Category: blog archive

You keep the Stream of Humanitarian Aid flowing into Gaza and We will Keep Launching Rockets at Israeli Civilians

I am far from being a supporter of war. And yet, what does one do when rockets are streaming down (80 in one day) upon Israeli farms and cities? As I wrote previously, the last time I was in Israel – January 2008 – our group could NOT visit Sderot because of the daily barrage of Qassams and other missiles.

Thus Jerusalem Post’s editorial notes:

On Friday, a Hamas spokesman made Israel the following proposal: You keep the stream of humanitarian aid and supplies flowing into Gaza and we will keep launching rockets and mortars at Israeli civilians.
Islamic Jihad terrorists…

It was an offer Israel had little choice but to refuse.

For weeks Israel has been imploring Hamas to stop shooting across the border, to stop tunneling in preparation for the next round of violence, and to allow our farmers to tend their fields. The Islamists responded that they were not afraid of the IDF and that they reserved the right to resist “the occupation” – meaning the existence of a Jewish state. They brazenly told Israel to get used to the idea that no amount of humanitarian gestures would stem their behavior.

At 11:30 a.m. Saturday, Israel finally told Hamas that it would not be bled, slowly, to death. Thanks to excellent intelligence and superb training, a haughty enemy was caught off-guard. Targets up and down the Strip were hit and large numbers of Hamas personnel including senior military figures were killed. Key facilities were turned into rubble; well-camouflaged equipment was destroyed.

Gaza: Quotes that will be Remembered

Israel’s Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Saturday also said Israel “cannot really accept” a cease-fire with Hamas, rejecting calls by the United Nations and the European Union for a truce after Israel Air Force strikes killed at least 230 people in Gaza.”For us to be asked to have a cease-fire with Hamas is like asking you to have a cease-fire with Al-Qaida,” Barak said in an interview with Fox News. “It’s something we cannot really accept.” (Ha’aretz, 12/28/08)

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Sunday the Islamist group Hamas could have avoided the Israeli attacks on Gaza: “We talked to them and we told them ‘please, we ask you, do not end the truce. Let the truce continue and not stop’ so that we could have avoided what happened,” he said in Cairo. (Ha’aretz, 12/28/08)

The Worst Anti-Israel Charges You’ll Hear (and how to think about them)

Ha’aretz correspondent Bradley Burston (and twice-weekly award-winning Ha’aretz blogger), blogging about the beginning of the Israeli response to Hamas’ ending of the ceasefire (and, more precisely, its resumption of daily barrages of missiles into Israel’s cities and kibbutzim), refutes ahead of time the “the 10 most gratuitous, least productive, most resolutely ingenuous claims likely to be hurled in an effort to attack Israel.” In Wartime in Gaza: The worst anti-Israel charges you’ll hear, he writes:

It is, abruptly and again, wartime. Across the globe, the selective pacifists of the left and the recliner Rambos of the right are spoiling for their next battle, the war in Gaza.

They will fight one another in letters to Congress, in cable news sound bites, in raucous talk-radio phone-ins, in the virtual mega-heroics of the online battlefield of the talkback.

They will fight one another in the United Nations as well, unashamedly one-sided in their concern for human life.

Herewith the first in a two-part guide to the 10 most gratuitous, least productive, most resolutely ingenuous claims likely to be hurled in an effort to attack Israel.

The first five are arguments of the anti-Israel left, claims which are, curiously, as tired as they are unflagging.

Leftist 1: Israel’s true motive in bombing Gaza, is genocide against the Palestinian people and extermination of their right to statehood.

Israel’s genuine interest in this campaign is strikingly similar to Hamas’ interest in firing scores of rockets into Israeli population centers: Forcing a cease-fire on better terms than the one just ended.

For Hamas, this largely means easing Israeli economic sanctions against Gazans. For Israel, this centers on ending shelling by Qassam and Grad missiles and mortar shells. For both sides, this means a prisoner exchange, centering on Gilad Shalit and hundreds of jailed Hamas members.

Leftist 2: The Palestinians have no recourse but to defend themselves, and the makeshift rockets they fire are nothing compared to the world’s most advanced warplanes and munitions, which the IDF is using against them.

The Human Rights Watch organization has been unequivocal in condemning the use of Qassam rockets as a direct violation of international humanitarian law and the laws of war. The firing of Qassams and mortars against civilian populations also constitutes collective punishment against hundreds of thousands of innocent Israeli men, women and children.

Moreover, the firing of Qassams began not as a response to the siege against Gaza, but as a marathon celebration by armed Islamic fundamentalist groups following Israel’s withdrawal of its troops and settlers from the Strip. To purposely add insult to injury, Islamic Jihad and other organizations used the ruins of settlements as launch platforms.

Leftist 3: All that Hamas is asking, is recognition as the democratically elected government of Gaza, and an end to the Israeli economic embargo. Were they to attain these goals, there would be calm on both sides of the border.

It is both unrealistic and dangerous to believe that Hamas has abandoned its clearly stated and often reiterated goal of establishing an Islamic Palestinian state in all of the Holy Land, including all land claimed, annexed by, or in any way occupied by Israel.

Beyond that, Hamas has strong alliances with the Egyptian opposition Muslim brotherhood, as well as working partnerships with the Iran-dominated Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad.

Israeli restraint, when practiced, has been met with contempt and additional Hamas and Hamas-tolerated strikes against civilian populations.

Leftist 4: The Israeli blockade against Hamas is state terrorism and any means to fight it are legitimate.

There is every reason to believe that Israel’s economic siege against Gaza is misguided, but not for an essential cruelty, rather because Hamas taxes collected on the influx of goods imported through tunnels from Egyptian territory have subsidized and cemented Hamas rule.

Leftist 5: The world overwhelmingly sympathizes with the Palestinians against Israel, and unreservedly backs their struggle for independence.

In an era of global revulsion against radical Islamic terror, Hamas’ protracted program of suicide bombings, drive-by murders and shelling of civilian populations, coupled with its refusal to renounce violence, recognize Israel, or accept past peace agreements, coupled with its ideology of militant jihad, have drained the Palestinians of international sympathy and have, in fact, legitimized Israeli arguments of military self-defense.

Nothing has been more instrumental in harming the cause of Palestinian independence than Hamas, with its brutal take-over of Gaza in a war with brother Palestinians, and its frank efforts to build a large-scale regular army force in the Strip.

In Part Two, in the coming week: The second five will be newer claims, the Alpha-male displays of the Israel-bashing right, the group which constantly berates the government and the IDF for not bombing Gaza into a parking lot, for not shooting and starving and freezing innocent civilians to death. Watch here for the next installment.

Where I Get My News about Israel

With the onset of the Israeli response to the unending Hamas rocket fire into Southern Israel, many of us have been starved for news about the Israel Defense Forces’ Gaza operation. [Picture at left is from Jerusalem Post, of a border police officer inspects damage, after a rocket fired by Palestinian terrorists from within the Gaza Strip hit a house in Tkuma, near the southern Israeli town of Netivot.] Here’s where I get my Israeli news:

  • Israeli Embassy in Washington DC
  • AIPAC, American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Lobby’s Congress and the Administration on Israel
  • Near East Report, publication of AIPAC
  • Israeli Insider, website of news, views and shmooze. Collects many Israeli news sources
  • Middle East Bulletin, a publication of Middle East Progress at the Center for American Progress (centrist)

Why Israel Had to Respond in Gaza

Time Magazine reports on The Gaza Air Strikes: Why Israel Attacked:

Israel’s strike on Gaza had been expected for days, but it was still a surprise when it finally came. Taking advantage of good weather, which is forecast to last at least three days, Israeli planes bombed some 40 Palestinian police stations, posts and other targets early Saturday morning, killing more than 150 people including a number of senior Hamas military leaders. The first strikes came in a coordinated three-minute blitz. Israeli officials say the strikes were necessary to force an end to the rocket attacks from Gaza, which is ruled by the radical Islamist group Hamas after it split from the Palestinian Authority run by President Mahmoud Abbas out of the West Bank. Palestinian militants in Gaza have long launched Kassam and other rockets at Israeli towns across the border, and in the past six weeks the number of attacks has increased dramatically. After the attack, Israeli officials said the number of Palestinian rocket attacks could now spike to 200 a day. Hamas announced that it had sent a rocket toward Askelon; one man in the Israeli town of Netivot, east of the Gaza strip, was killed. Israel also expects Hamas to launch suicide attacks against Israel. A Hamas leader promised as much Saturday. But Israel is prepared to ratchet up the pressure still further in the hope that it will force a workable ceasefire. Saturday’s attack was authorized two days previously, and though no Israeli ground troops have crossed into Gaza so far, that remains an option according to Israeli officials. Dozens of Israeli air force planes remain in the skies above Gaza. “If they retaliate they will feel it stronger and the number [of casualties] on the Gaza side will rise”, a senior Israeli military source told TIME.

Watch video of dozens of Kassam rockets fired at Israel in wake of IAF attack.

#7: Candle of Cool Music

With just two more days left until Chanukah concludes, its time to jazz up your celebration. We all have old favorite Chanukah music and songs. Like our Cantor Doug Cotler does regularly, a group of Jewish musicians have taken old Chanukah songs and put them in exciting new musical vessels. Here are five newish songs.

Listen to them with your loved ones and then vote on your favorite on the top right of the blog.

Hip Country Western Dreidel by Julie Silver, It’s Chanukah Time
She’s Cantor Doug’s Friend.
Listen here.

Upbeat Dreidel by Sacha Baron Cohen, Songs in the Key of Hanukkah
Watch a Video of the song Dreidel
Listen to National Public Radio’s interview with the singer.

Swingin’ Dreidel by Kenny Ellis, Hanukkah Swings!
Listen here.
Watch a video of Kenny’s Dreidel

Reggae Chanukah: Nes Gadol by Reggae Chanukah

Jazz Piano Dreidel by Jon Simon, Hanukkah and All That Jazz

Don’t forget to vote for your favorite on the top right side of the blog.

Blog Tzedakah: Thanks to the three of you who left comments, I donated $9 to the Madraygot 12 Step Addiction Education and Prevention Fund. Through your comments, I have donated a total $162.00 to tzedakah.

I gave my blog Tzedakah today by donating blood to the American Red Cross. They took a lot of it. The experience was wonderful, except for the part where they pricked my finger (that’s always the worst part).

Chag Chanukah Samayach – Happy Chanukah

How Do You Show Restraint When Missiles Rain Down on Israel? Imagine San Diego Suddenly Coming Under Rocket Barrage

The last time I traveled to Israel – January 2007 – our Or Ami Adult Trip to Israel bypassed the southern city of Sderot because of the daily barrage of rockets raining down on it. Some days they saw four to five; other days 40 to 50. We deemed it just wasn’t safe to bring the busload of travelers to that city.

The decision broke my heart. Imagine traveling through the Southern California, and being told by your tour guide that you could not travel to San Diego or Laguna because the city was being bombarded with missiles from Mexico. We Americans would not stand for such a situation for too long.

But Israel did. In that conflict – before Hamas agreed to a ceasefire – and recently, Israel and its Israel Defense Forces (IDF) showed incredible restraint, but it was reaching the end of its patience. On Christmas Day, the Washington Post reported:

Palestinian fighters fired about 100 rockets and mortar shells across the border in two days.

Israel’s foreign minister brushed off a call for restraint from Egypt’s president, and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert made a direct appeal to Gaza’s people to pressure their leaders to stop the barrages. But the attacks showed no signs of ending. By nightfall, three rockets and 15 mortar shells had exploded in Israel.

And…

Thursday’s rocket fire was far less intense than the barrage of 80 rockets the previous day, and there were no reports of injuries. But Israeli leaders said the continued fire — the most intense since Egypt brokered a cease-fire in June — was unacceptable.

One of the mortar shells landed at Israel’s passenger crossing with Gaza just as a group of Palestinian Christians were going through on their way to the West Bank town of Bethlehem for Christmas celebrations, the military said. Another rocket exploded after nightfall in an industrial park south of the coastal city of Ashkelon, police said.

And yesterday, December 26th, according to Ha’aretz:

Palestinian militants fired 22 mortar shells from the Gaza Strip overnight Thursday and early morning Friday, as the Israel Defense Forces continued its preparations for military action in Gaza.

The mortars struck the Western Negev, damaging one building. No one was hurt in any of the incidents.

Remember, Israel withdrew from Gaza with a hope and a prayer: a hope that the Palestinians would use this land and its promise to create a place for its own people to live and thrive. And a prayer: that Palestinians would show themselves as potential partners for an even greater agreement with Israel. Neither happened.

#6: Candle of Fulfillment (Or Review Your Chanukah “To Do” List)

Chanukah Candle #6. Sheish(Hebrew), sittä (Iraqi Arabic), settä (Moroccan Arabic), genep (Sudanese), six. Happy Sixth Night of Chanukah.

Blog Thots: As the Festival of Chanukah moves toward its eighth day culmination, it behooves us to take a moment to double check that we have fulfilled all of the mitzvot and customs of this Festival of Lights. Living in a culture marked by the commercialization of the “holiday season” and its simplification of all holidays into “it’s all about good will to all and giving presents”, we want to be doubly sure that we have created for ourselves and our loved ones a meaningfully Jewish festival.

So review your Chanukah “to do” list. Ask yourself if you have fulfilled your Jewish responsibility. This Chanukah, did we:

  • Tell: Told the Chanukah story at least twice (if not, click here)
  • Sing: Sang Chanukah songs at least three nights (if not, click here)
  • Bless: Blessed the each night (click here)
  • Light: Lit the Chanukah candles each night (click here)
  • Be Thankful: That your list doesn’t include “clean the garage” like mine does!
  • Play: Played Driedel at least once (if not, get rules here or play virtual dreidel here)
  • Learn: Learned something new about our Festival of Lights (if not, click here or here)
  • Give: Given tzedakah (donation) to a charitable organization or cause (at least one night instead of presents) (Perhaps choose one of these)
  • Eat: Eaten potato latkes or sufganiot (if health and dietary restrictions allow for it)
  • Diet?: Why is all this Jewish holiday food so fattening? (New ideas for healthy-er Hanukkah latkes and Ima on and off the Bima’s Baked Sufganiot/doughnuts).
  • Honor: Honored parent(s) if alive by dedicating at least one night to giving them presents and/or by calling them and telling them you love them (What does Torah mean by honoring parents? Click here)
  • Contemplate: Contemplated the meaning of the candles? Of Religious Freedom?
  • Remember: Remembered (and shared with others) memories of Chanukah celebrations as a child or from previous years (view Or Ami’s memory pictures here and here).
  • Thank: Offered thanks for the blessings you most appreciate in your life
  • Comment: Shared a comment on Rabbi Kipnes’ 8 Blogs for 8 Nights (of Chanukah). For each comment left on the blog, Rabbi Kipnes will donate tzedakah to a worthy cause (see below).

If you missed any of these mitzvah and kodesh (holiness) opportunities, dedicate yourself to doing so tonight or in the next two nights.

Or, if in Southern California, come to
Congregation Or Ami’s
Multigenerational Chanukah Celebration tonight
(Friday, December 26, 2008) at 6:30 pm.
Come early; it will be standing room only!

Blog Tzedakah: Running total of Blog Comment Tzedakah: $153.00
The five of you who left comments yesterday ensured that collectively, we donated $15 of my money the Madraygot (12 Step) Addiction Prevention fund, which offers drug and alcohol addiction prevention education and counseling for grades 4 through 12, creates tools for parents through an online resource, and develops Jewish 12 Step support groups. Learn more about its activities here. Today’s Tzedakah: Leave a comment today (below) on this blog to shine the light. For every comment made today, I’ll make a tzedakah donation to help foster kids seeking a brighter future. Learn more about its activities here. To donate yourself, click here.

Chag Chanukah Samayach – Happy Chanukah!

#5: The Candle of Religious Freedom

Chanukah Candle #5. Chamesh (Hebrew), pět (Czech), öt (Hungarian), talliman (North Alaskan Iñupiaq). Happy Fifth Night of Chanukah.

Blog Tzedakah:
Remember, for each comment written today, I will donate tzedakah. Through your comments over four days, we have donated a total of $138.00! What’s today’s tzedakah recipient? Scroll below.

Chanukah Blog Thots:

Chanukah is a holiday of stories, old and new. We retell the tale of the Maccabees boldly fighting for religious freedom. We share family stories or read Jewish folktales about Chanukah in distant and not-so-distant times. Many of these stories focus on the powerful symbolism of the Chanukah menorah (lamp), such that the Chanukah lights are an expression of Jewish identity and a symbol of hope for a better future. There are Holocaust tales of European Jews who somehow managed to gather around the menorah in the ghetto or to improvise one in the concentration camps. Other stories tell of American Jews who found hope and strength as they gathered around the Chanukah lights during the long winters of the 1930s and 1940s.

Although we are commanded to make known miracle of Chanukah by placing our Chanukah lights in the window, in many of these stories, the Jews had to hide their Chanukah menorahs out of fear. In such tales, the chanukiah (Chanukah menorah) symbolizes hope for a future free from religious persecution; a future in which Jews could reveal the light of the Chanukah lamp, openly declaring their identity and practicing Judaism without fear.

Displaying our Chanukah Lights
While the Jews in these Chanukah stories faced persecution, hid their identity for self-protection, and feared for their brothers and sisters, we are blessed to live in a country where we have freedom of religion. Many of our ancestors came to America in order to be free from religious persecution and to find the freedom to practice (or not practice) religion as they saw fit. When we proudly display our Chanukah lights, we are celebrating the very blessings for which so many Jews could only hope.

Freedom of religion allows Jews and people of other faiths or no faith to worship or refrain from worship as they see fit. Religious freedom is guaranteed for all Americans by the First Amendment, which states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Our Bill of Rights has allowed religion to flourish in America by preventing the government from inhibiting religious practice and from harming or interfering with religious institutions.

A Nation that Thrives on Religious Freedom
In a November 2004 press conference, President George Bush explained the importance of the separation of Church and State: “We live in a nation that has thrived on religious freedom and religious tolerance. Our founding fathers realized the dangers of building a society based upon a single state religion. They rightly feared the tyranny of state sponsored religion. Rather, the framers put up a wall of separation between Church and State. This separation has allowed all different religious groups — Jews, Christians, Catholics, Buddhists, Hindus and secularists to flourish in this country.”

Yet we have witnessed a growing presence of overt religion in the halls of government. Many elected representatives proclaim themselves the embodiment of religious values. Others declare that America is, and therefore ought to act like, a Christian nation. Such sentiments threaten the tradition of liberty that is at the core of America’s identity.

Is America a Christian Nation?
America is not just a nation for Christians; it is a nation for all. (At best it is founded on Judeo-Christian values. And while a very large number of American citizen are of one of many different Christian denominations, these denominations often cannot agree with one another on basic tenets of their creed.) Not all Americans read the Bible in the same way as religious fundamentalists. Those of us who read the Bible understand its text against the backdrop of our own faith traditions and personal life experiences. Many Americans do not look to the Bible for religious guidance at all. To turn the halls of government – and the mission of government – into a mission of faith is to destroy one of the pillars upon which our nation rests. The light of religious liberty is being threatened. Not by those who would destroy religion, but by those, who, out of devotion to their own religious beliefs, wish to impose their worldview on others through force of law.

This spread of religion into government is evident in the drive to embed one group’s religious beliefs regarding marriage, women’s rights, protection of the environment and even the validity of scientific discovery into the legal codes that govern us all. The problem is not with faith; rather, it is with the imposition of one person or a group’s beliefs onto the entire nation.

Focusing on the Second Chanukah Blessing
For Jews, religious liberty flows through the story of Chanukah. When we recite the second blessing over the Chanukah lights (…sheh-asah neeseem lavotaynu), giving thanks for the miracles that God performed for our ancestors, we acknowledge the importance of religious liberty. This prayer recalls our ancestors’ celebration as they were no longer subject to tyrannical rulers who prevented them from practicing their faith. Indeed, it is our religious beliefs that inspire us to fight for religious liberty for all and for the preservation of the separation of Church and State.

This Chanukah, as we gather around the menorah and rejoice with family, friends and Jews around the world, may we remember our call to and the benefits of religious liberty. May we work to keep the light of liberty shining brightly.

Adapted from Chanukah: Tales of Religious Freedom, by Rabbi Leah Doberne-Schor (then intern at the URJ Commission on Social Action)

Blog Tzedakah: The seven of you who left comments yesterday ensured that collectively, we donated $21 of my money to the Or Ami Matching Grant Fund, meaning that today it was worth $42 of tzedakah.

Today’s Tzedakah: Comments you write today will yield donations to the Madraygot (12 Step) Addiction Prevention fund, which offers drug and alcohol addiction prevention education and counseling for grades 4 through 12, creates tools for parents through an online resource, and develops Jewish 12 Step support groups. Learn more about its activities here. To donate yourself, click here.

Chag Chanukah Samayach – Happy Chanukah!

Lego Torah: Bible for the Baby in Us

Remember when legos were so simple all you could do was create buildings?

First there was Legoland. Now there’s Lego Torah.

Here’s some Torah study for the child in us.

The Brick Testament offers its rendition of the Torah using only legos. Its amazing. Each story has 10-15 different lego scenes with explanation.

From this week’s Torah portion, Miketz, here is Joseph interpreting Pharaoh’s dreams.

Thanks to the God Blog for bringing it to my attention.