Hat tip: Leib Schaeffer (whoever you are).

I started off my evening planning to go to the Slifkin kickoff at the OU-Israel offices, but mistakenly thought it began at 6:00 and not 8:00 and I couldn’t figure out why no one was there when I got there “late”.

So I then headed out to the Manhigut Yehudit conference in the Ramada where I hung out with Bone Crusher who was bouncing while we ate sufganiot.

JoeSettler Jr. was getting a bit tired so we left before the end, but we heard Esther Pollard and various other heroes of the Orange movement speak as they lit the Chanukah candles.

But who knew!

This is the first time that Mrs. JoeSettler actually heard Moshe speak about Manhigut Yehudit and its goals, up till then it was always just hello-goodbye at social events.

She said Moshe spoke to the point. He stated the problems and stated the solutions. She doesn’t like politics and he didn’t speak politics. He spoke common sense.

She most appreciated when he said that judges need to be elected by the people, not by other judges but she was most impressed by the young people who were introduced who had stood their ground against the expulsion and the judges who jailed them on political grounds.

The large hall in the Ramada Renaissance was completely full.

Manhigut Yehudit is growing in size. I hope now it also grows in political maturity - not so it can start cutting backroom deals with other politicians, but rather to gain experience to avoid being taken advantage of by those more experienced politicians that would use and abuse Manhigut’s powerbase by trying to cut deals and backstabbing.

Manhigut Yehudit needs to stick to its long term plans and avoid the backrooms.

This conference showed that the people are there to build a real powerbase.

Moshe – use it wisely.

I find myself at a loss for words when I think about Amir Peretz and his staff.

On one hand, an anonymous member of Peretz’s staff had a brilliant flash of insight (an insight I have often mentioned here).

The JPost quotes the source as saying, “When the Palestinians fight among themselves their way out is always to just join forces and fight against their common enemy - Israel."

But the article continues to describe how despite describing the solution, no one in the government, including the author of the comment, gets it.

The comment’s author has it right, if the Arabs want to get out of their civil war they need to unite in attacking Israel.

Therefore the solution is to foment the civil war among the Palestinians, not to try to quiet it down as Israel is trying to do with their “secret talks” with Abbas the terrorist and Holocaust Denier.

Let them get overwhelmingly busy in killing and destroying each other that they won’t have the opportunity to try to unite and fight against us.

Unfortunately, this government is worried about the stability of Lebanon and how they might shoot missiles at us (again), or about the stability of Jordan, now that baby Hussein is divorcing his Palestinian wife.

Seriously, those regimes are not our problem.

This government needs to get the army and our deterrence back in shape, so we can either scare the enemy into not fighting us, and then defeat them when we do.

Instead it is worrying about the governments of dictators and terrorists.

They can’t see the forest for the trees.

Besides missiles, and a day or two here or there over the past few months, it hasn’t rained in Israel for a while now. We need it.

The moshal of the scorpion on the frog crossing the river keeps popping up whenever one discusses what’s going on in the PA. And the truth is, the more they kill each other, the better it is for us here in Israel.

Yes, you have a few that still want to confirm that Israel is the enemy and still attack us (like the roadside bomb found yesterday just in time, or the suicide bombers last week caught at the last minute), but overall, with so many weapons running around and so many people fighting over who has the best method to destroy Israel, it’s so much better for us that they are finally turning their weapons onto themselves in a much more serious way.

I know, I hear the Leftists whining in the background wanting to get past the moderated comments, but I’ll answer you in advance (not that I need to, except you tend to ignore the obvious).

It is not Israel’s problem or responsibility if they choose to wipe themselves out. They’ve made their bed, despite (or more accurately, due to) the best efforts of the misguided world, and now it means that hopefully we here can get some quiet as long as we contain their violence to their side of town.

Will it spill over? Isn’t anarchy there bad for Israel?

That will be Israel’s choice. Anarchy there is theirs and the world’s responsibility, not ours (as much as the Left still want and claim it to be). They have their own governments and revolutionaries and whatever else. They voted in terrorists. They continued to attack Israel. Everything has a price – even as the Left tries to deny them accountability.

During the Iran-Iraq war the rumor has it that we supplied weapons to one side and intelligence to the other. If it’s true then as far as I’m concerned it was a good plan as it kept them busy with each other instead of us.

Right now, we don’t need to supply either side with either. They simply need to use up their ammunition and fighters against each other as quickly as possible.

The survivors will be happy to take Israel’s generous compensation offers to move to somewhere else safer.

Now we only need to make that official Israeli policy and get it implemented.

The big talk in the settlements lately is the government’s/army’s rather idiotic plan to introduce a false security system into the Machsomim (someone is making a lot of money off of it).

The army claims it is to help the residents and secure the rest of Israel, but it’s rather obvious that it does the exact opposite.

To go through the “fast lane” residents will need to call up and enter a secret code before they reach the gate. Everyone else, such as friends, guests, suppliers, rented cars, etc will have to go through the slow lane and the extra security checks (not that there won’t be extra security checks on the fast lane – just like there are now, just that they say there won’t be).

Rather underhanded way to start cutting off Judea and Samaria from the rest of the country – just make it real annoying for people to visit – exactly what they did at the end of Gush Katif.

A lot of residents complained, and so the Army “changed” its policy to having to call up “just” once a day as opposed to every time one wants to go through the Machsom.

Meanwhile there are plenty of reports of harassment of settlers by various people manning the gates. Something I may discuss in the future.

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Olmert messed up on Israel’s ambiguity policy, except I’m wondering if Israel should introduce a new unambiguous policy called Second Strike. Perhaps Israel should declare that our official second strike policy will be to nuke the entire Middle East from Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt etc., if a single NBC weapon hits us. Scorch our earth, we’ll scorch yours forever.

Israel still pretends that there is a cease-fire while Kassams continue to his us regularly from Gaza. Nothing new there. I guess this government would do that too with any Second Strike policy.

The only real reason it would never work – this government has zero credibility with the enemy, and that just kills any potential deterrent.

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Meanwhile the Supreme Court (amazingly somehow still under guidance from Aharon Barak) has opened up the IDF to lawsuits by Arabs from Gaza. You know what? I agree, but only as soon as the PA starts paying us for damages they are causing, extra security and operational costs, and then we’ll start using their money we’ve frozen to directly pay Gazan Arabs that they’ve hurt with their continued terrorism.

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Finally, you won’t read this in the news, but the army has actually switched tracks and has finally begun to return to seriously training for the upcoming war against xxxxx.

Actual (expensive) weapons are now fired freely and regularly in training; money is being liberally poured into vehicles and gas; and units are beginning to get new (and standardized) equipment and training with them.

After years of Leftist brainwashing that the IDF doesn’t fight the enemy, the doped up giant is finally going through rehab – and in a serious way.

The way it looks from where I stand, by this summer, technically we should be ready to win any multi-front war that is rushing towards us – but only if we get rid of those generals on top, and our current political leadership.

It’s just as interesting to see how the international far left is aiming to take on the role the far Right used to control 60 years ago in various fascist and socialistic countries.

Under the guise of words like “freedom” and the like, the international far Left exploit these buzz words as an excuse for their overt and unconcealed anti-Semitism (which of course they say it isn’t, it’s just you Jews are so…).

What’s sad is that the Israeli left purposely closes its eyes to the anti-Semitism because it imagines that all the other goals are shared and the same, without comprehending that once the international far Left is done with the “bad” Jews, the “good” Jews are next.

Yesh Gvul and Peace Now accept money from foreign organizations and governments who do not have the best wishes for Israel in mind, and simply use our Leftists as tools to damage the Jewish people. These naïve dupes hurt Israel internally and externally in a way these international Leftists only dream they could.

“v’Lamalshinin al t’hi Tikva…”

It’s a shame, because America thought it destroyed the Nazis in World War II, but unfortunately their legacy lives on in the form of the far Left.

Nature abhors a vacuum. It’s only natural that an opponent to the US would arise after the fall of the USSR, and that is Islamic fundamentalism with Iran as the leader. The same with anti-Semitism. B’chol Dor vaDor. This time is the Far Left.

Shabbat Shalom

Right outside my house they are building the Fence.

I can’t say yet if I am inside or outside, as they haven’t quite gotten to the point where they go either left or right.

But as I watch them rip and slash their trail of destruction through the land belonging to my settlement, across land of private (pre-State) Jewish owners, and of the Arab fields and villages adjacent to my house I can’t but see how evil the secular Israeli mindset is.

I see once beautiful green areas destroyed and owners separated from their property.


Not only has the secular Israeli given up, but they are trying to take down everyone else with them.

Instead of real solutions, they want to stick their head into their shells like frightened turtles and hide. After all, if you pretend the problem is over there, then it can’t hurt you over here.

And if we ignore Kassams falling on our heads, then there is still a ceasefire.

And if we ignore the holes in the fence and the tunnels underneath it then the fence works.

Two weeks ago they found major portions of the fence near Jerusalem ripped up and useless, except to the masses of Arabs passing through it unchecked and unimpeded. It appears that it was that way for a while, and no security forces knew even about it.

Need we discuss the uselessness of the fence between Gaza and Egypt, or Gaza and Sderot and Ashkelon?

But the Israeli government needs an easy solution it can sell to the people even if it doesn’t work.

So now, my view is ruined, private land (both Jewish and Arab) is confiscated, and after Gush Katif last year, who knows if this government actually compensated the owners.

And worse, there is a real solution to Arab terrorism.

It’s called fighting it, and not with one hand tied behind your back.

First of all kill the terrorists, don’t put them in jail as bargaining chips or whatever. Next forcibly expel their supporters. And finally offer (and actually pay) generous compensation packages to the remaining Arabs and assist in their voluntary immigration. For those that remain there are political solutions we have discussed in the past.

In Lebanon the IDF went out of its way to not destroy civilian infrastructure that was being used by Hizbollah terrorists (yes they destroyed civilian infrastructures, but by far not enough and as a result it endangered the lives of our soldiers).

The solution isn’t a pretend defense; the solution is a real offense.

Ruining my view isn’t going to stop Arab terrorism – fighting it properly will.

Makor Rishon has an interesting article about an archeological site found in Northern Syria (wiki: Ebla)- hopefully the article (in Hebrew) will be online next week. The site was found some 50 years ago, though apparently discoveries are still being made in it.

For various reasons, the article equates it with the location of Yeshivat Shem v’Ever.

Finally a reason to visit Syria (and not for the Humus).

The site was a huge important city with a palace, library/academy, with tens of thousands of clay tablets covering all sorts of subjects such as birds of the world (classified by type), geography, literary texts, genesis stories, and lots and lots of names.

The Wiki says,

“Many Old Testament Genesis names that have not been found in other Near Eastern languages do have similar forms in Eblaite (a-da-mu / Adam, h’à-wa / Eve, Jabal, Abarama/Abraham, Bilhah, Ishma-el, Isûra-el, Esau, Mika-el, Mikaya, Saul, David, etc.). Also found are many Biblical locations: for example Ashtaroth, Sinai, Jerusalem (Ye-ru-sa-lu-um), Hazor, Lachish, Gezer, Dor, Megiddo, Joppa, etc. (Pattinato also claimed to find references to Sodom and Gomorrah).”

And documents with the name Yah and El were found there along with those of the various Avodah Zarahs – which would chime in nicely with the story that when Rivkah passed by the Yeshiva, Yacov wanted out and when she passed by a makom Avodah Zarah Eisav wanted out.


If you recall a few weeks ago the NY Times had an article about a major flood some 4800 years ago that could have wiped out 25% of the world’s population. Someone mentioned to me that this wasn’t our Mabul, but rather the major flood the medrash talks about that preceded the mabul during the time of Enosh.

What’s my point?

There is a current of revisionism running through MO Judaism lately and can be seen on a lot of well known blogs (and I’m not talking about the Bible critics here at all).

Their idea is to completely explain away stories in the Torah as myth and moshals (and no, this is not an invitation to have that discussion on my blog) and fictionalize the people mentioned.

Yet here we are, and a few months ago scientist found evidence of a major flood that no one knew of before.

And we see a major center existed around the time of the Avos (which even mentions their names and other biblibal personalities of the time) – which could tie in quite neatly with our traditions relating to Yeshivat Shem v’Ever - not to mention it provides external validation to cities and locations mentioned in the Torah.

There’s still a lot more we don’t know than we do, and sometimes a little patience is all that is needed to wait for evidence, science, and history to be uncovered –and discover that events the Torah mentioned are quite grounded in the reality that was around them.


It’s important to read this article where one of the main archeologist of the site says there is no connection to Patriarchs, the Bible, or anything else despite any coincidental similarities in the names of the people and place mentioned in the documents found – while still confirming that it mentions all these biblical sites and names.

It also reveals a lot of the political infighting between the various archeologists and how it affects and twists their interpretations. In fact it, reading the various articles (see the links at the bottom of this last link) we can see that the different interpretations of the various archeologists involved swing widely in different directions depending on their agenda – reminds me of Finkelstein.

An interesting point in the article is how the Syrian government is putting pressure on some of the scientists to ensure that no Biblical links are found/published from the tablets and other items found.

Of course, if Ur is located in Syria as some of the documents imply, that means that we Jews are aboriginal Syrians (to use Pattinato's phrase) – and that must upset them too.

Another interesting side point is how the form of government used in Elba was similar to that of Israel’s. Its leaders (judges) were appointed (in fact, at one point they even had 7 year term limits!).

This article opened up something very interesting, and I recommend reading up on this.

But to return to my original point, this undercurrent of revisionism that is running around the MO world should really start to reconsider its position in light of recent findings.

Settlers caught cutting down Arab Olive trees

…or so you would think if you were a Leftist and naively believed Arab propaganda.

In the past I’ve shown you hidden videos of Arabs cutting down their own trees, for which the settlers got blamed.

Two weeks ago though, four Arabs were surprised and were caught in the act by officials.

IMRA supplies a translation of a Hebrew article that discusses how Foresters caught 4 Arabs cutting down Arab olive trees.

Even more interesting is that it seems the police are finally beginning to catch on to what’s going on. You see, the Arabs whose trees get cut down go to the Civil Adminstration and complain that the Settlers cut down their trees.

The Israeli government then gives them compensation money!!!

The police are now beginning to investigate the strange coincidence that nearly all the olive trees that are damaged, have been damaged... only at the end of the harvest season.

Hmmmmm. They haven’t been reading JoeSettler.

Yesterday and today much of the public sector went on strike.

For a change I didn’t feel it, or even feel threatened by it (though I know people were affected), in fact my Post Office was even open, which was the only service I needed yesterday anyway.

I just kept thinking, when Amir Peretz ran a strike as head of the mafia Histadrut we knew it was serious. The country would shut down for unknown lengths of time. His economic terrorism would cause billions of dollars in damages. The courts were ineffectual in breaking the strike (a shame they couldn’t prove to be so weak when it comes to their attacks on Judaism).

But now he was completely out of the picture.

Instead he is contending with his failure as Defense Minister, his failure as head of the Labor party, and his biggest failure - leaving the one place that actually made him one of the most effectively powerful people in this country, the head of the Histadrut.

I’m actually completely disappointed with him.

Here is a man who knows how to be destructive, who knows how to be vicious, who knows how to use force and pressure to get what he wants, yet when push came to shove he failed in his biggest test, the Lebanon War.

While you might argue that perfecting economic terrorism is not the same as perfecting the defense of the country, I would argue differently.

Both require the absolute desire to achieve your goal, destroying the will of your enemy, and convincing your followers to do everything in their power to make it so.

Histadrut members crippled this country on the word of Amir Peretz, yet Amir Peretz couldn’t get his senior staff of generals to build up the required will to obliterate the Hizbollah enemy.

I admit that Israel is economically socialistic, so he wasn’t fighting an uphill battle for acceptance of his Marxist ideology, whereas the country has been so brainwashed into surrender ever since Oslo and particularly Gush Katif, that he was fighting an uphill battle to convince his generals that the IDF is actually supposed to win, much less, actually fight the enemy.

Peretz must be eating his heart out. He could have taken out this country for weeks if he was still the head of the Histadrut. The only other people capable of doing that are Hizbollah.

Perhaps he’s playing for the wrong team?