This post may read like a broken record, but there's lots more variety on Shiloh Musings and me-ander.  Please don't be shy and take a look in those other blogs. 

Broken Record

I'm sure I sound like a broken record, no not the Guinness type of the most and biggest.  The idiom "broken record" comes from the day when recorded music was on a round plastic disc with groves.  If one of the groves was faulty, the sound repeated and repeated until you moved the arm with the reading needle to a better spot.  When it comes to the issue of protests and negotiations to free Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier who was captured by Hamas three and a half years ago, I'm sure I sound like a broken record.

We need some G-dly Being to lift the arm and place the needle someplace else, totally different tactics.

 Palestine Media Watch presents a very comprehensive report explaining why the current policy is so dangerous.

It's very hard to get balanced news about it.  On the IBA's official site this morning, as I write this post, these are the following headlines:

• Meeting continues on the prisoner release proposals
• A rally taking place in front of the Prime Minister's Office to free Gilad Shalit
• Senior ministerial forum continues deliberations on Shalit deal
• Ben Eliezer: Israel has taken steps to bring Abbas back to negotiations

Yes, half of the eight headlines concern Shalit.  The media campaign is massive, massive but mistaken.  We keep hearing that "the fate of Shalit is in Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's hands."  That's not true.  That's because Shalit isn't in "Netanyahu's hands."  He's in Hamas, Arab terrorists' hands, and they are the ones who have the physical and moral responsibility to free him.  It's not up to Israel.  Those Arabs are being strengthened by the Israeli media, because the media blame us, Israel, and not the Arab terrorists who are the guilty ones.

So, I keep rewriting the same message, in different ways time after time like a broken record, hoping and praying that there will be a total turn-about in the Israeli negotiations and in the public campaign to free him.

Chag Urim Sameach, May You Have an Enlightened Chanukah!  I blog more frequently, and on a much wider variety of topics, on Shiloh Musings and me-ander.  Visit them and find out for yourselves.  Thank you

Ehud Barak's Altalena

Before I get into this post, I wish to take the opportunity to remind any surviving Altalena attackers and supporters of that attack that they ought to do a serious חשבון נפש "cheshbon nefesh," accounting of the soul, their deeds.  There is nothing worse than acts of Jews against Jews, and no fancy liberal-sounding terminology can excuse it.  The Leftists love throwing that burden on us proud patriotic Right wing Israelis and Jews, but history and current events show that they are the guilty ones, not us.
Ehud Barak's attempts to fill the army with technology-dependent yes-men is bad for Israel's security and survival.

Menachem Begin and Irgun and Revisionist followers raised money and bought weapons to use to free the Old City of Jerusalem from Arab rule during Israel's War of Independence.  The armaments and volunteers traveled/were shipped to Israel on the Altalena.  Begin's representatives negotiated with David Ben-Gurion as to how to divide the weapons between the various Jewish fighting units and where to land the ship.

Totally unknown by Begin, Ben-Gurion had other plans.  Ben-Gurion believed that once the public knew that it was due to Begin's contribution that Jerusalem, including the Kotel, western wall, would be guaranteed Jewish, they would support Begin over Ben-Gurion.  To prevent loss of power, Ben-Gurion decided to trick Begin and attack him and the Altalena.

Menachem Begin survived the attack, and the Old Walled City of Jerusalem was captured by the Arabs.  Only during the Six Days War, nineteen years later, was it liberated and returned to Jewish rule.

David Ben-Gurion preferred political power over Jewish rule of our HolyLand, including our historical and religious capital, Jerusalem.

Ehud Barak is following in Ben-Gurion's footsteps by attacking the hesder yeshivot like the one in Har Bracha.  It is a well-known fact that in today's IDF Israel Defense Forces, the most motivated soldiers are the national religious, like those who participate via the hesder framework.  Barak's policies will only weaken the Israeli army.  Apparently, he, too, like Ben-Gurion, prefers personal power over Israeli victory.  He wants soldiers who obey his orders, not intelligent thinking Jews.

 Many of the military mistakes which caused the death of our soldiers during the "second Lebanese War" were due to the changes Barak, himself as Ramat Kal COS, had made in the army.  Barak initiated the dependence on technology rather than human reconnaissance.  Unfortunately things look different on a screen than in real life.  My son's unit was saved, because his officer refused the instructions from "higher up" and didn't stay where they had been ordered.  A different unit followed orders and many were killed and injured, because the place wasn't safe.

Ehud Barak's attempts to fill the army with technology-dependent yes-men is bad for Israel's security and survival.

Chag Urim Sameach, May You Have an Enlightened Chanukah!

I post more frequently and on a greater variety of topics on my blogs me-ander and Shiloh Musings, so please visit them.  You'll find a very recent Havel Havelim, the floating internet magazine filled with links to Jewish blogs all over the world and the latest in the saga of my father's aliyah at the age of 89. You can also read my Dvar Torah Commentary on last week's Portion of the Week, Vayeshev.

Another thing, this coming Friday is Rosh Chodesh Tevet, and we'll be having our תפילת נשים בתל שילה, כולן מוזמנות Women's Prayers at Tel Shiloh, 9:30am. Everyone's welcome.

Does The Obama-Clinton State Department Know What It's Doing?

Israel is about the size of New Jersey.  How could anyone in their right mind promote an Arab terror state, larger/wider, in many places than Israel?  The 1949 ceasefire lines is an irregular indefensible "border."  There is no natural geographical or military logic to it.  There's no long history to justify it.  These borders only lasted about eighteen years until the neighboring Arab states, Jordan, Egypt and Syria, attacked Israel in 1967 with the aim of destroying the only Jewish country in the world.

Miraculously, yes, totally unexpectedly and beyond any military plans, Israel not only survived but liberated the necessary territory to create defensive borders.  And even more unexpectedly, instead of fully annexing the land, which houses our long ancient history, successive Israeli Governments have been scheming to give it to Arab terrorists. Neither United States President Obama, nor his Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are experts in history, defense etc.  They also have a stated agenda to promote a Pseudistinian "Palestinian" sic state.  We in Israel have neither a legal nor moral obligation to obey their dictates.

Have a Chag Urim -Enlightened- Chanukah Sameach!  Enjoy this double-Shabbat Chanukah Holiday.

Just to remind you that I write much more frequently and on a much wider variety of topics on my other blogs, Shiloh Musings and me-ander.  So, I highly suggest that you read them, too, also the comments, even for the same posts you'll find here.  Enjoy in good health!

Gilad Shalit Still In Arab Prison, Good Intentions and The Road to Hell

They should not be protesting at the Israel Prime Minister's Residence, nor any Israeli official or office. The Bring Gilad Shalit Home protest movement as it now exists is as mistaken, misguided and dangerous as its cousin Appease sic Peace Now, (an organization which only encourages our enemies causing terrorism and war.)

The protests, demonstrations, demands and petitions should be focused on those holding him, those cooperating with them and those ignoring the injustice.  Demonstrate at:

• The International Red Cross
• The United Nations
• The United States Embassy, Consulate etc
• European Embassy, Consulate etc
• All human rights offices here in Israel
• and all "PA" offices
• If you can think of other places, add them in the comments, thanks.

I write much more frequently on Shiloh Musings and me-ander, so please visit those blogs and read my articles. You may also find the comments there on this article interesting.

 Ashmnu Bagadnu אשמנו בגדנו In The Plural

Hat tip: I thank Hadassa for getting me on this track.
We are in this together, whether they like it or not! It's not enough just to say "Ashmnu Bagadnu אשמנו בגדנו."

Most Jewish prayers are in the plural.  Many Jewish prayers and rituals are only permitted to a minyan, quorum of ten men. The words Ashamnu Bagadnu אשמנו בגדנו  "We have become guilty, We have betrayed G-d," from the "Vidu'i," are the cornerstone of the Yom Kippur Prayers, when we ask G-d for forgiveness for all our sins.  Note that they end with the suffix "nu" "נו."  That's the first person plural, "we/our."

 How will supposedly Torah observant people reply to G-d when asked why they only supported Jewish rights to their little corner of the world?  People like Meir Rubinstein, mayor of the haredi town Beitar Illit, don't see themselves as part of the Jewish People's mitzvah, G-d given commandment, to settle the Land of Israel, Eretz Yisrael ארץ ישראל.  A call for "exceptions" to the YESHA building freeze brings us back to "you can't be a little bit pregnant."

Rubenstein is no different than the secular Lefists in Tel Aviv who don't understand that without recognizing Jewish Rights to places like Shiloh, Shechem and Hebron, they have no right to be in Tel Aviv.

We are in this together, whether they like it or not!  It's not enough just to say  "Ashmnu Bagadnu אשמנו בגדנו."  We must sincerely admit where we have sinned as members of the entire Jewish Nation/People and do everything in our power to correct them (our sins.)