It's the Jewish Month of Elul, the month of intraspection, Teshuva, Repentance.  My friends and I held our monthly women's prayers at Tel Shiloh.  I write more about my everday life, thoughts and opinions on me-ander and Shiloh Musings.  I have a mind of my own as you can read here:

Jordan Isn't Palestine, sic

Jordan isn't Palestine, sic.  Sorry if it puts me in opposition to many of the people I otherwise respect and agree with.  I consider articles like Yoel Meltzer's to be very dangerous.  I consider the "Jordan is Palestine" sic movement-ideology to be very dangerous.

That's because it's based on the premise that there is a "Palestinian people," history, land etc. which must be recognized and compensated for the existence of the Jewish State of Israel.

There never was a country called Palestine.  The name was chosen by European diplomats to bring back to life the long gone Biblical enemies of the Jewish People, the Philistines who lived on the Mediterranean coast thousands of years ago.

If you take a good look at this map, you'll see that post-World War One, most of the Middle-east was divided into "mandated" areas under British and French administrations.  Today's countries and borders are modern, Twentieth Century, not based on ancient history.  That's one of the reasons the area is so volatile.

Only the Jewish State of Israel developed from national self-determination and has an ancient history which is directly connected to the modern one.

Humidity is increasing here in the HolyLand.  That's a sign that summer is ending, and G-d willing the humidity will go, excuse the expression,  whole hog, into winter rain.  You're invited to read more of my writing on Shiloh Musings and me-ander.  The month of Av is half-way over, so it's time to make plans for Rosh Chodesh Elul.  Women, there will be an extra special event at Tel Shiloh, prayers and a short tour and lecture in memory of one of the women who attend frequently. 

Women's Prayers at Tel Shiloh

Rosh Chodesh Elul Tuesday,

August 30, 2011 8:30am

Shiur Torah,

Torah Lesson

Please come and invite family, friends and neighbors

תפילת נשים

ראש חודש אלול בתל שילה

יום ג' 30-1 8:30

יהיה שיעור תורה

נא לבוא, לפרסם ולהזמין חברות, משפחה ושכנות

The "Right of Return," Jewish Rights to The Promised Land

Arlene Kushner's latest research paper about UNRWA for David Bedein's Israel Resource Review is full of facts we must digest.  It appears that the basis for UNRWA's refusal to just resettle the Arabs in other places is based on their mantra "the right of return."

Now, let's get to some very simple history. 

• The only people to have an independent nation based on common history, culture, religion etc in this part of the world, middle-east, with Jerusalem as its Capital City is the Jewish People. 
• For any other group to claim rights is pure identity theft.
• The Jewish Religion is older than the Christian religion and both are older than Islam.

The Bible (Jewish Bible) is a historic document and ancient writings which chronicles the Jewish People and its attachment to the Holy Promised Land.  That's the basic summary, main idea of what's written in it.

As a Jew I demand RIGHT OF RETURN!

It's the 9th of Av here in the HolyLand.  Some of the Jewish world has alrady broken the fast after 25 long hours.  G-d willing the Messiah will take charge before next year's fast and mourning.  Then we'll be celebrating, G-d willing.

There's lots more to read on me-ander and Shiloh Musings.  And now for the main attraction:

Eternally UNRWA

One of our Betar friends sent us Rafi Dobrin's  What if Jews had followed the Palestinian Path? based on Warren Kozak's article.

It is doubtful that there has ever been a more miserable human refuse than Jewish survivors after World War II. Starving, emaciated, stateless—they were not welcomed back by countries where they had lived for generations as assimilated and educated citizens. Germany was no place to return to and in Kielce, Poland, 40 Jews who survived the Holocaust were killed in a pogrom one year after the war ended. The European Jew, circa 1945, quickly went from victim to international refugee disaster. Yet within a very brief time, this epic calamity disappeared, so much so that few people today even remember the period. How did this happen in an era when Palestinian refugees have continued to be stateless for generations? In 1945, there were hundreds of thousands of Jewish survivors living in DP Camps (displaced persons) across Europe. They were fed and clothed by Jewish and international relief organizations. Had the world's Jewish population played this situation as the Arabs and Palestinians have, everything would look very different today. To begin with, the Jews would all still be living in these DP camps, only now the camps would have become squalid ghettos throughout Europe. The refugees would continue to be fed and clothed by a committee similar to UNRWA—the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (paid for mostly by the United States since 1948). Blessed with one of the world's highest birth rates, they would now number in the many millions. And 66 years later, new generations, fed on a mixture of hate and lies against the Europeans, would now seethe with anger.

I commented:

The template for the British plan for the "mandate" was the India-Pakistan population change. But the Arabs weren't interested in establishing a country. They just liked the free handouts.

World history is full of reports of population exchanges.  Before Great Britain actually dealt with the solution to the Mandate in Palestine it was busy dividing up the Indian Subcontinent.

That resulted in two countries, India and Pakistan.  They were separated by religion, Hindu and Islam.

The partition was promulgated in the Indian Independence Act 1947 and resulted in the dissolution of the British Indian Empire. The struggle between the new dominions of India and Pakistan which resulted from the partition displaced up to 12.5 million people in the former British Indian Empire, with estimates of loss of life varying from several hundred thousand to a million... Massive population exchanges occurred between the two newly-formed states in the months immediately following Partition. Once the lines were established, about 14.5 million people crossed the borders to what they hoped was the relative safety of religious majority. Based on 1951 Census of displaced persons, 7,226,000 Muslims went to Pakistan from India while 7,249,000 Hindus and Sikhs moved to India from Pakistan immediately after partition. About 11.2 million or 78% of the population transfer took place in the west, with Punjab accounting for most of it; 5.3 million Muslims moved from India to West Punjab in Pakistan, 3.4 million Hindus and Sikhs moved from Pakistan to East Punjab in India; elsewhere in the west 1.2 million moved in each direction to and from Sind. (complete article)

This was going on just after World War II, a war which threatened the very existence of Great Britain, and during the height of Etzel and Lechi underground activities in British Mandated Palestine.  To some think tank of the time, it probably looked like a clever idea to offer the Arabs an equal chance for statehood, even though there was no national movement to run it. (And they obviously ignored the fact that they had already invented a country, Hashemite Jordan, in the land that had been allocated to be a Jewish one.)  The modern Zionists had been incubating a national government for decades, and they were ready to administer their own country. Another important fact to remember is that many more Jewish refugees from Arab countries made their way to the new Jewish State, Israel:

Although much is heard about the plight of the Palestinian refugees, little is said about the Jews who fled from Arab states. In 1945, there were more than 870,000 Jews living in the various Arab states. Many of their communities dated back 2,500 years. Throughout 1947 and 1948 these Jews were persecuted. Their property and belongings were confiscated. There were anti-Jewish riots in Egypt, Lybia, Syria, and Iraq. In Iraq, Zionism was made a capital crime. Approximately 600,000 Jews sought refuge in the State of Israel. They arrived destitute, but they were absorbed into the society and became an integral part of the state. In effect, then, a vertible exchange of populations took place between Arab and Jewish refugees. Thus, the Jewish refugees from Arab countries became full Israeli citizens whereas the Arab refugees who fled their homes in Palestine, remained “refugees“ unaided by the neighboring Arab countries. Little is heard about the Jewish refugees because they did not remain refugees for long. Of the 820,000 Jewish refugees, 586,000 were resettled in Israel at great expense, and without any offer of compensation from the Arab governments who confiscated their possessions. During the 1947 UN debates, Arab leaders threatened the Jews living in their countries with expulsion and violence if partition were to occur. Egypt's delegate told the General Assembly: “The lives of one million Jews in Muslim countries would be jeopardized by partition.“ Following the 1947 United Nations vote to partition Palestine, Arab violence against Jews erupted throughout the Middle East and North Africa. (complete article)

Here we are over sixty years later.  Billions of dollars and innumerable man-hours have been spent trying to coach the Arabs into some semblance of government. The UNRWA refugee camps are thriving, because, unlike similar places in other societies, the residents prefer living there in perpetuity than making productive independent lives.  They have created a culture of terrorism unlike any other place in the world and any other time in history. This is a classic case of throwing good money after bad.  When will the world, including too many Jews and Israelis, wise up and just stop supporting this dangerous wasteful policy/ideology.  Treat, punish the terrorists as is done in the rest of the world.  For the sake of true World Peace, there must be a total policy change.  Otherwise, things will only get worse.

We're half-way during the nine days preceding the 9th of Av.  May we repent and merit to see this time of the year as a great holiday

You can read more of my writings on Shiloh Musings and me-ander

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Did He? Didn't He? What Has Bibi Agreed to?

Arlene Kushner is having trouble accepting that Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has caved in again. 

Bibi has been falling off his tightrope over and over again. In his quest to be perceived as "Center," rather than Right.  Netanyahu is endangering the entire country.

The world doesn't care if Israel ceases to exist, is G-d forbid defeated, conquered by its Arab enemies.  United States President Obama isn't an expert in World History. He is under the impression that Israel was carved out of a country called "Palestine," which then in 1948 ceased to exist.

That's why he is so obsessed about the pre-June 1967 borders.

When Israel was threatened with extinction  in May-June, 1967 by Egypt, Syria and Jordan, the United Nations cooperated with our enemies and the rest of the world was silent.  Israel had no allies, just the prayers of World Jewry and the help of G-d Almighty. Contrary to all expectations, not only did Israel survive the war, but within six days it had defeated three armies and found itself in possession of the Golan Heights, the Jordan Valley,  the Sinai and Judea and Samaria including what had been Jordanian Jerusalem for just nineteen years.

There is no reason for Israel to be under any pressure to give that land to Arabs.  According to all historic precedent and International Law, land held after a defensive war becomes the property of the victorious state.  The fact that the Jewish People have a long history connected to the Land only strengthens our rights to it. No doubt that the State of Israel will thrive the minute we stop all this defeatist negotiation stance.  Let's just build our country!

This is my first posting on Arutz 7 since they redid the site.  It does look great.  You can read more of my writing on Shiloh Musings and me-ander.

Peace? Not in This Generation

PA summer camp sponsored by Fayyad names children's groups after terrorists by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik A Palestinian Authority summer camp for children divided its campers into three groups named after the terrorists Dalal Mughrabi, Salah Khalaf and Abu Ali Mustafa. Dalal Mughrabi in 1978 led the most lethal terror attack in Israel's history, in which 37 civilians were killed, 12 of them children. Salah Khalaf (Abu Iyad) was the head of the Black September terror group. He planned many terror attacks including the murder of two American diplomats, as well as the murder of 11 Israeli athletes in the Munich Olympics in 1972. Abu Ali Mustafa, General Secretary of the terror organization Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). He planned numerous terror attacks against Israeli civilians during the Palestinian terror campaign ("the Intifada"). A fourth group was named after Yasser Arafat. The summer camp was held under the auspices of PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, who visited the camp to participate in the closing ceremonies, which he also sponsored.

Nothing has changed.  There's nothing to talk about with those "moderate" Arabs.  The safest and most secure and most intelligent thing the State of Israel can do is to ignore/resist all international and Left wing pressure to negotiate with the Arabs.  They glorify terrorism and murderous terrorists. When the day comes, in a few decades or generations, when the Arabs will sincerely want to live in peace with us, they'll come running to us begging for us to talk to them. In the meantime, Israel should build (permit building) for Jews in all of the Land of Israel.  There is lots of State Land, without any sign of private ownership.  This was mapped out decades ago, soon after the 1967 Six Days War.  Most of today's Arab agriculture is very new.  I remember how the land by our roads once looked, surrounded by delicate wild flowers in the spring and parched dry in the summer. Today, there's a massive building boom in Arab towns.  The newly built Arab mansions prove that the Arabs are not suffering.  Money is filtering to all the clans.  I'd like to know the sources.

Without a formal agreement, we have a de facto "peace" at the moment.  I work in the Sha'ar Binyamin branch of Yafiz (Rami Levi) and deal with Arabs all of the time.  Under Israeli rule, we work and shop together.  You don't see that in any Arab country.  Jews don't have full civil rights in Arab countries. And the aim of the so called "peace negotiations" is to establish a Judenrein country, which, like Jordan, would forbid Jews rights.  So anyone who supports and promotes these negotiations is anti-civil/human rights.  We, Jews, are human, aren't we? So, let's just go on building our country, the only truly moral, democratic country in the Middle-East, the State of Israel.