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. 

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.

This post has been re-written. I have been corresponding with Robert Katz. Please read this new version; it comes to different conclusions. Thank you

I didn't expect this.

A couple of minutes ago, after dinner and after washing the dishes, I returned to the computer to read the news. My husband had left the Ha'aretz English newspaper on the screen. And no, in this case Ha'aretz isn't the guilty party. I saw that there was an article saying that Rebbitzin Rivka Holtzberg, HaYa"D's parents are thinking of taking up their dead daughter's post in Mumbai.

Apparently the information was given by Rabbi Yitzchak David Grossman's fundraiser, Robert Katz. Rabbi Grossman was Rivka Holtzberg's uncle and he is the founder of the Migdal Ohr in Migdal Haemek.

Katz then said: "This couple wasn't living in the West Bank. They weren't settlers. They weren't occupying anyone's land. They were killed because they were Jews,  plain and simple."

-----

By now, we all know that Jews were murdered in in India, in Mumbai last week.  Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg,  and kashrus inspector Aryeh Leibish Teitelbaum and some not yet identified, Hashem Yinkom Damam.

Yes, in laid back peaceful India, the place Israelis and others go to escape the pressures of the real world.  Well, the real world is in India, too.

Since Thursday we had been praying for those Jewish hostages, and all others in danger, in the Chabad Nariman House in Mumbai.  Friday morning, Rosh Chodesh Kislev, we prayed for them at Tel Shiloh.  In my house, my husband and I had internet news coming out of India reporting anarchy, battles, attempts at rescue.  It was hard to cook and concentrate on anything.

Specially trained Israeli "emergency medics," from ZAKA arrived in India.  They were hoping to do first aid, but instead they protected the dead, the murdered Jews.

We didn't know any of the people, but our hearts are with their families and friends.

HaMakom Y'Nachem, May G-d Comfort the Mourners...

The Arabs' aim is to destroy Israel
We had some British Foreign Office people over this morning, and they weren't here to taste my cooking.
I'm a pragmatist
They weren't here to listen to me either, but.. I couldn't play Pat Nixon or Nancy Reagen if my life depended on it. I don't know how Michelle Obama's going to handle it. Hillary Clinton had a tough time.

I put out some teas and coffee and miss-matched cups and saucers. I couldn't decide if I should hide in the den, on this seat or be "sociable." So I got up and down, putting things away and trying not to show how bored I was. Finally in the choreography of the conversation I managed to get in a few words. I made it clear that nothing I said should reflect on my husband, since we don't agree on many issues. I also tend to "call a spade a spade" and don't let the fragence of the rose mask the truth.

"The Arabs' aim is to destroy Israel," I remeinded our visitors. "Nothing we give them or do for them will change their goal. It's important to listen to what they say and not to imagine, like John Lennon."

"Have you seen a map?" I asked them.  "Take a good look and tell me if Israel could survive with a terror state here.  I'm a pragmatist.  The only way Israel can survive is if we stop terrorism and cease encouraging the lie that there's another people in this area .

"You're a mother," I reminded the visitor from Great Britain.  "If a bully goes after your son, will you tell him to keep trying to buy the bully off, or will you make your son stronger and more confident?"

That's right.  I'm no dreamer.  I see things very clearly.  I'm a pragmatist.