Homophobia, Islamophobia and more nonsense

Shavuah Tov! Shabbat has just ended and it's time to blog.
Yours truely is honoured to be the subject of a post on another blog, however, this particular disertation is a ridiculous diatribe that accuses me of being a homophobe, islamophobe, an anti-semite (?) and a mean poopy head. Let's look at these claims one by one:
1) Anti-semite:
Bar Kochba wants the Jews in Israel to continue getting themselves killed under the retarded leadership of rich statesmen who send young men and women to die daily. Has the estimed Baron ever read my blog? Why would I, as a Jew, want other Jews to be killed? What I advocate is for Israel to harshly retaliate against its anti-semitic genocidal foes and wipe them out, thereby preventing more Jewish blood being spilled.
2) Homphobe:
What prompted this serious charge? A comment on a post about the "Pride" Parade parade. An abomination... So sad that people are perverting the holy gift of sexuality that G-d gave them. It's a Shame Parade is G-d's eyes. Hardly hateful... If saying that I oppose homosexual behaviour is hateful, the I guess that I must be a bigot. Homosexual behaviour is against the Torah, against Hashem and is absolutely immoral- pick up a Bible. I don't hate homosexuals though, because there is no such thing as a homosexual, just people who engage in homosexual activity. People are more than just their sexual preferences and gays are people, created in G-d's image, who unfortunately happen to pervert G-d's holy gift of sexuality. I stand by my comments. Homosexuality is wrong- the Torah is reason enough for me. Gays, though, are just people deserving compassion and guidance.
Here are some excellent sites:
- People Can Change
- Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality
- National Association for the Research and Treatment of Homosexuality
3) Islamophobe:
How many times do I have to repeat that not every single Muslim is a terrorist? Just like not every Jews keeps kosher, not every Muslim wages Jihad. If you claim that Jihad means 'internal spiritual struggly', fine, but the onus is on you to prove it. How did Osama bin Laden, Hamas, Ahmadinejad, get to be such Misunderstanders of Islam? What about Islam's violent past and violent Scriptures? Any Muslim who rejects Jihad and Islamic supremacism is fine by me and I welcome him in the fight against hatred and intolerance. These Muslims who feel that al-Qaeda is "hijacking" Islam need to stand up, denounce terror, and prove to other Muslims why al-Qaeda and Hamas are wrong theologically, using the Qur'an and the Ahadith. Denying that there is a problem will not solve anything and will not make jihadis go away.
I would love nothing better than for Israel to live in peace with its Muslims neighbours, for democracy and tolerance to flower throught the Dar-al-Islam. I believe that most Muslims women would like a life that does not begin with a clitorectomy and end with being stoned to death for being raped. The real Islamophobes are those who deny that there is any such basis for this in Islam, thereby allowing for the greatest of savageries to be perpetrated in Allah's name. Baron, you are the real Islamophobe as you would like for Muslims to continue to live in abject poverty, be raised in a culture that worships death and continue to be at the mercy of despots and dictators. There certainly is a flaw in the Islamic and Arabis cultures. It is no coincidence that the UN reported that more books are translated into Greek, which has 25 million speakers, each year than Arabic which has 400 million speakers. The UN also reported that more books are translated into Spanish each year that into Arabic in the past 1000 years. Clearly there is something deficient in this culture.
Baron, it is the easiest thing to call someone a bigot or a racist without listening to them. Please, listen and you might just learn something.

P.S. BHG, I'll respond to you tag later, I'm tired.

Parshat Balak- A Lonely Nation

From the Canadian Jewish news:

The United Nations Human Rights Council adopted by “consensus” a number of measures critics says unfairly target Israel and makes condemnation of the Jewish state a permanent feature of every future council meeting.

The measures will see Israel’s “human rights violations” placed on the agenda at all future council meeting – no other country is so treated – and will make permanent a special rapporteur to investigate Israeli human rights abuses. Ten other special rapporteurs have mandates that lapse and must be renewed.

The measures were part of a reform package that is meant to set out the mechanisms and procedures that will govern operation of the council, which was established a year ago to replace a largely discredited Commission on Human Rights.
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Why is condemnation of Israel a permanent feature of UN meetings? Why single out Israel rather than China, Saudi Arabia or Iran? Why is the world fixated on a little country that amounts to .000001% of the Earth's landmass? How come a little country in the Middle-East, whose people amount to such a small percent of the world's population, gets so much media attention?
Israel was created with the purpose of giving the Jewish People a state like every other nation. The secular Zionist ideal was a secular state, devoid of Torah and religion, which would be like every other people. Even today, Israel's elite is attempting to transform Israel into a country without Yiddishkeit, with a complete seperation of Church (or in this case Synagogue) and State. Israel's PM, Ehud Olmert, has repeatedly stress that Israel is fighting for its right to normalcy.
It is ironic that Israel tries so hard to fight in and "claim its spot among the nations" while the UN and the rest of the world continue to reject her. In order to please the Nations, Israel's leaders have given up Jewish land, allowed Jewish blood to be spilled, armed our enemies and declared war against those who keep G-d's Torah, by expelling and demonizing them. As Israel attempts to transform itself into a secular California on the Mediterranean, complete with pepperoni pizza, McDonalds and Gay Pride Parades, the Nations whom Israel tries to emulate continue to ostracize her. 'Maybe if we compromise some more or if we uproot the Jews from the West Bank, the world will accept us', Israel's secular leadership believe. 'All we have to do is give the Arabs more land, more rights, more concessions, there will be peace'.
The Jewish People are unique among all other peoples and the nations of the world know it. In the Mincha prayer for Shabbat, we say: "Who is like Your people Israel, a unique nation in the world?" We were not chosen by G-d to be like everyone else, to assimilate and to emulate the gentiles. Hashem did not bring us back to Israel after 2000 years of exile so that it should become a Western multicultural country or that we should fill it with nightclubs and Pride Parades. The nations know that we are different, something that we fail to comprehend. That is why the UN has devoted 45% of her condemnations to Israel. That is why Israel is singled out by anti-semites, even as they deny the Choseness and Uniqueness of Am Yisrael.
In this week's Parasha, the Children of Israel are getting ready to conquer the Land and they approach the borders of the land of Moab. The king of Moab, Balak, sends for the heathen soothsayer, Bilaam, that he should curse the children of Israel. When Bilaam attempts to curse G-d's people, he is unable to. G-d turns Bilaam's curse into a blessing. Bilaam climbed a mountain peak and say the camp of Israel. Amazed by the holiness and purity that he found there, a people completely immersed in Torah and mitzvot, and was in awe. How goodly are they tents, O Jacob, and thy dwellings, O Israel! He realized then, something that the Nations have always known, that we are am levada yishkon ubagoyim lo yitchashav- an people that dwells apart and among the nations is not reckoned.
G-d has other plans for us, a different destiny that that of the Nations, who also have their role in Hashem's plan. He has great things in store for us. Why should we run away from our Jewish destiny? The State of Israel was not created to be just another country, a secular paradise. As the Rav Kook, the father of religious Zionism wrote:
"A normal country is like a large insurance company. It is not the source of its citizen’s supreme joy. Ideals, which are the crowning glory of mankind, hover above a country and do not touch it.
“Not so a country founded on ideals and inherently based on the most lofty message. Such countries truly constitute their citizen’s greatest joy. Therefore, the State of Israel is truly the most supreme on the scale of joy, and it constitutes the foundation of G-d’s throne on earth. Its entire purpose is that G-d should be one and His name one, truly the greatest source of joy.” (see Orot 160). He wrote "The State of Israel is the foundation of G-d’s throne on earth.” How far have we strayed from this awesome task!
May Hashem send us real leaders who are not afraid of carrying out our Jewish destiny, Jewish leaders who will Sanctify G-d's Name in the world, by building a state based on Torah, holiness, justice and righteous. May we merit the day 'when Hashem will be King over the entire world and on that day, He will be One and His Name will be One.' Amen!

Defaming Ashkenazim

I've really had enough of anti-semites maligning Ashkenazim, European Jewry (I've had enough of them hating all Jews but they reserve a special hate for Ashkenazim). According to them, Ashkenazim are just white European invaders, unrelated to true Jews. Most of them are the descendants of the Khazars, a nomadic people that converted to Judaism, and as such have no place in the Middle-East but belong in Europe.
Time for a little family history:
Paternal Grandparents- from Dorahoi, Romania
Maternal Grandmother- father from Austria and mother from Birabijan, Russia
Maternal Grandfather- Spanish descent, his family has lived in Israel since the Spanish Inquisition, 8 generations ago. Actually, I'm related to one of the officials who signed Israel's Declaration of Independence, the Chief of Police, Bekhor Shalom Shitreet.
***
According to the hateful rhetoric of anti-semites, my paternal family and my maternal grandmother are simply Europeans and therefore less Jewish, if at all, than my Sephardic grandfather. This is one of the most oft repeated myths about Jews and Israel.
Why is this wrong?
1) Ashkenazim are not related to their European gentile neighbours and are more closely related to their Sephardic and Mizrahi (Spanish and Arab Jews) than Arabs and other semitic peoples are. The Ashkenazi genepool, actually, is not related at all to the Turkish genepool. This contradicts the claim that they are descendants of the Khazars. The most recent genetic research consists of obtaining DNA samples, and doing laboratory analysis and comparison of the DNA markers on the Y-chromosome -- which is passed from father to son, and on the mtDNA (mitrocondrial DNA) -- which is passed intact from mother to son and daughter.

"Despite their long-term residence in different countries and isolation from one another, most Jewish populations were not significantly different from one another at the genetic level. The results support the hypothesis that the paternal gene pools of Jewish communities from Europe, North Africa and the Middle East descended from a common Middle Eastern ancestral population, and suggest that most Jewish communities have remained relatively isolated from neighboring non-Jewish communities during and after the Diaspora."
(M.F. Hammer, Proc. Nat'l Academy of Science, May 9, 2000)

2)DNA and descent is not the most important thing. The Torah makes it very clear that very convert becomes a full fledged memeber of the Jewish nation, irregardless of their race or origin. King David's grandmother was a Moabite convert, Ruth, yet she merited tobe the ancestor of royalty. Her nationality is as unimportant as her hair colour.

The Jews today are the exact same Jews as in the Bible, whether they may originate from Poland, Russia, Germany, Morocco, Iraq, Ethiopia or even India. I put on tefilin each day; so did King David. I keep kosher just like our Father Abraham did. We celebrate the same holidays that Moses celebrated. In short, we are the descendants (genetically and spiritually) of the Biblical Hebrews and therefore G-d's promises to them are still valid. We Ashkenazim (I'm 3/4) are not European conquerors but are just as Jewish as Moses or King Solomon.
The most amazing thing, however, is that the Jewish people, despite all of their years of exile, retained its genetic identity, religion and culture. Even more amazing as that all of these different exiled communities have returned to Israel, together. Remember G-d's promise:

And God shall return your captivity and be merciful to you, and will return and gather you from all the nations whither God has scattered you. (Deuteronomy 30:3)

As the natural laws are set before Me, so shall the seed of Israel never cease from being a nation before Me, forever. (Jeremiah 31:36)

Israeli Films

This is the third year that I have gone to the Montreal Israeli Film festival. I've bought tickets to go see 6 shows throughout the week. Last night, I went to go see 2 amazing movies, Aviva Ahuvati (Aviva, My Love) and Shalosh Imahot, Three Mothers.
Here is a plot description from the Jerusalem Film Festival:
Aviva Ahuvati:
Aviva, a hard-working hotel cook in the small northern Israeli town of Tiberias, is on the brink of finally fulfilling her lifelong dream. For years she kept her remarkable writing abilities under wraps, until her sister, Anita, introduces her to Oded, an accomplished novelist. Immediately recognizing Aviva's talent, Oded takes her under his wing, promising to help her achieve greatness. But the journey to greatness effects her life and the lives of her family - her unemployed husband, her trouble children, her unstable mother, and primarily her sister, a funny and sensitive woman who have her own dreams. When Aviva discovered that Oded has other plans for her work, her world collapses.

Shalosh Imahot:
Rose, Flora and Yasmin were born as a triplet sixty something years ago in Alexandria, Egypt. Their well-off parents gave them names of flowers, and King Farouk of Egypt gave them his blessing. Today, in Israel, they live together in an apartment without men and without children. Flora has just retired from her work as a midwife, Yasmin awaits a kidney transplant, and Rose, once a successful singer, is wrapped in silence since the death of her husband. One after the other, the three sisters come to "This is your life," a place where people recount their memoirs, in order to tell their life story to Rucha (Rachel), Rose's only daughter, and talk about their symbiotic relationship. They are also searching for the long lost son of one of them who was given away for adoption under mysterious circumstances. During this period their lives and that of Rucha will change dramatically. Hidden ghosts will slowly appear, forcing the three sisters to confront the secrets and lies, and seek forgiveness. At the end of the journey into the past, after they redeem themselves, the sisters will embark on a new journey, to Alexandria, where Yasmin will undergo her kidney transplant and Rucha, who regained her own memories, will be able to start a new life.
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These are two fantastic movies and they both won awards in Israel and internationally, at the Cannes festival in Paris. I'm going back tonight to go see 2 more. I'll tell you about it afterwards. I would highly recommend these two movies if you can see them somehow.

Academics for Dhimmitude

Here are the Anti-Defamation League's ads against the British academic boycott of Israel. It bears repeating that while criticism of Israel is not necessarily anti-semitic (all democracies must be criticized to keep them in check), demonizing Israel and holding her to a double standard is pure antisemitism.

Secular Fanatics

Here is a great article by Rabbi Shmuel Boteach, from the Jerusalem Post. He writes about his debate with world-famous atheist Richard Dawkins. Dawkin's contempt of faith has led him on a secular crusade to missionize his scientific Truth. One question for Dawkins to ponder: Would the world be a better place if people sought comfort in the words of The G-d Delusion, or Christopher Hitchen's G-d is not Great, rather than the Torah?

From the Jerusalem Post:

I participated in two debates this week, and between them learned a great deal about the nature of science and religion in our time. The first debate, on the subject of religion, was with Richard Dawkins, the famous evolutionary biologist and atheist, in Toronto. The second, in New York, was with a leading Jewish-Christian missionary on whether Jesus died for our sins.

What startled me was how, in the religion debate, although my adversary and I challenged each other's most sacredly held beliefs, there was no offense taken on either side. Less so was there any acrimony directed toward me from the approximately 1000 Christians who were in the audience. Religious people are by now so used to having their faith challenged that being on the defensive is no big deal.

Not so science, which has enjoyed hegemony for so long that it has become its own orthodoxy and dare never be questioned, as the following experience demonstrates.

I had already either directly participated in or moderated five previous debates that featured Richard Dawkins, the Oxford Professor of the Public Understanding of Science. Through the debates, Dawkins and I had become friends and he even attended Shabbat lunch at my home in Oxford.

But the warmth of our former relationship was not in evidence as we sat waiting to be called to speak at the Idea City Convention at the University of Toronto. I detected a hardening in Dawkins' position and perhaps an inability to distinguish between religion and religious people, such that his disdain for the former led to his contempt for the latter.

DAWKINS BEGAN by arguing that he did not care whether or not religion had any positive social advantages. The only thing that mattered was whether not it was true. And it was his firm belief that religion was a canard. He was therefore inspired to crusade against it. He proceeded to argue for the logical and mathematical impossibility of God's existence and the truth of evolution.

When it was my turn I began by questioning Dawkins' point on his humanitarian crusade to awaken the world to the lie that is religion. Why, I asked, was religion the only "lie" that seemed to bother Dawkins. After all, he is an Englishman and lives in a country that promotes the "lie" that one human being is born royal while another is born ordinary.

Surely, as part of a modern egalitarian society that rejects the divine right of kings, Dawkins ought to be inveighing as much against the British royal family as he does against vicars, rabbis, and priests! Unless, of course, he has decided that, even though the idea of royalty is a fictitious man-made construct, it was OK to keep it around given that it is a thousand-year-old British tradition and has positive social value.

But religion is more than a useful myth. For me, my faith is true. I believe that God created the world. And yes, I said, I understood that modern science replaced creation with evolution. But the theory still had much explaining to do and many holes to fill.

I mentioned that I had participated in debated evolution with prominent evolutionary theorists, such as the late Prof. John Maynard-Smith of the University of Sussex at Brighton. In those debates, in the same way that the scientists who participated raised reasonable objections to religion, the other side had raised reasonable objections to evolution.

There are massive inconsistencies in the theory of evolution, which is why it remains just that - a theory. Foremost among these unresolved issues is, first, how evolution contradicts the second law of thermodynamics, the law of entropy increase.

Second, genetic mutation, the very engine of modern neo-Darwinism, is almost always catastrophically destructive to an organism, which severely challenges the notion that mutation with natural selection ultimately leads to higher complexity.

Third, after 140 years of digging up the earth, there still remain enormous holes in the fossil record, the missing links that account for tens of millions of years of evolution, which is why many leading paleontologists, most notably the late Stephen Jay Gould of Harvard, argued for punctuated equilibrium - giant leaps - in evolutionary development, rather than the slow and gradual ascent argued for by scientists like Dawkins.

Indeed, Darwin makes it clear in The Origin of Species that evolution was not developed as a theory to explain the origin of life but as a theory to explain the fossil record. Thus, the theory had to accord with existing fossil finds.

I mentioned that, from my experience, scientists responded to these objections by saying that, given sufficient time, all evolutionary obstacles could be surmounted. Billions and billions of years of accidental evolution could surmount the seemingly impossible mathematical odds that complexity and life could evolve from an amorphous cosmic soup.

Yes, mutations are nearly all harmful and life-threatening. But with infinite time enough of the beneficial variety could still be had. And with more time the missing fossils links will finally be found.

So, I concluded, what separates religion and science is seemingly semantics. What religion calls God science calls time.

For scientists, time had an almost divine quality and could provide for the miraculous materialization of near mathematical impossibility.

WHEN I finished, I received a warm ovation from the audience, that is, until I alighted from the stage. I was immediately set upon by an angry, world-famous physicist who told me that evolution was a fact and could not be questioned. I responded that I was not denying it was so, but rather thought it was the purpose of science to question everything.

A few reporters watched our exchange. One told me that it seemed that he had witnessed a role reversal. He would have expected the religious person to say that faith could not be questioned.

A few hours later, at a cocktail reception, a Harvard professor of physics and I were having a pleasant conversation. She suddenly interjected, "I find it curious that someone as smart as you does not believe in unaided evolution."

I thanked her for her backhanded compliment and told her, "Imagine if I said to you, 'I find it curious that someone as smart as you doesn't believe in God. You would probably think that I was a close-minded, condescending, ideologue."

Albert Einstein once commented on the co-existence of faith and reason by saying, "Science without religion is blind; religion without science is lame." But in our time, many scientists who harbor an unreasonable objection to faith are making science into a new religion.
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The Fakestinians

A few questions that everyone who claims to support "Palestinian" statehood should answer:
1) Who was the leader of the Palestinians before Arafat, may his memory be accursed?
2) What was the currency of Palestine before the Jews stole it?
3) Jerusalem was the capital of which Palestinian empire?
4) Which Palestinian kings are buried in Jerusalem?
5) What are some of the technological advances that the world owes the Palestinians?
6) What are some of the cultural gifts of Palestine?

Don't worry if you can't answer any of the questions; you weren't asleep during World History during high school. The "Palestinians" are a made up people who only came to exist after Israel's liberation of Judea and Samaria in '67. When they were OCCUPIED by the Jordanians and Egyptians, they never seemed to raise even a nationalistc peep. Palestine never had a currency because there was never a such country as Palestine. The name Palestine was coined by the Romans in honour of one of the biblical inhabitants of the Land, the Philistines, in, ironically, an attempt to remove the Jewish connection to Eretz Yisrael. Jerusalem was never the capital of a Palestinian empire, which never existed. It was always a backwater, neglected city when under the Arabs. It was never the capital of any Arab or Muslim empire. The only kings buried in Jerusalem and Israel are Jewish kings: King David, Solomon...
In reality, there is absolutely no difference linguistically, culturally and religiously between an Arab in Cairo, Damscus and "Palestine" because the Fakestinians have no history, no past and are simply an articial entity created to demonize Israel.

I'm outraged, again!

Off the top of my head, these are some recent events which caused Muslims to riot, be outraged and get offended. Feel free to add others if I have forgotten:
- Salman Rushdie being knighted
- The Pope quoting a 500-year old text which suggested that there is a connection between Islam and violent; Muslims proved him wrong by shooting an Italian nun in Somalia and firebombing churches in Gaza
- The infamous Muhammad cartoons
- A German production of Idomeneo which featured Muhammad's severed head
- A Quebec town, Herouxville, signing a constitution outlawing stoning woman and burning them alive, among other things
Here's a list of some things that have never seemed to upset Muslims much, despite the clear "hijacking" and "distortion" of their faith:
- Flying planes into skyscrapers and murdering over 2000 innocent people
- Blowing up London buses and metros
- Blowing up Madrid trains
- Launching rockets on Sderot
- Arab Muslims murdering over 400 000 Black Muslims in Darfur
The list simply goes on and on. Muslims, my message to you is very clear:
Shut the hell up! If you're not going to protest the "distortion" of your faith by terrorists and murderers, and will not raise our voice against the hatred being perpetrated in the name of Allah, shut up. There are far more important things than the Queen of England knighting (what does that even mean today?) an author who wrote a book about an embarrassing event in the Qur'an. How about speaking up against the constand bombardment of Sderot for example, or the genocide in Darfur? Maybe you're just too offended to protest...

The War of Gog and Magog

I know that this video is long, 45 minutes, but please, it is well worth it. This is the most inspirational and insightful video that I have seen in a very long time.
"BaYom Hahu Yehiyeh Adonai Echad Ushmo Echad"- On that day, Hashem will be One and His name will be One!

There is nothing new under the sun...

From Times Online:

ISRAEL’s new defence minister Ehud Barak is planning an attack on Gaza within weeks to crush the Hamas militants who have seized power there. According to senior Israeli military sources, the plan calls for 20,000 troops to destroy much of Hamas’s military capability in days.

The raid would be triggered by Hamas rocket attacks against Israel or a resumption of suicide bombings.

Barak, who is expected to become defence minister tomorrow, has already demanded detailed plans to deploy two armoured divisions and an infantry division, accompanied by assault drones and F-16 jets, against Hamas.

A source close to Barak said that Israel could not tolerate an aggressive “Hamastan” on its border and an attack seemed unavoidable.

“The question is not if but how and when,” he said.
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Barak, if he continues to follow the same strategy that Israel has always followed, will accomplish nothing. Israel will invade Gaza and destroy some terrorist bases and bomb-making facilities. Israel will send its soldiers to fight door-to-door like in did during Operation Defensive Shield, so that "innocent" Palestinian civilians will not get hurt and, G-d forbid, Israeli soldiers will be killed. After a little while in Gaza, Israel will leave and the destructive cycle will start again.
It is absolutely useless for Israel to go into Gaza if it does not expel the hostile Arabs and resettle Gush Katif. Unfortunately, the Israeli army is ruled by the dangreous Western belief of "turn the other cheek" and will do all in its power to protect hostile civilians at the risk of Jewish soldiers. Before Israel does anything, it has to rid itself of the perverted Western Christian ideology that guides its foreign policy and adopt Jewish values. A true Jewish value is the Talmudic dictum that one who is merciful to the cruel will end up being cruel to the merciful.
From our Sages (Tanchuma, Shoftim 15): "When you go forth against your enemies" (Deut. 20:1) What do the words 'against your enemies' add? G-d said, "Go forth against them as enemies. Show them no mercy, just as they show you none."
There is only one solution to the Gaza conflict and it does not involve repeatedly invading, pinpointing and killing only terrorist leaders and then simply leaving. During WWII, the West didn't content itself to simply finding Hitler and his henchmen. The US and Britain bombed and wiped out entire cities. Well, during WWII, the US was a continent away from the enemy. Israel's enemy is right next door, a rocket's distance away from its national airport. The only solution is to drive out our enemies, through expulsion and carpet bombings, and to settle the entire Land. This is a Milchemet Mitzvah- Commanded War. For the sake of our future in Israel, we must not show mercy to out enemies.
Chazak Ve'Ematz Ki Ata Tanchil- Be strong and courageoues because you will win!

A Ceasefire with Hashem

Will there a war this summer? It's out of our control. The only thiing that we can control is ourselves, whether or not to do tshuva. The rest is up to Hashem.

We can all strengthen our Torah commitment. Here are some suggestions:

-Torah study

- Pray Tehillim (Psalms). Say a special prayer for the State of Israel and the soldiers of the IDF.

-Charity and acts of kindness: Put a coin in a charity box, give a gift of money to a fellow in need or to a charitable cause, or extend a helping hand to someone who needs it.

-Tefillin: If you already put on tefillin every day, encourage a friend to do so. If you don't yet, now is a good time to start! The Lubavitcher Rebbe taught that in the merit of the mitzvah of tefillin, "all the nations of the world will see that the name of G-d is called upon you, and they will fear you" (Deuteronomy 28:10).


-Mezuzah: If you don't yet have a mezuzah get one now! As our Sages have said: "A human king sits inside his palace and his servants guard him from the outside. But you sleep on your beds, and G-d guards you (i.e. through the Mezuzah on your doorposts) from the outside."

- Light Shabbos Candles: 18 minutes before sunset on Friday night, light shabbat candles and say a prayer for peace and strength. G-d promises the Jewish People that this simple act will usher the era of global peace: “When you will observe the lights of Shabbat, I will reveal to you the lights of Zion.” —Yalkut Shimoni


For non-Jews, accept the 7 Noahide commandments that Hashem gave to all of the Nations of the World. They are:
1. Don't worship idols G-d runs the world. He is an Absolute Unity and does not have any equals.
2. Don't Blaspheme Hashem's your Creator, respect him.
3. Do not murder Human life is precious. If only our enemies understood that...
4. Do not steal Respect other people's belongings and rights.
5. Don't be sexually immoral That means no casual sex, beastiality, homosexuality...
6. Don't eat limbs from live animals That essentially translates into an injunction against animal cruelty.
7. Establish courts of justice Help build a more just and righteous world.

You can find out more at http://www.asknoah.org or http://www.noahide.org

Hashem only chastises those whom He loves. He wants us to return to Him. Don't disapoint him.

Do Teshuva. Bring Moshiach Now!

Good Luck

I would like to wish both Fatah and Hamas hatzlacha rabba, good luck. Go get 'em tiger!

Death to Zionists- not Jews

I guess Hamas has mastered the art of doublespeak and denial that many other anti-Zionists have, including our own occasionnal commenting Judeophobe. Obviously hating the Jewish State and supporting those who murder Jews indiscriminately doens't make you an anti-semite...

Behold Palestine

From Israel National News:

In a pitched gun battle in Gaza on Tuesday night at least 21 members of rival Arab militias were killed. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that Israel was not going to get involved in the Palestinian Authority's civil war, which he described as being "between pragmatic and extremist Palestinian forces."

PA sources said that 11 of the dead from the most recent clash were members of the Islamist Hamas terror organization, while the other 10 belonged to PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's veteran Fatah terror organization. The battle broke out in Jabaliya Tuesday night as armed Hamas and Fatah members vied for control of a local building belonging to an official PA militia.

With the latest carnage in Jabaliya, the number of fatalities in the last 24 hours of PA internecine fighting rose to at least 43. Senior terrorists in both Hamas and Fatah said Tuesday that their loyalists are prepared for an all-out war for control of the PA.

PA Chairman Abbas (Abu Mazen) characterized the series of violent clashes between Hamas and his own Fatah militias as "an attempted coup." The Fatah-run Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades went on high alert, with the leadership calling on all members to go out into the Gaza streets armed and prepared to challenge gunmen from the Hamas.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Tuesday, "The situation in Gaza is worrisome and problematic insofar as the ability of the pragmatic forces in the Palestinian Authority to withstand the activities of the extremist forces." He made the comments during a meeting with Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen. Olmert went on to explain that he sees the potential fall of Gaza into the hands of Hamas as an event with regional repercussions.

"Israel defends itself and will defend itself and its citizenry from any aggression by terrorist organizations, as it deems necessary. We cannot enter the Gaza Strip in order to fight the battle of the Palestinian pragmatic forces against the extremist forces," the Prime Minister added.

Earlier today, the "pragmatic forces" of Fatah, as Olmert called them, issued a threat to exterminate the entire Hamas membership in Judea and Samaria. A spokesman for the Fatah's Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades, Abu Udai, declared to the Bethlehem-based Ma'an news agency, "If the Hamas movement continues to assassinate Fatah activists in the Gaza Strip - as it killed the northern Gaza Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades commander Jamal Abu Al-Jidian and his family - then we will wipe out the entire leadership and all the activists of Hamas in the West Bank."
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In the summer of 2005, PM Ariel Sharon expelled 7000 Jews from their nads in a unilateral disengagement from the Gaza strip. The move was supposed to be a concession for peace. The Palestinians returned the favour with rockets, suicide attacks and kidnappings. Behold the Palestine that the Quartet, Bush and Condie want to create. Behold a state in ruins, its "political" parties busy killing each other. The Palestinians were given another chance for a state and since 2005, they have had a de-facto Palestinian country in Gaza, free from any Israeli "Occupation" or interference. If they would have wanted, they could have shown the world how they deserve a state, how they would build a peaceful democratic society. Instead, they have continued in their hatred and murder. They are busy fighting a civil war and issuing fatwas against the other while they could be sitting down in peace talks with Israel. Olmert, along with his Quarter puppet-masters, wants to give the rest of Judea and Samaria to the Palestinians, this time evicting 100 000 Jews! Look how well trusting the Arabs with their own state went last time. Every single Arab country in the world is a dictatorship, a repressive autocracy. All of them are bases for jihad and murder, whether they are secular tyrannies or a mullahocracy. They are all full of hatred towards Infidels, Jews and Christians. Is there any reason to believe that Palesitne will somehow be a liberal democracy or will be magically transformed into Switzerland? Behold Palestine! A run-down, backwater, murderous hide-out for terrorists and other jihadist scum. This is what Olmert, the US, the EU and the UN want for Judea and Samaria- terrorist camps where productive Jewish settlements now stand. Behold the failed experiment of a Palestinian state! Let's not let that travesty occupy any more of Eretz Yisrael.

Thank Allah for Wafa Sultan

If an Arab has the courage to say this, why can't Jews and Christians be so open?