Oneg Shabbos
One of the “Mitzvos regarding Shabbos” is that one have Oneg or ENJOYMENT on Shabbos. This Shabbos was the sky was clear over south Florida. I knew that if the Space Shuttle Endeavor was to be launched it would be around 7:55 or 7:56 in the evening. Not every time there was a launch I was in FL there was a launch and not every time there was a launch I could face north with a clear view (either rain or clouds or too early in the morning or late at night). Finally. It was a while since my first interest in astronomy during the total solar eclipse in New York City at dawn on June 24, 1954 and the first children’s books by Willey Ley and others on rockets, astronauts, space stations shaped like wheels orbiting the earth etc. I followed with many other 5th graders Uri Gagarin’s flight and Alan Sheppard’s flight and our teachers allowed us to bring transistor radios (remember them) to class for the launch. With my friend Howard, I got to meet in person astronauts and shake their hands. So finally after over fifty years of space flights, I got to see one life on Shabbos. The impression that I got form watching something so huge over 198 miles away by map quest light up the sky and see a live first stage separation and second stage burn and separation until it faded into a far away airplane and satellite was a Shabbos thrill I can’t forget. My only regret is that with my new camera, I could not photograph on Shabbos.
There are many pleasures that one can have on Shabbos like watching a lunar or solar eclipse, meteor shower, comet, singing songs with family and friends, learning Torah, quizzing the children on the Parsha or just plain unwinding from a hectic week. The fact that it is a Mitzvah to do enjoyable things on Shabbos. That is what we say in the silent prayer about the Simcha and Oneg of Shabbos. I used to eat better food on Shabbos but now I must watch my weight. I have larger meals for a Neshama Yetaira (extra soul) but not excess on cakes and stuff anymore.
Parsha Chayay Sarah
This week marks the annual Cave of the Machpeleh Celebration in Chevron. This is because of the Parsha and the purchase of the cave for burial of Sarah in our Parsha. It is interesting that precisely this week that the Israeli “Supreme” Court ordered Jews to leave their house in Chevron that they purchased with their own money. R’ Netanel Koprack Shlita writes about our Parsha: The Midrash (Breishit Rabah) states:
“R’ Yudan the son of R’ Simon said, ‘There are three places about which the nations of the world cannot taunt Yisrael, saying: “You have stolen them.” And they are Me’arat HaMachpelah, the Beit HaMikdash (Har HaBayit), and Yosef’s Tomb.’”
What is special about these three places? The Tanach teaches us that our forefathers purchased them from non-Jews.
Yet, why did Avraham Avinu wish to purchase Me’arat HaMachpelah specifically? And why did he insist on buying it? After all, he was offered the site as a free gift, but he was adamant about paying for it.
Me’arat HaMachpelah’s name is famously derived from the fact that it is kefulah b’zugot (literally, “doubled with couples”): Adam and Chava; Avraham and Sarah; Yitzchak and Rivka; Yaakov and Leah.
Thus, Avraham wants Me’arat HaMachpelah, because Adam and Chava are buried there. Furthermore, the Midrash teaches us that Me’arat HaMachpelah is the “opening to Gan Eden.”
However, an alternate Midrash states that Hevron is a makom trashim (“rocky ground”). At first glance, this description seems to denigrate Hevron, but the Midrash explains that a site’s shortcomings suggest its strengths. In other words, Hevron is a makom trashim, because its strength is ruchniyut (spirituality). Most places cannot excel in two spheres. (Yerushalayim is the exception; it shines both in terms of ruchniyut and in terms of gashmiyut – worldly considerations.)
We can now understand that Hevron’s uniqueness is the reason that Avraham seeks to bury Sarah there and, eventually, to be buried there as well. Yet, this leads to yet another question. At the end of the previous parsha – after Akeidat Yitzchak – we learn that Avraham goes to Be’er Sheva. Why is Sarah left behind in Hevron? Why are they not together?
The answer is that Avraham is well aware that both he and Sarah are old and are likely to die in the near future. But if either of them would suddenly arrive in Hevron in order to purchase Me’arat HaMachpelah as a burial place for the other, the locals would realize that the property must be very valuable and would refuse to sell it at any price. However, since Sarah lives in Hevron anyway, no one will think twice about Avraham’s desire to purchase a burial plot there.
Hevron also has a unique halachic status. The Rambam cites a machloket whether or not one who sees Hevron in a desolate state must tear kriah (i.e. rending one’s garment in mourning – as is done when one sees Har HaBayit bereft of the Beit HaMikdash). This halachah does not apply to anywhere else in Eretz Yisrael. In any event, to our great joy, this problem no longer exists in Hevron, which has Jewish inhabitants.
Hevron’s uniqueness becomes apparent when writing a get (divorce certificate) as well. When a get is issued in Yerushalayim, the document includes the words, “Yerushalayim, which is located next to the Shilo’ach Spring.” And if a get is written in Hevron, the words, “Hevron, which is located next to Me’arat HaMachpelah,” are included. Hevron and Yerushalayim are the only two places referenced in this manner.
Let us now return to the question of why Avraham insists on paying, b’kesef malei, for Me’arat HaMachpelah – even though Efron offers it to him for free.
This question has several answers. First, on a practical level, paying prevents Efron from later reneging on the bargain. Yet, the Torat Ohr has another explanation. Avraham purchases Me’arat HaMachpelah in order to teach the nations of the world about the soul’s immortality. Avraham’s contemporaries do not believe that the soul lives on after death, and in fact, even today, there are still those who do not believe in this concept.
In his commentary on Midrash Rabah, Rabbenu Yonah notes that purchasing Me’arat HaMachpelah is one of Avraham’s nisyonot (tests or challenges). How is this a nisayon? After Hashem has promised him all of Eretz Yisrael (“To you will I give it”), suddenly Avraham must purchase part of Eretz Yisrael, which belongs to him.
After burying Sarah and weeping for a long time. Avraham was married to Sarah tens of years and suddenly he was a very lonely man although this in not counted with the trials before HASHEM. 22:1 And it came to pass after these things, that God did prove Abraham, and said unto him: 'Abraham'; and he said: 'Here am I.' However, anybody who has lost a spouse or has an invalid spouse will know the difficulty and the burden in running a house. Avraham now had to think about having a woman to run the household duties. He is old but thinks of his son so after three years based on the following news 20 And it came to pass after these things, that it was told Abraham, saying: 'Behold, Milcah, she also hath borne children unto thy brother Nahor: 21 Uz his first-born, and Buz his brother, and Kemuel the father of Aram; 22 and Chesed, and Hazo, and Pildash, and Jidlaph, and Bethuel.' 23 And Bethuel begot Rebekah; these eight did Milcah bear to Nahor, Abraham's brother. 24 And his concubine, whose name was Reumah, she also bore Tebah, and Gaham, and Tahash, and Maacah.
Now one might say Uz is mentioned in the Book of Iyob but the real reason that the Torah brings down all these names was only for Rivka to show that she is a relative from a worthy family to marry Yitzchak.
Who was the first Chief Financial Officer mentioned in the Bible {see underlined words}: 24:1 And Abraham was old, well stricken in age; and the LORD had blessed Abraham in all things. 2 And Abraham said unto his servant, the elder of his house, that ruled over all that he had: 'Put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh. 3 And I will make thee swear by the LORD, the God of heaven and the God of the earth, that thou shall not take a wife for my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell. 4 But thou shall go unto my country, and to my kindred, and take a wife for my son, even for Isaac.'
Rabbi Yossi this week in his Drasha brings down some very interesting information on Avraham Avinu and Eliezer setting an example to be followed: 10 And the servant took ten camels, of the camels of his master, and departed; having all goodly things of his master's in his hand; and he arose, and went to Aram-naharaim, unto the city of Nahor. … 32 And the man came into the house, and he ungirded the camels; and he gave straw and provender for the camels, and water to wash his feet and the feet of the men that were with him.
Rabbi Yossi brings down the story from the Gemara on Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair and his donkey who would not eat stolen food or untithed food even though animals can eat untithed food. So Avraham sent Eliezer off per Rabbi Yossi’s Drasha this week with muzzled camels so as not even to eat straw from the side of the roads which was permissible in order to education the world against stealing from other fields with your camels, donkeys, horses, cattle or sheep. Even the animals of Tzaddikim don’t sin. This we see that at night Eliezer would unmuzzle the camels and feed them from 32 above.
What is the formula to have a marriage last over 100 years?: 67 And Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah's tent, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her. And Isaac was comforted for his mother. This is not Lindsay Lohan’s, Madonna’s or Brittney Spears’ formula as they speak of physical love/lust adventure, romance and then burn out. No Yitzchak is marrying a frum girl from a good family with good qualities of Chessed which was Avraham’s main trait and ability to host guests. She is a clean baala busta (Jedi in running the house). Her looks might not be 10 plus on the scale but she is above 8 but kept modest for her husband’s eyes only. It is hands off for everybody else! So he brings her in to replace his mother as the house keeper, cook, close washer (or director of the servants possibly) then she became his wife after becoming one and growing to know each other then he loved her. This is “Punct Verkert” (just the opposite) of what the modern world does. She is taken in at the age of three according to Rashi or at the age of fourteen according Ibn Ezra and somehow the marriage lasted to her death at the age of 133 years. So that she was married some where between 119 to 130 years – just a wee bit longer than most of our movie stars, baseball and football players. He had more money than them. I will give credit where it is due to Bill Gates and his Melinda who married on intellectual grounds and have stayed married and not let their wealth go into their heads either.
From the Project for the Advancement of Torah Organization: In Parashas Chayei Sarah the midrash tells us that when Yitzchak brought Rivka into his mother's tent, the miracles that ceased with the passing of Sarah resumed. One of those miracles concerned candle lighting. When Sarah would "bentch licht" on Friday afternoon the candles would remain lit until the following Friday. As we all know, throughout scripture the Torah is equated to light. The midrash is telling us that the atmosphere of yiidishkeit and Torah growth is provided by the woman of the house. Despite all the greatness and merits of Avraham and Yitzchak, neither could produce the continuous light of their wives Sarah and Rivka. This is an inspiring thought for all of us. Women must realize that without their efforts Torah won't flourish in the home. Perhaps more importantly, it calls for even greater appreciation and gratitude from men. We must realize that without our wives and moms our Torah efforts and spiritual aspiration will come to naught. May we all absorb these lessons so that Klal Yisrael (the Jewish people) can advance together
A movie worth watching: http://www.aish.com/heroesOfIsrael/heroesOfIsraelDefault/Chief_Rabbi_Lau.asp
The time is before Moshiach people don't have YERAS HASHEM so they panic with the stock market for no reason. “Do not worry about sudden fear, I AM HE" - after the Aleynu prayer.
Louis Armstrong and the Jewish Connection to Success: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Armstrong
After dropping out of the Fisk School at eleven, Armstrong joined a quartet of boys in similar straits as he, and they sang in the streets for money. He also started to get into trouble. Cornet player Bunk Johnson said he taught Armstrong (then 11) to play by ear at Dago Tony's Tonk in New Orleans, although in his later years Armstrong gave the credit to Oliver. His first cornet was bought with money loaned to him by the Karnofskys, a Russian-Jewish immigrant family who had a junk hauling business and gave him odd jobs. To express gratitude towards the Karnofskys, who took him in as almost a family member, and fed and nurtured him, Armstrong wore a Star of David pendant for the rest of his life.
Why should you feel rejected if Harvard will not have you? Warren Buffett applied for admission to Harvard Business School, but was turned down. I’ll trade his fortune vs. 100 Harvard graduates any day.
On Friday Nov 21st Jonathan Pollard will enter his 24th year in prison. On Sunday Nov 23rd Ehud Olmert will be meeting with President Bush for the last time. On Thursday Nov 27th the American people will celebrate the Thanksgiving Holiday - a holiday traditionally associated with Presidential clemencies. This is traditionally the time when outgoing presidents consider pardons. We have the opportunity to help a fellow Jew and fulfill the important mitzvah of pidyon sh'vuyim by calling the White House on behalf of Jonathon Pollard. Call: 202-456 -1111 or 202-456-1414 (Monday to Friday 9AM to 5PM - Eastern Time). Please call the Justice Department as well: Pardons 202-616-6070.
The amazing true story of how one woman helped save the Jews of Syria. By Haviv Rettig
In 1972, Toronto high school music teacher Judy Feld Carr came across a news article in The Jerusalem Post that told of the tragic deaths of 12 young Syrian Jewish men who ran across a minefield while attempting to flee Syria across the Turkish border.
"I saw the article and I couldn't get over it," Carr recalled in a phone interview with the Post 34 years after that fateful publication. The daughter of an independent-minded fur trader from Sudbury, Ontario, she could not sit helpless while Syria's Jewish community suffered. "So my late husband and I decided we had to do something about it." And she did. Spectacularly. Over the next 28 years, Carr masterminded from her Toronto home an international smuggling operation, complete with elaborate secret codes, meetings overseas with foreign agents and extensive bribes for Syrian officials, which rescued 3,228 Jews from persecution.
Much of Carr's work remains secret. "Even today, more is hidden than known, and we still cannot expose in detail many of [Carr's] rescues," noted a recent article in IICC Magazine, the journal of the Israeli Intelligence Heritage and Commemoration Center. Edited by former senior IDF intelligence officer Brig.-Gen. (res.) Ephraim Lapid, IICC Magazine quoted "foreign sources, who revealed that Carr was involved in the creation of a secret and secure information network with extensive connections," both with "official and secret sources in Israel and private ones in America."
The story began as a local philanthropic initiative. Distraught over the news article, Carr and her husband, Dr. Ronald Feld, organized lectures and a study day on Syrian Jewry. The participants learned of the persecution of Syrian Jews at the hands of the local Arabs and the regime, some of which continues to this day. They learned of the 1947 pogroms in which Arab mobs smashed homes and synagogues in the 2,500-year-old Jewish community of Aleppo; of laws from the 1940's barring Jews from purchasing land; of the Muhabarat (secret police) surveillance of Damascus's Jewish quarter; of the arrest and reported torture of Jews suspected of attempting to leave the country; and of the fact (recently cited in a 2001 US State Department human rights report) that Jews are the only minority in Syria whose religion is denoted in their passports and identity cards.
But, once they understood the problem, "we didn't know what to do," Carr said. "So we decided to do what we knew best from [campaigning for] Russian Jewry. We decided to call Syria." It took almost three weeks ("We were about to give up.") and the help of a Moroccan Jewish phone operator in Montreal to finally get a phone call through to Syria. "The Syrians would shut the line to Canada as soon as we asked for a Jew," Carr recalled.
She finally reached the home of a Jewish woman who was on the payroll of the Muhabarat. Luckily, the woman's husband was the only one home at the time, and though the call from Canada "almost gave him a heart attack," he divulged the name and address of Rabbi Ibrahim Hamra, who would become the Chief Rabbi of Syria.
Following that initial gambit, Carr and her husband "knew we couldn't call again, and it wasn't a good idea to write a letter. So we came up with an idea to send a telegram in French [which is widely spoken in Syria] asking if Rabbi Hamra needed religious books. We prepaid the answer." Ten days later came the response, a veritable shopping list of Jewish books. And so began Carr's communication with the Syrian Jewish community.
Though her husband died suddenly of a heart attack in 1973, leaving her alone with three children, Carr maintained and strengthened her fragile contact with Syria's Jews. When, in 1977, she married Donald Carr, he became her confidant and supporter, and one of only a handful of people around the world who knew about her clandestine activities.
Toronto's Beth Tzedec synagogue, the largest in Canada, established the Dr. Ronald Feld Fund for Jews in Arab Lands, and Carr used donations to this fund to finance her work. "We had no overhead, no executive directors, no salaries. We didn't have dinners, cocktail parties, fundraising," she recalled. "We only printed thank-you cards." Even so, she said, she received quiet financial help from Jews throughout North America. "It spread by word of mouth across Canada from British Columbia to Newfoundland. Then there was a fund in Baltimore that sent their money," she said.
At its outset, the fund "was only a link to the rabbi in Damascus, and later on to rabbis in Allepo and Kamashili," the only three towns in Syria where Jews were legally permitted to reside -- and even then restricted to ghettos, forbidden to own cars or to travel. "The rabbis wanted books, tefillin (phylacteries), tallisim (prayer shawls)," Carr related.
Soon, the telegrams and Judaica shipments became a code.
"I started inserting words into the telegrams, like 'who's in prison?'" she related. "Then the rabbi would answer with a name, hidden inside my address."
In order to verify that the rabbi had received the books, Carr would write one verse of psalms inside a book, and Rabbi Hamra would reply with the next one. Eventually, the verses became a way of discussing events, and Carr began to receive updates and news from the community. As the code developed it took on additional elements, including terms taken from Chinese cooking and alcoholic beverages. Carr herself was codenamed "Gin."
The operation was expanded to Aleppo when another Toronto woman, Hanna Cohen, whose brother was a rabbi in Aleppo, decided to visit him, "taking her life into her hands." Carr recalled that Cohen was arrested and interrogated, but then returned to Canada. She carried with her, hidden in her clothing, a letter for Carr "from the rabbis in Aleppo begging for books and begging to get out of Syria."
And so, the network grew steadily. Through Syrian Jews who had escaped to Canada on their own, Carr slowly developed a network of contacts in and outside Syria. She communicated with Syrian government functionaries, judges and even Muhabarat officers, all of whom were brought together by the knowledge that there was money to be made in "selling Jews" to Judy Carr.
She used this network to "to ransom the Jews and to pay off people on the escape route and negotiate prices." She funneled bribe money to Syrian officials through third parties and negotiated the Jews' release personally. Over time, with the cooperation of Israel's secret services, Carr had operatives moving in and out of Syria as well as ready in Turkey and Lebanon to collect escaping Jews and ferry them safely to Israel or elsewhere.
One of Carr's most interesting stories concerns not Jews, but an ancient and priceless Keter, or Bible manuscript. The Damascus Keter, produced in Burgos in northwestern Spain in 1260 and taken to Muslim lands by Jews fleeing the Spanish Inquisition, was smuggled out of Syria by one of Carr's agents, hidden in stacks of documents. Today it resides in Israel's National Library in Jerusalem.
All the time that Carr worked covertly to rescue Syrian Jews, she publicly lobbied Canadian officials, diplomats and Jewish organizations, never revealing her activities. All of them underestimated the woman with whom they were dealing, considering her an amateur activist tackling issues beyond her ken.
"I never had any publicity. It had to be a totally secret operation," she said. "The world media doesn't look at Canada except for the weather report, so no one knew what I was doing." That changed in the late 1990's.
In 1999, University of Toronto historian Harold Troper turned Carr's story into a book, The Ransomed of God: The Remarkable Story of One Woman's Role in the Rescue of Syrian Jews [re-released in paperback in 2007 as "The Rescuer"]. In May 2001, she was invested into the Order of Canada, the country's highest honor. Her story was "one of international drama and suspense," according to the office of Canada's Governor General, which awarded her the honor and praised her for her "selfless concern for others." She has also been recognized, albeit less prestigiously, in the Jewish world. The late prime minister Yitzhak Rabin thanked her for her "hard and dangerous work" in a 1995 letter, adding that Israel and Syrian Jews "will never be able to reward you as you deserve." She is also the recipient of the Simon Wiesenthal Award for Tolerance, Justice and Human Rights.
But Carr, now a grandmother of 13, shies away from the publicity. Most of those she rescued don't know the identity of the person who, from far-away Toronto, cleared their path to freedom.
"I've been to a few Syrian weddings and bar mitzvahs in Israel and Brooklyn," she said with embarrassment. "I don't like the kavod [honor], because they make me go under the chuppah (wedding canopy), and then they see who I was and that's not necessary. It's not necessary." Carr remains in touch with the rabbis of the communities, and with those she rescued from inside Syrian prisons and helped to flee to North and South America and Israel.
"I gave a speech in Sao Paulo [Brazil] before Rosh Hashanah," she related, "and people there stood up and said, 'Judy, don't you know me? You took me out on the escape route.'" One of them was a Sephardi rabbi who carried with him a prayer book inscribed with Carr's handwriting.
"He apologized because he knew my rules [forbidding carrying religiously identifiable objects on the escape route]," she said with pride, "but he said he put it in his pocket when he left, and it has brought him good luck."
This article originally appeared in the Jerusalem Post. For a 12 minute film interview: http://www.aish.com/jewishissues/jewishsociety/The_Rescuer.asp
Inyanay Diyoma
DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources report that US president-elect Barack Obama, European and Russian heads of state in Washington for the G20 conference over the weekend were briefed about a probable early al Qaeda attack.
Obama and his team have been advised that a new al Qaeda strike is highly probable in the United States or against a key US target in Europe, North Africa or the Middle East.
DEBKA-Net-Weekly 372 of Nov. 14 disclosed that al Qaeda’s Yemen base, a reliable barometer for Osama bin Laden’s schemes, issued a Directive to All Fighters in Arabia on Nov. 9 presaging a major operation in the United States that will “change the political and economic world” and be “far bigger than 9/11.”
The notice said “the operation is very near” and “precise instructions were in the hands of “the fighters, who are already on their way to America” armed with bin Laden’s orders. The pretext offered for the attack is the rejection by the US and Europe of al Qaeda’s four-year old truce offer whose original pre-condition was the withdrawal of their armies from Iraq and Afghanistan.
The day after the new president’s election, al Qaeda issued a little-noticed statement declaring Barack Obama a murtad, i.e. an apostate whose betrayal of Islam is judged the most heinous. Believers have the duty to execute a murtad unlike other non-believers whose death sentence is optional.
Thursday night, Nov. 14, Central Intelligence Director Gen. Michael Hayden said: “Al Qaeda, operating from its safe haven in Pakistan’s tribal areas, remains the most clear and present danger to the United States.” He was addressing a Washington think-tank.
“Today, virtually every major terrorist threat that my agency is aware of has threads back to the tribal areas. Whether it is command and control, training, direction, money, capabilities, there is a connection to the FATA (Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas.)”
Hayden also mentioned Yemen and Somalia as important al Qaeda theaters of operation.
In private, most heads of the intelligence agencies fighting al Qaeda admit that an attack on the United States or major American interest outside is only a matter of time.
Debka reports that Hamas wants to continue the missile blitz up to Ashdod until the Israeli election. I doubt if people in the cities under the blitz or those in the north under the Hizballah blitz will forget who is the non-Defense Minister and which political party is in charge and only worried about giving away the Golan Heights and Shomron to unstable anti-semitic regimes.
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5716
Do not fear Olmert will not withhold releasing terrorists: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3624350,00.html
Is the USA becoming like Germany of 1933 or Communism with the Unions two articles:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=80644
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=81204
Public Opinion Poll
If the general elections were to be held today, the Likud would have won with 32 Knesset seats, whereas Kadima would have received only 26 mandates, a new survey published in Yedioth Ahronoth on Thursday revealed. The poll, conducted by the Dahaf Institute among a representative sample of 500 respondents, gave the Labor Party a mere eight mandates.
The survey was held several days after Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu presented a list of prominent public figures who decided to join the party, including former Knesset members Dan Meridor and Benny Begin, former IDF chief Moshe Yaalon and former Police Commissioner Assaf Hefetz.
A previous Dahaf poll, held in October 27, gave the Likud 27 Knesset seats, Kadima 29 and Labor 11. In the current survey, Shas received 11 seats, and so did the Arab parties. Yisrael Beiteinu got nine mandates and the haredi parties and Meretz are both predicted to win seven seats. The new rightist movement founded by the National Religious Party received only six mandates in the survey.
Labor Chairman Defense Minister Ehud Barak commented on the less-than-flattering results saying, "I am well aware of our obsession with polls. If we do the right thing on Election Day, we will see be seeing different results." Speaking at a conference on Thursday, Barak slammed the Likud, saying, "The Likud and Netanyahu will lead to a diplomatic dead end, the Likud and Netanyahu will lead us to a confrontation with the whole world." On accusations that he has been working alone in his party and not cooperating with others, Barak said, "I know that I have been the bad boy of Israeli politics, and I am willing to accept that, as long as I am sure I'm doing the right things." - Tal Rabinovsky
"The Cain Syndrome" November 2008The Violent History of the Leftist Establishment's Dirty War Against the Right 1904-2008forwarded with comments by Emanuel A. Winston, Mid East analyst & commentatorClearly, the Supreme Court is merely a political extension of Kadima Leftists and deserves no honor or respect. These Judges are the anti-thesis of Justice. They deserve a separate criminal trial - along with the Kadima/Labor/Meretz crowd of traitors and subversives. When a government, its courts and police engage in High Treason, the people must rise up and take back their country and her Land. Those described below, with the Mark of Cain, deserve no pity, merely Justice in a place where Justice is fast disappearing. The corruption has been going on for a long time, growing worse with every passing year. The following tells some of the story but, the evil itself keeps growing - exponentially.COMMENTS BY EMANUEL A. WINSTON###Dear Friends, As we are writing this email, we have been told that the Supreme Court has announced its decision regarding Bet Hashalom in Hebron: despite the fact that the Jews brought all the proofs necessary to prove that Bet Hashalom was properly and legally bought, the Israeli Supreme Court has ordered to evict the Jewish legal owners. The Jewish residents have three days to leave willingly, otherwise the government will evacuate them by force.We will update you as to what decisions are taken in the next few hours by the Kiryat Arba Hevron leadership. Meanwhile, it is very fitting that Women in Green just came out with a new booklet: "The Cain Syndrome", the violent history of the Leftist Establishment's Dirty War Against the Right"Women in Green hope to find the funds to print and distribute this booklet in thousands of copies in Hebrew, English and Russian. Meanwhile the booklet, below, will be put on our website. We urge you to forward this message to as many people as you can.The time has come once and for all to stop the persecution of the leftist establishment in Israel against the national camp!Ruth Matar - Nadia Matar- Anita FinkelsteinWomen in Green www.womeningreen.orgNovember 2008"The Cain Syndrome" November 2008The Violent History of the Leftist Establishment's Dirty War Against the Right 1904-2008"The Mark of Cain"A History of Leftist Violence and the Incitement Against the National Camp In Israel1904 - 2008 by Aryeh YitzchakiDuring a century of Zionist history, the Left has gone to great lengths to prevent the Right from attaining leadership. The leftist factions generally utilized a two-pronged strategy to defeat their political opponents: by labeling their victims as public enemies, they justified their physical persecution. They kidnapped, tortured, beat, and murdered men on the Right and then congratulated themselves for their crimes.The Murder of Da-HaanLeftist violence started with verbal followed by physical attacks on leaders of the farmer communities of the First and Second Aliyah by workers of the left. It continued with the extradition of the Nili underground espionage network and with the failed murder attempt of the "Hashomer" organization on Yosef Lishanski, one of the Nili leaders. There were other political assassinations, such as the murder of chareidi politician Dr. Israel Da-Haan in Jerusalem in 1924 by Haganah commanders in Jerusalem led by Avraham Tehomi. Commanders of the Haganah also stole weapons from the warehouses of the rival "Haganah Leumit" organization.Vicious Attacks Against Beitar MembersA new level of organized thuggery was reached with the savage beatings of Beitar Movement members all over the country by "Plugot HaPoel" groups belonging to the Histadrut. A typical attack took place during Passover of 1933, when hundreds of men armed with clubs and metal bars fell upon a group of Beitar youth, aged 12 to 14. Twenty-four children, some of them badlywounded, were hospitalized.The Arlozorov Blood LibelIn June 1933, Zionist leader Dr. Chaim Arlozorov was murdered. Three innocent men, Abba Achimeir, Avraham Stavsky, and Meir Rosenblatt, were charged with the crime when their only real crime was their membership in Beitar.Kidnappings, Torture, and the Murder of Eliyahu ShlomiThe war against the Revisionists continued in 1939 with the kidnapping and torture of Irgun men. The attacks climaxed with an attack by hundreds of thugs on a Beitar camp in Hertzliya on August 18, 1940. Eliyahu Shlomi was murdered and seven of his friends were wounded.The Small SaisonIn April of 1942, a new red line was crossed. The Shai, the intelligence service of the Haganah, organized a manhunt in which dozens of Lechi fighters were kidnapped, cruelly tortured, and finally extradited to the British. This ugly operation was called "The Small Saison (hunting season)."The Big SaisonBetween November 1944 and January 1945, the "anti-terrorist unit" of the Haganah kidnapped, tortured, and handed over about 200 Irgun fighters to the British. Most of the men were expelled to holding camps in Africa. The man responsible for this operation, called "The Big Saison," was David Ben-Gurion. The operation's commanders were Yigal Alon followed by Shimon Avidan. Sadistic interrogators under the command of David Shaltiel beat and tortured their prisoners with terrible brutality. Irgun commander Ya'akov Tavin was held in a barn in Ein Harod for six months, handcuffed to a bed, where he was forced to defecate and urinate. Before interrogations he was sprayed with hoses; during interrogations the nails of his fingers and toes were torn out, his limbs were scorched with white-hot metal, and other horrors too graphic to describe were perpetrated.Teddy Kollek the CollaboratorIn the years that followed, the Haganah continued to hand over Jewish fighters to the British and to sabotage Irgun operations. Teddy Kollek, who liasoned with the British in his capacity of Jewish Agency communications officer, was a prominent collaborator. The Haganah led the British to the hiding place of the Lehi fighters Menachem Luntz and Shabtai Druker in Moshav Yavne'el on April 6, 1943. The fighters were surrounded and fought bravely to their death.The Second Small SaisonActs of kidnapping and torture continued in 1947 ("The Second Small Saison"). On January 11, 1948, two Irgun fighters, Yedidya Segal and Moshe Levi, were kidnapped in Haifa. Yedidya was brutally tortured to death by men of the special forces of the Haganah. Moshe Levi was injected with dangerous chemicals meant to act as a "truth serum" that irreversibly damaged his health. He was released after the murder of Yedidya Segal was exposed.On April 8, 1948, twelve Irgun men sent to reinforce Mishmar Hayarden were attacked next to Ginnosar by a Palmach force of 100 men. They were savagely beaten and their weapons were confiscated. Mishmar Hayarden was left with no reinforcements, helping the Syrians to conquer the moshav later in the war.The Altalena MassacreIn June 1948, the newly formed provisional government of Israel ordered the newly established Israeli Defense Forces to open fire on the Altalena, an Irgun ship carrying 900 immigrants, including Holocaust survivors, and arms to fight the battle of Jerusalem. Most of the immigrants barely managed to jump from the ship before it was blown up off the shore of Tel Aviv. Senior Palmach commander Yitzchak Rabin gave the order to open fire. Aside from bombing the ammo-heavy ship with cannons, sniper fire was directed at people in the water who were trying to reach land from the burning ship. Sixteen Irgun men were murdered in the attack, and hundreds of Jewish volunteers coming to Israel to fight the Arab enemy were arrested and humiliated.Murdered by the ShaiDuring the War of Independence, two Irgun men were murdered without trial by the Shai, the Haganah's intelligence branch. They were suspected of unintentionally killing Haganah men in an operation against the British in 1947. The Irgun men were fighting as soldiers in the 3rd and 9th Brigades of the united Israeli army. While battling the Arab enemy, they were shot in the back to make it appear that they were killed in combat.After the Creation of the StateUnfortunately, once the State came into being, the dominant Mapai party did not call for national reconciliation and unity. Instead, the Left's suppression of the Right moved from physical violence to civil and social discrimination. In the 50's, Irgun and Lehi fighters were prosecuted, ostracized, and banned from employment or advancement in many areas of public life. It was difficult for them to find jobs, and they were barred from joining the security forces.The Kastner Blood LibelThe Shai created fictitious underground organizations so they could cook up new blood libels against the Right. When Israel Kastner was murdered by agents of the Shai on March 4, 1957, the murder was pinned on a fictitious right-wing underground movement.The Likud's rise to power in May 1977 put a temporary end to the incitement against the Right. For the first time in 44 years, the Left was in the opposition and briefly on the defense. But if the Left feared that once in power, the Right would treat it as it treated the Right, they quickly discovered that Menachem Begin truly sought a government of national reconciliation and unity. The Left, never interested in reconciliation but only in power, bided its time.Oslo and the Renewed War Against the RightIn 1993, Yitzchak Rabin became prime minister and signed the Oslo Agreement with mass murderer Yasser Arafat. Israel's public enemy number one now became the "enemies of peace," those citizens opposed to Oslo, which included most prominently the Jewish residents of Judea, Samaria and Gaza. A campaign of hate and delegitimization was directed at the "settlers" which successfully marginalized them, preventing the growing mass public dissatisfaction with Oslo from becoming a decisive political force.Over the course of fifteen years, hundreds were arrested, beaten, and humiliated, thousands were harassed, and hundreds of thousands were intimidated. The government adopted methods such as fabricated criminal files, anti-democratic administrative detentions, and destruction of private property. It reached the point where ordinary civil and human rights were suspended when it came to those branded as "settlers" or "right-wing extremists." This process, sanctioned by a politicized court system and a cheering media, successfully suppressed effective opposition to the anti-Zionist drift of a post-Zionist government.The (Anti-)Jewish Division of the ShabakIts name changed, but not its methods: the State's intelligence branch was now called the Shabak instead of the Shai, but it continued to instigate operations designed to falsely discredit the Right. A special department was actually created for this purpose. The Shabak recruited agentprovocateurs such as Avishai Raviv ("Champagne") who founded fake underground organizations like "Eyal" and incited unbalanced figures like Yigal Amir to violence - all for the purpose of destroying the legitimate and democratic opposition to Oslo and Israel's post-Zionist leadership. An entire population was dehumanized and demonized in the service of this goal.The Rabin Murder Blood LibelOn November 4, 1995, Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin was murdered by an apparently lone assassin with a strong connection to Shabak agent Avishai Raviv. The entire right wing public was blamed for the murder and its leadership was singled out for a campaign of legal harassment and public condemnation. Non-official investigations of the murder have advanced dramatically, and once their conclusions are published, they will dwarf the Arlozorov blood libel.The ExpulsionIn the summer of 2005, a crime of epic proportions was perpetrated against the Jewish People as a whole and against 8,000 of Israel's most loyal and productive citizens in particular. Bulldozers of the State of Israel destroyed twenty-five blossoming Jewish communities in Gush Katif and Northern Samaria, and soldiers of the Jewish State dragged 8,000 men, women, and children out of the homes and farms that they had diligently and lovingly built over the course of a generation. The campaign of degradation and vilification against the people of Gush Katif and Northern Samaria that preceded their exile was especially heartless and ugly.Once Gush Katif was handed over to Palestinian terrorists to use as a base for continued warfare against Israel, the leftist government announced "The Realignment Plan," an extension of the Gush Katif expulsion in Judea and Samaria. This plan called for the expulsion of another 70,000 Jews from their homes and the destruction of 60 additional towns and villages. While Israel's abysmal failure in the Second Lebanon War temporarily froze this plan, the Left has lately resumed its efforts.The Sternhall ProvocationThe blatant harassment of ideologically strong individuals and communities in Judea and Samaria who live quietly on their land and the glaring disregard for their civil and property rights has been the order of the day for the past few years. To justify the unjustifiable and to remind the public who Israel's real enemy is in the wake of the approaching elections, it was time for a new blood libel against the Right. A leftist professor who has spent his career inciting violence against the "settlers" was attacked by some shadowy group that - surprise, surprise - appears to bear the hallmark of past Shabak fictions.A Second "Big Saison" Circa 2008?During these days the government has been issuing new decrees almost daily against the national camp in general and the citizens of Judea and Samaria in particular: expulsion orders, restriction orders, administrative detentions (indefinite imprisonment without legal process), police violence, the prohibition of demonstrations, cutting off water and electricity to Jewish settlements, the destruction of settlements - all accompanied by the familiar, strident denunciations of the "violent extremists" on the right.If the public makes clear that it knows what the real score is - who the violent ones really are and who is really trampling democracy - perhaps we can avoid a "New Big Saison" in 2008.Conclusion:Women In Green has noted the growth of a new phenomenon, a new tool in the Left's bag of dirty tricks not mentioned in the inventory above: the government is allowing outsiders into Judea and Samaria to foment constant clashes and conflict. Foreign "anarchists" and anti-Israel activists of all stripes have banded together with Israeli traitors and Arab activists to stir up trouble and undermine the Israeli army presence and the state's security needs in Judea and Samaria.These groups are funded, whether secretly or openly, by foreign, anti-Zionistic and anti-Semitic organizations, often with the cooperation of Muslim and Arab terror organizations. They are protected by an unholy alliance within the government, the Israeli press, and the judicial system. They are encouraged by a cultural and intellectual elite that lauds Israel's enemies while excoriating her defenders.May the people of Israel rise above their sectarian quarrels and differences to address the huge existential threats to Israel's existence in the coming elections.Distributed as a public service by Women for Israel's Tomorrow - Women in Green.Contact us to order booklets at http://www.womeningreen.orgBibliography:(in Hebrew)Arieh Yitzhaki, "The Cain Syndrome" (to be printed in the coming monthsYehuda Lapidot, "The Saison"David Niv, "The Irgun", 1965Shlomo Nakdimon, "Altalena", 1978
Michael Medved calls on Conservative Republicans to give Barak Obama a chance
Conservatives will make a serious mistake if we begin the conflict before Obama even takes office.
The most important factor to remember is that most Americans feel exhausted and weary from a seemingly endless two year campaign and seriously crave a break from politics. Part of the general sense of relief and exultation on election night involved the shattering of an historic racial barrier, of course, but the public also felt gratitude because they sensed that a bitter partisan struggle had at long last lurched, coughed and sputtered to its climactic conclusion. They not only welcomed the unifying, bipartisan tone of both Obama's victory speech and McCain's singularly gracious concession, but embraced the idea that the nation might actually enjoy a needed respite from the daily attacks and "gotcha!" politics.
In that sense, the immediate insistence on demonizing the president-elect conveys precisely the wrong message. One of the reasons the GOP suffered major reverses across the country involved the perception that they practiced more divisive and angry politics than did the Obama-crats, with his fuzzy, feel-good message of hope and change. By a wide margin, poll respondents identified McCain more than Obama as a candidate who spent most of his time attacking rather than offering a positive vision.
In that sense, Republicans in talk radio and elsewhere who greet the new president with instantaneous denunciation as a "thug," or set up a public count-down calendar to the next presidential election, hurt themselves more than Obama. They confirm the already damaging public perception that Republicans know what we're against but offer no coherent vision of what we support.
The angry negativity also helps the GOP avoid the painful soul-searching and re-tooling of the conservative message that faces any viable party after a bitter, sweeping defeat—and that's another reason to postpone the Obama attacks. Focusing on what's wrong with the Democrats allows us to avoid facing what's wrong with us, and figuring out why the public rejected our message in both 2006 and 2008. Trashing our opponents helps us to dodge the blame for public disillusionment with the Republican Party itself– blame that extends well beyond McCain (or Palin) and should rightly include some of the same commentators most eager to return to the partisan fray.
There's nothing improper about tough partisan attacks as long as they focus on substance and significant issues, and constitute a response to some misguided initiatives or bone-headed errors by the other side. We should give Obama the chance to make such mistakes – as he surely will, following the pattern of Bill Clinton, another newly elected, young Democratic hero with seemingly messianic gifts.
Yes, the public expects harsh political warfare in the years ahead but it matters greatly who's the perceived initiator of the conflict. Bush suffered through his entire presidency for the perception that he never delivered on his earnest "uniter-not-a-divider" rhetoric, and that he and Karl Rove– and not the Democrats – created the hostile, toxic atmosphere in Washington.
It's a much smarter strategy to give Barack Obama the benefit of the doubt in his early days as the nation's leader. If we furiously reject any attempts at reconciliation or governing from the center before they're even made, we only encourage the new president to turn sharply to the left—and give him public justification for doing so.
It's more important right now to focus on the spirit of the upcoming holidays – giving thanks, rejoicing in family, demonstrating our commitment to patriotism, peace and good will, and dropping discussions of Obama's birth certificate (what a stupid obsession!) and past radical associations. Surely, even the most embittered battler must welcome the idea of giving rock 'em/sock 'em partisan politics a brief rest. It's also a sure thing that the American people will feel profoundly grateful if we do so.
Have a wonderful and healthy Shabbos,
Rachamim Pauli
