of sugar.</p><p>That is when Israel will let them have sugar. (Bad Israel. Mean Israel.)</p><p>Wait. There is more.</p><p>ABC wants you to think that anonymous rocket had no serious target. Not a school or children or the mayor. Just a city. Just in general.</p><p>And ABC wants you to OVERLOOK the rocket and look at the retaliation. The big guns. They want you to look at that FIRST.</p><p>They want you to look at that FOREMOST.</p><p>They don’t want you to dig too deeply, ABC. They don’t want you to find out how many rockets these lone poverty-stricken Arab refugees have shot into the city of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sderot">Sderot</a>, into its kindergartens, schools, and homes, since Disengagement.</p><h2>ABC: The “D” Word</h2><p>Remember Disengagement? ABC doesn’t want you to remember that. The “D” word is when the Jews expelled 11,000 of their own people from their homes in a unilateral gesture of peace and gave the land, lock, stock, and barrel to the Arabs, so they would have a state of their own and stop killing Jews. You know, the Arabs. The ones now shooting Qassam rockets at little kids, those amazing dual purpose<em> Jewish</em> children who can serve as sitting ducks in their classrooms while learning the Hebrew alphabet.</p><p>It’s more than 10,000 rockets, by the way. The number of rockets shot into this random “Israeli city.” It’s a number ABC doesn’t want you to know.</p><p>And these children? The ducks who learn the Hebrew alphabet? All of them have PTSD.</p><p>Bar none.</p><p>This too, ABC doesn’t want you to know.</p><p>See, this is how it works: shock, PTSD? These injuries are not visible. So ABC can say that since the injuries aren’t visible, they aren’t injuries. And since the invisible injuries were not reported by ABC, ABC can say these injuries were not reported.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-6v4G_kbppCuJTlE2sHBgTBPoo6dWrf9ur0QCxX0NdiujbLghd1TERY7t8jqO-W_fLam9_n_NNqEQAZtsaPjOIpsmmGriOEzdJ3j9eZd-S02oESYCj3cRklcYtmRqnGFT3XpwbefMvLDs/s995/ABC-A-Kind-of-Lie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="563" data-original-width="995" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-6v4G_kbppCuJTlE2sHBgTBPoo6dWrf9ur0QCxX0NdiujbLghd1TERY7t8jqO-W_fLam9_n_NNqEQAZtsaPjOIpsmmGriOEzdJ3j9eZd-S02oESYCj3cRklcYtmRqnGFT3XpwbefMvLDs/w400-h226/ABC-A-Kind-of-Lie.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p>Besides, ABC says there were no reported injuries. And if ABC says this, you must believe it. Because it’s the mainstream media.</p><p>It’s all about the <a href="http://www.judeanrose.com/2016/08/22/makes-yahoo-racist-website-world/">spin</a>. It’s all about the order of the words. The context, the lack of context.</p><p>Keep it yawningly general. Don’t mention schools, or schoolchildren. Don’t mention the mayor, don’t mention shock, hospitals, PTSD, the number of missiles shot into Sderot. Don’t call Sderot by its name. Israeli. City.</p><p>This is what happened today, on the first day back to school in Sderot after the Jewish new year, Rosh Hashana. A Qassam rocket was shot. Either toward the school, where, with any luck, there would be many young casualties or toward the mayor’s house, which would indeed be a coup, a strike at the heart of Jewish government by hate-filled, blood-lusting Arab terrorists whose desire for a state is not desire for a state, but desire for everything the Jews have. All of it. All the land. Jew-free.</p><p>The attack today was not random. It was not general. Injuries occurred and were reported in <a href="https://www.algemeiner.com/2016/10/05/terrorized-israeli-children-cower-under-desks-recite-psalms-as-qassam-rocket-from-gaza-lands-near-sderot-school/">Israel</a>.</p><p>ABC simply told you a kind of lie.</p><p>And they’ll keep doing it. They’ll keep lying to you.</p><p>If you let them.</p><p>They’ll keep lying to you as long as they can get away with it. That is to say until you stop believing them and their lies.</p><p>And stop tuning in.</p><p>You can hold them accountable by withholding your page views, your patronage.</p><p>And you must. Because it’s what you can do for the children of Sderot.</p><p>And because it’s the right thing to do.</p>Varda Meyers Epstein (Judean Rose)http://www.blogger.com/profile/17159600299817776906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2253835380551102822.post-66876537799683816292016-09-28T10:54:00.000-07:002020-10-28T08:59:19.461-07:00WATCH: Shimon Peres at 54 in Operation Thunderbolt<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMtR4sm-CdX00VDtLh1tNRMsc2vtYi-7Mwg99-SbHidL227csGD4KgQer6PySEpGy7SiNFt8_otF_DALPA2bJkZBuqvRh3bQM3N9tloWdsSym2l1IBi8BIz8uHFai2Aznx1XE1FjmMZL1Y/s1341/Shimon-Peres-in-Operation-Thunderbolt.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="656" data-original-width="1341" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMtR4sm-CdX00VDtLh1tNRMsc2vtYi-7Mwg99-SbHidL227csGD4KgQer6PySEpGy7SiNFt8_otF_DALPA2bJkZBuqvRh3bQM3N9tloWdsSym2l1IBi8BIz8uHFai2Aznx1XE1FjmMZL1Y/w400-h196/Shimon-Peres-in-Operation-Thunderbolt.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>Shimon Peres was 93 when he died today after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage two weeks ago. We thought of him as young at heart. But once upon a time, he was actually young.</p><p>In 1977, a much younger Shimon Peres had a cameo appearance in an Israeli film about Operation Entebbe. The movie’s English title is <em>Operation Thunderbolt</em>, but to Israelis, the movie (and the operation) will always be known as <em>Mivtza Yonatan</em>, after the brother of Binyamin Netanyahu. (Yoni Netanyahu was killed during the daring rescue attempt to free the Israeli hostages held captive in Entebbe.)</p><p>Shimon Peres would have been 54 at the time this movie was made. The movie isn’t a great one, but one that Israelis love. It’s part of our popular culture, and carved into our hearts. It expresses our national pride, our Israeli chutzpah in the face of extreme danger, because “ein breira,” there was “no choice.”</p><p>We don’t leave our people twisting in the wind, at the mercy of ANYONE.</p><p>So we all love that corny old movie. And I always get a kick out of seeing a young Shimon Peres. His nemesis, Rabin, is also there, as are some other more obscure politicians. See how many you can spot. I have the starting time set shortly before Shimon Peres makes his entrance, but really, watch the whole thing.<br /><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WM54svwzY-c" width="320" youtube-src-id="WM54svwzY-c?t=2803"></iframe></div><br /><p>You see Shimon briefly at 1:39:33 in the movie, as well.</p><p>He was always debonair, even in jeans and a casual jacket.</p><p>Rest in peace, Shimon Peres,</p>Varda Meyers Epstein (Judean Rose)http://www.blogger.com/profile/17159600299817776906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2253835380551102822.post-9029679090021060372016-09-21T06:23:00.000-07:002020-10-28T08:39:57.668-07:00Looking Occupation Full in the Face<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUC-4omSaIJgj1I9UNEDMjNGtTH3cNvz_Q3qfmOL7FyRNHV6fmmK8lBvrocAbwMeBImF2bPwCqerxq4G_T1sFBeKs8mEkXs9FQWPSu0WN0g7LusjAfI5u8GTVknjnFHNHDZIwlpsyZjfcf/s832/Bani-Naim-1-Hallel-Yaffa-Terrorist.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="630" data-original-width="832" height="303" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUC-4omSaIJgj1I9UNEDMjNGtTH3cNvz_Q3qfmOL7FyRNHV6fmmK8lBvrocAbwMeBImF2bPwCqerxq4G_T1sFBeKs8mEkXs9FQWPSu0WN0g7LusjAfI5u8GTVknjnFHNHDZIwlpsyZjfcf/w400-h303/Bani-Naim-1-Hallel-Yaffa-Terrorist.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>Sarah Tuttle-Singer wrote a longish status about the word “occupation” yesterday. Except none of what she wrote has anything to do with occupation, the concept. Rather, she created a new definition for a word that already has a perfectly good definition as well as a well-defined legal meaning, as put forth by the Fourth Geneva Convention.</p><p>This is a predictable tactic, one favored by the left. They throw tons of ordure at the fan knowing some of it is bound to stick. And when I say ordure, I mean lies. They shoot out so much of it all at once that you cannot unpack it all without looking like a pedant. And their followers drink it in and regurgitate it back into the world like the sheeple they are, even though none of it makes any sense.</p><p>Here is a screenshot of the status:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5qggajsqxv_ASFUoUcggI25niUwQ3aRRnJfjMjd5IJg5qPVLQSLED2hHG_979Oj0Ehpy9POsbUs3zHqt_bKAOtZjXYymMvZMoQ188RDHdr2bq8WRySRPuj-GJU1oYoa-deCHVR1XK6K1H/s863/STS-Occupation-Screenshot.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="863" data-original-width="635" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5qggajsqxv_ASFUoUcggI25niUwQ3aRRnJfjMjd5IJg5qPVLQSLED2hHG_979Oj0Ehpy9POsbUs3zHqt_bKAOtZjXYymMvZMoQ188RDHdr2bq8WRySRPuj-GJU1oYoa-deCHVR1XK6K1H/w294-h400/STS-Occupation-Screenshot.jpg" width="294" /></a></div><p>The text:</p><blockquote><p>After a break-out session at #ZionismV3 at the Oshman Family JCC, where I said the “O word” — Occupation — a woman came up to me and told me she prefers the term “Disputed Territories.”</p><p>Maybe some of you do, too, and since we know words are important, I’ll explain why the word “Occupation” is important:</p><p>When I use the term “Occupation” I’m not talking about land. I’m talking about people.</p><p>Specifically, over 2 million Palestinians living in Areas A, B, and C who are the mercy of our Minister of Defense.</p><p>And what does that mean?</p><p>It means that if the IDF is ordered to raze someone’s house because their brother’s kid stabbed someone, then an entire family is homeless.</p><p>It means that the IDF can kick down their doors in the middle of the night – because maybe someone has a brother who was planning a terror attack.</p><p>It means that freedom of movement is restricted and that you can’t get from point A to point B without a check point.</p><p>It means that water can be redirected away from Palestinian villages and toward the settlements if there’s a water shortage.</p><p>It means that there are children living 30 minutes from the beach who have never seen the sea.</p><p>It means that just because things are quiet in Israel does not mean they’re well, because over the Green Line there are a lot of people who are living under the control of our government – a government they had no say in choosing.</p><p>This is occupation. And that is not in dispute.</p><p>And I don’t know what the solution is, but I do know that all of us living in Israel and dealing with all the various complexities of what that means — from sleeping in bomb shelters with our babies to sipping cappuccinos on Shenken to wailing over the open grave of our friend killed in a terror attack to swimming in warm sea water at midnight — need to look this full in the face without turning away.</p></blockquote><h2>Definition of Occupation</h2><p>For the record, let us take a look at the first sentence of <a href="https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/applic/ihl/ihl.nsf/WebART/380-600056">Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention</a>, which defines “occupation.”</p><blockquote><p>Individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory to the territory of the Occupying Power or to that of any other country, occupied or not, are prohibited, regardless of their motive.</p></blockquote><p>What we are speaking about here is a belligerent nation that invades another country and forcibly transfers people to the area in an effort to create facts on the ground in order to strengthen its claim to the territory.</p><p>This does not in any way shape or form describe Israel’s relationship to Judea and Samaria. For one thing, Jews lived in Judea and Samaria before there was an Arab people and before Mohammed was a gleam in his mama’s eye. Use archaeological artifacts, Josephus, or the bible. You’re still going to happen on that unassailable truth.</p><h2>The Real Occupation</h2><p>In fact, it was the Muslims who occupied Judea and Samaria, expelling the Jews and installing Muslims in their stead. Of course, they weren’t the only people to occupy Judea and Samaria. The territory was occupied time after time in history by the following empires: Babylonian, Persian, Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Arab, Crusader, Mamluk, Ottoman, and British.</p><p>But the Jews never lost hope that they would return. They prayed for rain in Israel during Israel’s rainy season. They prayed they’d have next year’s Passover Seder in Jerusalem. They said to themselves, “If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, may my right hand lose its cunning.”</p><p>The Quran calls the Jews, “Yahud,” meaning the people of Judea. Which is also what “Jew” means, by the way. The Quran refers to the Jews as Bani Isra’il, the sons of Israel, or Bnei Yisrael, as we say in Hebrew. The Quran makes no claim to these territories, but rather describes the ingathering of the Jewish exiles:</p><blockquote><p>To Moses We did give Nine Clear Signs:</p><p>As the Children of Israel: when he came to them, Pharaoh said to him:</p><p>“O Moses! I consider thee, indeed, to have been worked upon by sorcery! Moses said,</p><p>“Thou knowest well that these things have been sent down by none,</p><p>But the Lord of the heavens and the earth as eye-opening evidence:</p><p>And I consider thee indeed, O Pharaoh, to be one doomed to destruction!”</p><p>So he resolved to remove them from the face of the earth:</p><p>But We did drown him and all who were with him.</p><p>And We said thereafter to the Children of Israel,</p><p>“Dwell securely in the land (of promise)”:</p><p>But when the second of the warnings came to pass,</p><p>We gather you together in a mingled crowd. (2314)</p><p>surah 17:101-104 Al Isra’ (The Night Journey)</p></blockquote><p>But back to the Geneva Convention and Article 49. The language is clear. It describes a forced population exchange. Nothing of the sort happened in Judea and Samaria. Jews are not alien to the land. No one forced settlers to move there. No one was living in the areas settled at the time the settlements were created. The Arabs live in the valleys, the Jews live on the hills. It’s the way it is. Look at a topographical map and know this as fact.</p><p>Between 1948 and 1967, Jordan held Judea and Samaria. Only two UN member states saw this as a legal occupation: Great Britain and Pakistan. When Israel took possession of Judea and Samaria in 1967, it was no invasion, Habibi. She was fighting off FOUR Arab armies. She was fighting for her life.</p><h2>Not Occupation: Let Me Count The Ways</h2><p>So, to sum up, let’s list the way Israel is not an occupier. Israel:</p><ul><li>Is not an invader, but rather, was forced to fight a defensive war against four armies</li><li>Didn’t force people to move to Judea and Samaria, they volunteered</li><li>Didn’t kick Arabs out of their homes to create settlements, but built on barren hilltops</li><li>Didn’t transfer a non-native population into Judea and Samaria, rather the Jews are the <a href="http://www.israellycool.com/2014/01/09/israel-palestine-whos-indigenous/">indigenous</a> people of the territory with their presence in Judea and Samaria actually predating the Arab people.</li></ul><p>Now Tuttle-Singer thinks she can get around all that by prefacing her remarks with this statement:</p><blockquote><p>When I use the term “Occupation” I’m not talking about land. I’m talking about people.</p></blockquote><p>But that doesn’t mean anything. It’s nonsense. It’s like someone saying, “When I say ‘car’ I’m not talking about a vehicle, I’m talking about people who drive,” or, “When I say ‘butter’ I’m not talking about a dairy product but about people who dine.”</p><p>It’s a meaningless construct. And rather than explain the logic behind this assertion that even she can’t see, she mounts a soapbox and spouts several anti-Israel lies. Beginning with this:</p><blockquote><p>Specifically, over 2 million Palestinians living in Areas A, B, and C who are the mercy of our Minister of Defense.</p></blockquote><p>Tuttle-Singer does two things with this statement:</p><p>1) She gets in a dig at Avigdor Liberman, Israel’s Minister of Defense, because to her he’s über right when actually he’s no different than any other politician and waffles like the best of them when necessary. He has no compunction ordering the <a href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4854092,00.html">demolition</a> of a Jewish home just because.</p><p>2) She lies about Area A being under Israel’s thumb. <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Peace/pamap.html">Area A</a> has had full Palestinian Authority autonomy in Arab villages and towns since the year 2000. Arab villages and towns in Area B are also under the PA, but Israel and the PA do joint patrols here. Finally, Area C remains to be negotiated and well, that’s up to the Arabs. Israel (unfortunately, in my opinion) remains open to negotiate at any time, with no preconditions.</p><p>Really, the Arabs could have just about anything they want, if they’d just stop acting like behemoths, stop the terror, and behave like human beings. But back to Tuttle-Singer.</p><blockquote><p>It means that if the IDF is ordered to raze someone’s house because their brother’s kid stabbed someone, then an entire family is homeless.</p></blockquote><p>Seriously? So teach your children not to stab people. Teach them that knives are for eating steak, and not for murdering peace activists taking bus rides—peace activists like <a href="http://www.judeanrose.com/2016/09/15/wosm-lies-damned-lies-baha-alyan-leadership-course/">Richard Lakin</a>, for instance.</p><p>Don’t blame the reaction to terror, the <em>defense</em>. Blame the CAUSE. Blame TERROR.</p><p>And anyway, these relatives of terrorists aren’t so homeless. They get a warning. They take their stuff out. They cry to the EU, or to their neighbors and someone builds them a <a href="http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/206428">newer, nicer house</a>. Also, they get a monthly stipend for being related to someone who murdered a Jew. And they’re <a href="http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/201379">lauded as heroes</a>.</p><p>When a Jew’s home is demolished, on the other hand, he’s not allowed to rebuild, no one gives him money to buy a new home, and rather than receive a monetary reward, he’s out a couple of hundred thousand shekels with no new home on the horizon. And that’s by his JEWISH government, regarding a home that sits in Jewish indigenous territory!!</p><h2>A Case Study: Israeli Demolitions</h2><p>After Mohammad Nasser Tra’ayra, 17, of Bani Naim, murdered 13 year-old Hallel Yaffa Ariel in her sleep, stabbing her multiple times, his parents’ home was slated for demolition as a deterrent measure against terrorism. The IDF Spokesman’s office released this film clip of the demolition.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dyuU9cGEI01al4cPoZ92RYu8EZxd85DKAtCU88OUDfaxi5T0QVDu6qWJF6sEhVyDYnbDuNs5PN6gwXoqWwiuw' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><p>However, this doesn’t tell the real story.</p><p>What really happened was this: the IDF knocked down just a few walls and this only after the family received advanced warning and were able to remove their furnishings and belongings. The family also managed to carefully remove and preserve the windows and faucets for future restoration of the home.</p><div class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_216" style="width: 842px;"><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="text-align: left; width: 842px;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-left: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGmNVkow8DCxelM1cJIrcDrj__vEhopon0ylO5b3VhiATuDZG-P5hz1slaSlQoWBaiNECDseIl6PMkhz1ucDosd_m8SZ5rUJFHHYPQ80zg7X4JWhPziJgOrriphKUW6n_1UkVG4IPqa-Gy/s832/Bani-Naim-1-Hallel-Yaffa-Terrorist.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="630" data-original-width="832" height="303" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGmNVkow8DCxelM1cJIrcDrj__vEhopon0ylO5b3VhiATuDZG-P5hz1slaSlQoWBaiNECDseIl6PMkhz1ucDosd_m8SZ5rUJFHHYPQ80zg7X4JWhPziJgOrriphKUW6n_1UkVG4IPqa-Gy/w400-h303/Bani-Naim-1-Hallel-Yaffa-Terrorist.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Arab youth pretending sorrow for the camera</i><br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table></div></blockquote></blockquote><div class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 842px;"><br /><p class="wp-caption-text"><br /></p></div><div class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_217" style="width: 842px;"><br /><p class="wp-caption-text"><br /></p><p class="wp-caption-text"><br /></p><p class="wp-caption-text"><br /></p><p class="wp-caption-text"><br /></p><p class="wp-caption-text"><br /></p><p class="wp-caption-text"><br /></p><p class="wp-caption-text"><br /></p></div><div class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="text-align: left; width: 842px;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-left: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizlg1higEY7K73hdVcSYQIAEvBMfmQMbVAN8mX_xmDdxdfXSum0rr-ei6Z6slzUyy9lYk9axyqo7X9KrUFosuESdphtRh_i8iReLKgmQUhVemv2ksKFmm2oQGeVFzBHBAFxLQBq6_nCFD1/s832/Bani-Naim-2-Hallel-Yaffa-Terrorist.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="632" data-original-width="832" height="304" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizlg1higEY7K73hdVcSYQIAEvBMfmQMbVAN8mX_xmDdxdfXSum0rr-ei6Z6slzUyy9lYk9axyqo7X9KrUFosuESdphtRh_i8iReLKgmQUhVemv2ksKFmm2oQGeVFzBHBAFxLQBq6_nCFD1/w400-h304/Bani-Naim-2-Hallel-Yaffa-Terrorist.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="text-align: left;">They took down just a few walls, leaving the house mostly intact, and easily restored.</i><br /></td></tr></tbody></table></div><div class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 842px;"><br /></div><div class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="text-align: left; width: 842px;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijDlMmNdtD6GdhFtvJVpuc2UMxm6x4n_ieebqBUSNaFDjf5Vk_APjQhjvgNTG3LM84trnHXB0k3C82WoZIyWg1VD9NYCtdQN_Q_etm_DCcca4jq_K-W4VJs7Mi9kW7GSrdtV_cRK5rXRBA/s832/Bani-Naim-3-Hallel-Yaffa-Terrorist.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="627" data-original-width="832" height="301" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijDlMmNdtD6GdhFtvJVpuc2UMxm6x4n_ieebqBUSNaFDjf5Vk_APjQhjvgNTG3LM84trnHXB0k3C82WoZIyWg1VD9NYCtdQN_Q_etm_DCcca4jq_K-W4VJs7Mi9kW7GSrdtV_cRK5rXRBA/w400-h301/Bani-Naim-3-Hallel-Yaffa-Terrorist.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="text-align: left;">In the inimitable words of Allen Sherman: “And they knocked a hole in the wall. That’s all. No wall.”</i><br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table></div><div class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 842px;"><br /><p class="wp-caption-text"><br /></p></div><div class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_218" style="width: 842px;"><br /><p class="wp-caption-text"><br /></p></div><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><div class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_219" style="width: 826px;"><br /><p class="wp-caption-text"><br /></p></div><p><br /></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Contrast and compare to these before and after photos of the demolition of the home of Jewish settler, <a href="https://www.gofundme.com/e2df18">Choni Kaniel</a> of Maale Rahavam, on May 7, 2014.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3GrhRkRUt1VEn1UtkhHxYlyJgoAOycdZ-raZE-iMZ9D5Sy1SKJ-oNmZG4xDHGWgPQfHSLLxAlrXxO9HBZDtT_lizggxvjX0ITgWL-MC-Jklst2e6nkGIZftvMYinBWyBqvoyvnhWEsfxj/s816/Jewish-Home-1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="612" data-original-width="816" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3GrhRkRUt1VEn1UtkhHxYlyJgoAOycdZ-raZE-iMZ9D5Sy1SKJ-oNmZG4xDHGWgPQfHSLLxAlrXxO9HBZDtT_lizggxvjX0ITgWL-MC-Jklst2e6nkGIZftvMYinBWyBqvoyvnhWEsfxj/w400-h300/Jewish-Home-1.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Before<br /></td></tr></tbody></table>One day, the Israeli courts decided to redraw the blue line and rule his home illegal. The home was demolished.<div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhx29cgearRHZuTKREU9tIGRZF1vEWl_15XllUkkg00D991WSoHI12iFeOxoYcfBZ4PJTwZxiz2gTp8hUYfjAURRrNzYb7H3oa5SD1f1nUVUYA8JqYin3ueFjYSUCwmQ02hePFDRZdOOdm/s643/Jewish-Home-Demolition-3.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="643" data-original-width="500" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhx29cgearRHZuTKREU9tIGRZF1vEWl_15XllUkkg00D991WSoHI12iFeOxoYcfBZ4PJTwZxiz2gTp8hUYfjAURRrNzYb7H3oa5SD1f1nUVUYA8JqYin3ueFjYSUCwmQ02hePFDRZdOOdm/w311-h400/Jewish-Home-Demolition-3.jpg" width="311" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">After<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>But this was not a symbolic demolition as in the case of the family home of the Arab terrorist who murdered a 13 year-old girl in her sleep. It was not a show for the public.<div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz-3p3liocCnQHWsDMhtMPnglY3kdXDYR3wB08znexURrQDyBT37ZW1sHJd6WiMOips7iaSOdCwiarAM0kExaYMygI1XzfQQL0DaGp375MEkDNySJocW6Z74xTHnQd1SxewTUl7-lOF6u3/s800/Jewish-Home-Demolition-4.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="600" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz-3p3liocCnQHWsDMhtMPnglY3kdXDYR3wB08znexURrQDyBT37ZW1sHJd6WiMOips7iaSOdCwiarAM0kExaYMygI1XzfQQL0DaGp375MEkDNySJocW6Z74xTHnQd1SxewTUl7-lOF6u3/w300-h400/Jewish-Home-Demolition-4.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div><br /></div>Large machinery was brought.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieWzLbATjI6HoenRIhWEPDmHTcFNaoCdF-7XH-3FqD77l5EKozFjlgYwPMyI6T50fTyiydR_5jSN4BKImUvS7Z7JoQtVdleqoVZA79BNiyFzYOBBcLvuOqbZ_6PbifJLur5mpB770Zddam/s800/Jewish-Home-2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="600" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieWzLbATjI6HoenRIhWEPDmHTcFNaoCdF-7XH-3FqD77l5EKozFjlgYwPMyI6T50fTyiydR_5jSN4BKImUvS7Z7JoQtVdleqoVZA79BNiyFzYOBBcLvuOqbZ_6PbifJLur5mpB770Zddam/w300-h400/Jewish-Home-2.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>The home was smashed to smithereens.</div><div><br /></div><div>No walls were left intact.</div><div><br /></div><div>Choni now lives in a tent on the spot where his home once stood.</div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBFCNp4qKvV1KYnzAiQYK2BR-58ekaFuEVofnmn5NEcXlUi9qIv2TLXno_oRrNERsxKd8YQKW7JrhAGUQlIUITFHzSbzINt3TgHLPi6Mc7al83Fm7L8mQHw3HGj2Co5BPlw3K43dcvapgP/s480/Jewish-Home-Demolition-5.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="480" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBFCNp4qKvV1KYnzAiQYK2BR-58ekaFuEVofnmn5NEcXlUi9qIv2TLXno_oRrNERsxKd8YQKW7JrhAGUQlIUITFHzSbzINt3TgHLPi6Mc7al83Fm7L8mQHw3HGj2Co5BPlw3K43dcvapgP/w400-h300/Jewish-Home-Demolition-5.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Choni's new "home."<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><div>Choni created this meme to illustrate the disparity between the demolition of a terrorist’s family home and that of a Jewish home.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD6Wa0-hRgo_iW_oNHxOpEEcYV4sgU6YvHLb3r7bbYefzMpiu4ozyw4RQuNJMIb2b710KicJxt-67ZvOl5WO1aeRcyGU-qpPERXV2aLG5PjfWGX8-5zHeOtVCBH-DE5hs7U5P2pHancpBd/s800/Demolition-Meme.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="450" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD6Wa0-hRgo_iW_oNHxOpEEcYV4sgU6YvHLb3r7bbYefzMpiu4ozyw4RQuNJMIb2b710KicJxt-67ZvOl5WO1aeRcyGU-qpPERXV2aLG5PjfWGX8-5zHeOtVCBH-DE5hs7U5P2pHancpBd/w225-h400/Demolition-Meme.jpg" width="225" /></a></div><br /><div>Un. Fricking. Real.</div></div><div><div><p>Tuttle-Singer writes:</p><blockquote><p>It means that the IDF can kick down their doors in the middle of the night – because maybe someone has a brother who was planning a terror attack.</p></blockquote><p>Well, again. Whose fault is that? Israel remains in a permanent state of war from 1948, when it declared statehood. The Arabs refuse to end the state of war, no matter how much land we give them, no matter what we do. And they murder us. They murder young girls <a href="http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/9-facts-you-need-to-know-about-hallel-ariel-who-was-murdered-in-bed-by-an-arab-terrorist/2016/06/30/">sleeping</a> in their beds. They murder <a href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4041237,00.html">whole families</a> on quiet Shabbat evenings. They murder us on buses and in the streets. They murder us wherever they find us. Wherever and whenever we fail to stop them, fail to defend ourselves. We expelled roughly <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_disengagement_from_Gaza">10,000</a> of our own people from their homes in the name of peace, and still, they hunt us down and murder us. They did it before 1948, such as in Hebron in <a href="http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/hebron29.html">1929</a> and <a href="http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/pics1936riots.html">1936</a>. And they’re still doing it now.</p><p>We have every right to follow the leads that may prevent the murder of someone’s mother, someone’s sister, someone’s son. That is what war means: the war they force on us by refusing to make peace, by refusing to be peaceful, by their nonstop terror. If they won’t sign a treaty, then we damned well WILL kick down the doors of potential terrorists to stop them from doing their horrible, ugly, violent deeds.</p><p>That Tuttle-Singer sings her song of woe on behalf of the violent and against her own people betrays the blackest of souls.</p><p>She writes:</p><blockquote><p>It means that freedom of movement is restricted and that you can’t get from point A to point B without a check point.</p></blockquote><p>This too, is the result of constant Arab terror against the Jews since way before the British Mandate. Don’t like having your freedom of movement restricted? Don’t. Murder. Jews.</p><p>Don’t like checkpoints? Don’t. Murder. Jews.</p><p>Why is her concern for the murderers and not for their victims and potential victims? Because she hates us.</p><p>Tuttle-Singer writes:</p><blockquote><p>It means that water can be redirected away from Palestinian villages and toward the settlements if there’s a water shortage.</p></blockquote><p>This is just a lie. One that’s been <a href="http://honestreporting.com/water-apartheid/">debunked</a>.<a href="http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/COGAT-West-Bank-water-supply-to-Palestinians-increased-not-decreased-457015">Over</a> and <a href="http://legalinsurrection.com/2016/06/another-anti-israel-water-libel-the-supposed-ramadan-water-cut-off/">over again</a>. A burst water pipe is not a water “redirected” and has nothing to do with any water shortage. Israel has actually increased the water supply to Arab villages and towns.
</p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Some footage of the bursted water line that is now repaired by <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/COGAT?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#COGAT</a> Civil Administration. <a href="https://t.co/nclwCaOwBR">pic.twitter.com/nclwCaOwBR</a></p>— COGAT (@cogatonline) <a href="https://twitter.com/cogatonline/status/743043969383321601?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 15, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
Tuttle-Singer writes:<p></p><blockquote><p>It means that there are children living 30 minutes from the beach who have never seen the sea.</p></blockquote><p>This has nothing to do with Israel, but everything to do with democratically elected terrorist Arab leaders who keep their people imprisoned in camps and refuse to make peace with Israel. Does she really want to say this has anything at all to do with Israel?? Okay, yeah. It’s Israel’s fault because Israel EXISTS.</p><p>Since Israel exists, these people remain political pawns, held in place by their democratically elected terrorist leaders. So clearly Tuttle-Singer is working toward the eradication of the Jewish State because instead of doing anything meaningful to fight against the injustice, she blames the injustice on the wrong party, and backs those responsible for the injustice, instead. And those who are responsible for the injustice have vowed not to do justice, not to let their people out of the prison camps, until Israel is <em>Judenfrei</em>, with the Jews in the sea, the same one Arab children apparently are so desperate to see.</p><p>Which begs the question: why is Tuttle-Singer here in Israel with her children? By her/their presence, they perpetuate the refugee status of the Arab people who remain behind barbed wire, unable to see the sea. She could actually make a difference if she’d just get on a plane and LEAVE. (I know plenty of people who’d be happy to buy her a one-way ticket back to LA.)</p><p>Tuttle-Singer writes:</p><blockquote><p>It means that just because things are quiet in Israel does not mean they’re well, because over the Green Line there are a lot of people who are living under the control of our government – a government they had no say in choosing.</p></blockquote><p>But things are not quiet in Israel. We are right now experiencing an <a href="http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/75805/five-terror-attacks-two-days-raises-fears-renewed-violence-video/">uptick in terror</a>. And if it’s not quiet, it’s because the Arabs are not quiet. So as the “new media director” of the Times of Israel, someone who works for a NEWS OUTLET, what the Hell is she talking about?</p><p>What she is trying to say (but doing a poor job of it) is that Arabs are ruled by a Jewish government but don’t get to vote for that government. But this too, is a lie.</p><p>Israelis Arabs can vote. And there are Arabs in the Knesset.</p><p>The Arabs who don’t have Israeli citizenship are welcome to apply for Israeli citizenship if they live in areas under Israeli autonomy. Once granted citizenship, <a href="http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Society_&_Culture/arabstat.html">they can vote</a> in Israeli elections.</p><p>Arabs who don’t live under Israeli autonomy <a href="http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/arabs/PAelections.html">can vote</a> in PA or Hamas elections, depending on where they live. And if Abbas wants to serve way past his term, and not hold new elections, that’s not on the Jews, that’s on the Arabs who voted for him.</p><p>Tuttle-Singer writes:</p><blockquote><p>This is occupation. And that is not in dispute.</p></blockquote><p>“This” whatever “this” means, is NOT occupation. And that is absolutely no longer in dispute, seeing as I have now unpacked and refuted her every word on the subject.</p><p>Occupation is not anything but what it actually is, and there is no Israeli occupation of Arab land. Arabs who don’t have freedom of movement, don’t have it because of Arab terror, and because they vote for terrorists to lead them: terrorists who will never negotiate peace with Israel.</p><p>Tuttle-Singer writes</p><blockquote><p>And I don’t know what the solution is, but I do know that all of us living in Israel and dealing with all the various complexities of what that means — from sleeping in bomb shelters with our babies to sipping cappuccinos on Shenken to wailing over the open grave of our friend killed in a terror attack to swimming in warm sea water at midnight — need to look this full in the face without turning away.</p></blockquote><p>I do know what the solution is. Everyone does. It’s simple: stop the murder machine. Stop the terror. Accept that Jews have a state on their indigenous territory. Accept that the Jews expelled their own people to give you land. Accept that Israel gives you <a href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3255249,00.html">arms</a> (the better to shoot you with, my dear), <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Palestinian-Authority">autonomy</a>, and <a href="http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Society_&_Culture/arabstat.html">citizenship</a>. Accept that Israel <a href="http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/myths3/MFrefugees.html#14">offered you housing</a>, gives you <a href="http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/foreignpolicy/peace/humanitarian/pages/default.aspx">money</a>, <a href="http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/217747">free electricity</a>, <a href="http://www.thetower.org/0752-israeli-humanitarian-aid-to-gaza-continues-despite-rockets/">tons of aid</a>, <a href="http://www.jpost.com/Health-and-Science/Israeli-hospitals-continue-to-treat-sick-Gazans-despite-missile-attacks-362269">medical care</a>, places in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Arab_members_of_the_Knesset">government</a>, and on our <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salim_Joubran">Supreme Court</a>.</p><p>Deal with it. Compromise! Lay down your arms, your knives, your car rammings, rocks, and firebombs. Live and love in peace. Give your children a better future.</p><p>This is not at all complex. <em>This</em> is what Tuttle-Singer needs to look full in the face, without turning away.</p><p><em>This</em> is the solution.</p><p>And only this.</p></div></div></div>Varda Meyers Epstein (Judean Rose)http://www.blogger.com/profile/17159600299817776906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2253835380551102822.post-61394076155426552552016-09-15T15:08:00.000-07:002020-10-28T08:00:51.036-07:00WATCH: Bibi for President<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWdmqKC3JthVx5XCR09aZEegkqP3FpkL5keCnzDJaiDYxzhjxaRE2fRT3QbYLQVn0agdp3TkLa9PfGwoW43LUValmdVLkdKLy8Zu82W9lXVXzMnzWQZNUtj6Lou_5CmYUd5Kl4cXPIdIa7/s888/Bibi-for-President.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="888" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWdmqKC3JthVx5XCR09aZEegkqP3FpkL5keCnzDJaiDYxzhjxaRE2fRT3QbYLQVn0agdp3TkLa9PfGwoW43LUValmdVLkdKLy8Zu82W9lXVXzMnzWQZNUtj6Lou_5CmYUd5Kl4cXPIdIa7/w400-h225/Bibi-for-President.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(screenshot)</td></tr></tbody></table><p>Bibi for president of the United States? No. It could never happen. But it sure is fun to watch Asaf Liberman ask Americans what they think of the idea. After all, the selection of candidates in this particular election is kind of, shall we say, slim pickings.</p><p>WARNING: The language gets rough at the end of this.</p><p><iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" scrolling="no" src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fglzradio%2Fvideos%2F1135773466465478%2F&show_text=0&width=560" style="border: none; overflow: hidden;" width="560"></iframe></p><p>Anyway, some comic relief was much needed after doing all those <a href="http://www.judeanrose.com/2016/09/15/wosm-lies-damned-lies-baha-alyan-leadership-course/">posts</a> about the Baha Alyan terrorist training course for <a href="http://www.judeanrose.com/2016/09/15/scout-honor-250000-follow-murderers-path/">Scouts</a>. (Feh.) So I was glad my son Aharon tagged me on this one. (12,831 views!! How come that never happens to me??)</p><p>Aharon finds the best stuff. And anyway, people sure do love to pick on Bibi. It’s okay, he’s got broad shoulders.</p>Varda Meyers Epstein (Judean Rose)http://www.blogger.com/profile/17159600299817776906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2253835380551102822.post-42758135228726396792016-09-15T14:25:00.000-07:002020-10-28T07:59:17.645-07:00Scout's Honor: 250,000 Scouts Follow Murderer's Path<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJrBp5-WZxuqnoe1N7hisPqQJ8LYMw3_wBuk-9g9REgJq6xWJ0UDLMzCBSlnKM1iGaikz_tkgnF89ZKsqm2kJtH8kwVuIsg1bt7P80U_W2m1w9rFVyaS9HeqiDXpvari6Q1D0CCHKTLY75/s888/250000-Scouts-Follow-a-Terrorist-Murderers-Path.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="888" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJrBp5-WZxuqnoe1N7hisPqQJ8LYMw3_wBuk-9g9REgJq6xWJ0UDLMzCBSlnKM1iGaikz_tkgnF89ZKsqm2kJtH8kwVuIsg1bt7P80U_W2m1w9rFVyaS9HeqiDXpvari6Q1D0CCHKTLY75/w400-h225/250000-Scouts-Follow-a-Terrorist-Murderers-Path.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(screenshot)<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p>No sooner had I hit “publish” on my most recent blog on the response of the World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM) regarding the <a href="http://www.judeanrose.com/2016/09/15/wosm-lies-damned-lies-baha-alyan-leadership-course/">Baha Alyan “leadership” training course</a> than the promised update arrived at my inbox. <a href="http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=458&fld_id=458&doc_id=18761">Palestinian Media Watch (PMW)</a> published a clip of a short segment of the closing ceremony of this course named for the Arab terrorist who killed three men on a Jerusalem bus in October.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ffRUeCvEDVg" width="320" youtube-src-id="ffRUeCvEDVg"></iframe></div><p><br /></p><blockquote><p>From the PMW website:</p><p>Text on banner with picture of terrorist Baha Alyan:<br />“Palestinian Scouts and Guides Association (i.e., PSA)<br />Preparatory studies – Jerusalem<br />The Committee for Developing Leadership<br />Aug. 24-28, 2016<br />Martyr Baha Alyan Course”</p><p>Chairman of the Jerusalem Scout Commission Maher Muhaisen: “We thank our brothers in the Shabab Al-Eizariya Club for letting us use their clubhouse…”</p><p>Terrorist Baha Alyan’s father, Muhammad Alyan: “The scouts are the leaders of society, they are the leaders of the people, they are the symbol of giving, they are the symbol of sacrifice. I think – no, I am certain – that Baha, while it is true that he died as a Martyr (Shahid), there are thousands of Bahas in Baha’s place. Now Baha is a soul in Heaven, but his body is in a [morgue] refrigerator…”</p><p>Baha Alyan Course instructor, Muhammad Al-Dahdar: “Baha remains among us, he remains in our hearts, and emphasizes to you that 250,000 scouts and guides in the Palestinian Scout Association are Baha. And if Allah wills it, they are following Baha’s path. In the name of the Palestinian Scouts and Guides Association and the Jerusalem District Scouts and Guides Commission, I am happy [inaudible]…”</p><p>Terrorist’s father is given a scouts’ scarf</p><p>The audience shouts: “Ya Baha, ya Alyan! You are a symbol to the Martyrs (Shahids)! We salute you in the Jerusalem scouts! Palestine! Jerusalem! Ours, ours, ours!”</p><p>Baha Alyan Course instructor, Muhammad Al-Dahdar: “You (i.e., Baha’s parents) [are the ones] who gave birth to this good and living role model for the young people of Palestine, to whom [we] tip [our] hats… thanks to what they [the youth] gave for Palestine, and because they sacrificed the most precious thing to them of all – which is life. They hated [and gave up] life for Palestine. They hated [and gave up] life because they wanted freedom and independence. I am happy to be with you at this moment in order to together commemorate our heroic Martyr, brother Baha Alyan.”</p></blockquote><p>PMW identifies for us some of the men standing in front of the banner at the ceremony:</p><blockquote><p>Muhammad Alyan – father of terrorist murderer Baha Alyan<br />Maher Muhaisen – Chairman of the Jerusalem Scout Commission<br />Mufid Al-Barq, Muhammad Al-Dahdar, and Sa’id Atoun – Martyr Baha Alyan Course instructors<br />Ahmed Mashahreh – Author of article on the course published on PSA’s website on Aug. 25, 2016, and in the official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida on Aug. 27, 2016</p></blockquote><p>The ceremony included both a symbolic wedding and a symbolic funeral for the “martyr” A/K/A murderer Baha Alyan. All under the auspices of the Palestinian Scout Association, so recently inducted as a member of the World Organization of the Scout Movement.</p><p>It is a terrible thing to watch adults exploit children, watch them tell children that terror is leadership, and listen to them heap glory on murderers. But it is simply repugnant to witness adults do all of these things under the banner of the Scout Movement.</p><p>Will the World Organization of the Scout Movement strip the Palestinian Scout Association of its membership, or will the WOSM turn a blind eye, make excuses, and effectively remain a co-sponsor of Arab terror?</p><p>The watching and waiting on this one?</p><p>It’s kind of hard to breathe right now.</p>Varda Meyers Epstein (Judean Rose)http://www.blogger.com/profile/17159600299817776906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2253835380551102822.post-1833529764013516402016-09-15T09:04:00.000-07:002020-10-28T07:57:35.001-07:00WOSM: Lies, Damned Lies, and The Baha Alyan Leadership Course<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEI5sXrGRfTSGgljtBEZqcjeFGwrgWG2bBXF8aCULvHxeMEYeuxF4zCclJzfM-8ryy6EVL7P21NNpnua_EohoDgbQIUiJF49jmtJY3aQEypuFUD-NO9W-drwEmoU4MPpPrIyBhyLHgYmdA/s888/WOSM-Lies-Damned-Lies-and-The-Baha-Alyan-Leadership-Course.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="888" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEI5sXrGRfTSGgljtBEZqcjeFGwrgWG2bBXF8aCULvHxeMEYeuxF4zCclJzfM-8ryy6EVL7P21NNpnua_EohoDgbQIUiJF49jmtJY3aQEypuFUD-NO9W-drwEmoU4MPpPrIyBhyLHgYmdA/w400-h225/WOSM-Lies-Damned-Lies-and-The-Baha-Alyan-Leadership-Course.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(screenshot)<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p>WOSM, the World Organization of the Scout Movement, has been sold a pack of lies by the Palestinian Scout Association (PSA), regarding a “leadership training course” they held called the Martyr – Leader Baha Alyan Course. The Palestinian Scout Movement was accepted as a full member of WOSM in April. Baha Alyan, as readers of this blog will recall, murdered peace activist and educator <a href="http://www.judeanrose.com/2016/08/28/richard-lakin-baha-alyan-leadership-course/">Richard Lakin</a> and two other men on a Jerusalem bus in October.</p><p>Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) Director Itamar Marcus, gathered information about the course and sent it to the WOSM, with a letter demanding that this body cancel the PSA’s membership.</p><p>I too, contacted the WOSM, via their Facebook page demanding they disassociate themselves from a troupe that glorifies terror against my people. I received no response. Friends and readers also wrote to various entities within the WOSM. One friend, for instance, wrote to Boy Scouts of America, telling them that if they did not do something about this, he would be turning in his Eagle badge, a cherished memento from childhood.</p><p>With the help of a parent from my son’s Israeli scout troop, I discovered that the Israeli Scout Movement, Tzofim, is only patterned after the Boy Scouts, and is not actually a member of the WOSM. Delegates of Tzofim, however, are sent to the States each year to receive training from the “real” Boy Scouts. The parent who helped me gather this intel thought it curious that the Arabs have been accepted as full members of the WOSM, while Tzofim remains on the outside margins of the movement. It is not clear to either of us if this is by choice, or by default (because Jews).</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6mo36CVT7-E" width="320" youtube-src-id="6mo36CVT7-E"></iframe></div><br /><p></p><p>PMW had an update today on the story. WOSM responded by saying the troop that held the Baha Alyan “leadership course” had nothing to do with the Palestinian Scout Association and therefore nothing to do with WOSM.</p><p>This, of course, is a lie. One that was cooked up by the Palestinian Scout Association, who, when confronted by the WOSM said, “Oh, no. That wasn’t us. That was the Jerusalem Scout Commission. They have nothing to do with the Palestinian Scout Association. They’re a branch of the Palestinian Scouts AND GUIDES Association. An entirely different horse which has nothing to do the World Organization of the Scouts Movement.”</p><p>The lie was regurgitated by the WOSM in a <a href="https://www.scout.org/sites/default/files/media-files/WSB%20Press%20Relese%2002092016%20%28PAS%29_0.pdf">press release</a>:</p><blockquote><p>The website on which the original article [about the Alyan course] was published belongs to a group which calls itself ‘The Palestinian Scout and Guide Association’ which is not recognised by WOSM. This is the Arabic heading used on the website. The recognised group in Palestine is the ‘Palestinian Scout Association.’… Our recognised group has not been able to secure a domain name in Palestine and therefore does not have a website, which adds to the confusion.</p></blockquote><p>Spokesperson for the WOSM, Stephen Peck, in an <a href="http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=18753">email</a> to PMW’s Itamar Marcus, added:</p><blockquote><p>The website of the <strong>Palestine Scout and Guide Association</strong> uses our symbols and branding to give themselves credibility and to give credibility to their views. You will understand that in the current climate, there is little we can do about that… The spokesperson for the Palestine Scout Association is Tawfeeq Salem who is the Secretary General.</p></blockquote><p>This too, is a lie, told to the WOSM by representatives of the Palestinian Scout Association. As PMW states clearly on its <a href="http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=18753">website</a>:</p><blockquote><p>Evidence:</p><ol><li>The Palestinian scouts have only one name in Arabic: The Palestinian Scouts and Guides Association.</li></ol><p>WOSM’s spokesperson Stephen Peck was informed by the PSA that there are two different organizations with two different names, and this is not true. The WOSM-recognized PSA’s name in Arabic is literally “Palestinian Scouts and Guides Association” – the name that WOSM was told by the Palestinian scouts is a different organization. See for example “Director of the Scouts and Guides leader Tawfeeq Salem.” [Ma’an, independent Palestinian news agency, Feb. 29, 2016] Tawfeeq Salem is the person WOSM recognizes as the legitimate PSA Secretary General. This name, “Palestinian Scouts and Guides Association,” appears on WOSM’s website, in official WOSM events, and in the Palestinian media.</p><p>There is only one name. There is only one organization.</p></blockquote><p>I urge readers to go see the wealth of information at <a href="http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=18753">PMW</a>, proving without a doubt that the Palestinian Scouts and Guides Association and the Palestinian Scouts Association are one and the same and that this troop definitely is a member of the WOSM in good standing, and under these auspices, held a “leadership training course” named for Baha Alyan, an Arab terrorist who murdered three Jews in October, one of them, the peace activist Richard Lakin.</p><p>I spoke to Itamar Marcus:</p><p><strong>Judean Rose: What will be your next move regarding this matter? Is the WOSM paying attention to you? Are they going to take this matter seriously?</strong></p><p>Itamar Marcus: They are taking this seriously. I am convinced they were misled and actually believed the Palestinian Scout Association. I expect that they will review this and take necessary steps. Their spokesperson has informed me that they will review this and reply to us.</p><p>I really hope so.</p>Varda Meyers Epstein (Judean Rose)http://www.blogger.com/profile/17159600299817776906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2253835380551102822.post-798108202541094602016-09-12T02:29:00.000-07:002020-10-28T07:55:21.130-07:00History: Is 9/11 Doomed to Repeat?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg_B3-QmJrZg5ZJU2uT1hvLrUmFmHpUDFwV8q9hxwoceJKvG4Zt4ahC34eSOq108gojcuS-LJUjaPBh4opRWO46g5ub9kT1U9oum9KV9AjYFe_uSBJJkDNiHdNxzRtu53-vCtTxYifrz0x/s1250/911-History-Doomed-to-Repeat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="550" data-original-width="1250" height="176" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg_B3-QmJrZg5ZJU2uT1hvLrUmFmHpUDFwV8q9hxwoceJKvG4Zt4ahC34eSOq108gojcuS-LJUjaPBh4opRWO46g5ub9kT1U9oum9KV9AjYFe_uSBJJkDNiHdNxzRtu53-vCtTxYifrz0x/w400-h176/911-History-Doomed-to-Repeat.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>“History is doomed to repeat itself.” The phrase was stuck in my head last night and I awoke to its refrain this morning, September 12. Which is nuts.</p><p>History may be doomed to repeat itself, but no one much thinks about September 11 on September 12.</p><p>Unless you’re someone like me, I guess.</p><h2>Feeling Cleansed</h2><p>If you’re someone like me, you try not to think about 9/11 on September 11. You don’t want to think about 9/11 because you don’t like having your emotions manipulated by the media. If you’re like me, you don’t want to think about 9/11 because you don’t wish to immerse yourself in a tragedy for a single day and then move on. You don’t want to feel cleansed.</p><p>For people like me, you see, 9/11 isn’t a one-day event.</p><p>People like me, well, we think about terror all the time. We have fear in our hearts. We are afraid of losing the immediacy: the sense of danger that terror can strike anyone at any time, without warning. People like us don’t believe in catch-phrases like “Never again.”</p><p>We dread being caught off-guard, caught frozen: the deer in the headlights thing.</p><h2>The Scale</h2><p>9/11 <em>can</em> happen again. <em>Has</em> happened again. 9/11 is Charlie Hebdo, <a href="http://www.judeanrose.com/2016/08/28/richard-lakin-baha-alyan-leadership-course/">Richard Lakin,</a> and San Bernardino. Only the details are different and the scale. What changes is the location, the method, and the number of people directly affected.</p><p>The motive is absolutely the same.</p><p>And here is something interesting: “History is doomed to repeat itself” is not the actual quote. The actual quote is this: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” (George Santayana)</p><p>This means remembering that the motive behind 9/11 still exists, is still ever-present, still strong. We are not even close to eradicating radical Islamic terrorism from our world when so many of us cannot even say the phrase “radical Islamic terror.” And there is no mistaking the idea that radical Islamic terror is the force behind 9/11, its tears and fears, and the thing that threatens to repeat.</p><p>It is the day after 9/11 that we must be resolved to remain sober, sad, shocked, and in pain. September 12 is the day we must remember what bonds us as human beings and conversely, the thing that threatens to rips us apart at the seams, consuming all good, all kindness, all the things that makes us what we are.</p><p>It is precisely the day after all the media hype, after videos like this one go viral:<br /><br /><br />. . . that we must watch the videos and feel the feelings afresh, let them wash over us.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/EEogeIIOJzU" width="320" youtube-src-id="EEogeIIOJzU"></iframe></div><br /><p>So that in remembering the past, we won’t be condemned by our forgetfulness.</p>Varda Meyers Epstein (Judean Rose)http://www.blogger.com/profile/17159600299817776906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2253835380551102822.post-12679032634225078412016-08-28T13:06:00.000-07:002020-10-28T07:47:39.578-07:00Richard Lakin and the Baha Alyan Leadership Course<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg71ts-WQ-Lq9Bu9LWw6c9wNUrbqu7yTjo4St2LI5_J0czKx61et79DjD-avw3LePmpFIwOOldwW-47NvaxiPS6gMTFJHUWPCMyI96a50ezR33_gu9hJ8H8_DH8xiSVUcA_BVkITQr750_R/s979/Open-Source-Jihad-and-the-Baha-Alyan-Leadership-Training-Course.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="979" data-original-width="937" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg71ts-WQ-Lq9Bu9LWw6c9wNUrbqu7yTjo4St2LI5_J0czKx61et79DjD-avw3LePmpFIwOOldwW-47NvaxiPS6gMTFJHUWPCMyI96a50ezR33_gu9hJ8H8_DH8xiSVUcA_BVkITQr750_R/w383-h400/Open-Source-Jihad-and-the-Baha-Alyan-Leadership-Training-Course.jpg" width="383" /></a></div><p>Richard Lakin was murdered in October. By June he was no longer in the news. That’s when I went to a wonderful conference put together by <a href="http://israellawcenter.org/">Shurat HaDin</a>, the Israel Law Center.</p><p>The conference was two days of pure pleasure. It was all about politics, all about Israel, the country I love with all my heart, and how the battle for her honor is being fought in the court of public opinion as well as in the real courts, namely the <a href="https://www.icc-cpi.int/">International Criminal Court</a> (ICC).</p><p>You go to something like this and you hear a lot of famous people speak. Members of Knesset like Yair Lapid, Tsipi Livni, and Naftali Bennett. You hear people like Ambassador John Bolton. And you may even get a photo of someone you thought you’d never have the privilege to see.</p><blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/BG4WKa5x1xh/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="12" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5) 0px 0px 1px 0px, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.15) 0px 1px 10px 0px; margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0px; width: calc(100% - 2px);"><div style="padding: 16px;"> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BG4WKa5x1xh/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 0; padding: 0px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; width: 100%;" target="_blank"> <div style="align-items: center; display: flex; flex-direction: row;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"></div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"></div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"></div></div></div><div style="padding: 19% 0px;"></div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0px auto 12px; width: 50px;"><svg height="50px" version="1.1" viewbox="0 0 60 60" width="50px" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns="https://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g fill-rule="evenodd" fill="none" stroke-width="1" stroke="none"><g fill="#000000" transform="translate(-511.000000, -20.000000)"><g><path d="M556.869,30.41 C554.814,30.41 553.148,32.076 553.148,34.131 C553.148,36.186 554.814,37.852 556.869,37.852 C558.924,37.852 560.59,36.186 560.59,34.131 C560.59,32.076 558.924,30.41 556.869,30.41 M541,60.657 C535.114,60.657 530.342,55.887 530.342,50 C530.342,44.114 535.114,39.342 541,39.342 C546.887,39.342 551.658,44.114 551.658,50 C551.658,55.887 546.887,60.657 541,60.657 M541,33.886 C532.1,33.886 524.886,41.1 524.886,50 C524.886,58.899 532.1,66.113 541,66.113 C549.9,66.113 557.115,58.899 557.115,50 C557.115,41.1 549.9,33.886 541,33.886 M565.378,62.101 C565.244,65.022 564.756,66.606 564.346,67.663 C563.803,69.06 563.154,70.057 562.106,71.106 C561.058,72.155 560.06,72.803 558.662,73.347 C557.607,73.757 556.021,74.244 553.102,74.378 C549.944,74.521 548.997,74.552 541,74.552 C533.003,74.552 532.056,74.521 528.898,74.378 C525.979,74.244 524.393,73.757 523.338,73.347 C521.94,72.803 520.942,72.155 519.894,71.106 C518.846,70.057 518.197,69.06 517.654,67.663 C517.244,66.606 516.755,65.022 516.623,62.101 C516.479,58.943 516.448,57.996 516.448,50 C516.448,42.003 516.479,41.056 516.623,37.899 C516.755,34.978 517.244,33.391 517.654,32.338 C518.197,30.938 518.846,29.942 519.894,28.894 C520.942,27.846 521.94,27.196 523.338,26.654 C524.393,26.244 525.979,25.756 528.898,25.623 C532.057,25.479 533.004,25.448 541,25.448 C548.997,25.448 549.943,25.479 553.102,25.623 C556.021,25.756 557.607,26.244 558.662,26.654 C560.06,27.196 561.058,27.846 562.106,28.894 C563.154,29.942 563.803,30.938 564.346,32.338 C564.756,33.391 565.244,34.978 565.378,37.899 C565.522,41.056 565.552,42.003 565.552,50 C565.552,57.996 565.522,58.943 565.378,62.101 M570.82,37.631 C570.674,34.438 570.167,32.258 569.425,30.349 C568.659,28.377 567.633,26.702 565.965,25.035 C564.297,23.368 562.623,22.342 560.652,21.575 C558.743,20.834 556.562,20.326 553.369,20.18 C550.169,20.033 549.148,20 541,20 C532.853,20 531.831,20.033 528.631,20.18 C525.438,20.326 523.257,20.834 521.349,21.575 C519.376,22.342 517.703,23.368 516.035,25.035 C514.368,26.702 513.342,28.377 512.574,30.349 C511.834,32.258 511.326,34.438 511.181,37.631 C511.035,40.831 511,41.851 511,50 C511,58.147 511.035,59.17 511.181,62.369 C511.326,65.562 511.834,67.743 512.574,69.651 C513.342,71.625 514.368,73.296 516.035,74.965 C517.703,76.634 519.376,77.658 521.349,78.425 C523.257,79.167 525.438,79.673 528.631,79.82 C531.831,79.965 532.853,80.001 541,80.001 C549.148,80.001 550.169,79.965 553.369,79.82 C556.562,79.673 558.743,79.167 560.652,78.425 C562.623,77.658 564.297,76.634 565.965,74.965 C567.633,73.296 568.659,71.625 569.425,69.651 C570.167,67.743 570.674,65.562 570.82,62.369 C570.966,59.17 571,58.147 571,50 C571,41.851 570.966,40.831 570.82,37.631"></path></g></g></g></svg></div><div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;"> View this post on Instagram</div></div><div style="padding: 12.5% 0px;"></div> <div style="align-items: center; display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px;"><div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px); width: 12.5px;"></div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12.5px; margin-left: 2px; margin-right: 14px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px;"></div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px); width: 12.5px;"></div></div><div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"></div> <div style="border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid rgb(244, 244, 244); border-top: 2px solid transparent; height: 0px; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg); width: 0px;"></div></div><div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="border-right: 8px solid transparent; border-top: 8px solid rgb(244, 244, 244); transform: translateY(16px); width: 0px;"></div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; transform: translateY(-4px); width: 16px;"></div> <div style="border-left: 8px solid transparent; border-top: 8px solid rgb(244, 244, 244); height: 0px; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px); width: 0px;"></div></div></div></a> <p style="margin: 8px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 4px;"> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BG4WKa5x1xh/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">Ambassador John Bolton</a></p> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0px 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">A post shared by <a href="https://www.instagram.com/epavard/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px;" target="_blank"> Varda Epstein</a> (@epavard) on <time datetime="2016-06-20T14:55:44+00:00" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;">Jun 20, 2016 at 7:55am PDT</time></p></div></blockquote> <script async="" src="//www.instagram.com/embed.js"></script><p>But you come with preconceptions. You think you know the good guys from the bad guys, whom to cheer and whom to boo. You think you know right from left.</p><p>And sometimes you’re right.</p><p>When Tsipi Livni spoke, for instance, I stayed, thinking maybe I should at least hear her out, while others left before she could begin. And I had to leave in the middle of her speech in protest of the way she demonized <a href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4832317,00.html">Elor Azaria</a>, the soldier who, like Israel, is being tried in the court of public opinion as well as before a jury of his peers (or what passes for that in Israel)* for shooting a terrorist who was already down. That boy could be my son. Anyone’s son. And I was disgusted at the suggestion that we should not support him.</p><p>Just a boy. Put in an impossible situation. A stressful situation.</p><p>It made me want to cry, just thinking about it. Still does.</p><p>And then at some point, Richard Lakin’s son spoke. Micah Lakin Avni. I steeled myself to listen to him with kindness. His father had been murdered not that long ago, the year of mourning, not yet complete.</p><p>Why did I need to steel myself? Not because it would be difficult to hear his pain, it would be of course, but I steeled myself only because I knew the family, including Richard (HY”D), himself lately murdered by Arab terrorists, leaned to the left politically.</p><p>It is very difficult to listen quietly when people talk about giving up Jewish land for peace, when one doesn’t believe this a sound or advisable idea—when one does not believe this will bring the desired result. It is very difficult to listen quietly when left-leaning people pay homage to the idea of symmetry and balance when all I see is an Arab war against the Jews. But I had no intention of not giving Micah Lakin Avni my fullest attention. He deserved to be heard, as the son of a terror victim, as a fellow Jew, as someone who had suffered pain no one should be made to suffer.</p><p>And what I found was that he was quite reasonable, Micah Lakin Avni. He was straight-talking. From start to finish. He said not one thing with which I disagreed politically or on any other level. He spoke about the disbelieving Arab nurse in ICU who cared for his father as he lingered in a coma, on the edge of death. Only one week before, her two sons had been in Richard Lakin’s home. He was their teacher, their tutor. His home had always open to them. He was kindness itself. It was impossible for her to believe that something like this could happen to <em>him</em>.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNbWMABP82fSp7AYnU2TOFfpNBok-1cg0LOXhymyFUpdwr106lkL5RSslvnizM8ViXa0-w6poH5FO1oQoFxTwpJ49eapW_Uu_ivPQjtQFNYe28-cxEDvsmPIP_0l9i4LLELQszWTRrpzne/s750/Richard-Lakin-e1472413813520.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="422" data-original-width="750" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNbWMABP82fSp7AYnU2TOFfpNBok-1cg0LOXhymyFUpdwr106lkL5RSslvnizM8ViXa0-w6poH5FO1oQoFxTwpJ49eapW_Uu_ivPQjtQFNYe28-cxEDvsmPIP_0l9i4LLELQszWTRrpzne/s320/Richard-Lakin-e1472413813520.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Richard Lakin, HY"D<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p><br />It was so sad.</p><p>But the main thrust of what Micah Lakin Avni spoke about was how social media was being used to facilitate and feed the terror pipeline. He spoke of how it felt when only a few days after his father’s murder, the Hamas Student Union aired a video reenactment of the murder on Facebook and Twitter. When Micah could barely deal with the torrent of emotions, he was confronted with something so cruel and ugly.</p><p>He called it “open-source Jihad” and talked about how it grows itself. And he talked about how he wrote an op-ed in the New York Times called <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/03/opinion/the-facebook-intifada.html?_r=0">The Facebook Intifada</a>. Precisely<em> because</em> he was left-leaning, and precisely because of what he had personally suffered, moreover, his op-ed went viral.</p><p>And that’s important.</p><p>It’s important any time we can get the mainstream media to hear the truth about terror, the truth about Israel and what is happening here. It is important when the mainstream media allows our voices to be heard. For soldiering on and making his voice heard, Micah Lakin Avni is only to be praised.</p><p>But even more so for what he then said at the conference I attended. He dared to say that open-source Jihad is the new Nazism. And he said that in order to deal with this new Nazism, we will have to revisit our rights. Things like freedom of speech and the presumption of innocence which is at the very core of our society.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJziPUKiLyfgX5Pp9oylj3LaaIXY2y7baOAIaYPC0rXb4Vy97u7C74HyIqXfQMlNXzfJ7XQIGytPz6rrnDfp_biS14rxfETJO_g0DNxAbLZgMDELLyOdsAVVWvywyp07PsXbjHUWOUF-ms/s700/Death-to-Israel-e1472414775495.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="337" data-original-width="700" height="193" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJziPUKiLyfgX5Pp9oylj3LaaIXY2y7baOAIaYPC0rXb4Vy97u7C74HyIqXfQMlNXzfJ7XQIGytPz6rrnDfp_biS14rxfETJO_g0DNxAbLZgMDELLyOdsAVVWvywyp07PsXbjHUWOUF-ms/w400-h193/Death-to-Israel-e1472414775495.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>Lakin Avni did not suggest we discard this presumption, only revisit and perhaps reconsider or revise. Because when you have terrorists airing reenactments of murder on social media, you have to think hard about the effect of this on society and whether the freedom to create and share a clip like this, that incites to murder, is more valuable than peace.</p><p>(Think of Hitler’s speeches—what if <em>they</em> had been suppressed because of the danger? This was a danger we now know was too high a price to pay for freedom of speech.)</p><p>The frustrating thing here, for Lakin Avni, and for all of us, is that Facebook has no face. There is no address for these concerns, no address to deal with incitement on social media, this open-source Jihad. Facebook couches its “<a href="https://www.facebook.com/communitystandards">Community Standards</a>” in words that preclude any complaint. Facebook decries “acts of violence” and not incitement to terror. The monolith says its concern must be for the safety of the people on Facebook (and not people on buses, people like Richard Lakin, for instance). There is no face to sue.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipYQVIYT01fUDHLCI0bU_o3ew_i-kKnfCB40uHxKZQmJIFNRTmxGsr7X3Ytpz4OZFst11yPIu9aFVfUsyHWKJhC2kdpX-YyD7eS0hRp_UGhg_gMUVvDoBEyctlOJlmAidt_IoN1amCqMFu/s700/Community-Standards-e1472413884709.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="420" data-original-width="700" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipYQVIYT01fUDHLCI0bU_o3ew_i-kKnfCB40uHxKZQmJIFNRTmxGsr7X3Ytpz4OZFst11yPIu9aFVfUsyHWKJhC2kdpX-YyD7eS0hRp_UGhg_gMUVvDoBEyctlOJlmAidt_IoN1amCqMFu/w400-h240/Community-Standards-e1472413884709.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>Meanwhile, said Lakin Avni, incitement to terror is rampant on Arabic and Muslim pages on Facebook and Facebook simply closes its eyes to the phenomenon. Lakin Avni dares them to refute this fact: that incitement is rampant on Arabic and Muslim Facebook pages.</p><p>His dare goes unanswered. Will go unanswered. And the result of this silence is and will be bloodshed.</p><p>Well, I am now at over 1,000 words and have not yet gotten to the meat of my piece, the reason I am suddenly writing about a conference that took place over one month ago. It is this: six months ago, the World Organization of the Scout Movement accepted as a full member, the Palestinian Scout Association. And now, this very same Palestinian Scout Association is running a “leadership training course” called the <em>Martyr – Leader Baha Alyan Course</em>.</p><p>This “leadership course” which incites children to die in the act of killing Jewish Israelis is named after the murderer of peace activist Richard Lakin: Baha Alyan.</p><p>Now my son is a boy scout. He is big into Scouts. He eats, sleeps, and dreams Scouts. He tries hard to be a leader and a good example to the boys he has charge of, as a patrol leader. It is difficult to imagine the disparity between my son’s experience of being a scout, which means things like being trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent, and what these Arab children are being taught in the name of “leadership.” Namely: to go out and kill the Jews.</p><div class="getty embed image" style="background-color: white; color: #a7a7a7; display: inline-block; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; max-width: 368px; width: 100%;"><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/86062058" style="border: none; color: #a7a7a7; display: inline-block; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Embed from Getty Images</a></div><div style="height: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 125.815% 0px 0px; position: relative; width: 100%;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="463" scrolling="no" src="//embed.gettyimages.com/embed/86062058?et=apiM3e10QGJMoi91ZW8m0g&viewMoreLink=on&sig=SIMJUpxP3C1lMOYA2pjSJYd1cjLH_rSJe4UY4fckxp0=" style="display: inline-block; height: 100%; left: 0; margin: 0; position: absolute; top: 0; width: 100%;" width="368"></iframe></div><p style="margin: 0px;"></p></div><p>It’s open-source Jihad writ large. It’s incitement to kill. It’s extreme xenophobia, and yes. It’s CHILD ABUSE.</p><p>The story of these boy scouts for Jihad was broken by <a href="http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=18663">Palestinian Media Watch</a> with a quote from the official Palestinian Authority daily, Al-Jadida:</p><blockquote><p>“Yesterday the practical studies for the [scout] deputy unit leaders (preparation for the wood badge) – Martyr (Shahid) Leader Baha Alyan Course began at the Shabab Al-Eizariya Club in the Jerusalem district (Note: Alyan was terrorist who murdered 3, Ed.). [The course] was organized by the Committee for Training and Developing Leadership of the Palestinian Scout Association, in cooperation with the scout commission in the Jerusalem district.</p><p>The training staff is composed of several members of the Committee for Training and Developing Leadership: Preparatory studies [course] leader and Jerusalem commissioner Sa’id Atoun, [scout] leader Muhammad Al-Dahdar, and [scout] leader Mufid Al-Barq.”</p><p>[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Aug. 27, 2016]</p></blockquote><p>In response, PMW’s Itamar Marcus wrote to the World Organization of the Scout Movement:</p><blockquote><p>From: Palestinian Media Watch <pmw@palwatch.org></p><p>To: worldbureau@scout.org</p><p>Date: Aug. 28, 2016</p><p>Subject: Palestinian Scout Association terror promotion</p><p>Dear World Organization of the Scout Movement,<br />We would like to bring to your attention that the Palestinian Scout Association (PSA), which six months ago was accepted as a full member in the World Organization of the Scout Movement, is training its scout leaders to see a cold-blooded terrorist murderer as their role model. The PSA leadership training course that started last week is named the “Martyr – Leader Baha Alyan Course,” after terrorist Alyan, who boarded a bus in Jerusalem last October and murdered three Israeli passengers on the bus: Alon Govberg (51), Haviv Haim (78) and Richard Lakin (76).</p><p>We ask that you take steps to guarantee that the distinguished World Organization of the Scout Movement will have no part in training future scout leaders to see terrorist murderers as role models, by immediately canceling the PSA’s membership. There is no greater impediment to peace than bringing up children to see murderers of innocent civilians as heroic role models. Should you allow the Palestinian Scout Association to keep its membership in the World Organization of the Scout Movement at the same time as they are presenting a murderer as a role model for future scout leaders, then your organization is effectively a co-sponsor of this terror promoting course.</p><p>We thank you and are waiting to hear what actions you have taken to distance yourselves from the terror-promoting Palestinian Scout Association.</p><p>Sincerely,</p><p>Itamar Marcus,</p><p>Director Palestinian Media Watch</p></blockquote><p>I am absolutely biting my nails to hear what, if any answer, Marcus will receive.</p><p>Will the World Organization of the Scout Movement, like Facebook and Twitter before it, turn a blind eye to open-source Jihad, to the incitement of children to kill my people, as long as someone calls it “leadership training?”</p><p>Will the Scouts movement refuse to disassociate from these evil people with their extreme hatred and xenophobia?</p><p>Will Scouts become a place where I cannot in good conscience allow my son to continue to serve in a leadership role?</p><p>Will Scouts become a place where “terror” is called “leadership,” and “Jew-killing,” “resistance?”</p><p>And what will be the response of the Israeli branch of the Scout movement??</p><p>I probably need to have a talk with my son.</p><p>It is a talk I am dreading.</p><p>*UPDATE: I knew the military court was likely different than the American court system, but didn’t quite know how. Reader Shabtai wrote and explained as follows: “There is no jury at all. If there were, [Elor Azaria] would be tried in front of 6 of his peers – other לוחמים [fighters]. Instead, he is tried in front of a panel of military judges – who depend, in a large measure on the Ramat Kal [Chief of Staff], who has already condemned Azaria, for their next promotion. Ever hear the term ‘show trial’? I think that this is a critical point, and not enough folks in blogosphere (as far as I can see) are making it.”</p>Varda Meyers Epstein (Judean Rose)http://www.blogger.com/profile/17159600299817776906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2253835380551102822.post-17992297197179851872016-08-22T05:06:00.000-07:002020-10-28T07:40:23.141-07:00What Makes Yahoo the Most Racist Website in the World?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-zaVPchfLdZnKXzqmMLNr-5-VejZr2wNeRHaqP8fs1pGwIX_xoS011S3IsVJQXaignI87GxZivwL_lVMprQ1ETT_ls5OA6rHnrmWgmSqglzmwqMixZWxlqXbw4VfR-nqeVbA8YSlPx1pT/s1920/Yahoo-Screenshot.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="952" data-original-width="1920" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-zaVPchfLdZnKXzqmMLNr-5-VejZr2wNeRHaqP8fs1pGwIX_xoS011S3IsVJQXaignI87GxZivwL_lVMprQ1ETT_ls5OA6rHnrmWgmSqglzmwqMixZWxlqXbw4VfR-nqeVbA8YSlPx1pT/w400-h199/Yahoo-Screenshot.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>Don’t let the title fool you. Yahoo is not the most racist website in the world. But I bet that linkbait title got you to click it open, mighty fast.</p><p>So here’s the deal: this morning, my husband brought my attention to the fact that Yahoo had published a “listicle” of the <a href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:gE3ywbzkVmAJ:https://www.yahoo.com/news/makes-10-countries-most-racist-135210771.html+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk">ten most racist countries</a>. Guess who came in at #10?</p><p>If you guessed Israel, you’re right.</p><h2>Israel: Most Racist Country (According to Yahoo)</h2><p>Of Israel, the unknown Yahoo staff writer wrote:</p><blockquote><p>“Despite repeated endeavors by United Nations and other countries, the eternal hate among Palestinians, Israelis, and Israeli Arabs sees no hope of coming to a closure anytime soon. The environment is inflammable instigating frequent riots, the population of refugees is huge and the fleeting cease fires couldn’t solve anything.”</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8MFZ0_otG0yjah77Bk30AFI9rd2zga4tERtw8UkC25mUzHmT_m7LJGTEuMgg27KevQrJFlRTostrS2cmF-sX4Rk4XA13M4TNUQASRV167TPNAp-tv5xS6FAAgDD5semdzYIlKync8hTO2/s1333/Yahoo-Screenshot2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="740" data-original-width="1333" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8MFZ0_otG0yjah77Bk30AFI9rd2zga4tERtw8UkC25mUzHmT_m7LJGTEuMgg27KevQrJFlRTostrS2cmF-sX4Rk4XA13M4TNUQASRV167TPNAp-tv5xS6FAAgDD5semdzYIlKync8hTO2/w400-h223/Yahoo-Screenshot2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p><br /></p></blockquote><p>This is a bold lie.</p><p>For one thing, as my husband noted, while Arabs mix freely with Jews in Israeli towns and cities, there is a policy of “no Jews allowed” in any Arab area autonomous to the Palestinian Authority. There are signs posted to this effect at the entrance to every Arab village and town.</p><p>Here is one such sign.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhROdmdb7NDbbMNLBpCj1DXPcsJ9uzZtY7MGkkq2wnIJrFdfnD8AdxzJ1jkU9GufoQApEc74anQxX65-hHESJasKdFjeDarCuNcAKNEsh23z7TInUZvkn6teovNFBL5ICy9JVREESFOxL5A/s610/Sign-Entry-Forbidden.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="610" data-original-width="480" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhROdmdb7NDbbMNLBpCj1DXPcsJ9uzZtY7MGkkq2wnIJrFdfnD8AdxzJ1jkU9GufoQApEc74anQxX65-hHESJasKdFjeDarCuNcAKNEsh23z7TInUZvkn6teovNFBL5ICy9JVREESFOxL5A/w315-h400/Sign-Entry-Forbidden.jpg" width="315" /></a></div><p>Note that the sign doesn’t say, “No Jews allowed.” Instead the sign says, “No Israeli citizens allowed.” But they don’t mean Israeli citizens, because that would mean Israeli Arabs are not allowed entry, which is not the case.</p><p>Arabs have a prejudice against Jews to the point that they insist their towns and cities be “Judenrein.” This hatred and exclusion IS NOT reciprocated by Jewish Israelis toward Arabs, and Arabs are full members of Israeli society.</p><p>The article references “frequent riots.” You would think from this description that you have two sides throwing things (boulders, firebombs) at each other, screaming at each other, and so forth. But this too, is not the case. You have Arabs rioting and throwing things at IDF soldiers, buses, private cars, and the light rail train. What do you <em>not</em> have? Jews rioting and throwing things at Arabs or Arab vehicles.</p><h2>Racist? Jews Hate <em>Terror</em></h2><p>The article mentions “hate among Israelis, Palestinians, and Israeli Arabs,” but this too, is not the case. I personally don’t hate Arabs. I do hate terrorism and terrorists, most assuredly. And I think that is true of most people.</p><p>The article speaks of the environment being “inflammable” and this is another lie. The environment is not inflammable. That’s an excuse people give to Arab terrorists to kill people. The environment is inflammable? Well, it must be something set off that terrorist! It’s the kind of thing <em>your mother</em> says when she doesn’t want to deal with the bully who is making your life miserable: “Well, you must have done <em>something </em>to make him do that to you!”</p><p>Actually, in the case of Arab terrorism, it’s true. We Jews definitely do something that makes Arabs kill us. We insist on being Jewish and living in our homeland. That makes them crazy.</p><p>Is the answer: “Well, then, you should convert to Islam! You should leave Israel! Because it makes them very, very angry that you are Jewish and living in your land!”</p><p>No. The answer is the world has to stop making excuses for terror. There is NO VALID REASON FOR TERROR.</p><h2>“Repeated Endeavors”</h2><p>The repeated endeavors of the United Nations and other countries? Those endeavors are about demonizing Israel. “Bad Israel. How dare you build homes where Arabs don’t want you to live?”</p><p>The “endeavors” are the lies phrased as UN resolutions about all the ways Jews torture and oppress Arabs, which is something that does not happen, something I have not seen in my 37 years of living in this country. In my local Rami Levy supermarket, for instance, Arabs shop alongside Jews. They sometimes ask our help reading the Hebrew labels or locating a product. We help them and are polite and kind.</p><p>The same is true everywhere we encounter Arabs: in our hospitals and buses and stores.</p><h2>Not Racist: Prudent</h2><p>Are we sometimes nervous to be in close quarters with Arabs? Well then. That is what is wrought by Arab terror against Jews. It is called “being prudent.”</p><p>The world thinks they can paint this thing–this Arab hatred–as something balanced, as a conflict between two peoples. But this is not the case. There is no symmetry, no balance. There is no “conflict.” There is an Arab war against the Jews. It is unasked for and undeserved. Israel has always been ready to coexist with and have a true peace with the Arabs.
</p><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><iframe align="center" frameborder="no" height="302" name="torahcafe" scrolling="no" src="https://www.torahcafe.com/iframe.php?vid=26211c28a&width=480&height=302&autoplay=off" width="480"></iframe><br /><a href="https://www.torahcafe.com/jewishvideo.php?vid=26211c28a" target="_blank"><img alt="Watch on TorahCafé.com!" border="0" height="42" src="https://www.torahcafe.com/uploads/Embed_logo5.png" style="height: 42px; width: 130px;" title="Watch on TorahCafé.com!" width="130" /></a></div>
The racism is not Israel’s. The racism belongs to one minority living in Israel, the Muslim Arabs. It is unfair and wrong to attribute the xenophobia of a single minority to a democratic country: the only one in the Middle East where Jews and Arabs can mix freely. Israel is a model of coexistence, and a light unto the nations. (You sure won’t see Jews in Iran’s government, or Saudi Arabia’s government, for instance. But it would be nice if they’d follow Israel’s example, now wouldn’t it?)<p>I guess it’s no surprise that Yahoo took down the article before I could get a look at this extreme example of media bias against Israel. I found a cached version and my talented son Natan clicked “next” on the cached link really quickly ten times and managed to catch a screenshot of what Yahoo belatedly decided to delete from its website, lest anyone think that the racist entity is not Israel, but, um, YAHOO.</p>Varda Meyers Epstein (Judean Rose)http://www.blogger.com/profile/17159600299817776906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2253835380551102822.post-43437007146245377352016-08-14T06:33:00.000-07:002020-10-28T07:31:20.637-07:00Mahmoud Darwish: The Poetry and Lies of the Left<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbCIRAI58hOaGmCxTumD1JBgfskvbD7EYDx3hqth83pDmdt63JjXGowIw2zYTa4x92E5vQXSY1_wt2EKupMiO0gXXpnerWhn0Rr52ubon4yV6rHyj7ExoOzhESVl6793uIU8sM0P8W-4U2/s440/Darwish-Flanked-by-Arafat-and-Habash.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="264" data-original-width="440" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbCIRAI58hOaGmCxTumD1JBgfskvbD7EYDx3hqth83pDmdt63JjXGowIw2zYTa4x92E5vQXSY1_wt2EKupMiO0gXXpnerWhn0Rr52ubon4yV6rHyj7ExoOzhESVl6793uIU8sM0P8W-4U2/w400-h240/Darwish-Flanked-by-Arafat-and-Habash.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p><strong></strong>Mahmoud Darwish 1941-2008, used poetry to spread a false anti-Israel narrative among the Arab people, a false narrative in which the Jews are the usurpers and occupiers of the Holy Land, in which Jews have no right to Jewish indigenous territory. And words are only words, except when they are used to incite the masses to violence.</p><p>Such as when Mahmoud Darwish, the “‘Palestinian’ national poet,” wrote things like,</p><blockquote><p><em>The usurper’s flesh will be my food</em></p><p><em>Beware – beware – of my hunger</em></p><p><em>and my anger!</em></p></blockquote><p>These words were meant to fill Arabs with rage. So full of rage, that they would murder Jewish Israelis. As such, Darwish’s poetry was neither beautiful, nor innocent, but evil. His poems were filled with lies. His words were meant to the twist minds and hearts of Arabs against their fellow man and to commit violence against them, against the Jews.</p><p>But Darwish was a darling of the<a href="http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Politics-And-Diplomacy/DM-scolds-Army-Radio-chief-for-airing-Palestinian-poet-462086"> left</a>. Because the left cares not about substance, but about feeling. And it’s all selective.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7ZE7GBXhRrhpYF-KBGeMygFHD8EDKX8n3N5Hwts9zaR788Xr6QYurtvdhvVY7V5jGwymkvpx8kiORhfr9qFgLz6uzVkFXggG_qCZVomu_V4d1qiBgTxk61MVCbHtvy_WiNBv7shLF2tGc/s440/Darwish-Flanked-by-Arafat-and-Habash.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="264" data-original-width="440" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7ZE7GBXhRrhpYF-KBGeMygFHD8EDKX8n3N5Hwts9zaR788Xr6QYurtvdhvVY7V5jGwymkvpx8kiORhfr9qFgLz6uzVkFXggG_qCZVomu_V4d1qiBgTxk61MVCbHtvy_WiNBv7shLF2tGc/w400-h240/Darwish-Flanked-by-Arafat-and-Habash.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #292525; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15.2px; font-style: italic;">Mahmoud Darwish flanked by murderers Arafat (left) and George Habash (right).</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p><br />You won’t see the left quoting Darwish when he talks about eating Jewish flesh:</p><blockquote><p><em> I will eat my oppressor’s flesh</em></p><p><em>Beware, beware of my starving</em></p><p><em> And my rage</em></p></blockquote><p>But you will see them quoting Darwish when he lies about the Arab connection to and longing for Jewish land:</p><blockquote><p><em>I come from there and I have memories </em><br /><em> Born as mortals are, I have a mother </em><br /><em> And a house with many windows, </em><br /><em> I have brothers, friends, </em><br /><em> And a prison cell with a cold window. </em><br /><em> Mine is the wave, snatched by sea-gulls, </em><br /><em> I have my own view, </em><br /><em> And an extra blade of grass. </em><br /><em> Mine is the moon at the far edge of the words, </em><br /><em> And the bounty of birds, </em><br /><em> And the immortal olive tree. </em><br /><em> I walked this land before the swords </em><br /><em> Turned its living body into a laden table. </em><br /><em> I come from there. I render the sky unto her mother </em><br /><em> When the sky weeps for her mother. </em><br /><em> And I weep to make myself known </em><br /><em> To a returning cloud. </em><br /><em> I learnt all the words worthy of the court of blood </em><br /><em> So that I could break the rule. </em><br /><em> I learnt all the words and broke them up </em><br /><em> To make a single word: Homeland… </em></p></blockquote><h2>Mahmoud Darwish: Feelings, Not Truth</h2><p>No one cares if Darwish’s words are true. They point to them and say, “See! He feels—<em>they </em>feel—as strongly as the Jews feel about the land.”</p><p>As if it matters.</p><p>As if they really feel that way.</p><p>As if they really feel a longing for Jewish land and feel that it is theirs.</p><p>It’s a BIG. FAT. LIE.</p><p>They DON’T feel it’s theirs, the land.</p><p>They know better.</p><h2>Mahmoud Darwish: Bani Isra’il</h2><p>The Arabs know that Israel is Jewish land, because their holy book, the Quran, is shot through with references to Israel as the land that belongs to the Jewish people, the <em>Bani Isra’il</em>, Arabic for, “Children of Israel.”</p><p>Moreover, the Arabic word for Jews is “Yahud.” Yahud is a reference to the tribe of Judah, and the land this tribe inherited: Judea. Judea is JEWISH LAND. It’s the place that Jews come from. Their own Arabic language contains this very pertinent fact. And no flowery poem can negate this very pertinent fact.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3y8EXfDylEMKrIFYyTflvLF7odzju2VShNS1QMtWgVu7VMUEESpAB_ZzPIEfL4V3omz3aCBlZ0BuF_72XMrlLU2Gjis3egkJ7ymLYZpjxcsj1mm6CZLMZOxt8hefbnZB84h-HUojavcou/s781/Darwish.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="781" data-original-width="400" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3y8EXfDylEMKrIFYyTflvLF7odzju2VShNS1QMtWgVu7VMUEESpAB_ZzPIEfL4V3omz3aCBlZ0BuF_72XMrlLU2Gjis3egkJ7ymLYZpjxcsj1mm6CZLMZOxt8hefbnZB84h-HUojavcou/w328-h640/Darwish.jpg" width="328" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>When the left tells you the Arab yearning for the land is no different from the Jewish yearning for the land, this too, is a lie. It’s a lie designed to bring balance to a story of imbalance.</p><p>The fact is that the Jewish people were exiled from their land on this very day, two thousand years ago. The Jews were exiled by usurpers and occupiers. There were many of them through the ages.</p><p>The Arabs now occupying Jewish land are just the most recent incarnation of the many usurpers and occupiers of Jewish land.</p><p>And people who give weight to Arab pretensions to yearning for a land that was never theirs, are enablers and inciters of terrorism. They enable Arab violence against Jews by pretending that anything Arabs feel is as valid as actual historic and legal rights. They enable Arab violence against Jews by pretending that what Arabs claim they feel is what they actually feel and think. They enable Arab violence against Jews by attempting to understand why Arabs commit violence against Jewish people.</p><p>They enable Arab violence against Jews by pretending that a two-state solution will stop the violence of the Arab people against the Jews. They enable Arab violence against Jews by boycotting products made in the heartland of Jewish indigenous territory, such as <em>Yehuda</em>, Judea, the place from whence even the Arabs know, the <em>Yahud</em> hail.</p><p>A Jew who tries so hard to understand the Arab terrorists that he or she undermines Jewish rights to Jewish territory must be filled with self-doubt, self-hatred. And those who listen to them and are swayed by them, endanger themselves and their own people.</p><p>Without a doubt.</p><p>Do not let that be you.</p><h2>Mahmoud Darwish: Pretty Little Lies</h2><p>Especially not on Tisha B’Av, the day Jews mark the destruction of the Jewish Temples, in the heart of Jewish Jerusalem, which led to two thousand years of a longing to return, in a time long before there was an Arab people, or a man named Mohammed/Mahmoud.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikgiSe7qJOu41MaTumHXWhFy3VuFJ1mA8yEiDFoi8DwcRCvuD4pG6AVzyj5jvVfROI78htfOh8lbNSnrWOW4IjsJBF-dEqHrHq5wRLGgc6maTfmth2rAZkPXTa0GTRnDBcoEyyVjTNvnNy/s768/Francesco_Hayez_017-768x562.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="562" data-original-width="768" height="293" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikgiSe7qJOu41MaTumHXWhFy3VuFJ1mA8yEiDFoi8DwcRCvuD4pG6AVzyj5jvVfROI78htfOh8lbNSnrWOW4IjsJBF-dEqHrHq5wRLGgc6maTfmth2rAZkPXTa0GTRnDBcoEyyVjTNvnNy/w400-h293/Francesco_Hayez_017-768x562.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Artist: Francesco Hayez <br /></td></tr></tbody></table>Varda Meyers Epstein (Judean Rose)http://www.blogger.com/profile/17159600299817776906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2253835380551102822.post-13230299059921078792016-08-10T11:43:00.000-07:002020-10-28T07:26:15.775-07:00Tikkun Olam: What's God Got to Do with it?<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifcT-Rf4xWIKxm0DK4OaJkp1494ZyEhYf9ol1aXFsFgHk1YaPXMycph6KIPZW5W_Ob9v19r00Mh45RNQPfkiS7SNmZW_mouhQt4gMWmZpyCZiHQIS1VxPopTU98aEdvOaaNnHM6cWn44xp/s1327/Tikkun-Olam-Whats-God-Got-to-Do-With-It.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="652" data-original-width="1327" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifcT-Rf4xWIKxm0DK4OaJkp1494ZyEhYf9ol1aXFsFgHk1YaPXMycph6KIPZW5W_Ob9v19r00Mh45RNQPfkiS7SNmZW_mouhQt4gMWmZpyCZiHQIS1VxPopTU98aEdvOaaNnHM6cWn44xp/w400-h196/Tikkun-Olam-Whats-God-Got-to-Do-With-It.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><em><br /></em><p></p><p><em>Tikkun Olam. </em>It’s an obscure Jewish concept which translates to “repairing the world” and is often bandied about by <a href="http://www.liberaljudaism.org/who-we-are/">liberal Jews</a> to mean something it doesn’t.</p><p>What it means: perfecting one’s observance of the commandments.</p><p>What it doesn’t mean: you see things that bother you and try to make them right according to your personal compass.</p><p>Nope. Doesn’t mean that. It means every Jew doing his share to repair the world by doing his best to do the commandments as prescribed by God as set forth in the Torah.</p><p>It means: not turning lights on and off on Shabbos.</p><p>It means: not eating pork and shellfish or meat and milk.</p><p>For instance.</p><p>And now I’m going to say a bunch of things you won’t like. When liberals twist Jewish concepts to support a personal agenda, religion has nothing to do with it. They’ve taken something created by God and recreated it in their own image. Which makes no sense.</p><div class="getty embed image" style="background-color: white; color: #a7a7a7; display: inline-block; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; max-width: 594px; width: 100%;"><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/140168256" style="border: none; color: #a7a7a7; display: inline-block; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Embed from Getty Images</a></div><div style="height: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 66.6667% 0px 0px; position: relative; width: 100%;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="396" scrolling="no" src="//embed.gettyimages.com/embed/140168256?et=38JNjlRiTENmx6yGWMG8Zg&viewMoreLink=on&sig=mBClzTdHdsKywzBr2HWQO2NAapWTPGH50_DNAYMqaNY=&caption=true" style="display: inline-block; height: 100%; left: 0; margin: 0; position: absolute; top: 0; width: 100%;" width="594"></iframe></div><p style="margin: 0px;"></p></div><p>Religion is theist. It’s God-centric. If you can make it into anything you want, then it is no longer created by God, no longer divine. It’s <em>man</em> made.</p><p>Now Jews are allowed to interpret God’s word, as set forth in the Torah. But not everyone is allowed to do that. Only the people who received the tradition in an unbroken chain from Moses at Sinai and onward get to decide things for the rest of us peons. They get to decide, for instance, what foods we can and cannot eat.</p><p>The reason <em>they</em> get to decide these things is that they are the closest thing to God when it comes to understanding what God <em>meant</em> when He transmitted the Torah and made the Jews the beneficiaries of His word. What’s important here, you see, is carrying out the commandments the way <em>God</em> intended and not as <em>we’d</em> like them to be.</p><p>So, I might really like cheeseburgers, but I don’t get to decide it’s okay for me to eat them and that the really important thing is gun control. These are not the kinds of decisions that are in our hands as Jews.</p><p>Face the facts: I am never going to be allowed to have that cheeseburger. It is not ever going to be in man’s hands to say that the cheeseburger thing isn’t as important as how we, for instance, treat gay people or black people or Arabs.</p><div class="getty embed image" style="background-color: white; color: #a7a7a7; display: inline-block; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; max-width: 507px; width: 100%;"><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/509036863" style="border: none; color: #a7a7a7; display: inline-block; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Embed from Getty Images</a></div><div style="height: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 66.6667% 0px 0px; position: relative; width: 100%;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="338" scrolling="no" src="//embed.gettyimages.com/embed/509036863?et=UcO52ImKRkd9WfG1HoChgQ&viewMoreLink=on&sig=ojhIAmmQrA-eLGMQyKhJRyc-Cz5aSbXcj5znWyupQ2o=&caption=true" style="display: inline-block; height: 100%; left: 0; margin: 0; position: absolute; top: 0; width: 100%;" width="507"></iframe></div><p style="margin: 0px;"></p></div><p>See what I mean? You’re really not going to like what I’m saying here.</p><p>Tough. This blog is going to be truthful. Painfully truthful at times. And here is the truth:</p><p>The reason we were given the commandments, as Jews, was to make us “holy.” But “holy” is a poor descriptor for the Hebrew word, “<em>Kadosh</em>.” <em>Kadosh</em> doesn’t really mean “holy.” It means “separate.” When we do the commandments as set forth in the Torah, we Jews separate ourselves from the other nations of the world.</p><p>We wall ourselves off by, for instance, not eating cheeseburgers.</p><div class="getty embed image" style="background-color: white; color: #a7a7a7; display: inline-block; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; max-width: 594px; width: 100%;"><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/1134008" style="border: none; color: #a7a7a7; display: inline-block; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Embed from Getty Images</a></div><div style="height: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 66.835% 0px 0px; position: relative; width: 100%;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="397" scrolling="no" src="//embed.gettyimages.com/embed/1134008?et=Sk1s5wOXSSR_1d9JPKvHZw&viewMoreLink=on&sig=-w69_B93oLqV71UC093QNgKnnW_rayqZCiLxdliDm7k=&caption=true" style="display: inline-block; height: 100%; left: 0; margin: 0; position: absolute; top: 0; width: 100%;" width="594"></iframe></div><p style="margin: 0px;"></p></div><p>That is what makes us different from other people. And it is this difference, understand it or not, that we <em>strive</em> for in our observance. Not to be more like other people, more diverse, more tolerant, more open, more gender fluid. No.</p><p>We are striving to be separate from society, separated <em>out</em> of society by dint of observing the <em>mitzvot</em>, the commandments. It is what has preserved us as a people. It is what made us outlive all our enemies, Philistines, Canaanites, Egyptians, Romans, Greeks, Babylonians, and so forth, down through the ages.</p><div class="getty embed image" style="background-color: white; color: #a7a7a7; display: inline-block; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; max-width: 594px; width: 100%;"><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/110156083" style="border: none; color: #a7a7a7; display: inline-block; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Embed from Getty Images</a></div><div style="height: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 67.0034% 0px 0px; position: relative; width: 100%;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="398" scrolling="no" src="//embed.gettyimages.com/embed/110156083?et=tyRrk6uhTW1A-M61ZM2Onw&viewMoreLink=on&sig=wdHO8eN1G_yFfAlqNVCbn4wmjKPPcXV0mwDa8Cq1l04=&caption=true" style="display: inline-block; height: 100%; left: 0; margin: 0; position: absolute; top: 0; width: 100%;" width="594"></iframe></div><p style="margin: 0px;"></p></div><p>Think of us as being in a bubble, one big Bubble Boy. And when we’re exposed to stuff, we get contaminated and die.It is being separate that has kept us Jewish.It’s what makes us God-centric, rather than me-centric, or Western norms-centric. And it means marrying Jews and having Jewish children if we are so blessed.</p><p>It means continuity.</p><p>Because the word of God is immutable. And I will never taste a cheeseburger or a lobster.</p><p>Like diamonds, these things are <em>forever</em>.</p><p>They ain’t never gonna change.</p><p>Because some things cannot be interpreted to mean anything else, cannot be twisted to suit. Not even by liberal Jews.</p><p>They just are. Because God made them that way. The commandments, that is.</p><div class="getty embed image" style="background-color: white; color: #a7a7a7; display: inline-block; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; max-width: 594px; width: 100%;"><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/542741428" style="border: none; color: #a7a7a7; display: inline-block; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Embed from Getty Images</a></div><div style="height: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 66.6667% 0px 0px; position: relative; width: 100%;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="396" scrolling="no" src="//embed.gettyimages.com/embed/542741428?et=WffkFOQETBF8KEJ0YN3QrQ&viewMoreLink=on&sig=YxnA5-Dz5o7IsRbveetCE8hXaC5oKL7HPnUe2-404RE=&caption=true" style="display: inline-block; height: 100%; left: 0; margin: 0; position: absolute; top: 0; width: 100%;" width="594"></iframe></div><p style="margin: 0px;"></p></div><p>Now here’s another phrase I’ve seen/heard tossed around by at least one prominent liberal: <a href="http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/why-i-am-going-grey-for-tisha-bav/">“<em>sinat chinam</em>” </a>which translates to “baseless hatred.” The Temples were destroyed because of “<em>sinat chinam</em>.” The three weeks that lead up to the 9th of Av when it all went down are sad and bitter and we try to do our “tikkun” by being gentler with others and working on ourselves as people. That time is now.</p><p>So we avoid gossip and speaking ill of others. We try to avoid indulging in <em>Sinat Chinam</em>.</p><p>But <em>Sinat Chinam</em>, like <em>Tikkun Olam</em>, means something specific. It does not mean hating people for the color of their skin, or their religion, for instance. It doesn’t mean hating people because of the way they look or because of their sexual orientation. It means hating them for no reason at all.</p><p>We hate them baselessly. Needlessly. It’s hatred for the sake of hate.</p><div class="getty embed image" style="background-color: white; color: #a7a7a7; display: inline-block; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; max-width: 594px; width: 100%;"><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/524870292" style="border: none; color: #a7a7a7; display: inline-block; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Embed from Getty Images</a></div><div style="height: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 66.6667% 0px 0px; position: relative; width: 100%;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="396" scrolling="no" src="//embed.gettyimages.com/embed/524870292?et=r5u7i1m9Rt1LybhuU-CQ3g&viewMoreLink=on&sig=9BqNBEezA4cfMGb_R7Q-zxXsCrTdpz0s1jJTf7Ikag4=&caption=true" style="display: inline-block; height: 100%; left: 0; margin: 0; position: absolute; top: 0; width: 100%;" width="594"></iframe></div><p style="margin: 0px;"></p></div><p>If I say, “I hate gay people,” or, “I hate blondes,” that is the opposite of baseless hatred. The opposite of <em>Sinat Chinam</em>, because I have described a reason for my hate. I hate someone because that someone is gay, or blonde, or whatever descriptor I have chosen.</p><p>Again, we don’t get to just make stuff up and stick it onto the Torah. The Torah IS NOT A STICKER ALBUM. Baseless hatred is hating someone for no reason.</p><p>It isn’t<em> </em>whatever you decide it is. It is whatever God decided it is, as interpreted by the people He decided could make that interpretation. <em>Sinat Chinam</em> is about indulging in hatred for hatred’s sake. It is about forgetting our higher purpose as human beings, about forgetting the commandments.</p><p>It’s about forgetting to do <em>Tikkun Olam</em>.</p><p>And<em> Tikkun Olam</em>, applied, means that when I wake up in the morning, I’m going to wash my hands a certain way and say a bunch of blessings. Because the Torah says so and I’m a Jew. And I’m going to do those things meticulously, and with love. Because it is what will keep my children and my children’s children, Jewish.</p><div class="getty embed image" style="background-color: white; color: #a7a7a7; display: inline-block; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; max-width: 594px; width: 100%;"><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/474788225" style="border: none; color: #a7a7a7; display: inline-block; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Embed from Getty Images</a></div><div style="height: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 64.8148% 0px 0px; position: relative; width: 100%;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="385" scrolling="no" src="//embed.gettyimages.com/embed/474788225?et=vHIkbAynT8NHTC-P7PeXoA&viewMoreLink=on&sig=NZCaxHATOIgYil3ZTIk15atFHE1GPRsMHf96Yqn5EV0=&caption=true" style="display: inline-block; height: 100%; left: 0; margin: 0; position: absolute; top: 0; width: 100%;" width="594"></iframe></div><p style="margin: 0px;"></p></div><p><em>Tikkun Olam</em> means I’m going to do my share to fix the world by keeping kosher and not cooking food on Shabbos (as opposed to fighting for gay marriage, abortion, civil rights, gun control, and whatever social justice issue floats your boat). Because these social justice issues have nothing to do with <em>Tikkun Olam</em> just as hating blondes has nothing to do with <em>Sinat</em> <em>Chinam.</em></p><p>It is our personal observance of the commandments, refraining from ingesting pork or not touching a scissors on Shabbos, that makes us holy and separate. Along with the fun stuff like giving charity and cooking a meal for your neighbor when she’s just had a baby.</p><p>But when we twist concepts like <em>Tikkun Olam</em> and <em>Sinat Chinam</em> into unrecognizable pretzels, trying to make them fit particular social justice issues and situations, we have completely removed God and Judaism from the equation. And that is a wasted effort. It’s about trying to squish God into our own very limited human construct. And in so doing, we’re no longer doing God’s will and separating ourselves out from the nations of the world. We’re no longer <em>kodesh</em>, holy.</p><p>As Jews we are supposed to believe that the Torah, which represents God’s word, can be used to understand any and every situation we encounter throughout time. At the same time, we are supposed to acknowledge that the Torah is immutable. We don’t get to bend or twist it to suit a personal agenda. Because that would make it man-made and rob us of the possibility of striving for the divine, of striving to be godly.</p><p>And robbing ourselves of that would rob us of all purpose and make our lives, here on this earth, utterly pointless.</p>Varda Meyers Epstein (Judean Rose)http://www.blogger.com/profile/17159600299817776906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2253835380551102822.post-81690830531538427312016-08-04T15:24:00.000-07:002020-10-28T07:23:38.003-07:00WATCH: Tamir Goodman Gave Back a Full Scholarship<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqCT0vhj4cZhJ0r2RQ5_RQemIjiQFEYfu6bzB2rHDFSrbpRBdsjXn-HWy30uvdnmwTSjCtvX-urzzw4xp2kYv5MKEaiYZK2R4X1aG5-Ml6BI3qqjFiQ18qL4lKoOb8OHdTxGLyewRGOn8f/s1366/WATCH-Tamir-Goodman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1366" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqCT0vhj4cZhJ0r2RQ5_RQemIjiQFEYfu6bzB2rHDFSrbpRBdsjXn-HWy30uvdnmwTSjCtvX-urzzw4xp2kYv5MKEaiYZK2R4X1aG5-Ml6BI3qqjFiQ18qL4lKoOb8OHdTxGLyewRGOn8f/w400-h225/WATCH-Tamir-Goodman.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tamir Goodman (screenshot) <br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p>The University of Maryland gave star basketball player Tamir Goodman an ultimatum: play on Shabbos or you’re out.</p><p>An orthodox Jew, Tamir didn’t have to think twice. He gave back a full, four-year athletic scholarship to the school that played host to the top-ranked <a href="http://www.umterps.com/SportSelect.dbml?&SPID=120728">basketball team</a> in the nation. But let him tell you the story in his own words.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ULTrTshkvJw" width="320" youtube-src-id="ULTrTshkvJw"></iframe></div><p><br /></p><p>Tamir Goodman is aptly (sur)named. At least in my book.</p><p>Actually, Tamir Goodman reminds me of another principled athlete (you saw this coming a mile away).</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GPo9OBrIOi4" width="320" youtube-src-id="GPo9OBrIOi4"></iframe></div><p><em>h/t Natan Epstein</em></p>Varda Meyers Epstein (Judean Rose)http://www.blogger.com/profile/17159600299817776906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2253835380551102822.post-44943775748998880422016-08-04T11:15:00.000-07:002020-10-28T07:21:11.077-07:00The Dubya Deflection: They Always Bring Up Bush<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjisE3oTAIPxp4SbOzw56YrFtw6LmVWoszisjkoO4AqfGexiRqsGQ_LUHJTTshCIhLbd9EwCz8_dAVu_u0yJYNsqtVUsljv6oadt4PR43rciHhBJFPYSIHK8Qdq9mByFdOEuu_dq5_2wO17/s800/Dubya-12-e1470334148699.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="800" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjisE3oTAIPxp4SbOzw56YrFtw6LmVWoszisjkoO4AqfGexiRqsGQ_LUHJTTshCIhLbd9EwCz8_dAVu_u0yJYNsqtVUsljv6oadt4PR43rciHhBJFPYSIHK8Qdq9mByFdOEuu_dq5_2wO17/w400-h225/Dubya-12-e1470334148699.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">George W. Bush (Screenshot)<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p>The Dubya Deflection is the cute little thrust, parry, and feint that liberals engage in when they have no answer to your fact-based criticism of their guy. If you mention, for instance, that Obamacare <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/scottgottlieb/2015/05/14/how-many-people-has-obamacare-really-insured/#21826202777f">sucks</a>, Obama voters will say, “Was it better under Bush when millions of Americans were uninsured?”</p><p>The implication here is that if you criticize O, it means you love the other guy, even though that makes absolutely no sense. This is not an if/then kind of situation. There is actually no link between hating the ACA and liking Bush. You can hate Bush and the ACA. You can even love Obama and hate the ACA.</p><p>Do you feel me?</p><h2>The Dubya Deflection: When You’ve Got Nothing</h2><p>I was reminded of this feint, this kind of weaseling out of a trap because you know the other guy is right and you’ve got nothing, this morning, when my attention was drawn to the following exposé of UNRWA schools in Gaza and “East” Jerusalem, where schoolchildren are being taught to kill Jews.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GLG7cgATwB4" width="320" youtube-src-id="GLG7cgATwB4"></iframe></div><p>We see sample UNRWA school lessons. An UNRWA teacher tells the kids that life was dandy, your parents hung out on the beach and had a barbecue, then the wolf appeared. Who’s the wolf?</p><p>The Jews!</p><p>The UNRWA teacher tells the kids all sorts of lies. For instance that the Jews (note that said teacher says “Jews” and not “Israelis”) expelled and deported Arabs. Which is not true. The Arabs left of their own accord.</p><p>Which means there are no refugees, by the way. But you know. Jews. So the Arabs who left of their own volition remain “refugees” even unto the second and third generation, a right that is accorded no other people. Necessitating the creation of a special UN body to deal with them, you guessed it: UNRWA.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnTOLPERGzYaZuCmrqQxw_gbrTkkYLgaIrCz5ppYwlvmQ4iwfwsHd5SS-0824CMtmdy_WQYAe9GAWQASb3ZBU0TBHye_bCZldw5vu0xB5cE0IDlXvb9mwlnuNBhko2qolyxgMLGhoEOE79/s800/Shannon-Bream-Brooke-Goldstein-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="800" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnTOLPERGzYaZuCmrqQxw_gbrTkkYLgaIrCz5ppYwlvmQ4iwfwsHd5SS-0824CMtmdy_WQYAe9GAWQASb3ZBU0TBHye_bCZldw5vu0xB5cE0IDlXvb9mwlnuNBhko2qolyxgMLGhoEOE79/w400-h225/Shannon-Bream-Brooke-Goldstein-1.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Shannon Bream, Brooke Goldstein (screenshot)<br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table>After the videotaped UNRWA school lesson, we get to hear the amazing Brooke Goldstein of the <a href="http://thelawfareproject.org/">Lawfare Project</a>. She makes me so proud. She’s a lioness like Nitsana Darshan Leitner, another lady lawyer Jewish heroine.<p><br />Goldstein rips UNRWA a new one, telling viewers that while Canada divested from UNRWA programs like this, after learning about the incitement and indoctrination, U.S. taxpayers continue to fund the daily Jew-hate lessons to the tune of 130 million smackeroos.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFdMyZqE_mE5FGcXvl7nYLIuFhlUmQYU2t5UBI8AGdm1px4hUhCUuY4cPmP7ZvjV1jLQQvalAeidKh0QS4hpbYqwxD2CfnkXAIIUaQ5vIoMGXwQjFFngvQTu-pRSjqGD_4UbAWBTzYLYuJ/s800/Chris-Gunness.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="800" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFdMyZqE_mE5FGcXvl7nYLIuFhlUmQYU2t5UBI8AGdm1px4hUhCUuY4cPmP7ZvjV1jLQQvalAeidKh0QS4hpbYqwxD2CfnkXAIIUaQ5vIoMGXwQjFFngvQTu-pRSjqGD_4UbAWBTzYLYuJ/w400-h225/Chris-Gunness.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chris Gunness (screenshot)<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_97" style="width: 810px;"><p class="wp-caption-text">Then Chris Gunness gets a turn. He is the spokesperson of UNRWA. If we ever solve the “refugee” problem, he’s out of a job. So he’s got to spin this however he can.</p></div><p>And it’s bad.</p><p>Since ole Chris has no way to refute the allegations (because, hey, videotape is darned hard to refute), he deflects using the (you guessed it), Dubya Deflection. If UNRWA schools are so bad, how come Bush gave them even <em>more</em> money than Obama?</p><p>*rolls eyes*</p><p>Shannon Bream was good. She essentially said, “Facts come OUT,” something like Chris himself.</p><p>Chris took out his earpiece so he couldn’t hear her and like a parrot kept saying, “So how come Bush. So how come Bush. So how come Bush,” about a hundred times.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyqOGRWhDtVUh94NL57al9SAmvviq4jhUxsUIt8KnlCziaER_ikefTLTLJ156ueRZ3r7mYjHbSdWUHuFukOcEVtspvXBHw1blgXAEpxkKC474FKk2HVm7Q1Hf-KhnzExRtxupewbvtrdrw/s800/Dubya-12-e1470334148699.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="800" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyqOGRWhDtVUh94NL57al9SAmvviq4jhUxsUIt8KnlCziaER_ikefTLTLJ156ueRZ3r7mYjHbSdWUHuFukOcEVtspvXBHw1blgXAEpxkKC474FKk2HVm7Q1Hf-KhnzExRtxupewbvtrdrw/w400-h225/Dubya-12-e1470334148699.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_99" style="width: 810px;"><br /><p class="wp-caption-text">BUSH, Bush, Bush, Bush. When they’ve got nothing.</p></div><p>He also said that the same curriculum is being taught in Arab schools in Jerusalem. Which I’ve no doubt is true. WHICH ALSO DOES NOT MAKE IT OKAY THAT AN OFFICIAL UN BODY IS PAYING TEACHERS TO TEACH SMALL CHILDREN TO KILL JEWS.</p><p>Sorry. I lost it for a moment there. (And by the way, is it absolutely necessary for Gunness to mispronounce Brooke’s surname???)</p><p>But look, it also doesn’t make it right that U.S. taxpayers are paying for Jihad lessons. It doesn’t matter whose administration is at the helm. It’s wrong. And if the administration is made aware of this curriculum and continues to fund these lessons, I see the administration as an accomplice to indoctrination, incitement, and terror. I see the administration as an accomplice to the ongoing murder of my people—people like the Fogels, the Henkins, the Litmans, Dafna Meir, Hallel Yaffa Ariel, and Rabbi Mickey Mark. And that’s an oh-so-shortlist.</p><h2>The Dubya Deflection: It Makes No Difference</h2><p>The administration, whether it is the Bush administration or the Obama administration, should know the nature of what this money funds. The administration, whether it is the Bush administration or the Obama administration, has no right to pressure Israel to make concessions to terrorist regimes while they underwrite future terrorists. It makes their motives suspect.</p><p>I don’t care who it is, Bush or Obama. I care what they do. And one does not make the other okay.</p><p>And it won’t be okay if Trump funds it. And it won’t be okay if Hillary funds it.</p><p>Bad is bad.</p><p>And evil is evil.</p><p><em>h/t Aharon Epstein for the news piece that inspired this post.</em></p>Varda Meyers Epstein (Judean Rose)http://www.blogger.com/profile/17159600299817776906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2253835380551102822.post-52800612421952250242016-08-03T05:53:00.000-07:002020-10-28T07:14:39.131-07:00"My Israel" and The Liberal Lie<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5bs-KCyn6XGiDPm3esnfl2UDQQJ_t3RBIoHODM8BcEjcpy7J-pl-5poSpQOLR5Q8rQkdReFEG0YnOce-18LSObAdkIvWcjI-XB5oPUC_CULgRFceUyMoJ3SVX_YRKJH62h-Hr12AdXEYn/s694/My-Israel.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="581" data-original-width="694" height="335" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5bs-KCyn6XGiDPm3esnfl2UDQQJ_t3RBIoHODM8BcEjcpy7J-pl-5poSpQOLR5Q8rQkdReFEG0YnOce-18LSObAdkIvWcjI-XB5oPUC_CULgRFceUyMoJ3SVX_YRKJH62h-Hr12AdXEYn/w400-h335/My-Israel.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p>My Israel. Is there such a thing? Is Israel one thing for some people, and another thing for others? Or is the concept of My Israel just another way of recreating Israel in one’s own image, a conceit?</p><p>I vote for the latter.</p><p>One of the things that damages Israel the most are the people who pretend to love Israel while hurting Israel. Often, these people are Jews. Their falsely professed love of Israel gives them cover for spreading their poison. They use the concept of My Israel as a cudgel against the Jewish State. They use charisma to build a following through which they can spread their narrative and watch it take hold.</p><p>A good example of the My Israel technique is embodied by this speech delivered at a BBYO convention by Sarah Tuttle Singer, social media director of the Times of Israel.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Z6HkKsSnUqM" width="320" youtube-src-id="Z6HkKsSnUqM"></iframe></div><p>Tuttle-Singer has the Midas touch when it comes to social media and making friends. She blogs, and seemingly every piece she writes goes viral. Some of her work is well-written, and other pieces, not so much. But it doesn’t seem to make a difference. She is so popular, that when she posts a blog, no matter the subject matter, and no matter whether it is well-written, or not, her stuff takes off, VRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOM.</p><p>It’s kind of like a reverse Donald Trump–a left instead of right-wing populist. It no longer matters what Tuttle-Singer says or does. Her loyal minions flock to adore her every word and deed.</p><p>That would be okay if she were neutral about Israel or pro-Israel. But she is neither.</p><h2>Extreme Left</h2><p>Tuttle-Singer is on the extreme left when it comes to Israel. She boycotts settlements. She feels that both sides have their “truth,” which is, of course, simply not possible. The two sides have opposing goals and narratives.The Jews believe they’ve returned to their rightful homeland while the Arabs are bent on destroying Israel and on annihilating the Jewish people. It’s in their charters.</p><p>Exhibit A:<br />The <a href="http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/plocov.asp">Palestinian National Charter</a>:</p><h3><a name="art1"></a>Article 1:</h3><p>Palestine is the homeland of the Arab Palestinian people; it is an indivisible part of the Arab homeland, and the Palestinian people are an integral part of the Arab nation.</p><h3><a name="art2"></a>Article 2:</h3><p>Palestine, with the boundaries it had during the <a href="http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/palmanda.asp">British Mandate</a>, is an indivisible territorial unit.</p><p>(In other words, they are saying that all of Israel and Jordan belongs to them.)</p><h3><a name="art9"></a>Article 9:</h3><p>Armed struggle is the only way to liberate Palestine. This it is the overall strategy, not merely a tactical phase. The Palestinian Arab people assert their absolute determination and firm resolution to continue their armed struggle and to work for an armed popular revolution for the liberation of their country and their return to it . They also assert their right to normal life in Palestine and to exercise their right to self-determination and sovereignty over it.</p><div class="getty embed image" style="background-color: white; color: #a7a7a7; display: inline-block; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; max-width: 594px; width: 100%;"><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/1171149" style="border: none; color: #a7a7a7; display: inline-block; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Embed from Getty Images</a></div><div style="height: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 73.4007% 0px 0px; position: relative; width: 100%;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="436" scrolling="no" src="//embed.gettyimages.com/embed?assets=1171149,1611679,1170123,854127,857983&et=PGPlJS2gQv5rekpkG5j-Iw&viewMoreLink=on&sig=U_YRVwpYO4FnbTISztU3iXJj7s7KL05I8j0GBK0PF1U=&caption=true" style="display: inline-block; height: 100%; left: 0; margin: 0; position: absolute; top: 0; width: 100%;" width="594"></iframe></div><p style="margin: 0px;"></p></div><p>(In other words, they won’t stop killing Jews until they have all of the land, Judenrein.)</p><p>Exhibit B:</p><p>The <a href="http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/hamas.asp">Hamas Covenant</a></p><p>Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it” (The Martyr, Imam Hassan al-Banna, of blessed memory).</p><h3> Article Seven:</h3><p>. . .The Islamic Resistance Movement is one of the links in the chain of the struggle against the Zionist invaders. It goes back to 1939, to the emergence of the martyr Izz al-Din al Kissam and his brethren the fighters, members of Moslem Brotherhood. It goes on to reach out and become one with another chain that includes the struggle of the Palestinians and Moslem Brotherhood in the 1948 war and the Jihad operations of the Moslem Brotherhood in 1968 and after.</p><p>Moreover, if the links have been distant from each other and if obstacles, placed by those who are the lackeys of Zionism in the way of the fighters obstructed the continuation of the struggle, the Islamic Resistance Movement aspires to the realisation of Allah’s promise, no matter how long that should take. The Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him salvation, has said:</p><blockquote><p>“The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. Only the Gharkad tree, (evidently a certain kind of tree) would not do that because it is one of the trees of the Jews.” (related by al-Bukhari and Moslem).</p></blockquote><div class="getty embed image" style="background-color: white; color: #a7a7a7; display: inline-block; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; max-width: 594px; width: 100%;"><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/578666716" style="border: none; color: #a7a7a7; display: inline-block; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Embed from Getty Images</a></div><div style="height: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 66.6667% 0px 0px; position: relative; width: 100%;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="396" scrolling="no" src="//embed.gettyimages.com/embed?assets=578666716,578666692,578666644,578666654,525436398&et=W_ZEsqA2QhhokwndFhF_-Q&viewMoreLink=on&sig=Hpcqa-dGnfib58t0vpPjJF2slIwl9HytOJ-UmSBRZTU=&caption=true" style="display: inline-block; height: 100%; left: 0; margin: 0; position: absolute; top: 0; width: 100%;" width="594"></iframe></div><p style="margin: 0px;"></p></div><h3> Article Thirteen:</h3><p>Initiatives, and so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences, are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement. Abusing any part of Palestine is abuse directed against part of religion. Nationalism of the Islamic Resistance Movement is part of its religion. Its members have been fed on that. For the sake of hoisting the banner of Allah over their homeland they fight. “Allah will be prominent, but most people do not know.”</p><p>Now and then the call goes out for the convening of an international conference to look for ways of solving the (Palestinian) question. Some accept, others reject the idea, for this or other reason, with one stipulation or more for consent to convening the conference and participating in it. Knowing the parties constituting the conference, their past and present attitudes towards Moslem problems, the Islamic Resistance Movement does not consider these conferences capable of realising the demands, restoring the rights or doing justice to the oppressed. These conferences are only ways of setting the infidels in the land of the Moslems as arbitraters. When did the infidels do justice to the believers?</p><p>“But the Jews will not be pleased with thee, neither the Christians, until thou follow their religion; say, The direction of Allah is the true direction. And verily if thou follow their desires, after the knowledge which hath been given thee, thou shalt find no patron or protector against Allah.” (The Cow – verse 120).<br />There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors. The Palestinian people know better than to consent to having their future, rights and fate toyed with. As in said in the honourable Hadith:</p><p>“The people of Syria are Allah’s lash in His land. He wreaks His vengeance through them against whomsoever He wishes among His slaves It is unthinkable that those who are double-faced among them should prosper over the faithful. They will certainly die out of grief and desperation.”</p><h2>Pledged And Sworn</h2><p>In short, neither the PA/PLO or Hamas, the two ruling powers of the Arabs in Judea and Samaria and in Gaza, are peacefully disposed toward Israel and the Jews, nor will they ever be so. They are pledged and sworn to obliterate all traces of Jewish life from the Jewish State, indeed, from the world. If they speak of peace, it is a lie, to cover their overweening and true ambition: the destruction of Israel and the eradication of the Jews as a people.</p><p>But their lies are honey-coated and dripping with sweetness and false sincerity. And people like Sarah Tuttle-Singer love their honey. She loves it like a bee. Tell her anything with feeling, even false feeling, and she will lap it up.</p><p>She’s a patsy. A sucker for a sob story. And she’s bought into the notion that Israel is occupying and oppressing the Arabs. Her “My Israel” concept is of an Israel where Jews are oppressors and the Arabs, oppressed.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAATFw_R9WMphkJ-99r0nYoTyMVSqxPkLdkssmipjv7nx5oajq1YIOOOUMh60S4kVvj2t6OIc8AieqxxbA6GERwtwH0jFT8g1EdKiSn0H_lzglB0Hb-ev2Wud5P6W5tC2obx_3D4gnWNZ_/s1024/My-Israel-The-Liberal-Left-Lie-1024x504.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="504" data-original-width="1024" height="198" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAATFw_R9WMphkJ-99r0nYoTyMVSqxPkLdkssmipjv7nx5oajq1YIOOOUMh60S4kVvj2t6OIc8AieqxxbA6GERwtwH0jFT8g1EdKiSn0H_lzglB0Hb-ev2Wud5P6W5tC2obx_3D4gnWNZ_/w400-h198/My-Israel-The-Liberal-Left-Lie-1024x504.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><h2>It’s A Choice</h2><p>Unfortunately, that’s a choice. It’s a choice she’s made to choose the Arab narrative over that of her own people. She chose her Israel. She thinks it makes her open-minded. But instead her My Israel concept has made her blind to the truth of Our Israel: that Jewish Israelis have a right to their tiny sliver of land.</p><p>Our Israel is the only place where Jews can live their culture and religion in the open. Our Israel is the only place where we can speak Hebrew in the streets. It’s the place where Jews aren’t bombarded by a foreign culture, by Christmas, by Easter. Where Chanuka is king.</p><p>What about the Arabs? Don’t they have rights? Certainly. There are 22 extant, sovereign Arab states where Islam is the majority religion, Arab culture the prevailing culture, and Arabic, the spoken language.</p><p>Besides, the Jewish people lived in the land of Israel before there was an Arab people or Islam. Documented. Proven by archaeology and history.</p><p>There is no reason that we should cede an inch of our land, Our Israel. And when we do, we show weakness, and the result is always an upswing in Arab terror and more dead Jews.</p><h2>We Must Remember</h2><p>It’s important to keep all this in mind when watching the social media phenomenon that is Sarah Tuttle-Singer. Whatever she says will be eagerly lapped up by her fans and followers. We need to call her out on the lies and supply the facts. Because if you leave the playing field, you lose.</p><p>To this end, I experimented today with the <a href="http://genius.com/web-annotator">Genius Web Annotator</a> to take apart Tuttle-Singer’s speech at the BBYO convention, where she spoke to young Jewish malleable minds to press home her narrative. Taking her speech apart was made easy since she published the transcript of her speech as a blog on the Times of Israel. You can see my annotations here:<br /><a href="http://genius.com/blogs.timesofisrael.com/i-want-to-tell-you-about-my-israel">http://genius.com/blogs.timesofisrael.com/i-want-to-tell-you-about-my-israel</a></p><p>Just click on the highlighted text to see my annotations.</p><h2>My Israel</h2><p>Tuttle-Singer uses the word “my” 79 times in her piece. She uses this concept of “My” Israel as cover for the false narrative she plugs, the narrative of the enemies of Israel: those who are pledged to Israel’s demise. Her protestations of love for and identification with “her” country (My Israel) are designed to make you agree with whatever she says about Israel and the Jewish people. It’s similar to making statements “as a Jew,” a technique that has been popularized by, for instance, JStreet, an enemy pretending to be a friend.</p><h2>Genius Is Pure Genius</h2><p>If you want to comment on my annotations, or write your own, all you have to do is open a free account with Genius, here: <a href="http://genius.com/signup">genius.com/signup</a> and log in.</p><p>Imagine what you can do with this great little tool! That is until someone reports us because they don’t like what we say and we lose our freedom of speech. In other words, who knows? Someone may report you to the people at Genius and you might lose your account. Just a guess, based on what happens on Facebook and on Twitter. Meantime, we can take apart all their lies for all the world to see.</p><p>I’m loving it!</p>Varda Meyers Epstein (Judean Rose)http://www.blogger.com/profile/17159600299817776906noreply@blogger.com0