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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


      Kislev 12, 5769, 12/9/2008

      Likud Primaries--The Nightmares



      G-d willing the winners will serve the country well
      The Likud didn't want certain people voting in the primaries. It's obvious. For sure they didn't want paid members who live in areas with Feiglin supporters to vote.  They made things as difficult as possible.

      Look at the crowds. We, in Shiloh were lucky. We live here. It was the regional voting station for an area that includes not only the "Shiloh block" of Shiloh, Eli, Maale Levona and the hilltops. There wasn't a polling station in Ofra, or Tapuach or Kochav Hashachar, well to the southeast of us.

      People I know from all those places came here to vote.


      "So, what?", you may say. They can get to Shiloh in 15-20 minutes. But I left out something. Voting was computerized, and...

      ... there was only one computer.
       
      People waited for hours to vote, no exaggeration. To make a bad situation worse, many weren't fully prepared with their lists of numbers. The instructional posters, which were supposed to be part of the polling station "kit" weren't there.  The people manning the station told me that they hadn't received them, and it had never occurred to them to just print off lists, so the waiting voters would know what to do. 
       
      On the computer screen there weren't any names, just 250 numbers on the screen, like those memory games. "Click two and see if the same picture shows on both." The voting station staff said that I voted the quickest. Of course, they don't have any idea how long it took me to decide whom to vote for. I consulted with all sorts of people. But I did my "prep" on my own time, before I went to vote.
       
       
      G-d willing the winners will serve the country well, lots better than I fear they will.


      Kislev 10, 5769, 12/7/2008

      You Won't Find These In The Mainstream Media


      Every week, a compilation of blog posts is published on the web, Havel Havelim.  The vast majority of posts are from small, less well-known blogs, but the thoughts behind the posts are sometimes very great and impressive. 

      Havel Havelim has been in existence for years.  This week's is #194!

      I call it "a floating internet magazine."  It includes news you won't find any place else, opinion, Jewish Thought, Humor and lots more.

      Enough with the suspense.  Yes, I'm the host of this week's edition and it can be found on both Shiloh Musings and me-ander.  So, get comfortable and start reading.


      Kislev 8, 5769, 12/5/2008

      How Can The Kids Learn Respect?


      This is also posted on Shiloh Musings, but there I have pictures.  Arutz 7 has enough disturbing photos and videos of what transpired in Hebron.
      How can the kids learn respect when the government treats them as enemies?

      I grew up in America, in the 1950's, a very calm, optimistic, even boring time. It was pretty easy to teach us to respect authority, because in most places authority was benign.

      Today's Israeli teens, especially those who try to follow the Torah, Jewish Law, see a very different government, military establishment.

      Kids see things in black and white, and it looks very black.

      The Israeli Government treats those who promote Jewish Rights in Eretz Yisrael, the Land of Israel, as enemies.

      The government and military use force they wouldn't dare use against Arabs. The Israeli Judicial isn't interested in promoting even equal rights for Jews.
       
      How can the kids learn respect when the government treats them as enemies?
       
      Refuah Shleimah
      A complete recovery
      to all those injured by the armed forces
      police, border guards, soldiers
      While Protecting Jewish Rights
      To Live In Hebron!


      Kislev 7, 5769, 12/4/2008

      The Phone Hasn't Stopped Ringing



      I don't listen to the messages on the phone.
      You'd think I was popular with all the calls I'm getting.  It's even worse than the "friends" on those internet "social" networks.  These people make no efforts to listen to me or read my opinions.  It's all technology.

      The calls are from people who want to be Members of Knesset from the Likud.  Many years ago we signed up as members of the Likud.  I think that getting out of the deal is harder than leaving a Cathoic marriage, at least the type which existed in the days when they prayed in Latin and ate fish on Thursday or was it Friday.  The Likud is going to have Primaries, and since the polls predict lots of seats, all sorts of people have suddenly decided that they are loyal Likudniks and deserve to be in Knesset and make our laws etc.

      In the olden days, predating Likud, when it was Cherut or Gachal, not all Israelis had phones in their homes, and computers were those enormous things we read about.  The closest thing to a cellphone was the spy gadget, like the "shoe phone" in Get Smart.  So, in those days, we'd just go to the Cherut office in downtown Jerusalem and get a list to copy from a Lechi hero whom we trusted.  It told us whom to vote for.  Don't worry.  I didn't follow it religiously.  I first searched out the few female names on the actual list of wannabees and then crossed off the same number from the recommended.  And then I voted for the rest according to the special list. Since I hadn't the vaguest idea who all those people were, it made no difference to me.

      Now things have  changed.  Some people are sending recommended lists via email.  Wannabees record messages which are sent via the telephone.  Also, now I know that I can't trust anybody.  It doesn't matter what they say now.  It doesn't matter what they promise.  And now I know more about them, and there are some I don't want to see in the Knesset.

      I don't listen to the messages on the phone.  They're just ads, meaningless words. 



      Kislev 6, 5769, 12/3/2008

      Chicken Little, Mortars Falling!


      Is this a Chicken Little story?

      Or does "mortar fall" rhyme with "water fall?"

      a natural wonder

      Did the mortar which very seriously injured Elyasaf ben Nurit just fall?  Our enemies are trying to destroy us.  One thing for sure.  We need a lot more than "wishing" and "make believe" to protect us.