If Only

I was informed that someone has been playing around with a photoshop program, and its way past Purim.

But I felt that my Arutz 7 blog faithful deserved a smile if not an outright laugh.  The story is here but enjoy this picture of former President Jimmy Carter been arrested on suspicion of aiding terrorists:

Bob Maginnis thinks Carter is arrestable.

Carter’s proposed meeting will also violate part of the USA Patriot Act of 2001 which prohibits any US citizen from knowingly providing “…material support or resources” to a foreign terrorist organization (18 U.S.C. § 2339A(b)). The phrase “material support or resources” includes “expert advice” which is what former presidents provide. A citizen found guilty of violating this law could be imprisoned for life.

Rabbi Riskin on Christian Support for Israel

This past Friday, Pastor John Hagee visited the Menachem Begin Heritage Center on the occasion of the publishing by Gefen of a Hebrew translation of his book, "Supporting Israel".  He was most impressed by what he saw and heard, very much so.

Rabbi Riskin was present and spoke.

At one of my wife's blogs (here), Ellen Horowitz published an attack on Rabbi Riskin prior to his appearance, suggesting that Rabbi Riskin, in this matter, is not promoting Torah Judaism.

I asked Rabbi Riskin for a response and received this:-

For the last five years I have been involved with some major evangelical groups on many different levels; never during those years was there any kind of missionary activity which they initiated, certainly not with me, but neither with any other Jews in Israel or the Diaspora. The Jewish people is facing an existential battle for our lives against Islamic Fundamentalism, which is fast taking over Europe and is slowly becoming more and more vocal and visible in the United States. This is the most critical threat facing us a people and facing the entire free world - and there are only less than thirteen million Jews against over a billion Moslems. And there are at least a billion and one half Christians

Yes, for close to 2,000 years the church has spewed anti Semitic hate and its only interest in the Jews was either to kill us or convert us. Open your eyes ! This is not the situation today ! The evangelical community in USA are the staunchest supporters of Israel and especially of settlement Israel, they believe in us and our right to be where we are. And if they believe that at the time of the resurrection we will convert to Christianity, I respect their right to that belief; I believe that in the Messianic age all the Christians will convert to Judaism, and I say this vocally. The Nature of our relationship is not eschatological theological debate.

Rav Soloveitchik spoke to and lectured Christian theological groups . His first address on the Lonely Man of Faith was presented in a Catholic University in Boston (I believe it was St. Johns) He was against theological debate on religious issues in which we are not respected equals in the eyes of the Christians. So am I. However, I do not believe he would be against our relationship today on behalf of world peace and against Islamic Jihad.

Not only do I believe my activities are important; I believe that for the love of Israel and the future of the free world, there is perhaps no more important association that I can think of or involvement that I believe we should be engaged in. I urge you to hear my last CD.

With every best wish and Torah Greetings

I remain sincerely,

Shlomo Riskin

I am glad to act as a forum for the exchange of opinions.

Doing Something, Reclaiming Our Land

This morning, while leaving Shiloh, I spotted a poster announcing a "girls-only" group slated to help reclaim Jewish land.  I thought that odd and even suspected that it was one of these super moralistic styles.  Here's their poster:

Well, one never knows.

At 7:30 PM, on my way home, I receive a phone call from Daniella Weiss and she invites me to speak to the girls who have settled in for the night "somewhere in Samaria".  I am picked up at 9 PM and a short while later, find myself talking to some 25 young ladies who proved themselves electricians by hooking themselves up to a nearby line to give themselves some light.

I spoke for about 90 minutes on Shiloh's history, a bit of Gush Emunim reminisces and also my media monitoring work.  They then went off to eat spaghetti and I was driven home where Daniella filled bottles with water for the ladies.

Here's the gang:-