Showing posts with label Varda. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Varda. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 04, 2020

It happens every election: celebrities—and just generally spoiled people (cough cough)—swear that if their candidate doesn’t win, they’re leaving. But author Lauren Ariel Hoffman decided to write about leaving America from a Jewish perspective. Hoffman describes her own Orange Man trauma and exit plan, comparing it all to an escape from the Nazis. She then quotes a few Jewish friends on their own plans for fleeing the country. The odd thing is, not one of them considers Israel as a viable option for relocation, and in fact, Israel is not mentioned in this article at all.

Hoffman’s article was featured in Alma, which—no surprise—also includes articles on such subjects as, “Why Does My Interfaith Relationship Disqualify Me From Rabbinical School?” and “Now’s the Perfect Time to Teach Your Non-Jewish Partner All About Judaism." So perhaps it's not quite the right place to discover love and loyalty for the one Jewish State. You'd think, nonetheless, that in an article about fleeing the country, a Yid might consider Israel.

Never heard of Lauren Ariel Hoffman and her epigenetic intergenerational trauma? Neither had I, but her byline was linked to this handy dandy author’s blurb:

Lauren Ariel Hoffman (she/her) is a photojournalist from Royersford, Pennsylvania. Her coverage includes stories relating to chronic illness, medical injustice, and human interest.

Well there you have it. Perhaps Israel, as a subject for liberal Jews, is somewhat beyond human interest.

But back to the article: Hoffman, it is clear, wants to celebrate her distress in a Jewish way. But the closest thing she can get to kosher-style anguish is by referencing the Holocaust and her family roots in the Ukraine:

It is not 1939, and yet the police are still slaughtering unarmed Black men and women in the name of “justice,” still separating refugee families at the border and putting their children in cages, still performing medical experiments on female-bodied prisoners.

Sound familiar?

My recurring nightmare of Nazis breaking into my house and capturing me is becoming more tangible, but now it’s informed and comprehensive and absolutely terrifying. And while I’m a fan of Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds, I don’t think I’ll be knocking Nazi skulls anytime soon. I’m more prepared to find myself in a police-state wherein me and my loved one’s basic liberties will be stripped and some of our lives taken, along with members of every other oppressed group in America.

I am not going to back down from this fight, mainly because I have nowhere else to go as a descendant of Ukrainian Jews, my ancestor’s recent homeland does not exist anymore.

Which is odd, because last I looked, the Ukraine still exists. Or so Google says:

Ukraine is a large country in Eastern Europe known for its Orthodox churches, Black Sea coastline and forested mountains. Its capital, Kiev, features the gold-domed St. Sophia's Cathedral, with 11th-century mosaics and frescoes. Overlooking the Dnieper River is the Kiev Pechersk Lavra monastery complex, a Christian pilgrimage site housing Scythian tomb relics and catacombs containing mummified Orthodox monks. 

But I don’t blame Lauren for not wanting to go back to the Ukraine. I wouldn’t want to go back there, either. It was bad enough the first time.

Still, to say she has nowhere else to go—why not go back to the place her family came from in the first place—before they were expelled and forced to wander? Why not go back to Israel, where today there is a flourishing Jewish State? But no, it’s not on Hoffman's radar. Nor was it apparently on the radar of her Sephardic friend Rebecca Brier:

Rebecca Brier, 37, who asked to use an alias, feels differently. She and her husband are in the process of getting Portuguese citizenship for themselves and their two young children.

“If there’s one thing I’ve learned from my family, it’s that it’s okay to be the first one to go,” she said. “It’s harder with kids. We speak Spanish, but Spanish is not Portuguese.”

Brier said she is mainly torn between leaving her family behind in the Bronx or figuring out how to get them all to Portugal.

“We’ve set up our lives around our support system, our family. If we left, would we be that anchor again? At some point, flight becomes easier, because if I fly, at least I still have my family.”

On the other hand, if she would only make Aliyah to Israel, the Briers would have new family everywhere they turned. As new immigrants they would be embraced and surrounded by fellow Jews, living proud and free in their indigenous territory. But no, Brier instead prefers to return to the land of the Inquisition, where Jews were tortured for their beliefs, forced to go underground with their observance, and slaughtered if they refused to convert. Somehow this is, to Brier, infinitely preferable to moving to the Jewish State. 

“But not everyone has the luxury of leaving,” continues Hoffman:

Aviva Davis, 21, is a biracial Jew whose ancestry is more closely linked to slavery than the Holocaust. They feel it is a luxury that white Jews are able to consider leaving at all.

“I would love to have an escape plan, but it’s not a viable option for me,” they said. “Where would I go? My ancestors were carted over here as slaves — white Jews can trace citizenship back to their ancestors. It’s very frustrating for me to feel like I have nowhere to go.”

Leaving aside the odd use of the pronoun "they," um. Where would "they" go? To ISRAEL. Where Jews of every color of the rainbow live full, satisfying, Jewish lives.

But no. These people are stuck in a time warp of pogroms, auto-da-fé, and slavery:

As Brier said, “Do we become Jews lighting candles in the closet in Spain? Or do we flee to the Ottoman Empire? I’m not sure who did it right. But the trauma is still there.”

As I write this piece, no one knows who will win the 2020 presidential election. But one thing I know for sure: Israeli Jews did it right. They left the trauma and the ghettos behind to build a beautiful, shining new world, where anything is possible, and dreams can come true.

H/T Ardie Geldman



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Wednesday, October 28, 2020



Khaled Abu Toameh won a victory in a small Jerusalem courtroom this week when Ted Belman at last agreed that his defamatory articles, social media posts, and newsletters were factually baseless. Belman is now required to make public apology to Abu Toameh within 14 days. If Belman again defames the award-winning Israeli Arab journalist and distinguished senior Gatestone fellow, he will have to pay 5000 shekels per defamatory item published, in compensation to Khaled.

By way of disclaimer, there was a personal victory here as well, as Belman’s countersuit against Abu Toameh, this author and Bat-Zion Susskind-Sacks was rejected out of hand by the court. The interesting thing about this is that I was approached by the 86-year-old Belman in court on Monday. “Who are you?” Ted asked me. “Are you the enemy?”

He was suing me, but didn’t even know me.

Here we must go back and explain why Ted was suing me. Ted Belman, you see, asserted that Khaled was running a spy ring in Israel for the Jordanian king, and that I was one of his operatives, the other being Bat-Zion Susskind Sacks. Well goodness I’m relieved. An Israeli court has rejected a lawsuit accusing me of working on behalf of His Majesty, King Abdullah of Jordan. Not guilty! Acquitted.

But I digress. The main thing is that all three of us—me, Batzi, and of course, Khaled—are victorious.

So ends this courtroom saga that began in late 2017, when Abu Toameh had finally had enough of the defamatory campaign of words and memes waged against him since at least 2013. Readers of this column will recall my exposé of self-proclaimed “putative prime minister of Jordan” Mudar Zahran (see for instance, HERE, HERE, and HERE). Zahran, banned from entering Israel as a security risk, tried to enlist me in his smear campaign against Khaled Abu Toameh. I refused, but Ted Belman apparently did not.

What followed was an endless campaign of baseless defamation, an ongoing attack that lasted seven full years. Articles were published in numerous publications, all smearing Khaled. The defamation of Khaled was an ongoing theme in newsletters, Belman's personal website, and on Facebook, too. The worst part of this defamation, of course, is that Khaled Abu Toameh is a fine person: the only Israeli Arab journalist I know of who writes the honest truth about Israel and the Middle East.

Khaled is one of the good guys. And everyone on our side knows this. Which is why Khaled Abu Toameh has won plaudits and numerous awards by distinguished bodies. From Wikipedia:

Recognition and awards

·         Abu Toameh received the 2014 Daniel Pearl Award. Abu Toameh shared Israel Media Watch's 2010 award for media criticism with the satirical Israeli website Latma.

·         On 10 May 2011, Khaled Abu Toameh won the Hudson Institute Award for Courage in Journalism.

·         Canada's Toronto Sun columnist Salim Mansur praised Abu Toameh for his courage and knowledge of the politics of the Arab world.

·         Abu Toameh is the 2013 recipient of the Emet award given by the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA).

·         He was chosen on the Algemeiner Journal's 2013 list of The Top 100 People Positively Influencing Jewish Life.

All during this trying time, while Khaled was being smeared, important people came to the fore to defend the embattled journalist. People like Caroline Glick, Lori Lowenthal Marcus, Ruthie Blum, and Harold Rhode, couldn’t offer enough praise for Khaled. And still, this creep Zahran spread horrible lies about Khaled to all and sundry through anyone he could rope into his web.

Well, all’s well that ends well, and in that small Jerusalem courtroom on October 26, 2020, justice won out with victory on many counts:

1. Ted Belman finally admitted that he has no evidence to support the libelous publications.

2. Ted Belman agreed to publish an apology and retraction, admitting that what he published was factually baseless.

3. Ted's main witness, the Jordanian fraudster Mudar Zahran, who is banned from Israel for security reasons, never got a chance to testify before the court, not even by video.

4. Ted's counterclaim against Khaled Abu Toameh, Varda Meyers Epstein, and Bat-Zion Susskind-Sacks, was rejected.

5. The court ruled that if Ted republishes the same material against Khaled Abu Toameh, he will pay 5000 shekels in compensation per piece.

After three years of refusing to do so, Ted will finally apologize and admit that what he published about Khaled Abu Toameh was factually baseless. Assuming Ted fulfills his promise to the court, he now has 14 days to issue the apology and retraction. This is good because Ted’s own lawyer admitted in court that Belman had no proof to back up any of the nasty things he published about Khaled. It’s icing on the cake that Belman’s counterclaim was rejected. And if he tries to republish the defamatory items, he’s going to get slapped with a fine of 5000 shekels per article. Pretty nifty.

Judge Moriah Cherka, addressing Belman, said that what he did was unethical and against journalistic standards, because Ted never sought Khaled's response before publication. Judge Cherka also noted that Khaled Abu Toameh is a renowned and respected journalist, therefore it is inconceivable that his credibility should be questioned or harmed.

Nadav Haetzni, representative for the plaintiff, Khaled, said, "At long last, this grievous smear campaign against one of Israel's leading journalists is over. This was a campaign aimed at destroying this man's reputation; it caused him great damage and suffering, but in the end, this was a victory and we hope others will learn from it."

“For me,” said Khaled Abu Toameh, “The lawsuit was never about money, but about getting Belman to publicly admit that every bit of what he published about me was factually baseless. I initiated the lawsuit as a matter of principle, to defend ethical standards in journalism, and to serve as a deterrent to others,” said Khaled.

The judge made a point of rebuking Ted Belman in court, for behaving in an unethical manner. Which is as it should be. Journalists, and bloggers like Ted Belman, need to check the facts before they publish, to ascertain the truth, and to seek a response from the person in question, when preparing to publish something that might be defamatory.

Let us hope that this lawsuit will underscore this point for anyone who takes to the blogosphere to randomly and without proof, trash-talk and damage others. This is wrong and should not be countenanced in a country ruled by law. And on Monday, in that small Jerusalem courtroom, a judge did in fact, determine that such baseless defamation would not be countenanced in Israel.



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Wednesday, October 21, 2020


Joe Biden had his first meeting with an Israeli leader, Golda Meir, on the eve of the Yom Kippur war, right after meeting with officials in Cairo. During the then junior senator’s meeting with Meir, Biden suggested that Israel make a unilateral withdrawal from settlements for peace, criticizing the settlement policies of the Labor Party, and suggesting they represent a form of “creeping annexation.” Though Biden assured Meir that Egyptian officials were convinced of Israel’s military superiority, 40 days later, Sadat initiated a surprise attack against Israel.

This is the gist of a bombshell tweet from Israel’s Channel 13 reporter Nadav Eyal containing excerpts from a classified memo from an Israeli official who attended that fateful meeting. While it may have been the first meeting between Biden and an Israeli prime minister, it was certainly not the last. In subsequent meetings with Israeli prime ministers, Biden threatened Menachem Begin with withholding U.S. aid, and publicly upbraided Benyamin Netanyahu because it had been announced in a town council meeting that 1600 homes were to be built in future in the Jewish Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo (more about this here).   

Here is the tweet:

Here is the content of Eyal's tweet, edited for readability:

Golda Meir and Joe Biden, the Israeli memo.

By far, the story Biden most frequently tells about his relationship with Israel leadership is his first meeting with Golda as a young senator. Here's Biden describing the encounter and Golda's punch line:

I've published this evening a classified memo documenting the meeting, made by a senior Israeli official present in the room. A fascinating meeting.

Biden comes from Egypt, some 40 days before Sadat ordered a surprise attack which will become the Yom Kippur war. He tells the Israeli PM that all the officials he met in Cairo assured him that they accept "Israel's military superiority.” Of course, they lied (not [Biden’s] fault, of course. Israel was misled by its own intelligence community). 

American Politics.

Biden criticizes the Nixon administration for being "dragged by Israel" [into supporting Israeli policies]. He says, according to this government memo, that there is no debate in the Senate about the Middle East because the Senators are "afraid" to say things that Jewish voters will dislike. (He SAYS THAT TO GOLDA)

He criticizes the Israeli labor platform arguing that it’s leading to a creeping annexation of the occupied territories. Considering Israel's military dominance, Biden suggests it will initiate a first step for peace by unilateral withdrawals. This will be done from areas with no strategic importance—not the Golan.

Golda responds with a long speech about the history of the Zionist movement from its very establishment. The instability of Arab regimes, the unfairness of Supreme Court decisions.

Golda rejects Biden comments on the Labor platform, rejects his offers of unilateral withdrawal and continues to argue that Israel can make no major mistakes considering the situation of the Jewish people after the Holocaust. The official making the notes remarked that Biden was full of respect to the PM yet his "enthusiasm as he spoke" signaled his lack of experience in the diplomatic field.

REMARKS: Biden warning to the PM on the eve of the war that Israel must make some concessions is   prophetic. Some historians argue that Golda's refusal to consider Egyptian diplomatic initiatives led to war. Biden's suggestion that Israel make unilateral concessions is interesting. The only time Israel opted for such a move is in 2005 when Ariel Sharon as PM initiated Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza strip. Much more to say. 

Part of the original Hebrew document from the unnamed Israeli official:


It is important to note that it was the Labor Party that initiated the policy of settling all parts of Jewish indigenous territory, including Judea and Samaria. From the Jewish Virtual Library:

In the past, Labor was more hawkish on security and defense issues than it is today. During its years in office, Israel fought the 1956 Sinai War, the Six-Day War and the Yom Kippur War. Labor agreed to UN Resolution 242 and the notion of trading land for peace. Nevertheless, successive Labor governments established settlements in the disputed territories and refrained from dismantling illegal settlements, such as those established in 1968 at Qiryat Arba in Hebron by Rabbi Moshe Levinger, and others set up by Gush Emunim. By 1976, more than thirty settlements had been established on the West Bank; however, their population was fewer than 10,000.

Joe Biden paints that early meeting with Golda as something precious that cemented in his mind how important Israel is to the Jewish people. It is clear, however, that Joe Biden has always been against the Jewish people settling their indigenous territory. The very thought of Jews planning to build homes in Jerusalem makes him furious. Therefore, contrary to the love fest with Golda he has often described, Biden used the first chance he had to meet with an Israeli prime minister to broach the subject of unilateral concessions.

One wonders how much clout the young senator wielded at that time. Not to mention the timing of subsequent events, with the surprise attack on Israel by Egypt occurring just 40 days after Biden’s meeting with Meir. Is it possible that Golda Meir incurred wider U.S. displeasure by refusing to entertain Biden's suggestion of unilateral concessions? Was Egypt perhaps emboldened by this state of affairs to attack Israel without fear of American intervention?



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Wednesday, October 14, 2020


President Donald Trump, if you believe the media spin, is the most reviled person ever walk the earth. A search for “Trump” in Google News overwhelmingly generates negative headlines. A more nuanced search, however, suggests that voter enthusiasm is for Trump, while the response to the Biden Harris ticket is somewhere between lackluster and nonexistent.

Here are the first seven results generated in a search I did for “Trump” on October 13, 2020, all negative:

I next turned to some work-related research on the creative use of cars during the pandemic. Here, too, the election figured large in the search results. It seems that cars in the 2020 election cycle have been enlisted as a safe way for people to rally for their preferred presidential candidates while adhering to social distancing standards. But this time, when I did my search, the shoe was on the other foot. The search results were mostly positive, and they were mostly about Trump. 



The rallies with the largest, most enthusiastic turnouts were clearly for Trump. Similar rallies held for Biden, by contrast, yielded fewer attendees, and sometimes none, as happened in the battleground state of Arizona.

Only one week earlier, an Arizona rally with Vice President Pence drew a large crowd: Here's a tweet from Jenna Ellis, senior legal adviser for the Trump campaign, noting that the crowds turned out to see her and other lesser Trump campaign figures, including Trump Campaign Director of Strategic Communications Marc Lotter, and Senior Trump Campaign Adviser John Pence, compared to NO people, whatsoever, turning up to see presidential candidate Joe Biden himself, in the flesh.

A drive-in event in Toledo, at which Biden spoke, appeared to have just six Biden supporters in attendance, sitting in their cars. 


There were more Trump supporters in attendance than Biden supporters. Trump rallies, it is clear, generate large cheering crowds. Biden rallies, by comparison, are poorly attended. Hundreds of cars decorated with American flags, Make American Great Again signs, and Trump posters, for example, made up a rolling caravan that ran all the way from Plymouth, Massachusetts to Nashua, New Hampshire. By contrast, 70 cars came out for Biden in Des Moines, in September.

In the Little Havana neighborhood of Miami, some said as many as 30,000 cars took part in a Trump rally on October 10, waving American and Cuban flags. There were so many cars that police officers had to come direct traffic. Biden may think the Latino community is incredibly diverse, but they appear to have a single-minded preference for Trump.

The same day the “incredibly diverse” were cheering for Trump in Miami, a “Trump Train” made of cars took over an oversized parking lot in St. George, Utah, before setting out in support of President Trump. This time, hundreds of people lined the streets for blocks, straining for a glimpse of the event, already an hour before it was slated to begin. The crowds had put aside the danger of contagion in favor of showing support for their favored presidential candidate, Donald J. Trump. People said the “train” of cars seemed to go on forever.

The mainstream media has left no doubt as to what it thinks you ought to think about Trump. You should hate him with every fiber of your being, and do everything you can to make him lose the election. For the media, it’s not about generating love for Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris. Especially since neither of them are especially loveable. Instead, this election cycle has been all about hate—in particular, about hating President Trump.

The good news is that it’s not working. People would rather love than hate, especially when the object of that feeling is the holder of the highest office in the land, the president of the United States. The people have made their choice and they choose veneration over hate. So the crowds turn out for Trump. And they turn out with enthusiasm.

This, of course, is good news for Israel, where an October 12 poll found that 63.3% of Israelis favor Trump over Joe Biden for president. Maybe this has to do with the way Biden upbraided two Israeli prime ministers. Or maybe it’s because Biden plans to reinstate the JCPOA. What we know for sure: Israel won’t be naming any city squares or neighborhoods for Joe Biden Jr., at any near point in time, and probably not ever. Because Joe Biden hasn’t shown much love for Israel. And like the people of America ignoring the hate-filled spin of the media in favor of flocking to those rallies for Trump, Israelis choose love over hate.

Joe Biden is no friend to Israel, which means he’s no friend to the Jews, which is why Israelis are glad that when it comes to presidents, Americans would rather choose love over hate. 



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Monday, October 05, 2020

Christian missionaries, whose explicit goal is to convert Jews in Israel to Christianity, are entering Israel when most Jews cannot, through a loophole in Israeli government-mandated regulations for the country’s latest coronavirus lockdown. The lack of government sensitivity and response to this issue, when queried, suggests that the loophole was purposefully created. It seems someone wants these missionaries here badly, perhaps the farmers in Samaria, whose vineyards these missionaries toil for free, as they swear up and down that converting the Jews is the furthest thing from their minds. No doubt they are told it is permitted to lie for this purpose. The loophole is that international volunteers are allowed in, while thousands of Jews trying desperately to get to Israel, are not.

The following photo shows Dean Bye’s Return Ministries group arriving in Israel. Return Ministries shared the photo on Facebook as an announcement of the loophole for missionaries, the year-long volunteer visa, during the coronavirus lockdown:


This was shared by Tommy Waller, of HaYovel who remarked that this had opened the way for others. Such as his group of missionaries. And that of Bishop Glenn Plummer and his wife, Dr. (Ruth) Pauline Plummer.


Longer version with Hebrew subtitles:


It is the belief of Glenn and Pauline Plummer that they are "grafted" onto the Jewish people through Jesus. The two are in Israel specifically to target the Ethiopian community. Bishop Plummer believes God’s promise to bring the people out of Egypt/Africa includes those of African descent. He also believes Martin Luther King was not being at all metaphoric in his mountaintop speech when he referenced being allowed to reach the Promised Land. It wasn’t suburbia to which MLK was describing, from Plummer’s perspective, but a scenario in which African Americans belong to the actual physical land of Israel and must return.


Judy Maltz of Haaretz has previously looked at Tommy Waller and Hayovel, wondering who gave them visas during a lockdown when Jews are barred. Now she has addressed the issue of Bishop and Dr. Plummer claiming to make aliyah. Maltz, being that she writes for Haaretz, made sure to underscore the point that it is the settlers who benefit from the work of the Christian “volunteers.”

In August, the Interior Ministry announced that 12,000 yeshiva students and another 5,000 foreign exchange students and participants in Masa educational and social programs, aimed at young Jewish adults, would also be allowed into the country.

As reported in Haaretz several weeks ago, an exception was also made for a group of 70 volunteers from a U.S.-based evangelical organization, known as Hayovel. The volunteers obtained special government permission to enter the country so they could help with the grape harvest on West Bank settlements.

Event poster announces Bishop Glenn and Dr. Pauline Plummer in Jerusalem

At the same time, Maltz made one small, incidental mention of proselytization only at the end of her piece, as if to minimize the importance of the issue.

Asked to address concerns that COGIC had set up a presence in Israel in order to persuade Jews to convert to Christianity, Plummer said: “That’s not our mission. I, as a Christian believer and Christian leader, am fully convinced that Yeshua, Jesus, is the messiah. I believe that with every fiber in me. But I’m not going to try to convince you to believe that. If you ask me why I believe that, though, of course I’m going to tell you.”

This, of course, is a lie. Let’s look at what Bishop and Dr. Plummer themselves said in the video (earlier in this piece), regarding their purpose in coming to Israel, and in fact, their purpose in life:

What is the church called to do? In my humble opinion, it rests on two things. One is to win souls and the second is to make disciples. Disciple-making is really a big call.

That's exactly the call and the mission and the goal of the church. "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father, and of the son, and of the holy ghost.”

We lead people to the lord. The church is commissioned. The church is called to go forth and teach, to instruct all nations, to do as Jesus did and make disciples. We are called to tell people everywhere about Jesus.

Facebook about page
Tweet after participating in a congressional caucus on black and Jewish relations
Mission as declared on the website of Bishop and Dr. Plummer

A colleague who lives in Samaria, where so many evangelicals are residing while working the vineyards for free, when he heard my concerns about Bishop Plummer commented, “Just you should know, there are highly-placed individuals who have known him for decades who will make sure he understands the situation he is in and if you want, I can try to ask him specifically not to reach out to you.”

It is not, of course, my concern that these people will reach out to me personally. My concern is that they are here to “win souls” and “make disciples.” I find this sort of proselytization highly offensive. The Jewish people did not survive the Inquisition, the Crusades, the Muslim Conquest, pogroms, terror, and the Holocaust in order to have missionaries infiltrate the Jewish State of Israel to rob our children of their souls, in order that the settlers of Samaria benefit from free labor to harvest their grapes.

Plummer: first "bishop of Israel in the 112 year history of the church"

The focus of the work of Bishop and Dr. Plummer in Israel: outreach to Ethiopian Jews


It sure does look as though the one sure way to get into Israel right now is to be Christian and committed to converting the Jews. It's a definite exception to the otherwise unusually severe lockdown measures mandated by the Israeli government. And it worked great for Bishop Glenn and Dr. Pauline Plummer. But it also worked for Return Ministries, manned by Dean Bye and Chaim Malespin. The entire group of their evangelical volunteers received one-and-a-half-year visas.

It's important to note that evangelicals do not qualify to live in Israel under the Law of Return, despite the claim of Dr. Plummer that she and her husband are not in Israel to be tourists, but have actually made aliyah. When asked about this by Judy Maltz at Haaretz, a spokeswoman from Israel’s Interior Ministry, responsible for issuing visas to the Plummers and the other evangelicals, said only that she, “wasn’t at liberty to discuss individual cases because of privacy issues.”

All we really know is that Israel is in the middle of a pandemic lockdown in which thousands of Jews cannot get into the country, but the government has announced this loophole that mainly serves evangelical Christians. 

It’s not a good look. 

Breaking Israel News is calling this loophole for international volunteers the fulfillment of the prophecy that “strangers,” or “Christians,” have been allowed into Israel to harvest: 

Strangers shall stand and pasture your flocks, Aliens shall be your plowmen and vine-trimmers; Isaiah 61:5.

This prophecy, the missionaries see as both literally and metaphorically true. For while so many Jews cannot visit Israel during the holidays or see family, the strangers are here for the harvest. They're here for the grapes and the souls.

(h/t Shannon Nuszen of Beyneynu)



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Wednesday, September 30, 2020

Joe Biden, as we see him today, projects the image of a twinkly-eyed grandfather. Which is a nice cover for the brain damage, apparent in the nonsensical word jumble issuing forth from his mouth. Everyone, after all, has senior moments, and loses words from time to time. With Joe Biden, of course, the senior moments are not occasional. It’s his regular state of being. It’s more instructive, perhaps, to look at who he was when he was young and vital.

Looking at old clips of Joe Biden, what comes across is someone who was/is not a very nice man. Lacking original thoughts of his own, Joe Biden stole the thoughts of others and claimed them as his own. When caught out, he said he forgot to attribute the quote just the once, but the fact is the thievery, the stealing of other statesmen’s words, was systematic. You can see it in this footage from Dinesh D’Souza:

Even when Joe Biden was capable of stringing words together so that they made sense, he stole them from other people. Because he didn’t care whom he stepped on to get ahead. Abuse of power is/was the only game Joe Biden knows how to play. Especially, it seems, when it comes to Israel.

Witness the famous confrontation between then Senator Joe Biden and Menachem Begin on June 22, 1982. Biden confronted Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin in his testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations committee, threatening to cut off aid to Israel. Begin saw Biden for the snake he is and told him off but good:

“Don’t threaten us with cutting off your aid. It will not work. I am not a Jew with trembling knees. I am a proud Jew with 3,700 years of civilized history. Nobody came to our aid when we were dying in the gas chambers and ovens. Nobody came to our aid when we were striving to create our country. We paid for it. We fought for it. We died for it. We will stand by our principles. We will defend them. And, when necessary, we will die for them again, with or without your aid.”

More recently, Joe Biden made a public statement to the press upbraiding Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu because SHOCK AND HORROR: it had been announced that 1600 new homes were to be built for Jews to live in, in the Ramat Shlomo neighborhood of Jerusalem.

From Reuters:

“I condemn the decision by the government of Israel to advance planning for new housing units,” Biden said in a statement issued after he arrived 90 minutes late for a dinner with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

He said the blueprint for Ramat Shlomo, a religious Jewish settlement in an area of the West Bank annexed to Jerusalem by Israel, “undermines the trust we need right now and runs counter to the constructive discussions that I’ve had here in Israel.”

But Ramat Shlomo is not a settlement. And it’s not in the West Bank. It’s an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood in Jerusalem. Then Israeli Housing Minister Eli Yishai received the blame for Joe Biden’s upbraiding of Netanyahu. But Biden wouldn’t have heard about the housing project if it hadn’t been for far-left anti-Israel third column, Peace Now. It was Peace Now that revealed that a Jerusalem municipal committee had approved plans for 1600 housing units. That revelation was made just as Biden was arriving in Israel for talks.

Peace Now made it sound as if Israel were breaking the terms of the building freeze in Judea and Samaria, a measure insisted upon by the Obama administration, an administration that was never friendly to the idea of Jews building homes in Jewish indigenous territory. But Ramat Shlomo is in Jerusalem, not in Judea and Samaria, where Obama had insisted on a building freeze in preparation for peace talks that never happened. 

Joe Biden didn’t have to listen to Peace Now, or accept that Israel was guilty of wrongdoing. He could have checked the facts. But just as Joe Biden has no original thoughts of his own and steals the words of statesmen, claiming them as his own, Joe Biden doesn’t care about right and wrong when it comes to Israel.

If Joe Biden cared about the truth, about Israel, he would have checked the facts. He would have discovered that the project approved was for 1600 housing units to be built in a Jewish Jerusalem neighborhood at some distant point in the future. But Joe Biden didn’t check the facts. Instead, Joe Biden chose to see Israel as the bad guy. Because Biden is a bad guy.


Which is part of why Joe Biden was Obama’s vice president. Biden’s history with Begin made Biden fit to be part of the Obama administration. Cruel to Israel? Okay, you can play with us.

And one need not doubt whether or not Hillary Clinton was in on the fun. Back then, in 2010, when Biden expressed his public disapproval with Netanyahu at Jews daring to build homes in Jerusalem, Hillary Clinton scolded Netanyahu in a phone conversation, and in public, underscored Biden’s words with her own, “The announcement of the settlements the very day that the vice president was there was insulting."


Which of course, is a lie. There was no insult, no announcement of settlements. There were no new homes being built in Judea and Samaria. Many of my friends, in fact, lost money on stalled construction of homes in settlements in Judea and Samaria. They couldn’t add a bathroom or a garage to an existing home, thanks to Netanyahu’s attempts to appease an unappeasable Obama and his henchmen, Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton.

These are not nice people and there is every reason to believe that they hate Israel, and that includes Kamala Harris and anyone else who is working with them. So don’t be fooled by the twinkly-eyed, white-haired grandfather making adorable gaffes from his basement. Joe Biden is not a nice person and he never was. Not when he was stealing others' words, and not when he was upbraiding two Israeli prime ministers.

Joe Biden doesn't like Israel. He doesn't think Jews have a right to build homes in or live in Jerusalem. He plays dirty with people and with words and he definitely plays dirty with Israel. So if you care about fair play and you love Israel, you most definitely should not vote for Joe Biden.



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Wednesday, September 23, 2020


Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Supreme Court justice, died on Rosh Hashanah. What gets lost in the sauce, in all the coverage of the more “Jewy” aspects of RBG’s passing, is the fact that it was also Shabbat, since the first day of Rosh Hashanah this year fell on the Jewish Sabbath. It’s understandable that people give more import, emotionally, to Rosh Hashanah, which, after all, is one of what we call the "High Holidays." But the fact is that Shabbat actually takes precedence over Rosh Hashanah, which is why Orthodox Jews don’t blow the shofar on Rosh Hashanah when it coincides with the Jewish Sabbath, because it is forbidden to carry items from place to place on Shabbat. None of this stood in the way, however, of several prominent Jews marking RBG’s death by blowing the shofar on Shabbat Rosh Hashanah.

Rabbi Matt Soffer, of Judea Reform Congregation in Durham, North Carolina, heard the news Bader Ginsburg's death on Friday night. “The news brought me to my knees and I wept,” said Soffer, who determined to find a way to commemorate his icon, who according to the JTA, “had come to represent the liberal American feminist spirit for so many.”

From the JTA:

By the time Soffer signed on for services on Saturday morning, he had resolved to address Ginsburg’s death with his community. He did so by revising not the words he had prepared or the prayers he would lead, but by tweaking a core tradition of the High Holidays: the shofar blasts.

Just as the Supreme Court has nine members, one of the shofar blasts, teruah, has nine short notes. Soffer halted after just eight to symbolize the fact that the court has just lost a member who made it complete and, he said, “to honor the speechlessness of our communal grief.”

Actor Mandy Patinkin, who not so long ago made it onto my Comprehensive List of Antisemitic Celebrities, also blew the shofar, this time to underscore RBG’s deathbed wish, dictated to granddaughter Clara Spera: "My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed."

Thus it was that Patinkin blew the shofar on MSNBC on Shabbat Rosh Hashanah. “And I want her wish to be heard, so I will blow the shofar for her,” said Patinkin with a lot of put-on pomp and circumstance, blowing a pretend tekiyah gedolah as a sort of dog whistle to Jewish Democrats. “And so now her wish will be heard,” announced the BDS-supporting anti-Trump actor, “and let it be heard throughout the land.”

11-year-old Micah Blay was driven by his mom Dana Marlowe from their home in a Maryland suburb (on Shabbat Rosh Hashanah) to blow the shofar for 250 people outside the Supreme Court, in Washington, D.C., which he said was, “definitely like kind of scary.”

From the JTA:

“[We] were literally dipping ceremonial apples into honey” at the start of the Rosh Hashanah holiday “when my phone started blowing up” with messages.

Marlowe tweeted that she was “devastated” to hear of Ginsburg’s passing and decided immediately to make a pilgrimage to the Supreme Court the following day, the first day of Rosh Hashanah.

“It was shock and heartbreak and I couldn’t believe it,” she said.

Micah added that the family was “doing the right thing” in deciding to spend one day of Rosh Hashanah in front of the Supreme Court honoring “a great person” like Ginsburg.

The blowing of the shofar at this time of year calls Jews to repentance. What is repentance? It is being sorry for sinning, and having done something contrary to Torah law, resolving not to do it again.

Everyone has their own way of doing things, honoring the people they admire, and making a point about the things they believe. But I wonder if these people realize how insensitive is this act, the act of blowing a shofar on Shabbat, to their coreligionists, those still faithful to Torah precepts upheld for thousands of years. I wonder how “liberal” it can be to cause so great an offense to the sensibilities of the Orthodox who watch on in dismay at the seeming disregard for God’s Torah without the least little care or concern for their beliefs, and the hurt these actions cause.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a giant by any measure. But it does no credit to RBG, no honor to her Jewishness, to expropriate a religious vessel and to use it in an inappropriate way to mark her passing. My hope in writing this here is not to shame anyone, God forbid, but in hopes that the shofar not be abused this way in future.

Gmar Chatima Tova. May you be inscribed for good.

UPDATE: A reader pointed out that the reason we don't blow the shofar on Shabbat is because it is forbidden to carry the item to the synagogue, similar to the reason we don't use the lulav and etrog on Shabbat Sukkot. The text has been updated to reflect this important correction. 


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Wednesday, September 16, 2020



It’s hard to have hope in a plague, though everywhere are reminders that the New Year approaches. And should you forget, everyone you meet will wish you a “Shana Tova,” a sweet new year, in the run-up to Rosh Hashanah. The tired middle-aged clerk, the important VIP, and people you normally ignore, will all offer up the traditional Jewish New Year’s greeting, and mean it.

Goodwill is in the air. And hope, which is where this piece begins. Because as the New Year approaches, we are full of hope for a sweet new year. We ask for sweetness. We hope it will be there in the coming year.

But there’s a plague on, you see. There’s a plague. We can’t help but wonder at the implications of the virus. Even if some of us get only so far as to contemplate that science is nobody’s fault.

Whatever you believe, this is a difficult and stressful time, and though we crave New Year sweetness, it’s hard to see an end to our difficulties. But we try. I do, anyway. I try like hell. Every day I do something to get ready for the New Year, for Rosh Hashanah. I am trying to not only be prepared for the holiday, but to also get in the mood for sweetness, to ask for it with all my heart, no matter how grim the current reality.

As I make apple cakes and babka, kugels and brisket, I search my memory for inspiration. I let my mind wander and review the things it knows. Sometimes I remember family stories that no longer have relevance to anyone but me. Anyone else who would care is long dead. Nobody can visualize these people. No one will “get” the apocryphal family joke. It will simply fall flat, when told, until lack of response suggests you should bury that story with its long-dead protagonists and implications.

The Jewish People Will Be Fine

I try to be pragmatic. No one lives forever, but still, it makes me sad. Once I am there, I begin to think of other sad things, the things that worry me, the state of my people, the good and the bad, until I come to a revelation: the Jewish people are going to be fine.

It takes me some time to get there, but get there I do. Revelation comes.

Yes. There are the people like Ariel Gold, a low-caliber person who engages in stunts like promoting the destruction of Israel at the Western Wall, a person who makes her name by betraying her own, and cozying up to the mullahs. 

Ariel Gold at the Western Wall

And there are people like Seth Rogen, who have somehow lost the ability to engage in critical thinking, people who do a podcast and make it sound like the Jewish connection to Israel begins in 1948, “They never tell you that, ‘Oh, by the way, there were people there.’ They make it seem like it was just like sitting there, like the fucking door’s open.”

The Seth Rogens of the world are completely ignorant of their own history, but they're ready to throw the Jews out of the Holy Land, nonetheless. They'll toss away their own people based only on lies they’ve been told by bad people and terrorists. 

Seth Rogen

These people, the Ariel Golds and Seth Rogens of the world, make me angry. Which is bracing. (“Learn something! Pick up a book, for crying out loud!”)

It's disheartening, it is true: there is no end to these people, these traitors from within. The Ariel Golds and the Seth Rogens. Yet I am quite ready to dismiss them. To me they are only the Erev Rav, the mixed multitude that managed to blend in with us during the Exodus. They only pretend to be Jewish. Their job is to destroy us from within.

But there are the other Jews, real Jews. I bear witness to them here in the Holy Land. These other Jews have reached a state where love of God, country, and people is strong, and meshed into one harmonious whole. Their Jewish remnants will continue to bring beauty and meaning into Israel and the world and glory to the Holy One, Blessed Be He.

The Other Jews: The Ones Who Inspire Hope

It’s a matter of trial by fire. And it gives me tremendous hope.

Consider the following seven examples:

  1. At the funeral of terror victim Adele Biton, her mother Adva, eulogized her little girl murdered by stone-throwing Arab terrorists: "Here you grew and learned, and now even at the height of our sorrow, we are burying you close to us, in the place where they attacked you, so that a cry will resonate and they will hear that the Land is ours as of right."
    Adele Biton HY"D

  2. Dalia Lemkus was stabbed to death by an Arab terrorist while waiting at a bus stop. At her funeral, her sister Michal nonetheless found the strength to call on Israeli Jews to keep on living their daily lives, "I want to scream to everyone, to my nation, and especially to myself: Don't stop hitchhiking. Don't give them the pleasure of successfully stopping us from living our lives; simply do not stop your life," said Michal.  
    Dalia Lemkus, HY"D

  3. The father of terror victim Cpl. Ziv Mizrahi, Doron, was no stranger to losing a family member to terror. He had also lost a brother in the Café Hillel bombing, years earlier. At his son Ziv’s funeral, he said, “We’ll mourn, but I promise you, next Wednesday I am returning to work. You won’t break our spirit. The Jewish people live,” said Doron.
    Corporal Ziv Mizrahi HY"D

  4. Hallel Yaffa Ariel was a 13-year-old dancer, murdered in her bed as she slept. At her funeral, her mother Rina called on the public to come help the family in Kiryat Arba. "We invite everyone to come and help, to console; there are vineyards which need help, there are Jews here who need strengthening. We are strong and we won't break, but we need your help to continue and to build here,” she said. "Hallel loved living here... right now we are just crying out 'By your blood you shall live! By your blood you shall live!'" said Rina Ariel, quoting from the bible.
    Hallel Yaffa Ariel HY"D

  5. Unborn baby (30 weeks) Amiad Israel Ish-Ran was born by emergency C-section after his mother was wounded in an attack outside of Ofra. The infant was pronounced dead after several days in intensive care. The baby’s grandfather explained the significance of the baby’s name at the funeral. "It is written in Halakha that a name must be given to the baby, so your parents have given a name, which is of great significance and symbolizes everything - Amiad Yisrael, our people are here forever. The people of Israel are here forever. Our message is clear - we will not break, we cry and it hurts us, but we are strong," said Rabbi Raphael Ish-Ran.
    Amiad Israel Ish-Ran HY"D (wrapped in tallis)

    The baby’s second grandfather, Haim Silberstein, said, "You will never succeed. We are stronger than you, we are righter than you, we belong here more than you, we will defeat you. This is our land, our people and our holy Torah. Amichai and Shira, our hearts are torn with grief over the pain and loss. But your young son Amiad Yisrael, our delicate grandson, may Hashem avenge his blood, already did much before completing four days. He united the people of Israel, who rose up in prayers, hugs, love.”
  6. Rabbi Achiad Ettinger was 47 and the father of 12 when he was murdered at the Ariel Junction. One of his older children, his daughter Efrat, eulogized him thus, “The evil terrorist thought he was ending a life, but he had no idea how much life and power you left on this earth that we and the entire nation of Israel will use to grow and carry on.”
    Rabbi Achiad Ettinger HY"D

  7. Rina Shnerb​ was 17 when terrorists detonated an IED device next to the girl, her father, and brother, while they were visiting a national landmark near Dolev. “We are trying to be strong here in the Land of Israel, the people of Israel, Rina believed in that,” said Rabbi Eitan Shnerb, the girl’s father, wounded along with her brother, “Our response to the murderers is that we are here and we are strong and we will prevail.”
    Rina Shnerb HY"D

You may think it strange to find hope in words spoken in the depths of despair, when a life filled with promise has been stolen away by terror. But something happens when you hear someone, in the moment of deepest grief, call on his fellow Jews to build more homes in Israel, to have more Jewish babies. It makes the heart thrum to think that such Jews exist. They are exceptional, it is true. But they are not so rare as you think. Especially if you consider that terror in Israel, the kind that stems from pure Jew-hatred, is not nearly so rare as we wished.

When there are words such as these to be had from a people so battered and grieving, it makes you realize that we Jews, at the core, are strong. And we are right here in Israel. And we are never going away.

We are strong in spirit and we are here. And the knowledge of that should (and hopefully will) bring us hope, even when there’s a plague going on. We can hope for sweetness and we can find the strength to wish each other a shana tova, a sweet New Year, even as the Jewish people keep on keeping on.

It's what we do. It's what we have done for thousands of years.

Here's wishing all of you a Shana Tova! 🍯 May you find only sweetness in the coming year.



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