Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Ashton Kutcher Hearts Gush Etzion

Celebrity US actor, Ashton Kutcher is visiting Israel these days, and he took time out of his busy schedule to visit...Gush Etzion!

Under the initiative of project "Mashiv HaRuach" which deals with strengthening the values of Zionism, Kutcher visited the community of Efrat, listened with great interest to a historical review of the community and the Gush Etzion area, dined at a Glatt Kosher restaurant, and even dipped in a local natural spring "Mikva" no less than 151 times! (151 is the numerical equivalent "gematriya" of "Mikva")

The project's director, Rafi Even D'aan briefed Kutcher and the history of settlement in Gush Etzion and spoke to him at length about the region's Jewish history. Rafi told Kutcher about the establishment of the new Jewish settlements after the Six Day War and explained the spiritual and historical significance of Gush Etzion.

"Mashiv HaRuach" is a project of the Israel Center of the OU (organization of Jewish communities) and hosts every year about 30 thousand IDF soldiers to help combine and strengthen the values of Zionism and the IDF.

Photos of Kutcher's visit to Gush Etzion:





Maybe next time, Kutcher's wife Demi Moore will visit us in the Shomron?

Update: From Kutcher's tweets about Israel:

tweet: Connecting with Joshua: http://yfrog.com/n8l5wdj

tweet: Love love love (@ Tomb of the Patriarchs) http://4sq.com/cKStRW

tweet: The morning light of mercy is washing over The Wholly Land. I only hope that I can deliver on it's promise. Wholly=1=love


Best comment heard about his tweets: "He's such a seminary girl..."
--The always funny stam! (who also gets a hat-tip for sending the tweets this way)

Story translated from: NRG/maariv, Photos from the OU.

Last Update: Who needs Richard Goldstone, when we have leftist Walla columnists who bash Kutcher for visiting Hevron (poor translation via google). According to Walla -- anyone visiting Hevron is another Baruch Goldstein...


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Segulah Effectiveness Chart

Need a segulah but aren't sure how effective it is?

Chalakeh? Seudat Ha'Ameinim? The underwear tree at the Amuka?

Now you can see the cost/effectiveness ratio per segula.

(click the image to see it clearly)


Partial English translation (and hat-tip) over to MominIsrael.


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More Awful Suffering in Gaza

Warning, extremely graphic images of awful Palestinian suffering



Sorry it's not subtitled into English...I'll try to get to that later.


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Worst. Ad. Ever.

In my humble opinion, this is one of the most tasteless ads I've ever seen.



Reminds me of my son's classmate who was thrown out of school for a day for wearing a t-shirt with the following graphic:


If ZAKA can run video ads like the one above, then the t-shirt isn't that much worse.

J Becker: Happy now? :-)


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Muqata blocks military aid to Lebanon

A joint Joe-Jameel post and news analysis

Much to the Obama administration and State Department's dismay, the US Congress Foreign Relations Committee is blocking $100 million of US military aid and training for the LAF . This follows Lebanon's attack on Israel, possibly using US weapons in the attack, and most likely using snipers who received US training.

Lebanese (LAF) soldier with US weaponry
This is not the first time that the LAF and Lebanese government subverted US military aid to attack Israel and US security interests.

Israel had set up a spy network in Lebanon to specifically spy on Hezbollah.

The US provided the LAF and Lebanese government with counter-surveillance equipment specifically to use against Hezbollah, and Lebanon instead only used it to locate and dismantle Israel's security espionage network against Hezbollah - also damaging US intelligence efforts against Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The Muqata is proud to have been the first to bring the matter to the attention of the general public of the possible misuse of US aid, equipment and training specifically during last week's attack on Israeli forces by the Lebanese government. Thanks to our investigative efforts we put this snowball in motion.

But this is not the first time that US security funding, equipment and training have been turned against Israel and US interests.

Palestinian Authority "policemen" have been involved in numerous terror attacks against Jews and US citizens. It is only a matter of time before US General Dayton's Palestinian militia is used full force against Israel. In fact, Dayton has himself warned that this is likely to happen by 2011 if no Palestinian state is created.

Dayton has been thrown out from the PA twice already. The first time was from Gaza, the second was a few months ago after Dayton had a disagreement with the PA leadership.

Israel (post on this subject to go up soon) has recently kicked out Dayton's PA "police" forces from some Arab villages after numerous attacks on Israelis coming from those villages that are under PA security management.

The US policy of funding easily subverted foreign military forces in unstable Islamic countries and governments in the hope of propping up weak leadership is not a sustainable policy. It is not good for US interests in the long-term.

Back in 2008, the US was praising Lebanese military aid (while Israel expressed concern), and the NYTimes even provided some relevant quotes supporting US aid to Lebanon's army.

Now, however, American officials say they have faith in the independence and professionalism of the army, which has become thoroughly integrated to include all of Lebanon’s many religious and ethnic factions, and has avoided interfering in politics. American-driven audits have shown that almost nothing given to the army has ended up in Hezbollah’s hands.

They have demonstrated year after year after year that when we give them equipment, they take responsibility for it,” said Mark T. Kimmitt, assistant secretary of state for political and military affairs.
Israel made the same mistake by selling advanced arms to Turkey and supporting the PA, and now this policy is coming back to bite Israel.

Furthermore, it is only a matter of time before the Islamic Brotherhood attempts a coup against US-propped up Egyptian government once Mubarak dies, and gains access and control to all of Egypt's advanced US weaponry.

In short, providing military weapons, training and aid to Islamic countries is simply bad long-term policy.

When will the West learn this lesson?


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Monday, August 09, 2010

Obituary: Zvi Narkiss z'l

You've probably never heard of Zvi Narkiss, but he has left his mark all over modern Israel's printed and digital landscape.

Zvi Narkiss was the graphic designer who created popular Hebrew "fonts" -- and they are named as part of the "Narkiss font family."

Google Translated from PC (Hebrew):

Zvi Narkiss, a senior Israeli graphic artists, passed away yesterday (Sunday) at the age of 89. Narkiss, a native of Romania, moved to Israel in 1944 and dedicated his entire adult life to Hebrew letters, design books and newspapers. Narkiss graduated from the Bezalel school of the arts shortly after he immigrated to Israel, and for years raised generations of graphic artists. In 1955, he opened a design studio focused on designing posters and illustrations.

For years he struggled against various publishers who violated the copyright on his letters and fonts, using similar letters without his permission.

One of them is "Ariel", developed, marketed and distributed in the country without his permission. Only after many years of struggle was a compromise reached, and Narkiss received credit for creating the letters.

He contributed significantly to advancing the status of designers and maintenance of their rights, especially in the digital age, which breached the copyright of designers working on many fonts.

He is survived by two daughters, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. His funeral will take place today (Monday) afternoon in the cemetery of Kibbutz Nachshon, where his daughter lives, Tamar Narkiss - Gal.


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Sunday, August 08, 2010

Telling it like it is: Why American Jews should support the Rotem bill

by Lurker

This column by David Breakstone in the JPost has got to be the most completely moronic article I have seen to date on the subject of the Rotem bill:

"Keep Dreaming: When Chelsea wed Marc"

I don't know which part of it I find most offensive:
  • Breakstone's nauseating celebration of the Clinton intermarriage as a glorious, shining example of American Jewish assimilation -- a phenomenon that he seems to advocate as an ideal to which we should all aspire.
  • His thinly veiled threat in the name of American Reform and Conservative Jewry that they will end their support for Israel unless Israel's democratically elected representatives learn to kowtow to American Jewish demands (instead of serving the needs of their own constituencies).
  • His exasperatingly idiotic presentation of "Veronica", his own son's girlfriend, as a case study with which to bash the Rotem bill: "Veronica" -- a halakhicly non-Jewish daughter of Russian olim -- is, in fact, a classic, prototypical type of case which Rotem's bill was directly aimed at solving. Breakstone makes an utter fool of himself by gloating over the defeat of the very bill that would have enabled "Veronica" to convert, and his son to marry her.
What a nincompoop.

After reading that, I almost ignored this other column by Amotz Asa-el that appeared in the same paper a week later. From its title, it sounded like it was going to be yet more of the exact same stupidity. (And to be completely honest, having read other things in the past by Mr. Asa-el, that is what I tended to expect.):

"When Chelsea Clinton met David Rotem"

To my surprise, though, it would appear that Asa-el is one of the few journalists to have written on the subject of the Rotem bill, who took the time to actually read the bill and understand what it is, rather than allowing himself to become caught up in the tsunami of disinformation emanating from the Reform and Conservative movements -- as nearly everyone else (e.g., David Breakstone) has.

A couple of caveats: I am certainly not endorsing all of what Asa-el says in this column. Like Breakstone, he, too, tries to argue that there is a silver lining in the phenomenon of American Jewish intermarriage -- although his argument is not nearly as idiotic and offensive as Breakstone's. And unlike Breakstone, Asa-el certainly doesn't present intermarriage as some sort of messianic ideal that Jews ought to aspire to.

What very much surprised me, though, was that Asa-el explains what the Rotem bill would actually do, rather than regurgitating the ubiquitous nonsense being spouted by American Reform and Conservative Jews, which not only misrepresents the bill, but in fact presents it as the very opposite of what it is.

And he goes even further than that: He argues that the Right Thing To Do for the 300,000 non-Jewish Russian Israelis who wish to convert, is to support the cause of Israeli Modern Orthodoxy against the the haredim who currently control the conversion system in Israel. He explicitly calls upon the Reform and Conservative movements to set aside their petty, selfish politics, and to actively support the Rotem bill:
"American Jews should be equally humble before decrying Israel's handling of its own semi-Jews.
...
"The anguish of some 300,000 partial Jews –- who arrived here voluntarily and have served in the IDF, often gallantly, only to learn they couldn't marry here because of rabbinical nitpicking –- must end.
...
"...Knesset Law Committee Chairman David Rotem last month introduced a bill that would disabuse prospective converts of the current obligation to convert through the local rabbi
[more precisely, the rabbinical courts -- Lurker], no matter how narrow minded he may be, and allow converts instead to shop around the country for lenient rabbis, provided they are part of the Chief Rabbinate. The downside of this [for the non-Orthodox] is that it means formally ruling out Conservative and Reform conversions as options for Israel's semi-Jews; hence the American Jewish outcry.

"The way America's Reform and Conservative movements see it, the battle over conversion in Israel is between Orthodoxy and non-Orthodoxy. Well it isn't. Rather, it's between ultra-Orthodoxy and modern Orthodoxy, and to join this battle, American Jewry must set aside its longer-term agendas and help Israel's modern-Orthodoxy win this battle."
...
"...ours is... a historically unique moment, one in which thousands who survived a 70-year-long attack on Judaism arrived in our midst. To come to them now with magnifying glasses and make their conversion process a nightmare is not only absurd, inhumane and anti-Israeli, it is also dubious as far as Jewish law itself is concerned, since historically a convert's observance was not reviewed once he converted.

"Here, however, ultra-Orthodox rabbis have revoked modern-Orthodox conversions retroactively, evidently serving ultra-Orthodoxy's sectarian interests, rather than serve the general Jewish interest...
...
"It would have been nice if Israeli non-Orthodoxy were sizable enough to confront ultra-Orthodoxy’s effort to make 300,000 Israelis Gentile, but the fact is it’s too small. Modern Orthodoxy, by contrast, is sizable, organically planted within the Israeli system, and eager to help Israel's semi-Jews become Jews. What stands in their way is Binyamin Netanyahu's strategic alliance with ultra-Orthodoxy.

"It follows, that on conversion the Jewish nation right now needs a strategic alliance between modern Orthodoxy and non-Orthodoxy. For this to happen, [the] Conservative and Reform movements [must] humbly concede that to reshape the Israeli conversion system they must first get more of their flock to live here. Until then, they would do well to let others handle Igor and Svetlana, while the rest of us leave it for them to handle Chelsea and Marc."
Again, I can't say that I support all of what Asa-el has to say here. But I do think that he deserves kudos for having the intellectual honesty and the guts to oppose the pervasive, mindlessly politically-correct groupthink and lies regarding the Rotem bill, and to present it for what it actually is.

UPDATE:

In a letter appearing in this past Friday's New York Times, Israel's Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar chides the American Reform and Conservative movements for their interference in Israel's democratic legislative process, and counters their torrent of canards and disinformation by succinctly describing exactly what the Rotem bill is, and why he supports it:
"The bill, within the framework of Jewish law, would expand the ambit of conversion, prevent the application of unjustified stringencies, and provide more leniency and flexibility in administration. Many Russian Israelis would benefit substantially. In fact, this legislation was proposed by Yisrael Beiteinu -- a secular party -- representing more than a million Russian Israelis."
In other words, the Chief Rabbi of Israel is desperately seeking a way to reform and liberalize the existing conversion system -- which is currently controlled solely by the haredi-run rabbinical courts. He wants to wrest control away from those courts, and to thereby allow thousands of secular Russian Israelis to finally convert -- and he is practically pleading with the Reform and Conservative movements to allow this to happen. But the Reform and Conservative movements seem inexplicably hellbent on preventing any such liberalization, and are instead fighting tooth and nail to keep Israeli conversion in the exclusive hands of the haredim.

The irony is practically beyond description.



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Jews and the Great Outdoors

While we own a huge tent (it can sleep 10), I admit, we haven't used it that often. Maybe if I used my inflatable mattress, I would go camping with the kids more.

Regardless, I found the following video rather lame.



What say you? (I know Lurker probably agrees with this video to some extent :-)


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What Leftwing Organizers don’t tell their female “peace” activists

If you happen to get emails from the radical left telling you when and where the Friday protests are going to be (like I do), you’ll have noticed that they’ve been telling (“asking” according to some organizers) female participants to dress modestly at the protests in Sheikh Jarrah, Bi’ilin and other places. No tanks tops, no shorts, etc.

Please note that appropriate dress, including pants that go down to your ankles and shirts that do not show your chest would be greatly appreciated.
For more information contact:

Some leftwing female protest are upset with this openly anti-feminist, sexist attitude and demands of the organizers. It’s becoming a dividing issue between the various leftist groups and protesters who regularly show up to protest the existence of Israel, the settlers, the fence, or whatever they claim it is about that day and place.

The female protesters have been told that it for cultural sensitivity reasons. The Arabs are from a more modest culture. The Arab elders are afraid the Arab youth will be corrupted. Blah Blah Blah.

Unfortunately, what they’re being told is a lie. The real reason is far more insidious.

Back in July, Ha’aretz reported the story of a former Arab convict named Alladin who would find these young female peace activist staying in nearby villages, he would tell them he was on the run from the Shabak (Israel security), and ask them to hide him.

These young female dupes would of course be happy to help an Arab on the lam from the Israeli authorities and let him sleep in their rooms.

So far one girl initially came forward about the attempted rape against her. She was found wandering the village of Umm Salmuna (near Bethlehem) in a state of shock, so who knows if the attempt actually failed. But in the end retracted her story due to pressure to “not hurt the cause”.

Pressure that came from the PA and the leftwing protest organizers.
Haaretz had learned that representatives of both the popular protest movement and the PA have since applied pressure on the American peace activist as to prevent her from making the story public.
The story could have ended there, except that there’s more.

Apparently, quite a number of female protesters have been sexually assaulted and molested by the Arabs they are protesting for.

One attack occurred just recently in Bil'in.

After the army fired smoke gas towards the rioting crowd of “peace” activists and Arabs, the protesters ran. One Arab decisively used the smoke cover as an opportunity to sexually assault one of the more seasoned female activists.

The problem has gotten so bad, that some female protesters have stopped showing up to the protests.

What’s going on here is that Rachel C. (name randomly picked to illustrate the point) calls her friends telling them she going out to protest for the Arabs, meanwhile Alladin calls up his friends in the village and tells then he knows where they can get easy women. And everyone show up with some very different expectations, but with Alladin and friends apparently getting what they came for.

Two months ago, some of the radical leftwing organizers started running secret workshops.

The workshops are organized by the radically left Dr. Yvonne Deutch and Dorit Gorny.

The subject?

How to deal with sexual harassment during direct activities against the occupation”.
The workshop is for female and transgender activists. (Seriously, it says that.)

The document isn’t available online to the public, but can be found in the Google cache.


The stated goal of the workshop is how to deal with the sexual assaults and harassment of activists at the Friday solidarity protests.

You'll note that this workshop was announced in the beginning of June. Almost 3 months ago. They've been aware of this problem for a long time already.

And if rape and sexual assault weren't enough, one female Arab from of Sheikh Jarrah has been telling the protesters to stop bringing their Gay Pride flags to the protest because they don’t like gays and she would like to kick them all out of the country. I assume the protester she told this to was gay.

Where once the Arabs would only say these activists are their dogs while the leftists (if they understood the Arabic) would have no problems with the put-down, it has gone way beyond that now.

Rape and sexual assault are serious issues, but these leftists organizers have been knowingly expanding the boundaries of what it means to be a tool. And these foolish protesters who keep showing up to help the "victims of the occupation", learn quickly enough that these "victims"aren't interested in their protesting as much as they are interested in simply using the activists for personal gratification.

Dr. Yvonne, according to the workshop description, blames it on the occupation, and the activists not knowing enough about boundaries and personal/group responsibility.

For someone protesting against a security fence meant to keep out Arab suicide bombers from killing innocent civilians, I'd say these protesters and organizers know nothing about boundaries at all.

(hattip: Makor Rishon)


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