I couldn't decide which article to post here, so I decided to give you a double-serving. There's always more, if you're interested, on Shiloh Musings.

"Electoral Reform," Pandora's Box

The road to the hell of gerrymandering is paved with the best of intentions aka "electoral reform."
I'll be voting for Ichud Le'umi
Just because it works in the humongously large, stable super-power, the United States, doesn't mean that it would be good for tiny and realistically threatened Israel.

To divide (a geographic area) into voting districts so as to give unfair advantage to one party in elections.

The Israeli Media Is Attempting To Make Sense Of Avigdor Lieberman's Popularity

It's rather humorous, actually. Suddenly the man they tried to avoid is the biggest news in the elections.

"What's important isn't the numbers, it's the trend.

• Parve isn't a leadership characteristic. It's a sign of weakness.
• The center is like a whirlpool, dragging everything into the deep to drown.
• A leader pulls us out of a morass and gives us a strong, positive, optimistic future.

I'm not voting for Lieberman; I neither trust nor support him, but he's showing the leadership the country is craving.

Polls are just polls, and elections, at least here in Israel, always provide later surprises. We never know how the politicians will behave once in office.

So, it all boils down to:

Yisrael, batach b'Hashem!

People of Israel, trust in G-d!

PS I'm voting Ichud Le'umi!

Elections are coming a week from tomorrow, and when we consider the above, it cannot be too soon. Dear Heaven, at the end of the day, may we find ourselves with leaders who will protect our nation. Briefly here: Polls continue to show Likud in the lead, by how much depends on which poll you are looking at. The biggest surprise is the gain by Yisrael Beitenu, the party of Avigdor Lieberman. The major candidates held a forum in Jerusalem on Motzei Shabbat (Saturday night). Benny Begin, representing Likud, was a disappointment, as he spoke only against Kadima and did not present a solid and coherent platform for Likud. One senses that Begin, who has a sterling reputation for integrity, is tired and will not be the force within the party that it was hoped he would be. The star of the evening, according to audience response, was Uri Bank, who is on the list for National Union (Ihud Leumi) and presented a forceful and dynamic vision of what the party stands for. This nationalist, Zionist party is the clearest in its refusal to consider a Palestinian state.

CBS's veteran news show, 60 Minutes, just had a program about Israel. They called it "Time Running Out For A Two-State Solution?" Thomas Friedman also wrote an op-ed with the same theme.

One thing I've learned is that whenever someone tries to sell you something that must be decided on, signed for "immediately, or..." it's something bad. And the sic "Two-State Solution" is worse than bad. It'll make the Arab Hamas terrorist missile attacks from Gush Katif look like Heaven.

Please look at these maps.

Please look again.

"It's not going to be easy. But this is the only solution," she replied. "But you know that there are settlers who say, 'We will fight. We will not leave. We will fight,'" Simon asked. "So this is the responsibility of the government and police to stop them. As simple as that. Israel is a state of law and order," Livni said.

The "only solution?" And what about "law and order?" Contrary to the Arab lies Bob Simon reported on his show, the Arabs build thousands of buildings all over Judea and Samaria without the need of permits and inspections. It's rare for the Israeli authorities to destroy unsafe, unapproved or Arab terrorist homes in Israeli cities, and when they do it takes months of complicated decision-making. The Arab mansions I photographed a couple of years ago are dwarfed by the new ones.

Some of you may expect me to cry, rant and rave about how Tsippi's plan would affect me personally, but I don't see it as a personal problem. I don't see it as a local Shiloh problem, nor a Shomron (Samaria) problem nor a Judea-Samaria problem.

Please look again at the maps.

It should be very clear that the establishment of an Arab terrorist state in Judea and Samaria would herald the destruction of the State of Israel, G-d forbid. That is the aim of the Arabs. Hamas, Fatah, Hizbullah etc all agree on it. They're all the same.

In May of 1967, Israel was a poor struggling country, suffering from Arab terrorism, when Egypt, Jordan and Syria began to threaten war. Egypt demanded that the United Nations remove its "peace-keeping forces," which had been in place to prevent war. The UN quickly fled. Egypt, Jordan and Syria bragged that they would destroy Israel and shove it "into the sea."

I remember all this. I wasn't a child at the time. And at the time, Israel only held parts of Jerusalem and none of Judea, Samaria, the Jordan Valley, the Golan Heights, nor Sinai and Gaza.

The present, the post-June, 1967, Six Days War violence against Israel is part of a long history of violence against Israel. It began long before Israel took possession of our Biblical, our historical Homeland. They never wanted us here and never will want us here. There is no possible compromise.

As I've said many times before, I'm a pragmatist. I'm not a dreamer. I look at the facts, at the map and at history. 60 Minutes is just a TV show. It didn't tell the truth. The Arabs who appeared on it didn't tell the truth, and Tsippi Livni didn't tell the truth either. The only one who spoke straight was Daniella Weiss.

The roads near French Hill, Jerusalem, have changed yet again. Not all that long ago I ranted about our loss the the combination bus stop and "trempiada," around the corner from French Hill. Now if you're coming from north of Jerusalem, like Shiloh, or even Pisgat Ze'ev and Neve Ya'akov, you have to take a very round-about way to French Hill. And if you're going by bus, you need an additional bus or walk further and through an Arab neighborhood.

Monday night was the opening of the Jerusalem Conference in the Hyatt Hotel, which is between French Hill and Mount Scopus and in what's considered an "Arab neighborhood." I've walked there from French Hill, and that was my plan. But the bus didn't stop across from French Hill. It took the bridge and left me off at Ammunition Hill, across from Ramat Eshkol, catty-corner from the "white statue," which isn't a Calder.

I was stuck with a dilemma. How could I go to the hotel? Walking through French Hill was no longer a reasonable option, due to distance and an "unpleasant" section of roadway. Walking up as it to the hospital would take a while, too. Taxis aren't in the budget of the unemployed, and there is a direct road straight to the hotel, but I've only seen Arabs walk there. I called my husband to ask, and he answered:

"Take the road by the statue."

"But it's full of Arabs."

"So, what could happen?"

"They could kill me."

"There are guards there for at one of the buildings."

I tried to get myself into a strong, confident posture and pace. They say that body language is a great defensive weapon. But really, an over-weight middle-aged behatted woman with a backpack strapped to my back, and a fanny-pack and camera strapped to my waist, I definitely didn't look very Arab. I looked like one of those crazy Jews from a sic "settlement."

The road felt very long. I was nervous about terrorists and being run over, since there wasn't a sidewalk. And I've already been run over by an Arab terrorist. I noticed the guard, and he noticed me, and soon I got to the end of the road, turned right and could already see the hotel.

Over the following two days, I took that route, again and again and again. This may not follow the Laws of Physics, but I am sure that it got shorter and even shorter. The last time I walked it, close to 2pm yesterday, it only seemed a couple of blocks long. And, no, it didn't sprout a sidewalk.

I'm glad that I walked it, because it is now the best way to get between French Hill and Ramat Eshkol. And I faced and conquered a fear.

Please believe me; it looked much more frightening in the dark!

Today I managed to attend a couple of sessions/panels at the Jerusalem Conference. I took notes, but this I'm writing from memory. It stood out, because it's a typical and fundamental flaw in Israeli thinking.
Please pray that G-d succeeds in planting true wisdom in our leaders.

Many politicians were included as speakers and panelists at the conference. Most plentiful were Likud MK's (Members of Knesset) and the wannabees, the "hopefuls" running on the list. They generally gave such good Right-wing speeches, you'd expect them to be in Ichud Le'umi.

Likud MK Silvan Shalom was one of the speakers in "The Threats Facing Israel and the West, Is There a “Clash of Civilizations?" I had missed Rabbi Gold's introductory remarks, but I was told that when Silvan Shalom criticized him, it was clear that MK Shalom had misunderstood the rabbi's words.

MK Shalom tried to prove that dangerous ideologies can be defeated by military means. I have no problem with that basic premise, just the example he gave. He described World War Two as nations uniting to fight the ideology of Nazism. That wasn't the situation. No country cared about internal Nazi ideology. They didn't care when Jews and other "undesirables according to Nazi ideology" lost their jobs, homes and lives. If Nazi Germany had just stayed in Germany, nobody would have gone to war. The European countries which were at war against Germany were in defense of their existence. They were fighting the German military, not the Nazi, pro-Aryan ideology.

No country, and that included the United States, went to war against Nazi Germany to save Jews. I have no doubt that the myth is believed by the vast majority of Israelis, and that's why they suffer the delusion that America is our friend and would save us, if necessary. This fundamental flaw endangers us. We must be strong, self-reliant and independent.

I also partially disagree with a later speaker, Maj. General (reserves) Yossi Peled past OC Northern Command, Candidate for Likud, who said that "unlike most every other country, Israel can't afford to lose even a single war."

True, G-d forbid, losing a war would mean the end of the State of Israel. But the Jewish People have been in existence for thousands of years, and we have suffered defeats and the destruction of our ancient country and independence. And as the world saw in 1948, we've come back to life.

If G-d forbid this modern country is destroyed, then in a hundred or a few hundred years, the Jewish People will try again and G-d willing finally get it right.

Please pray that G-d succeeds in planting true wisdom in our leaders.