Who can keep silent at a time like this? Now the Hellenists want to surround settlements with soldiers and tanks, cut off telephones, bar entrance to reporters, send pilotless surveillance craft on spy missions around the yishuvim to see if any new building is taking place, and who knows what else? What we have here is a war against the Jews.

Except for his mantra of opening fire against anything that moves, Vienna Mike is appearing less of a basket case than we thought. Too bad he is still hiding behind Betsy Ross’s full-blown skirt in Virginia. If he wasn’t such a scaredy cat at heart, we might be able to learn a few things from him.

While we are mentioning false prophets, don’t forget Mr. Fleiglin who has been telling us for years to vote for the Likud. As bad as Barak is for the country, it’s the Likud who is letting Barak go ahead with his persecution of the Jews of Yesha.

As far as Barak’s battle to destroy the Hesder yeshivot and bring religious Zionists to their knees, it seems that some of the rabbis are standing behind Rav Melamed, while others are running to shine Barak’s shoes. Hopefully, the pebble that started the fuss will cascade into a great avalanche of protest and mass refusal to betray the commandments of the Torah and the Zionist ideal of rebuilding the Nation of Israel in the Biblical borders of Eretz Yisrael.

Of course, behind all of the petty politicians, it’s Hashem who is pulling the strings, turning on the heat, wanting us to do tshuva. Not just the Jews of Yesha, who would do themselves a big favor by throwing away their televisions and stop trying so hard to get the Hellenists to love them. Everyone has to do tshuva, including the etza-giver Jews of the Diaspora, who write know-it-all talkbacks, without even knowing how to assemble an M-16 in the daytime, let alone in the dark.

Everyone get a bumper sticker – “I learn in Har Bracha.”

Everyone hang up a poster – “Rabbi Melamed for Minister of Defense!”

A year after making aliyah, I moved to the settlement of Beit-El, where I began to learn in a new Torah-learning program headed by Rav Eliezer Melamed. During the two years I learned under Rav Eliezer’s guidance, in addition to a very strong teacher/student bond, we developed a close friendship. While seeped through and through with Torah, he had a keen appreciation of writers and the creative process, and encouraged me to keep writing along with my Torah studies. Never having departed from the Land of Israel, he always enjoyed hearing my stories about life in the Diaspora.  I am always invited to the weddings of his children, and the like, and he wrote the introduction to my recent book on creative writing. When he moved to the then tiny settlement of Har Bracha, at the urging of my dear friend, Yonaton Behar, and started the Hesder Yeshiva, I became a modest annual donor. I have spent many inspiring times at the yeshiva, in his sukkah, and at his house for Shabbat meals.     

In addition to his vast Torah scholarship and creativity, and being an outstanding educator par-excellence, he is a paragon of honesty.

Thus, it is not surprising that Hashem has raised him out of the ranks to hold the banner of the Maccabees aloft when the scourge of Hellenism is once again seeking to divorce the Nation of Israel from the Torah.

We have come home to the Land of Israel to rebuild our homes, in fulfillment of the Torah’s commandment to settle the Land. It is the job of the Israeli army to guard those homes, not kick the Jews out of them. Rav Melamed has made this point clear, and for that, the Jewish Hellenists want to silence him.

Rav Melamed also pointed out another simple truth that everyone knows  - that the Hellenists who run the army all too often put career considerations over the best interests of their soldiers, and for this, the Jewish Hellenists want him silenced.

Hanukah celebrates the victory of the Torah over secular Hellenism. Hanukah celebrates the victory of holiness over corruption. Hanukah celebrates the victory of the few, like Rav Melamed and the Maccabees, over the many.

By stating the truth, Rav Eliezer Melamed has lit the world’s most gigantic menorah on the mountain of blessing – Har Bracha.  

Like Mattitiahu, he has called out, “All who would uphold the Torah and the Covenant – follow me!”

We pray that all the other rabbis will join him.

This years esteemed Fishman Peace Prize for outstanding contributions to world peace is being awarded to Obama.

Obama

No one had done more for for the cause of world peace. The prize can be picked up worldwide at any American Embassy, Rewards Dept.  

This year, the esteemed Fishman Peace Prize for outstanding contributions to world peace is being awarded to Obama.

Obama