By Matthew M. Hausman * While attending shiva for a family member, a Reform rabbi felt moved to share a few thoughts regarding the Jewish views on life, death and the grieving process. Although his words about the deceased were eloquent, his doctrinal observations were quite disturbing. He lamented, for example, the absence of Jewish belief in an afterlife, apparently unaware that traditional Judaism believes in spiritual immortality and the world to come – essential tenets included in the Thirteen Principles of Faith articulated by Maimonides in his commentary on the Mishnah. However, the early reformers abandoned traditional belief when they rejected halacha (Jewish law) and the concepts of messianic redemption and Jewish nationhood. In so doing, Reform broke with normative Judaism, attempting to fill the ideological void with a belief in Israel’s universal mission. Unfortunately, this universalism has come to reflect secular, liberal and left-wing priorities that often conflict... I recently returned from two weeks of reserve duty with a combat unit on the Egyptian border. There is a certain amount of cognitive dissonance writing this now, from the comfort of my cubicle in the hi-tech park where I work as an electrical engineer. That being said, I want you to be aware of some of the troubling, ridiculous and inspiring things I witnessed. My unit was tasked with securing a section of the border. Our main goals were to prevent drug and weapon/bomb smuggling, deal with illegal African immigrants, and prevent terror cells from crossing. Only barbed wire has been separating the two countries for the past couple of decades. Due to this, in 2008, a terror cell from Gaza was able to cross and successfully detonate in Dimona, murdering one person and seriously wounding another. Additionally, drug smuggling by Beduin tribes has... The day after the disastrous level-nine earthquake that triggered the tsunami and the Fukushima nuclear crisis, March 12, an Israeli expert on air quality and poisoning, Professor Menachem Luria, told Israeli Channel 2: “From what we can gather, this disaster is even more dangerous than Chernobyl.” At the time, his was a minority opinion in the scientific community; very few believed that a nuclear accident as bad as the 1986 meltdown in Ukraine would occur again. “I think that’s basically impossible,” said James Stubbins, an expert at the University of Illinois, and many others agreed. “Fukushima is the biggest industrial catastrophe in the history of... By Mordechai Kedar, Centre for the Study of the Middle East and Islam (under formation) We are currently witnessing social unrest in many Arab states, and street riots have already succeeded in ousting two presidents – in Tunisia and in Egypt – and in unsettling the governmental fabric in Libya, Yemen, Morocco, Syria and Bahrain. The ease and swiftness with which the flames have spread from country to country in the last two months is due to a common trait shared by these countries: all of their regimes are dictatorships headed by non-legitimate rulers who ruthlessly hold sway over a starving, neglected and abused populace which has decided to put an end to its oppression and humiliation. The fundamental problem characterizing Middle Eastern states is that they have no legitimacy in the eyes of their citizenry because their borders were marked by European colonial interests. Great Britain created the borders of Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Israel,... Apologizing to Turkey is in Israel’s interest By Zvi Bar’el, HAARETZ The Middle Eastern kaleidoscope has once again made a 180-degree turn, revealing a new picture. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s letter to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan congratulating him for his party’s sweeping victory in the elections is only one aspect. In the past year, and with greater intensity in recent weeks, people of goodwill from Israel and Turkey have been trying to rehabilitate relations between the two countries. The events in Syria have helped them out, significantly cooling relations between Turkey and Syria and sparking a reappraisal in the Turkish Foreign Ministry and Erdogan’s office of Turkey’s policy in the region. Some Ground Rules before Setting Out By Alan Baker, JCPA SUMMARY An ostensibly civilian, humanitarian flotilla was employed in May 2010 to demonstratively breach the Israeli naval blockade of the Gaza coast. This flotilla was organized by the Turkish IHH, which has extensive links to extreme Islamic terror groups. Provoking a confrontation with Israel continues to be the primary aim. Since May 2010, the Israeli government has altered the manner in which it administers the limitations on the transfer of goods to Gaza. It now specifically prohibits only those materials that might be taken and directed by Hamas and other terror groups in furtherance of their hostile purposes. There is no humanitarian emergency among the civilian population in Gaza, and hence there can be no justification for conveying emergency shipments intended to alleviate an emergency that clearly does not exist. Any genuine wish to provide materials to the Gaza population can be directed through... Sounds like a good deal to me. Ties are restored with Turkey. I don’t mind PA and Hamas unity because it will just make a peace agreement harder to reach. Israel won’t pay the price demanded. But the question is, will Turkey then dominate Syria and Lebanon and continue the new relation with Israel or will they involve Iran? Ted Belman DEBKAfile Special Report June 25, 2011, After more than a year of strained relations, Turkey has decided to restore military and intelligence collaboration in the eastern Mediterranean with Israel as Ankara heads for a military showdown with Syria, according to debkafile’s exclusive military sources. The deal worked out between President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu also gives Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan a role in Israeli-Palestinian diplomacy and a chance to bring Hamas into the process. by Paris David Blumenthal and Reuven Kossover, In 1967, Syria, Jordan, and Egypt attacked Israel. Six days later the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) achieved victory. The IDF liberated and united Jerusalem, and liberated Judea, Samaria, Gaza, and the Golan Heights from foreign rule. The war affects the geopolitics of the region to this day. All these lands were part of the territory included in the 1920 San Remo Resolutions on Palestine which gave the Jewish People sovereignty over these lands in perpetuity. These lands belong to the Jewish people forever – according to international law. Now there is an attempt to take these territories of Judea and Samaria, and the eastern part of Jerusalem liberated in 1967 to create ex nihilo (out of nothing), a “Palestinian” Arab state that would... Laura: Alice Walker is clearly an anti-Semite who knows exactly what she is doing. The same goes for everyone involved with the jihad flotilla. They are not naive innocents believing they are pursuing the cause of “peace”, but are in fact knowingly aiding hamas which makes them willing enablers of a potential Jewish genocide. We may as well refer to them as neo-nazis. As for those members of the media involved. They are not to be considered legitimate journalists but enemies actively engaging in hostile actions against the Jewish state. The Flotilla of Fools off to Gaza by Phyllis Chesler, Frontpagemag The flotilla is coming, the flotilla is coming. European and North American activists, journalists, and mercenaries have set sail—or are about to do so—on fifteen boats with passengers from twenty-two mainly Western countries to “break the Israeli blockade of Gaza.” Spurred on by the anti-Potemkin Village images of Palestinian Arabs living in wretched refugee...Reform Angst Regarding Israel and Jewish Nationalism
Miluim on the Egyptian border
Now for a little background. Ever since the return of Sinai to Egypt, this border has been extremely porous.Costs rise in ‘worst industrial disaster’
Yet, as we are now slowly coming to realize, Fukushima is worse than Chernobyl. In a revealing recent feature article published by al-Jazeera, Dahr Jamail conveys the comments of Arnold Gundersen, a senior former nuclear industry executive in the United States.The Only Solution for the Problems of the Middle East
Real Politique: US, Turkey and Israel
Turkey took another significant step when it “recommended” to the IHH, the Turkish humanitarian relief organization, that it cancel its participation in the new aid flotilla to Gaza, mainly to prevent the flotilla...The Gaza Flotillas to Come
Turkey renews strategic ties with Israel ahead of showdown with Syria
The deal was discussed in a telephone conversation that took place between the US president and Turkish...“I don’t think so”
The Media’s Role in Abetting the Latest Jihad Flotilla
More Recent Articles
Ted Belman
Jerusalem, Israel
Monday, 27 June 2011
Posts
