The Great Mabul of 5768

Pictured here are snapshots from the Great Mabul ("Flood") of Nachlaot, which began for the general public several weeks ago when temperatures plummeted below zero every night. Suddenly, in Nachlaot, which can easily be described as "funky / cool" (read: old and rickety but filled with really cool people) neighborhood, the Mabul was upon us. Not a street was spared. Pipes broke, "Dude Shemesh" (solar / electric rooftop water heaters) explosions were commonplace, and it hit home for me personally on 16 Shevat 5768 (last Wednesday) when water began oozing from where the floor meets the wall in the bathroom.

Over the next week every towel was used, over and over, hung out to dry in the not-too-far-above-freezing temperatures to mop up the water while my French realtors smoked and exchanged sarcastic barbs with plumbers, but nothing much got done.

Friday, Erev Shabbas, while cooking meals for Friday night and Saturday lunch for 16 people, the building's water supply was shut down, and only restored to partial capacity for Shabbat. During Shabbat no towels could be wrung out, and now not only are a dozen wet towels hanging on my clothesline but ... it's raining. In fact, it's been raining since Friday night. Every towel that hung out to dry is far wetter than it was before, and the skies are stormy today too.

*****Point of order: I do have a washing machine (Israeli style - 1 small load / 2 hours to wash) but don't have a dryer.

Right now, as the dry towel supply is exhausted, we're managing with these diaper-like shmatas (rags) and wringing them out by hand every 90 minutes.

* * * NOTE TO WORLD: THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A SPONGE MOP HERE IN ISRAEL. Some smart marketing person should be thinking about importing them and teaching Israelis about the concept of mops which automatically wring themselves out for you with just the flip of a switch....like we have in America.

We can even engrave on the handle: do not use on Shabbat.

Meanwhile, insurance people, lawyers, the building committee, my realtors and seemingly everyone else including the Jerusalem Municipality who controls water supplies are arguing with each other, in Hebrew. Chances are someone may put us in a hotel for the duration of the flood. I'm taking my cues from Noah on this one.

Vote Now or Jerusalem Won't "Pass Go!"

Jerusalem Post:

The bitterly coveted Holy City of Jerusalem has known its share of wars and battles as it passed from one conqueror to another. But now, a different sort of feud is heating up involving scores of cities around the world.
Jerusalem is facing off against 67 other cities in what is being dubbed the clash of the 21st century. And, as befits the modern age, the battle is being fought on the Internet.
The makers of Monopoly are inviting fans worldwide to vote in an on-line contest that will determine which 22 cities will be etched in the collective memory for a new global edition of the 75-year-old board game.
The contest, which got under way this week and will continue through February 28, will allow Monopoly fans the world over to cast their ballots for the 10 best cities out of a pre-selected list of 68, including Jerusalem. The 20 cities with the highest number of votes will make it onto the new global Monopoly board. Two other cities, not on the ballot list, will be selected by a separate write-in vote.
The non-scientific poll to determine which cities pass go and collect global acclaim allows fans to vote every day of the monthlong contest at www.monopoly.com.
The Talmud says that of the 10 measures of beauty descended upon the world, nine are found in Jerusalem. But as of Thursday, Paris, London and New York were in the top three spots.
Jerusalem was listed at 27, just behind Los Angeles (one of six US cities in the listing) and lagging behind another Middle East city, Cairo, at 17.
The top vote-winner will be awarded the exclusive Boardwalk position, while No. 2 will get Park Place in the new game, which will come out in August.
"Monopoly is the world's most popular board game and it transcends cultural barriers," said Helen Martin, global brand leader for the Monopoly brand.
More than 750 million people have played the game since it was first introduced nearly 75 years ago. It is now sold in more than 100 countries around the world, in 37 language versions.

Hamas Blasts Gaza-Egypt Border Wide Open

(IsraelNN.com) Hundreds of thousands of PA Arabs crossed the Gaza-Egypt border Wednesday after masked Hamas men bombed the border fence in at least 15 locations. 350,000 crossed to Egypt, the United Nations says.
Almost the entire metal border fence has been torn down. Some of the Gazans crossed back into Gaza after buying gas, cigarettes and other supplies in the Egyptian side of the town of Rafiah, which straddles the border. Many, however, continued to el-Arish, where they will apparently stay as refugees. Egyptian and Hamas police stood aside as bulldozers arrived to complete the demolition of the wall.
Initial reports pointed to "unknown gunmen," but A-Shark Al-Awsat, a leading Arabic paper, says Hamas security forces were involved in the demolition.
Israel relinquished control of the Gaza-Egyptian border, known as the Philadelphi Route, following the 2005 Disengagement, at the urging of the US and with promises that European Union observers would monitor the border. Since then, it has stayed open for months at a time.
More than fifty women were wounded by Egyptian gunfire Tuesday as an all-female riot broke out on the Gaza side of the crossing and the women tried to break through to Egypt. The Egyptians began with water-cannons but shooting broke out eventually; it is unclear who shot first, the Egyptian police or the Hamas men circulating in the crowd.
Israel has backed down from placing a full blockade on Gaza, delivering butane gas for cooking and diesel fuel for Gaza’s power plant, as well as medicines. Despite the delivery, more than 20 rockets were fired at Israeli towns in the western Negev Tuesday.
Fatah in Gaza said it was behind the latest rocket-fire and declared it would continue to fire rockets at Israel. Fatah’s chief, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, is the recipient of billions of dollars in pledges from the international community, as well as US efforts to fund and train his armed forces.

Holy Land or Banana Republic?

LESS THAN A BANANA REPUBLIC
by Emanuel A. Winston,
a Middle East Analyst & Commentator

Regrettably, it has come to pass that over time the "kleina menchen" (small men) who purport to lead Israel have dropped the Jewish nation down to being a shtetle, or as is more commonly known, a "Banana Republic".

To observe an American President come to Israel and make political speeches advising the nation of Israel to keep Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in office is a vulgar display of arrogance.The "small men" like Olmert and his political followers groveled in a way exceeding all past displays of submission.

President George W. Bush came into the Jewish State, swinging the axe of a threatening Super Power. Telling the Israelis that they must obey his orders and return to the 1949-67 Armistice Lines is the height of arrogance.

After more than 60 years of unnecessary war and terror by the Muslim Arabs, this ignorant politician ignored that history, parroting the State Department language of two democratic states living side by side in peace. He said this even as Kassam Rockets were falling on Sderot and Ashkelon.

It is permissible to be ignorant but, not to shout out one’s ignorance at the top of his voice. This President and his Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice both encouraged Israel’s former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and today’s PM Ehud Olmert to abandon 10,000 Jewish men, women and children from Gush Katif/Gaza and 4 Northern Samarian communities and surrender the Gaza. The Gaza Strip became the inevitable Global Terror base with tonnage of weapons - "homemade" Kassam Rockets, explosives, high tech arms and more Terrorists smuggled in from Egypt and the sea. The Kassam Rockets and mortars rain down on the southern communities every single day, giving the civilians 15 seconds to reach a concrete shelter. How would you like your children to live like that - every day, Mr. President and Ms. Rice?

The area evacuated by the 4 Northern Samarian communities enable the Terrorists to oversee and control access to Israel’s coastal plain with 70% of her population and industry. Now, under the direct orders of a sophomoric President, the center, the heartland, the ancient Jewish Holy religious sites are supposed to be given over to these same Muslim Terrorists so every centimeter of Israel can be in range of bigger, more accurate missiles.

The small-minded men and women, from Olmert on down to the Leftists who think they will be out of range along the coast, will bleat and moan as they cower in bomb shelters. Suddenly, the people, even the Leftists, will want to arrest and bring to trial the Kadimites and Labor Leftists - with hanging as a sentencing option - but by then it will be too late. They wanted the status of a Banana Republic, assuming others would somehow defend them and - when there was no defense, how they will cry. Some will suddenly find G-d and plead: "Why did You abandon us?"

Even Banana Republics, while glad to accept the money, at least retain their pride. When asked by their benefactors to roll over and grovel, they resist. But, Israel’s small-minded so-called leaders are not embarrassed to roll over, exposing their tender private parts - as long as they can stay in power and receive copious aid.Olmert is simply the latest of these flea-ridden leeches, willing to sell out their nation and her people for either personal gain or to fulfill their destiny of cowardice in the face of both their enemies and their so-called friends with deep pockets.

The message they convey is that "Israel has, indeed, become a Third World Banana Republic and, if the enemies and the world nations wish to own Israel, then they can have her. We didn’t really want her anyway. The State of Israel was too Jewish for us. We wanted to de-Judaize Israel but, it didn’t work. Too many Jews, real Jews, who wanted Israel to stand up for herself and be Jewish. Jews who wanted to build a Jewish State and come to live there - on the Land G-d gave us. To build a modern, Jewish State, with scientific discoveries and artistic creations to benefit mankind; to live in an ancient Jewish Land, following Jewish laws, raising Jewish children...being a 'Light Unto the Nations'. ""But, we really didn’t want it anyway." This is the message coming from the Government of Israel and the Jewish Media in Israel, America and Europe. "Sha-Sha; tone it down". Don’t speak about the naked leaders of Israel who strut about in high society as if they were robed in the finest of garments. Israel has become a zoo of grinning political primates whose leaders line up for photo-ops for the price of a banana. Have you ever seen Olmert with his arm hanging onto the shoulder of Bush and/or Rice, grinning like the man-child he really is? Notice the forced expressions of acceptance by Bush and Rice, who clearly wish that his offensive arm would shrivel and fall away from his shoulder. Remember: "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand whither."

Of course, there are the good people in Israel, the majority, who love the Land and are comfortable within their skin as Jews. They definitely drift Right and, you will see them as pioneers in the Settlements, walking tall and proud. There are those in Tel Aviv and Haifa, etc., who are equally proud of their Jewishness and grateful for the Land but, not all. Then there are the large number of Leftists who hate the ground they walk on because it is imbued with Jewishness and they strive to distance themselves from their Jewishness.

There are those of us who are the "whistle-blowers" , the canaries in the mine, who speak out against those so-called leaders who have feet of dirty clay. We are not necessarily well-liked or appreciated because we "Shrei Gevalt" when we see our leaders bond with our enemies. Suddenly, editors and publishers get messages from Leftist friends, relatives to cease publishing exposés. Then calls come from Jewish organizational directors who themselves have received subtle or not so subtle messages from the State Department, friends of the Administration. Then calls come from Israeli government apparatchniks who complain about being researched and exposed in print to their nefarious activities. I recall how Shimon Peres as Foreign Minister issued an order to all government offices not to receive free issues of the Jerusalem Post because they published a host of exposés about him and the misuse of his position as Foreign Minister.

Whistle-blowers always take the heat. Today we observe Israeli Jewish leaders genuflect and grovel with a grin as an American President says "On my orders you must withdraw to the 1949/67 Armistice Lines as permanent borders." Where are the American Jewish organizations with their leaders, and the Jewish newspapers objecting to these high-handed "diktats" from a lame duck President? Are they cowering and spiking stories that say Israel cannot, should not listen to a President whose future is tied to oil-bearing Muslim Arab nations. He should have re-cused himself, not unlike a Judge who has personal interests in the outcome of a case before him.

Bush, his family, Baker, the multi-national oil companies - they are all tied to their prejudiced and vested interests in selling out the Jewish State of Israel. Where the hell is the Media? Where is the Jewish Press in Israel and America?

I know where we, the canaries in the mine, stand. We are compelled to shout and try to get the public to see what is obvious. I thank G-d for Christian Zionists who have no reluctance or fear to come to Israel’s aid and support. Their forceful presence shames the Jewish leaders, the Jewish Media because they are NOT fearful. Granted Jews have a justifiable fear that speaking up about it will increase anti-Semitism. They haven’t learned that silence also brings out anti-Semitism. The owners, publishers, editors of the Jewish media who "Tone Down" or eliminate those who "Shrei Gevalt!" - only exacerbate the assault against the Jewish State and Jews world-wide.

Blabbering about the "Peace Process" and the pursuit of peace - which never comes- is merely a false shield to avoid the guilt for not fighting back to defend ourselves and our people. Banana Republics have a way of simply being absorbed and thus they disappear.

Olmert's nose firmly lodged up President Bush's ass

The word on the street here in Jerusalem is that spectacularly unpopular, criminally implicated, desperate to hang on to power Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's nose has lodged so firmly up the ass of visiting U.S. President George W. Bush that emergency paramedics have been called to the scene.

Olmert's fawning and brown-nosing nauseated Israelis and New Olim from the United States as well. "Air Sickness" bags were distributed at every street corner, and were being used vigorously by all - from black hat Haredim to white kippah Religious Zionists, and everybody in-between.

Most over-used and meaningless word during the press conference: "VISION."

What vision? Whose vision? The ghastly nightmare vision of creating a terrorist state in the middle of the holy Land of Israel?

"Where there is no vision the people perish: but he that keeps the law, happy is he." - Proverbs 29:18"

Meanwhile, in yet another surrealistic moment, right this very moment on Al Jazeera's English language TV station, Noa Epstein from Peach Now is kvelling about how widespread and accepted the idea of a "Two-State Solution" has become in Israel and throughout the rest of the world. "The Wicked Son" principal in action.

Fortunately, none of this matters, as only Ha Kodesh Baruch Hu, Ribbono Shel Olam Himself has any real power here. Our part is to entreat and beseech Him for His grace, kindness and mercy. Let's escalate our prayers instead of our security alert levels, shall we?
Amen and amen!

George W. Bush: Bad for Traffic, Good for Poster Art

Walking home from a meeting I ran straight into George W. Bush's motorcade proceeding up Gaza Street to Agron and King George (pictured), on his way to the King David Hotel. At least 10,000 police stationed along the way tried to tell me I couldn't walk home this way, and yet...there I was, walking home. Immediately after the motorcade passed, activists raised the pictured poster art, a picture of GWB which reads: "Founding Father of Hamastine" (play on words for Hamas-run Palestine). The police had no interest in stopping the poster art guys and even helped them secure the gigantic graphic to the front of the building.

All over Jerusalem, political poster art abounds.

George W. Bush : Accomplice to Terror or Ignorant Frat Boy? You be the Judge!

Israeli police are not thrilled about the concept of "Free Speech" when it comes from right-wing activists.

From the Jerusalem Post:

Six youths were arrested Monday night in Jerusalem as they were hanging anti-Bush posters ahead of the American president's visit.
The posters depict Bush, Olmert and Peres wearing Palestinian kaffiyehs, with a banner running "accomplices to terror".
The youths told police that they were paid to hang the posters by extreme right-wing activist Itamar Ben Gvir, of the National Jewish Front.
Ben Gvir admitted to having printed the posters, adding that he would continue to do so as it was perfectly within the limits of the law.
He also said police must learn that "free speech is not just for lefties."
Police were preparing Tuesday for a string of protests, by both left and right, during the US president's visit. Right-wing activists were expected to try and create a "human chain" around the walls of Jerusalem's Old City, while left-wing activists were planning to hold a protest in front of the American Consulate in Jerusalem.

What a Megilla! George W. Bush at Historic Crossroads!

American President George W. Bush is coming to Jerusalem tomorrow - and, in what can only be perceived as an historic moment of truly Biblical proportions - he is to be presented with "Megillat Bush," a scroll prepared by the leaders of Torah Judaism in which the opportunity for him to either bless or curse the Jewish People is laid out in no uncertain terms.

Will Bush be like King Cyrus of Persia, who is remembered for granting permission to the Jewish People to rebuild the Holy Temple? Or will he be remembered like King Nebuchadnezzer, who sacked Jerusalem and the Holy Temple and carried the Jews captive to Babylon?

Only HaShem, Master of the Universe, knows for sure.
Visit http://www.templeinstitute.org/megillat-bush.htm to learn more details about the scroll.


Text of the "Megillat Bush - The Bush Scroll" is as follows:

28 Tevet, 5768 / January 6, 2008
In the Name of the Lord, Eternal God

To The Honorable Mr. George W. Bush,President of the United States of America,
Who comes seeking the presence of the Most High God, to Jerusalem, city of God, Divinely chosen site of the Holy Temple, eternal capital of our land, "the joy of the entire earth (Psalms 48:3)," may it be rebuilt and established speedily and in our days, Amen!

Esteemed Mr. George W. Bush, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal (Ezekiel 38:1), leader of the west!
Upon your arrival in Jerusalem you have the ability to make a declaration, as did Cyrus, King of Persia - whose memory is honored - who in the year 538 BCE returned the exiled nations to their lands and recognized the full right of the Jewish people to reestablish their Holy Temple, the "house of prayer for all nations" (Isaiah 56:7), and called upon them to return to their land,
And in the manner of Lord James Balfour of England, who in 1917, called upon the Jews to reestablish a national homeland in the Land of Israel.
And thus if you truly desire peace and benevolence, and you would be counted in the company of the truly righteous, we call upon you to declare to all the world:
The Land of Israel was bequeathed to the nation of Israel by the Creator of the world. Neither could I, as a son of my faith, nor the Muslims according to their faith, ever take away even the slightest grain from the Eternal's gift, which He gave to His people Israel, the eternal people. Thus I call upon all the nations to save themselves from certain doom, to return and recognize That this land is the exclusive rightful inheritance of the people of Israel, as is written in the Torah of Israel, which constitutes the very foundation of our faith, as well as that of Islam; and is the basis for the decisions of the community of nations. He who denies this truth endangers all life on earth.
I shall dedicate all my strength and resources towards settling the Jewish people throughout their entire land. I shall greatly encourage and empower the Jews all over the world to rise up to the Land of Israel and to settle it, to establish God's sanctuary in Jerusalem, to distance strangers from it and thus, I believe, I will be making a major contribution towards world peace.
I cannot simultaneously support the establishment of a foreign state for an alien nation in the Land of Israel, and I will not lend my hand to this wrong.
Or - Heaven forbid - you can choose the second option - to willfully aid in the destruction, under the guise of peace!
You certainly know what the God of Israel did to Egypt and Assyria and to all Israel's enemies from time immemorial: Do you imagine that you will be able to save yourself if you have come to implement a plan that intends to steal the land of "the people that survived the sword" (Jeremiah 31:1), and to cut off those who survived the Holocaust, to rob the land that was given to them by the Creator?
All of the peace treaties and initiatives which have been based upon the decisions of the government of Israel, indeed the entire Oslo process, and the 'Disengagement,' and the establishment of a terrorist state within the Land of Israel known as 'Palestine' - regrettably, all of these agreements are the result of a lack of sufficient faith in the Divine promises that the Lord made to the patriarchs of our nation, and all that is written in the Torah of Israel. Understand this well: the nations of the world cannot excuse their actions and their decisions on account of the weakness of Israel and her government. God ordained that the role of the nations of the world is to strengthen the nation of Israel. This will benefit all humanity and bring about world peace, as the prophets have foretold.
Do you imagine you can escape from the struggles in Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Egypt, and Lebanon, by offering up sacrifices of the Jews who are slaughtered daily by their enemies who speak of peace but live by the sword?
Upon your arrival in our land we would anticipate that you bring Jonathan Pollard home with you. Bring him home to Israel. He is an emissary of the State of Israel, and he acted on behalf of our people. Authorize his immediate release while you are yet in Jerusalem, before you return to the United States. This will be a positive step that will build confidence.
Remember our forefather Abraham, who pursued the world's four greatest kings in order to redeem his nephew from captivity. We cannot forget the deeds of our patriarchs, whose example guides us through every generation.
We are the loyal representatives of the Jewish people, the New Jewish Congress, and its court of law, the Sanhedrin, as well as the Temple and Temple Mount movements, but we merely reiterate herein what is public knowledge.
No government in Israel and no representative of the Jewish people has the power or right to alter, by even the slightest degree, our covenant with God and the words of our holy Torah, which are everlasting, as expressed by the prophets of Israel and even by the wicked prophet Balaam: "Then he looked on Amalek, and uttered his oracle, saying: 'First among the nations was Amalek, but its end is to perish for ever' (Numbers 24:20). Thus any desire, plan or agreement that challenges the eternal sovereignty and active possession of the nation of Israel over her entire land is utterly worthless, and has no basis in reality.
Therefore it behooves you to declare: "I, George Bush, Commander in Chief of the armies of the United States of America, will instruct all of my troops to protect the Divine rights of the nation of Israel, and remove from her any threat."
Before you is a choice: You can merit to eternal life, or be inscribed for eternal disgrace. Your fate and that of all those with you hangs in the balance of the destiny of our land.
"and you shall choose life!" (Deut. 30:19).
In Sincere Supplication - In the name of the Jewish people
Rabbi A Even Yisrael SteinzaltzThe Sanhedrin
Dr. Gadi EshelThe New Jewish Congress
Rabbi Chaim RichmanThe Holy Temple and Temple Mount Movements

Bye Bye Benazir Bhutto, Hello Hella-Chaos in Pakistan

Just an hour ago here we heard that Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in Pakistan. Immediately I assumed Musharrif had to be behind it, and not far behind that thought, that we (the United States, probably the CIA or some covert National Security operation) are behind it. Even if that isn't true, the radical Islamic fundamentalist terrorists will believe it is. Not only will Pakistan be totally destabilized but Americans will be a target of the grief and rage of the Pakistani people who will blame us and our puppet Musharrif.
Eau, d'humanitie. C'est stinky.

Priests in Smackdown at Church of the Nativity

...And today's winner in the "the more things change, the more they stay the same" category...

The Jerusalem Post reports:

Robed Greek Orthodox and Armenian priests went at each other with brooms and stones inside the Church of the Nativity on Thursday as long-standing rivalries erupted in violence during holiday cleaning.
The basilica, built over the grotto in Bethlehem where Christians believe Jesus was born, is administered jointly by Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic authorities. Any perceived encroachment on one group's turf can set off vicious feuds.
On Thursday, dozens of priests and cleaners came to the fortress-like church to scrub and sweep the floors, walls and rafters ahead of the Armenian and Orthodox Christmas, celebrated in the first week of January. Thousands of tourists visited the church this week for Christmas celebrations.
But the cleanup turned ugly after some of the Orthodox faithful stepped inside the Armenian church's section, touching off a scuffle between about 50 Greek Orthodox and 30 Armenians.
Palestinian police, armed with batons and shields, quickly formed a human cordon to separate the two sides so the cleaning could continue, then ordered an Associated Press photographer out of the church.
Four people, some with blood running from their faces, were slightly wounded.

Club Barbi - cold. Rebbe Soul music - hot!

Pictured: me and Jesse inside Tel Aviv's Club Barbi. Outside: freezing cold (yet, somehow warmer than Jerusalem, which is beyond freezing). Inside: pretty damn cold. Wearing a thick wool coat, sweatshirt, sweater, thermal underwear, stockings, jeans AND a skirt along with scarf, gloves and boots...and I'm still cold.

Luckily we were there to hear our friend Bruce Burger (www.rebbesoul.com) play with Asi Zigdon. The show was hot enough to seriously take the edge off of the glacial days and nights of December.

First NEW JEWISH CONGRESS - Jerusalem's "Anti-Annapolis"

The first-ever New Jewish Congress took place yesterday at Jerusalem's Renaissance Hotel. Attended by Jews of all kinds, everyone united in agreement that our gathering was the "Anti-Annapolis," an outraged response to the Olmert government's suicidal determination to relinquish even more land and, worse than anything, divide Jerusalem.

Prof. Hillel Weiss opened the Congress by reading from Parshas Balak, recounting how Balak, King of Moab, hired the sorcerer Baalam to curse Israel. But - try as he might (and he did) - Baalam was unable to curse Israel, and in fact was forced to bless the Nation with words so sublime we repeat them whenever we enter a synagogue, shul or shteibel - "How goodly are your tents, O Jacob, your dwelling-places, O Israel!"

Click HERE to read Arutz Sheva's report on the New Jewish Congress.

The Holy City is in an uproar. 10,000 people rallied at the Kotel, 25,000 people protested outside the Prime Minister's residence (up the street from where I live).

Here I am at the New Jewish Congress with Moshe Feiglin, founder of Manhigut Yehudit, who got 23% of the vote in the Likud primaries against Bibi Netanyahu, and my personal choice for Prime Minister of the State of Israel.

Terror Alert Delays Bus but CHUMASH GOES ON!

Yesterday (Sunday) I went to my bus stop early to catch the bus to Nishmat, where I have Chumash class from 3-6pm.

Normally the bus comes every 20 minutes. Yesterday I waited over an hour and a half until the 22 showed up, packed to the rafters with irritated commuters. They barely had room to squeeze me in to the front of the bus, where I was literally sandwiched between the security guard, the driver and several Israeli women.

Normally on the bus I'm not too talkative, I just say "Todah" (thank you) to the driver when he takes my fare and "Slicha" ("excuse me") to the other passengers as I try to find a seat or a place to stand. But this time ... I was pissed.

"Where have you been?" I asked the bus driver, "I'm late to school!"

"Terror alert in the city," he said.

"What terror alert?" I asked, having been away from media of all kinds since early in the morning.

An Israeli woman interrupted the conversation to inform me we were on "High Alert" for the first time in two years and that there were roadblocks in and out of the city, cars and taxis being stopped randomly for security checks, etc.

"That's just bullshit," I said furiously, "My son is coming to Israel in two days for the very first time and we can't have any of this terrorist crap right now! AND I'm late for my Chumash class!"

"It's Annapolis," she said apologetically.

"Screw Annapolis, it's time to study Chumash! We don't stop Chumash for some stupid political charade!" I retorted, furious that Prime Minister Olmert had actually managed to screw up my day personally.

After arriving very late to Nishmat (as did many of my fellow students) we discovered that indeed we had been on "High Alert." Below is an exerpt from Arutz Sheva's coverage of the non-event.

Moral of the Story: SCREW ANNAPOLIS, CHUMASH CONTINUES NO MATTER WHAT!

Jerusalem Alert Lowered
by Hana Levi Julian

(IsraelNN.com) Jerusalem police and security officers lowered the alert level Sunday afternoon after several tense hours on high alert following a warning received by intelligence officers that two terrorists were on their way to carry out an attack.
Voice of Israel government radio announced the alert level had been lowered but did not give further information.
Security checkpoints and roadblocks were set up in a ring around Jerusalem, on Highway 1, the road that connects the capital with Tel Aviv, and in areas around the northern areas of the city.

Police closed off traffic on the Narkiss Bridge which leads to the French Hill junction from Pisgat Ze'ev, Neve Ya'akov and other Jewish neighborhoods in the north of the city.
The police Special Operations unit mobilized wearing helmets and bullet-proof vests, and Magen David Adom ambulances and rescue units moved onto the streets of the capital in anticipation of the possible attack. Special police mobile units and helicopters were also aloft, scanning the city and surrounding area in an effort to locate the would-be attackers.
Magen David Adom director-general Eli Bin announced that medics in the city had moved to alert Level 3. He also said MDA personnel had been placed on Level 2 alert in the central area of the country, which includes the Dan, Yarkon and Ayalon regions.
By mid-afternoon it became clear that the terrorists had not managed to enter the city and the alert level was lowered.
Two young PA would-be attackers were arrested near the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hevron at midday. IDF soldiers discovered knives and rifle bullets while searching the two. They were taken by security personnel for questioning.

Thanksgiving in Jerusalem

Celebrated Thanksgiving today in Jerusalem with visiting American FOA/FOM ("Friend of Amy's / Friend Of Mine")Larry Schaffer at the Israel Museum and viewed The Thanksgiving Scroll, one of the first seven Dead Sea Scrolls discovered in Qumuran by Bedouins in 1947.

The Thanksgiving Scroll is also known as the "Hodayot," contains sacred poetry and hymns from the Bible written on parchment and sealed within ordinary household pottery about 100 BCE.

The content varies from poem to poem but there are certainly overriding themes: first and foremost the scroll talks about and to God and is usually contrasted with the weakness, dependency, unworthiness and wretchedness of the human condition (thereby exalting God’s power and perfection even more).

Other main themes include: salvation of the just and destruction of the wicked, gratitude for divine insight, personal accounts of exile/persecution, and God delivering the speaker from such plights.

“The wicked of the people rush against me with their afflictions, and all the day long they crush my soul. But You, O my God, turn the tempest to a whisper, and the life of the distressed You have brought to safety as a bird from the snare and as prey from the power of lions”

Disney to Hamas: We'll Kick Your Ass!

Note to Islamofascist programming directors: Corporate America does NOT allow terrorists to hijack valuable intellectual property!

Mickey Mouse is Disney's most valuable brand. Sorry Hamas, see you in court! If Israel's politicians refuse to wipe you out, you can be sure that Disney's team of IP attorneys will shoot to kill.

Report: Disney to act against Hamas

The Walt Disney Company plans to take action against Hamas for its hate-mongering Mickey Mouse look-alike.
Israel's Foreign Ministry has received an assurance from Diane Disney Miller, the daughter of Walt Disney, that the corporation will take unspecified "steps" against the radical Palestinian Islamist group, Yediot Achronot reported Thursday.
The move follows Hamas' use of a Mickey Mouse look-alike named Farfur to incite against Israel and the West in a children's television show broadcast out of the Gaza Strip.
When the show triggered international outcry earlier this year, Miller described it as "evil," but her late father's company withheld comment.
It was not immediately clear what legal clout Disney might have against Hamas, which already is isolated internationally.

The Mamas & The Papas...literally

The Cave of Machpelah ("Tomb of the Patriarchs"), where our Patriarchs and Matriarchs Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Leah are buried, is the piece of property whose purchase is recorded in Genesis 23:1-20. Abraham bought the cave and the surrounding field from Ephron the Hittite as a burial place for his wife Sarah.

The four holiest cities in Israel are Jerusalem, Hebron, Tzfat and Tiberias. Each corresponds to an element - Jerusalem to fire, Hebron to earth, Tzfat to air and Tiberias to water.

In keeping with the earth element theme - Hebron is HEAVY.

Prayers at the Tomb of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs are heavy, and yet, defying gravity itself, they ascend upward at surprising speed.

Our pal Abu Mazzan (Mahmoud Abbas), the Palestinian Authority President, heads a government who refuses to accept a "Jewish State" (see today's Jerusalem Post article linked to here).

Just this afternoon he called for Round Two in the Palestinian Civil War (Hamas vs. Gaza, much like the old "Spy vs. Spy" cartoons in Mad Magazine).

Palestinian president calls for overthrow of Hamas in Gaza

From the Associated Press 5:05 AM PST, November 15, 2007

RAMALLAH, West Bank -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas today called for the overthrow of Gaza's Islamic Hamas rulers, his first explicit call that they be removed."We have to bring down this bunch that took over Gaza with armed force, and is abusing the sufferings and pains of our people," Abbas said in a speech in Ramallah.

The Palestinian leader, who has set up a separate government in the West Bank, previously had not gone beyond demanding that Hamas apologize for overrunning Gaza and reverse the takeover.

In his speech, Abbas lashed out against "the outlawed gangs affiliated with Hamas in Gaza City," where forces loyal to the Islamic group opened fire on a mass rally by his Fatah movement on Monday. Eight civilians were killed and dozens were wounded in the strongest Fatah challenge to Hamas rule since the Hamas takeover.

Hamas also rounded up more than 400 Fatah activists, and on Wednesday announced media restrictions and plans to curb public gatherings.

Time to check the filter on our gas masks?

This flyer (pictured) arrived in my mailbox, and a large poster bearing the same inscrutable message and mysterious picture was posted in the entrance to my apartment building.

The picture on the postcard - what could it be? An envelope? A notice from the municipality that they are going to be working on gas pipes in the neighborhood?

I finally asked a neighbor, who was amazed that I didn't know that the picture was a gas mask kit. "Everyone knows what a gas mask kit looks like!" I was told.

"No, not everyone - not me, for instance - I don't remember anyone from the Jewish Agency or Nefesh b'Nefesh or the Ministry of Absorption showing me a picture of a gas mask kit or even offering me one!"

Apparently the flyer was to let us know that the gas mask folks were going to be in our neighborhood, collecting expired gas mask kits from the 1st Gulf War (1991), which have surely passed their expiration date.

All of us need to get new and improved FRESH gas masks now, with new clean filters, "just in case" Iran gets funny with their latest science project, an atomic weapon.

Note to self: when in doubt, ask an Israeli neighbor what these public notices mean. I might be missing something.

"Olmert - Annapolis Won't Save You!"

Within the last week this poster has appeared, plastered all over walls and billboards in Jerusalem ... "Olmert - Annapolis Won't Save You!"

The picture on the poster is of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert behind bars - an allusion to the numerous investigations being conducted on our Prime Minister for various criminal activities and corruption within his administration.

Happy Kislev!

A sure sign that Channukah is right around the corner - Sufganiyot, a.k.a. doughnuts, now appearing at bakeries and cafes EVERYWHERE in Israel.

You never see them any other time of year. In Israel, doughnuts are to Channukah what mistletoe is to Christmas - a sweet sign of the times and an opportunity to pucker up and enjoy something yummy :)

Nehemiah's Wall Discovered by Israeli Archaeologist

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may want to see Israel wiped off the map and its Jews sent to Europe or Alaska, but an archaeological discovery announced this week marks an event recorded in the Bible when his country – Persia, at the time – literally helped put the Jewish people back on the map in their capital city of Jerusalem.

Dr. Eilat Mazar, one of Israel's top archaeologists, ended her presentation Wednesday to the 13th Annual Conference of the Ingeborg Rennert Center for Jerusalem Studies on "New Studies on Jerusalem," with a surprise announcement. She had discovered remnants of the fifth century B.C. wall built by Nehemiah, the account recorded in the Old Testament book of the same name.
According to the biblical account, Nehemiah served as cupbearer for the Persian King Artaxerxes in the city of Susa. The Persians had conquered the Babylonian empire that had destroyed Jerusalem in 586 B.C. and taken most of the inhabitants of Judah into captivity in what is now modern Iraq.

The Scripture reads:

In the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, I took up the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had not been sad in his presence.
And the king said to me, "Why is your face sad, seeing you are not sick? This is nothing but sadness of the heart."
Then I was very much afraid. I said to the king, "Let the king live forever! Why should not my face be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers' graves, lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?"
Then the king said to me, "What are you requesting?"
So I prayed to the God of heaven. And I said to the king, "If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, that you send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers' graves, that I may rebuild it."

Nehemiah's rebuilding of the city began with its walls, a project that was resisted by hostile neighbors who had occupied the area around Jerusalem in the Jews' absence.

But when Sanballat and Tobiah and the Arabs and the Ammonites and the Ashdodites heard that the repairing of the walls of Jerusalem was going forward and that the breaches were beginning to be closed, they were very angry. And they all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause confusion in it. And we prayed to our God and set a guard as a protection against them day and night.

With tools in one hand and weapons in the other, Nehemiah's workmen toiled dawn to dusk, completing the wall in a record 52 days.

Archaeological evidence for Nehemiah's project has been lacking. Jerusalem has been rebuilt, destroyed and rebuilt in the almost 2,500 years since.

Mazar, who is perhaps best known for her recent excavation that many believe has revealed the palace of King David, was working on an emergency project to shore up remains of a tower long believed to date from the Hasmonean period, 142-37 B.C., that was in danger of collapsing.

Mazar said, "Under the tower, we found the bones of two large dogs – and under those bones a rich assemblage of pottery and finds from the Persian period. No later finds from that period were found under the tower."

Had the tower been built during the Hasmonean dynasty, the Persian-era artifacts would represent an unexplained chronological gap of several hundred years. The tower, said Mazar, had to have been built much earlier than previously thought and the pottery data placed it at the time the Bible says Nehemiah was building it.

Nehemiah describes 10 gates in the wall around Jerusalem as well as several towers designed to protect the entrances to the city, among them the Tower of the Hundred, the Tower of Hananel, the Tower of the Ovens, and an unnamed tower "projecting from the upper house of the king at the court of the guard" in the vicinity of Mazar's most recent dig.

(World News Daily)

Ecce Homo: Olmert Wins "Most Corrupt Politician" 2nd Year in a Row!

In the "Corruption Index" presented at the Sderot Conference held in Sapir College, a permanent feature of the annual event, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert took first place for the second time in a row, with the doubtful honor of having an even higher percentage of the public consider him Israel's most corrupt politician this time around.
Olmert leads the list with 56 percent considering him the most corrupt politician, a rise from last year's 42%.
Close on Olmert's heels, former finance minister Avraham Hirchson was considered the most corrupt by 55% of those polled.
Vice Premier Haim Ramon and Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman both got 33%, while Defense Minister Ehud Barak made his debut on the list on the fifth place, with 29%. Newcomer Barak pushed current Finance Minister Ronnie Bar-On out of the top five to the relatively respectable sixth place.

"The Temple Mount is in our hands" - literally, yet again

In what can only be described as an escalation in the Amageddon-O-Meter, Israel National News today reports the following Exclusive:

Rabbis Invited For Pre-Annapolis Temple Mount Talks
by Ezra HaLevi

(IsraelNN.com) Israel’s Chief Rabbis and the Chief Rabbi of Haifa have been invited to the White House for pre-Annapolis talks to explain the Jewish connection to the Temple Mount.

Chief Rabbis Yonah Metzger and Shlomo Amar, as well as the Chief Rabbi of Haifa and Chairman of the Chief Rabbinate Communications Committee Rabbi She'ar-Yashuv Cohen departed Saturday evening for a series of meetings to clarify to US leaders that the Temple Mount is Judaism's holiest site.

Ahead of the Annapolis Conference, the Bush administration is trying to gauge Israel’s “red lines” and examine the possibility of relinquishing the Temple Mount to Islam.

To read the entire text of this article, go to: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/124132

I Say "Messiah," You Say "Mahdi," LET'S CALL THE WHOLE THING OFF!

Everyone wants to get into the Messiah Business.

#1 with a proverbial bullet - Christians, waiting for the "Second Coming" of Jesus Christ. By far the most popular and well-known Messiah scenario.

Of course we Jews are awaiting our Moshiach ("Messiah"), whose coming would be (in our world view) the first, not second, appearance on Earth.

Jews and Christians are getting a run for our money from Shi'ite Islam, whose own Messianic version of "reality" is reflected in the doctrine of "Mahdi."

Disconcertingly, our neighbors in Iran are ardent Messianics! And according to ALL THREE Messianic Scenarios, the whole thing is going to be a big, bloody mess, AND the "real thing" will be preceeded by an "Anti-Christ" sort of figure, aided by a "False Prophet" who will be his demonically-inspired PR man.

Along those lines, the Jerusalem Post reports the following:

While the world catches its breath after the sudden resignation of Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani, questions are being asked about the background and beliefs of his successor, Saeed Jalili. The answers, it turns out, are troubling.

Until today, not much has been known about the 41 year-old gray-haired official. He has a Ph.D from Imam Sadegh University in Teheran. As a soldier during the Iraq-Iran war, he apparently survived a chemical attack by Saddam Hussein's forces.

Sometime later during the war he was shot in his right leg, which according to one report, had to be amputated. According to the same report, since then Jalili has worn an artificial leg. He is a known follower of Khomeini's "simple living" lifestyle philosophy. During his stint as a Foreign Ministry official, he served at a number of departments where, apparently, he did not make use of amenities made available to employees. For example, he continued to drive an inexpensive KIA Pride to work instead of trading it in for a more luxurious car.

As the deputy head of the American and European section at the Foreign Ministry, Jalili is known to have worked until the early hours of the morning in his office in his efforts to strengthen the co-operation of Iran with Southern hemisphere countries. This was part of the "south-south" strategy, according to which it was believed that Ahmadinejad's government would be able to look for and find alliances with countries such as Venezuela.

It is also reported that that Ahmadinejad has consulted Jalili on a number of key moves - according to one report, Ahmadinejad's infamous 18-page letter to President George W. Bush was, in fact, Jalili's idea.

THE MOST worrying revelation about Jalili's past appeared recently in the Iran Diplomacy Web site. This Teheran-based news agency, in an article titled "Dr Ali Leaves, Dr Saeed Enters" revealed that for most of his career at the Foreign Ministry, Jalili worked closely with Mojtaba Hashemi Samare, a leading messianic and a close ally of Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, the most well-known and high-ranking messianic cleric in Iran.

The article talks about how Jalili cooperated with Hashemi Samare in the Inspectorate department of Ministry. It also mentions that for a short time, Jalili also worked with Ahmadinejad.

Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi is a former member of the Hojattieh, a messianic splinter group which was disbanded by Ayatollah Khomeini in the early 1980s because of its extremist views. The sect's goals are to sow chaos - the goal of which is to incite a massive war, presumably necessary to speed up the return of the Shi'ite messiah, known as the Mahdi.

After the forced disintegration of the sect, Mesbah Yazdi moved to the holy city of Qom, where he ran the Imam Khomeini Foundation and the Haghaniye school. From there, he passed on his messianic beliefs to young clerics and revolutionaries whom he hoped one day would reach senior government levels.

One of his early successes was Hashemi Samare, who in the early 1990s managed to find a position inside Iran's Foreign Ministry. He soon rose through the ranks and became one of the key officials at the ministry. His main job there was to make sure that Iranian ambassadors were staying true to revolutionary beliefs and Islamic ways while serving abroad.

He soon developed a much-feared reputation for recalling diplomats and even ambassadors whom he suspected of becoming Westernized. Some were said to have been locked inside the basement of the Foreign Ministry for days, where, using interrogation techniques including physical violence, he "re-educated" them.

ANOTHER IMPORTANT characteristic of Hashemi Samare was that in his office, instead of a picture of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei, he hung a portrait of the messianic Mesbah Yazdi. He showed no fear about showing where his true allegiances lay.

During his entire career, Hashemi Samare has looked for, and recruited fellow messianics. No one else would be allowed to work with him. In the 1990s, one of these associates included a little known war veteran and bureaucrat called Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who for a very short while, worked for him at the Iranian Foreign Ministry. After that Ahmadinejad was posted to the Ardebil province where he became the governor. The two men continuously maintained contact and upon his return to Teheran in 1997, their friendship and cooperation continued.

Today, Hashemi Samare is Ahmadinejad's deputy and most trusted confidant. He can be seen everywhere with the president, especially during foreign travel, such as his recent trip to New York, and when receiving for senior foreign visitors such as Putin. Some former reformists have even said that while praying, Ahmadinejad stands behind Hashemi Samare; an unmistakable sign of respect and adherence which a person can show to his mentor in Iranian religious circles.

JALILI'S CLOSENESS with Hashemi Samare, and his appointment as the head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) and as the head of Iran's nuclear negotiation team shows that the messianics have scored another major victory in placing one of their allies in a senior political position.

Now they can boast that, along with holding positions of power in the Ministry of Intelligence (Gholam Hosssein Ejehi), Ministry of Interior (Mostafa Pour Mohammadi), and, of course, the Presidency (Mahmoud Ahmadinejad) - by having Saeed Jalili as chief nuclear negotiator, they now have a stronger say over how Iran deals with the West over its nuclear program.

Despite this power, the messianics will still find a strong obstacle, in the form of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei, who, for now, has the last word on Iran's nuclear program.

The increasing presence of messianics and their allies in high ranking positions inside the Iranian government makes it hard to believe that Iran's leadership would ever be ready for a negotiated settlement of the current nuclear crisis.

Meir Javedanfar, the writer of the above-quoted article, is the co-author of The Nuclear Sphinx of Tehran - Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the State of Iran. He runs the Middle East Economic and Political Analysis (Meepas). This analysis is re-published from Pajamas Media. www.pajamasmedia.com


And, if all of that was not bad enough....
From YNET News:

Awaiting the Iranian messiah

A glimpse into the apocalyptic ideology gripping the Iranian government
Yaakov Lappin

He challenges the largest superpower on earth, threatens a regional superpower with annihilation, and mocks international efforts to keep tabs on his nuclear program. Where does the unswerving confidence of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad come from?


To whom did Ahmadinejad refer to when he told the United Nations in September: "I emphatically declare that today's world, more than ever before, longs for… the perfect righteous human being and real savior who has been promised to all peoples and who will establish justice, peace and brotherhood on the planet. Almighty God… make us among his followers and among those who strive for his return and his cause. "

According to Shiite Islam, the twelfth Imam, named Mahdi, is the awaited messiah who will establish the rule of Islam around the world – following a massive war during which Islam's enemies are expected to be decimated. Iran's official state websites are filled with information about the Islamic Republic's messiah.

"Imam Mahdi was unseen from the eyes of common people and nobody could see him except special group of Shiites... After the martyrdom of his father he was appointed as the next Imam. Then he was hidden by God's command and he was just observable by the special deputies of his own," the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting website declares.

'One strike to end infidels'

Iran's state broadcasting website also contains a special hadith (tradition) prayer, to be recited on the birthday of the Mahdi: "Today is Friday, a day you are expected to come; the faithful will be free of cares and troubles when you shall arrive, and with one strike shall put an end to the intrigues of the infidels."

Speaking to Ynetnews, Professor Raymond Tanter, one of the authors of the forthcoming book 'What Makes Iran Tick,' which explores the Shiite Islamist ideology of Iran, said there was no questioning the belief of Iran's leaders in the coming of the Mahdi.

Tanter, President of the Iran Policy Committee, a Washington-based organization comprised of former officials from the White House, State Department, Pentagon, and intelligence services, said: "The Iranian leadership, particularly Ahmadinejad, welcome the apocalyptic vision of the return of the hidden Imam. And all the strains of Islam believe in the eventual return of the Mahdi, also known as the twelfth Imam, or the Shiite messiah. After a period of great destruction, once the forces of evil are defeated, the so-called twelfth Imam is supposed to reign over a period of great prosperity."

"When Ahmadinejad was mayor of Tehran, he set up an urban renewal program that would make it easier to facilitate the Mahdi's return. He created passageways and roadways that would allow the Mahdi to return triumphantly. He operationalized this concept," Tanter added. The Iranian president did not view himself as the Shiite messiah though, according to Tanter.

'Man of a thousand bullets'

"Ahmadinejad was called the man of a thousand bullets. Because he would give the last bullet for someone who has been tortured, and primarily executed by firing squad. Ahmadinejad's role was to put the last bullet in, in case the person was still squirming. After a thousand people had been killed, supposedly he said, he had it with that particular job," Tanter said.

Tanter noted Ahmadinejad's comments after a speech to the UN General Assembly in 2005, which he also concluded with a call for the Mahdi to return. After the speech, Ahmadinejad said that "the hand of God had held all of them" in a hypnotized-like state, and had "opened their eyes and ears."

"Before the return of the Mahdi, there must be a suitable representative to govern in the Mahdi's place," Tanter explained.

"They are ruling until the Mahdi comes. That is the justification for Khamenei to rule," he added.

Tanter said that "most of the ayatollahs in Iran don't buy this, that you can facilitate the return of the messiah," adding that Hizbullah chief Hassan Nasrallah probably "doesn't take it that seriously."

"Ahmadinejad is taking steps well beyond the rest of Islam," he said.

Messianic nuclear weapons

"There is a link between Iran’s nuclear weapons program on one hand, and its ideology of trying to facilitate a cataclysmic event to hasten the return of the Mahdi. As a result, no conceivable positive or negative incentives will influence the leadership of the clerics and the revolutionary guards from acquiring nuclear weapons. They need nuclear weapons in order to facilitate the ideological precepts of the return of the Mahdi," said Tanter.

"The process of diplomacy as far as Ahmadinejad and Khamenei are concerned is to prevent sanctions that would constrain the nuclear weapons progress, and to that extent Iran has done well to drag out this process," he added.

Citing realist arguments that Iran needs nuclear weapons "to deter neighbors in a tough neighborhood," Tanter said such views were misguided. "These nuclear weapons are tied to the return of the Mahdi, and no one says this," he says.

An excerpt from 'What Makes Iran Tick' left no doubts over the authors view of Iran's intentions: "Just as it is in the nature of the scorpion to sting, so it is in the nature of the ayatollahs ruling Iran to establish an Islamic empire and destroy Israel."

It continued: "Toward these ends, the regime pursues nuclear weapons, subverts Iraq, and supplies money and arms to Islamist terrorist groups like Hizbullah, Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad… The deliberate initiation of war with Israel in July 2006 by Hizbullah, most probably at the direction of the Iranian regime, confirmed the worst fears about Ahmadinejad… a nuclear-armed Iran the single greatest security threat to the international community in general, and to the United States and Israel in particular."

"Our town is burning brothers, burning - our poor little town is burning!"

Southern California is all ablaze, half a million people evacuated and the rest of the population choked by smoke and waiting to exhale.

“Our Town is Burning”, by Mordechai Gebirtig, was written in Yiddish in 1938, after a pogrom in Przytyk (prounounced “pshitic”), Poland. It is considered extraordinarily prophetic, in that it was written before World War II and the Holocaust.

Our town is burning, brothers, burning
Our poor little town is burning.
Angry winds are fanning higher
The leaping tongues of flame and fire,
The evil winds are roaring!
Our whole town burns!

And you stand looking on with folded arms,
And shake your heads.
You stand looking on, with folded arms,
While the fire spreads!

Our town is burning, brothers, burning,
Our poor little town is burning.
Tongues of flame are leaping,
The fire through our town goes sweeping,
Through roofs and windows pouring.
All around us burns.

And you stand looking on with folded arms,
And shake your heads.
You stand looking on, with folded arms,
While the fire spreads!

Our town is burning, brothers, burning,
Any moment the fire may
Sweep the whole of our town away,
And leave only ashes, black and gray,
Life after a battle, where dead walls stand,
Broken and ruined in a desolate land.

And you stand looking on with folded arms,
And shake your heads.
You stand looking on, with folded arms,
While the fire spreads!

Our town is burning, brothers, burning,
All now depends on you.
Our only help is what you do.
You can still put out the fire
With your blood, if you desire.
Don’t look on with folded arms,
And shake your heads.
Don’t look on with folded arms
While the fire spreads.

United Jerusalem Forever

JERUSALEM
Should be strengthened, not divided

"If I forget thee - for Jerusalem's future" foundation has been created to help keep Jerusalem Jewish and undivided.

Go to: http://www.jer.org.il/ to sign the "Jerusalem Commitment"

JUST DO IT!

They Paved Paradise and Put Up a Parking Lot...LITERALLY

The thing about ancient things is that they're supposed to stay dependably the same. That's why classics are the classics, icons are iconic, etc. That's...the rule.

In the "rules are made to be broken" (hearts too) category, I nominate the horrendously hideous Mamillia Project, a "mixed-use retail concept" (a phrase which would have rolled off my tongue with ease six months ago, and now only makes me nauseous).

The Mamillia Project is an underground PARKING LOT covered by ubiquitous retail stores configured in an outdoor "mall"-like setting. There are a few high-end clothing boutiques, an overpriced jeweler only the most naieve of tourists would patronize, a couple of cafes, and basically...nothing.

The worst part of it is the location: directly obstructing the view to Jaffa Gate and the Old City from the west! The view of the Old City is classic, and Mamilla's "Mall" is an offense, a blasphemous interruption in the landscape...and just plain WRONG.

PLEASE G_D LET IT BE TRUE!!!!!

President Shimon Peres, who is a personal friend and great fan of celebrated singer Barbra Streisand, hopes to persuade her to come to Israel for the country's 60th anniversary celebrations in May 2008.

Peres shared this information with members of the UJC (United Jewish Communities) Prime Minister's Council Mission, whom he hosted to dinner at his official residence last week.
Peres said that he had heard many cantors, but none who could sing 'Avinu Malkeinu' like Streisand.

Peres said that he would like to bring her to Israel within the framework of one of the keynote 60th anniversary events, an international conference with the participation of "United States representatives of the highest level" along with some 3,000 to 4,000 invited guests from abroad.

The conference, which opens in Jerusalem on May 13, will be a three-day convention, with the first day devoted to the future of the world, the second day to the future of the nation and the third day to the future relationship between Israel and the Jewish Diaspora.

Peres revealed that part of the conference would be devoted to a special tribute to the United States of America as an expression of appreciation for its consistent support of Israel.

"After sixty years, it's time to say thanks for being on our side," said Peres.

Pirate Attacks Up by 14%

Harrrr....Maties!

Confirming that we live in a dangerous world, The Associated Press reports the following:

Maritime pirate attacks worldwide shot up 14 percent in the first nine months of 2007 from a year earlier, with Somalia and Nigeria showing among the biggest increases, an international watchdog said Tuesday.

While Africa remains problematic, Southeast Asia's Malacca Strait, one of the world's busiest waterways, has been relatively quiet, the International Maritime Bureau said in a report.

A total of 198 attacks on ships were reported between January and September this year, up from 174 in the same period in 2006, the IMB said.

It said a total of 15 vessels were hijacked, 63 crew kidnapped and three killed.

Opening Shot in the Battle for Jerusalem

From Israel National News (http://www.israelnationalnews.com/):

In the opening shot of the battle for Jerusalem, top rabbis of the Hareidi-religious and Jerusalemite communities have joined Rabbi Avraham Shapira’s final statement against dividing Jerusalem.

A large gathering planned for Sunday at the Ramban Synagogue in the Old City is being organized by Chief Rabbi of the Old City, Rabbi Avigdor Nebenzahl and Rabbi Eliyahu Medina. Joining the protest is Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, considered the head of the Lithuanian Hareidi-religious public.

The assembly is being called under the banner “Over Jerusalem they cast lots” – a verse from Ovadiah (1:11) – and will include “prayers and supplications to G-d.”

The event will begin after the 12:30 PM afternoon prayer at the synagogue, which is located in the Jewish Quarter’s main square.

Earlier this month, Vice-Premier Chaim Ramon outlined his political plan for dividing Jerusalem, saying: “The Jewish neighborhoods will be recognized by both sides as Israeli neighborhoods under Israeli sovereignty. Likewise, Arab neighborhoods such as Shuafat will be recognized as Palestinian neighborhoods. There will be arrangements to ensure, free, safe passages between the various Israeli neighborhoods and likewise between the Palestinian ones.”

With regard to the Old City, Ramon wrote: “On the matter of the "holy basin" – as the area including the Temple Mount and other holy sites is being referred to – there will be a special authority that will include the expression of Israel’s special interests and manage the holy sites…The Western Wall, the Jewish Quarter and the other Jewish holy sites in the Jerusalem region will stay in the hands of Israel forever.”

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has refused to comment on the Ramon plan, though commentators compare the situation to when Olmert himself introduced the idea of unilaterally withdrawing from Gaza ahead of then-PM Ariel Sharon’s open adoption of the policy. Ramon is a close friend and political ally of Olmert's.

On the eve of the Sukkot festival, just prior to his passing away, former Chief Rabbi and Rosh Yeshiva of the Merkaz HaRav Kook religious-Zionist center Rabbi Avraham Shapira signed a strongly-worded statement against the plan. “The Land of Israel belongs to the Nation of Israel and was granted to us as an inheritance by the Creator of the world. Neither the Prime Minister nor anybody else has the right to give away areas, or even a grain, of the holy Land of Israel. The entire Land of Israel, according to the borders outlined in the Torah – belonged in the past, and belong in the present and future, only to the Nation of Israel, and it is forbidden by severe Torah prohibition to give up any of the territory of our holy land.”

The rabbi, who had issued a call prior to the Disengagement for soldiers and police to disobey orders to take part in the expulsion, continued: “Did we not learn a lesson from the expulsion of our heroic brethren from Gush Katif and northern Samaria who were uprooted from their homes? We call upon the public to protest against these statements, for the Prime Minister to repudiate them, and to show concern for the rights of the Nation of Israel in its land.”