It's at times like this, a war/campaign/operation, when you see amateur journalists on blogs like mine competing with major mainstream media.  This blog is barely a tiny corner of the Arutz 7 enterprise, but Shiloh Musings is my very own news magazine.  When I started it over four years ago, it was mine and mine only.  But within a short period of time I realized that my individual voice wasn't enough, especially now.  Shiloh may be "the eye of the storm" in the big picture, but right now, I'm far from the crosshairs, bli eyin haraa.

That's why I've been asking others to blog on Shiloh Musings. Scroll through recent posts and you'll read of how ordinary people in the south of Israel are coping with the Operation Cast Lead war. English Teacher, Esther, of Netivot and the talented mother-daughter duo, Sara and Shifra of Nitzan, Disengagement DP's from Neve Dekalim. I also have reports by the well-known Anita Tucker, who's in the Ein Tzurim DP camp.

In addition, Ellen Horowitz, of the Golan, contributes hard-hitting expose`s and reports from the Christian world of missionaries and the Catholic Church's quest to take over Mount Zion.

I sincerely thank them for sharing their feelings and knowledge on Shiloh Musings. And I hope that the others who have blogging rights there will add their voices.

This blog, The Eye of The Storm, isn't updated as frequently--multiple posts daily, and I can't offer others the blogging rights they have on Shiloh Musings.  So, if you'd like to read more, please click Shiloh Musings.

Thanks

At least the enemy is treating it like a war and attacking on all fronts. Southern Israel is being blitzed by Arab terrorists who launch missiles at us.

Innocent Israeli civilians are being killed and injured, their homes damaged, their peace of mind destroyed.  Many of those in the crosshairs are Disengagement DP's, presently living in flimsy cardboard faux villas, creatively named by Kadima founders, "carravillas."  They are among those now blogging on Shiloh Musings.  I consider it a good contrast to my overwhelming cynicism concerning this Election Campaign War.

In other parts of the country, Arab terrorists are attacking civilians.

And Israel continues to shtopp the Gazans with food and other supplies.  Even worse, we're welcoming the wounded into our hospitals, instead of telling them and their families that they must pressure their leaders to end the terrorism. It's dangerous and perverse to be so kind to enemies. The Gazans supply the terrorists with supplies and recruits. The terrorists are Arabs, nor Martians.

This is no chess game. It's for real. The attitude of the government and media remind me of the days when war was a sport, entertainment and people would bring chairs and parasols to watch the battles.

The Arabs want to destroy us and they're not shy about saying so. The only effective defense is to destroy the the terrorists, their leaders and their supplies!

I blogged my joy on Shiloh Musings at the agreement between Hatikvah, Tekuma and other Land of Israel  faithful to run on a joint list, the renewed National Union,  in the upcoming Israeli Elections.  I sent out the link with, hint!  Hint! my phone number and an offer to help.  No call yet.
Just please don't ask me to bake cakes.

No, I'm not expecting to be the "female on the list." Who would vote for me?

In a small political party, anyone who thinks they deserve to run for Knesset should bring a nice big dowry  of supporters to vote for the party.

I've been involved in various Israeli political groups over the 38 plus years we're here in Israel.  When we were new off the boat, yes, literally, since we made aliyah by boat, my husband and I went to a young Cherut meetng.  That predated the Likud.  They went around the room listening to everyone's opinion.  I worked hard formulating my thought in Hebrew in my head, but they skipped me.  I was the only female there, and I guess they thought I was just a silent partner.

About a year later we heard of English-Speaking Cherut, so I joined that.  Nobody stoped me from talking, but they usually asked me what my husband thought.  The same questions were aked of my in English-speaking T'chiah, so I left politics for a number of years. 

But I never stopped observing it.  And in recent years, I blog about it.

Now I'd be very happy to get out the votes for the renewed National Union.  Just please don't ask me to bake cakes.

I'm pretty confident that none of you believe in Santa or the Tooth Fairy. But did you you get all weepy when reading that moving story of the little boy imprisoned during the Holocaust who was given an apple a day by a sweet little girl, and then they met up again in America and married? Well,add that to Rudolf and Santa's Elves. It's fake, too.

Another con is the Olmert-Livni-Barak Troika's war. No doubt that it will cause death and injury, just like a real one. But like the Olmert-Livni-Peretz war of two and a half years ago, it doesn't have a clear aim. It's not out to destroy our enemies, just get the troika elected. Olmert keeps stressing that he has nothing against the Pseudistinian people, just the terrorists, as if the terrorists came from Mars. That's why the Israeli government has been shtupping them with food like some nutty Yiddishe mamma.

And now I'd like to ask your opinion. What do you think of this picture?

I took it from last night's Jerusalem Post site. 

My orignal plan for this post was to discuss the repercussions of the Madoff con, the Ponzi scheme, financial scandal. I had just read of the suicide of Rene-Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet, who had lost over a billion dollars, not all of it even his. This may not be the first.

In the beginning of the movie Seabiscuit, the narrator explains that immediately after the Stock Market crashed
the creation of a logo for Nefesh B'Nefesh that inspired them to make aliyah
people didn't jump out the windows, it took a while for the reality to hit.  So, who knows what the final price will be?  That's why I nominated Bernie Madoff for the 2nd Annual Self-Hating Jew Award.

I see this like the ripples on the face of the water after a stone is thrown in.

Now, l'havdil, something very different,  I'd like to think of something good having that ripple effect.

Nefesh B'Nefesh is advertising a new logo contest.

It's for students, Grades 4-7, and I'd like to think that trying to create a logo for an organization that promotes aliyah, moving to Israel, will make a great, positive impression on these young children.  The "ripple effect" should inspire them to live here in our HolyLand.

I'd love to hear in five, ten, twenty years from now, olim chadashim, new immigrants to Israel, telling one and all that it was the creation of a logo for Nefesh B'Nefesh that inspired them to make aliyah.