'This will set an example for all those who sell out their homeland and people"

Wow. What a line. What a statement. It's powerful. It's clear. It's succint.

No, it wasn't a message to Olmert and Livni.

It was a message from our Peace Partners in the PA to a Palestinian "collaberator" who allegedly helped Israel kill 4 terrrorists.

This message was given as the death sentence was passed on the man - by our peace loving partners in the PA.

This of course, combined with Abbas's (initial) selection of 2 murdering terrorists as recipients of the PA's highest award, should be ringing alarm bells in even the most deaf leftist - which of course it doesn't.

No news here.

Today we spent the day in the Science Museum (again... free) in Jerusalem.

The kids loved it. It's all hands on, and there is something for all ages.

My favorite is the foam brick arch bridge you can build and walk on. It used to be up front, but now they hid in the back of the gardens.

I should mention (just out of fairness), all these museums were opened to the public during the holiday by way of sponsorship by Bank HaPoalim.

I hope you all had as fun a Pesach as the JoeSettler family did.

Chag Sameach.

Man it was hot outside today.

We wanted to do something, but indoors to escape the heat, and not expensive either.

As it turns out, a number of museums were open and free to the public.

We started off the day at the Israel Museum.

But the permanent exhibits (the main buildings) were closed, and only the temporary displays were open. You couldn’t take in baby strollers, and that was just annoying and difficult (and heavy), and walking between buildings was simply too hot.

In short, we didn’t enjoy that section too much.

On the other hand, the Shrine of the Book was open, and it was at least 20 degrees (F) cooler in there, the exhibits are interesting, and you can take in baby strollers. The temporary exhibit is the Aleppo Codex. Very interesting.

We hung out there for at least an hour.

Afterwards we crossed the street to the Bible Lands Museum. Also free.

They had a number of interactive PC/Mac kiosks. The displays are all well documented.

The way the displays and rooms are laid out it feels roomier.

All in all, (I think) it’s a much nicer museum than the Israel Museum.

Baby strollers are allowed in (but children are NOT allowed to touch the antiques, no matter how much they want to and try to – remember that). The displays are much more interesting (to me at least) and they had a nice, cool, shaded garden near the cafeteria on the bottom floor where you could sit and relax (and the very nice workers pushed my kids around on the trolleys).

Definitely a successful Chol Hamoed day.

OK, I have no clue as to what is holding the Old City up.

For years I passed by the sign that said Tzidkiyahu’s Cave near Shaar Shchem (Damascus Gate), but I never went in. I always imagined it as a small room under the Old City.

They opened it up for visitors, so I took the family to inspect the “room”. (Entry fee: NIS 10 / adult)

This “room” is actually an ancient quarry from where the stones for the temple were hewn. Later on King Tzidkiyahu hid in it.

This place is huge (and has lots of rooms), and the place was packed with visitors.

There is around 9000 square meters (around 90,000 square feet) of cave running under the Old City, and I suspect it goes even farther and deeper in, but certain areas were blocked off.

I looked for the Ark, but couldn’t find it.

But I did find a pool of fresh water.



Anyway, this place is HUGE. I simply can’t fathom what is preventing the Old City above from collapsing down.

(This is the secret Freemason's meeting room.)

(They say that these are among the main supporting pillars!)


Afterwards we went to the Roman Guard Room literally under Shaar Shchem.

This guard room blocked the original entrance to the Old City. It had and interesting display of photos of the Damascus Gate over time, and some other displays.

Anyone know what this is, and what it says?
Entry is free during Chol Hamoed if you don’t go for the ramparts walk.

Hevron, Hebron, however you choose to spell it, these past 2 days it was the place to be.

Exactly 40 years on Pesach (or Passover, again however you choose to spell it) the Jewish community returned to our ancient city. As many long-time readers know, my extended family lived and owned numerous homes in Hevron going all the way back -until in 1929 when the family, just barely, managed to escape the massacre through a series of miraculous events.

The story of the return, the first Pesach in the hotel, how they stayed on is an exciting one - but one for a different post.

These past 2 days were days of music, tours, booths, donkey rides, pottery painting, and other fun events for the entire family.

The extended JoeSettler family had a wonderful time.

I know I told you all about it a little too late, so let me tell you now, the JoeSettler family will be doing the Jerusalem scene today. There are tons of events going on, and don't miss the events around the Walls of the Old City in the evening.

One of the sites we want to try to reach today is Zedekiah's Cave.

Nope, no new post for Pesach, just politics here at JoeSettler, and what a busy political weekend it was.

Over the Chag, the Gazan PA (aka Hamas) attacked an IDF position using... armored military vehicles (as car bombs) originally supplied to them by... Israel. Actually they did a lot of attacks over the weekend, and they are still going on.

Meanwhile Israel still plans to supply more armored vehicles to the PA in Judea and Samaria.

But that isn't all, the government is now allowing armed Palestinian "policemen" in area B.

Meanwhile, the IDF commander of the Nachal OZ area (where the two fuel workers were killed) was fired for not fighting/reacting properly to the attack. Cynically, I might assume he was either involved in the Hitnatkut and no longer knows how to fight properly (or identify the enemy), or alternatively, he didn't want his men pointlessly killed after he heard that Olmert is planning to rearm the enemy again anyway.

Every time I hear "Palestinian Policemen", I think about police forces around the world, and wonder, where are their normal street policemen walking around with heavy machine guns in the middle of the towns?

I can't think of any normal country (if you know of any, please tell me).

If the "policemen" are there for handling civil matters, then give them the proper tools (and that doesn't include automatic weapons - for sure).

But why does anyone in the Israeli government still expect the same "policemen" that have been caught moonlighting as terrorists to fight their terrorist compadres and family relatives is still beyond me.

Wishing everyone a Chag Kasher v'Sameach.

We should all be zocheh to be in (United) Jerusalem next year and bring the Karbon Pesach.



That's it, I'm (probably) signing off for the next few days.

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Two years ago a Palestinian cameraman was caught (by bloggers) faking and staging photographs/videos. Turns out he was apparently working for Iran, as reported by Caroline Glick, and was acting as part of the Hizbullah/Iran propaganda machine.

Anyway, the news is reporting that this same cameraman, Fadel Shana, was blown up by an IDF tank in Gaza and is showing the video.

So is this an example of reality imitating art, was he where he shouldn't have been, did he instigate the attack to get it on film, was he travelling with terrorists, or was he a terrorist himself?

I'm sure we'll all find out soon enough.

Residents of various outposts are "voluntarily" packing up and moving out.

This is part of a larger package where the government will supposedly "legalize" and permit additional housing in existing settlements in exchange for removing the outposts.

This deal is good for the government, who simply controls the permits and the speed they are processed (most settlements have permits to extensively build going back years, but the final signature on the defense department form is then held back for years).

The government can show the Americans that they are taking down outposts (of course, ignoring what the Americans will ask for next once all the outposts are destroyed, as it doesn't stop there).

The Jews get to build some more needed housing in existing settlements - maybe, as that has yet to be seen - after all we saw how the government reneged in the Hebron deal.


But... this is a bad deal.

The government is likely to renege, and while it is easy to say that an outpost taken down is an outpost that can be returned it is not that simple.

First of all, what is called an outpost in many cases are caravans and farms that have been cultivated for years - on Jewish owned land, mind you.

Once they are abandoned, we all know the process of how the land gets stolen, even beyond Peace Now (notice how no one is talking about their alleged massive tax fraud anymore?) and their documented false reports (notice how outside of Makor Rishon, no one discusses how they fraudulently misrepresented and mistitled the data?) .

Unfortunately, the settlements are feeling the crunch of the government's freeze as we have such a high demand from Israelis all over Israel (and our expanding families) who want to move here and join us, but we don't have sufficient housing available for all those myriads.

The government controls the tap (while the Americans spin the faucet).

This is not a deal to be trusted.