"I think all the chemicals from that beauty salon have gotten to your head."

As I look out the window of my office, I notice a sight one would only expect to see in science fiction.

Walking across the street are 3 men in brown chem suits and another 4 wearing the standard yellow bio-hazard suits.

looking around a bit more, I see, 2 fire trucks, 3 ambulences, countless fireman, medics and policeman and local security guards.

what the hell is going on here???

It turns out that it was decided that there would be a targil(training exercise) in the building across from mine.

They pretended that there was a chemical spill from the building that houses all of the chemicals used by my company. traffic had been closed off and somewhat strangely (not really) most of these professionals were just hanging around not doing anything (except the guys in the chem suits.)

what a complete waste of manpower.

Criminals in the area must be having a field day.



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The possibility that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just.
– Abraham Lincoln

"Duh. It's like a famous quote."

Here's this weeks quotes (only thru wednesday)

"His own quotes are his greatest pleasure." - Quiz Show

"I've got other skills... I could go back and work on the farm..." - Space Jam Guessed by Litvshe (who never wants to guest blog)

"Well, what you think you know doesn't necessarily have much to do with reality. I mean I hope I'm not the first one to tell you this." - Life as a House

"Have you been followed at all during the last few days? Any suspicious phone calls? Any kind of surveillance at all? Anything?" - Die Hard with a Vengence

"And now they draw cartoons about you." - Patton

Shabbat Shalom

J.



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The possibility that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just.
– Abraham Lincoln

"Well, I'm sure there have been amazing technological advances in the industry, but surely you must have some sort of training program".

Full quote: Well, I'm sure there have been amazing technological advances in the industry, but surely you must have some sort of training program. It seems unfair to presume I won't be able to learn.

I know that political cartoons are suppose to really depict whats going on in society, but I think this one is too true to be ignored.

What has become of our society where we have added further stigmas or unrealistic requirements on our children?

The technological boom of the last 10-15 years has resulted in us being too dependent on technology. How many people reading this feel naked (or lost) without your cellphone? How many think that it's much more difficult not going on-line for the 25 hours of shabbat than to not smoke during that time period?

Society thrived and people lived perfectly well in the era before this technological boom.

Dont get me wrong, I'm all for technology, the question remains tho, by how much should rearing our children rely on it?

When will we realize that and stop putting an emphasis on technology.?

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The possibility that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just.
– Abraham Lincoln

"And now they draw cartoons about you."

Why Cartoons Still Matter - A Lot
By Scott Stantis

While rioting packs of Muslim men in Afghanistan, Syria and Iran shout 'death to cartoonists,' newspapers in the United States have been doing exactly that for years with lay-offs, buyouts, firings and dropping cartoons from the editorial pages.

Altogether, the ranks of American full-time staff editorial cartoonists has shrunk from a high of over 200 in the 1980's to under 80 today.

Newspapers with a long and storied history of cartoonists have seen fit to cut loose this valuable resource. Papers like the Los Angeles Times and Baltimore Sun are now without a staff cartoonist. The Chicago Tribune recently dedicated a room honoring the late, great cartoonist Jeff MacNelly while at the same time mocking his legacy by leaving the editorial cartoonist position open since his death in June of 2000.

These same newspapers now go days without running any cartoon on its opinion sections. Presumably because the editors believe that nothing attracts and engages readers better than massive stretches of gray type.

And the cartoons that do find their way into print are more often jokes then commentary. Guy Cooper, former editor of the popular Perspective section in Newsweek magazine, told a gathering of editorial cartoonists that he would never run a hard hitting, substantive editorial cartoon on his page. He viewed them strictly as entertainment. The New York Times, which runs a small number of editorial cartoons in its Sunday Week-In-Review section, has recently renamed the collection "Laugh lines".

Cartoons can show an issue in high definition clarity better than any ten thousand words. It's interesting to note that when the editors of the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten decided to deride Europe for not confronting the issue of growing radical Islamism it choose to do so with cartoons.

I won't pass judgment on the decision whether or not to run the Muhammad cartoons other than to say they were drawn solely to provoke. And provocation for its own sake is immature and a waste of the valuable real estate given to cartoonists' work by newspapers.

Having said that, it's important to note great cartoons provoke thoughtful and passionate debate. The good ones, any way. If we're doing our job right we engage the readers. In an age when publishers are terrified of losing a single of their remaining subscribers, the angry call from a reader canceling his subscription because of today's editorial page cartoon is not a welcome reader response.

Editors may think cartoons are irrelevant but people don't. A good cartoon can get you in your gut and make you double over in pain or laughter.

Happily, there are still a handful of newspapers, (The Birmingham News being chief among them), that believe in the mission of engaging cartoons.

From the beginning of our republic cartoons have challenged and provoked. From Benjamin Franklin's dismembered snake with each individual colony's name on each piece and the caption " join or die." To Thomas Nast's dismembering of the corrupt Tweed Ring in 19th century New York City. Cartoons also define an issue and even make caricatures of real flesh and blood politicians. Herblock and Pogo diminishing Joseph McCarthy. Or Herblock's rendering of Richard Nixon emerging from under a sewer cap. Jeff MacNelly drawing a hapless Jimmy Carter buying the Brooklyn Bridge from the Soviet Union. These cartoons left an indelible mark on history.

Talk of relevance or lack thereof, has been grinding on the editorial cartoon profession for years. In fact, in 2002, the year I served as president of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists, I had a panel address the issue, "Do we matter?"

To answer this question, editors might ask themselves: Do you think the streets of the Arab world would be ablaze if that Danish newspaper had run a series of editorials on the same subject as those cartoons?



Scott Stantis is the editorial cartoonist for The Birmingham (Ala.) News. He is the past president of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists. He is also the creator of the political comic strip, "Prickly City. He contributes an editorial cartoon to USA Today, which runs on Tuesday. See Scott's cartoons at http://cagle.msnbc.com/politicalcartoons/ online. Email is scottstantis@gmail.com for comments.

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The possibility that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just.
– Abraham Lincoln

"Have you been followed at all during the last few days? Any suspicious phone calls? Any kind of surveillance at all? Anything?"

Beware! Big Brother is watching

I came across this article in todays J-post about a new way to enforce traffic laws

Here is the article in full:

Drivers tempted to ignore a no-entry sign or cross a continuous white line in order to overtake another vehicle when the police don't seem to be around may need to be more cautious in the future.

This is because the police are considering deploying a system of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) that allows them to spot traffic violations from the air and fine or prosecute offenders.

The system has already been tested in the north of the country, and on Monday southern police carried out their first trial under blue skies and unremitting sunshine just outside Lehavim, north of Beersheba. The UAV, which is equipped with a camera, flew at a height of 6,000 feet and was impossible to see or hear despite the fine weather.

So when police stopped a number of offenders, their first reaction was to deny they had committed any traffic violations and to wonder how they had been seen.

Ch.-Supt. Ze'ev Guttman, the commander of the southern traffic police, explained that a policeman in a command center controls the UAV and its camera and informs the policemen on the ground of any violations.

"It gives us the opportunity to operate another, hidden dimension of enforcement," he said.

The patrolmen also have a screen with them, and there are systems that allow them to control the UAV and its camera from their car, and to replay video footage.

"The driver sometimes asks how he was spotted and the policeman can show him," said Guttman.

When asked if the police were becoming like Big Brother, he said, "No, we are just enforcing the law."

Elad Menashe of Yavne-based Aeronautics Defense Systems, which developed the system, said, "You photographed him. You can see him the whole way, show him where he carried out the violation, and then he has nothing to say."

The offenders who were stopped were let off with a warning, as the police were only testing the equipment and cannot use the pictures as evidence in court, said Guttman. Nevertheless, he was satisfied with the morning's work.

"We see that there is potential," he said. "Here we have seen that it does serve our purposes."

Menashe said the system, which has night vision, can also track stolen vehicles and provide traffic reports.

"A helicopter costs a lot of money. Its time in the air is limited because its fuel is limited. The UAV can be in the air for 12 hours and some can be in the air twice as long," he said.

The product has attracted interest from law-enforcement agencies in Europe and Africa, and the company also sells its products to militaries around the world, including the IDF, said Menashe.

However, the UAV's camera doesn't measure speed, although it can measure the time it takes for a car to travel a particular distance and provide its average speed, said Menashe.

It would add to the use of speed cameras, which could cut the high number of road deaths in the US if deployed extensively, a new report shows. The study, which was published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, also recommended reducing speed limits, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem said Monday.

The research was headed by the university's Prof. Elihu Richter and was carried out by teams from Hadassah and the University of Illinois School of Public Health.

Speed cameras are barely used in the US, where death tolls rose 15 percent on interstate highways following small increases in speed limits in the 1990s, the report said. This resulted in 450 to 500 more deaths each year. In Israel, road deaths increased 15% after speed limits were raised from 90 to 100 kph on three interurban highways in 1993.

However, in the UK, the installation of speed cameras, traffic circles and other measures in the 1990s helped reduce road deaths by a third. There was a similar phenomenon in Sweden, Denmark and Australia.

Had the US implemented the speed control policies of the UK during the 1990s, there would have been 16%-25% fewer deaths on the roads, the researchers said.

I personally have no problem with using this new technology to enforce traffic laws, but my one issue is this: According to what I was taught in the Academy, a police officer can only give a ticket if he himself see's the law being broken. It isn't good enough for your partner to tell you he saw something because if you are called to court to testify, you may only say what you saw with your own eyes, not your partners.

In this article it claims

"a policeman in a command center controls the UAV and its camera and informs the policemen on the ground of any violations."

The policeman writing the ticket hasn't seen the infraction and therefore shouldn't be allowed to write the ticket.

J.
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The possibility that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just.
– Abraham Lincoln

"Well, what you think you know doesn't necessarily have much to do with reality. I mean I hope I'm not the first one to tell you this."

I saw these two links on Allison Kaplan Sommer's Blog and thought that they might be of interest.

Israel Foreign Ministry's New video blog - it's apparently the first official blog set up by a country.

Israelity- a group blog that tries to paint a picture of life in Israel.

J.

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The possibility that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just.
– Abraham Lincoln

"I've got other skills... I could go back and work on the farm..."

Who woulda guessed that actor Bob Hoskins lived in Israel for nearly 2 years in the late 60's and even considered staying here.

I came across this article in Haaretz about the Oscar nominated actor.

Nothing is mentioned about it in his biography on IMDB, but according to IMDB, he was married in 1967. (presumably, not to an Israeli).

I guess, if Haaretz wrote it, it must be true :)

J.

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The possibility that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just.
– Abraham Lincoln

"His own quotes are his greatest pleasure."

I have been very lax lately stating who each quote belongs to, so here is the list since the last time I updated it.

Thanks to Elie for getting me to do this. (Life has been busy lately, and sometimes you just need a slight kick in the butt to get moving, thanks Elie).

J.

Jan 8th - "Afraid facts mixed up" - Mr. Miyagi from The Karate Kid.

Jan 8th - "That Freud stuff's a bunch of hooey" - Spellbound.
-Guessed by Litvshe, but he never claimed his prize.

Jan 9th - "Whether or not what we experienced was an According to Hoyle miracle is insignificant. What is significant is that I felt the touch of God" - Jules in Pulp Fiction.
Ze'ev got that one, but has yet to claim his prize

Jan 11th - "I'll have that thirty-two Bob" - Little Bill in Unforgiven.
JoeSettler got that one and he posted a few days later

Jan 12th "Well how come we're the only one marching every Friday night 12 miles full pack in the pitch dark" - Band of Brothers.

Jan 15th "You want to do my job? Be my guest" from Atlantis: The Lost Empire.

Jan 15th "Police! Move and I'll kill you" from Beverly Hills Cop.

Jan 16th (located at The Muqata) "I can runaway and I can go to the ocean, I can go to the country, I can go to the mountains. I could go to Israel" from The Breakfast Club.
Truth got that one and I'm still waiting for his guest blog

Jan 17th - "How dare you! When I came home, there was a man in my house" from The Fugitive".
Litvshe got that one too!!

Jan 17th - "Ah, there's always a catch" from Beyond Rangoon.
Thats 3 for Litvshe

Jan 18th "You're late, do you have no concept of time?" from Back to the Future.

Jan 18th "There are stories of coincidence and chance, and intersections and strange things told, and which is which and who only knows?" from Magnolia

Jan 19th -"I have seen the oppression of my people in Egypt and have heard their cry for deliverance." God in Prince of Egypt.

Jan 19th "Keep an eye on the new guy, he looks good" from Street Fighter 2.

Jan 24th "This was to be a "private" meeting... I mean, who are these men" from Robin Hood: men in Tights

Jan 25th "Rabbi, we've been waiting for the Messiah all our lives. Wouldn't now be a good time for him to come?" from Fiddler on the Roof .
Elliott Cahan got that one and posted a guest blog a few days later.

Jan 29th - Guest blog from Elliot Cahan - No movie quote
Jan 30th - Guest blog from JoeSettler - No movie quote

Jan 30th - "I suppose there'll be a war now, hmm? All that running around and shooting at one another. You would have thought sooner or later it'd go out of fashion." from Babylon 5: The Gathering

Feb 2nd - "You hypocrite! What right do you have to judge another man's beliefs" from Inherit the Wind. One of my favorite plays of all time.

Feb 3rd "But that's impossible. How will the Emperor maintain control without the bureaucracy?" from Star Wars.

Feb 5th "It's easier to be killed by a terrorist than it is to find a husband over the age of 40!" from Sleepless in Seattle.

Feb 7th "Maybe back in the days of the pioneers a man could go his own way, but today you got to play ball" from From Here to Eternity.

Feb 9th "I don't know what the problem is, but I'm sure it can be solved without resorting to violence." from Twins.

Feb 11th "They're experts! Experts, Bob! Exploiting every loophole! Dodging every obstacle! They're penetrating the bureaucracy!" from The Incredibles.

Feb 12th "This is an OUTRAGE! A VILE piece af slander! I demand to know the source of these allegations!" from King Ralph.

Next time, I'll try to do this more frequently than once a month.

J.
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The possibility that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just.
– Abraham Lincoln

"This is an OUTRAGE! A VILE piece af slander! I demand to know the source of these allegations!"

Here's something I got by email this morning.

This was written on Feb 4th by anonymous

We wake up this morning to see video on CNN showing rampaging Muslims around the world. In Europe, the Middle East, the Pacific Rim .. Muslim Mobs spreading mayhem. It seems that these mighty mad Muslims are rioting and firing their ever-present AK-47s into the air because of cartoons. Yup ... this latest epidemic of Muslim outrage comes to us because some newspapers in Norway and Denmark published some cartoons depicting Mohammed.

Muslim outrage huh. OK ... let's do a little historical review. Just some low lights:

* Muslims fly commercial airliners into buildings in New York City.
* No Muslim outrage.
* Muslim officials block the exit where school girls are trying to escape a burning building because their faces were exposed.
* No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims cut off the heads of three teenaged girls on their way to school in Indonesia. A Christian school.
* No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims murder teachers trying to teach Muslim children in Iraq.
* No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims murder over 80 tourists with car bombs outside cafes and hotels in Egypt.
* No Muslim outrage.
* A Muslim attacks a missionary children's school in India. Kills six.
* No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims slaughter hundreds of children and teachers in Beslan, Russia. Muslims shoot children in the back.
* No Muslim outrage.
* Let's go way back. Muslims kidnap and kill athletes at the Munich Summer Olympics.
* No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims fire rocket-propelled grenades into schools full of children in Israel.
* No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims murder more than 50 commuters in attacks on London subways and busses. Over 700 are injured.
* No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims massacre dozens of innocents at a Passover Seder.
* No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims murder innocent vacationers in Bali.
* No Muslim outrage.
* Muslim newspapers publish anti-Semitic cartoons.
* No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims are involved, on one side or the other, in almost every one of the 125+ shooting wars around the world.
* No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims beat the charred bodies of Western civilians with their shoes, then hang them from a bridge.
* No Muslim outrage.
* Newspapers in Denmark and Norway publish cartoons depicting Mohammed.
* Muslims are outraged.

Dead children. Dead tourists. Dead teachers. Dead doctors and nurses. Death, destruction and mayhem around the world at the hands of Muslims .. no Muslim outrage ... but publish a cartoon depicting Mohammed with a bomb in his turban and all hell breaks loose.

Come on, is this really about cartoons? They're rampaging and burning flags. They're looking for Europeans to kidnap. They're threatening innkeepers and generally raising holy Muslim hell not because of any outrage over a cartoon. They're outraged because it is part of the Islamic jihadist culture to be outraged. You don't really need a reason. You just need an excuse. Wandering around, destroying property, murdering children, firing guns into the air and feigning outrage over the slightest perceived insult is to a jihadist what tailgating is to a Steeler's fan.

I know and understand that these bloodthirsty murderers do not represent the majority of the world's Muslims. When, though, do they become outraged? When do they take to the streets to express their outrage at the radicals who are making their religion the object of worldwide hatred and ridicule? Islamic writer Salman Rushdie wrote of these silent Muslims in a New York Times article three years ago. "As their ancient, deeply civilized culture of love, art and philosophical reflection is hijacked by paranoiacs, racists, liars, male supremacists, tyrants, fanatics and violence junkies, why are they not screaming?"

Indeed. Why not?

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The possibility that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just.
– Abraham Lincoln

"They're experts! Experts, Bob! Exploiting every loophole! Dodging every obstacle! They're penetrating the bureaucracy!"

Just a quick post this evening to update everyone on my quest to get my son US citizenship

Yesterday morning, we once again made the journey to the US Embassy in Tel Aviv and hope that our luck had changed.

This time, in addition to my 5 yearbooks, (which would prove that I was in the states for only 5 days) I brought copies of ALL my report cards from kindergarten through twelfth grades. (I still can't understand why my mom woulda saved these over the years, which doesnt mean that I'm not grateful----Thanks mom).

The consul who "waited" on us was very pleasant to work with and she even thanked me for having everything in order and making the process move more smoothly.

We finished in record time and I'm even contemplating withdrawing my insults last week on American Bureaucracy.....Nahhhhhh

J-cop Jr. should be getting his US passport in about 2-3 weeks, I'll keep you updated.

On a side note, I had the honor (and humor) of overhearing someone else's arguments with one of the consuls over whether this man's house really burnt down and destroyed his school files. The consul didnt believe him because he said that he has always lived in the same house since he moved to Israel. He then mentioned that there was a fire and the documents were consumed and then the consul wanted to know why he lied about living in the same house all these years. The man then said that it wasnt the whole house that burnt down, just the study which had the documents in it.

I dont know why they assume that everyone will try and lie in order to try and prove that your child deserves US citizenship.

Shavua Tov

J.


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The possibility that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just.
– Abraham Lincoln

"I don't know what the problem is, but I'm sure it can be solved without resorting to violence."

February 9, 2006
Calvin and Hobbes -- And Mohammed
By Ann Coulter

As my regular readers know, I've long been skeptical of the "Religion of Peace" moniker for Muslims -- for at least 3,000 reasons right off the top of my head. I think the evidence is going my way this week.

The culture editor of a newspaper in Denmark suspected writers and cartoonists were engaging in self-censorship when it came to the Religion of Peace. It was subtle things, like a Danish comedian's statement, paraphrased by The New York Times, "that he had no problem urinating on the Bible but that he would not dare do the same to the Quran."

So, after verifying that his life insurance premiums were paid up, the editor expressly requested cartoons of Muhammad from every cartoonist with a Danish cartoon syndicate. Out of 40 cartoonists, only 10 accepted the invitation, most of them submitting utterly neutral drawings with no political content whatsoever.

But three cartoons made political points.

One showed Muhammad turning away suicide bombers from the gates of heaven, saying "Stop, stop -- we ran out of virgins!" -- which I believe was a commentary on Muslims' predilection for violence.



Another was a cartoon of Muhammad with horns, which I believe was a commentary on Muslims' predilection for violence.



The third showed Muhammad with a turban in the shape of a bomb, which I believe was an expression of post-industrial ennui in a secular -- oops, no, wait: It was more of a commentary on Muslims' predilection for violence.



In order to express their displeasure with the idea that Muslims are violent, thousands of Muslims around the world engaged in rioting, arson, mob savagery, flag-burning, murder and mayhem, among other peaceful acts of nonviolence.

Muslims are the only people who make feminists seem laid-back.

The little darlings brandish placards with typical Religion of Peace slogans, such as: "Behead Those Who Insult Islam," "Europe, you will pay, extermination is on the way" and "Butcher those who mock Islam." They warn Europe of their own impending 9/11 with signs that say: "Europe: Your 9/11 will come" -- which is ironic, because they almost had me convinced the Jews were behind the 9/11 attack.

The rioting Muslims claim they are upset because Islam prohibits any depictions of Muhammad -- though the text is ambiguous on beheadings, suicide bombings and flying planes into skyscrapers.

The belief that Islam forbids portrayals of Muhammad is recently acquired. Back when Muslims created things, rather than blowing them up, they made paintings, frescoes, miniatures and prints of Muhammad.

But apparently the Quran is like the Constitution: It's a "living document," capable of sprouting all-new provisions at will. Muslims ought to start claiming the Quran also prohibits indoor plumbing, to explain their lack of it.

Other interpretations of the Quran forbid images of humans or animals, which makes even a child's coloring book blasphemous. That's why the Taliban blew up those priceless Buddhist statues, bless their innocent, peace-loving little hearts.

Largely unnoticed in this spectacle is the blinding fact that one nation is missing from the long list of Muslim countries (by which I mean France and England) with hundreds of crazy Muslims experiencing bipolar rage over some cartoons: Iraq. Hey -- maybe this democracy thing does work! The barbaric behavior of Europe's Muslims suggests that the European welfare state may not be attracting your top-notch Muslims.

Making the rash assumption for purposes of discussion that Islam is a religion and not a car-burning cult, even a real religion can't go bossing around other people like this.

Catholics aren't short on rules, but they couldn't care less if non-Catholics use birth control. Conservative Jews have no interest in forbidding other people from mixing meat and dairy. Protestants don't make a peep about other people eating food off one another's plates. (Just stay away from our plates -- that's disgusting.)

But Muslims think they can issue decrees about what images can appear in newspaper cartoons. Who do they think they are, liberals?

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The possibility that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just.
– Abraham Lincoln

"Maybe back in the days of the pioneers a man could go his own way, but today you got to play ball."

This is a quote from Yehoram Gaon, a popular Israeli singer and actor. I copied this directly from Israelnews. The link directly to the article is here

J.

Singer Yehoram Gaon compares the idealists who were beaten in Amona to the pioneers who built the Galilee 70 years ago, and bemoans the war against those who stand fast to the Land of Israel.

Popular singer and actor Yehoram Gaon delivered a long discourse on his views of last week's violence in Amona. His politics, as expressed in his service as a one-man faction in the Jerusalem Municipality and his weekly Friday afternoon radio program, are generally left-wing. This Friday's show was different, however. "Only one who fights for his land," Gaon said on Israel Radio's Reshet Bet, "acquires it, by virtue of his love and dedication."

Excerpts from Gaon's talk:

I know that "without fear of the government, one person would swallow another" [Ethics of the Fathers 3,2]. I know, as a loyal citizen, that one must adhere unconditionally to the statutes of the government... But even so, I was not party to all those interviewers and commentators who, from their high perch above, rebuked every settler who arrived in their studios, giving free lessons in ethical civics and law enforcement - to the point where I wanted to yell out, 'Hey, who appointed you?'

As opposed to them, I was really so sad when I saw these boys fighting our army forces, and I didn't know who was fighting whom, or why. It was like a play put on from above for the media...

I thought about the pioneers of Hanita and the "stockade and tower" communities built during the pogroms of the late 1930's... who, against the establishment of the time, built their homes there and became a symbol of heroism and daring Zionism. I thought: What would have happened if they would have heard or known that those who continue their path in 2006 would be evacuated by blue-and-white army and police at the order of the State?

What would [Yehoshua] Henkin - whose entire life was dedicated to redeeming lands of Eretz Yisrael in the Jezreel Valley, the Huleh Valley, and more - have said? What would he have said about those who continue his ways as they stand on roofs and - yes, I know, it's terrible, throw stones on the police and army that come to evacuate them?

Have you noticed that something has gone totally wrong in the Zionist agenda of the People and State of Israel? It's getting worse and worse, deteriorating to a situation in which a real collision is unavoidable... How many wounded or dead will we have to suffer in order to remove a caravan or two from some desolate hill on which some youths settled to prove their love for the Land of Israel?

They call them, justifiably, law-breakers. But... law-breakers are those who fire Lau missiles at their competing gangsters' homes and kill people along the way, and drug-dealers and pimps. So with all the due respect that you do not give them, at least agree with me that the law-breakers in Amona have a different type of motivation.

...Why are they, of all people, being persecuted? Do you realize how many building violations there are in Israel? Why specifically them, and why specifically now? And who wants to prove what this time, and to who, and why specifically at their expense?

Like Hillel the Elder, I sandwich in this matza not only the establishment, but also the leadership of the settlers...

But it appears that the youth no longer have leaders other than this land. The land is leading and directing and forcing its will, and sending them to fight for it, and they agree to do so - like a lover for his loved one, with great truth and without compromise. Zionism '06.

I know it's not popular today to say nice things about the settlers. All my colleagues in radio and television are very, very angry at them - but what to do? Only one who fights for his land, cities and fields, and for every caravan and every clod of earth, acquires it, by virtue of his love and dedication.

One need only flip through the pages of the history of this land to understand what was always self-evident. Our neighbors [the Arabs] know this secret very well. They never rushed; they are tied and bound only to this land and its olive trees. And they know that this is the way, the only way, to become its masters. Conquerors come and go; that's history. But the man who is bound to his land, acquires his eternity upon it.

Looking at these "law-breakers," it's impossible not to think about the big city [Tel Aviv], the city that never stops. Hand on heart: how many of us would leave our warm house, our dreams of getting rich, our cafes and nightclubs... to be with the Land of Israel, that it should not remain alone? How many of us, out of our own free will, would spend time on a barren, wind-swept hill in a caravan?

...[Nothing] is worth these terrible pictures in which we saw such great force expended - force that is nothing more than rage that is really just great weakness... Horses charging forwards - yes, I know, in reaction to stones; and clubs being wielded - yes, I know, in reaction to stones. But suddenly the face of our police and army has changed, and they are getting further away from us, as if in a bad dream. They are suddenly different, estranged from this beautiful and good land...

...OK, fine, so there were polls, and 60% are not interested in Amona and blame the settlers. These 60% - are not interested in anything.

In the end, the ones who will remain in this Land for many years to come will not be those 60%, but rather the "law-breakers" from Amona and Katif. Because they made a vow, as the everlasting nation in an everlasting covenant, for this land...

Can you actually think that these, the very best of our sons, would disengage themselves? That they would not enlist in the army? When it comes to the land of Eretz Yisrael, which is their only and true leader, they will run to fulfill every mission to defend it - and even from the roofs of Amona and amidst the hoofs of the attacking horses.

True, this is a critical moment in the process of determining our borders according to the demographic majority. This is a dangerous concept, and food for thought: If the borders of the Land of Israel are to be drawn according to Jewish-Arab demographics, then in another 50 years or less, our borders will be reduced to the beachfront of Tel Aviv. That is why borders according to demographics are not such a good idea. We have to think of something more creative, something that will leave us here for a few more good years, even after we no longer have a demographic majority.

It would be a good idea to think long and hard about this: When the regime fights the people of Amona, who is it actually fighting? Are these youth the State of Israel's real enemy?

And oh, something else I wanted to say: It's a good thing that Hamas is no longer around, and all the charters calling for our destruction have been revoked, and Iran has voluntarily shut down its atomic reactor. Now we can finally turn to our real problems...

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The possibility that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just.
– Abraham Lincoln

"It's easier to be killed by a terrorist than it is to find a husband over the age of 40!"

Was sent this clip by email.

It really is scary to think that what theses guys say is soo true.

Also here are two videos about how Palestinians "tamper" with the media

J.



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The possibility that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just.
– Abraham Lincoln

"But that's impossible. How will the Emperor maintain control without the bureaucracy?"

Whoever claimed that Israeli bureaucracy was worse than other country bureaucracies was dead wrong. American bureaucracy is much worse.

This morning, my wife and I took J-cop Jr. to get him registered at the Us Embassy as a US citizen and to get him a passport.

I did all my research beforehand, made sure I filled out every document that they wanted, gathered my old passports and we were on our way.

The most difficult part of transferring citizenship to your child is proving that YOU deserve to be able to transfer it. Therefore the US gov't has a policy of proof of presence.

The truth is P.O.P. is pretty silly. In Israel, any citizen or non-citizen for that matter, can get a printout that would list all entry's and exits from Israel. In the US they apparently don't have such a system, so one must bring proof that they were actually in America at the time they say.

In order for a US citizen to transfer his citizenship to his child, he must prove that he lived in the US for at least 5 years and only 2 of those years must be over age 14.

So how does one prove that he was in the US through the age of 18 (when I came here to Israel)?

The most common method can be a passport. My passport which was issued to me when I was 16, proves that I was in the US from age 16-18.5 That gives me 2.5 years of the 5 years. The clerk kept asking me if I have proof of when I was in Israel and I tried explaining to him that from when I came here in '92 until now, I have not been away from Israel for more than 3 weeks, (unless you count 2 months in Lebanon while in the IDF). So if I did as he suggested by bringing that printout from here, it would prove that I wasn't in Israel before July 1990, but not that I was in the states. Go figure.

A friend suggested that I bring in report cards or transcripts from high school. I called my old school to get them and the day school I went to from 3rd grade until 12th, moved and they dont know where my transcripts are. So what I did was, I brought the yearbooks from 7th grade thru 12th which each had a picture of me with my class. The consular looked at it and said ok, I believe that you were there on the day of the pictures, so I will give you 1 days for each picture?

Can you believe that????

They then told me that If I was in the hospital and had proof that would be helpful (how many days would that give me if they are counting for 5 full years of 365 days? School years are only 9 months according to them).

What kind of official documentation would one have for a minor that would be sufficient proof of more than one day?

With thos logic, my birth certificate could probably get me 8 days, since I also have the document about my brit.

In the end, it turns out that my mother might have some old report cards of mine. Hopefully that will help.

AMERICA.....WHAT A COUNTRY.

Shabbat Shalom.

J.




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The possibility that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just.
– Abraham Lincoln

"You hypocrite! What right do you have to judge another man's beliefs?"

I saw this on an email today

From David S. Bedein:

Only three years ago, Ehud Olmert cooperated in the publication of a 170 page study entitled "Illegal Housing in Jerusalem" which concluded that 6000 unlawful buildings in Israeli Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem had reached "epidemic proportions".

This week, Olmert dispatched thousands of troops to remove nine buildings constructed by Jews.
Now Olmert refuses comment on the enforcement of the law concerning 6000 illegal homes.

The question for the public to ask Ehud Olmert: Are you afraid to enforce the law with the Arab citizens of Israel?

Let Mr. Olmert hear your question: Fax: 02 5669245. Tel. 6705527

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The possibility that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just.
– Abraham Lincoln