Sunday 30 August 2009

Israel Matzav: Rabbis to ban sales of homes and land to Arabs

Rabbis to ban sales of homes and land to Arabs

A cross-section of National Religious and Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) Rabbis are to meet on Monday to place a ban upon sales of homes in Jerusalem and land in northern Israel to Arabs. The need for the conference arose, King said, after he began receiving numerous complaints from residents of northern Jerusalem neighborhoods who told of religious Jews who sold their homes to Arabs. King hopes that the rabbinical statement which will be issued Monday will be signed by prominent rabbis like Shmuel Eliyahu of Tzfat, Rabbi Yaakov Yosef and Rabbi Menachem Porush, and that these will be joined by the rabbis of French Hill and Pisgat Ze'ev. Such a statement will have a meaningful impact on the religious public.

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Israel Matzav: Rabbis to ban sales of homes and land to Arabs

Israel Matzav: Haaretz's ode to Obama

Israel Matzav: Haaretz's ode to Obama

Esser Agaroth: Jewish Cover-Up

Esser Agaroth: Jewish Cover-Up

Israel Matzav: Obama will learn about Israel's strike on Iran from CNN

Obama will learn about Israel's strike on Iran from CNN

Micah Zenko looks back at four prior Israeli military actions - the 1956 attack on the Suez Canal, the 1967 Six Day War, the 1981 attack on Iraq's nuclear reactor and the 2007 attack on Syria's nuclear reactor - and concludes that when and if Israel decides to attack Iran, President Obama will learn about it on CNN. The Israelis won't ask permission. But if diplomacy fails, the world should be prepared for an Israeli attack on Iran's suspected nuclear weapons facilities. As Adm. Michael Mullen, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, recently acknowledged: "The window between a strike on Iran and their getting nuclear weapons is a pretty narrow window."

If Israel attempts such a high-risk and destabilizing strike against Iran, President Obama will probably learn of the operation from CNN rather than the CIA. History shows that although Washington seeks influence over Israel's military operations, Israel would rather explain later than ask for approval in advance of launching preventive or preemptive attacks. Those hoping that the Obama administration will be able to pressure Israel to stand down from attacking Iran as diplomatic efforts drag on are mistaken.

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Israel Matzav: Obama will learn about Israel's strike on Iran from CNN

Israel Matzav: Breaking: Olmert indicted

Israel Matzav: Breaking: Olmert indicted

Israel Matzav: Video: Shma Yisrael

Video: Shma Yisrael

Legend tells that after the Holocaust, R. Yosef Kahaneman zt'l , the Ponevezhe Rov began looking for Jewish children who had survived the war. It was known that some of the children had ended up in churches and were being raised as Christians. The Rov encountered one church that denied the existence and presence of Jewish children within their midst... He was granted permission to enter the children's quarters to inspect for himself -- when he entered he began calling out "Shema Yisroel" and instinctively many of the children raised their hands to cover their eyes and started calling out "mama! mama!"

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Israel Matzav: Video: Shma Yisrael

Israel Matzav: Video: The pig of Arabia

Video: The pig of Arabia

Dutch MP Geert Wilders has asked the country's foreign minister Maxime Verhagen to summon the Saudi ambassador over a news report that a father has returned his 10-year old daughter to her 80-year old husband. Wilders asserts that the husband is behaving like a pig, just like Mohamed.

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Israel Matzav: Video: The pig of Arabia

Israel Matzav: The Shabbos goy

The Shabbos goy

Many of you have probably heard the term 'Shabbos goy,' many more of you may not know precisely what it means. I'm going to explain it to you and then give you a specific example. There are certain types of activities that Jews are not allowed to do on the Sabbath. Sometimes, we need those activities performed on our behalf. The person who performs them is called a 'Shabbos goy.'

For example, there was one wintry Friday night when we lived in America that someone bumped into the thermostat and accidentally turned the heat down to an intolerable level. I went next door to the non-Jewish neighbor and asked his 16-year old son to come to our house. The boy came in and I told him that it was cold in the house and the thermostat had been turned down. He looked at me like I was an idiot and said "let me show you how to turn it up." He turned it up to a reasonable temperature. We gave him a piece of cake and sent him on his way.

But finding a Shabbos goy in a neighborhood like our Jerusalem neighborhood - where the entire neighborhood is populated by religious Jews - is much more complicated. So much so that one of the synagogues has taken upon itself to house a Shabbos goy within the synagogue in case someone needs one. We have used the Shabbos goy in the past, but it had been a couple of years. This past Saturday, we needed the Shabbos goy again.

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Israel Matzav: The Shabbos goy

Israel Matzav: Al-Jazeera less anti-American than CNN and BBC?

Israel Matzav: Al-Jazeera less anti-American than CNN and BBC?

Israel Matzav: Israelis invent new treatment for bed sores

Israelis invent new treatment for bed sores

This is slightly off my usual fare, but it caught my eye because my Mom a"h (may she rest in peace) suffered greatly from bed sores during the last years of her life. Mom was immobile in the last years of her life and quite simply, nothing helped the bedsores. Contrary to what many of you may believe from their name, 'bed sores' don't just come from lying in bed. Ask anyone who uses a wheelchair for a prolonged period of time. Now, there's hope.

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Israel Matzav: Israelis invent new treatment for bed sores

Israel Matzav: Hebron's Jews called the 'definition of Zionism' by... The Wall Street Journal

Israel Matzav: Hebron's Jews called the 'definition of Zionism' by... The Wall Street Journal

Israel Matzav: Number of 'Israeli Arabs' doing national service quadruples

Number of 'Israeli Arabs' doing national service quadruples

Israel has a concept of national service, which essentially means that post-high school men and women volunteer for a year or two. In the Jewish community, it's mostly done by women who don't serve in the army for religious reasons and by men who don't serve in the army for medical reasons.

Most 'Israeli Arabs' don't serve in the army. Over the last few years, efforts have been made to encourage them to vounteer for national service instead. Those efforts have apparently been paying off.

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Israel Matzav: Number of 'Israeli Arabs' doing national service quadruples

Israel Matzav: Foreign Ministry: IAEA still hiding material on Iran

Foreign Ministry: IAEA still hiding material on Iran

The IAEA released a report on Iran's nuclear activities on Friday that was 'critical,' but according to Israeli foreign minisry spokesman Yigal Palmor, it wasn't critical enough. IAEA officials said Iran was stonewalling the agency about "possible military dimensions" to its program. In the report, the IAEA said it has pressed Iran to clarify its uranium enrichment activities and reassure the world that it's not trying to build an atomic weapon.

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Israel Matzav: Foreign Ministry: IAEA still hiding material on Iran

Clarity on Iran's Nuclear Program

Well, perhaps not.

The IAEA has just published its semi-annual report. Apparently, it doesn't say anything.
It is no secret that there are disagreements over the report, and Haaretz has reported more than once that ElBaradaei's deputy, Olli Heinonen, would like the reports to state unequivocal facts. However, as is common in an international bureaucratic organization, efforts are being made to maintain the impression of unity, with differences being kept under wraps.

taken from Yaacov Lozowick's Ruminations

Gaza: Is It Starting Again?

Let's hope not, but I'm noting that the calm isn't total. Also, there are disagreements even about simple things such as if the IDF did or didn't attack anyone:
The Palestinian Maan news agency reported on Saturday that the Israel Defense Force fired artillery rounds at gunmen at the central Gaza Strip. No injuries were reported. The IDF said in response that no such attack took place.
In cases such as this you can't even apply the "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter" logic. How would it work? "One man's artillery shell is another man's no-artillery shell"?

How about one man's lie is another man not lying? It sort of lacks the pleasing balance, that one.

taken from Yaacov Lozowick's Ruminations

Health Care and the Jewish Problem

There has just been a birth in the Californian branch of our family. I called the new father to say mazal tov and he described how at the last moment there had been various complications, but everything is alright. So, he summed up, since you've been mentioning healthcare on your blog, Yaacov, you might want to mention that my vote is for the system. It works well.

(Actually, I think he was talking about the system before it changes, i.e. as it already is, so his point may have been different than he meant - but I really don't think this is the moment in his life to be quibbling about politics. His agenda at the moment is way above politics).

Then there was Dennis who slammed into me last week, going so far as to call a post of mine that mentioned healthcare as a travesty.
You rightly criticize those of us here in the United States for doing not understanding the complexities of the Israel/Arab/Palestinian conflict. But you do the same thing when you say that you are agnostic on "who's right and who's wrong, who's fibbing and who's fibbing more."Don't mean to be harsh, because I read you constantly but you have this wrong.
Ouch.

In between Dennis and the new father, I had a chat the other evening with a fellow who lives here but works as a phisician in the States (you'd be surprised how many such extreme commuters there are). He told me that philosophically he's all for revamping the American health system, and would even be willing to take a financial hit if it would be for the general good, but in his opinion nothing being discussed right now will make things any better, and probably they'll get worse, though he expects his income to remain unaffected.

This blog is not about American health care. It's mostly about Jewish stuff, though from time to time I jump around. Yet it occurs to me that the healthcare metaphor really can be useful, precisely because it demonstrates how impossible it is for an outsider to really understand what's going on.

I have no doubt that were I was prepared to spend six solid months studying the matter I could form an educated opinion, unless I'd need 12 months, or 24. If I didn't think so I couldn't be a historian, since historians have the fundamental conceit they can understand times and places they've never been to. Yet short of dedicating oneself totally to really understanding, I'm here to report that following the media doesn't work. These folks swear by their narrative; those folks swear by the opposite one. These chaps admonish that there's an imminent danger; the other blokes shrilly warn of a whole different set of apocalyptic threats. These guys quote statistics; the other ones wave different ones. Somehow there are Nazis involved on both sides of the argument, though I haven't been able to figure that out at all.

Not to mention that the single most important part of the story is not visible through the media at all: what's it like living in the system? I don't mean, which horror stories each side trots out. I mean the regular living part of the story. What's it like right now to live in the present system, what's wrong with it, and how ought it be different. What do you do when your kid has the sniffles? When she has something worse than sniffles? When, heaven forbid, she has something radically worse than sniffles? How does it work? What decisions need to be made, by whom, under which constraints?

This type of understanding cannot be had merely by following the media. Can't.

Which brings me back, unsurprisingly, to the things I do know about, such as living in this conflict-torn land. Or being a Jew. Without wishing to be arrogant, I expect these issues are more complicated than health care in America; they've certainly been around a lot longer... Anyway, you see where I'm going with this...

taken from Yaacov Lozowick's Ruminations

Israel Matzav: Australia confirms ship had weapons heading for Iran

Israel Matzav: Australia confirms ship had weapons heading for Iran

DoubleTapper: IWI Micro Tavor

IWI Micro Tavor

تنسيق-الكليات-لعام سكس نيك كس

The IDF is rolling out the Tavor to more and more units, replacing the M4 and M16 variants. Basic trainees will begin their service with the Tavor and use it throughout their conscription.

IDF Special forces units will use the Micro Tavor.

Maj. Gen. Gadi Shamni,
the proud recipient of the first officially deployed
Micro-Tavor rifle.


The IWI Micro Tavor (M.T.A.R 21), also designated X-95 and sometimes called Tavor-2, is a stand-alone extremely compact weapon specifically designed for special forces units, as well as military personnel who are normally not issued long assault rifles.




With the use of a relatively simple conversion kit, the M.T.A.R 21 can be converted from a 5.56 mm assault rifle to a 9 mm submachine gun loaded with 20, 25, and 32-round magazines. A suppressor can also be added to the weapon, it is part of the 9 mm conversion kit.












Issued to IDF Brigade Reconnaissance Companies.

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DoubleTapper: IWI Micro Tavor

The Torah Revolution: Re: # 1 [On secularists]

The Torah Revolution: Re: # 1 [On secularists]

The Torah Revolution: When it comes

The Torah Revolution: When it comes

Love of the Land: International Justice (1998)

International Justice (1998)


Dry Bones cartoon: The Double Standard in International Justice (1998).


Today's Golden Oldie is from ten years (11) ago this month. July 1998.

Saying that Israel is judged by a double standard is a waste of time. We know it. They know it. So in this cartoon I tried to wring a wry laugh out of the unfair and ugly situation.

A classic goal of much of Jewish Humor.

Taken from Love of the Land: International Justice (1998)

Israel Matzav: New blog: Reuters Middle East Watch

Israel Matzav: New blog: Reuters Middle East Watch

Israel Matzav: Dershowitz on Aftonbladet

Israel Matzav: Dershowitz on Aftonbladet

House MD- A walk through five years-The Beatles (Season 1- Season 5 ending)

Center tries to drop references to muftis Nazi cooperation | International | Jerusalem Post

Center tries to drop references to muftis Nazi cooperation International Jerusalem Post

LIFE – Israel 1960 by Paul Schutzer

LIFE – Israel 1960 by Paul Schutzer
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