Saturday 13 June 2009

Israel Matzav: Riots in Tehran

Riots in Tehran

There are riots in the streets of Tehran tonight after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was 're-elected' yesterday. The government announced this morning that Ahamdinejad had won yesterday's election, even though all the polls showed otherwise.

I have a couple of videotapes for you. Here's the 'victor' speaking to the Iranian people on television after the election results were announced.
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Israel Matzav: Riots in Tehran

Israel Matzav: 'I have been in love with the 'Palestinian people' for many years'

Israel Matzav: 'I have been in love with the 'Palestinian people' for many years'

Israel Matzav: Krauthammer: Obama's transcultural evenhandedness

Israel Matzav: Krauthammer: Obama's transcultural evenhandedness

Israel Matzav: James Jones on the way out?

Israel Matzav: James Jones on the way out?

Israel Matzav: Why 'peace' is unlikely

Why 'peace' is unlikely

In the Los Angeles Times, Richard Boudreaux writes about the conditions that would be required for Israel and the 'Palestinians' to reach an agreement:

American pressure sometimes works, but not always as intended. Goaded to limit settlement growth and negotiate with the Palestinians, Sharon rebuffed the George W. Bush administration but withdrew soldiers and settlers unilaterally from Gaza. The move enabled him to win quiet U.S. acquiescence to keep enlarging West Bank settlements.


Israel Matzav: Why 'peace' is unlikely

Israel Matzav: Most Israelis oppose 'settlement freeze,' won't dismantle 'settlements'

Most Israelis oppose 'settlement freeze,' won't dismantle 'settlements'

A survey by Maagar Mochot published in Haaretz on Friday reveals that 56% of Israelis are outright opposed to President Obama's demand for a 'settlement freeze' and nearly two thirds are not willing to dismantle 'settlements' as part of a 'final solution' to the Israeli-'Palestinian' dispute or are willing to dismantle only a few 'settlements.'
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Israel Matzav: Most Israelis oppose 'settlement freeze,' won't dismantle 'settlements'

Israel Matzav: Lake: Netanyahu to agree to 'Palestinian' reichlet

Israel Matzav: Lake: Netanyahu to agree to 'Palestinian' reichlet

Israel Matzav: Mousavi started Iran's nuclear program

Mousavi started Iran's nuclear program

Presidential elections are being held in Iran on Friday, and the media are abuzz with the possibility that 'reformist' Mir Hossein Mousavi could oust incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. But what would Mousavi's election mean for Iran's nuclear program? It's doubtful that it will mean anything at all - in all likelihood, the nuclear program will continue as before. Please consider this.

International Atomic Energy Agency documents revealed that Iran began a secret nuclear program during the tenure of Mir Hossein Mousavi, the opposition leader running against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

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Israel Matzav: Mousavi started Iran's nuclear program

Israel Matzav: Obama's colonial governor and how Netanyahu should respond

Obama's colonial governor and how Netanyahu should respond

In Friday's Jerusalem Post, Caroline Glick reports on President Obama's efforts to install George Mitchell as our colonial governor.

Obama shares [National Security Adviser James] Jones's view that Israel's perception of its security needs is exaggerated. As he made clear in his speeches last week at Cairo and Buchenwald, Obama thinks that Israel suffers from a Holocaust-induced paranoia that causes it to wrongly believe that Arabs and Iranians wish to wipe it off the map. In Obama's view, Israel's fears can be dealt with, and a Middle East peace can be wrought through a US takeover of both Israel's security assessments and its military and intelligence operations and policies.

To this end, and in line with Jones's 2008 report, according to last Friday's Yediot Aharonot, the administration is building an apparatus designed to prevent Israel from exercising independent judgments about its tactical and strategic challenges and deny it the ability to secure its interests without US involvement and consent.

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Israel Matzav: Obama's colonial governor and how Netanyahu should respond

Israel Matzav: 'Don't know much about history'

Israel Matzav: 'Don't know much about history'

Israel Matzav: Sanctions? What sanctions?

Sanctions? What sanctions?

Once again, a German company has signed a huge deal with Iran, while ignoring UN sanctions against the would-be-nuclear power. This time it's the giant petrochemical company Basell Polyolefine, which signed a deal with Iran on Monday to supply technology to build three plants involving synthetic and plastic material. Iran's FARS news agency (in Persian) reports that the deal is worth 825 million Euros, which would make it the largest trade deal signed with Iran this year.
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Israel Matzav: Sanctions? What sanctions?

Israel Matzav: Heartbreak: Netanyahu to shift left in Sunday's speech?

Israel Matzav: Heartbreak: Netanyahu to shift left in Sunday's speech?

Israel Matzav: Another reason for Israel to ignore the White House timetable on Iran

Israel Matzav: Another reason for Israel to ignore the White House timetable on Iran

DoubleTapper: Terrorist Women of Fatah

DoubleTapper: Terrorist Women of Fatah

Sefer Chabibi Deepest Torah: B'HA'A'LOS'CHA: HUMBLY YOURS

B'HA'A'LOS'CHA: HUMBLY YOURS

by Rabbi Baruch Binyamin HaKohen Melman

The Torah tells us in this week's parsha, B'ha'alos'cha, that Moshe was"anav mikall adam," meaning that he was"the humblest of all men."

What does that really mean? Now you must understand that this was in the context of Miriam's famous slander episode. How did he react to her behavior? Did he submit meekly to her accusations? Did he pretend he didn't know about it? Is ignoring the pain to one's self that is inflicted by others truly the Torah's example for humility which we should embrace? What is true humility according to the Torah? How did Moses exemplify this quality? It is not found in turning the other cheek. The answer is hidden in the word itself.

Anav, meaning "humble," is spelled with the same lettersrelated to the word "answer," or "reply." We might well then ask, what was Moses answering? And to what was he replying? Miriam speaks against him regarding the"Kushite woman." This is what his response was based on. And with regard to Miriam's plight, when he saw that she became afflicted with "leprosy" as a punishment for her words, words said against him, he responded with a short prayer:EL NA REFA NA LA."Please G*d, heal her now."
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Sefer Chabibi Deepest Torah: B'HA'A'LOS'CHA: HUMBLY YOURS

Christians Are Everywhere! - Esser Agaroth

Christians Are Everywhere! - Esser Agaroth

The Torah Revolution

The Torah Revolution

Life in Israel: No Spies in This Land...

No Spies in This Land...

Guest Dvar Torah

The Spies Who Came Out of the Blue by Dr. Aryeh Hirsch


" I am about to wrap my body in Tzitzit, so that my soul , my 248 limbs and 365 fibers be wrapped in the light of Tzitzit , which numerically equals 613 , the number of the Lord's commandments . And just as I cover myself with a Talit in this world , so may I merit rabbinical garb and a beautiful Talit in Gan Eden " . So begins the morning prayers , with the donning of the Talit and this prayer to wrap body and soul in Tzitzit . But why the idea of wrapping ( tit’teif ) and what is the connection to Gan Eden ? And why does is this Mitzva mentioned after the story of the Spies ?


The Netivot Shalom explains that one is wrapping ( l’hitateif ) one’s entire body in the Talit /Tzitzit, starting with the head ( with its “ eyes that see” ;Rashi, Bamidbar 15,39 ) and continuing down to the heart ( “ which desires “; Rashi again ) and then the trunk and legs. “ For the eyes and heart are the Spies ( Meraglim ) of the body “ ( Rashi, ibid ) . In the name of Midrash Rabba (Bamidbar 17, 6 ) , the Slonimer Rav ( page 82 ) quotes an analogy: “These Tzitzit threads are like the lifeline that the Captain of the ship throws to a drowning sailor ; the rope ties the main to his ship , and are his literal lifeline . As the Bible says : ‘ And all you that are linked to the Lord your God , live ( Devarim 4,4) ‘ “ .

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Life in Israel: No Spies in This Land...

CLEAR EYED CYNICISM ON SETTLEMENTS

Clear Eyed Cynicism on Settlements

Barry Rubin takes a clear-eyed look at the Obama-Netanyahu-Settlement-Peace quagmire. His thesis: No way will caving in to Obama ever bring peace, but there are fine cynical reasons for doing so never-the-less.

Count me in.
taken from : Yaacov Lozowick's Ruminations

BINYAMIN NETANYAHU :CANNY OPERATOR

Binyamin Netanyahu: Canny Operator

Amitai Etzioni is a heavyweight scholar, not a clueless journalist nor a lowly blogger. So when he comes out with a contrarian thesis, you don't want merely to brush it aside.

His thesis today is that Netanyahu has outfoxed Obama. Obama needed a wedge issue to twist Israel's arm on, so as to gain legitimacy in the Arab world. Netanyahu obliged, by moving the post years backward; now, when he caves in for Obama's credibility, he'll merely be giving what has long ago been given, and not something new.

What can I say? I hope he's right.

His article then goes on to elaborate some other important facts about the goals of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. Nothing us news junkies don't know, but he's right that most people generally aren't very well informed.
taken from : Yaacov Lozowick's Ruminations

TRIBAL AND EMOTIONAL, NOT DETACHED AND RATIONAL

Tribal and Emotional, not Detached and Rational

Last year Meredith Kercher, a young British overseas student in Italy, was murdered. Since she was young, pretty, and the murder was connected to sex, the story caught much attention. When it turned out her flatmate Amanda Knox, a pretty young overseas student from Seattle, may have been involved, and if so there was a deeper sexual layer to the tragedy, the story became front-page news in Italy, the UK, and parts of the US. It still is.

I've been following it to the extent that the Guardian, my daily paper, has it at the top of their front page; this week it also reached the front page of another of my daily papers, the New York Times, where an op-ed claimed Knox has been framed by a scheming Italian prosecutor villain. That op-ed has been on the NYT home page for a few days already (!).

This morning Paul Harris at the Observer, that's the Guardian's mildly saner little sister, writes about the phenomenon. He starts by noting that the Knox story-line is so noxious because she's a pretty young woman - her boyfriend and co-defendant never gets noticed at all. He then goes on, however, to describe the mechanism of the fascination, in terms which exactly precisely fit the way Israel is treated:

The only certain thing about Knox is that she has struck a cultural chord that has nothing to do with the evidence and everything to do with being young, female and photogenic. If she were a man, neither her defenders nor her attackers would likely be giving her half the attention they are. It is noticeable that Sollecito is virtually ignored by the press. The debate over Knox is especially vicious on the internet, where blogs fight over every aspect of the case. "Anyone who writes about this case will be attacked no matter what they say. For or against. It is really ugly," said Candace Dempsey, whose blogging on the trial has led to her writing a book about it.

For almost everyone involved in covering the story, online threats and abuse are common. Steve Shay, who wrote the Herald story that so angered Mignini, was stunned to find his picture posted online by outraged anti-Knox bloggers. He was also accused of being in the pay of pro-Knox supporters. "I felt uneasy. Just because you are paranoid does not mean someone isn't out to get you," Shay said. The sheer ferocity of the abuse is one reason why only Bremner has openly come out on behalf of Friends of Amanda. Other members are keeping anonymous. "We are not yet ready to come out in public just yet," said one close friend of the family.


Some cultural dynamics are vastly more powerful than centuries of exohrtation to seek facts with calm rational methodology.
taken from : Yaacov Lozowick's Ruminations

Cupid, Bad. Love, Good. - Jewish Thought of the Day

Cupid, Bad. Love, Good.

Cupid’s Arrow

Cupid may be adorable, but don’t let that baby face fool you. Behind Cupid’s innocent looking eyes lies a crafty little god. Cupid is the playful god of love who scampers about shooting golden-tipped arrows that carry the promise of eternal happiness and endless bliss. Once struck, two people fall madly in love, and are overcome by a passion so fiery they know it can never be extinguished.

Down with Cupid

Unfortunately, perfection is an illusion, and Cupid is a myth. If you dream of one day being struck by Cupid’s arrow, and falling in love forever, you are asking for big trouble. In fact, it is the very hope of falling in love that all but guarantees that you will also fall out of love, and discover the painful truth that Cupid’s arrow is in fact a double edged sword.

Falling In and Out of Love

The phenomenon of falling in and out of love inevitably confounds singles and couples alike. If you’re single, it works like this: “Of course I want to marry someone I’m in love with, but I know people tend to fall out of love with the people they are in love with.”

If you’re married, it works like this: “I can’t tell you exactly when it happened, but the magic just isn’t there any more.”

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Cupid, Bad. Love, Good. - Jewish Thought Of The Day
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