Olmert is back to capitulating. He announced today:

"You can read my lips: 'I'm ready for territorial compromises‚ and I haven't changed my mind," Olmert said in an interview with Newsweek-Washington Post.
In the interview, Olmert breathed new life into the realignment plan, which would see Israel retain highly populated settlement blocs within Judea and Samaria and relinquish isolated areas. Until now, analysts had assumed that Olmert had dropped the plan.

Not this analyst.

And why wouldn't he restart his realignment plan?

He now has Lieberman in his pocket, shoring up his coalition against any chance of collapse.

He even hinted he would give away the Golan to Assad.

The Left can never learn from (even recent) history, and those that are in it for the power don’t want to learn.

Same difference.

Hatred of Judaism and of Religious Jews is a powerful thing in Israel.

In the State of Israel there are people are willing to lose a hundred million dollars - just to spite Jews and Judaism.

The McDonald franchise in Israel is owned by Omri Padan – not someone known for his favorable attitude towards Judaism (understatement).

There is a McDonalds that sits in the Ramat Aviv mall.

The Ramat Aviv mall is owned by Lev Leviav – a religious Jew who keeps his malls closed on Shabbat.

In 1997, Omri Padan said, he “will not surrender” and make his Ramat Aviv McDonalds kosher – even though it was already to be closed on Shabbat.

In the year 1999, the Avi Chai Foundation did a study that found that 58% of the Jewish population in Israel will only eat kosher (and if that didn’t specifically include basar v’chalav, they also found that 44% of the population keep completely separate dishes for milk and meat).

Yet strangely enough (well not ,when you consider the hater), Omri Padan, with the hurdle of not being open on Shabbat no longer an issue, made an unambiguous decision to choose to not serve over 50% of his potential clientele.

Now there are those of you that are whispering that is would cost him more to be kosher – I will remind you of his obscene TV commercial where he said that the meat and cheese that comprise his cheeseburgers are all kosher products.

So, with a 50% population that only eats kosher (and at no extra expense), Padan chooses to keep less than 10% of his McDonalds kosher, and even then it is when he had no choice (such as in the Jerusalem Bus Station which will only allow kosher vendors). More so, he chooses to keep them non-Kosher particularly in Jerusalem where far more than 50% of the residents keep kosher.

There is even a Kosher McDonalds in Buenos Airies with its much smaller Jewish/Kosher population. (picture)

I would assume that McDonalds (with their respect for local values and customs, even though they even make mistakes at home) quickly realized that they made a huge mistake giving Padan an (apparently) exclusive countrywide contract. They must not have know he was an extremist. But they certainly realized soon enough that they had locked themselves in with someone who was willing to put his Hate before their bottom line.

This week, McDonalds (USA) acknowledged their mistake when they unilaterally decided that Padan must comply with their wishes and make his Ramat Aviv restaurant Kosher – against his will.

Furthermore, McDonalds has made the decision to modify their signs to clearly differentiate between kosher and non-kosher branches in the same towns, resolving the issue that the Rabbinate won’t mix and match kosher certificates where the public (residents and tourists) might be easily confused.

McDonalds even has a precedent for altering their signs when they modified their signs in France to comply with French legislation on store signs.

In short, it would appear that McDonalds USA is finally beginning to wake up and realize that Padan’s hatred must be scrutinized and restrained – because it is limiting their growth in the Israeli market.

And if you didn’t know it, Omri Padan is also a founder of the hate group Peace Now - which explains why there is no McDonalds anywhere in Yesh(a).

Burger King, on the other hand, did open “over the green line” in Maaleh Adumim (annexed by Israel if you don’t remember), but Gush Shalom, Peace Now’s doppelganger, ran a campaign which shut it down.

Personally, I would tell McDonalds that while I appreciate their concern for their bottom line, they are wasting their time as I have far too many friends and acquaintances who will not eat at the Kosher McDonalds so as to not financially support Omri Padan and his Crusade of Hate.

To begin with before you even think to comment here, read this first.

There is no doubt in my mind, come Sunday we will begin to see headlines and articles declaring the revealed limits of Chareidi power, how the Chareidim are no longer the Masters of Jerusalem, and Yair Lapid will of course come out with a daring piece declaring everything he couldn’t say before the parade as to the real reasons he actually supported the parade.

And all these articles will show what we already saw last year and what we knew from long before.

These various destructive, antagonistic, and provocative actions aren't and weren’t done for the “good of the nation”, but rather to hurt specific sectors as Lapid proudly brayed in his recent article.

Replacing “Settler” for “Chareidi” Lapid’s article would say, “The Israelis merely felt that the Chareidim should be taught a lesson in humility and perhaps in democracy too” and “the chareidim learned that their power is limited.”

And isn’t that what we are really talking about here?

While certain sectors yell and scream “Freedom of Expression”, “Freedom of Speech”, and of course “Freedom from Religion” I only see thousands of police and soldiers being deployed to kick Jews out of their homes, and to protect a purposely confrontational parade, but when it comes to protecting our rights, I don’t see anyone deploying those same forces to allow me to safely pray on the holiest site in Israel – the Temple Mount.

In short, we see through this façade of liberalism and openness and recognize that Yair Lapid showed the real face of his society – hatred of the Torah and Judaism and those they believe represent it, and nothing less than that.

This is a culture war, and it is far easier (for the Left) to destroy than (for the Right) to build.

Think I’m wrong?

When the thousands of Gush Katif expellees receive permanent housing, when I can openly and safely pray on the Temple Mount, when Jewish citizens of Yesh(a) aren’t thrown into administrative detention or barred from their homes without charges or having committed any crime, when the police protect and not beat up someone blowing the Shofar on Rosh Hashana at the Kotel, then I will quite possibly begin to consider that things have changed.

But until then all the evidence proves me right.

There is no doubt (as Sharon proved) that Israeli politicians are the worldwide experts at openly manipulating and circumventing the law to their personal benefit.

As the Jerusalem Post article on Shimon Peres shows, Israeli politicians can be broken up into two groups.

The first, those that openly break the law and get caught.

The second become so intensely familiar with the law, they can openly take the same exact improper actions but without “officially” committing a crime.

Peres’s Center for Peace alongside Peres’s “Peace Technology Fund” is one such dubious example of questionable financial activities and political conflicts of interest.

Donations and investments go in and out of different Peres Pet Projects, yet somehow Peres comes out of it completely clean (or the investigations are inconclusively closed, or never opened in the first place as we see today), even as his investments and political activities intertwine and create clear conflicts of interest when it comes to what is good for Israel.

So now Shimon Peres won’t be charged (surprise) for illegally receiving some very large donations because he managed to time it exactly so he received them during a two-week limbo period.

I don’t fault Shimon.

His behavior, just like Sharon’s and Olmerts is the standard for Israeli political society. He is simply smarter, and better connected than many other politicians (and certainly must have juicy stuff on a lot of people), so he gets away with it – at the country’s expense.

We don’t even need to discuss administrative detention against (obviously settler) Israeli Citizens, one just needs to look at Peres see the Rule of Law in Israel is one broken rule and the attitude towards it is that it is just a tool to hit your opponents over the head with.

One of the most ubiquitous scenes in Israel are Israelis throwing barbeques on Yom HaAtzmaut, so many Israelis that they even will set them down in the middle of an island on the highway for lack of room anywhere else.

I am not the first to note the (instinctive) connection between the development of this custom and the sacrifices we used to offer in the Beit HaMikdash.

In fact, before the Temple was centralized, people used to offer sacrifices everywhere – in other words - barbeques.

Outsiders apparently tend to see sacrifices as some primitive throwback to idolatry, yet it was anything but.

What is a sacrifice?

It is many things, but one thing it certainly is, is the elevation of a mundane process (slaughtering, cooking, and eating) into something more sublime.

It is an expression of gratitude to G/d and recognition that not everything is ours, even when we think it is, and we have to return something back to the Giver, if when it is not something needed by the recipient.

But think about it, the Beit Hamikdash was more than just a Steak House.
Picture what was going on there.

There was a house band (the Leviim) that would sing and play in the courtyard – even on Shabbat.

People would come to offer their sacrifices and hear their favorite music as the dinner was cooked and served.

I was thinking that during Elul they probably played a variation of “Knocking on Heaven’s Door”, Nissan was of course “Smoke on the Water, Fire in the Sky”, and in Bayit Shlishi I won’t be surprised to hear a variation of “Lola” on Purim.

Simchat Beit HaShoeva must have been like a Music Festival with different bands in different sections of the courtyard.

Of course the house band changed every month so it never got boring, and I’m sure each Cohen Gadol had his favorites tunes that set the tone for his tenure. I little more of the Ramones for Ezra, while Aharon preferred Billy Joel.

And once your animal was slaughtered and freshly cooked, you sat down to eat with your family, perhaps with the new fruits if the season was right. The music of Kol Achai for your listening pleasure.

And the scene! Imagine the Inbal (formerly the Laromme) Hotel on the first night of Sukkot or Pesach. Nothing compared to what was going on around the Beit HaMikdah. Friends meeting, eating meals together, and celebrating whatever they were celebrating.

And elevating their meals and evening whether personal or national into something more than just physical into something holy and meaningful.

Personally, I can’t wait until the third Beit HaMikdash is rebuilt.

Well, the Reform movement has finally inaugurated its first public fast day.

They are calling it the Fast of Rabin.

Personally I plan to adhere to it as religiously as every other Reform Jew in the world adheres to every other Jewish fast during the year (with the possible exception of Yom Kippur).

And so, exactly like every Reform Jew in the world will be doing on that particular day, I will be doing the same thing - Yes, I will be eating.

What’s interesting is that they are calling it that probably to raise a similarity in your mind to the Fast of Gedalia (uh, how many Reform Jews know who he was to make the connection?).

But there is one main difference. Gedalia’s assassination essentially brought about the end of Jewish independence and habitation in the Land of Israel.
Rabin on the other hand was merely another "Victim for Peace" on the Left's idolatrous altar of human sacrifices. (You all do remember the sick Leftist mantra of “Karbanot l’shalom” ("Sacrifices for Peace") after every bombing. Don’t you?)

Really, there isn’t really much difference between one guy killing Rabin, verses Rabin, Peres, and Beilin giving the Arabs lots of weapons and free access to kill lots of Jews, except that Rabin, Peres, and Beilin are directly responsible for the deaths of lot more Jews than “he who shall not be named”.

But I guess when you outsource it’s easier to evade liability (or maybe it’s a numbers game, and you need to kill a lot of people, like all those on the Altalena, in order to go scot free).

Oh and Gedalia was a tzaddik, so there may be two main differences.

Anyway, as always, remember to make your annual pilgrimage here.

And here is a rather intriguing photo and video.

There seems to be some confusion as to what the JoeSettler blog is about.

There are those that think they can use it as their soapbox for whatever they believe in. There are those that think it is a place for dialogue between diverging viewpoints. There are those that think it is a place for rebutting what I say (or at least making the attempt).

Let me make this clear.

JoeSettler is my soapbox.

I hear leftist and anti-religious drivel all day long on the news, from my friends, and from my colleagues.

I started this blog because the Left decided to expel 8000 Jews from their homes – and this is my answer to your evil act – whether you participated, anticipated, or simply appreciated it.

This is a blog about, and from the perspective of Israel and Torah Judaism, with emphasis on the Torah mandate of conquering and settling all of Eretz Yisrael (from Tel Aviv to Rafiach Yam).

The objective of this blog is to promote a Jewish State in Eretz Yisrael as opposed to a state full of Jews like we have now.

If your opinions are anti-Torah, I’m not interested in seeing them here.

Don’t take it personally (or do take it personally, that’s your business), but my site isn’t here for promoting your ideas or creating dialogue. Nor am I interested in wasting my time arguing with you when your philosophies and values are so diametrally opposed to mine. When you start off so wrong on the basics, any common ground is transitory, and ultimately the conclusions will be in opposition. Sharon proved that last summer.

JoeSettler is for promoting my ideas.

If you want clarification, that might be one thing, but if you want to argue. Go away. I’m not interested.

I’m sorry if you don’t like my attitude on my blog, but too bad. I’m forced to hear your type of drivel all day long and this is my place to vent.


I would also recommend this prerequisite basic reading list before participating in this blog to ensure you are well founded in the basics of any post and understand the actual underlying innuendos and allusions as opposed to your imaginary suppositions:

(In no particular order)
• Tanach
• Rabbi Chaim Zimmerman
• Rabbi Eliezer Berkovitz
• Rabbi Meir Kahane
• Rambam
• Siddur
• Yoram Hazony
• Rav Kook
• Rav Shimshon Refael Hirsch
• Rabbi Slifkin
• Rav Steinzaltz
• Ramchal
• Maharal
• Rabbi Sol Roth
• Clausewitz
• Moshe Feiglin

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3322160,00.html

(Thanks Jameel)


(Everyone is outing me today!!!!)

I was sitting with my car mechanic yesterday and we were discussing (as we always do) cars and taxes.

He surprised me with a little fact.

You see, car importers have a little “trick” they play in order to help keep the cost of the car down - so that it is a tiny bit more affordable to the customer.

Now you are probably asking yourself, “What is JoeSettler talking about? Cars cost something like 100% more in Israel than they do in the US. What lower cost is he babbling about.”

Well here is some news for you.

You see, if you import a car into Israel with an air conditioner it gets taxed at an especially high rate. So the importers import cars with no air conditioners, and air conditioners with no cars, and then install them here in Israel.

Ta da. The import tax on the car is at the “lower” rate of only around 100% (or whatever it is) instead of the high rate of much, much more.

Have you ever heard of anything so stupid?

Can this government try to choke us any more than it already does?

But alas, we came back again to the same question we always have. Israelis are being ripped off by the government and we have absolutely no recourse. What is there to do?

This entire country is being choked to death by the government. Yet there is no Haifa Tea Party, nothing. And even if there was, it would have no effect.

Look at the reservist’s protest. Is there any other completely justified protest that should at least have some effect on the system? Yet the reservists are ignored while the bumbling inept (and even criminal) generals all got promotions.

The reservists can’t even go on strike, because then this country would be in mortal danger of destruction.

And apparently they won’t resort to violence, because as much as the government endangered and wasted their lives, they are still good Israeli sheep when it comes down to it.

Nothing will change.

Next week, we will see if serious violence or at least the threat of serious violence against the abomination parade will cancel it or not.

We will learn if, in Israel, violence or the threat of it gets results or not.
Perhaps the reservists need to learn from the Chareidim?

And one last question for you.

Why is it OK for the abomination parade to go on in Jerusalem, knowing that it will possibly cause riots, but I can’t go up to Har HaBayit and openly pray?

Around a year ago I was listening to one of the Israeli talk radio shows when a caller calls up and says “Varda, my husband and I don’t have any communications anymore. We can’t work out our schedules to meet. Our family is falling apart.”

The caller was asked if there was no time, even an evening that the family could just sit and talk. The caller responded that even when her husband comes home from work on Saturday evenings, the only time both are home, he is too tired.

Neither caller nor radio host felt that there was anything wrong with the fact that the caller’s husband had to work on Shabbat if he wanted to keep his job in the shopping center.

Neither caller nor radio host thought that there was anything wrong with the fact that the husband would lose his main source of income if he refused to work on Shabbat.

In fact, neither caller nor host thought there was anything even unusual that the man was working on Shabbat.

One of the greatest gifts the Jewish people gave to the world is the Day of Rest.

Yet here in Israel (not for the better off mind you), secular coercion is forcing people to work on Shabbat if they want to keep their jobs, whether it is in the Intel plant in Kiryat Gat (notice that it was built in a low-income area), or one of the many shopping centers or restaurants that are open.

Secular Israelis talk about Freedom to Shop on Shabbat, and Freedom to Eat Out on Shabbat, and Freedom to go to Entertainment on Shabbat, but they all forget one thing.

They talk about laws allowing restaurants, entertainments centers, and public transportation services to be allowed to run on Shabbat.

Their freedom is someone else’s slavery (and I don’t use the word lightly).

They never consider the teenagers, or the middle/lower income families that find themselves forced to work on Shabbat if they want to keep their jobs during the week.

They never consider the families that can’t even get a common day together where they can all sit down and communicate, play, or even ignore each other.

Who exactly is working as their waitress, cook, salesman, bus driver, and projectionist?

Certainly it’s not someone who is on the same socio-economic level as they are.

Not at all - it is the poor person who has no choice -and that is exactly who the Shabbat laws are there to protect.

But all that matters is that there is Freedom to Whatever, even as it steals away the freedom of someone else.

That’s called Secular Coercion.

I wasn’t going to discuss this, but I’ve changed my mind. Next week the proposed abomination parade will be marching through Jerusalem (well, hopefully not actually).

Another Freedom to Whatever that infringes on the rest of us.

There is no other way to describe this, than as Sexual Harassment of the General Public.

The general public does not need nor want to see the exposed flaunting that will be on display.

This is both an abuse and harassment of the general public that will have no choice but to see this open provocation in our streets.

You want to have sex with each other, with animals or with little children. I don’t want to know about it. I don’t want to see it.

Keep you predilections to yourselves (or go to the police).

But this is unfortunately another example of Secular Coercion.

When it happens in the workplace, we prosecute it, because, for among other reasons, one’s fellow employees don’t have much choice as to working there and deserve a safe, comfortable working environment without feeling sexually harassed.

Well, we the general public deserve the same things in our streets. They can do what they want in the privacy of their own home, but why must they stick their sexual activities into in our faces where we don’t have a choice but to see it?

We want a safe, comfortable environment in our streets as much as we want it in our workplace.

This is Secular Coercion.


Moshe Feiglin had an interesting point. His party, his goals are less important to the religious man on the street than they are to the secular.

Why?

Perhaps because in many ways, we religious already live our lifestyle in the healthiest way possible (just look at the statistics on lifespan and other health indicators on religious communities in Israel - we top the charts). We watch out for our religious and social needs because the Torah commands it and because we are aware of them.

It’s the average secular Israeli on the other hand that needs the Shabbat laws.

The average secular Israeli is being exploited by those more well-off and powerful than they. The average Israeli doesn’t have the security net of their community when they don’t want to have to work on Shabbat despite the coercion to do so. They may not even be aware of the damage being caused to their families because of it because their society doesn't discuss it or accept it.

So they suffer instead or call up radio show hosts who haven't a clue either.

Secular Coercion.