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      The Eye of the Storm
      by Batya Medad
      A Unique Perspective by Batya Medad of Shiloh
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      Batya Medad made aliya from New York to Israel in 1970 and has been living in Shiloh since 1981. Recently she began organizing women's visits to Tel Shiloh for Psalms and prayers. (For more information, please email her.)  Batya is a newspaper and magazine columnist, a veteran jblogger and recently stopped EFL teaching.  She's also a wife, mother, grandmother, photographer and HolyLand hitchhiker, always seeing things from her own very unique perspective. For more of Batya's writings and photos, check out:

      Shiloh Musings

      And:

      me-ander


      Shevat 23, 5769, 2/17/2009

      Caveat Emptor! Buyer Beware!


      Who's Being Naive?


      Obama Naïveté at the U.N.   by Anne Bayefsky, has a very inaccurate title.  I don't think that she believes Obama to be naive in his decision that America attend Durban II which is expected to be even more anti-Semitic/anti-Israel than the first one.
      "In a major foreign-policy decision taken over the weekend, President Obama has decided to legitimize the United Nations’s “anti-racism” forum known as Durban II. State Department officials announced in a press release buried on Saturday, that starting today the United States will attend for the first time the preparatory meetings of this controversial U.N. conference. The “Durban Review Conference,” scheduled for April in Geneva, is the progenitor of the anti-semitic hatefest that took place in South Africa in early September 2001....
      But the Durban Declaration asserts that Palestinians are victims of Israeli racism. This is also the only country-specific accusation in a document purporting to address international racism and xenophobia. Regardless of the quantity of new vitriol in Durban II's final product, therefore, participation legitimizes the mantra of Israeli racism. What is new is that the new president of the United States doesn’t care about the U.N.’s reincarnation of ‘Zionism is racism’.The position is not only repugnant, but naïve. Evidently, American officials believe that an African-American president can climb into a U.N. anti-racism ring, throw his weight around, and the 56 member states of the Organization of the Islamic Conference will roll over and play dead. Or hard-liners like Ireland, Portugal, Switzerland, Norway and New Zealand, and developing countries like South Africa, will jump on a U.S.-led bandwagon...
      In truth, this Obama trip to the U.N. represents an abandonment of Israel. All his campaign promises to the contrary, sacrificing Israel for the sake of currying favor with others — demagogues included — is clearly at the top of the new president’s agenda.
      Israel asked Obama not to attend. Canada also pulled out of Durban II and expected American support. Instead, today’s American foreign policy leaves America’s closest ally and its biggest trading partner out in the cold.The speed at which President Obama is selling off American assets is breathtaking. The speed at which he is selling them out is even faster."
      I wonder if the Israeli movers and shakers, politicians and media have a clue as to Obama's real feelings towards Israel, our security and our legitimacy.As Israeli politicians wiggle and wrangle, trying to make deals, they're not paying attention to what's happening in the real world.

      The loony Left which dominates our politics and controls our media are totally smitten by the Obama bug.  I wonder if they'll ever realized that there's nothing benign in Barack Hussein Obama.  He said what he needed to say to get elected, and now he'll do what he wants.
      Shevat 22, 5769, 2/16/2009

      The Will of The People


      I have no way of knowing what's happening behid the scenes in the coalition negotiations, but my kishkes (gut feeling) tells me that it's no good.

      Following is a post from Shiloh Musings.

      The media keeps telling us that because Kadima got a few more votes, equaling one more Knesset seat than the Likud, it means that the people chose Tsippi Livni to be the next Prime Minister of Israel.

      The Israeli political system is not all that simplistic.  We have neither a two nor a three party "situation."  These big "winners," in Kadima got less than 25% of the popular vote!

      That is the truth.  There are one-hundred and twenty, yes 120, Knesset seats, so you need thirty to have one quarter of the Knesset.  And a majority, more than half, means a coalition of more than sixty.  Whether 27 or 28, that means that the "ruling party" will be less than half of the coalition.

      I'll start a new paragraph to give you time to digest it.

      The Israeli media is working overtime to promote little (she's tall in body, but obviously short in leadership qualities) Tsippi.  It's rather pathetic how hard the media has to struggle to make her seem like Prime Minister material.

      Bibi is more intelligent and has more grass-roots support, but he hasn't shown true leadership.  His disgusting maneuver to change the Likud primary results made him look like a mean cheat, not a true worthy leader.

      So, we're stuck between the devil and the deep blue sea.

      I find this Jerusalem Post survey very revealing.  Of course, the participating public was readers of the Jerusalem Post.


      Forming a new government won't be easy for either party, and if they manage something, it will be so top heavy and expensive with every MK and his/her mother as a Minister or Assistant Minister, "Volvos & driver plus."

      And if a government isn't formed, then we're stuck with Olmert for even longer, and we'll need new elections, which may have even less clear results.

      I've been taking a course in Matan about our ancient prophets, and it's horrifying to see the paralells today, thousands of years later. Hashem Ya'azor, G-d, please help us.
      Shevat 21, 5769, 2/15/2009

      Two Dimentional, Too Inaccurate


      As much as I love the Jerusalem Post's Ruthie Blum Leibowitz, she missed the biggest mistake in the media coverage of last week's Israeli elections.  All the talk in the media has been of Right and Left, even though the two largest parties, Kadima and Likud consider themselves Centrist.

      The tragic irony of it all is that the public is mostly Left or Right.  Center is a cop-out.

      In simple math that means:
      Bibi + Tsippi = no principles
      other than holding onto their seats

      At the recent Jerusalem Conference, we heard Left wing Ofer-Peenes complaining about the "sixty year olds" going into politics after retiring from their careers.  He insisted that  politics is a career in itself, and that just because someone is a specialist in another field doesn't mean that he should parachute into high office at the expense of career-politicians.

      Politicians who specialize in knowing how to get elected don't know bubkes about the real world.  Too bad that Bibi who does know history and economics has traded in that knowledge for election platitudes.  Pleasing the media and the world will only backfire.

      The world doesn't care what happens to Israel, just like the world didn't care when the Nazis were murdering the six million Jews in Europe.  Look at how the UN votes.

      We have to think of ourselves first, and that's it.  The Israeli Centrist politicians will only make things worse.  They don't provide leadership.  They just follow dangerous agendas.
      Shevat 19, 5769, 2/13/2009

      Chess or Poker?


      It's almost Shabbat and I don't have much time.

      It seems like the entire world is in suspense, wondering which Israeli party leader will succeed in forming a coalition.

      Bibi, Tsippi or Lieberman?
       

      Lieberman is playing a straight forward chess game. He made his move, spoke to the other two, heard their offers and stated his conditions. Then he went on vacation, hoping they would stew and come back with bigger and better offers. Everyone can see that.

       

      But maybe Bibi and Tsippi are playing a different game. They don't seem to be panicky, not at all.

      Maybe they're playing poker, and maybe they have a plan of their own.
       
      Rumors are flying that they did the math I did. If they make a deal, they don't need all that much help to form a government. Labor and NRP are ripe for the taking. Both veteran Israeli parties are struggling to survive. NRP's numbers are so borderline that they probably won't make it into the next election's Knesset unless it unites with a strong party.
       
      Just some food for thought...
       
      Shabbat Shalom u'Mevorach
      May you have a peaceful and blessed Shabbat.
      Shevat 17, 5769, 2/11/2009

      If Only Bibi Had Listened To Me...


      ... Bibi would have won.

      I wasn't really surprised by Bibi's failure to win big. Honestly, how many people like raw, unflavored tofu? How much satisfaction does one get from eating the bagel's hole? Bibi ran circles rather than giving the public solutions to our many problems.

      Avigdor Lieberman read the polls correctly. The people want the Right answers, not diplomatic plattitudes. The Israeli media electioneered consistently for Tsippi, trying to show her as fun, human and the person "everyone" really wanted. So the confirmed conformists voted for her instead of putting the Retirees back to work in the Knesset.

      Many of us who wanted straight, clear answers and principles voted for Ichud Le'umi.

      Of course, it didn't get the publicity, nor have a leader with the power and charisma of Lieberman.

      Election Day was stormy.

      We braved the weather and voted, thankful for every drop of rain.

      Now we must pray that those elected will be gifted with wisdom, G-d willing.
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