I don't know why some continue to call Obama's plan to divide Jerusalem a "secret" and certain others deny it completely.

As we've pointed out numerous times, Obama's officials have repeatedly confirmed His goals. Not to mention Obama's own recent remarks on construction in major Jewish neighborhoods such as Gilo - which He wants immediately stopped.

(And don't even get me started on the freeze).

Now, once again the "secret" plan to divide Jerusalem is being publicly discussed.

Haaretz is reporting of an interview with Egypts Foreign Minister on the latest iteration of Obama's plan to divide Jerusalem.

The United States and Egypt, along with France, are planning a joint move to restart Israeli-Palestinian talks on the basis of the June 4, 1967, borders, territorial exchanges and a complete freeze of construction beyond the Green Line, including East Jerusalem. The freeze would not be announced publicly.

He's not pulling this out of the air.

You've got to really want to have your head deep in the sand to not see what is right in front of you.

I found the recent article in the NYTimes on what really happened on Chanukah to be quite amusing. The author (and his readers) was upset to learn that Chanukah isn't about Religious Tolerance or whatever as he grew up to believe, but about civil war and the survival of Judaism. He of course paints the Maccabees as a bunch of religious fanatics/Talibanist fighting the moderates who were looking to "synthesize" the Greek and Jewish cultures together, ignoring how (a) the moderates were trying to destroy Judaism and assimilate, and (b) that it is unlikely there would be much of Judaism (or Jews) left today if it weren't for our coreligionists back then.

It seemed appropriate on Chanukah that the JoeSettler family visit something connected to our ideological and national ancestors. There seems to be so much in common between then and now.

So we took a trip to the Maccabean grave site near Modi'in. Now no one is exactly sure where the grave site is, but for a number of reasons, this is currently accepted to be the most likely candidate (though other strongly disagree).



At the location is a modern "Andarta" to soldiers who died in 1948 defending the region against the Jordanian army (there weren't Arabs who could be identified as Palestinians back then). The design of the pyramids is symbolic of the grave markers that were originally on the Maccabbee graves.





If you head out on the path to highway 443 you can see Jewish burial caves that were uncovered as the road was built (you can actually see it on the highway if you drive slow enough). These graves are from around 100 years after the Maccabee victory.







Heading back to the main area, you can see what are considered the most likely candidates for the graves. These graves where carved out of the limestone themselves, and probably a stone pyramid was built over them to cover them up.





There are actually a lot of small caves in the area. Many (but not all) are marked off so you don't fall into them.



If you head over to Latrun tank museum and climb up to the top of the building you can look around and see where the Maccabees fought the Greek-Syrian armies.

Now that's a living history!

Let's recap:

Settlement freeze.
Police brutality against Jewish girls.
Administrative detentions against Jewish citizens.
Hesder Yeshivas closed down.
Jerusalem on the line.
Kassam attacks in the South.
Increased (successful) terror attacks.
Suicide bomber terrorism starting again (today, the 2nd suicide bomber in the space of a week was caught).

Sounds like a typical Likud government to me.

I once again reiterate that I am happy I voted Ichud Leumi. They may have no influence, but its been proven that neither does any Likud MK have influence either.

The difference is my conscience is clear.

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I suspect the repercussions that Ehud Barak is going to have to deal with in light of his attack on Yeshivat Har Bracha is going to blow up in his face in unexpected ways.

I am sure he thinks he is scaring the other Roshei Yeshivas (and perhaps he is scaring some of them), but I suspect he has now consolidated their support around Rabbi Melamed.

Furthermore, the Hesder soldiers are not likely to take this quietly, and we'll see more soldiers openly indicating their refusal to kick out Jews from their homes (as Barak tries to involve more of them in this immoral act), and that the dispersed soldiers from Har Bracha will be influencing even more soldiers than before in their new Yeshivas if (it goes that far).

And more than likely, when not in the army, the Hesder soldiers will return to Har Bracha to learn.

But most importantly, Barak, in his arrogance, will have created just a few too many political enemies. Already some MKs committees are blocking funding to various Defense Ministry projects. I think we'll start seeing more political activism against him, to the point where he will become so big a liability to the stability of the government that Bibi will have no choice but to cut him loose.

UPDATE in comments section:

MKs on the Left, with the interest of the Leftwing Israeli media are trying to pass a bill that would effectively ban the "Yisrael Hayom" newspaper.

Yisrael Hayom, unlike the other mainstream newspapers like Maariv and Yediot (and I would include Haaretz, but it really isn't mainstream at all) is not left-wing.

Yes, the newspaper is free, and given out in busy, trafficked areas, but that is not really the secret of its success. There are plenty of free papers one can pick up.

And there certainly isn't anything stopping those other papers from giving out their copies for free either - and it's not as if you can't get them free when you fill up for gas.

Israelis like it because it simply isn't another left-wing paper.

Israelis apparently like reading news from what is actually a centrist-right position.

So the Israeli newspapers owners and the Left-wing politicians are trying to ban Yisrael Hayom. The excuse they are giving is that the owner, Sheldon Adelson is not an Israeli citizen, and is, through the paper unduly influencing the Israeli public.

Huh!

Where are they when all the radical Leftwing NGOs are receiving money from foreign governments?

Talk about hypocrisy.

But killing free speech is something the Left like to do.

Arutz-7 is reporting Government support for a bill requiring a referendum on any retreat from land under Israeli sovereignty.

MKs on the Right are actually happy about this bill, as it would not allow Israel to cede land against the will of (a simple?) majority of citizens.

This would include the Golan, Jerusalem, and even Tel Aviv.

What a sick bill!

How about a bill that forbids ceding any territory of Eretz Yisrael at all instead of one that allows for it to happen.

It's a bit disappointing writing this particular post. It unfortunately means that not everyone understands that we are all in the boat together.

If you ask the average Israeli if the Jordan River is our eastern border, I'd say that 95% of the country would agree, even if it is way over the 1967 Armistice Line.

When the freeze was announced, the immediate reaction of the Leftwing settlements in the Jordan Valley was quite clear. They told Barak they aren't "settlers from the territories". They're fellow Leftists like him. The Jordan Valley is of course the eastern border of the State of Israel. Why should the Freeze apply to them?

And then the Chareidim and UTJ jumped on board.

Why should the freeze apply to their towns? They aren't ideological settlers. They moved to Beitar because no one would allow them to build towns anywhere else, and they have no where else to live. Don't punish them because of the settlers. And so on.

And of course the residents of Jerusalem don't understand how their neighborhoods have gotten dragged into the argument and why their construction plans have been frozen (that's right - in Jerusalem too).

What this means is that they really don't understand that we are all in this boat together, Leftist, Settler, Chareidi, Jerusalemites, and even the Chiloni in Tel Aviv.

If we don't all choose to fight this freeze together, all our towns, are going to be destroyed - and then the country itself.

Only if we are united will we have the strength to stand up to the US and Iran.

On the Israeli news tonight they showed Israeli policemen acting in the Settlements. They needed 5 policemen for every settler girl they beat up. Kol hakavod to our settler girls. They showed true strength and determination, and hopefully the other "settlers" will learn the same.


A question was raised. Just a few weeks ago, Barak told the High Court he didn't have enough manpower to properly inspect and track all the illegal Arab construction in the Negev, Galil, Judea and Samaria. Apparently he has more than enough now that he wants it. Is his response to the High Court now negated?

Last week the Israeli media ran a convention in Eilat.

One of the issues they discussed is if Israeli media is Left. The consensus that was reached at the panels is that Israeli media is actually Center-Right (and that's coming from Haaretz!).

By the way, Israeli media sources NOT represented at the convention, and certainly not on the panel discussion the media's political persuasions included Makor Rishon, Arutz-7, Radio Kol Chai, and other Rightwing and/or Religious outlets.

Funny how the media could manage to define themselves as Center-Right, when they didn't bother to invite/allow media outlets that are actually on the Center-Right to participate.

Sort of like the Israeli High Court calling itself balanced.

Video of a Palestinian terrorist getting caught with a knife, and then when the guards turn their back to her, she pulls out a second knife and stabs one of them.

(Graphic)

Last week a terrorist stabbed two people at the Kiryat Arba gas station.

The terrorist was shot by a soldier nearby.

The husband of one of the stabbed women then got into his car and repeatedly ran over the terrorist.

The husband is now under arrest for attempted murder!!!

This is the proper thing to do to terrorists. This is what guarantees they won't be freed by the Israeli government to try and kill again.

The Israeli news reporter (of course) expressed his disapproval with the man's action in the news report.

You can watch the (warning: graphic) video here:



Hopefully charges against him will be dropped. It would certainly be wrong for him to sit in jail longer than the terrorist he (properly) tried to kill.

In case you didn't notice, purple is in this Eid Al-Adha holiday.