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AddReply(343431,"IDF won\'t leave settlers \"behind\"","Y","Nitzan","09/15/08","The basic premise of TBs #1 and #2 that the IDF would move out of Hevron leaving the \"settlers\" behind is false.  The IDF would never leave a settlement or enclave of Jews \"behind\".  NOT  because of concern for the safety/welfare of the Jews but because of fear that the Jews, being left to fend for themselves would use normal (no \"purity of arms\" nonsense) defensive means against threatening arabs.  Jews, identified as holding Israeli citizenship,  killing scores of arabs is any Israeli government\'s worst nightmare; ok second to an attack on har habayit.  The Israeli govt. as a socialist thinking (govt. control of everying) won\'t leave a vacuum - certainly not one where Jews are left to do their own bidding.  This, by the way is why Medinat Yehudah will never come about in Yesh.  ");
AddReply(335913,"Dear Mike, (12)","Rob","usa ","08/24/08","The state of Israel is sacred, and a fulfilment of Prophecy! Don\'t worry so much.");
AddReply(335884,"re Pinner, Mike, Sk, WOW!","Rob","usa","08/23/08","Good stuff Guy\'s, good stuff !");
AddReply(335705,"how to define viable?","Velvel","silver spring","08/22/08","The word viable..... sk you used this in the context of the pre-state Yishuv.  in a way yes and in a way no.   Certain areas needed connections to certain other areas.   Roads in certain places were critical.   Once the fighting began (\"war\" or no \"war\" officially), the old city for instance was cut off to supply lines by the tyrant Arab nazis.   It could only last so long.   And indeed it was in time surrendered (after a few failed and convoluted military adventures attempted to salvage it), but before that surrender and in the days leading up, you basically had a herd of shell-shocked old city \"refugees\" the elderly, sick, weak? and maybe those just not willing/able to fight, herded into a big shul or two, nearly all starving as the rest of the population was out in the streets fighting against the Arabs who were bombarding and firing everywhere.  While supplies were cut off, food supplies steadily diminished, arms insufficient to keep the enemy at bay etc ....    Had it been connected with other locations, it could have been saved or been more realistically defended.   Then there were other areas not cut off from Tel Aviv highway or supply lines from elsewhere, where goods and supplies could be exchanged  - these were better defended, better nourished.. but not \"cut off\" or \"completely viable independently\"....   Trade between different areas and supply lines are necessary.   The only question will be not \"are the yesha locations completely viable independently and without any connection to medinat israel or without any help\" the question is, does this particular location in Yesha have a connection - whether in medinat israel or another settlement, such that they could be supplied and connected in a time of crisis, regardless of \"boundaries\" when exchange will be necessary - exchange of food, men, munitions, etc.....    I imply smuggling operations, bribery, all sorts of underground network that will not seek an ISOLATED settlement as the goal, but a defensible settlement with connections in the right places.  I think a completely self-sufficient small area is not practical or realistic.    various yesha settlements should be networked in a way that together they comprise a significant cooperation and with various inside tracks to Israel\'s resources... by hook or by crook... \n\nOf course if the Israeli bolsheviks come and take away all the weapons of settlers, they will have no way to defend themselves against the govt or the arabs....  I tend to agree with mike that Israeli govt will only refrain from that if they know it will have consequences to do such a thing.");
AddReply(335686,"Tired of #11 Tired.","sk","USA","08/22/08","I find a million crickets chirping the same thing, year after year, tiresome.  Naturally, then, readers who feel compelled to report that they are \"tired\" are extremely tiresome to me.\n\nNobody cares, #11, what amuses you.  But if you do have any ideas (which I doubt), feel free to share them.  I\'ll be sure to take them seriously enough to respond under my own pen name.\n\nThanks.");
AddReply(334752,"Yes, Daniel, they WILL disarm you","Mike","Vienna, VA","08/19/08","They will do it because they can do it with impunity.  You have not established any credible deterrence to such action.  And if, by some miracle, you are winning, they will send the IDF to aid the PA against those damned \"extremists\" who are the sole obstacle to peace.  They will do it because you have not established a credible deterrence.\n\nIn short, Daniel, the Israelis would rather appease Hamas than appease you because, in their minds, Hamas is dangerous and you are not.");
AddReply(334659,"Tired","","","08/19/08","I for one am tired of Vienna Mike\'s talkbacks. I thought he opened his own blog.");
AddReply(334589,"To #2: I would buy a plane ticket, Daniel.","Mike","Vienna, VA","08/19/08","But I doubt you would still be alive when the plane landed.  Your answers to SK tell me that you really DO NOT understand.  Of course, I will allow for the possibility of being pleasantly surprised, which is why I would indeed buy a plane ticket.");
AddReply(334502,"Reply to Daniel (6)","sk","USA","08/18/08","I do take Vienna Mike seriously, as I believe he knows plenty about military tactics and strategy.  I also observe that both the settlerfolk and the average Israeli seem unable to make their current ideas work very well.\n\n\"Is there any hamlet, village, town, city, or metropolis in the world that is viable, producing its own food, self-sufficient economy, fortified? If Nowheresville, South Carolina were isolated from the rest of the USA, how long would it survive? And what about LA or New York City? Come to that, how long would Italy survive if it were isolated from the rest of the world? Or Canada? Are all these places therefore \"suburbs\"?\"\n\nMaybe I misunderstand, but a strict reading of your position would mean that either (1) there ARE no suburbs or (2) every place is a suburb.  And yet, we seem to know what we have in mind when we use the term \"suburb\" in the US, which is my point of reference.\n\nIt is also true that there are MANY gatherings of people that, even in the 21st century, are nearly self-contained--until attacked from outside or until a government seizes their property or their persons.  They tend to be poor by our standards, granted.  Yes, modern cities thrive on trade, as do modern countries.  Standards of living go up as a result.  But it is just false to claim that these collectivities could not thrive without so many attachments.  Furthermore, your claim, strictly speaking, is incoherent.  After all, if no part of the world could be separated from the whole, how could the whole be sufficient?  In other words, if no subset of the world can be viable, how can the entirety be viable?  Or are you claiming that all lands, taken together, except for Nova Scottia would be unviable, but that the addition of Nova Scottia would make the world viable?\n\nPre-state Jewish Eretz Israel was viable, even though it was difficult to defend.  Yesha towns and settlements seem, in general, not to be viable--and I am not the only one saying this, as bloggers here have said it repeatedly.  Now, I do not think I am stretching definitions when I comment that a collection of people living in an area that doesn\'t have much of an indigenous economy is best classified as a \"suburb.\"  Certainly when collectivities are not recognized as permanent political units by the central government, they do not qualify as cities or towns, as these terms are used in the West.\n\nIn American history, we had real settlments, which had indigenous economies and a force dedicated to self-defense.  That is how the Indians were beaten.\n\nThe thing is, Daniel, that Yesha areas are dealing with their own \"Indians,\" known as \"Israelis.\"  That is why being nonviable is such a problem.  Nowheresville, SC, is not under seige by the state of SC, and that is why the comparison is inapt.\n\nNote that Nowheresville IS at risk of destruction by the state under certain circumstances--it need not be granted home rule.  Yesha collectivities seem mostly not even to be full suburbs, but more like unincorporated areas.\n\nAs for Hebron, I am glad that you can defend yourselves against the Arabs.  And when the holy state of Israel gives these Arabs more hardware, arrests you and maybe the other 4 Yeshites who are competent leaders, then how well will this defense go?  And don\'t tell me this isn\'t the Israeli style.  When missiles hit your small areas, what will you do?\n\nSorry, but I don\'t see any even potentially plausible plan except for Mike\'s.  I do not say this with pleasure.\n\n\"Why not come to Israel (or Yehudah) and be part of the solution, rather than giving advice (however well-meant) from thousands of miles away?\"\n\nWell, I am secular and do not feel compelled to live in Israel.  I do not feel the passion that would be necessary.  I have just enough passion to give advice from afar, though, which should be taken on its merits or lack of them.\n\nIn addition, I am so deeply discouraged by the pathologies of the people who now call themselves Israeli, and by the Tremblers who call themselves Jews, that I do not believe the state as a whole will survive, given the neighborhood.  This is an excellent reason for immediate travel to Israel, but not for living there.");
AddReply(333492," Every several months I have noticed","satch","UK ","08/14/08","diggings and artifacs are discovered proving the records are true as layers provide positive proof as earth is added to new areas of population as time passes and new villages are established.  I cringe when I hear of the arabs digging at the temple mount and hauling away many artifacs burried that aren\'t able to be retrieved nor identified--much to the muslim\'s advantage [destroy any evedence]  Hashem always leaves his evidence of existence throughout time, even Noah\'s ark on Mt Arrarat in Turkey to begin and many more things.  I believe the true ark of G-d has been found and resealed till the proper time and we cant see the forest for the trees as the addage goes.  We are living in the most remarkable time to be alive on planet earth and await a complete new dispensation coming upon us.  It doesn\'t promise muslim/arabs will start being truthful tho\'       [sry]");
AddReply(333003,"Fitness to rule the Jews","CDG","Yerushalayim","08/13/08","A good test of the legitimacy of anyone who makes statements and enforces laws concerning Hevron (and all other Jewish cities in Israel, for that matter) might be whether  and how much they can believably identify with our Jewish forefathers and -mothers. This includes the heads of our tribes, our prophets and teachers as well as those in Ma\'arat haMachpela. If they couldn\'t care less, they are not fit to rule us or enforce g\'zerot on us.\n\nI think most of us have had it \"up to here\" with our leaders\' denial of our roots here. They have \nproved themselves illegitimate to us and to haShem through their denial, and I believe the tide will turn against them soon. It will not be fashionable or even reasonable any longer to accept or condone any form of unfair treatment from them. They put on a good show now, but watch as the curtain falls suddenly on them.\n\nBe strengthened, and let\'s continue!");
AddReply(332369,"To #5, sk, USA","Daniel Pinner","Kfar Tapuach","08/11/08","I think you\'ve been taking our old friend Virginia Mike just a little bit too seriously.\n\nLet\'s briefly analyse your opening paragraph: \"We are regularly told that the suburbs (I mean settlements) are \"unviable.\" Are you suggesting that Hebron is different? Do you produce your own food? Do you have an economy that will not depend on the rest of Israel? Do you have fortifications?\"\n\nIs there any hamlet, village, town, city, or metropolis in the world that is viable, producing its own food, self-sufficient economy, fortified? If Nowheresville, South Carolina were isolated from the rest of the USA, how long would it survive? And what about LA or New York City? Come to that, how long would Italy survive if it were isolated from the rest of the world? Or Canada? Are all these places therefore \"suburbs\"?\n\nI really don\'t know how long Hebron and the Jews therein would survive if they were isolated from the rest of Israel. But having seen their resourcefulness, I suspect that Hebron would survive much longer than Tel Aviv under similar circumstances.\n\nFor sure, if Hebron with its approximately 1,000 Jews (plus another 7,000 in adjacent Kiryat Arba) and 250,000 Arabs were isolated and the residents (Jews & Arabs) started fighting it out, the Jews would certainly win.\n\nAs for separation between Medinat Yehudah and Medinat Israel - it\'s one possible scenario. We tried it once before, immediately after King Solomon died; the results weren\'t always entirely happy, but in Israel\'s current incarnation it is a possible solution.\n\nWhy not come to Israel (or Yehudah) and be part of the solution, rather than giving advice (however well-meant) from thousands of miles away?");
AddReply(331391,"Daniel Pinner (2)","sk","USA","08/07/08","We are regularly told that the suburbs (I mean settlements) are \"unviable.\"  Are you suggesting that Hebron is different?  Do you produce your own food?  Do you have an economy that will not depend on the rest of Israel?  Do you have fortifications?\n\nNaturally, do not tell me things that the enemy will benefit from hearing.\n\nI\'ll add this:  I\'ll bet I\'m not the only guy here in the US who would be happy to support a Jewish state in Eretz Israel.  You see, I think secular and religious Jews really should be separated, not by force, but by joint agreement.  Sure, there can be travel from Medinat Yehudah to Medinat Israel & back.  Clearly, though, THIS separation would benefit all Halachik Jews.\n\nBTW, I think we should stipulate that in exchange for American money, you have to take $has and the Lithuanian moneybags.  I\'d tar and feather both of \'em, but that\'s just me.");
AddReply(329985,"to 3 ","yby","israel","08/03/08","cause he is Jewhater of the tallest order who\'d like to exterminate any and all opposition to his definition of Jew hence he has nothing but criticism for those who dwell in Israel and perform mitzvot he himself is unwilling to do");
AddReply(329965,"V. Mike","","","08/02/08","Why is Vienna Mike always giving us \"musar\"?");
AddReply(329712,"To #1, Virginia Mike","Daniel Pinner","Kfar Tapuach","08/01/08","\"What will you do when the same Israeli scum who claim that the Cave of Machpela is Moslem pull the IDF out of Hebron?\", you ask.\n\nWell, the answer is simple: on that day we will begin to reclaim our holy site and to cleanse it of the spiritual impurity and the physical filth that currently pollute most of the area. Because on that day, the Arab-Moslem terrorists will lose their best-trained and best-armed defenders.\n\n(For the record, my guess is that many individual IDF soldiers will remain in a private capacity; the soldiers generally support the Jewish-Zionist enterprise and oppose terrorism.)\n\nOn the day that the Israelis who claim that the Cave of Machpela is Moslem pull the IDF out of Hebron, we - that is, those of us who care and are here on the ground - will begin the modern-day equivalent of Chanukkah. We will re-dedicate our Fathers\' and Mothers\' burial ground.\n\nAnd for me, the icing on the cake will be to watch Shimon Peres, Ahmadinejad, Peace Now, the Hamas, Gush Shalom, the UN, etc. going beserk and foaming at the mouth.\n\nThat is what we will do. And what will you, Mike, do on that day in Vienna,Virginia?");
AddReply(329617,"You stage children\'s plays and play games...","Mike","Vienna, VA","07/31/08","...while the Israelis plot your exterminatrion.  What will you do when the same Israeli scum who claim that the Cave of Machpela is Moslem pull the IDF out of Hebron?");

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