It's been four years

Four years have passed since my father's passing.
This most traumatic of lifes events is continuing to make a deep impact on my life.
What my father instilled in me is a continous driving force in my life.
His love of the land of Israel and of Jewish tradition helped shape who I am.
As a young man he had little oppurtunity to reach the land of Israel or even to develop himself.
He survived World War 2 miraculously while most of his siblings were murdered.
That did not deter him from reaching Israel and fufilling his dream of stepping on the soil of the holy land.
He in fact made Aliyah at age 94 once again announcing at the airport " he has come to save the country ".
Losing a parent is always very difficult.
One truly is not a child anymore when a parent is gone.
That's the real difficulty.
May his memory be a blessing to his children and grand children.

Jewish Survival

Israels prime minister has his faults, oration is not one of them.
In perhaps his best public speech of all time he simply and eleqently presented to the world that the Jewish people would not go like sheep to the slaughter.
The world believes for better or worse that he will direct an attack on Iran if no other choice is found.
This may bring chaos to the middle east but Iran understands that if they do get to close to the no return level, Israel will strike.
This is a game of nuclear chicken that Israel will not play.
Benjamins Netanyahu's entire political career has been based on stopping Iran from getting the bomb.
To contemplate that he will flinch when when Israels back is to the wall is unfathomable.
As the west is seen to be shying away from conflict a Israeli strike seems more likely.
Hard to say when this will happen.
Hold on to your hats.

Peace in our time

The incredible weakness shown by the United States and most of the civilized world in the Syrian crisis will have severe repurcussions.

The United States has ceased to be a superpower and left the world to chaos.

The Iranians will continue to build nuclear weapons unabated, without fear.

The world does not fear the United States anymore.

President Obama is the Chamberlain of our time.

Somebody should give him an umbrella.

Syria, Egypt and the entire mess

Its a bit incredible to think that over a thousand people have died in a chemical attack in in Syria yesterday and little has been done about it.
The same can be said for developments in Egypt in the last few weeks.
One clear message can be learned about living in the Middle East and that is that if you are weak you are doomed.
Sad but true

Sad day

A very prominet figure in the Jewish nationlistic world has been convicted of sexual misconduct
Rabbi Moti Elon for the longest time has said he has done nothing wrong and all his hugs and physical contact were always based on fatherly love and not of any sexual nature.
A judge today in Jerusalem today thought otherwise and has convicted Rabbi Elon of severe wrong doing.
His staure and popularity is unprecedented as was his pedigree. His father was a supreme court justice and brother a former memeber of parliment.
His thousands of supporters will be stunned,confused and bewildered as to the ramifications of this horrible episode
It will get worse of course as Rabbi Elon will probably be going to Jail for an extended period
It is hard to put in words the damaging effect all this has done to the image of national religous movement
It is a very sad day indeed.

allegtions about the chief Rabbi of Israel

Freash allegations that Rabbi David Lau the new cheif Rabbi of Israel tried to cheat in a exam for Rabbinacal ordination have come to light.
These allegtions if true will certainly throw the entire Israel Rabbinate into a tizzy after all thought that after the elctions thngs would calm down
As it looks now it is likely that Rabbi lau will be investigated and probably be forced to resign his post just days after taking ir
It will be the second resignation in a month of a Rabbi for allegations of wrong doing

Ho Hum -another peace process

You need to al least appreciate the tenacity and stuborness of the United States.
Nonetheless ...
Never have so few invested so much into so low a chance to achieve. The process here is the main objective, there is no final solution ( no horrible pun intended )
These is not and cannot be a peace treaty at the end of all this
It is a non-starter as there is no place to put 700,000 Jewish settlers and no force that can remove them from there homes
There is no Israeli government that is agreeable to ceding Jerusalem to a foreign power
there is no Arab ( or Palestinian partner ) that will recognize Israel as a Jewish state or agree on less than the 1967 border lines.
So what is going on?
A peace process
Its the process that is important here
Keep talking and not fighting
Sounds great, no?
It will be good until the talks fail
Then all hell will break loose
That is the meaning of a peace process in the middle east
Talk a bit, the war
Then do it all over again
Its getting a bit boring