Showing posts with label Eretz Yisrael. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Eretz Yisrael. Show all posts

22 April 2026

Dealing with bumps in the road before the Great Redemption...

5 Iyar 5786 | ה' אייר ה'תשפ"ו 
Happy 78th Birthday, State of Israel! 
Here's hoping the leadership here wakes up and the d33p state disappears!

 

My favorite "news" source in these days of "war feeling very close to me" are the media led by Avi Abelow, an IDF reservist for at least 20 years (from what I can tell). I remember when he put out the movie Home Game in 2005, depicting the lead-up into the Gerush from Gush Katif, that shows how teenagers back then felt about the impending expulsion (the leadership called it "disengagement." We know now how bad that mistake was! We see how it led directly to the Simchat Torah massacre on October 7, 2023.).

Avi manages to be very encouraging and tough at the same time. Here's an example of how he speaks to us...

 

If there were an election for Mashiach ben Yosef, I would suggest that Avi run for it. His media outlets are Pulse of Israel and Israel Video Network. You can also click on these links on my sidebar here 👉👉👉. They are in two different spots.

The best thing of all is that Avi encourages his audience to look to God for deliverance from our troubles, rather than our leadership or that of the US or other countries...and he's not a rabbi or any other kind of preacher! Just a regular Jew. 

Below is another example, this time with an employee or associate (I don't know what they are called) of IVN.

 ***

Thanks to Leah Rosenberg of Israel Unwired for this short video on X, from UN Watch. More details on the article You would think it was satire if it wasn't real. 

The UN voted in Iran — of all countries — to be on a committee dealing with human rights, on 16 April 2026. Last Thursday, at this writing! Spoiler: By a landslide! Can you believe this? If you click on the link immediately above, with the title of the post, you'll get to see the final vote for it.

As Leah commented at the end of her article,

UN members sit there and condemn Israel for anything and everything. And then tyrannical regimes get put on committees dealing with human rights. How twisted and backward that is! The UN is far from a trustworthy institution. This clip of the UN is sadly just one of many examples of how this organization is a farce. Anyone who takes the United Nations seriously does not live on this planet.

Even if it feels like much of the world is against you, stand on the right side of history. Stand with morality. Don’t give in to the nonsense that seemingly permeates the entire world sometimes. Swim against the tide. Because in the end, it will be worth it.

 ***

Abba, please redeem us now! Help us do real teshuva (return, repentance) and let the Kingdom come!

A finishing touch: You might love this video, A soldier carries a Torah into battle. That changes everything.

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 More reading:

 Jonathan Tobin (JNS) on Israel Unwired: What do the Democrats want from Israel? | R' Hoshea Allen, The Shoemaker Report: Send someone else!

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More videos/mixed media:

 JTV presents Piers Morgan and an Iranian guest: The moment Islamic Republic official realized he was DONE on live TV! | Melanie Phillips: How the west was lost

 


02 March 2026

PuRiM music during the war repeating the original...in 2026 terms

  Ta'anit Esther 5786 | תענית אסתר ה'תשפ"ו

 Just in time for Purim! 😍

 

 

What we have today:

A video from 8th Day that seems to reflect the mood this year...how did they know?👆

 

I found some other interesting videos, from friends and YouTube:

For mixed audiences: The Maccabeats — Purim Song (Raise Your Glass) (Queen Esther is played by a toddler here)

For women: Queen Esther's Crown - a song for Purim (an amazing use of AI, despite my dislike of it)

No matter what you think of US Pres. Trump, you might like "his" brief  "Iranian Rhapsody" (yes, it's AI too.)

For kids of all ages: Six13: Who is this Haman? It's very fast; hopefully the subtitles will help!

 

HaPpY pUrIm to all! 

 

 

 

02 January 2024

"I Defend Myself, Therefore I Am!"

 21 Tevet 5784 | כ"א טבת ה'תשפ"ד

"October 87, 2023"



Plea for my Land by Herbert Pagani
In French, with English and Hebrew subtitles

What Herbert Pagani wrote about and recited here has been our history at least ever since Lavan (Laban | לבן) looked at Jacob (Ya'acov | יעקב) the wrong way in Paddan Aram (SEARCH) (possibly somewhere in today's Syria, but no one states anywhere specific), prompting the latter to confirm with HQB"H that he should head back home to ERETZ YISRAEL | ארץ ישראל. This video is from 1976, according to a comment HERE

(HERBERT AVRAHAM HAGGIAG PAGANI, a Libyan-Italian Jew born in Tripoli, artist, musician and poet, passed away from leukemia in 1988 at the age of 44. Read more about his fascinating life on Wikipedia)

A Chinese commenter wrote in English: "Nationalism is not always racist; for some is about establishing an identity and standing up for yourself and your group. Now it makes so much more sense."

Too bad that a great deal of water under the bridge since  didn't net any change at all. Perhaps we in Israel will back up haShem's command on His form of our government and how it should be run?

We have been gaslighted all along by people who thrive under the system a lot of us barely live under. You can see this in an oped by Michael Rosental Guzman, where he adds to Pagani's statement: I define myself, therefore I am.

Another English translation of his poem, by his friend Albert Russo, is found in Herbert Pagani: Plea for my Land.

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More viewing:

If you care about women, share this video! | Terror Tunnel Found in Judea, Are There More? |

12 December 2023

It's God and Torah Time for the People of Israel!

29 Kislev 5784 |  כ"ט כסלו ה'תשפ"ד
5th candle of Hanukkah | נר חמישי של חנוכה

 

 NB: Credit for the title of this post is below, near the end.



 

At the same time the war between Israel and Hamas continues, last week some of the women in my neighborhood got together to make plain tambourines into decorations for the glory of God and to entice Him to bring the Geulah Shlemah now! The tambourine pictured in the video above (you will see it and others through their design development) in the end bears a message from Tehillim/Psalms 42:3: My soul thirsts...for the Living God. The whole thing is 1:20.

 ***

The two paragraphs below contain an observation and an insight, in that order, that I had last week:

Over an extended period of time, the Muslims have very well proved themselves to be the children of Hagar, their mother; now, let them prove themselves to be children of Avraham Avinu, their father and ours. Hospitality is not enough to get them there; they also have to recognize their cousins, the children of Yitzhak-and-Ya'acov, in a positive manner. 

A hint to the evil of their behavior: Their epithet "itbakh al-Yahud" not only means "slaughter the Jew" but also "slaughter gratefulness"! "Yahud" in Arabic is equivalent to the Hebrew "Yehudim", from Yehuda, whom Leah, the mother of most Jews, named out of her gratefulness to HQB"H (the Holy One, blessed be He) for having more than filled her quota of sons.

In our day, we can learn precisely from this why Jews are counted by who their mother is, and not by their father, because the mother inspires the heart of the children from the time they spend in her womb and throughout childhood. 

The tribal assignation comes from the father, and a Jewish woman marries into her husband's tribe. This is a point most of us do not think about much; we are busy enough just trying to keep Jews going in our family tree! But there will come a problem in the not-so-distant future: Jews who have Jewish mothers, but who have no Jewish father, have no tribe! (This is more relevant for the men than for the women, since the latter marry into their husband's tribe, as mentioned above, and it could be relevant only to American Jews.) Where will they be able to live in Eretz haQodesh when the time comes? Who will decide this: Mashiah, the Sanhedrin or the rabbis of that day? This comes straight from the book of Shemoth (Exodus in English)...

The possibility remains that some of the fathers who assumed they weren't Jews will be called and set apart as Jews by the prophet Eliyahu, and will thus gain a tribe they thought they wouldn't be part of.

But, I'm getting ahead of myself a bit. First things first.

We are in a quandary with regard to our goal for this war. We want — no, we need — to win. But because even if we call out our enemy for who he is — Amalek — we will not be allowed to kill all of them as God commanded, due to the government's submission to powers that shouldn't be, of the sort that play both sides of wars all the time and who do things far worse than anything we've ever done in our long history.

Our Prime Minister, Bibi Netanyahu, may God bless him with wisdom, has been quoted as saying that he both wants (and would adopt the Hebrew calendar as standard. What? We didn't do that already? It's not a religious practice so much as the time keeper we were given...) and doesn't want a Biblical/Talmudic government. 

I tend to believe the second one more. It seems to be the desire of those in charge of keeping the status quo of the Israeli government system to keep people afraid of having a governance we haven't had in almost 2,000 years; it's easy to keep the civilians and the army vets alike afraid of the unknown, unless they're growing up with the Tana"ch. Years ago I noticed this in myself, so I've been working on it ever since my days among the nations when it occurred to me that every news story about Israel was specifically designed to keep diaspora Jews afraid even to visit, never mind decide that a long-neglected set of commandments from God should be taken out from between, or under, the mothballs in the place where they have been kept safely hidden away from the very people who should benefit from it.

But more than the state of our government, it's the paradigm we've been living under that bothers me more. 

Sitting at the feet of the "democracy" enforcers in Europe and the United States, learning from them, taking their side on everything, and taking orders from them constantly for the more than 75 years since Israel became a "state" have kept us from examining our own God-given indigenous governance. On the other hand, our neighbors and cousins nearby don't believe in democracy, and many actually believe we're not the descendants of the Hebrews/Israelites in the Bible.

Or, at least, that's what they say. Maybe these objections are nothing more than excuses to engage in war and bloodshed, which they have loved for thousands of years and graphically displayed to the world with pride and pleasure on Simchath Torah/October 7th, 2023 with the massacre on the area we call the Gaza Envelope. Maybe they think it will be extremely easy to wipe us off the face of the earth (I picked up a possible clue that soon we'll be seeing similar things about the South of Israel, near the Negev) because our numbers have been small for an extremely long time due to constant attempts at genocide.

There, I've said it. GENOCIDE. It seems that's what the world wants now, for us to disappear from the earth, and they will enforce it violently, or allow others to do so.

(So, what should we in Israel look out for? Maybe of what R' Uri Sofer has to say about the dangers from within HERE: AUDIO ONLY, Hebrew with interspersed English translation, over one (1) hour. Tehillim recitations are followed by the speech and its translation. 

Let's shake off the psychological operations that have been done on us, dividing us and taking advantage of a divided people, and plead to HaQadosh Baruch Hu together for salvation!)

Those three Ivy League-level presidents of US universities (they weren't all Ivy League, but have pretty much equal status in the hierarchy of educational institutions) all hedged on the question from Congresswoman Elise Stefanik (R, NY) of whether threats of genocide were acceptable on campus. One of them, Lisa McGill, stepped down from her more-than-$2M-a-year job last Saturday, 9 December 2023/Shabbat Hanukkah 5784.

This comes from a long history of antisemitism in the US as well as the rest of the world. Here is a SEARCH on how antisemitism became an American crisis, which no one expected (so what else is new? No one expected it in Germany either...). I'm catching the search engines at their peak of Jew defense. Try this search again to see if it remains as positive and sympathetic as it looks at this writing.

***

 

It's G-d and Torah time for the people of Israel

CREDIT: This video is where I got the title for this post because it's so appropriate. Tzvi here talks about the "social ghettos" Israelis live in, how many of us never meet people outside our ghetto — and how our governance system encourages and enforces this dysfunction within the country, along with other related things. Can you see the connection to all our troubles and our latest war? This is the clearest video I could find with a short message (a tad over 18 minutes). 

EVERY LITTLE MITZVAH A JEW DOES IN THESE TIMES HAS GREAT VALUE. ALL THE MORE SO IF WE DO THEM AS A PEOPLE, A NATION.

Have a happy, happy, happy, happy Hanukkah!



 ***

 More Reading: 

From the Women for Israel's Tomorrow:  The People Stand Behind the Government [when it says - HDG] We Will Not Stop Until We are Victorious! | Shall they murder and inherit as well? | in JNS: There is no victory without Israeli control over Gaza | ...a few quick responses to some events, statements and headlines | Gaza: Because it's ours: Analysis | ...a very expensive and dangerous price to pay in exchange for the American embrace | Moshe Feiglin: This War is about Identity

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Why it seems our teshuva is not accepted | What we must tell Blinken | Man who harassed black neighbor in 2021 gets 8 years in jail in 2023, genocide not mentioned | Israel-Hamas war: Israeli government on hostage operations (VIDEO) | Your Nation is Calling! | Analyst: 'American pressure is making us bleed' | The truth behind the fake 'settler violence' campaign | This is how a case against those pesky settlers is made | Sudan's refugee crisis is far worse than Gaza's. Why don't we hear about it? | Has the West signed up en masse to Nazism scripted by Kafka?

 

27 November 2023

The Jewish People Needs a Whole New System!

light of 15 Kislev 5784 | אור ט"ו כסלו ה'תשפ"ד


 
"When the Jewish People are willing to stand up and say the truth, that God gave us this Land, in public, we will not need to go to war; we will not even need weapons..." —Shifra Chana Hendrie, quoting Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson

Warning: Men, if you're careful about guarding your eyes, you may want to listen rather than watch the video.

Now, I want to make clear that I am not Chabad (nor am I affiliated with any specific Jewish group, for that matter); I'm just citing a source as I know I should, for such a quote! The truth is that no matter what the results, we should state loud and clear, "in front of God and everybody" the truth about the land the Jews of Israel live in. 

"It is a nation that will dwell in solitude and not be reckoned among the nations." BaMidbar/Numbers 23:9

If you don't like the above, I guess you shouldn't follow any religion that states this truth in their primary source, whether it be the Torah, the Christian bible or the Quran.

We see the results of having given physical and moral support to our neighbors, the Arabs who surround Israel and live within her. Not very nice, is it, to say the least.

The system we have lived under for more than 75 years has failed, having ended up in (hopefully, the last) war. We will not allow this to take us out...WITH THE HELP OF GOD!!!!!

Along with Him, we are JEALOUS OVER THE LAND HE GAVE US, and thankful for His choice of us as HIS PEOPLE!!!!! Our enemies, on the other hand, are envious of us and have been trying to divest us of any desire to cling to the Land for over 75 years. The Muslims who front for them have their own rule from the Quran that if they conquer a land and a people, they own them forever (they say "the Jews are our dogs"...sound familiar?), while Israel's leadership has done everything they can to keep certain Jewish population groups down and unsuccessful, even resorting to name-calling. 

God told us that some lands aren't ours until He says so, but that the lands we hold now are part of the lands He told Moshe Rabbenu are ours. It is up to Him and to us whether we get the rest or not.

We shall see whose rules stand the test of time, and whether the Muslims really believe in God, or in opposition to Him. For that matter, will Israel's leadership believe enough in God and the Torah (let alone the Talmud) to even desire to hold on to what we have, by the hand of God?

(It wouldn't surprise me if I were to see evidence that Israelis' tax monies are being used to support the Arabs' takeover of the Holy Land, in the name of "peace." It's bad enough that US, Canadian and European money is being passed to them, but for us to fund our own demise — What???!!!)

Watch this video (over an hour) for the surprising details:

Growing Arab Muslim Antisemitism Due to Internal Israel Issues

or click on the video on the top of the sidebar on the right, as long as it's there.

***

The rest of the post features a few of the many enablers of Israel's physical and psychological woes.  One thing to keep in mind:

The more the nations condemn Israel for striking back and even overdoing it (as they perceive it), the more they are pushing us to consider changing over to Torah law, rather than what passes for law now. Do they have a clue as to the significance of the changes in many Jews, both in Israel and among the nations, due directly to the worldwide antisemitism that has manifested in the most virulent way ever, in collective living memory?

 The more you force us back together, the more clarity there is in the collective punishment you are imposing on us (but see below, it seems the Muslims have also been imposing collective punishment on all Jews!). Therefore, you should expect collective punishment of our enemies from God Almighty, whether through our hands or not!

***

A note to PM Netanyahu: The government has a deadline with the proposed global government (the WHO) of 1 DECEMBER 2023 (this is true of all the governments in the world, by the way). You may want to check this out independently, pronto (here's a shortcut) if you haven't already. LAST CHANCE NOW! Since we're in a war for our survival literally on our soil, with more threatened to come, the country really can't be bothered with deadlines that might divert our attention from...let's just say...more important things.

***

One of my pet peeves for decades is the women's rights movement that doesn't really seem to fight for women's rights. I noticed this when I saw that they didn't put up any fuss when it became known that Arab women are really in desperate need of advocates for their rights, back in the '90s. Not that there wasn't anything against Jews going on, see below.

I don't often have the opportunity to express it, as we do now. I have a message today for the UN WOMEN...

UN WOMEN, YOUR SILENCE IS UNFORGIVABLE.

Whether you, dear reader, are a woman or a man...I've joined many others who signed THIS PETITION. I encourage everyone to stand up for the women, girls and baby girls of the Israeli border of Gaza who were victims of the SIMCHAT TORAH MASSACRE in many nightmare-making ways. Kindly let me know in the comments if you do, or have already signed. 

I've been slow as usual, having this post in editing over a month. Sorry about that.

I also recognize that the men, boys and baby boy victims deserve the same attention. Justice for all! 

You know what? Sign the petition even if you advocate only for the male victims' rights. The site is named "me too--unless you are a jew" for a reason. And no, I'm not part of it in any way. I just received an email from a friend, that's all.

***

You should know that Israel did not plot to massacre all "Palestinian" Arabs, never mind all Arabs. They struck first! We live "next door" on all sides to neighbors who keep trying to murder us. We were forced to accept them (at least on the physical level) since that was one of the conditions of our having a state. Thus, we must have firm boundaries between us and them in order to get along at all. Since the boundaries were breached, we say: NO MORE, THIS HAS TO STOP! As far as I am concerned, THEY CAN NO LONGER LIVE NEXT TO US.

What would you do if you had a murderer for a neighbor, but the rest were good? A pedophile? Would you be the one to leave the neighborhood, or would you insist that the murderer or pedophile leave?

What would you do if...you had an alternative in your back pocket the whole time and didn't use it because our people didn't want it even during the period of the Kings of Israel. We call it "politically incorrect" nowadays; it seems that Bibi EITHER promised to adopt the Hebrew calendar and make the court system based on Talmudic law OR Israel will not be governed by Talmudic law. (Both from Times of Israel! Horrible and hilarious at the same time!)

Our primary source document is called the Tana"ch; it stands for Torah, Prophets and Writings. In English, it's called the Bible (I think my readers know this, but it's always good to have a reminder.). I'd like to see all the Israelis I've heard about who returned their thoughts to God since the Simchat Torah massacre looked more closely at what's involved in having a unique Jewish government, and find out what they think, in the light of this latest attempt at genocide in our homeland. 

I think we need to consider how our current system is failing us miserably, even as we try to get our hostages back, including children aged 4 and 8 (who I think turned 9 in captivity, if it was Emily Hand they were referring to) in exchange for Arab teenage boys 14 years old and up caught attempting murder by shooting, stabbing and more. (This reminds me of about ten years ago, when throwing stones and boulders wasn't considered a crime in Yehuda and Shomron. These things, used as weapons, kill, and I hope by now that our system recognizes them as such, anywhere remotely resembling Jewish soil and certainly within "recognized" Israeli territory.)

What could be worse than giving our enemy (freeing) actual criminals who were serving jail time in exchange for our kidnapped hostages, and three times as many of their guilty ones as of our innocent ones? 

There is a HUGE difference in quality between people taken hostage, as opposed to criminals caught attempting murder. Attempted murder is a serious crime anywhere else, and people who did this are being released as though they're the same as people taken captive. 

It seems as though Israel is sending the message that they are the same here. This cannot continue if we intend to survive anywhere in the world, never mind as Jews in our homeland after a couple thousand years in exile. And so I ask...

WHERE IS KFIR, THE BABY BOY LESS THAN A YEAR OLD???
HOW IS HE THE SAME AS AN ATTEMPTED MURDERER???
WHAT DID HE DO TO DESERVE BEING KIDNAPPED AND IN CAPTIVITY???

These are serious violations of derekh eretz, common decency, not to mention current law. Don't you think it's about time we searched our own primary sources for the replacement of our current governance, since it has proven it can be, and has been, influenced by the evil of the world?

***

I got an email recently from an organization that claims it has been raising money to provide defense materials for the periphery of Israel (the "Gaza envelope", Judea and Samaria, northern Israel) for the last 30 years. Here's what I wrote back:

I understood that all the weapons were taken away by the army BEFORE the massacre in Otef Aza, and have been (and maybe still are being) taken away from the towns of Judea/Samaria. Wouldn't you want to check out whether the weapons you gave the border communities, as well as Yehuda and Shomron, were taken away as well?

I was visiting Israel in August 2005, when Gush Katif was about to be expelled by the army from what we know as Gaza today, I was here on the very day they were expelled,  and I made aliyah in 2007. I do not trust the government when it comes to these sorts of things. It would seem that the money people donated to your organization might have been a waste back in 2005.

I like your idea very much, but I think somebody should be making sure that anything (in this case, weaponry) provided by the public's money donated for defense purposes should be left with the citizens that are holding it. It is a weak hope I hold that this was the case back in 2005, and even weaker that it was the case before the current Arab war against the Jews, supported by governments around the world and, it would seem, even Israel itself, began on Simchat Torah 5784.

***

The Zionist Organization of America (I have always understood them to be referring to Zion which is Yerushalayim, not as the stolen term of the erev rav) demanded recently that Al-Azhar University revoke their all-encompassing fatwa against the Jewish People in Israel. This fatwa (decree) is evidence that the Muslims here are ordered to WIPE US OUT. It would be embarrassing for them to have to deny its existence, since they're so proud of their Jew-hatred and especially their hatred of Israel and Israelis, including non-combatant women and children (sound familiar?). I also wonder from whom the "University" received the order to make their fatwa against us. More about sharia law: books by Andrew Bostom.

ZOA also published a report: Children as young as 10 took part in Hamas' Oct. 7 Terror Attack, survivors say

  Please read it. It should speak for itself. You don't need me to tell you whether or not Gazan civilians participated in the massacre.

***

The last thing you should know: "hamas" חמס is biblical Hebrew for robbery (Bereshith/Genesis 6:11), injustice (Bereshith/Genesis 6:11 and 16:5; Tehillim/Psalms 25:19) and fraudulent (Shemoth/Exodus 23:1) according to Artscroll's supercommentary on Rashi there. Rashi also notes that in the passage in Jonah 3:8, the word hamas is used in the last phrase in the verse ("...and from the robbery that is in their hands") to indicate that the people of Nineveh had stolen goods in their possession. 

Hamas (the thing the organization is named after) is the sin that tipped the scales and made God decide to wipe the earth nearly clean of mankind and Creation itself. Fortunately for us all, God has been patient and kind, allowing the world to develop these last several thousand years; but now, we must choose the side we'll be on for eternity.

Choose wisely, Official Israel (whether in the current government coalition or in the opposition). Do you want to be identified with the evil of the rest of the world's leadership? I for one don't want to be dragged down with you, should you so choose.

Let's pray that our leadership doesn't make a mockery of our upcoming Hanukkah!



30 October 2023

Dear World: I Don't Care, by Avi Lewis

light of 17 Heshvan 5784 | אור י"ז חשון ה'תשפ"ד

 

Dear World: I Don't Care, by Avi Lewis.
Used with permission.

 

Dear World: I don't care

I don't care that you sympathize with Hamas

I know you wouldn't tolerate any of the things they did to us if they would've done it to you

I don't care that you're outraged by Israel's response to the massacre more than the massacre itself

I know you would do everything to eliminate such pure evil if you experienced it yourself

I don't care that this doesn't fit neatly into your carefully constructed narrative of 'Israel as aggressor' and 'Palestinian as victim'

The truth hurts sometimes, but hey, don't let the facts get in the way of your feelings

I don't care if you think we are at fault, that we had it coming, that Hamas' actions didn't occur in a vacuum (or to deny they ever happened)

If you feel that the poster of a kidnapped child hurts your cause, maybe yours is a lost cause

I don't care about your calls for a premature ceasefire, about your demand that we provide them with electricity, that we stop fighting for 'humanitarian reasons'

What of a humanitarian gesture to release our 230+ hostages — elderly, children, babies snatched from their cribs?

I don't care that you've rallied for Palestine as part of your march for LGBTQ rights, trans rights, workers' rights, socialism, climate change, intersectionality, Black Lives Matter, fighting Islamophobia and 'all forms of racism'

Your gullibility would be laughable if it wasn't so hypocritical. None of those things exist under Hamas

I don't care that you 'love Jewish people — just hate Israel', that you have some friends that are Jewish, that maybe you're ethnically Jewish yourself — and therefore you're entitled to levy every libel in the playbook against us

Words matter. They lead to actions. When a lie is repeated often enough it's accepted as truth. You are laying the groundwork for more attacks against us

 I don't care that you wave the flag of 'human rights', that you've become overnight experts in international law, that you shout fancy slogans you don't understand such as proportionality, occupation and apartheid

Your humanity is selective. In your mind, human rights don't apply to us because we are undeserving. You didn't speak up when our women and children were horribly assaulted

I don't care if you think we are colonialists, imperialists, and settlers and that we should just go back to where we came from

We are back to where we came from

I don't care if you believe in a one state solution, a two state solution, a federation, an internationalized Jerusalem or any other theory drawn up in your ivory tower

We won't readily hold out our necks and endanger our lives in order to satisfy your thought experiments and placate your conscience from afar

I don't care if you consider yourself anti-Zionist but not antisemitic

We've seen enough Jews around the world attacked over the last 3 weeks under the guise of 'anti-Zionism'

I don't care that you think we are too powerful, too technologically advanced, too sophisticated

If we didn't build ourselves up to this point, we'd get eaten alive by Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, Iran and Palestinian terrorism

I don't care that you blame us for 1948 refugees, for the fact that they have no state, for the keys that they wave in their fantasy of 'right of return'

Three weeks ago we got a glimpse of that 'return' looks like and what it means for our children

I don't care if you think we aren't real Jews, that Zionism has nothing to do with Judaism, that Jews are a religion and not a nationality and so we deserve no state

Your denials have zero impact on the strength of our ideals and the self-affirmation of our identity

I don't care that you accuse us of flaunting the myriad of UN resolutions, inquiries and statements

They reflect more on the institutional decay of the UN than on us

I don't care about your media coverage, the lies, the equivocation, the acceptance of Hamas talking points and statistics

Your echo chamber is just another weapon in their strategic arsenal

I don't care that you accused us of bombing the Al Ahli hospital

It was only a matter of time before you found a symbol for Israel's wickedness. The subsequent retractions were a fig leaf once the truth emerged that Islamic Jihad was responsible and that the hospital is still standing

I don't care that you see us as a criminal state, a terror state, usurpers, baby killers, Christ killers, Khaybar Jews or any other depravity that exists in your mind

Your libels lay the groundwork for our dehumanization. Rings a bell. We will fight it

I don't care that you've inverted the truth by accusing us of genocide

If positions were reversed and Hamas held the power we do now, you'd see what a genocide looks like

I don't care that you're angry, boiling and outraged

I don't care that you're glued to your TV screens and Telegram channels

I don't care that you're mad

I don't care if you're out on the street, waving your flag and chanting your slogans

We won't die silently the way you want us to

For the first time in 2,000 years we are organized, we are motivated, and we will defend ourselves

We fight for light over darkness

Morality over evil

Not that it matters to you — but we will stick to the rules and hold the high moral ground not because you expect it from us, but because they are a value for us

We will do so ethically and thoughtfully, for we are the People of the Book

Our power and strength are our necessity, because the alternative for us is:

Be'eri, Kfar Aza, Pittsburgh, Toulouse, Farhud, Hebron, Birkenau, Belzec, Babi Yar, Kristallnacht, Kielce and Kishinev

Do you think for a moment that we would return to that reality just to make you feel a little better?

You are deeply mistaken

World,

For so, so long, I really, deeply cared

I cared about fitting in

I cared about what you think

I cared about being a model citizen

I cared about setting a personal example of how a tiny people in a tough neighborhood could still be a Light unto the Nations

How the world's oldest minority — now a majority here — could treat its own internal minorities par excellence amidst the complicated and messy reality of ethnic conflict

How we could painfully dismember parts of our homeland and offer them on the platter of peace to Palestinians that want neither peace nor some parts (they want all of it)

How we could dazzle you with USB sticks, drip irrigation, operating system kernels, Nobel Prize winners, swallowable medical cameras, deep tech, quantum mechanics, generative AI and cures for disease

But now I'm finally accepting that you don't care

You never did

You don't see and you don't hear

And because I cared about what you think so much, that so deeply hurts

...but you don't have my best interests at heart

You take issue with my base identity, with what I represent

Don't expect me to wait for your approval this time

It doesn't matter what I do, you're not going to change

It doesn't matter how I act, because your issue is with who I am

Now I'm going to block out your noise, and do what it takes to win this war

Today
Finally
I no longer care

***




19 October 2023

Clarification of the Jews' place in the world, in three videos, and more

 4 Heshvan 5784 | ד' חשון ה'תשפ"ג


 
One small correction: We are not the authors of morality. God, the Creator of everything, is; Moshe Rabbenu took dictation from Him directly, to put it in modern terms. Moshe also asked Him questions and wrote down (at least some of) these conversations.

The normal term for this is: Revelation.
 
This is not a small thing; I don't mean to make fun of Moshe, or of the video host, who seems to be from England (if someone knows more precisely, please comment!). I find his viewpoint refreshing and unapologetic without being arrogant. I hope this video will give strength to the weary. 
 
This ambitious young man has begun a video series about Torah Morality for the World, starting with this one, Who Does the Holy Land Belong To? — Torah Morality for the World, #1.

 
You'll find the creators of these two videos on the sidebar  under the section "Get Israel Out of the Defendant's Chair" 🢥: J-TV: Jewish Ideas. Global Relevance.  

 ***

This videographer is Israeli; I thought you'd like to hear his view as well. He requires real proof from people who disagree with him concerning the rights of the Jews to the Holy Land.

These are just a small sample of what's coming up. I had never seen or heard of these people before.

***

Lastly, R' Chananya Weissman: The Bitter Truth That Must Be Accepted

I have heard that the government is making/has made a law that Israelis who disagree with their conduct of the war will be punished/put in jail (I'm pretty sure I read it recently, but I don't remember where.). I don't think this is the right move, since our leadership hasn't yet overcome the tendency to become "captive in wrong conceptions." 

I don't want to avoid reality, but I also hope this isn't true. We don't need leadership to be in denial. Please send me links one way or the other; I can't find them.

Nevertheless, don't blame the entire world Jewish population for this decision (if it was even made) or any decision like it. Do not apply everything you read about a Jew, or even a group of Jews, to all Jews. It has never worked that way.

***

My personal opinion: The Israeli government system needs a complete overhaul, and nothing less will do. When this "matzav" is over, I'd like to see how many people will welcome a new religious system for the Jewish people in Israel. 

The signs are good. After all, the current drive for every soldier to own and wear tzitzit is driven by our soldiers themselves. Even the ones who don't wear a kippah/yarmulke. I have videos on my phone that attest to this, but I don't know how to get them here for you to see.

And lots of women are reading and reciting Tehillim (Psalms) all the time, all day long.

We need to keep this up!

***

More reading:

The creeping war that isn't making any news headlines | Critical words from Rav Shlomo Yehuda (Yanuka) H/T Tomer Devorah | URGENT - What Gazans need to know NOW! - VIDEO, Arabic subtitles H/T Brucha Weisberger | Warships in Cheshvan |

 

 



21 August 2023

Are we mourning our dead in Israel...instead of working toward our goal for a peaceful life in our holy land?


 4 Elul 5783 | ד' אלול ה'תשפ"ג



From Arutz-7 article about the terrorist attack, at the scene

 

CORRECTION a few paragraphs below...

Please pray for Aryeh Leib ben Ella. He was in a pigua (terrorist attack) this morning that was in the news all over Israel (yes, even in Haaretz, which wouldn't let me see the article because I run an ad blocker on my computer!), and is still in the hospital, with surgeries and other treatments to go through. Thank G-d he's alive! 

Unfortunately, Batsheva Nigri, the kindergarten teacher who was with him in the car, died of gunshot wounds, which her six twelve-year-old daughter witnessed. 

 [The video of the 12-year-old daughter who was in the car with her, giving a eulogy (hesped in Hebrew) is HERE on Pulse of Israel, in Hebrew with English subtitles.]

Fortunately, the little girl escaped her mother's fate, although I can barely imagine the impact this will have on her, going forward. If I had seen her name anywhere, I would have added it to Aryeh Leib's, to pray for her. UPDATE: Shir'el bat Batsheva.

Full disclosure: My husband and I have known Aryeh Leib's parents almost since we made aliyah in 2007.

 ***

TL:DR: It's a very bad idea to leave a group of people alone with no legal recourse* against enemies that live close by, or even in the same territory, as they. You never know, they might just take whatever law there is into their own hands...even if the world considers their territory "not theirs," if too many of them die at their enemies' hands.

Really, Israeli Government System, you would have had the most loyal soldiers ever in the millennial generation...but ever since you kicked them and their parents out of Gush Katif and Northern Shomron in 2005, and otherwise shown hatred and neglect toward this sector of Jews since 1967, you have finally lost their trust, and ours too. They're family, they're friends, we're bonded to them, and they, to us. 

Furthermore, the land they live on is part of Eretz Yisrael. We're bonded to her, and she, to us. 

These are the problems. Solve them. Stop making the Jewish People out to be crybabies with our heads down, and get serious about our presence here. Otherwise, go ahead and leave, as you've been threatening to do for years, anyway. We'll do just fine. God has His promises to fulfill for us, and He will.

*If you read the article linked to there, take particular note of the "partial list of where the "reasonableness concept["] was used by the courts". Nine items are included, but there have been many more in the past 30+ years.

 ***

 I received a call from a friend as the end of my Torah class early this afternoon about the attack that had occurred this morning, urging me to spread the word and to pray for our friends' son. Shortly thereafter, when I started speaking about it to my classmates, my teacher and the daughter who accompanied her to the class and arrived late, I was informed that they knew about it because they had been delayed due to the attack, which had occurred on the road they were traveling on.

Over on the End of Days blog a while ago, we had a discussion in the comments on how we handle a fairly large uptick in murders in Israel (mixed up with other topics, of course). There is criticism especially toward people in "the territories" taking revenge on the murderers, who happen to be our "cousins."

From the outside it may look as though Jews in territories not our own are taking illegal revenge, but we all (whether in Israel or outside) must look at the situation in the Shomron (and Yehuda) in context, as a continuation of the forced separation/GERUSH (what the media called "disengagement"/hitnatkut) from Gush Katif and Northern Shomron in August 2005, and the attitude that prevailed in Tel Aviv, and its offices in Yerushalayim, before and since then. The government system has been getting away with neglecting the "settlers'" welfare since 1967 only because there weren't "settlers" before then, as we know them today...as I'm sure you're aware, dear reader.

But it seems to me that they forget that their immediate ancestors were "settlers" before Israel became a state. This is their downfall. They can't, or won't, empathize with another group of Jews in the same position they were in because the new-to-them group is religious. Not that it matters to them, but religious Jews were here before they were. (R' Yosef Caro, anyone? Shulchan Aruch? Just one of the many famous examples I could quote. But I'm not writing a book. Not today, anyway.)

Shaking my head.

To summarize, the Jews living on land that is our own territory historically and presently, fully part of Israel, have been badly abused by the leadership here, especially by the Bagatz/"supreme" court because, as Reb Dov Bear has stated repeatedly, they want the acceptance, approval and love of the evil world (not a direct quote).

I would put it as: 

They have been in cahoots — plotting — conspiring with said world to destroy the Jewish people, and Israel along with us. "The world" expresses its distinct disapproval of the expansion of our territory to include parts of the land Jews have lived in and walked on for thousands of years.

They might as well throw out their Bibles, New Testaments and Qurans. They all testify to our presence here in one way or another. Oh, heck, why don't the enemies of the Jews throw a religious-book-burning party in public, and see where that gets 'em?

From handing the Sinai, and attempting to give Yehuda and Shomron, to the enemy after the 6-Day War, to allowing the world to delegitimize the victory and the fruit of said war, WHICH WAS NOT STARTED BY US, we must remember, and exercising two sets of laws, one for "the leadership and its supporters" and one for "the rest of us," which led to the GERUSH and its evil fruit since then, is enough for them to be permanently delegitimized and exiled. Whether they leave on their own, as they threaten often, or are threatened by our common enemies to be bombed out, do you think HaShem Yithbarach would allow them back, after all they've done?

Can they even do teshuvah?

In any case, you must admit that in our day, leaving the "settlers" basically alone with the enemy and allowing said enemy to do away with whomever they please, as they please, which these "authorities" would never allow in "Israel proper" as they call it, actually legitimizes the actions of those who live there. If all these authorities ever do is "show up late to the party" (attending shiva homes for publicity, for example — a major offense even if not illegal), then it's hypocritical of them to punish the residents for acting in self-defense and even in offense, no matter how badly trained they are. The authorities should consider themselves fortunate that the majority of these residents, living on legitimate land the state will never take responsibility for, believe in G-d and derech eretz. Others in other countries in our position have done worse.

And, let's not forget, many of the gerushim were children when it all went down. They're army age or adults now, coming up on 18 years later. I wouldn't count on them seeing the army as warm-and-fuzzy, or on their side; fortunate if they do happen to see it that way. Let's all of us put ourselves in their place and think about what we would do!

I left out many details. The revenge, as some call what they think it looks like, on Turmus Ayya is because there is no strong military presence protecting Jews in that area. We should all have had enough of letting Jew-hating "neighbors" have their way with us, whether we have protection or have to do it all ourselves. 

***

I just found an article that describes what TURMUS AYYA is, from a link on my blog's sidebar. An Arab from there KILLED MY YOUNG NEIGHBOR, Yehuda Guetta, in May 2021. NO ONE from the ISRAELI government has DONE ANYTHING ABOUT IT.

What do I mean, "NO ONE from the ISRAELI government has DONE ANYTHING ABOUT IT"? "LIFE IN PRISON" MEANS NOTHING IF the next Jew kidnapped by Hamas or Hizbullah, or whatever enemy organization, is freed, means SHALABI WILL BE RELEASED TOO. 

I don't know about the rest of the world, but in the US as far back as I can remember, THERE IS NO STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS ON MURDER. HAS THAT CHANGED?

And, as far as I understand it, there is none in the Torah, either.

The Settler Intifada by FirstOneThrough

Snippet:

Palestinian-American Muntasir Shalabi, age 44, did a drive buy shooting in E49 and killed a teenager and injured two other 19-year old boys on May 2, 2021. He was sheltered by Palestinians for a few days but was ultimately captured and sentenced to life in prison. His home, in the wealthy West Bank town of Turmus Ayya, was demolished in June despite American protests. 


***


The government sent soldiers into Jenin in the evening of 2 July 2023. It looks like, here (WAPO), that we've done this 5 times this year alone. I wonder if they will do it right this time. 

JUSTICE, JUSTICE SHALT THOU PURSUE!!! If Judea and Samaria fall due to the lack of diligence over the years, what do you think will happen to Haifa and Tel Aviv?

צדק, צדק תרדוף

 ***

Reb Dov Bear responded to me as follows:

HDG: From reading and studying Sefer Yechezkel 37:15 until the end of the chapter and Zekharia chapter 12, 2 things become clear. The entire area of Judea and Samaria from the Hevron hills in the south up to Ofra and the Talmon Junction in the North (in ancient Shevet Binyamin) is the reconstituted lands of ancient Judea while all of Israel within the pre-1967 boundaries and the Hill country of Ephraim including Shilo and Ariel is the reconstituted lands of ancient Israel. So all the area around Yerushalayim to the north, east, and south of the City is to be considered "Judea".


2. Mashiach ben David will arise SPECIFICALLY in this area around Jerusalem described as part of ancient Yehudah and Binyamin as the head of some sort of para-military force to protect the "Judean" settlers from hostile forces as the Israeli Army "retreats" because of fears of international pressure and the "Almighty" dollar as the Umot HaOlam's #1 weapon forcing this retreat. Mashiach will wax greater and greater as the Israeli army retreats into its comfort zone which is defined as what Leftist Erev Rav Jews in America think is moral, totally based on what policies make them popular amongst the Western world's exponentially growing reprobate majority. Bibi (the last "melekh" described as the leader from Shevet Levi and the House of Natan in Zekh 12) will be too impotent to protect us. In this way Mashiach ben David will arise to fill the vacuum as the last leader of the Erev Rav (Armilus/Olmert) crushes the crumbling power of the Medinah to redefine itself. Sometime this week it seems he will close down Ben Gurion Airport. G-d only knows how Hezbollah will react to all this. Psalm #2 is just around the corner. 

Thankfully, a commenter later said: Apparently no retreat this time around. 

***

HaShem, please send Mashiah and the Geulah System before it's too late!

*** 

More to read:

A-7: Death toll from terror attacks this year already surpasses 2022 

Jurist.org: Israel, Counter-Terrorism, and International Law: The Analytic Challenges of 'System' by Louis Rene Beres

Israel HaYom: Needed: Military action that has a 20-year impact [A commenter on this article would prefer FOREVER, and so would I - HDG]

Israel HaYom: Israeli woman murdered in drive-by shooting near Hevron

Israel HaYom: No such thing as a lone-wolf terrorist 

Even more to read (h/t Elder of Ziyon) :

Jewish Chronicle: A vote AGAINST the "BDS Bill" (Economic Activity of Public Bodies (Overseas Matters) Bill) is a vote to ALLOW THE BOYCOTTING of JEWS EVERYWHERE.  | 

Honest Reporting: The Guardian Twists Facts in Settler Attack Feature; Forgets Dead Palestinian was Hamas Terrorist  

While the US calls for Israeli "restraint" it bombs terror targets around the world every day

Islamic Jihad leader: "We follow Iran's orders, and our only terror targets are Jews (a commenter there says: "Gee...he forgot to use the laundered Z term, he really admitted to targeting Jews...")

Jerusalem Post: Terrorists, not Jewish homes, cause violence in the West Bank (Editorial. I wish you would call the land area by its real name in English, Judea and Samaria! You should know better.)

A-7: Pollard: Vigilante actions are a result of absence of government counter terror policy (op-ed)

Jewish Press: Yehuda Glick on Trial for Walking Too Slowly on Temple Mount (Hey, he was shot and nearly killed in 2014 by bullets aimed at his heart. Give the guy a break!)

I could go on and on and on...but it's a pretty large post already. Thanks for reading!




 

10 May 2023

Could this be what we've been waiting for FOREVER???

BS"D | בס"ד

(with the special help of God!)

19 Iyyar 5783 | י"ט אייר ה'תשפ"ג

34th Day of the Omer Count | ל"ד לעומר

 

Is this the beginning of what I came to Israel for...FINALLY???

*** 

A corresponding friend of mine wrote me:

There is a qualitative difference between what is transpiring now and what has been up until now.

The following courtesy of Israel Real-Time Updates: 
>> SHARE / JOIN — > WhatsApp link -> https://chat.whatsapp.com/BkWzOs6HKFUBDXl0Dvgzmz
>> SHARE / JOIN — > Telegram link -> https://t.me/Israel_Realtime_Updates 

** DEFENSE & SECURITY **

— IDF SURPRISE ATTACK…  “Shield and Arrow” - A few hours ago the IDF attacked Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) leadership in Gaza, bombing and killing 3 top leaders, naming the operation Shield and Arrow.  An additional 10 sites were bombed in Gaza per the IDF.

— IDF HOME FRONT COMMAND… has declared an emergency situation within 40 km of the Gaza Strip.  All outdoor activities are canceled.

— IDF RESERVES… Defense Minister Gallant has approved the call up of reserves

— GAZA CROSSINGS… Erez and Keren Shalom crossings are closed.

— RISK…. the operation is directed against Palestinian Islamic Jihad organization and not Hamas, Hamas is out of the picture as far as Israel is concerned, will they choose to get involved?

— BEN GURION…. Flights to Ben Gurion Airport were re-routed farther north to avoid risk of rocket fire.  (None yet.)

— HEZBOLLAH…. In Lebanon, Hezbollah has stated it is mobilizing.

— ROCKETS?   None so far, the funerals for the killed PIJ leaders are scheduled for right after noon prayers.  Likely then?

…updates as they become available.

-- EVACUATION FOR RESIDENTS AT SPECIAL RISK NEAR GAZA...  HOME FRONT COMMAND has activated an evacuation plan for residents of near-Gaza towns & villages including Sderot who have special needs, seniors over a certain age, cancer patients, or disability over certain levels or who receive treatments or therapies.  These people should expect to be contacted by their city or town officials for EVACUATION DUE TO HIGH ROCKET RISK.  (source: note sent out by Sderot municipality)

— PALESTINIAN NEWS SITES HACKED….  Palestinian Islamic Jihad news site Kanan News has been hacked as has PalToday and Jehad, the front pages now with a poster in Arabic showing the killed leaders and saying “Who’s next?”.

ISRAEL REALTIME defense/security updates

— SHECHEM (Nablus)… Situation escalating?  “Reports on helicopters and helicopters participating in the activity in Nablus.  Mosques calling on fighters confront the IDF.   According to the Arab reports, such a large amount of forces has not been seen in Shechem for many months.  Dozens of armed men are involved in shooting against IDF forces.”

— PIJ KILLED LEADERS WERE HEADING TO EGYPT?  According to reports, the three individuals have been in hiding for the past few days out of fear of assassination. They have recently resurfaced to join a delegation of political bureau members from the Islamic Jihad, to attend a convention of the movement's elected officials from outside the Gaza Strip and West Bank.  They emerged from hiding to bid farewell to their families in their homes after receiving permission from Egypt to leave through the Rafah crossing to Cairo. However, during this time, they were attacked and killed.

— JETS OVERHEAD…  IDF jets heard loudly overhead in southern Israel.  Fly safe, be successful!

*** 

My thoughts:

Remember that this occurred on and around La"G laOmer, a very auspicious time for the Final Redemption.  

More from my correspondent: 

The Third Messianic War (2014) | Will the Third Messianic War Arrive with Mashiach ben Yosef? (2019) 

***

 More articles as I receive them: 

One Hundred and Eighty Degrees Around  | The real 'Operation Arrow and Shield' |

***

THE BIG QUESTION: Will this be the beginning of the REAL GREAT RESET??? 

Let's keep praying and preparing ourselves, everybody!

Note that no one has declared it officially, just yet...hopefully we will know shortly, be"H!

***

Another BIG QUESTION: Are the victories supposed to start in Israel and spread from here? The murder of 4 Jews in Djerba, Tunisia on La"G laOmer makes me ask.

YET ANOTHER BIG QUESTION: When will the Israeli government STOP considering Judea and Samaria as "territories" to be bargained away? What makes me ask this question? A modern Jewish hero in the JUDEAN HILLS was attacked the day before, which I call "Lev laOmer" (ל"ב לעומר, the 32nd* Day of the Omer Count) and left for dead by Arab Muslims. He's in the hospital with major injuries to his skull, hearing and face. The family is asking for donations. They're farmers with goats, and they're losing the major contribution the head of this family makes daily. 

His name happens to be Yisrael; I wonder if this means anything.

If the body of this article is a sign of anything, it won't be long before the rest of the world, and even our Leftists, stop demanding that Jews stop living in land that's clearly ours FROM BIBLICAL TIMES. That much, I know!


* I made a mistake there, but it's not the one most people would expect. I really meant the 32nd day of the Omer. Thanks, Neshama. 😉

16 September 2022

Is one of the five (5) red heifers that landed in Israel today THE ONE we've been waiting for???

 20 Elul 5782 | כ אלול ה"תשפ'ב

bs"d | בס"ד

From the Temple Institute. Thanks to reader A. for the tip on that video this pic replaced.


I can't wait to find out.

They were shipped from Texas and delivered to the Temple Institute today. The comments on this video, mostly from Xians, are confusing and confused. 

Maybe they'll find out that this is the ultimate refutation of their "religion" until Mashiah is revealed (which would be the real ultimate refutation, of course)!

Or, we'll wait a while longer...I just hope that none of them is pregnant or grows white or black hairs. The last time I heard about a red heifer, she ended up giving birth...and that's how my blog began.

(It also so happens that 15 years ago today (Hebrew date; the one-way flight was Monday-Tuesday then) my husband and I took off from the US to land here in Israel the next day. This year, it'll be on Shabbat. 😉)

We can't have a Holy Temple (Beit haMiqdash) until we have a Red Heifer (Parah Adumah). I'd say the chances of one out of 5 heifers being "the one" is a lot better than one out of one!

With the help of G-d!!!

*** 

P.S. To clarify: Only if G-d wants any of these heifers will they make it through the process without getting blemished. If the Christians who sent them here are acceptable to G-d, He'll keep the heifers from anything that might disqualify them. But if not...watch out. (Somehow, I think they're not. 😉)

I'm also wondering about the Temple Institute itself. Their site doesn't show them getting the five red heifers recently. It seems to me that we're not going to hear this news from anyone else other than Christians. NO FAIR - HDG, 5 November 2022 

If readers hear otherwise, please comment! Many thanks in advance.

02 September 2022

Some thoughts about Zion (and Zionism)

6 Elul 5782 | ו' אלול ה'תשפ"ב


Someday (soon, we pray) the part inside the light green outline will all come to us...Beresheet (Genesis) 15:18

Further edited for clarification.

Let me start out on a positive note even though, I must warn you, dear reader, this post is not primarily positive. I do love living in Israel. It is my homeland, and at home one does the best one can, especially if one is a Jew, for whom most of the world still denies a homeland. Unlike a lot of people I know from before I came here, I have a grandparent who was born and raised here, even before the British Mandate. Yes, it is true: My mother's own mother, who was from a Mizrahi (as opposed to Ashkenazi or Sefaradi) Cohen family from Haifa according to a document I found on the Ellis Island website. Only, it was spelled Caifa, and the country identified was Syria. (The officials at Ellis Island, or maybe it was the people who took information for her manifest on the boat she arrived on, didn't know how to transliterate the 'het' that starts off חיפה.) 

It shocked me to see this at first, back in 2005 after I went back after visiting for the first time. But then, I realized that it was part of what was called "southern Syria" at the time she was there, between 1900, when she was born, and 1920, when she arrived at Ellis Island, still single. She was the only Cohen in the database in 2005 with her first name, and she still is, as I type this.

My grandfather's history isn't so clear. There are two with names, locations and birth years close to what I think might be his. He, as far as I know, was from Syria proper, and they would have been married and had their first child in approximately 1922. I know he was 10 years older than my mom, who was born in 1932. My Safta could have married either of them in time to do that, if she got married right after she arrived in New York.

I never met them, unfortunately. I was born on the west coast of the US, and by the time we went east two years later, both of my grandparents had passed away during the previous year.

However. Back to Zionism. The behavior of this iteration of the governance of the State of Israel (i.e., this government) has me thinking a lot more about the nature of what is called "Zionism" in the medinah and whether we should stop basing the meaning of the word on only the modern iteration. I realized when I came home that the term Zionism had a meaning thousands of years old which was cut off by the modern Zionists. 

When I first heard the terms "dati le'umi" (translated as "national religious") in the early 2000s and Zionist ("tzioni") much earlier, probably in the late 1960s to early 1970s, my impression was that these people wanted to plant the Jewish nation almost literally into the soil of Eretz Yisrael. Building, establishing vibrant communities with large families to make up for all the Jews that were murdered over the centuries — and in the name of all those whose families we will never see — making Judaism livable, practical and beautiful, with a special relationship with the Creator of the universe.

During last summer, this interesting article was written about why we need to detach from the deceptive terminology people use on a regular basis in Israel, brought to us by people whose purpose for being here is not exactly to bring true Jewish sovereignty to Israel (which includes redemption and Mashiah, and doesn't include keeping our blood enemies in our midst just to keep us terrified for lifetimes on end), and along with it, real self-government. 

(Just for clarification, Mashiah will be one hundred percent man and not G-d at all, so he is included in Jewish self-government. People who get their ideas from other religions will need to learn about Judaism on its own terms — according to Torah, Prophets and Writings — the Tanach — and their explanations in other books holding those discussions — to be able to understand what kind of being the Go'el Tzedek is.)

And then the government that came into power when I first started writing this article, including the Arab party Ra'am and a prime minister with only 6 seats, was not so much voted in, as bargained into office through the process among the parties that occurs after the election, with the prime minister's chair to be shared. We are now in the second half of that agreement, and our current prime minister's party had 17 seats when the bargain was made. Not much closer to the majority than his partner's. 

We have elections again in November...WIGOH? (pronounced "we go" — "what is going on here?")

It seems to me that these Zionists are here to be a replacement of our hopes and dreams, to drag us along with them while they seek favor from the rest of the world. They already take orders from the United States; if this goes on long enough, lo' aleynu, we will see them taking orders from the World Economic Forum and the World Health Organization, rachmana litzlan.

They never succeed in getting that favor, and they don't realize that they never will. Ever. And we will get the brunt of the punishment for their having tried until our redemption arrives, may it do so immediately.

Recent events have, more than anything else, brought to the fore the misrepresentation the whole thing has been to, and of, the Jewish People. Since the focus is on how the nations see us, we cannot ever insist on our duties, our rights, and our privileges (there goes that word, bet it gets misinterpreted) here in the Land of our Fathers and Mothers.

A real Zionist country-in-the-making wouldn't have let Zion be divided, as it has been since the land now called Jordan was taken from the land to be given to the Jewish People — by Great Britain.

 A real Zionist country wouldn't have kicked Jews out of Gaza in 2005 because real Zionist leaders would give heed to the fact that Yitzhak Avinu (Isaac) had lived in Gerar, which is in present-day Gaza. Isaac, as he is known in English, wasn't allowed to leave the Land that G-d gave to his father Abraham, much less live anywhere else. And even Arabs in 2005 knew that.

Nor would a real Zionist country have kicked Jews out of the Sinai Desert in 1972. 

Nor would it allow illegal building on any "side." The government under the current system rushes to prevent Jewish building in Yehuda and Shomron, but runs to protect illegal Arab building in these areas. 

That's why we, the people of Israel, have an organization called Regavim, which means lumps or clods of earth. Regavim's very name points to its practical purpose. They brought our attention to the following link:

Palestinian Authority's Stealth Steal of Judea and Samaria (originally from HERE)

And a real Zionist country wouldn't bend over backwards to please the nations after all we've been through. 

They would know that they have a special obligation to the JEWISH PEOPLE that no other country has, and they would run as fast as they can to fulfill it. This would encourage more Jews to make aliyah...

Zion means Jerusalem, after all. And Jerusalem (Yerushalayim in Hebrew) refers to JEWS. See below.

Here's just one example of many: A convicted and jailed terrorist has applied to get a nose job at the expense of the Zionist State. But the police officer who stopped her won't get compensated for surgeries HE needs as a result of her crime! This case is from 2015, and she has gone through many medical treatments at the Prisons Service's expense (i.e., taxpayers' money). 

Also, you heard about a female Israeli soldier who was handed over to an Arab felon in prison so she could be raped. There was more than one of these, too. What kind of Zionist would do this to his, or her, sister-in-Israel???

I wrote about Amiram Ben Uliel recently, a "settler" (a religious Jew who lives on long-established historic Jewish homeland territory...and if you don't accept that, you should throw out your Bible and your Quran! Both affirm this...) is still in jail while the Zionist court takes their time declaring him innocent of all charges. See the latest HERE; some links to other articles are in the comments. Please continue to pray for Amiram ben Nurit | עמירם בן נורית.

If this is Zionism, then I can't be a Zionist. But this bill, reversing what is translated as the Disengagement Law of 2005, would be more like it, even though the immediate benefit is small compared to the damage done. (I had this post in editing for a year, and I haven't heard that it has passed as of now.)

Since before the declaration of the state, war, murder, attempts to wipe out the state and the Jews that make up the majority of its people have been ongoing.

(As if being a majority of a small country with no guts to defy all "mandates" and make its own decisions is anything to be proud of.)

One would think that the Jews of Israel want to be victimized, to submit to dhimmitude, to give up the tiny land we were handed, after the larger part was chopped off before we even had a chance to have a country again.

If there weren't the many believers in the G-d of our fathers living among those who thought they wouldn't have to share our land with us, there would be practically no one to cling to the land after each attempt at genocide. 

We want to stay BECAUSE IT IS OUR LAND AND WE BELIEVE WHAT THE CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE SAID ABOUT IT. Period.

But we have to understand first things first. I know, it took me a long time to get here...sorry about that.

In the book of Tehillim (Psalm 137 has two references to Zion, in verses 1 and 3, and three to Jerusalem in verses 5, 6 and 7 in a manner that leaves no doubt), we learn that ZION refers to JERUSALEM. And JERUSALEM refers to ISRAEL. The name we call our nation was the name Ya'aqov Avinu (Jacob) was given by the angel he wrestled with...and it turns out that just as London refers to England, Moscow refers to Russia and Washington refers to the United States, Jerusalem refers to Israel. Especially in the political arena.  

We need to retain this meaning of Zion, and not some strange change of concept that people with Jewish names and outsider attitudes handed to those who came back home!

Before I continue, I'd like to say that it saddens me very much that we are not further along than we are with regard to being courageous enough to step away from the form of government we have now, in favor of a governance more suitable to the Jewish People. Other peoples who live here have other places to go. If we think that we do, too, the time is coming soon when we will find out otherwise.

The problem we have is that we have not yet called out the group of people, many of whom have Jewish names and possibly Jewish mothers (but maybe not) as well, that has been behind a lot of this misrepresentation of the Jews as a people. They've given us a bad name and put us in a corner where if we don't do what they say, we're putting our nation in a bad light and justifying everything bad that is being said about the entire people...and so, 

  • why not let us be overwhelmed by people, whether with Jewish mothers or not, who don't value Eretz Yisrael for its own purpose; 
  • why not bring in lots of non-Jews here to overwhelm the Jewish population here; 
  • why not let lots of Jewish Israeli citizens be killed, and in gory ways to boot (see the 2022 Elad axe-murders, and 2021's Meron disaster-by-direct-energy-weapon as recent examples).

A short list of countries that use direct-energy  weapons (laser, microwave, particle beam and sound beam, in different combinations) are at the top of this page (I doubt it's complete). In addition, Australian police has used DEW weapons on its own citizens in Canberra, the nation's capital, for protesting against COVID-19 mandates.

Getting back to Israel. Binyamin Netanyahu, former prime minister and current opposition leader, as well as candidate for prime minister yet again, recently said, 

Only our national strength can ensure our future. This weak and fraudulent government is incapable of leading the country[...]Israeli citizens from Tel Aviv to Tekoa are living in fear[...]The present government isn’t capable of ensuring safety for its people.” 

How sure are we that we have the national strength? 

What did the governments of Israel do, and how have they been doing it all these years?

Israeli citizens were put under emergency measures in 1948, and succeeding governments have left them there for the past 74 years. I don't know how this happened. But all our governments, and all our politicians, even our best ones, have left us hefker, meaning, ripe for the picking by any passerby — and it seems there is nothing we can do about it. We have too many enemies roaming around, scouting out chances to harm and kill us. 

One would think that these measures would actually protect citizens from being left open to harm. But we are not protected as we should be. We are: Open to being arrested because of things other "democratic" countries wouldn't bat an eyelash at. Open to being unable to buy property within the country, even when proof that it was owned by someone else (from another people putting forth claims to the land in question) didn't exist. Open to being slashed to pieces by people murderers trying to take the state over and make it part of a different country and culture. Open to being expelled from lands that we were given by the state originally, with the excuse that the government didn't know whose land it was.

And who pays for these egregious missteps? The people who are now fired at from lands taken away from us and given to people who are STILL our enemies...

A Ceasefire Line Is Not a Border for a Palestinian State: Debunking the Green Line Myth —Honest Reporting (lots of related reading there...)

No, it doesn't seem that way. I don't suppose that the leadership here really cares whether Israel continues to exist as a state. They'd better prove it if they do!

And if not, it seems to me that we need to give the concept people refer to as Zionism another name, that puts the spotlight on them and their system. A new lexicon is needed for the many things and concepts that we need to take back.

To start off with: For "Zionism" and "Zionist," I suggest Erev-ravism and Erev-ravist. These refer to people who follow the methodology of the converted Egyptians in the desert that followed Moshe Rabbenu who in Hebrew were called the erev rav. These are the ones who led the way to golden-calf idolatry right on Mount Sinai, in deliberate rebellion against G-d's first commandment; even worse, there was the rejection of Eretz Yisrael in the episode known as "the Sin of the Spies." Today, they advocate keeping stores open and buses running on Shabbat, and want to confuse our understanding of kashruth and shmittah as well as keeping some of the more observant Jews from being able to blend their observant life with their ability to make a living.

The insult to the name Zion (not to mention Jerusalem, King David's Capital!) by usurping it for the exact opposite of what it stands for, is too much to bear. It makes Zion, Israel, and many other names that are properly used by Jews who wish to follow the ways and paths of HaQadosh Baruch Hu disgusting in their eyes.

For the religious people who haven't thought this through, we need to know that when people misuse the name Zion, they insult Jerusalem too! Let's take these terms back and demand that they be used properly. It would help us to respect our own nomenclature, and we would stop this shooting ourselves in the foot that we've been doing for decades by rejecting it.

Alternative denotations are needed for the many things that have been hidden in stolen Jewish terminology by the followers of the Erev Rav. 

I also have other sobriquets I could call their system, but I'll leave it like this for now, just to see how well it is received.

The people who call themselves Zionists but have no backbone when it comes to holding on to our land and our national identity, really believe in Erev-ravism.

However we word it, Zion's reputation has been severely savaged by those who misappropriated her name for nefarious purposes. It needs to stop.

(And there are more stolen terms I would like to write about in the future, be"H.)

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Jonathan Pollard, don't wait for the man, it could be you're the man! (Do you remember this? Has a "memo" perchance reached you from Shamayim?)

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Did Joe Biden give medical sovereignty of the UN's 193 nations to the WHO as a result of the Davos meeting in the week of 22-28 May?

We had better be aware, either way, and make sure our leadership knows we won't take it lying down. We have until November to make a final decision on the matter. It's coming fast now.

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Rav David Bar-Hayim is shown praying with a minyan on Har haBayit without repercussions! (Here's the article.) Be inspired by it...and do what you can.

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More reading: 

Is Zionism a modern day term? | Xinjiang is also Eretz Yisrael | Stuck and getting unstuck | Jewish prayer has finally returned on the Temple Mount (includes VIDEO) | Israel's examination reform: Not good for the Jews | Arab Israeli MK calls to eliminate Israeli flag, Jewish statehood, national anthem and Law of Return (how did our government let it come to this?) | Blood money: The Sbarro terrorists and how it's working out for them | Managing the unmanageable | Leah's Blog: Parashat Shoftim: The way we judge | Where is the justice in Israel's High Court of Justice? | in 2024: No, we shouldn't retire the word 'Zionism.' We should take it back. | In the merit of the martyrs and soldiers who were killed this week of Parashat Lech Lecha 5785, may we be given, inherit or enabled to take the land above (and even more; since Iran is responsible for all the bad actors in what I'm calling the Simchat Torah Massacre War, they deserve to lose land too.). The martyrs include Arvin Netanel Ghahremani, and the soldiers include Sgt. Ariel Sosnov Sasonov.