Bibi: Listen to My Boy’s Simple Logic

I wrote this post on Tisha B’Av.

On Tisha B’Av, I was watching Gush Katif videos.  It’s a fitting activity, music or not, because the expulsion of 8,600 Jews from their homes, and literally cutting off a limb of Israel, is one of the tragedies that led to tragedies of our time.  (You can watch the videos, too.)

On the one hand, this is not exactly an activity for children.  On the other hand, these are his brothers, this is his country, and he will probably grow up friends with some of the expellees’ siblings.  The children who were expelled from their homes were traumatized much worse than this video will ever traumatize Shlomo.

On the one hand, this is not a video for children.  On the other hand, how can I tell him it is only for adults?

I let him watch with me.  The first one he saw with me, last night, he thought was hilarious.  I’m not sure why, but it could be a combination of the hour, the music, and the lack of narration.  He thought that the menora on top of a roof was a plane.  Today, when Shlomo watched with me, he told me halfway through, “I don’t want this video, I don’t like it.”  I told him that he didn’t have to watch with me, but that this is what I was watching.  He stayed.

And I felt like it was inappropriate to simply let him watch, without giving him any explanation for what was happening and why.  After all, one of the sentences that he had heard, and repeated, was, “How can you take children out of their homes?”  He needed to know why and how it had happened, at least so that he would not live in fear of it happening unexpectedly to him.

I told him that the place where the woo-woos come from is called Gaza.  That the person in charge of Israel right now is called Bibi (he thought that was a funny name), and the person in charge when the video was taken was called Ariel Sharon.  All these people, the imas and abbas and children and teenagers, lived in beautiful homes in Gaza.  They protected us from the woo-woos even though they sometimes got hurt.  They went to gan and played and are nice people.  But the bad people kept trying to hurt us, and one day Sharon said that the bad people had told him, that if we gave them all of Gaza and took all these nice people out of their homes, then they would stop hurting us and we would have shalom (peace).  Sharon believed the bad people, and that they wouldn’t hurt us, if we took these people away from their homes.  So that’s what happened.  They took the people out of their houses.

Shlomo thought the soldiers were hurting people, and I told him that the soldiers tried very hard not to hurt anyone, because they are our brothers and they love us.  Just like Jack is Abba’s brother, and he loves us.  Just like the nice soldier who shared her falafel with him.  The soldiers are nice.  I pointed out that the soldiers were also crying, that they didn’t have a choice.  I told him that all of the woo-woos (air-raid sirens) have come from Gaza, because the nice people aren’t in their homes anymore, protecting us.  Now that bad people are using their homes to make woo-woos and hurt people.

And my beautiful, smart boy said a single, brilliant sentence: We need to put them back in their homes.

I told him that many, many people agreed with him, and praised him for his creative, clear thinking.  I told him that we also want that to happen, but that Bibi and the other people in charge don’t want to do it.  I told him that now that the bad people are using the land, it’s very hard to get it back.  I asked him if he thought it would be safe or dangerous for soldiers to go to where the bad people are and take the land back.  He said dangerous.  He said that Yitzchak, Tova, himself, and I, should get into fighter planes and fight the woo-woos and break the woo-woos so that we will be safe.  I told hiim that Yitzchak and I aren’t soldiers, that he might be, but that I hope that he won’t have to be.  He didn’t care, he wanted to get into a fighter plane and fight.  And then the nice people could go back to their homes and there would be no more woo-woos.

Bibi, I think you should take Shlomo as your advisor.  All you need to do is give him cookies, cereal, and building toys to make planes, buses, and trains with, and he will tell you how to keep Israel safe.

The Duma Arson: A Troubling Update

Remember yesterday, I said that I highly doubted the arsonist was affiliated with any religious group, but that it looked like he was pretending to be affiliated?

Well, as it turns out, I may have been exactly on target.

A group called Tag Meir (Illuminating Tag; a play on the words “tag mechir,” price tag) organized a visit to pay condolences to the Muslim family whose baby, Ali, was killed.  A “settler,” named Yonadav Tapuchi, joined the trip, because although he does believe in Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria, he does not believe in senseless murder of innocent people.  Not when the person murdered was a Jew, and not when the person murdered was a Muslim.

What Yonadav writes is a real eye-opener, and it bears mentioning that he was not the only one in this group, and everything written is easily verifiable.

“. . . we would first see the burnt houses . . . a bunch of Jews with their heads held low were photographed near and in the burnt houses and the Hebrew graffiti there. A representative . . . gave a short speech (‘the settlers should expect the worst!,’ he warned). We were then told that actually, the village is quite up in arms, and that it would not be convenient for us to actually comfort the mourning family, and that we had better leave fast.

I and others felt that this whole thing was a media trick to get the ‘Yahud’ [Arabic for ‘the Jews’ – ed.] to take part in humiliating . . . photos near the buildings . . . they had never planned to allow us to come in actual contact with the family.”

. . . He did not mention that there have been reports of an ongoing, 18-year feud between two clans in Duma that might be related to the murderous arson. In addition, one of the two graffiti messages – the single word nekamah, meaning “revenge” – has calligraphic elements that raise the suspicion that it was actually sprayed by an Arab.

. . . It was impossible to ignore some of the more curious aspects of the story . . . the two houses . . . are located in the center of the village . . . in order to get there we had to travel a number of minutes from the entrance. Duma is spread out over a gigantic area, and the houses are situated at the end of a winding road, among fences and yards.

According to the Duma version, the attackers burnt one house, then saw that it was empty, and so they went to set fire to the next house. The second house is enclosed by a fence . . . a firebomb cannot be hurled through the windows, and in any event it is very hard to reach the windows behind the fence. . . The attackers entered the house, stood over the parents and did not let them leave until the flames engulfed the house. Only then did the arsonists run away from the village.

. . . we will get to hear a fascinating story of why they chose to navigate their way all the way into the middle of the village, and how they had time to set a house on fire, wait to find that it was empty, then walk around and enter another house and set it on fire, wait with the parents, spray graffiti in two places – including with a little design of a crown! – and then run away through the middle of the village with all the townspeople surely already up and on their feet seeing the flames and hearing the family’s cries. Something here is very fishy…”

I would also add that Jews in an Arab village need to have a security detail, because otherwise they are in grave danger.  A sad fact of life here in Israel is that many cities are Judenrein, but none are Muslimrein.  A Jew who entered an Arab village, even under disguise, and stayed for more than a few minutes would have a 99% chance of not making it out alive.

I think the facts speak for themselves.

You can read more here.

Muslim Baby’s Uncle: What Did Ali Do?

I assume that by now, everyone knows about the arson in Duma, that killed an Arab baby and seriously injured four of his family members.

Before I go any further, I want to be very clear: I do not support arson, or terror, or violence, of any kind.

I also want to make sure that it is very clear that at the moment, we do not know who is responsible for the arson.

Yes, there was Hebrew writing on the house.  Ever heard of a blood libel?  Probably most of the world has forgotten what those are.  Let me remind you: Jews do not eat blood.  In fact, Jews salt their meat to ensure that no blood remains in it.  Jews are not allowed to eat people, either, and just so that no ignoramus thinks that you are allowed to eat people, after age 24 months, if a baby is weaned for 24 hours, it is no longer allowed to nurse – ever again.

A blood libel essentially went like this: Someone with animosity towards Jews killed a Christian child just before Passover.  They then planted the dead body in or around a Jewish house, synagogue, or store, and spread the word that the child was missing.  Everyone started searching for the child, who was obviously found – much to the Jews’ surprise and horror – in a Jewish house, synagogue, or store.  Then, everyone screamed, “Death to the Jews!” and starting murdering innocent men, women, and children.

That is a blood libel.

An Arab in Lod was injured, and claimed a Jew did it.  Guess who was found to be guilty?  That’s right, another Arab.

So while I truly have no idea whether or not the arson in Duma was perpetrated by a Jew or an Arab, it really doesn’t matter.  All that matters is that now people are screaming, “Death to the Jews!” – as if they weren’t screaming it loudly enough before now.

If it was a Jew, he was insane, and does not represent . . . well, anybody.  I highly doubt that this person – if he was Jewish – was affiliated with any real religious group.  Not only that, but he was trying to pretend to be affiliated.  What does that mean?

I don’t know what it means.

I do know that yesterday, I happened to see on a leftist website that baby Ali’s uncle said, “What did Ali ever do to the ‘settlers’ that they killed him?”

Well, again, I don’t know that they were “settlers” that killed him, but that is beside the point.  This Ali Dawabsha’s uncle has asked an excellent question.

I don’t know the answer, but I have a few questions to ask him:

What did Daniel Tragerman ever do to the Muslims who killed him?

What did Malachi Rosenfeld ever do to the terrorists who killed him?

What did Daniel Gonen ever do to the murderers who killed him?  In fact, Daniel Ganon stopped to help Arabs – and in return, he was murdered.

What did 3-month old baby Chaya Zissel Braun ever do to the Arab terrorist who killed her?

What did ten-month-old Shalhevet Pass ever do?

What did Baruch Mizrachi ever do?  Why did his children deserve to be left as orphans?

What did the Fogel family ever do, that both parents and three of their six children were murdered in cold blood, in their home, on a Friday night?

What did Adele Bitton ever do, and why did Rivlin feel it more important to condemn those who set fire to the Dawabsha family’s home, than to those who threw rocks at the Bitton family?

And, unfortunately, I can go on and on.  The list is thousands of names long.

You know, I really don’t care that a future terrorist was killed.  It doesn’t bother me.  Better that he should die, than that he should commit suicide or homicide, taking a bunch of Jews with him.

What does bother me is the idea that a Jew did it.  Murder may be normal for Arabs, but it is not normal for Jews.  Muslims may feel a need to convert or kill all non-Muslims, but we Jews kill someone only if they rise up to kill us first.

Whether or not this baby, Ali Dawabsha, would have grown up to be a terrorist, he isn’t one right now.  Therefore, as of right now, we have no right to kill him; in fact, we are forbidden to kill him.  And even more than that, it is beneath us to kill him.  It is simply inappropriate, not befitting, for a Jew to stoop so low as to kill an as-yet innocent person.  It befits Muslim murderers.  It does not befit Jews.

We are above that, we are better than that; Jewish law forbids us to murder, just as it forbids us to be like the other nations that have inhabited this land throughout the millenia.  It is only in our morals that we are different from the Arab scum who surround us.

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Oh, and one more question: Why is the world suddenly so concerned about “taking responsibility,” and “arson is terror,” when it is ONE Muslim who is killed, but when, every single week, there are Jews killed in injured, it does not matter?

Why is Ali Dawabsha’s life more important than the lives of all of the killed and maimed Jews?

I leave that question for the world to answer.

My Newest Obsession: Antarctica

This post was written on April 24, 2015.  I didn’t publish it then, because it needed a few tweaks.  Later, I didn’t publish it because life got hectic, and Antarctica was the furthest thing from my mind – besides for the fact that I was glad, at that point, that we live in a regular, civilized country.

Probably, you have already read about my Antarctica joke.  It goes like this:

Oh, no, X/Y/Z happened.  This world is such an awful, scary place.  I don’t know why I want to live in it, and I seriously don’t know why I am bringing another kid/ want to bring more kids into it.  Ugh.  It’s not safe in Israel, but at least here it’s more safe than other places, and we have a government and an army that doesn’t stick their heads into the sand.  If I thought there was a safer place, I’d go, but I don’t think any country is safe now . . . there’s really nowhere you can live safely . . .

Hey, wait! We can move to Antarctica!

Except that Yitzchak always pops the bubble:

Antarctica will suffer the after-effects of nukes in other places, just like every other country will, he says.

In twenty years, Antarctica will be the center of a major war, as every country tries to stake its claim, when the weather warms up and the land becomes habitable (there’s a treaty until 2048, maybe it will be extended?).

We would have sun six months out of the year, and we would have to accept Shabbat at one in the afternoon sometimes.  On the other hand, Shabbat would end at one in the afternoon – nice, but it makes the day pretty rushed, with barely enough time to daven and do kiddush.

Hmmm, there’s no mikva, and the snow doesn’t sound too nice.

At one point, he tried to scare me by telling me that it wasn’t exactly a safe place for women, because half the researchers are single guys who haven’t seen a woman in years.  Turns out, there are families there, too.

Our heating bill will be outrageous . . .

And so on . . .

But as we come closer to understanding that Iran will be allowed to get nukes, as far as Obama is concerned, and Putin has no issues giving Iran the tools to help them defend their nuclear reactor – and North Korea continues to help them develop nuclear weapons;

and as I hear more and more often about kidnappings, shootings, and who knows what;

and as we start and stop, start and stop, the task of getting rid of Hamas;

I’ve started to think that it’s better just to pick up and move.

To Antarctica.

Yes, seriously.

Now all I have to do is convince Yitzchak.

What Would YOU Do?

This video allows you to take the pilot’s seat and decide whether to continue the mission that the IDF sent you on, or to abort it.  I ask each of you to watch the video and try to decide what you would do, if you had been the pilot in that particular mission.

Israel has the most humane army in the world.  We go beyond the letter of the law, putting ourselves at risk, so as not to hurt Muslim women and children, and any other innocent civilians, who are being used as human shields to protect the very terrorists who aim to kill us – and who have killed hundreds of innocent men, women, children, and babies.

What would YOU do?  Would you be as humane as Israel?  Or would you do the logical thing, and kill the terrorists while you had the chance, regardless of who they were hiding behind?

Hamas: Hated by Gazans and Israelis Alike?

Let’s forget for a moment that Hamas’ major goal is not independence and a good life for themselves and their brothers, but the destruction of Israel and the murder of all Jews.  We’re not getting into that at the moment, true as it may be. Today I want to look at Hamas from a different perspective – that of Gazan citizens.  Or, in other words, the very people that Hamas is supposed to be working to protect and help, to defend and build for.  What do Gazan citizens think of Hamas?  What do they think of Israel?  If they had to choose between Israel and Hamas, who would they choose? I think the answer is obvious, but evidently, it’s only obvious if you know the facts, something which most people today seem not to know, or perhaps are simply unable to see.  Let’s take a look: Mudar Zahran writes,

“While the world’s media has been blaming Israel for the death of Gazan civilians during Operation Protective Edge, this correspondent decided to speak with Gazans themselves to hear what they had to say. They spoke of Hamas atrocities and war crimes implicating Hamas in the civilian deaths of its own people. Although Gazans, fearful of Hamas’s revenge against them, were afraid to speak to the media, friends in the West Bank offered introductions to relatives in Gaza. One, a renowned Gazan academic, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that as soon as someone talked to a Western journalist, he was immediately questioned by Hamas and accused of “communicating with the Mossad”. “Hamas makes sure that the average Gazan will not talk to Western journalists — or actually any journalists at all,” he said . . .”

And according to the Algemeiner, most Gazans want a permanent ceasefire:

A recently released poll published by the Washington Institute of Near East Policy corroborates Perlov’s view that Hamas has been losing support within Gaza. The study, which notably was conducted prior to Israel’s July 18 incursion by a respected Palestinians pollster, demonstrates that the majority of Gazans are unhappy with Hamas governance – for myriad reasons.

‘The Way,’ also spoke to Mudar Zahran:

“Not a single Gazan that I spoke to supported Hamas,” said Zahran, who came to the “West Bank” to cover the conflict in and around the Gaza Strip.

“Come on, do you guys think we are animals? That we would love seeing Hamas terrorists hiding among our crowds just to have Israeli F–16’s bomb us so we can get the sympathy?” he asked in an interview with JerusalemOnline. “Please understand, yes, Gaza elected Hamas, but people make mistakes. Didn’t the Germans elect Hitler? Were the Germans still in favor of Hitler when Russia and the Allies were marching into Berlin and bombing the hell out of it?”

Of course, that doesn’t mean most of the population in Gaza is ready to ally with Israel or even return to Israeli rule.

“We have to be clear; Palestinians hate Israel,” Zahran reminded his Israeli readers. “This might change in thirty years or so, but they hate Israel. So Gazans hate Israel, but for sure and I can authoritatively say this, they hate Hamas even more now.”

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So, where does that leave everyone else?  Is it aiding civilians when we give Gaza food and building materials, or is it aiding Hamas and hurting the innocent?

When a Muslim Asks For a Ride

Quite a few weeks ago, we spent Shabbat in Kfar Chabad.  Traveling back after Shabbat, we had two options:

1. Take the train all the way home, which meant a second train switch.

2. Get off where we normally would, in Be’er Sheva, and take a bus.

Although our hosts thought the train was a better idea, we didn’t have a carseat for Shlomo with us, and so we preferred to take a bus, instead of having to take a taxi from the train station.  I checked the times and found out that from when we were supposed to get off, until the last bus home left, was fifteen minutes – which should be exactly enough, giving us 2 minutes to spare if we moved fast.

As it turns out, I made a mistake.  The time we were supposed to get off the train, that gave us 15 minutes, was the time we were supposed to get off the train at a previous stop, to catch the connecting train.  The train got to Be’er Sheva five minutes before the bus was supposed to leave.  We ran and ran – and missed the bus, the last bus, by two minutes.

Then we had two options: Wait until the wee hours of the morning, or take a cab.  Yitzchak insisted that there were night lines.  He’s said this a lot, and I know that at one point such bus lines existed, but in practice, we have never seen any sign of them.

There were two other people who needed to get home to our city there, also.  We thought about finding a big shared taxi (together, if we paid for both kids, we would be 6 people, and even if we paid the extra for the others who weren’t there, it would still be cheaper than a regular taxi).  But none of the taxi companies were answering their phones.

A shared taxi, or ‘monit sheirut’.

Then a religious driver offered to take us for 60 shekels off the usual price, in his words, “I’m practically losing money, but I figured, you’re religious, and I want to help you out.”  We were going to split the cab with the other people going, but when the driver saw how many we were, he refused to take all six of us.  I told G-d we were going to do this once, He should protect us from our stupidity and get us home safely, and next time we go anywhere where we might need a cab, we are going to bring a carseat for Shlomo.

During the drive, the taxi driver (religious with a knit kippa) started talking to us.  I asked him why there was such a huge price difference between a taxi during the day and a taxi at night, and he told me.  Then he said that when he sees an Arab, he doesn’t take him.  I asked how he would know just from looking that it was an Arab – some of them are almost indistinguishable from Jews, if you just look at them.  He said, first of all, he locks all the doors and closes the windows.  Then, he pulls over and opens one window a crack.  He asks where the guy is going and talks to him a bit, and if the man is an Arab, or even if he’s simply not 100% comfortable, he finds some excuse and drives away.  “It’s not worth it, even if he would offer me 400 shekels, it’s not worth the money, and I’m not going to take a risk by picking him up.”

He’s the first taxi driver I ever heard of who does this, and I think, honestly, that he’s a smart guy.  Maybe a little racist, maybe the refusal in itself carries risks, but it is still the safer route to take.  What is absolutely true is that picking up an Arab – whether you are a taxi driver or just a nice guy willing to give him a tremp (let him hitchhike) – can be very, very dangerous.  Often, it leads to carjackings, and more often, to murders, though these have become less common recently because of the awareness.

And like we saw last summer, taking a ride with an Arab, or even someone you don’t know (because they can dress as Jews and some speak beautiful Hebrew) can be very risky.  Three teenage boys took a ride with someone whom they believed to be a religious Jew, and who turned out to be a Hamas terrorist.  They were kidnapped and killed . . . remember?

Yesterday, a 60-year-old man in Tel Aviv agreed to give two young Arabs a tremp.  In return, he was stabbed, bound, put in the trunk of his car, and driven by those same Arabs towards their home in the PA.  By some miracle, the police decided the car was suspicious, and heard his cries for help in time.

Think about it: The guy lives in Tel Aviv.  Why under the sun didn’t the terrorist find someone closer to home?  Why does he need to go all the way from Tel Aviv?  Is there no one murder-able closer to his home?  Of course there are (unfortunately).  But here he had a chance to kill two birds with one stone: He gets home free of charge, and takes a Jew, dead or still living (and therefore torturable, and a good bargaining chip, as well) back with him.  Eventually, of course, he will kill the Jewish captive and get his 72 virgins (when he dies) – as well as a nice, fat, salary while he lives.

And if any of you had any doubts whether these Muslim extremists kill Jews because they are oppressed and want a decent life, or whether they kill Jews because they are taught to kill Jews, no matter how good their life is – watch this: