It’s one thing that Michael Lerner has stolen the title of “Rabbi” (which he is not). Now the pseudo-leader of the “Jewish” far-left is “protesting” on behalf of the Flotilla terrorists who were beating Israeli soldiers! The Jerusalem Post quotes Lerner as having said:

The overwhelming majority of American Jews are saddened at the killings and wounding that took place on the high seas on May 31st, and want to make clear that this kind of behavior is not a morally acceptable or politically effective way for Israel to achieve security.

Is it morally acceptable for Arab terrorists to beat Israeli soldiers over the heads with metal rods? Is it morally acceptable for a man to pose as a rabbi and defend these animals? Furthermore, Lerner has for years been promoting himself at the expense of Israel, when those of us living here are forced to deal with the reality of Arab terrorism-while he sits back, sips lemonade and pretends to be a rabbi!

special thanks to Steven Plaut for this little ditty!

Based on the hit song “Thriller” by Michael Jackson (or – for those of you who read Tikkun magazine – Reb Michael) – original lyrics can be found here: http://www.elyrics.net/read/m/michael-jackson-lyrics/thriller-lyrics.html )

Flotilla-Flotiller lyrics

It’s close to midnight and something evil’s lurking in the dark
Under the moonlight, you see a sight that almost stops your heart
They scream and shoot, terrorists fire before you make it
You fire back at the creeps right between the eyes
So what if You’re stigmatized

‘Cause this flotilla, flotiller night
And no one’s gonna save you from the jihadists about to strike
You know flotiller, thriller night
You’re fighting for your life against a killer, flotiller tonight

‘Cause this is flotiller, thriller night
There ain’t no second chance against the thing with forty eyes, girl
flotiller, thriller night
You’re fighting for your life against the killer, flotiller tonight

They’re out to get you, there’s demons closing in on every side
They will possess you unless you fire back
Now is the time for you and I to cuddle close together, yeah
All through the night I’ll save you from the terror on the screen
I’ll make you see

That this is flotiller, thriller night
flotiller, thriller night

Imp Facts to disseminate about the Gaza Flotilla Violence
All of us on Z STREET:

It is our job to share the key messages regarding the Gaza Flotilla violence with everyone we know. Send on this info, pick a few facts and write letters to newspapers (there will be many negative articles in the days to come – correct what is incorrect, provide what is correct!)(go to the Z ST website, click on Important Contacts in left column, and click on media to get email addresses), tell friends and not-friends, keep it going. Be relentless – it’s our only hope.

Included below are the facts regarding the violence that occurred; the background leading up to it, including the expressed hope of the flotilla organizers that violence would be beneficial to their public relations and the use of children as part of their PR campaign; ithe reasons for the blockade and the provision of humanitarian goods by Israel to the Gazans despite their leaders’ continued terrorism against Israel; and the legal support for Israel’s actions. We have the essential supporting evidence, including videos, below.

Comments? Questions? Please go to WWW.ZSTREET.ORG and leave your comments so that we all can benefit from everyone’s suggestions and remarks.
#######
* Sunday night the IDF forces boarded an Islamist-controlled flotilla which was bound for Gaza in contravention of the blockade imposed because of the years-long practice of smuggling support for the Gazan terrorist activities directed at Israel.
* Israel left Gaza in hopes of peace in 2005 and in return received more than 10,000 rockets and terrorist attacks.
* The State of Israel approached the organizers of the flotilla – prior to their departure and late, while at sea – and invited them to dock at the Port of Ashdod for the sake of transferring their cargo to Gaza, subject to security inspection. The organizers refused.
* “We fully intend to go to Gaza regardless of any intimidation or threats of violence against us, they are going to have to forcefully stop us,” said one of the flotilla’s organizers.
* Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said this week: “If the ships reach Gaza it is a victory; if they are intercepted, it will be a victory too.”

 * The extremists brought small children on board knowing that they intended to violate international maritime law.
* Passengers on one of the six boats initiated violent clashes.
* While boarding on of the vessels, IDF soldiers were physically attacked with live ammunition and other weapons, including knives and clubs, which had been prepared in advance. A weapon belonging to one of soldiers was snatched and, apparently, a barbarian fired on IDF forces.
* During the course of the incident, when their lives were put in danger, IDF soldiers were compelled to employ means to disperse demonstrations, including live weapons.
* The IDF action was authorized by the Security Cabinet, the Prime Minister and the Minister of Defense.
* There were nine casualties amongst the flotilla barbarians, and others injured. Seven Israeli naval officers were also wounded. All of the injured were evacuated to hospitals.
* Responsibility for the violence lies with the organizers and participants of the flotilla who initiated the violence.
* The entire flotilla was designed as a media stunt and political provocation by elements that are hostile to Israel, primarily the IHH – a violent, extremist group which supports terrorist organizations under the guise of humanitarian activity.
* There is no famine or humanitarian crisis in Gaza. http://picasaweb.google.com/mererhetoricblog/GazaTravelGuideShopping?fgl=true&pli=1# The area is under the control of Hamas, a terrorist organization that continues to arm itself with weapons and rockets for the purpose of attacking Israelis – as it has done in the past. Hamas continues to hold captive Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier, in contravention of international law. Accordingly, Israel has the right to inspect all cargo entering Gaza.


* Israel has and continues to express its desire for peace and continues to extend its hand to all those who are willing to participate in moving forwards to true peace.



VIDEOS 

1. IDF Spokesperson video:
The Israel Navy warns flotilla that the Gaza region is closed to maritime traffic, and invites the ships to enter Ashdod port to transfer humanitarian aid.

http://www.zstreet.org/emm/lt.php?c=17&m=17&nl=2&s=6305222cd683d56f17b971e92eb841d3&lid=52&l=-http–www.youtube.com/watch–Q-v–E-P6jDIQr59Sk
 

2. IDF Spokesperson 2nd video taken from helicopter

http://www.zstreet.org/emm/lt.php?c=17&m=17&nl=2&s=6305222cd683d56f17b971e92eb841d3&lid=53&l=-http–www.youtube.com/watch–Q-v–E-bU12KW-XyZE

and one by the IDF Navy


http://www.zstreet.org/emm/lt.php?c=17&m=17&nl=2&s=6305222cd683d56f17b971e92eb841d3&lid=54&l=-http–www.youtube.com/watch–Q-v–E-yphfyN0dqi8–A-NR–E-1

And one of the barbarians attacking the IDF soldiers with metal pipes and fists and throwing one of the soldiers off the ship.
http://www.youtube.com/idfnadesk & http://tinyurl.com/39vxnj3. (COMM. BY GPO)

4. Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs clips
http://www.zstreet.org/emm/lt.php?c=17&m=17&nl=2&s=6305222cd683d56f17b971e92eb841d3&lid=56&l=-http–www.youtube.com/watch–Q-v–E-5wlWcNXzstI
CLOSE-UP FOOTAGE OF MAVI MARMARA PASSENGERS ATTACKING IDF SOLDIERS http://www.youtube.com/idfnadesk & http://tinyurl.com/39vxnj3. (COMM. BY GPO)


5. Media coverage:

http://www.justjournalism.com/media-analysis/view/peace-activists-or-violent-attackers-how-the-media-narrative-on-flotilla-incident-is-shaping-up



Regarding claims of Israel violating Laws of the sea 


http://blog.camera.org/archives/2010/05/ny_times_flotilla_coverage_mis.html%20


The Gaza Flotilla and the Maritime Blockade of Gaza

Legal Background –
31 May 2010
1. A maritime blockade is in effect off the coast of Gaza. Such blockade has been imposed, as Israel is currently in a state of armed conflict with the Hamas regime that controls Gaza, which has repeatedly bombed civilian targets in Israel with weapons that have been smuggled into Gaza via the sea.
2. Maritime blockades are a legitimate and recognized measure under international law that may be implemented as part of an armed conflict at sea.
3. A blockade may be imposed at sea, including in international waters, so long as it does not bar access to the ports and coasts of neutral States.
4. The naval manuals of several western countries, including the US and England recognize the maritime blockade as an effective naval measure and set forth the various criteria that make a blockade valid, including the requirement of give due notice of the existence of the blockade.


5. In this vein, it should be noted that Israel publicized the existence of the blockade and the precise coordinates of such by means of the accepted international professional maritime channels. Israel also provided appropriate notification to the affected governments and to the organizers of the Gaza protest flotilla. Moreover, in real time, the ships participating in the protest flotilla were warned repeatedly that a maritime blockade is in effect.
Here, it should be noted that under customary law, knowledge of the blockade may be presumed once a blockade has been declared and appropriate notification has been granted, as above.
Under international maritime law, when a maritime blockade is in effect, no boats can enter the blockaded area. That includes both civilian and enemy vessels.
8. A State may take action to enforce a blockade. Any vessel that violates or attempts to violate a maritime blockade may be captured or even attacked under international law. The US Commander’s Handbook on the Law of Naval Operations sets forth that a vessel is considered to be in attempt to breach a blockade from the time the vessel leaves its port with the intention of evading the blockade.
9. Here we should note that the protesters indicated their clear intention to violate the blockade by means of written and oral statements. Moreover, the route of these vessels indicated their clear intention to violate the blockade in violation of international law.


10. Given the protesters explicit intention to violate the naval blockade, Israel exercised its right under international law to enforce the blockade. It should be noted that prior to undertaking enforcement measures, explicit warnings were relayed directly to the captains of the vessels, expressing Israel’s intent to exercise its right to enforce the blockade.


11. Israel had attempted to take control of the vessels participating in the flotilla by peaceful means and in an orderly fashion in order to enforce the blockade. Given the large number of vessels participating in the flotilla, an operational decision was made to undertake measures to enforce the blockade a certain distance from the area of the blockade.


12. Israeli personnel attempting to enforce the blockade were met with violence by the protesters and acted in self defense to fend off such attacks.




With thanks to our wonderful friends at
MediaCentral

Aryeh Green, Director
MediaCentral

aryeh@m-central.org

02-623-2344
054-648-234
4
8 HaRav Kook St., Jerusalem

www.m-central.org
–
Lori Lowenthal Marcus
president, Z STREET
WWW.ZSTREET.ORG
P.O. Box 182
Merion Station, PA 19072

Thursday May 27, 2010
Candidly Speaking: Bogus ‘pro peace’ organizations undermine Israel
Posted by Isi Leibler

Of late, the western media has provided inordinate prominence to Jewish fringe organizations like J Street and its European clone, JCall, which define themselves as “liberal” and “pro-peace”, but concentrate on castigating the Israeli government and undermining mainstream Diaspora pro-Israel Jewish organizations.

These bodies are primarily controlled by anti-Israeli activists, but also include many well-meaning but confused liberal fellow travelers. They also attract uninformed Jews and members of the anti-Zionist chic influenced by constant negative media depictions of Israel.

Their core message is that the Jewish establishment is alienating the bulk of the Jewish street, by blindly supporting the policies of an extremist right wing Israeli government and indulging in “McCarthyite” tactics to excommunicate anyone who dares to criticize Israeli policies.

These unrepresentative bodies receive widespread favorable exposure by a media which relishes quoting Jews beating up on Israel. Whenever Jewish writers or academics condemn Israel or castigate their own community, they are portrayed as heroic voices of conscience resisting a harsh and bigoted Jewish leadership. One only has to compare the enormous media coverage provided to the European J Call petition criticizing Israel with a counter petition by Italian MP Fiamma Nirenstein which contained many more signatories and was effectively ignored.

This was also exemplified in the US by the extraordinary media coverage extended to former New Republic editor Peter Beinart who wrote a lengthy essay titled “The Failure of the American Jewish Establishment” in the New York Review of Books, a periodical renowned for its longstanding hostility to successive Israeli governments. Beinart selectively chose extremist remarks from Israeli hawks, falsely alleged that Prime Minister Netanyahu repudiated the Oslo Accords, quoted the “renowned” Hebrew University professor Ze’ev Sternhell – a bitter post-Zionist – alleging that Israel has “fascist characteristics” and accusing the Israeli government and Jewish leadership of alienating the younger generation of liberal Jews.

There is an uncanny parallel between these “pro-peace” groups and the bogus peace councils sponsored by the Soviet Union during the Cold War, which also claimed to be the true custodians of peace and succeeded in duping many “fellow travelers” into becoming accessories in promoting the global objectives of the Evil Empire.

Today these pseudo “pro-peace” bodies seek to undermine the only liberal democratic state in the region and divert attention from the reprehensible behavior and denial of human rights practiced by Israel’s enemies.

In the battle of the war of ideas in which electronic media images of the suffering of the underdog blur moral considerations of right and wrong and disregard the source of conflicts, these groups distort the case for Israel and undermine the Zionist narrative.

They call on the global community to pressure the government of Israel to make further unilateral concessions. They insist that the core of the problem rests with the settlements, an issue which does divide Israelis. However, the suggestion that peace and goodwill would be achieved if Israel unilaterally withdrew from territories across the green line is absolute nonsense and detracts from the real obstacle to peace which is the absence of a genuine Palestinian peace partner and the ongoing Arab obsession with bringing an end to Jewish sovereignty.

The “pro peace” groups ignore the fact that Netanyahu has steered the government to a genuine centrist position and achieved a broad consensus that aside from the major settlement blocs, Israelis would compromise on territories in return for genuine peace and security. That sentiment prevails despite the awareness that until now territorial concessions have only yielded further terror and aggression.

The repeated wails by the “pro peace” groups that they encounter McCarthyism and are denied the opportunity to express themselves are specious and particularly hypocritical coming from those who unhesitatingly slander and seek to intimidate their critics. There has always been vigorous dissent amongst Jews on all political issues. But it was during the formative years of the state when the social-democratic Mapai ruled the roost, that a consensus prevailed that Diaspora Jews, who do not face the life and death consequences arising from decisions relating to Israel’s defense, were morally obliged to allow the people of Israel through their democratically elected government to determine such issues.

Today, that concept is regarded with contempt by the “pro peace” elements, who claim to have a better appreciation of what is in the best interests of Israel than Israelis themselves. Indeed, these self appointed formulators of Israel policy articulate views that are sometimes more extreme than those of Meretz, the most far Left political party in the Knesset, holding only 3 out of 120 Knesset seats.

Of late, it is increasingly alleged that the new generation of younger Jews is turning against Israel. This is highly misleading. Obviously the passion for Israel amongst Jews of this generation is less intense than those who witnessed the Shoa and the struggle to create a Jewish State. However, it was always only 25 to 30% who comprised the activist element within Jewish communities and were at the forefront of Zionist and pro-Israel activity. Assimilated or less involved Jews were understandably less involved and somewhat apathetic, only becoming galvanized during periods of acute crisis such as the Six-Day War.

With some modifications, this remains true today. Jewish youngsters actively involved in Jewish life remain overwhelmingly supportive of Israel. Those ignorant or indifferent to Judaism are more susceptible to the impact of hostile influences surrounding them, especially on the university campuses, and many recoil from involvement with Israel.

However, the dramatic response by the activist American Jewish community to the negative attitude displayed against Israel by the Obama administration was astonishing. Despite the fact that 78% of them supported him, at a grassroots level many committed Democratic Jewish supporters have displayed anger and frustration against the administration for having reneged on Obama’s electoral undertakings concerning Israel.

However, one should not underestimate the potential for damage that small numbers of determined Jewish anti-Israel activists can inflict. The message that they seek to impart is that Israel is controlled by extremist right-wing bigots and that it is incompatible for liberals to support such a regime. They compound this by directly or implicitly giving credence to canards accusing supporters of Israel of dual loyalties as well as allegations that Israel is endangering American lives. In fact, there are already disturbing signals that today the traditional bipartisan support towards Israel is eroding and that Democrats are far less committed to Israel than the Republicans.

Needless to say, this requires urgent attention. Both the government and the Jewish Agency should map out a strategy which takes account of the enormous damage these groups can inflict if they are not marginalized. One of the most effective means would be for the government to sponsor a global solidarity meeting with Jewish leaders, intellectuals and key activists to demonstrate that the vast majority of committed Jews remain fully dedicated to supporting the Jewish State. Israel must be able to rely on the ongoing support of world Jewry.

Friends:

This is an issue of great concern, and one about which we cannot stick our heads in the sand for fear of offending anyone or appearing to be racist or any other “-ist” or “-phobe.”

Please pass on this email and tell everyone you know what is happening. The disingenuous claims by the Imam and his supporters that this is an effort to promote interfaith harmony is itself an insult. If interfaith harmony was sought, Muslims would never choose to put a mosque near the site where Jihadis, in the name of Islam, murdered thousands of innocents and shattered our sense of security forever.

There are those of us who are taking on this issue as a major cause. Even if we are not successful, at least we are willing to stand up for Western civilization. Are you?

What can you do? There will be a rally at Ground Zero at noon on June 6th, but that is just the beginning. This rally is being spearheaded by Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer of SOIA, and Z STREET is a major supporter of this cause.. At the moment we have joined the legal team, but there is MUCH to do. In particular, we need the word to be spread and an outcry to be raised. Will you join us? For more information go to Our website will also provide continuing information on what is happening and how you can help. Folks, the plans for this one hundred fifty million dollar, 13 story mosque are proceeding quickly. CASH was paid for the property. More than a million dollars in CASH! Shouldn’t that raise eyebrows?

Please let us know your thoughts and whether you will join this effort. This is an outrage, an insult, a clear provocation and is devastating to all who lost family, friends and faith in the security of our nation.

Jewish World Review May 14, 2010 / 1 Sivan

Do we deserve a mosque at Ground Zero?

By Diana West

The second attack on the World Trade Center is coming. It will stand 13 stories high, cost $100 million dollars and include a mosque. Known as Cordoba House — the name echoing an early caliphate that, of course, subjugated non-Muslims — it will be located two blocks away from where our magnificent towers crashed and burned, easy wafting distance for the Islamic call to prayer.

How demoralizing is that? Let’s step back for some historical perspective. With the U.S. military preparing its assault on the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar, there’s a not-too-wild comparison to be made between the mind-blowing reality of New York City approving a mosque at Ground Zero and the unthinkable notion of Honolulu authorities, with GIs massing for the ultimately unnecessary invasion of Japan, approving Shinto shrine construction adjacent to Pearl Harbor.

Both are equally outrageous. But there is a key difference. During World War II, the militaristic cult of Shintoism, the state religion of Imperial Japan, was always understood to be enemy ideology. In our irresponsibly long war, we have never, ever acknowledged that Islam, with its supremacist cult of jihad, is the enemy threat doctrine. And that’s not because I say so. It’s because the enemy says so, 24-7, and so do his mainstream, unimpeachable Islamic legal and religious sources.

But we plug our ears, drowning out our better judgment with counsel from apologists for Islam, flimflam men who, like carnival hawkers, are adept at misdirecting attention away from the Islamic doctrinal motivations behind what is a global jihad, waged both openly (violently) and more subtly, to advance the influence of Sharia in the world. Indeed, we become apologists and flimflam men, too. Or maybe we just don’t care. “If it’s legal, the building owners have a right to do what they want,” said a spokesman for New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. If it’s “legal”? What if it mocks the dead?

Maybe we deserve such a mosque at Ground Zero. It will serve as the perfect monument to post-9/11 America, a shining reproach to a nation that long ago capitulated through loss, or worse, absence of will. Not that it will be widely seen that way. Aside from the torment and seething of survivors, both family and professional family of the 9/11 dead, aside from blog noise and tabloid venting, the phony narrative of Cordoba House as a kind of healing outreach center — pure deception — appears ready for chiseling into stone. And that’s not because Cordoba’s flimflamming Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf obfuscates everything negative about Islam (jihad, for instance), and promotes everything antithetical to Western liberty (Sharia), often with jarring Western references. (“To Muslim ears,” he writes, “Sharia law means … the conditions necessary for what Americans call the pursuit of happiness.”) That is, it’s not only the efforts of Imam Rauf that are the problem. It’s because nearly nine years after 9/11, we are still stupid enough to buy them.

Why? Why do we take it, with Rauf, for example, at his Cordoba Initiative website, still pushing the propaganda that jihad only and merely “boils down to the need for peaceful struggle for self-betterment — the war we wage against the vices within ourselves.” Please. Surely, nine years after 9/11, we know there exists “greater” jihad, the personal struggle against Islamic vice, which means nothing to non-Muslims. But we’re also onto (or should be) the other jihad, the one that took down the towers. Sometimes known as “lesser” jihad, it’s the first definition of jihad in the authoritative Sharia book, “Reliance of the Traveler”: “Jihad means to war against non-Muslims,” it says, adding that jihad is also a “communal obligation” in one form (fighting) or another (support). Defining jihad as a clean-living effort is an insult to everyone’s intelligence.

Or is it? The land is bought — with $4.85 million in unaccounted for cash — and the project is a go. Short of colossal public outcry leading to an administrative miracle, Cordoba House will join the Manhattan skyline, a multiculti vision of togetherness.

Of course, that’s the flimflam story. But if Ground Zero, a focal point of Dar al-Harb (House of War) since 9/11, is reconstructed with a “world class” Islamic center, the transformation to Dar al-Islam (House of Islam) becomes symbolically clear.

And that’s no way to treat our 9/11 dead.

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0510/west051410.php3

Lori Lowenthal Marcus
president and co-founder, Z STREET
WWW.ZSTREET.ORG
P.O. Box 182
Merion Station, PA 19066

Double Standard Watch: ‘Tikkun Magazine’ is trying to silence me

Shavou’ot (Pentecost) Guide for the Perplexed

Yoram Ettinger (based on Ancient Jewish Sages)

May 19, 2010

1.  Shavou’ot commemorates the bestowing of the Torah upon the Jewish People, which shaped the nature of the world in general and Western democracies in particular. The bestowing of the Torah took place over 3,300 years ago, setting the Jewish People on the Road Map to the Land of Israel.  It also highlights the eternity of the Jewish People. Thus, the first and the last Hebrew letters of Shavou’ot ((שבועות constitute the name of the third son of Adam & Eve, Seth (שת), the righteous ancestor of Noah, hence of all mankind. The Hebrew meaning of Seth is מתן, which is the Hebrew word for the bestowing of the Torah (מתן תורה) at Mt. Sinai.

2.  Shavou’ot (שבועות) is a derivative of the Hebrew word Shvoua’ (שבועה) – vow in English, referring to the exchange of vows between G-D and the Jewish People.  It is celebrated on the 6^th day of the Jewish month of Sivan, 50 days following the Exodus.  Shavouot took place 26 generations following Adam. The Hebrew word for Jehovah (יהוה) equals 26 in Gimatriya. There are 26 Hebrew letters in the names of the Jewish Patriarchs and Matriarchs: Abraham (אברהם), Yitzhak (יצחק), Yaakov יעקב)) Sarah (שרה), Rivka (רבקה), Rachel (רחל) and Leah (לאה).

3. The Hebrew root of Shavou’ot (and Shvoua’) is the word Seven – Sheva (שבע). Shavou’ot (the Festival of Weeks in Hebrew) is celebrated 7 weeks following Passover, reflecting the 7X7=49 gates of impurity in Egypt, which had to be rectified, in order to be worthy of the Torah. It also represents the 7 earthly attributes employed by God to create the universe (in addition to the 3 divine attributes.  It stands for the 7 basic human traits, which individuals are supposed to resurrect/enhance in preparation for Shavou’ot. 7 key Jewish/universal leaders – Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aharon, Joseph and David – represent the qualities of the Torah.  Number 7 represents the wholesomeness of Judaism and the Land of Israel – 7 days of Creation and a 7 day week. The Sabbath is the 7^th day, the first Hebrew verse in Genesis consists of 7 words, 7 species of the Land of Israel (barley, wheat, grape, fig, pomegranate, olive and date/honey, there are 7 directions (north, south, west, east, up, down, one’s own position), 7 gates to The Temple, 7 Noah Commandments, Moses’ birth/death was on the 7^th day of Adar, Jethro had 7 names and 7 daughters, Passover and Sukkot last for 7 days each, each Plague lasted for 7 days, The Menorah has 7 branches, Jubilee follows seven 7-year cycles, 7 Continents, 7 notes in a musical scale, 7 days of mourning, 7 blessings in a Jewish wedding, 7 Jewish Prophetesses (Sarah, Miriam, Devorah, Chana, Abigail, Choulda and Esther), etc.  Pentecost is celebrated – by Christians – on the 7^th Sunday after Easter.

4.  Shavou’ot is the second of the 3 Jewish Pilgrimages (Sukkot-Tabernacles, Passover and Shavou’ot), celebrated in the 3rd Jewish month, Sivan.  It highlights Jewish Unity, compared by King Solomon to a triangular cord, which cannot be broken.  The Torah – the first of the 3 parts of the Old Testament – was granted to the Jewish People (which consists of 3 components: Priests, Levites and Israel), by Moses (the youngest of 3 children, brother of Aharon and Miriam), a successor to the 3 Patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) and to Seth, the 3^rd son of Adam & Eve.  The Torah was forged in 3 ways: Fire (commitment to principles), Water (lucidity and purity) and Desert (humility and principle-driven tenacity). The Torah is one of the 3 global pillars, along with labor and gratitude/charity. The Torah is one of the 3 pillars of Judaism, along with the Jewish People and the Land of Israel.

5.  Shavou’ot highlights the Scroll of Ruth, who lived 3 generations before King David, son of Jesse, grandson of Ovad, the son of Ruth. The Scroll of Ruth is the first of the five Biblical scrolls: Ruth (Shavou’ot), Song of Songs (Passover), Ecclesiastes (Sukkot), Book of Lamentations (Ninth of Av), Esther (Purim). Ruth – a Moabite Princess – stuck by her mother-in-law, Naomi, who lost her husband (president of the Tribe of Judah) and two sons, in spite of Naomi’s Job-like disastrous times, financially and socially.  Naomi’s suffering constituted a punishment for the desertion of the People of Israel (emigration to Moab) during a most difficult draught.  Leaders do not desert their people when the going gets rough! Ruth’s Legacy:  Respect thy mother in-law, principles (loyalty, concern, modesty and love) over convenience.  The total sum of the Hebrew letters of Ruth (רות) – in Gimatriya – yield the number of laws granted at Mt. Sinai (606), which together with the 7 laws of Noah total The 613 Laws of Moses.

The Scroll of Ruth highlights the Judean Desert as the Cradle of Jewish history – is it “occupied territory???”

6.  Shavou’ot sheds light on the unique covenant between the Jewish State and the USA – Judeo-Christian Values (Torah and Biblical values of morality and justice).  These values impacted the world view of the Pilgrims, the Founding Fathers and the US Constitution, Bill of Rights, Separation of Powers, Checks & Balances, etc. John Locke wanted the “613 Laws of Moses” to become the legal foundation of the new society established in America. Lincoln’s famous 1863 quote paraphrased the 14^th century John Wycliffe’s dedication to his English translation of the Bible: “a book of the people, by the people, for the people.”

7.  Shavou’ot is the day of birth/death of King David (as well as the day that Moses was saved by Pharaoh’s daughter), who united the Jewish People, elevating them to a most powerful position. David – along with Moses and Abraham – was a role model of humility and repentance, hence the Hebrew acronym of Adam (אדם- human being in Hebrew): Abraham (אברהם), David (דוד) and Moses (משה). In contrast with King Saul, King David assumed responsibility and accountability for his sins. He didn’t just talk the talk; he walked the walk! 150 candles are lit at King David’s tomb on Mt. Zion in Jerusalem, consistent with the 150 chapters of Psalms mostly attributed to David. Number 150 is the numerical value of Nest (קן), the warm environment of the Torah. David’s personal history (from shepherd to king) provides a lesson for individuals and nations: Every problem is an opportunity in disguise; the road to success is paved with ups & downs; human beings are fallible but they must recognize their own fallibility, as a springboard toward improvement.

8.   The Torah was granted on the small, modest Mt. Sinai – to a small People – in the desert.  The Torah was delivered by Moses, “the humblest of all human beings.”  The content of the Torah doesn’t require an impressive stage. Humility constitutes a prerequisite for studying the Torah and for constructive relationships and leadership.

9.  The Torah was granted in the desert, a platform of Humility & Liberty. Celebrated fifty day following the Exodus (physical deliverance), Shavou’ot signifies spiritual liberation. Shavou’ot – Holiday of Reaping, Holiday of First Fruit, Day of Solemn – celebrates the culmination of the agricultural, physical and spiritual harvest season of optimism, which starts on the second day of Passover.  Shavou’ot highlights the critical connection between the Jewish People and the Land of Israel.

10.  Dairy dishes consumed during Shavou’ot, commemorate divine providence. According to the Kabbalah (Jewish mystical school of thoughts), milk represents divine quality. Babies – divine creation – are breast fed by mothers.  Dairy dishes commemorate the most common food – of shepherds like King David – during the 40 years in the desert, on the way to the Land of Milk and Honey, the Land of Israel.  Unlike wine, milk is poured into simple glasses.  The total sum of milk (חלב) is 40 in Gimatriya, which is equal to the 40 days and nights spent by Moses on Mt. Sinai and the 40 years spent by the Jewish People in the Desert.  40 is also the value of the first Hebrew letter (מ) of key Exodus-Terms: Moses (משה), Miriam (מרים), Manna (מן), Egypt (מצרים), Desert (מדבר), Menorah (מנורה), Tabernacle (משכן), Mitzvah-Commandment (מצווה), etc.

40 generations passed from Moses – who delivered the “Written Torah” – to Rabbi Ashi and Rabbi Rabina, who concluded the editing of the Talmud, the “Oral Torah.” The first and the last letters in the Talmud is the Hebrew “מ”, which equals 40 in Gimatriya.

From pro-Israel to anti-Israel apologist

By: Steven Plaut
Date: Wednesday, April 14 2010
It was even before the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin by Yigal Amir that the Israeli Left, led by the
Haaretz newspaper, chanted in unison what has become one of its fundamental political axioms: political violence
is a congenital inclination of the Israeli Right and is committed exclusively by right-wingers.

Naturally, after the assassination of Rabin the assertion became a matter of unchallengeable theology.

The media obsession with the alleged violent inclination of the Israeli Right long served to obscure the
congenital inclination towards treason and espionage by a great many members of the Israeli Left. The simple
fact of the matter is that every single incident of anti-Israel espionage has involved left-wing Israelis.

The scandal that was just made public in Israel, after a local court order prohibiting its publicity was
lifted, involves Anat Kamm (spelled Kam in some news accounts), a young leftist who leaked classified military
documents to Haaretz. She stole more than 2,000 such documents and passed them on to her Haaretz handler, a
leftist journalist named Uri Blau, now in hiding in the UK. Haaretz ran some stories using information extracted
from some of the material.

As alluded to above, Kamm is far from the first Israeli leftist to be involved in treason and espionage. In
the 1950s the Israeli communist parties were rife with Soviet collaborationists. Closer to our own time, Mordecai
Vanunu, the notorious nuclear spy, was a member of the Israeli communist party. Marcus Klinberg spied in Israel
on behalf of the Soviets for years. Azmi Bishara, who spied for Hizbullah, was a leading member of Israel’s Arab
Left.

The worst espionage-cum-terror ring that operated in Israel was organized in the 1970s by kibbutz-born
communist Udi Adiv. Leftist Tali Fahima was imprisoned for helping her Palestinian boyfriend plan terror attacks.

And of course there are hundreds of Israeli academic leftists who currently promote boycotts of Israel as well as
mutiny and insurrection by Israeli soldiers.

Haaretz has never run editorials about the inclinations of leftists to engage in treason and espionage. The
Right almost universally denounced Yigal Amir. The Left is celebrating Anat Kamm as a great patriot.

After the assassination of Rabin, every Israeli newspaper and leftist commentator denounced Bar-Ilan
University, where Yigal Amir had been a law student. Many even called for shutting the university down. Not one
of those same people has called for closing down Tel Aviv University, where Kamm was a student in the history
and philosophy departments and where, together with the sociology and political science departments at TAU,
one would have to search long and hard to find faculty members who are not leftists or out and out communists.

Not a single mainstream media outlet in Israel is denouncing the radicals at Tel Aviv University for
inspiring and breeding Anat Kamm, nor are pundits calling for the university to undertake a complete “critical
self-examination” to understand its own guilt, which is what they had demanded of Bar-Ilan.

In 1940 Winston Churchill shut down all the newspapers and media operated by the British Union of
Fascists, the pro-German party led by Oswald Mosley. It was one of his first acts as prime minister. Some 740
leading members of the party, including Mosley, spent the duration of the war in prison. Like Haaretz, their
newspapers had launched a “peace campaign” (with Nazi Germany) and reflexively supported the enemies of
their country in just about everything.

Until now, Haaretz was a newspaper given to political stands many deemed treasonous but not a
newspaper actually involved in treason and espionage. It has a market share in Israel of 6 or 7 percent, and I
suspect that at least half its subscribers get the paper in spite of its anti-Israel ideology and thanks to its business
supplement The Marker, the best in Israel. (I am one such subscriber.)

But now we have discovered that Haaretz has gone beyond merely championing dangerous
appeasement. Will Prime Minister Netanyahu have the courage of Churchill and shut down the newspaper for the
duration of Israel’s war with Arab jihadists? (At least two Knesset members have called on Netanyahu to do just
that.) Will he imprison extremists supporting the country’s enemies in time of war?

What Kamm did was worse than what Jonathan Pollard was convicted of in the U.S., so Kamm and Blau
should be sentenced to a prison term at least as long as that being served by Pollard.

Haaretz for its part is bragging about its role in the espionage and trying to spin it as a great act of
patriotism. Really. After all, among the classified documents stolen by Kamm and passed on to Haaretz were a
couple that described Israeli military plans to continue targeted assassinations against Hamas terrorists despite
an Israeli Supreme Court order commanding the military and executive branch to stop those assassinations.

Now, if the Israeli military was indeed planning to ignore the Supreme Court’s ruling, it should be cheered
for doing so. Because the ruling that prohibited targeted assassinations of terrorists was itself grossly illegal and
unconstitutional. It was one of the worst outrages by Israeli Supreme Court justices dedicated to “judicial
activism,” the anti-democratic doctrine of judicial tyranny that insists that the court need not base its rulings on
actual laws or constitutional powers.

There is absolutely no legal basis for the Israeli Supreme Court to interfere in the management of Israel’s
war against terrorism. The court has no legitimate standing to dictate to the military how it should pursue its
tasks.

But that, of course, is not how Haaretz is spinning it. Haaretz strongly supports judicial activism because
judicial activists in their rulings usually impose items from the leftist agenda upon the country.

Kamm, meanwhile, has become the poster girl of Israel’s Far Left, which is increasingly open and brazen
in its treasonous political positions. For years now, all too many Israeli leftists have supported the enfoldment of
Israel into a Palestinian “bi-national” state, promoted the Palestinian “Right of Return,” organized lawbreaking and
insurrection by soldiers, vandalized Israel’s security wall, engaged in violent hooliganism against soldiers and
police, and in some cases even cheered on acts of Arab terror and served as human shields for murderers.

Actual espionage is but a mere baby step beyond all that.

Steven Plaut is a professor at Haifa University. His book “The Scout” is available at Amazon.com. He
can be contacted at steveneplaut@yahoo.com.
Copyright 2008 www.JewishPress.com

Back in 2003, the German company Humana Milchunion, was involved in a legal controversy in Israel over the death of three Israeli infants.  Humana, which sells the baby formula Remedia Super Soya 1 erred in amount of B-1 vitamin added to the product:

Humana, which said Monday it was investigating the case, added that tests had shown that the product contained between 29 and 37 micrograms of vitamin B-1 per 100 grams, less than one tenth of the advertised amount.

In the months preceding this year’s Holocaust Remembrance Day, I came to remember this eerie incident.  Each year in Israel there are some Jews, albeit few, who ask me what went wrong in Germany.  For example, in this past year I was by a rabbi in Jerusalem in which both he and his wife come from Holocaust families.  The rabbanit (the rabbi’s wife in Hebrew) asked me, in an almost point blank way, what could be the cause of such a moral collapse?  The unfortunate accident with the baby food exemplifies what can happen in a situation where something small can have grave consequences.

There are obviously many things about the Nazi regime which were notable:   Adolf Hitler was a charismatic leader who whipped his supporters into a blood-thirsty frenzy.  Josef Mengele was a talented medical doctor who performed bizarre inhumane experiments on twins, sometimes without anesthesia.  Martin Heidegger was the leading German philosopher of his time (and an unrepentant Nazi) who taught notable Jewish philosophers such as Leo Strauss and Hanna Arendt (who was his mistress as well).   Philipp Lenard was a Nobel laureate in physics (1905) but is remember chiefly as having been the Chief of Aryan physics.  How does a “dream team” on paper become a nightmare in real life?

The following is passage from Genesis (20:11) where Abraham and Sarah travel to the Philistine kingdom of Gerar, ruled by Avimelech.  Fearing that the locals might kill him to take his wife Sarah, Abraham introduces her as his sister:

And Abraham said, Because I thought, Surely the fear of God is not in this place; and they will slay me for my wife’s sake.

ספר בראשית פרק כ

יא) ויאמר אברהם כי אמרתי רק אין יראת אלהים במקום הזה והרגוני על דבר אשתי

Taking a look at the statement in Hebrew, Abraham literally says “only there isn’t fear of God in this place…”  This implies that Abraham had come to a place that was unblemished with the sole exception (רק-only) that the inhabitants had no fear of Divine retribution for committing moral transgressions.  Abraham, who had already been thrown in a furnace and previously saved his nephew Lot from Sodom, now feared for his very life.

There is an often cited phrase in Hebrew which says “the actions of the fathers are indicators for their children.”  In other words, what the patriarchs of Judaism did and endured is what the Jewish people will do and endure.  Nazi Germany excelled in every aspect of human endeavor-except compassion.  It is thus understandable that as the Nation of Israel, having been through the trials and tribulations of a two-thousand year exile, we met our greatest challenge in a place that was perfect-minus one.