And don't think that it's only the foreign students who haven't a clue. Many native (non-immigrant) Israelis, born and educated here, have no idea. They know that Haifa is north of Tel Aviv and that Eilat is south of the rest of the country, but that's about it. They certainly don't know anything about the locations of Biblical Israel, cities like Shiloh.

People are always asking me where Shiloh is. And when some are confronted with שילה Shiloh, in writing, they pronounce it "Shilah," which shows that they hadn't learned the Bible at all.

Soldiers, also, don't always know where they are. I'll never forget, while waiting for a ride in Beit El, hearing one ask someone who was going to Jerusalem, if it passed Ariel. Besides showing a lack of general geography-knowledge, that's bad preparation by the army. The officers endanger the soldiers by neglecting to make sure they know the map of the country, including Judea and Samaria.

This map doesn't have all of the important places labeled, but I'll explain.  Ariel, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem are shown.  Beit El is next to Ramalla, just north of it.  Shiloh is north of the "h" in Ramallah, between Beit El and Ariel, but to the east of them.  "The Gush," Gush Etzion is south of Bethlehem.  Try to imagine this map transposed with the other map.  I hope that you know have a better idea, if you hadn't before.

I'll end this with one of my "pet peeves." When Israelis talk about "hamerkaz," the center of the country, they're referring to the Tel Aviv area. Now, it may be that I'm wrong, but Tel Aviv is on the coast, and the coast is the end, the border, by the sea, right? How can the coast be "the center?" Take a good look at the map. Shiloh is actually in the center. We're minutes, even walkable, to the Alon Road-Jordan Valley, a half hour to Jerusalem and Tzomet Yarkon (Yarkon Junction)-a couple of minutes from Petach Tikvah, and with the new toll Highway #6, you can get to the north or south of it in about an hour and a half or less.

That's why Joshua established Shiloh as religious and spiritual captital after entering the Land. Yes, Shiloh is the Center of Israel.

Let's See

SDEROT on Monopoly!

Sderot is not running against Jerusalem.  They are in different categories.  Jerusalem has already been nominated and is running against other famous world cities.  Sderot is now in the running as a "wildcard."  So, there's no excuse not to sign up and support them both.

A couple of things...

First David Landau is now former Editor-in Chief of Haaretz newspaper!

Could the kippah wearing journalist's dirty mouth be the cause of his job loss?

Second--

The "M" word.

Why does Yad Veshem refuse to use the word "murder" when saying how Jews died in the Holocaust?  Check the signs.  They all say that the Jews "perished," or in Hebrew, nispu.  That's the term used when an avalanche or flood, an act of G-d is the cause of human death.  Is anti-Semitism a natural condition?  an act of G-d?

Protest to Yad Veshem.  They never replied to my letters!

The Battle Cry Makes Me Nervous

Today didn't go as efficiently as I planned, but maybe the delays in my traveling to Jerusalem were for one reason and one reason only, to find myself in the middle of a demonstration. I was on my way to the Israeli Museum, and the bus wouldn't turn in. Considering that I had watied over 40 minutes for the #9, knowing I could have walked there in just over 20, I didn't appreciate the extra walk. But then I found myself approaching a demonstration. Yes, every normal citizen should be demonstrating against Olmert. What kind of Prime Minister refuses to attack those who constantly launch missles at innocent civilians?

The Arab terrorists have been bombing Sderot for years. The blitz couldn't have had been much worse. Finally, people are getting angry. Two brothers were seriously injured on Shabbat.

Then I passed a group of children leaving the scene. Not only did they shout, Olmert, Resign!!" but they also shouted:

"We want Gaydamak!"

That made me very nervous. People are so disgusted with the situation in the country and the inept, at best, politicians. Arkady Gaydamak has used his wealth to give the citizens of Sderot "vacations" from the war, while Olmert does nothing. The people of Sderot feel more secure asking Gaydamak for help, than asking the government.

I fear that our country is being set up for a dictatorship, G-d forbid. In a sense we have one already. That's the way the government of formed by those writing the original laws. I asked a lawyer who specializes in the Israeli Government about my idea of suing Olmert. I was shocked and horrified to learn that as Prime Minister he has a lot of leeway without being required to bring his proposals to Knesset. That doesn't include giving our land, Capital City, to another country. But he does have the legal right to make other promises, without due process, checks and balances, or any of the things I was taught in my New York Social Studies lessons. According to Israeli Law, if the Knesset members don't like it, they can vote him out. Of course, if they do that, they, too, may lose their jobs after new elections. That's why, as much as many of them rant and belly-ache about Olmert, Peretz, Barak and Livne, we're still stuck with them.

Also, the "electoral reform," which Olmert and Lieberman were touting is engineered to make an even "more stable government," meaning more power to the Prime Minister, making it even more difficult to get him out of office. District voting for Knesset Members won't make things any better, either. The most important "reform" would be a government with "Balance Of Powers," so no single branch, Executive, Judicial or Legislature could act without approval of the others.

I wouldn't bring in Gaydamak, but I agree that Olmert is not doing his job to defend and protect the State of Israel. His policies can only bring tragedy. G-d willing, Olmert will quickly resign and totally disappear from public and political life.

Here's the latest "Voices From Shiloh" which appears in Sharon Katz's "Voices."

I recently wrote about the IDF, and one of my Shiloh Musings readers asked a very important, crucial question in the comments.

"Are we supposed to be proud of serving in the army? Are we making it into a specific ideal in itself?"

"Our Jewish soldiers should be in the army to observe the mitzvah of pikuach nefesh and keeping Eretz Yisrael safe and Jewish.That's what every one of our soldiers must be focused on, and then it's totally a mitzvah, a mitzvah to be proud of. If the army punishes the good Jewish soldier, it has to be seen as among the "trials/challenges" of living a proper Torah life."

The Israeli Left-wing has been dealing with their dilemmas, the conflicts between their ideology and army orders, for a long time. They show no embarrassment at refusing orders and writing protest letters. The media support them, and the politicians adopt their ideas.

The women in the extreme left-wing Machsom Watch keep denying that their harassment of soldiers endangers the soldiers and innocent Jewish Israeli civilians. They proclaim their "superior morality," even when facts contradict them.

Now back to our soldiers, our husbands, sons, brothers, neighbors.

It is a great mitzvah to be a soldier, a Jewish soldier for the Land of Israel. Defending Jews and defending our Holy Land are a privilege. The more frum soldiers in the army, the more power Torah will have in the army. I'm not claiming it's easy.

Why should any of us expect that building a Jewish State should be easy? Building a Jewish State is hard. As the mother of five and a grandmother, I know that giving birth and raising children, as wonderful, thrilling and important as it is, easy it's not. When we become pregnant, our body definitely undergoes changes. For many women, even the monthly ovulation can cause obvious changes to the body. Some women are almost unrecognizable during pregnancy, and so many books and articles have been written about childbirth, there's no need for me to go into detail. But I'm sure you all know that the uterus must work terribly hard to expel the baby, and then… ahhh, a newborn baby is so sweet, soft and helpless. Then they begin growing and developing. I'm sure most of you have seen infants crawling enthusiastically, proudly and earnestly backwards.

The Jewish People are so smart about some things, but we're not too wise about ourselves. Remember the "Golden Calf?" Such a short time after G-d's miracles facilitated our exodus from Egypt; couldn't we give Moshe another few days to get down from the mountain? Did they all have such exact watches and "palms" to keep track of the time? It's perfectly legitimate for someone to be late, not that he actually was.

G-d forgave, OK, after Moshe used all his powers. Then there's the story of the "Meraglim," spies. They were la crème de la crème of the Hebrews, and ten out of twelve decided that they knew better than Moshe, even better than G-d. The majority voted against G-d and Moshe. So much for democracy! Joshua and Caleb were the only ones to insist that our People, with the help of G-d, could conquer the Land and live in peace.

• Our IDF soldiers must model themselves on Joshua and Caleb.
• They must be proud to be soldiers, because it's a great mitzvah.
• They must remember who the real Chief of Staff is.
• They must remember who gives the true rewards and punishments.

Yes, we need strong soldiers, strong in faith in G-d.