When I was first learning about life in Israel, over forty years ago, people talked about how one is expected to bargain. Never pay the first price offered. Pay as little as possible. Walk away from the shop, and they'll call you back with a better and yet better price. It was quite a switch from the very "proper" and inflexible America in the mid-1960's.
Maybe we should send one of the veteran stall owners from Machene Yehuda to negotiate

Israelis seem to have lost the knack. They're (we're) playing all these negotiations like total patsies, total fools. We've given away our precious Land for nothing--Disengagement or a smile and Nobel Peace Prize--Menachem Begin's Camp David.

Instead of simply refusing all aid to our enemies and Red Cross visits to the terrorist/enemy Arabs we've captured until our soldiers are returned--alive or dead, we keep offering to free more and more terrorists.

Gilad Shalit's family are media darlings like the religious parents of our soldiers captured in Lebanon could never be.

Yes, Gilad Shalit must be freed, must be returned home to Israel, but what happened to the master Israeli bargainers of old? Maybe we should send one of the veteran stall owners from Machene Yehuda to negotiate. I'm sure he wouldn't do any worse than our politicians, diplomats and media have done.

This past Shabbat (yesterday) was Shabbat Zachor, the Shabbat we're supposed to remember what Amalek did to us all those millennium ago, because in actuality, Amalek is still active, still
...even when G-d seems to be absent, He is always with us, Hester Pannim
attacking us.

Amalek wasn't destroyed by King Saul, even though Saul had been ordered by G-d, via Samuel, to destroy him totally and utterly, even his livestock. To this very day, we're paying for Saul's sin. Saul was a weak and fearful "leader." When G-d had commanded Samuel to anoint him king, it had been hoped that Saul would accept instructions from Samuel. But free will can be very unpredictable and dangerous. Saul, enjoying his power as king, didn't obey, and for that reason he was deposed in what I consider the Bible's greatest dramatic scene.

Sounding very much like a modern politician, Saul, blamed the people. If you look carefully at the Biblical text, it doesn't say that the people ordered, or urged Saul to disobey G-d. It says: "...Saul and the people..." Saul is mentioned first. This is not like the sin of the Golden Calf, when the people rebelled and Aaron tried to control it by joining. The Hebrew makes it even more clear that Saul led, because all verbs in Hebrew are either in singular or plural. " וַיַּחְמֹל שָׁאוּל וְהָעָם עַל-אֲגָג" "Vayachmol" is in singular. Even if it's supposed to mean that Saul and the people were totally united, as one, it condemns him for not struggling to obey G-d.

1 Samuel Chapter 15 ז וַיַּךְ שָׁאוּל, אֶת-עֲמָלֵק, מֵחֲוִילָה בּוֹאֲךָ שׁוּר, אֲשֶׁר עַל-פְּנֵי מִצְרָיִם. 7 And Saul smote the Amalekites, from Havilah as thou goest to Shur, that is in front of Egypt. ח וַיִּתְפֹּשׂ אֶת-אֲגַג מֶלֶךְ-עֲמָלֵק, חָי; וְאֶת-כָּל-הָעָם, הֶחֱרִים לְפִי-חָרֶב. 8 And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. ט וַיַּחְמֹל שָׁאוּל וְהָעָם עַל-אֲגָג, וְעַל-מֵיטַב הַצֹּאן וְהַבָּקָר וְהַמִּשְׁנִים וְעַל-הַכָּרִים וְעַל-כָּל-הַטּוֹב, וְלֹא אָבוּ, הַחֲרִימָם; וְכָל-הַמְּלָאכָה נְמִבְזָה וְנָמֵס, אֹתָהּ הֶחֱרִימוּ. {פ} 9 But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, even the young of the second birth, and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them; but every thing that was of no account and feeble, that they destroyed utterly. {P}

Saul's blaming the people was even worse than when Adam blamed Chava (Eve) for eating the forbidden fruit.

Today we are caught in a situation very much like the Haftara of Shabbat Zachor, but today is much, much worse. Saul and his sinful advisers dominate the government, the media and even our religious leadership. The voice of Samuel is gagged and muffled. Even worse are those who speak in his name confusing us.

In a couple of days, it will be Purim, the Holiday which reminds us that even when G-d seems to be absent, He is always with us, Hester Pannim.

Let's pray that G-d will once again bring us miracles, even if we don't deserve them.

 
We're a People in search of leadership, inspiration and confidence in our National Right and Legitimacy.

Where Has the Orange Camp Gone?

More important:

 

Yes, I'm repeating myself. They failed, and unless I missed something, they didn't apologize for that failure... whoever they are.

 

So, as far as I'm concerned, we're probably better off without them. We need a new leadership. Yes, we need leadership. I was so enthusiastic when the Ichud Le'umi, National Union got back together. But I don't understand why Hatikvah's Ron Breiman or anyone else should be so fixated on those who failed. Why should he have any expectations?

 

Orange is history. Those who led it didn't succeed in winning the hearts of the Israeli people nor the hearts and minds the Jews in the Diaspora. If they had, our IDF soldiers would never have cooperated with the army. They would have found themselves incapable of taking innocent Jews from their homes.

 

We're a People in search of leadership, inspiration and confidence in our National Right and Legitimacy.

 

Honestly, I'd feel safer with Bibi in the opposition. That's where he'd act more "Right."
FYI, the reason I haven't been blogging here recently is totally technical. The "log in" 's I had been given weren't working... all of a sudden. Now I finally made contact with the tech person, who gave me yet another way to log in.