Photographed by my friend Yonah Tzoref

And here is a Samaritan sukkah:

You've read the story of the vandalization of Chavat Shomerah (here).

Here are some pictures.  Warning: the last one is of an abused dog they left behind which will had to be put down.  These radicals are so humanistic.

Pictures courtesy of Yonah Tzoref.

Well, now the US Presidential election campaign will maybe get really interesting.

Jesse Jackson has been interviewed, and as I noted at my personal blog, he has said some very interesting things.

Like

"Obama is about change," Jackson told me in a wide-ranging conversation. "And the change that Obama promises is not limited to what we do in America itself. It is a change of the way America looks at the world and its place in it."

and

"Bush was so afraid of a snafu and of upsetting Israel that he gave the whole thing a miss," Jackson says. "Barack will change that," because, as long as the Palestinians haven't seen justice, the Middle East will "remain a source of danger to us all."

and

"Barack is determined to repair our relations with the world of Islam and Muslims," Jackson says. "Thanks to his background and ecumenical approach, he knows how Muslims feel while remaining committed to his own faith."

and, maybe the "best" of all:

The most important change would occur in the Middle East, where "decades of putting Israel's interests first" would end.

Jackson believes that, although "Zionists who have controlled American policy for decades" remain strong, they'll lose a great deal of their clout when Barack Obama enters the White House.

Well, well.  Maybe now those Jewish grandparents in Florida will tell Sarah Silverman to go stuff another election polling box?

With Yom Kippur somberness behind us, and a happy holiday ahead, let me be a bit humorous:

With profound apologies to Bette Davis

I do not know who placed a small explosive device near the entrance to the home of Hebrew University Professor Ze'ev Sternhell.  It had to be small since the damage I have seen was negligible.  And I do not know if he actually intended to assassinate Sternhell.(*) 

As I previously blogged, the flyer left at the scene raises too many doubts as to its authorship to permit me, a rational and logical sort of person, to put two and two together to come up with a positive identification that the perpetrator of violence was a rightwing settler as the supporters of Sternhell and most of the liberal media would have us assume.

To be clear: I renounce illegal criminal violence that cannot be justified.  I am not a supporter of assassination attempts nor of reckless rampaging.  I do not encourage throwing of stones at security personnel nor at Arabs, unless, in the latter case, they are throwing stones at me (which has happened).  I think nonviolent direct action tactics a better strategy of protest but that is not the subject of this pre-Yom Kippur blog post.  And I await the oputcome of the police investigation and, if necessary, the court trial, before pronouncing anyone or any body guilty.

The Left in Israel, however, is on a crusade to besmirch, demonize, ostracize and denounce the public that loves the Land of Israel, that seeks to retain the portions of its ancestral homeland not yet under the full sovereignty of the state of Israel, that wants as much security as possible and that fails to understand the weakness of our army and police in the face of Qassam rockets from Gaza and rocks that belt border police in Ni'alin thrown by anrachists.  It is a public that sees detention orders or home expulsion oprders being used against Yesha youth but not against radical progressives.  And it is a public that is getting restless and seeks a change.

Some may be too exuberant and unschooled in the political processes of civic democracy.  Their approach is to be improved so that the more positive elements are brought to use, so that not disdain for the symbols of the state nor despair of effecting a change in the face of such media bias and outright leftwing incitement are their fundamental motivational forces but a love of Zion, a love of one's fellow Jew and a love of the Jewish future are what guide.

However, since the onslaught is continuing, I though that my contribution the erev Yom Kippur would be to point out some facts that are not trumpeted in the press, facts of the sins of the Left in Zionist history.  I do not wish to demean the Left but simply to point out their self-righteousness and ignorance.  Below is a list, not fully comprehensive, of acts of violence perpetrated by the Left against their ideological oppopnents and even members of their own camps in the past century of Zionism.

The shooting in the back of Yosef Lishansky by members of HaShomer on October 9, 1917 near Metulla.

The assasination of Yaakov DeHaan by Hagana members, headed by Rachel Yana'it-Ben-Tzvi, on June 30, 1924 in Jerusalem.

The beating to death of Betari Eliyahu Shlomi (Daitsch) in Herzliya by HaPoel members on August 18, 1940.

The killings, by the Hagana, of presumed collaborators with the British including:

Baruch Weinshal in October 1939; Oskar Oppler in January 1940; Moshe Sabatni on May 3, 1940; Yitzhak Sharansky on May 12, 1940; Baruch Manfeld on June 25, 1940; Walther Strauss on July 3, 1940 and Moshe Marcus on August 25, 1940.

The beatings, kidnappings, torture and handing over to the British of hundreds of members of the Irgun and several of the Lechi during the 'Saison' period of October 1944-May 1945.

Union-based violence of Histadrut toughs directed at members of Betar in Mandate Palestine at Kfar Saba on April 8, 1930; at Herzliaya and Bnei Braq during May-June, 1932; at the Frumin Factory between October 1932-February 1933; and in Haifa on October 17, 1934 when an assembly of Revisionists was broken up by dozens of toughs who broke into the hall, broke windows and beat senseless several score youngsters and elderly who were present.

The premediated attack on parading Betar youth in Allenby Street, Tel Aviv, on the Seventh of Pessach, April 17, 1933 when rocks and bottles were tossed from rooftops led by one 'Red' Rosa Cohen which caused Berl Katznelson to resign his party positions.

The firing on unarmed Irgunists swimming in the water opposite Tel Aviv beach on June 22, 1948.

I do not know how my leftwing friends feel about all this history but I, I must admit, personally feel a lot better.

Have a very meaningful fast and may we soon merit to observe the High Priest in the Holy Temple, the Levites singing there and the Children of Israel worshipping God.

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(*)  Odd that a very similar event occured on the night of June 21-22, 1952 when the apartment of David Tzvi Pinkas, Minister of Transportation, was attacked with an explosive device.  Two non-rightwingers were arrested coming out of the buidling but the case against them was not proven in the trial.

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(The sources for the above list include books by Anita Shapiro, Betar history written by Chen Merchavya, "Political Assassinations by Jews" by Nachman Ben-Yehuda, the "Hagana in Haifa" and "Sefer HaHagana", among many others)