Death & Desecration in Israel !!

 This last week has been Passover, the Jewish Festival of Freedom.  A Joy.  A Holiday.   A Celebration.  

Last Sunday Morning saw a shooting by 'palestinian' policemen  at Shechem in Israel,  presently under 'palestinain' control.  Last Sunday afternoon saw the funeral of Ben-Yosef Livnat,  murdered that morning  & the 'palestinians' celebrating Passover by once again desecrating the Tomb of the Biblical Joseph, the site of Livnat's murder, as they have done three times previously.

 Thousands gathered at Mount Olives Cemetery in Jerusalem to bid farewell to Ben-Yosef  Livnat,  a father of  four.  Among the participants were activists, rabbis and public figures, as well as Sports and Culture Minister Limor Livnat, who is Ben-Yosef's aunt.  No eulogies were made due to the holiday, but Minister Limor Livnat said over her nephew's fresh grave: ... "I woke up this morning and received a phone call from Ben-Yosef's mother, who told me that he was murdered by a terrorist masked as a Palestinian police officer. "It was cold-blooded murder. Ben-Yosef went to pray with other Jews, and he was murdered simply for being a Jew," she said.  "It's hard to grasp these things. This is why that area should be under the control of Israel. My own private nephew, a personal sacrifice, I hope that he's the last victim,"  Unfortunately, that is unlikely!

A witness who was in the vehicle shot at said that it was clear that the PA police were shooting to kill. “They fired several long rounds at our cars, and yelled 'Allahu Akhbar.' There is no doubt they were shooting to kill us”.   Just hours after the attack on worshipers praying at Kever Yosef,  Arutz 7 reported that a large number of Arabs had descended on the tomb. The Arabs were burning tyres and holding torches, to try to burn the building down. Smoke could be seen rising as the desecration took place.  The video below supplied by my friend David Ha'ivri clearly shows this.

Reports are not 100% clear yet, on all of the details, but I do have some Questions.  It appears the PA police waited outside the tomb while the Breslev Hassidim were davening inside. After the prayers, when they were leaving, the palestinian police ~ trained, armed and funded by the US ~ drove their PA police jeep up to the car with the Hassidim inside and opened fire. One of the wounded,  who was in the vehicle shot at,  said that it was clear that the PA police were shooting to kill. “They fired several long rounds at our cars, and yelled 'Allahu Akhbar.' There is no doubt they were shooting to kill us”.   According to the IDF & following its own initial investigation into this incident, the PA policemen were fully aware that the men they fired on were Israeli worshipers who were unarmed and posed no threat.

('Nablus') Shechem Governor,  Jibril al-Bakri admits his policemen did the attack, calling it a "security incident" not  the "terrorist attack", which it so obviously was.  He also confirms the Breslev Hassidim arrive there every week to daven. Why, if the Breslovers daven there regularly, did the PA forces open fire? And why did they wait until the group finished praying and were leaving the area to drive up to the car and open fire? How is that a security incident? Could the 'police'  not have contacted the IDF with report of infiltrators while they were actually in the tomb davening?

Just hours after the deadly attack on worshipers,  Arutz 7 reported that a large number of Arabs descended on the tomb. The Arabs were burning tyres and holding torches, to try to burn the building down. Smoke could be seen rising as the desecration took place ~ not the first time they have done so!   Where is the outcry from the UN, the Human Rights Groups?  These 'concerned' citizens universally condemned the action of  Dr. Baruch Goldstein, who pre-emptively struck against a Purim massacre of Jews by Arabs in 1994.   The Arabs lynched Dr. Goldstein after disarming him & he too was murdered.    Immediately after murdering Dr. Goldstein, the Arab mob attempted a large-scale pogrom in Hebron, with nine Jews and a number of Arabs killed in the subsequent clashes. The Hamas-led pogrom was premeditated, prepared long before the incident, and official warnings indicated this.  A day before, a 'palestinian' mob ~ (“worshipers” ~  rioted in the Maarat Hamachpela, and shortly before the incident they chanted “Slaughter the Jews” .   Massacre of Jews was in the air .... just as in the 1929 Pogrom of Hebron.   The Shamgar report into the incident concedes this yet the world & media condemned Dr Goldstein,  terming him as a mass murderer & a terrorist because the Arabs were "at prayers".  Where is the condemnation of the killing of Jews carrying prayer books?

Just like with the Massacre of the Fogel Family, the silence on this slaughter is deafening!!!!

The murder of Livnat and the subsequent attempt to burn the Tomb of Yosef represents another step in the arab 'palestinian' attempt to destroy any connection between Jewish heritage and the Jewish Land of Eretz Yisroel.

A major strategy of the Arabs in their goal of ultimately taking over all of Israel,  is to deny Jewish  ties to the land.   That's why they call  the Jewish heartlands of Samaria & Judea by the title of  'West Bank' ....  to attempt to mask three thousand years of Jewish ties to their land.  That's why they hold on to the Temple Mount and destroy artifacts.  It is why they burned down Yosef's Tomb on at least three occasions &  it is why they are targeting Rachel's Tomb,  calling it the Bilal Bin Rabah Mosque.  You can't make a mosque just by calling it one!!  

Since its establishment, the State of Israel every single agreement transferring responsibility for Jewish holy places to neighbouring Arab 'palestinian' rule has been broken.

• On April 3, 1949, Israel signed an armistice with Jordan. According to Paragraph 8, Article 2 of the agreement, Jordan was to allow Israel "free access to the Holy Places and cultural institutions and use of the cemetery on the Mount of Olives."  ..... In practice, not only could Jews not visit the graves of their loved ones on the Mount of Olives, but the site was desecrated. Headstones of Jewish graves were shattered and some were used as paving stones or in construction. Jordan did not allow Jews free access to their holy places, and for 19 years, until 1967, Jews could not go to the Western Wall, Rachel's Tomb, the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron, Yosef's Tomb in Shechem (Nablus), or other sites sacred to Jews which remained in Jordanian hands.

• In May 1994, Israel signed the Gaza-Jericho Agreement in Cairo. According to Article 15 of Annex II, "the Palestinian Authority shall ensure free access to all holy sites in the Gaza Strip and the Jericho Area," mentioning the Naaran synagogue, the Jewish cemetery in Tel Sammarat, the "Shalom al Israel" synagogue in Jericho, and the synagogue in Gaza City.

• On September 28, 1995, the Israeli-palestinian Interim Agreement was signed on the White House lawn, making the 'palestinians' responsible for civilian and security matters in additional areas of the 'West Bank' (their abusive terminology!)   In accordance with this agreement, Israel withdrew from six  cities and part of Hebron ~  the IDF and the civil administration were withdrawn.  In addition, Israel withdrew from 450 villages, towns, refugee camps, and other areas throughout Samaria & Judea. The holy sites in those regions, or adjacent regions (access to which passed through or close to 'palestinian' areas), were designated as "sites of religious significance" or "archaeological sites."  The agreement also dealt with the status of 23 places holy to Jews, including the tombs of biblical figures, the ruins of ancient synagogues, and ancient cemeteries. The 'palestinians'  PROMISED to assure freedom of access to those places.

In every single case  the 'palestinians' have either made access extremely difficult for Jews to get to the holy sites or or prevented access entirely.

 

It had to be one of the most flagrant, desecrations of a holy site in the history of humankind, on October 7th, 2000, after Israeli troops retreated from a post just outside the of Biblical Shechem,  following coordinated, deadly attacks against Jews there, scores of 'palestinians' stormed Yosef’s Tomb and nearly destroyed the site believed to be the burial place of the biblical patriarch Yosef ~ the son of Yaakov who was sold by his brothers into slavery and later became the viceroy of Egypt.  They tried to burn it down again in February of 2008, and again last Sunday.

What makes this attack particularly significant is that it occurs during the holiday of Passover, which celebrates the Israelites Exodus from Egypt. One of Moshes' lasts acts in Egypt was to retrieve the body of Yosef so his bones could be brought into Eretz Yisrael.

And Moshe took the bones of Yosef with him: for he had straightly sworn the children of Israel, saying, Ha'Shem will surely visit you; and ye shall carry up my bones away hence with you.  ~  Shemoth 13:19  ~

And the bones of Yosef, which the children of Israel brought up out of Egypt, buried they in Shechem, in a parcel of ground which Yaacov bought from sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for an hundred pieces of silver: and it became the inheritance of the children of Yosef.   ~  Yehoshua 24:32  ~

And the world is just itching to give them a state in September and let them "protect" holy sites and Jewish lives.  That will just lead to further Death & Desecration in Israel if it were ever to come to pass.  How can the world not see what is really happening?

Go Down Moses !!!

Three More Days of Pesach to go ..... Chag Somayach!!!!  

Enjoy Passover ... the Holiday celebrating Freedom & Setting Free.  Oh! that it may work for me ...... 

A Musical Interlude.

A Terrible Beauty .....

It is Passover & I'm on Vacation.  But, I did promise Poetry!!!  And my blog has been 'weighty' lately, and I have a major blog on Israel in preparation for posting in the next period ... So, Poetry & Music to lighten the theme for Passover over the next holiday days.  Enjoy!

This is an Extract from 'Easter, 1916' by Irish Poet Laureate William Butler Yeats.  This poem is perhaps best known for it's recurring line ..... 

"All is changed, changed utterly .... a terrible beauty is born" .....

Hearts with one purpose alone
Through summer and winter seem
Enchanted to a stone
To trouble the living stream.
The horse that comes from the road.
The rider, the birds that range
From cloud to tumbling cloud,
Minute by minute they change;
A shadow of cloud on the stream
Changes minute by minute;
A horse-hoof slides on the brim,
And a horse plashes within it;
The long-legged moor-hens dive,
And hens to moor-cocks call;
Minute by minute they live:
The stone's in the midst of all.

Too long a sacrifice
Can make a stone of the heart.
O when may it suffice?
That is Heaven's part, our part
To murmur name upon name,
As a mother names her child
When sleep at last has come
On limbs that had run wild.
What is it but nightfall?
No, no, not night but death;
Was it needless death after all?

~ William Butler Yeats,    1865 ~ 1939  ~

Let Gilad Go !!!!!

It is Pesach ~ Passover this week, the celebration of Israel's Childrens Freedom from Captivity.  But, this passover there is a Child of Israel who remains in Captivity ..... Gilad Shallit.  It is his Fifth Pesach in Captivity.  Five years in captivity, 1,761 days in the darkness of Gaza, in caves or in basements of the Gaza Strip, and solitary isolation with no communication to the outside world. Held by Hamas.  

Five years ago, the Hamas terror organization kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit during an incursion from Gaza into Israel. His captors have denied access to him by the Red Cross in complete violation of the Geneva Convention. For five years a merciless enemy has held captive a young man, a soldier. While Gilad Shalit has become a symbol, there has been no Rescue attempt and only a series of stalled negotiations.  It is not enough for Israel's leaders to say to Hamas "Let Gilad Go!",  as it was not enough  for Moshe Rabbenius to say to Pharoah "Let my People Go!".

We Know that Gilad is Alive. And there is a media campaign. It is massive ..... massive, but mistaken. It keeps repeating that "the fate of Shalit is in Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's hands."   That's not true!!!

Gilad Shalit isn't in "Netanyahu's hands."   He's in Hamas, Arab terrorists' hands, and they are the ones who have the physical and moral responsibility to free him. It's not up to Israel to bargain and beg for his life. Those Arabs are being strengthened by the International media, because the media blame Israel, and not the Arab terrorists who continue his incarceration and are the guilty ones. Gilad Shalit is not a negotiating tool to be bargained off in a numbers game with Hamas, which they have tried to turn on & off for the last five years ~ NOT ONE Hamas murderer should be released in a trade off for the freeing of Gilad Shalit.  

How can one compare the life of a soldier with the release of such evil to the world? Will Hammed Ibrahim, military leader of Hamas in the 'West Bank', who killed & organized attacks that killed 76 people, be freed? Or Abdullah Barghouti, "the engineer" who prepared all the explosives that caused bloodshed in Jerusalem between 2001 and 2003?  His targets included the Sbarro restaurant, the University Cafeteria at Mount Scopus. He killed at least 46. What about Sayed Abbas, who masterminded the suicide bombing in a Natanya hotel in 2002, in which 30 Israelis were killed during the Passover seder, including many elderly Holocaust survivors and their families?

Having said that I am TOTALLY for Gilad being freed NOW!!!!  Not one day more in Captivity, five years is too long. Five years too long!!!   One day more is too much. But, I dont believe in a negotiated exchange.

The Israeli Government too Must Do More To Free Gilad. The very first thing for them to do is to suspend all Red Cross visits to Arab terrorist prisoners in Israeli hands. If they can't see Gilad Shalit, they can't see anyone in Israel.   No family visits for Arab prisoners .... no walks in the yard, no games, no cards, no books, nothing, no education, no degrees or doctorates to earn. Same conditions as Shalit has endured all of this time.  Hamas are not playing games or being 'nice' or even 'humane'!!  Hit Hamas where it hurts ~ No monetary 'Aid' Allowed!

At the same time all "humanitarian aid" to Gaza must be suspended and blocked. Turn off the Power & the water to start.  Then every week lessen the 'aid'.  Let's "Aid" this Israeli Soldier not Hamas Murderers. Remember that All the supposed 'humanitarain' flotillas  REFUSED to bring a parcel or letter to Gilad from his family.
 

Different tactics now need to be tried. Like turning off the electric supply to Gaza. Like turning off the water supply. It is supplied by Israel. Like enforcing a total embargo by land and by sea. Nothing goes in, nothing goes out. By shutting down the Temple Mount to Arabs. By putting the PA hierarchy in Ramallah under seige. By assassinating the Hamas leadership, one after the next after the next. Same with convicted Arab prisoners held in Israeli jails. By returning Israeli's to their surrendered homes in Gush Katif and other sites in Gaza. By using the combined forces of the IDF & IDA to go get Gilad. Oh! Yes. There's lots of ways to get Gilad back without releasing 1000 terrorists.

Why are these Arab Muslims being fed & supported by Israel???  Why are 'palestinian' supplies allowed in to Gaza?   Why are "ambulances" allowed out?

 "There are 1.5 million people living in Gaza and only one of them really needs humanitarian aid,”  Defence Minister Ehud Barak said. “Only one of them is locked in a tiny room and never sees the light of day, only one of them is not allowed visits and is in uncertain health ~ his name is Gilad Shalit ....."

This Pesach five years have passed since he was kidnapped.

Five Passovers spent in Captivity. That is Five Years too long ..... Go Get Gilad today!  That is how we can best celebrate this Festival of Freedom !!

Ten Years Too Long!!!

Hamas anti tank Missile Hit on School Bus

  
This is the School bus hit by a Hamas Missile last Thursday in Israel. The family of injured 16-year-old Daniel Viflic are keeping a bedside vigil as he lies dying ~ there is no brain activity & his family have asked the public to please Daven for their son.

Daniel was critically wounded when Gaza terrorists fired an anti-tank missile at the school bus he was riding in near Kibbutz Sa'ad. He is now fighting for his life, in critical condition, at Be'er Sheva's Soroka Medical Centre with extensive wounds throughout his body, particularly to his head.  “Unfortunately I do not have good news. His condition is not good and not improving,” Soroka's Professor Shaul Sofer, told Channel 2 television last Sunday afternoon. “We are not accustomed to using this terminology, but he has suffered a mortal wound. We are still hopeful, but are being very realistic and we know that the injury is very severe.”  

Rabbis have added the name “Raphael” to Daniel's name ~ a traditional way of increasing one's chances of recovery. Please daven for the life and speedy recovery of Raphael Daniel Aryeh ben Tamar this Shabbat.   Daniel had been on that bus to go visit his grandparents in the Western Negev.  Did this teenager deserve this horror ???

On April 16th, 2001, Hamas terrorists in Gaza fired the first rocket at Southern Israel, aiming for the town of Sderot. On this Shabbat, ten years will have passed since that day.  Do the Children of Sderot deserve to 'live' this way .... please watch the video below ~ it accurately captures  Life in Southern Israel ..... where 15 seconds Count.  The difference between Life & Death!  Would you be happy to live like this??

Terrorist organizations in Gaza fired 38 rockets and 87 mortar shells at Israel in March. In the Jerusalem area, there were 42 attacks in March, compared with 20 in February, and in Judea & Samaria there were 36 attacks,  compared with 23 in February.  This is Life in Southern Israel & this is  the 'palestinian' peace Plan .... Destroy Israel in 'Pieces' !!!

Rabbi hunkers down to avoid Qu'ssam Rocket in Sderot Street

“At that time, everyone was sure it was a one-time event, a red line that nobody would think to cross again,” former Sderot Mayor Eli Moyal said this week in an interview with the Maariv/Nrg. “Nobody imagined ten years of missile terrorism.”    Terrorists began with short-range rockets produced in Gaza, known as “Qu'assams.” In the first years, rockets hit with no warning. Even after the installation of the “Colour Red” rocket warning system, residents had at most 15 seconds to run for shelter, and often had significantly less time than that!   Several people were killed by the rockets in Sderot alone,  among them four children. Others were badly wounded, including an eight-year-old boy who lost a leg.

Prior to the disgraceful  Israeli withdrawal from Gaza in 2005 and the expulsion of Jews from the area in a bid to appease arabs, many rocket attacks targeted Jewish communities in Gush Katif.  The Gaza belt was hit by rockets more than 280 times in 2004, and 170 times in 2005, but did not face daily attacks.  Following the expulsion, however, terrorists began to strike far more frequently, hitting the region with 946 rockets in 2006, and 2,048 in 2008. After the Hamas takeover of 2007, when United Nations observers fled the border, Hamas managed to smuggle in more advanced medium-range rockets and expand its attacks beyond Sderot and the Gaza belt.  Cities such as Ashkelon, Be'er Sheva, Ashdod and Ofakim all fell victim to rockets as well.    “In retrospect, that first Qu'ssam was a clear sign that Hamas was going to look for a fight with Israel,” former Defence Minister Amir Peretz,  a resident of Sderot, told Maariv. “In the beginning, we did not treat the Qu'ssam as something that could pose a threat or a danger. We treated it as an attempt by the Palestinians to threaten us, nothing more.” 

Why should we accept Hamas threats or Rocket attacks.  Today is the Tenth Anniversary. Ten years of this Torture is Too Much.  Destroy Hamas .... Not Israeli lives.  Would YOU live there & endure such conditions???  And yet the world brays for Jewish blood  & calls  us the aggressor.  Do you concur???

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH ... TEN YEARS IS TOO LONG!!!!!!  

 

Build Israel .... ONE BRICK AT A TIME !!!

My friend Eliyokim's Exciting new video .... 
Straight from his back yard in the lush Samarian Hills of Eretz Yisrael!!! 

Let's Build, Build Build !!!!!!!!!!!!

The Arabs who Occupy Israel !!

1920 - Original territory assigned to the Jewish National Home

  
“When it is asked what is meant by the development of the Jewish National Home in Palestine, it may be answered that it is not the imposition of a Jewish nationality upon the inhabitants of Palestine as a whole, but the further development of the existing Jewish community, with the assistance of Jews in other parts of the world, in order that it may become a centre in which the Jewish people as a whole may take, on grounds of religion and race, an interest and a pride. But in order that this community should have the best prospect of free development and provide a full opportunity for the Jewish people to display its capacities, it is essential that it should know that it is in Palestine as of right and not on sufferance.”
~ Winston Churchill ~ British Secretary of State for the Colonies ~ June 1922.

Palestine has always been a Geographically Designated Area & NOT a Nation.   NEVER a Nation!!!  
Those people falsely claiming to be palestinian are in fact part of the ARAB nation.

 
On 26th December 1981, King Hussein declared in an interview with the Arab newspaper  "A - Nahar Al - Arabi"    that ..... "The truth is that Jordan is Palestine and Palestine is Jordan."

 In 1958,  former director of UNRWA  (The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for 'Palestine' Refugees in the Near East)  Ralph Galloway,  declared angrily while in Jordan that ..... "The Arab states do not want to solve the refugee problem.  They want to keep it as an open sore, as an affront to the United Nations, and as a weapon against Israel.   Arab leaders do not give a damn whether Arab refugees live or die"

Actually Torah teaches that Jordan is Eretz Yisrael.  The Original Mandate for 'Palestine' as a JEWISH Homeland repeated this truth,  but the British illegally stole this land ~ 85% of the land legally assigned to a JEWISH HOMELAND ~ & gave it as a gift to the Hashemite dynasty as a sop to Arabs.  This land has not been accepted by them as 'palestine' ever!!  I will explain this in Part II of my  'This is Israel'   blog which I will post after Shabbat & will discuss in full the LEGAL mandate for the return of the Jewish land of Eretz Yisrael to it's rightful inhabitants .... Jews. 

UNRWA was given  a 1 year mandate to resettle the 450,000 palestinian refugees in 1948 .  They did nothing.  63 years later and they still have done nothing , even though they get $400,000,000  every year .   At the same time,  in the same year,  1,000, 000 Jews were expelled from their homes in Arab muslim countries.  No UN agency has helped them .   No UN agency was established to help them.   They have not received $1.  But,  they have not spent 63 years Whining to the World!!

These Arabs who Occupy Israel want the Video below removed from Youtube ... & are pressuring Youtube to remove it!!

This is Israel ..... What Torah Teaches (Part I).

 I originally wrote this blog in February in response to a Facebook discussion of what constitutes Eretz Yisrael.  I always meant for it to be Part I of II or maybe even III.  You know why?  Because Judaism is based in three things that are the same for me as for my grandfather's grandmother all the way back in my lineage to Moshe Rabbenius, and they are Torah ~ Ha'Shem's Law & definition of Israel,  Am Israel (the people of Israel) and Eretz Israel (the Land of Israel).  And,  this blog was always intended to follow this pattern, but as it it's wont, Life got in the way & parts II & III were never completed.  I am going to remedy this now .... by reposting a slightly edited part I today & promising part II, the Legal position, for tomorrow.  If a part III ~ the people or politics ~ demands then that shall be posted after Shabbat.  It is part of my Preparation for Passover & understanding why Isreael is of utmost Importance in Jewish daily life.  Apologies for the delay!!

I won't pretend to come close to defining anything, but Israel is not this little land mass we know of as modern Israel .... The land Ha'Shem granted to Israel for a Homeland included everything from the Nile river in Egypt to Lebanon (North to South) and everything from the Mediterranean Sea to the Euphrates River (West to East). So, what deeded land belongs to Israel?   All of the land modern Israel currently possesses, plus all of the 'disputed' land of Judea & Samaria (the West Bank), all of Gaza and Jordan,  plus some of Egypt and Syria,  plus parts of Saudi Arabia and Iraq.  Israel currently possesses only a fraction of the land it has been promised. Our Promised Land!!

Parashas Mishpatim 23:31  ~ Torah: ~ Exodus 21:1-24:18 ......  "23:30 By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land. 23:31 And I will set thy border from the Red Sea even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness unto the River; (footnote 16) for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand; and thou shalt drive them out before thee. (Footnote 16: That is, the Euphrates) 23:32 Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods. 23:33 They shall not dwell in thy land ~ lest they make thee sin against Me, for thou wilt serve their gods ~ for they will be a snare unto thee. "

This is the title deed to Eretz Yisrael.  Yours & Mine.  And it is not complicated, but simple!

*The borders of Eretz Yisrael are clearly deliniated ~ We just need to claim it!

*Little by little the usurpers of Jewish land are to be driven out.
 *Others ~ non Jews ~ shall not dwell in our land.
*Living outside of Israel is viewed as an unnatural state for a Jew. The world outside of Israel is often referred to as "galut," which is usually translated as "diaspora" (dispersion), but a more literal translation would be "exile" or "captivity." When we live outside of Israel, we are living in exile from our land

That is Ha'Shem speaking.   How much clearer can it get???

The Map above is the Middle East .... not as the world has it delineated today, but as Ha'Shem sees it. With Eretz Yisrael marked between the Red Lines.   It describes a large territory, "from the brook of Egypt to the Euphrates",  comprising all of modern-day Israel and the rest of the land apportioned to us by Ha'Shems promise.   The State of Israel is fully entitled to the Land of Israel ~  the Complete Land of Israel or the "Entire Land of Israel" (Hebrew: ארץ ישראל השלמה,  Eretz Yisrael Hashlemah)  ~ and to sovereignty over all of it, as promised above.  The government of Israel should thus see that this sovereignty be immediately extended and not a single thought of its surrender should ever be permitted: ~  "There is only one land,  the Land of Israel ~ and not one inch is not ours and not one inch dare be given back."  Rabbi Meir Kahane said this!

 It should be noted in what is commonly called 'biblical' times, part of Syria was part of the kingdom of Israel according to the borders outlined in Ba'Midbar 34, which follows, and the map shown above with the red border, which represents all of Canaan's Land, or Israel.  After the Maccabean revolt,  Judea then became an independant state and after King Herod died, the Romans took over and it became a Roman province. The Romans ultimately destroyed Judea and the second Temple in 70CE and renamed Israel 'Palestine'  in an effort to wipe out the name of Israel and the Jews of Israel forever. However, the Jewish people, though driven from the land of Israel , in the worldly Diaspora, have always had a presence in the land of Israel since those times.

AND the L-RD spake unto Moses, saying,  Command the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land of Canaan; this is the land that shall fall unto you for an inheritance, even the land of Canaan with the coasts thereof:  

1-2  The Southern border of Canaan Land or Israel: ~
Then your south quarter shall be from the wilderness of Zin along by the coast of Edom, and your south border shall be the outmost coast of the salt sea eastward:

3  And your border shall turn from the south to the ascent of Akrabbim, and pass on to Zin: and the going forth thereof shall be from the south to Kadeshbarnea, and shall go on to Hazaraddar, and pass on to Azmon: 

4  And the border shall fetch a compass from Azmon unto the river of Egypt, and the goings out of it shall be at the sea. 

5  The Northern border of Canaan Land or Israel: ~
And this shall be your north border: from the great sea ye shall point out for you mount Hor: From mount Hor ye shallm point out your border unto the the entrance of Hamath; and the goings forth of the border shall be to Zedad: And the border shall go on to Ziphron, and the goings out of it shall be at Hazarenan: this shall be your north border. 

And as for the western border, ye shall even have the great sea for a border: this shall be your west border.

7-9  The Western border of Canaan Land or Israel: 

 10-12   The Eastern border of Canaan Land or Israel:

And ye shall point out your east border from Hazarenan to Shepham: And the coast shall go down from Shepham to Riblah, on the east side of Ain; and the border shall descend, and shall reach unto the side of the sea of Chinereth eastward. And the border shall go down to Jordan, and the goings out of it shall be at the salt sea: this shall be your land with the coasts thereof round about.  ~ Ba'Midbar 34, 1 - 12.  ~ 

    

But, you may ask is this important & why am I on the eve of Shabbat frantically scrabbling around for clear maps & mishnas  ....  why is what constitutes the land of Israel Important???

Because .....

"The entire life of the Jewish people revolves around the question of our existence in Israel ~ whether we are in a state of exile or a state of redemption. Even after the Giving of the Torah, the complete fulfillment of the commandments began only after entering the Land, conquering, and dividing it ~ after the Jewish people settled in the Land. The purpose of giving the Torah at Mt Sinai ~ the moment at which we became a people ~ is the fulfillmenet of the Torah and the commandments in the Land".

Why is Land of Israel essential to Jewish people? In the writings of Rabbi Isaac of Homil zt"l it is explained in several places that the settlement of the Jewish people in their land and the establishment of their kingdom is, in the language of Kabbalah, 'raising the aspect of Rachel'. Rabbi Isaac explains that the raising of the aspect of Rachel means revealing and shaping the true Jewish nature. In exile we can fulfill commandments and even establish Jewish community, but it is all still part of 'the aspect of Leah' - the world of conscious thought. Outside of the Land, Judaism is an intellectual and thought-out exercise; only in Israel Judaism is revealed as the Jewish soul's natural impulse, and natural expression of Jewish nature in the fulfillment of the commandments comes to light. 

~  Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh,  The Jewish Nature: ~ The Way to Natural Consciousness.

 This all serves to reinforce the importance of  Eretz Yisroel in Halacha,  and therefore how important it should be to every Jew alive.  Those living in Israel or in the Diaspora.  There will be one more.... maybe two more parts to this blog. as I attempt to define Israel's borders, parameters & responsibilities both religiously & politically as the Jewish Nation & State. Part II shall review the legal position of Eretz Yisrael & what land is legally ascribed to us.  I want to conclude (maybe a part III) by looking at practical politics & the role of Israel's leadership in securing & extending it's borders as per its Torah & Legal postions.  It has become more urgent as Middle events move increasingly towards Islamic Sharia government throughout the lands which surround Israel & Ha'Shem loudly calls his people home.   Am Yisrael Chai!!!
 

A Tale of Two Babies!!

Baby Hadas Fogel .... Beheaded while she slept!

 The brutal murder of Rabbi Udi & Ruth Fogel and three of their children in Itamar, a village in the Samarian hills of Israel, has been met by the international media either with callous disregard or a perverse inclination to explain it away as the result of so-called Israeli “occupation.”

The BBC scantily covered the slaughter, initially professing a subtly displaced skepticism of the terrorist nature of the attack. “Israel suspects the attack was carried out by Palestinian militants,”  ....  Note the key verb “suspects” instead of “knows” and the word “militants” instead of the more accurate “terrorists.”   The Los Angeles Times engaged in its own brand of whitewash, citing a “tit-for-tat mentality”,  calling the Fogel Family "Hardened Settlers",   trying to make them at least partly responsible for the vicious slaughter  & deciding that it is “completely impossible to say with any authority who began the hostilities or to distinguish actions from reaction” !!!!!!

According to the paper, the killings were perpetrated “presumably by Palestinian militants.” Similarly, CNN originally put the term terrorist attack in quotation marks ~  Is there any doubt anywhere that these Animals were terrorists????

Time Magazine characterized the terrorists as “gunmen” and the settlers as “extremist,” and approvingly quotes the anti-Israeli “human rights” organization B’Tselem which speaks simply of “mutual violence.”    How was baby Hadas (pictured above) violent to those who slit her throat while she slept????    This does not make the gruesome murder of the father, the mother and the other two children any more assimilable, but the wilful beheading of a three month old infant in her bed stands out as a particularly heinous and unfathomable act of unmitigated barbarism, the expression of a culture that has often pronounced itself as loving death more than it loves life.  And this it teaches to it's children!!

The 4 year old boy,  Elad, was stabbed twice in the heart.  Once, apparently seemed insufficient for his terrorist murderer. The street celebration of these murders involved the distribution of candies. I have not read or heard of one Arab refusing these candies or condemning the killings!!

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation,  for its part, devoted all of half a minute to the attrocity, concentrating on Israeli construction.  And the European Media furthered this theme speaking of  extra building units in "disputed" land ..... but did not mention the savage  slaughter of this family.  This is just a sample of the kind of language euphesism we encounter as Jews.  When not heaping guilt upon Israel and laundering Palestinian savagery,  the press is content to let the matter die with a few sentences of unattributed blame.   Contrary to liberal myth, every part of Israel is "disputed", because her Arab enemies are set on nothing short of Israel’s total destruction, & in slashing the throat of a three-month old baby,  they wanted to send a message to other Jews to “stay away” from Samaria,  aided and abetted by the mainstream media it seems.

The 'second' story has been far less publicized,  sadly, because of WHO did the good deed, and the preservation of life is not as newsworthy as family slaughter when it concerns Jews apparently!

Arab baby boy Jude with IDF Corporal Levin

Even as the Arab Muslim killers were celebrating this new low in terrorist “ethics”,  a group of Israeli Jewish soldiers (IDF) showed the world how to take the high road.   Let's compare & contrast the tales of two babies ..... In the village of Neve Tzuf, the chief of staff of the Israeli Defence Forces was arriving to offer condolences to members of the Fogel family.  That family was still sitting shiv’ah ~ the seven-day mourning period for Jewish families ~ in the wake of the massacre of Rabbi Fogel and his family.  Soldiers of the IDF accompanied Chief of Staff Benny Gantz.  As the entourage arrived,  a “palestinian” taxi cab came near. The soldiers saw that there was a woman inside, and that she was in some sort of medical distress. It turned out that she was birthing a baby, but the umbilical cord was wrapped around the baby’s neck. A life-threatening situation for both the baby and the mother. So, the Israeli soldiers and local paramedics worked together to successfully deliver the Arab baby and save the mother’s life!  See Arab baby Jude pictured above with IDF Corporal Levin, his deliverer!

All the while, only a few metres away, members of the Fogel family were waiting to receive their important visitor, to pay respect for the loss of three-month-old baby Hadas Fogel and the other murder victims. This contrast graphically depicts that “actions speak louder then words!“. This lesser-known story is even more worthy of publicity when one considers that the Lamestream News Media so often depicts Israeli soldiers as cruel and heavily-armed oppressors of the “palestinian” people.  Don't the IDF deserve the label 'Heroic'??

But, wait, there’s more .....  this contrast has been going on for about 4,000 years ~ since the time when another two babies fought in their mother’s womb.  Yaakov and Esav were twin sons, with Esav being technically the firstborn.  Yaakov became the father of the twelve tribes of Israel.  Esav rebelled against his family, and became the father of the Edomites, today representing all gentiles.    His father, Yitzchak, considered Esav too irresponsible to be given the birthright of the older son, as he cared little for family or the foibles of human life.  Times have not changed too much!

Generations later, Ha'Shem told the Prophet S'hmuel to tell King Saul to utterly destroy the Edomites, including their animals, to wipe them off the face of the Earth. Instead, Saul decided that he would do better than Ha'Shem & kept some for ritual sacrifice, totally against Ha'Shem's instruction. S'hmuel asked if Saul had obeyed, and the king replied that he had. S'hmuel then asked, “What, then, is this bleating of sheep in my ear?”  As a result of Saul's  failure to utterly destroy the Edomites as G-d instructed, the children of Israel have lived with the abusive presence of their descendants to this day. So, the recent story of these two babies reflects & reinforces the ancient Tanakh tale & the descendants of two babies.