The group's lead singer, Kobi Oz, is himself from Sderot, a town in Israel that has seen kassam rockets slamming into it's residential areas for a number of years, killing and injuring its residents, with the world looking on in apathy.
I couldn't believe that THIS was the song Israel was going to send to the Eurovision Song Contest this year.   When I first heard it, I said, "Oh my Gawwwd!" I was pretty taken aback!  The song was half rap, half 'just weird'.  It certainly wasn't a 'pretty' song, or one that Israel usually sends in for a contest entry. And then I started reading about the song and the Europeans reaction to it.  It changed my mind.  Israel's song choice is controversial, I won't deny it.  But objections coming from the Europeans, really ticked me off. 
Our song entry this year: "Push the Button" is by the band called Teapacks.  The song is a wry piece on the terrorists, and the nuclear threats Israel faces from these (Arab/Islamic?) leaders. The group's lead singer, Kobi Oz, is himself from Sderot, a town in Israel that has seen kassam rockets slamming into it's residential areas for a number of years, killing and injuring its residents, with the world looking on in apathy. 

A sample of the lyrics to "PUSH THE BUTTON": 

The world is full of terror
If someone makes an error
He's gonna blow us up to biddy biddy kingdom come
There are some crazy rulers they hide and try to fool us
With demonic, technologic willingness to harm

They're gonna push the button
push the button push the bu push the bu push the button

....And I don't want to die
I want to see the flowers bloom
Don't want a go capoot ka boom
And I don't want to cry
I wanna have a lot of fun
Just sitting in the sun

Kjell Ekholm of the EBU's Eurovision Song Contest's reference group stated that "It's absolutely clear that this kind of message is not appropriate for the competition". 

Anyone who takes offence to Israel's song choice, and says it is not proper for the Eurovision contest, need only look at last year's entry that actually WON the contest.  They were dressed like 'Decomposed Monsters who were part Klingon, part Viking.  They donned metalic garb with sharp spikes, and had fingernails that looked like it could slice a person in half. They even brought on stage a killer axe. (see second photo below)

Their song entry  contained these lyrics below:
...Wings on my back
I got horns on my head
My fangs are sharp
And my eyes are red
Not quite an angel
Or the one that fell
Now choose to join us or go straight to Hell...

This group was none other than Finland's own heavy metal band called LORDI. 

Finland's 'song' won the Eurovison contest last year!
So, though I really don't care for our rap and rock song that Israel will be performing, maybe this is a good, "stick it to yuh Europeans, with love, from Israel's citizens" who are constantly being threatened and attacked by our neighbors, while Europe feeds the terror beasts and tells us that we are the ones at fault. 

Our message to the millions of Europeans? It may be we Jews who are gonna get attacked, but not only us.  It's not JUST the Jews, it's FIRST the Jews, and then YOU!  First the Saturday People, and then the Sunday People. 

And Europe better watch out, as their continent has earned the new name of EurAbia .  Perhaps that is why there are objections to Israel's entry this year?  Perhaps the Europeans are intimidated by this bold and blunt song?  Perhaps they are afraid of getting the Mullahs angry?  So if the powers that be in the Eurovision decide to nix Israel's song choice, it could be safe to say that (with last year's winner) it would prove them to be hypocritical, or holding double standards.  Letting a violent death themed song with axes on stage win the contest, and then disqualifying Israel's song that says we want to live in the sun and not get bombed, is so typically 'European' when it comes to the Jews. 

Lordi - Finland Eurovision 2006
from Yahoo UK - unknown

So go figure, what is good taste and acceptable these days? Perhaps it is better to forfeit vying for the contest's number one spot and just get the message through that their contest that feigns to promote peace and love, ignores any real truth to the matter. If we just bring that message to the millions of viewers who will be watching, perhaps we will come out the real winners?

This post won't be long.  ....Because a picture tells a thousand words.

Defense Minister Amir Peretz is unfit to serve as Israel's Defense Minister.  After helping to botch up the '2nd Lebanon War', and seeing more than 150 soldiers and civilians killed, as well as having our northern cities devastated by missiles slamming into our homes,  we now catch this latest blunder of his...

Peretz looks through binoculars with the lens cap on, while being shown Israeli defense exercises on the Golan Heights.

Feb. 2, 2007: 

From AFP.com "Photographs splashed across the country's two major newspapers on Thursday, showed a rotund Peretz, lips set in concentration, face tilted to the light and eyes glued to binoculars... with their black lens caps still firmly on.  ....A vast majority of Israelis want him to resign from the defence ministry on the grounds of chronic incompetence and military inexperience."

How long was he pretending to view these military operations? What did he pretend to see?  How long can one fake it?  With another war looming, and Iran threatening to destroy Israel, we need competent leaders.  "Hello?  Is Anybody There?"

Peretz
AFP/File Photo:

On this week's Eyshet Chayil Show, we discussed the joyous month of Adar, with tips on increasing your happiness in the happiest month of the Jewish year.

I found a great timeline for Adar on Wikipedia, the ultra-prolific reference site.  Check it out!  Almost every day of Adar has an interesting event which took place during the month - very informative.

Just for added fun, I'm including a recipe for Hamantaschen from Chabad:

Tasty Hamataschen

4 cups flour
4 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup margarine, softened
1 Tbsp. Orange juice
2 tsps. Baking powder
1 tsp. Vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
1 tsp. Orange rind

FILLINGS
1 pound strawberry or apricot preserves

Preheat oven to 350°.

Grease cookie sheets.

Place all ingredients in a large mixer bowl and beat together. You may add a drop more juice or flour, depending on consistency of dough. Roll dough into a ball. Divide into four parts.

Proceed to assemble and bake according to Hamantashen illustrated.

FUN VARIATION
Put a drop of food coloring into dough, for colored hamantashen, the kids will love it!

I did a show on the radio last week , when this idea popped inside my head...
"And The 2006 Anti-Semite of the Year Award Goes to..."
by Tamar Yonah





If I said that you (the reader of this article) was a spy for a foreign country, you would laugh it off. Because who am I? I am relatively unknown and don't hold any international prestige. But if Henry Kissinger, or someone else famous in the political arena published a book and named you as a spy, you would take that VERY seriously. So would anyone else reading that book, because Kissinger served in a very high position, therefore it would be assumed that he would know, right?

Conversely, if Iranian Leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the State of Israel was the reason that there is no peace in the Middle East, and that the Jews were practicing Apartheid, most people around the world who have even a simple grasp of political realities would know that he is an anti-Semite, and therefore would not take what he says as having any validity. They KNOW he is an anti-Semite and that he wants to destroy the nation of Israel.

This is why the new book written by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter called, 'Palestine: Peace, not Apartheid' is so dangerous. Jimmy Carter always seemed to show himself on camera as a very gentle, soft spoken southern gentleman, devoted to his religious beliefs, and almost always with a smile on his face, showing he was a warm and non-threatening person. But beneath that friendly looking smile seems to lie a deep prejudice against the Jewish people.

Monroe Freedman, (now a professor of law at Hofstra University), served on the Holocaust Memorial Council during Carter's term as president. Part of his job was to present to Carter, names of those to be approved for the board of the Holocaust Memorial Council. In an article that was published in World Net Daily, January 25, 2007, 'Jimmy Carter: Too many Jews on Holocaust council?' about 80% of the board members Monroe recommended were Jewish, the rest were Gentiles. Freedman said that after submitting his list, Carter complained. Monroe says his memo was returned with a note, in Carter's handwriting, and initialed by him, on the upper right hand corner stating "Too many Jews". Monroe was then given instructions by the White House to add more non-Jews to the board of the Holocaust Memorial Council. After compiling a new list, another legitimate candidate was rejected. Monroe stated in the article, "I got a phone call from our liaison at the White House saying this particular historian whose name sounded Jewish would not do. The liaison said he would not even take the time to present Carter with the possibility of including the historian on the board because he knew Carter would think the name sounded too Jewish. I explained the historian is Presbyterian, but the liaison said it wouldn't matter to Carter."

Who would imagine this sort of anti-Semitism behind Carter?s benign smile and soft spoken voice?

As to the title of Carter's new best seller book, 'Palestine: Peace not Apartheid': According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the word 'apartheid' means:

1 : racial segregation; specifically : a former policy of segregation and political and economic discrimination against non-European groups in the Republic of South Africa
2 : Separation, Segregation

None of these are true for Israel. There is no racial segregation in Israel. Arabs who are CITIZENS of the State of Israel not only live together with us, but serve as teachers, doctors, lawyers, and judges in Israeli courts. They are elected and serve in the Knesset, Israel's parliament. Arabs who are citizens of Israel enjoy more freedoms here, than in their own Arab countries where dictatorships and oppressive Islamic laws abound.

For Jimmy Carter to claim that Israel denies rights to a person due to his/her race is preposterous. Carter obviously does not know the meaning of the word Apartheid which he uses in the tile of his book.

I KNOW what apartheid is. I visited South Africa in the late 70?s when Apartheid was in affect there and saw it in action. There were separate busses, separate bus stops, separate bathrooms, separate schools, just about separate 'everything' there. Black South Africans certainly weren't allowed to live in the open suburbs where the white people settled. And it wasn?t only if you were black. Apartheid applied to all 'colored' people. That means if you were from a place like India, and were brown skinned, it categorized you as a 'colored' and so you did not enjoy the rights of the 'White' race.

Perhaps Carter wants to portray Israel as racist because of Arabs who complain about having to go through security check points on the roads? If so, this is a false claim of apartheid.

Because of the Arab terror that threatens Israel daily, IDF soldiers are stationed in vulnerable spots on roads leading to heavily populated cities. All vehicles traveling these roads, regardless if they are Israeli or Arab, must pass through these check points. Soldiers scan all vehicles in an attempt to catch suicide bombers or vehicles smuggling in explosive devices . This means, even if you are Jewish, and have served in the army (IDF), you too will have to wait in (sometimes) long lines to be checked before you are allowed to continue on to Israeli population centers. There is nothing racial here. All suffer this inconvenience, Jews and Arabs alike. Yet Carter says that Israel ?perpetrates even worse instances of apartness, or apartheid, than we witnessed even in South Africa?, Haaretz news service reports.

Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz attempted to de-bunk Jimmy Carter through a public debate, on the contents of his book, 'Palestine: Peace not Apartheid', which was filled with errors, omissions, and an anti-Israel bias. But the former U.S. President declined to debate the Professor. This, after Carter said the reason he wrote the book was because he wanted to encourage more debate! So then why is he running from it?

And so, one can only come to the conclusion that Jimmy Carter is, under his soft words and gentle smile, an anti-Semite, and a dangerous one. He seems to hide this anti-Semtism under a friendly smile, while conspiring to do harm to the Jewish people.

It is time to start a new awards ceremony, exposing the anti-Semites of the world who hide under innocent masks and clever words. Because if it was a Nazi writing lies about the Jews, the average person would know better. Not so when these lies come from a former U.S. president, purporting to be an honest broker for peace.

We need to identify people who operate like this, to let the world know who is an anti-Semite, and so give the average person a little foreknowledge. One should know when reading books like Carter?s, that he?s known for being an anti-smite, then they can take his word with more than a grain of salt when he talks about Israel and the Jewish people.

And so... (drum beat please), we award former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, with the 2006 'Anti-Semite of the Year' award.
Congratulations Jimmy, you earned it!

Mazel Tov to us for INN's new site, and our new and improved blog!  I hope you will join us to get the behind-the-scenes info and opinions from your favorite INR show hosts.

Don't forget to write in with your comments.

And as always, join us at www.israelnationalradio.com for great programs from the Land of Israel.

:-)