Hang in there Gilad

Today is the first anniversary of the abduction and kidnapping of Gilad Shalit, who still sits and waits for freedom somewhere in the bowels of Gaza.

Here's what I wrote in my journal around that time, one year ago, in my pre-blogging days:

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June 2006

So you think that the problems of the Middle East will be solved if Israel cedes land to the Arabs?

Today we are only getting a little taste of what happens when we try to trade land for peace.

Immediately after we withdrew from Gaza last summer, the Arabs began firing rockets over the border into schools and living rooms in surrounding Jewish towns.

Today we have something new: Islamic rats are digging kilometer long tunnels under the border to murder and kidnap Jews.

The entire Gazan border is maybe 30 miles long. Imagine what would happen if Israel bowed to world pressure and pulled back to the 1948 armistice line (known as the Green line). That would create a winding, convoluted border of 240+ miles, leaving 60% of Israeli Jews living in a narrow 10-mile wide coastal plain wedged between the sea to the west and mountains on the Green-line to the east. Imagine the trouble and heartache that we would suffer from snipers, rockets, missiles and whatever stuff the Arabs manage to get their hands on!

Let me make it simple for all who don't understand: The Arabs are not fighting for land and justice. They are fighting to spread Islam and the rule of Sharia law through every corner of the world. They will not stop until Israel is completely destroyed, then they will march on to conquer Europe, and then the US and beyond.

To all of you in the "give them what they want and they'll leave us alone" camp, consider this: If you give them what they want then you may soon be reading the Koran with your morning coffee rather than the Washington Post.

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That's what I wrote one year ago. In the year since, the Arabs have fired hundreds of rockets at Sderot, southern Ashkelon and the western Negev, making normal life impossible for tens of thousands of ordinary people. Last week, Hamas kicked Fatah's butt out of Gaza and will shortly turn it into an Islamic mini-state ruled by Sharia law.

When I wrote my journal entry last year, I referred to the fact that 60% of the Jewish population of the country lives in a narrow 10-mile wide strip wedged between the sea on one side and the Samarian mountain range on the other. When I made that comment, I had in mind a certain memory that I'd like to share with you:

In January 1995 I was sitting in a doctors waiting room flipping through the pages of Newsweek . I skimmed an article about the Siege of Sarajevo. The bombardment of Sarajevo began in April 1992 after the breakup of Yugoslavia. The city is surrounded by mountains, as you may recall from the scenes of the Winter Olympics that were held there in 1984. During the siege of the city, snipers in the surrounding heights kilometers away, fired mercilessly at anything that moved in the city below, and hundreds of shells were fired into the city every day, destroying 35,000 buildings. By the time that NATO military intervention and the Dayton accords ended the siege three years later, 12,000 people in the city were dead, 50,000 injured.

What I remember so vividly was the photo that accompanied the article. In it, a young boy 8 or 9 years old lay sprawled face down in a giant pool of his own blood in a playground, a soccer ball resting at his feet.

I wondered then how much hate a Serbian sniper needed in order to put a bullet through the heart of a little boy playing soccer.

Looking at that photograph, I thought of a different small country on the sunny shores of the Eastern Mediterranean, where just 28 years earlier, snipers hidden in the commanding hills above fired on boys playing ball in fields below.

So people, lets have a show of hands: Who is in favor of giving the high ground to the Arabs?

Keep doing those acts of kindness folks, it's the only solution!

Calvin Coolidge. Enough said.

Quote of the day: "I have never been hurt by what I have not said." - Calvin Coolidge

Here's a tidbit to make sure that you keep coming back for updates:

Last night, Eileen made her way to Jerusalem to have dinner with Lori, Sammy, Brenda and Hindy Chazanow (and her friend from Morisstown). Hindy and friend were here with Birthright, and were able to extend their trip a few extra days. After dinner, they came back to Bet Shemesh to spend the night, and this morning we dropped them off at the airport at 8:30, after which we drove Lori and Brenda back to Jerusalem. After dropping Lori off so she could get a bagel before work, we headed down to the German Colony to drop Brenda off at an orientation day for the high school that she will be starting, B"EH in September.

After depositing Brenda where she needed to be, Eileen and I found parking and had a big breakfast at Cafe Aroma.

To get back home, I took a roundabout route to try to avoid the thousands of police that were deployed in the city for the Gay Pride parade scheduled for 5:00 PM today. As I write this, I am streaming the Channel 2 news and watching live coverage. It looks very, well, colorful.

Apparently, all it takes is a Gay Parade to divert the nations attention from the new terrorist state that Hamas has established on our border. Gotta love those gays? I hear that next week the Adulterers will be having an Adulterers Pride parade, followed by the Lovers of Incest parade.

Personally, I wish these people would stick to Tel-Aviv for their parades. Is this nonsense really a price that Jerusalem has to pay for being not only Gods Capitol City, but also the political Capitol of our secular state?

I just spoke to my mother-in-law. Somehow, they managed to get into the city and rounded up Lori and Brenda for dinner in a restaurant which is just down the block from one of the counter-demonstrations. Those girls sure are eating well this week.

That's about it, will keep you posted!

Death by Defenestration

I should really blog more often.

I see from other blogs that they build momentum and develop a certain rythym. My twice a month postings will never accomplish that. I think I should blog more often. What do you think?

So what's happening today in this small country on the sunny shores of the Eastern Mediterranean?

Here's a good one: Shimon Peres was selected by the Knesset to be the country's ninth president today. It's nice that they finally gave him a figurehead job where he can't cause any trouble. Thank you Knesset!

Next, we have civil war in Gaza. Here I am, sitting peacefully while full fledged civil war is raging just 40 miles away. That's less than the distance to the Lincoln tunnel from my former home in Marlboro (which means, for my non-New York area readers, not far at all).

Hamas (those are the religiously observant Islamic Arabs) have now added Defenestration as a method of disposing of their Fatah foes (Fatah are the secular, formerly Marxist, but now just plain corrupt Islamic Arabs). Recently, Hamas has been grabbing Fatah guys off the streets of Gaza, tying hands behind back and then hurling them from the top floor windows of the highest buildings in Gaza (about 18 stories). This comes on the heels of a rash of particularly cruel shootings committed by Fatah in recent weeks where dozens of bearded young Arab Gazan men are shot at close range in the legs and left in the street to bleed to death (although you can view videos on YouTube where the victims are mercifully shot through the head if they plead sufficiently). Apparently, bearded men in Gaza are presumed to be Hamas supporters. Now might be a good time to be in the disposable razor business in Gaza.

I took a walk today, and I realized that I sure do know a lot of people in this town. On my short walk to the Post Office and back, I saw at least 20 people that I know in one way or another. In all cases, smiles or waves were heartily exchanged. I exchanged greetings with familiar faces in passing cars, as I passed Mercaz HaPizza, Rafi the Pizza guy spotted me and gave a wave. I got a hello from Shai the Computer guy. In the post office I exchanged hellos with 3 familiar faces standing ahead of me in the line, and of course the nice Postal lady asked how things were, she knows me by name which is nice because I never have to show ID when picking up packages. After the Post Office, I got a wave from Dudu the grocer, Murray the other Pizza Guy (at Halav U'Dvash), and don't forget the nice guy at the Felafel stand. On the way back, more familiar faces stopped cars to offer a ride down the hill, but I declined. Passing the Matnas, a group of 8 special young people, mostly with Downs, were walking up the hill holding hands. As I passed through the group, I gave big "Shalom", and got a whole bunch of Shaloms in return. I exchanged Buenos Dias with the nice Argentinian fellow who I sometimes see when I daven at Chabad, gave a big Shalom and a smile to the neighbor next to the Shul who frequently accuses us of throwing our trash in his trash can, and got waves and hellos from all the kids playing outside their houses on the shvil. I would say that at least 10,000 people live in my part of town (out of a total population of 70,000 between Bet Shemesh and Ramat Bet Shemesh). That means that there are lots more people to meet out there!

What else happened today? The Sunnis in Iraq blew up the same revered Shiite mosque today that they blew up a little more than a year ago. Now there is a total curfew in the country, although if I lived in Iraq, I wouldn't need a curfew to know that it would be a good idea to hide in the basement after a thing like that happens. Sunnis make up 20 percent of the population of Iraq, but they want to be in charge of the whole country because they think that their version of Islam is superior. I think they also want to be in control all of the revenues from oil production. You know the old saying in the Arab world: He with the most money can have many wives, but then he needs many houses in which to keep them, and many cars, and many servants and therefore he needs the most money. Doesn't that sound like a circular argument? Or maybe it's a pyramid scheme... ha ha ha that's a funny one! (think Egypt).

Side note: Now that the Arabs are blowing up one another's mosques, I sure hope that we get plenty of advance notice if they are planning to blow up the big one on top of Har HaBayit.

Eileen did a big Chesed yesterday. As we were driving back from Yeheskels hardware store, I was looking out my own window, while Eileen, who was driving, let out a big gasp. I said "What?!" and she pointed to a lady on the ground on the other side of the street. Eileen had witnessed her trip and fall to the ground. We stopped the car, and by the time Eileen crossed the street, the lady was up on her feet. The sidewalk was wet for some reason, and the poor Russian lady was all muddy and scraped up on the arms. Eileen brought her across the street into the car, and we drove her to her apartment, which was pretty much on the other side of town, but that's OK since this whole city is only 1 kilometer wide, so the other side of town isn't really that far.

The Lebanese army has been flexing it's muscles in the last two weeks. They have been mercilessly shelling apartment complexes containing Al-Qaeda inspired "activists" (as the BBC likes to call them) who are hiding amongst the regular civilian population. Dozens have been killed so far. I'm sure this story will have the usual familiar ending: Syria will let loose a series of suicide bombings that will bring the country to a standstill, and the people will have to "invite" the Syrian army back (again) to help restore civil order. This time, it will probably take more than the 30 years that it took the last time.

I saw another photo in the paper of Sudanese refugees sneaking on foot across the Sinai border into our little country. A whole group was picked up yesterday just outside of Beersheva. There is a debate in our country about what to do with them. Not many in the world today are paying attention to the fact that the lighter skinned Islamists in Sudan are terrorizing the indigenous darker skinned African population. Well, terrorizing is not completely accurate. How about murdering, raping, maiming and then terrorizing? That's more accurate. Hundreds of thousands have already died, and millions have been displaced from their homes. I don't get it. Sudan is more than 10 times the size of our little country, but the Islamists can't find enough room there to just let the non-Islamists live in peace? Those Islamists sure do have a hard time getting along with other people. Just ask anyone who has had a car torched in France, or been blown up on the Underground in London. The European Union has it's hands full with it's own Islamists. I guess that's why they don't have the resources to do anything about the ongoing carnage in Sudan. In the meantime, we sit in this small country on the sunny shores of the Eastern Mediterranean, debating how many displaced Sudanese we can absorb into our own economy. I'm sure the UN will find a way to condemn us for that.

Here's a bit of positive news: On Tuesday, UK Conservative Party leader David Cameron said in a public forum that he is a Zionist. His words: "If what you mean by Zionist, is someone who believes that the Jews have a right to a homeland in Israel and a right to their country then, yes, I am a Zionist and I'm proud of the fact that Conservative politicians down the ages have played a huge role in helping bring this about." He took a firm stance on Hamas, saying that Israel "has a totally legitimate right to exist and defend itself." While Tony Blair, the former Labor Party leader and Prime Minister held a similar opinion, Blair frequently expressed his belief that the starting point for a comprehensive peace in the Middle East began with a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Cameron parts company with Blair on this point, saying "I think sometimes politicians can be a bit naive in believing that if only we solved the problem of Israel and Palestine then roadside bombs will stop going off in Iraq."

These words of clarity are welcome in light of the plethora of boycotts against Israel that have been recently declared by Academic and Trade Unions in the UK, who consider the Jooos to be the single greatest threat to peace in the world.

What is a simple Jooo to do? Why do Sunnis hate Shiites so much? Well, where I'm concerned, if the Sunnis and the Shiites and the Alawaites and Baathists and Sufis and Wahabis and Hashemites and Saudis and Persians and Kurds and Egyptians and Copts ever figure a way to live with one another, that's when the Jooos should start to worry.

In the meantime folks, just keep doing acts of random kindness. It's the only solution.

My Birthday, circa 1967

Did you miss it? Yesterday was the 40th anniversary of the start of the Six-Day War. It was all over when my seventh birthday arrived the following week. I didn't know anything about it at the time, it was lost in the background of Vietnam, civil rights demonstrations and Russian nuclear hegemony, broadcast by the ever friendly Walter Cronkite on the little black-and-white television in our living room. I was just an ordinary 2nd grade kid learning reading, writing and arithmetic, and being terrorized by Italian sons-of-mafioso on my twice daily round-trip walk to PS 216.

I wonder how different things would have been if I had been living in this small country on the sunny shores of the Western Mediterranean. I have a 7-year old boy somewhere here in the house! I'll have to remember to ask him when he grows up.

I caught this article on the war from the June 19, 1967 edition of TIME Magazine. It's worth reading if you have time (no pun intended :-). In this modern era of historic revisionism, it's refreshing to go back in time and see how things really were.

So here we are 40 years later, the world is no less dangerous as it was back then, intelligent people stumble around in the dark and still refuse to use their G-d given powers of free-choice for good.

See you all soon in Jerusalem!

Here's the link to TIME Magazine:

http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,843937,00.html#