Moving to Israel

A controversial and contentious topic that has gone back and forth between Israel and the U.S. for years has been in regards to Israel’s development throughout Judea and Samaria. It was therefore good news to many when Minister Benny Begin mentioned on Israeli television the other night that construction in Jewish communities throughout Judea and Samaria are not frozen and that even American officials know that Israel has only placed certain limitations on Jewish construction. He noted that apartments are being built and will continue to be built during the period of limitations and stressed that this period is only temporary.

The positive ramifications of this comes in many forms, not the least important of which is in the potential for more Jews to make the move to Israel. More construction means more Jewish communities and more Jewish communities, particularly the beautiful ones that I am sure will come out of the latest round of construction, will hopefully open the eyes of more of our brothers and sisters to make Israel their permanent homes.

Ari

I wanted to point out a fantastic interview from the Jerusalem Post with newly appointed Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Ya’alon. The sit down was done by veteran writer Yaakov Katz and is one of the finest pieces of journalism I’ve seen in some time.

Katz asks some very pointed questions and Ya’alon, former commander of the IDF who four years ago completed an illustrious 37-year military career, is extremely candid and forthcoming on some of the important security issues facing Israel and the world today.

This is highly recommended reading for everyone and you are all encouraged to pass this along to everyone you know. Enjoy.

 Ari

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about how US President Barack Obama, along with his family, attended the second night Passover Seder in the White House with staff and friends. This is believed to be the first White House Seder attended by an American president. I also noted how we must look closely before celebrating such an event as being a positive occurrence for Israel and the Jewish people by noting that it was former President Jimmy Carter, hardly a friend of Jews of the world, who had set the closest precedence to this and we all know how his reign of terror played out (and, unfortunately with his world wide influence, continues to play out to this day).

Therefore, I thought it was interesting to point out an article by Carol Schwartz entitled “Seder in the White House, Oy Vey” that takes this point further and brings in examples throughout history telling us to beware of what such an event can mean. It is a truly chilling account as it makes us look at our own past and see how we are potentially putting ourselves in great danger once again when we take our supposed “great relations” with our host (and foreign) government and assume that it bodes well for our long term future there.

As Carol closes her article “Let us not forget our history and let us remember that history has a way of repeating itself. (May G-d protect us.)”

Ari

As Passover goes on throughout the world many are talking of the Seder that was conducted at the White House on Thursday night to mark the second night of the  holiday in what is believed to be a “first” for the executive mansion.

While this has been lauded by many in the Jewish community and various media have viewed the celebration as a sign that the new president would invest much in a close relationship with his Jewish supporters we must be wary and cautious before reading too much into this. Remember, President Jimmy Carter attended a Seder in 1979 at the Washington home of adviser Stuart Eizenstat and, unfortunately, he turned out to be hardly a friend of the Jewish people (to put it mildly).

Let’s hope that history does not repeat itself and this historic event truly does indicate a confirmation of friendship between Obama and the Jewish nation.

Wishing everyone a happy and peaceful Passover.

Ari

With election of Israel’s Knesset falling deeper into the past and the process continuing with a government being formed, you continue to hear stories of the behind the scenes developments of Binyamin Netanyahu and his attempts to put together a coalition. Some stories, such as this one about Netanyahu giving in to all of the demands made by Yisrael Beiteinu chief Avigdor Lieberman regarding various cabinet positions, are typical examples of these pieces.

While the forming of the government and who will be serving what position are certainly important, critical issues I can’t help but read them with a sense of “are you kidding me” attitude. The discussions and political maneuverings just seem to pale in comparison to things like the attack by a deranged Arab tractor driver last Thursday — the third of its kind in Jerusalem in a single year. A big part of me just wants to shout at these politicians about how we have enough to worry about with an unending amount of Arabs surrounding our tiny little country swearing to drive us into the sea. This should be the only issue when forming a government. The security and survival of the Jewish people needs to come first. 

Let’s hope that these are some of the behind the scene stories that we are not hearing about. The ones where the brave politicians forming the government are talking about nothing but how best to defend the nation and to make sure our enemies torment us no more.

Ari

As concerns have grown regarding the new American leadership with regards towards their policies with Israel, there has been at least one encouraging piece of news. The U.S. has anounced that it will be boycotting the Durban II conference on racism unless there are significant changes to what the State Department called “unsalvageable” anti-Israeli resolutions. Israel has been concerned by the new American government’s change in policy to participate in preliminary committee meetings for the convention, which is to be held in Geneva but bears the name of the South African city where the first meeting was held in 2001. The United States walked out of it because of harsh anti-Israeli resolutions.

With the conference planning a clearly anti-Israel agenda the State Department announcement came after growing domestic protests of the Obama administration’s participation in the planning committee.

While it is still too soon to see how the new administration will be working with Israel in the long term, this is a piece of good, encouraging news to let Israelis know that, at least for the moment, America still understands the amount of vitriol that that the world is armed with towards their best friends in the Middle East. Let’s hope this is a sign of things to come for the next four years.

 Ari

Now that the dust has settled (somewhat) from the dramatic elections for Israel’s Knesset a couple of weeks ago we start to wonder where we go from here.

As President Shimon Peres has asked Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu to form Israel’s coming government we seem to have a number of schools of thought. One is the “here we go again” thinking focusing on how Netanyahu was our Prime Minister not too long ago and, as things have grown increasingly worse in Israel over the years, the (reasonable) questioning is why this time will be any different.

There is, however, another school of thought. It seems that some people are subscribing to the theory that Netanyahu has learned from past mistakes and that we have therefore witnessed a historic decision that could save the civilized world. These pundits point to the fact that in his first statements as prime minister-presumptive “to the shock of many, he pointedly refused even to mention the Palestinian peace process, which has been going nowhere of late. Nor was there, again clearly deliberately, any reference made to the so-called two-state solution, which those negotiations had been aiming to find.” This quote comes from an article in the U.S. paper Investor’s Business Daily and echoes the sentiments of many people.

While it is impossible to know how the situation will play itself out I, for one, hope that the projections in the above article are accurate. We have very dangerous enemies facing Israel and the entire civlized world and a leader who sees this threat and is ready to act on it is one that Israel and the world sorely needs more than ever.

Ari

As the process moves forward after Israel’s Election Day votes have been tallied and counted, a common question seems to be on the minds of both Israelis and outsiders alike: what exactly just happened?

To recap: Kadima, led by Tzipi Livni, came out on top with the most votes in the election barely edging Binyamin Netanyahu and Likud. However, due to the uniqueness of Israel’s election system, Likud has pretty much come out on top due to the right wing’s stronger showing than the left and, therefore, their being better positioned to form a coalition in the Knesset.

As the wrangling and positioning of the various parties continues to shake out, I continue to ask myself if this whole process needs to be changed or, at the very least, seriously reconsidered. The people have voted and they expect results. They want their decisions to have a bearing on the leadership of the country (as does any democracy) and, after taking time out of their busy schedules, expect immediate results from their voting. The long, drawn out process that will now take place only further delays the implementation of a new government and, Israel of all places, has little time to waste. There are important, life and death issues that need to be tackled immediately and we need (hopefully strong) leaders to move into their new roles right away and get to the business of - among other things - protecting our country.

Let’s hope the matter is settled as soon as possible and that the new leaders will have the strength and faith in Hashem to grab the country and lead her through all of our current challenges.

Ari

With the national elections in Israel being on everyone’s minds in the Holy Land, it is hard to go very far without hearing some sort of discussion or debate about the country’s political future.

From left to right, you hear a true passion in the voice of the voters here that you probably will not see anywhere else in the world. This is largely due to the nature of politics within Israeli culture. Being a nation constantly under threat brings the voting to a more personal level and makes us all aware of how important our voting decisions are. Our general security is always tenuous and the people we vote into Knesset as leaders will face one grave decision after another.

While it is important to vote and to try and find the leaders who will guide us through yet another critical moment in our history, let us never forget where our true source of strength lives. We must always give thanks and pray before Hashem for it is He who ultimately decides our fate.

I wish everyone good luck on the day of elections and can say that, personally, leaders with a true faith in Hashem are the only ones who stand a chance at this Israeli’s vote.

 Ari

Anyone who has been reading the news regarding Israel the last few days has  no doubt noticed that, as the Gaza War seems to finally be relatively fading into the background, the top stories have now begun to focus on Israel’s elections, scheduled to take place on February 10th.

As the columns have begun to pour in with various pieces of input on who/which party would best serve the country, one particular article glaringly stuck out to me. The article, a seemingly ordinary piece speculating on the number of Arab party members who will possibly be part of the next Knesset, doesn’t seem to be anything special at first glance. However, when I really stopped to look at it, I couldn’t help but be greatly disturbed about a nagging issue that has bothered many reasonable people for decades. Namely, why in the world would any country allow any members of their sworn enemies to sit in the government and be allowed input into issues dealing with said country’s well being.

To repeat, I know this is not a ground breaking realization that I had but I do think that it is just as absurd today as it was when the question was first raised probably some time ago.

No self respecting sovereign nation would ever even consider such a situation and hopefully some of the decision makers are just as dumbstruck as I was when they read such articles.

Let’s hope that of all countries, Israel, the holiest place on earth, will eventually see the error of their ways and defeat any motion that allows our mortal enemies to have a say in our national affairs.

Good luck at the polling stations.

 Ari