Reading the news today garnered one interesting story about what’s going on in Israel. More specifically with the deal Israel is trying to complete with Hizbullah for the return of Goldwasser and Regev for Kuntar and others.

There is an apparent push by the IDF Chief Rabbi to declare the soldiers missing in action and dead. Why this comes up right now seems to be a mystery as there has been plenty of time to do so beforehand. My guess? Israel didn’t want to prejudice the negotiations with Hizbullah and set the bar too low in terms of what Nasrallah would ask as his price for their return. At least if they gave Nasrallah hope, Israel might have hope to regain their stolen sons. Read more »

I’ll assume you’ve all been reading the papers:

“Israel offers full peace talks with Lebanon” (rejected) With Syria. A cease-fire with Hamas (we’ll see how long it lasts). Talks with Abbas to return the ‘West Bank’ to ‘Palestinian’ rule, whenever that was (hint: never). With all these overtures to loose itself of territory obtained through defensive wars, you’d think Olmert thought the country was on fire and he was just trying to put it out.

The media pushed this down everyones throat as the ONLY solution to piece…I mean peace. This article, by Yair Lapid, is particularly annoying, representative of the defeatist sentiment that seems to pervade the “peace-seeking” reporters in Israel. ‘Israel wants everything but doesn’t want to give up anything.’ ‘Our enemies are right, we are wrong.’ He basically accuses anyone who disagrees with him of “magical thinking”, and the only way to remedy this is to basically give up. THEN there will be peace. Read more »

Ah, sweet surrender. No, not to love or to the beautiful weather we’ve been having. This is what Hamas must be thinking today now that the Defense Minister Ehud Barak seems to have caved on pretty much everything Hamas demanded. Israel basically asked them to “pretty please” not smuggle in arms, and agreed to hand back most of the 450 prisoners Hamas has been demanding, many with blood on their hands. Israel will also have to stop monitoring the Rafah crossing. Egypt will. I’m sure they’ll do as good a job at that as they have preventing smuggling.

Quiet is supposed to come first and if the truce holds, I can’t imagine Gilad Shalit won’t come back for those 450 scumbags. To be fair, since we are all not a fly on the wall to all the security discussions, perhaps after almost 2 years of deliberation, this is the ONLY way to get Shalit back safely.

Yes, I’m sure that those 450 prisoners will return to their bombing ways. But, the ‘truce’ will be short lived. Someone in Gaza won’t be able to stop themselves from firing a Qassam or a GRAD rocket that will hurt or kill an Israeli or a foreign worker. I can’t image at least some of the murderers won’t meet their end in a ‘work accident’ or in a fireball sent to them courtesy of the IDF. They wont be returning to Gaza to become Rhodes scholars, that’s for sure. Read more »

Unless you’ve been under a rock for the last few weeks, you’ve heard the drum-beat growing louder. A deal is in the works: Goldwasser and Regev, two IDF soldiers who’s kidnapping across the Lebenese border by Hizbullah sparked the 2006 war between Lebanon and Israel may be on their way back to Israel in a deal with Hizbullah brokered by Germany.

There is no way anyone anywhere doesn’t want to see these soldiers returned back home. The only thing that’s going to leave a sour taste in everyones mouth is what its going to cost to get them back. In addition to a bunch of no-name Hizbullah grunts and possibly a few bodies, Israel is more than likely going to have to give up Samir Kuntar. Who is Kuntar, do you ask? Read more »

I’m sure everyone read about the crazy Qassam and mortar salvo fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip the other day. The initial reason for this salvo given was it was ‘retaliation’ for an explosion in Beit Lahiya yesterday that killed about 7 people and wounded about 40. Of course the first reaction to all this was that it was due to Israeli tank fire….I mean in Gaza what isn’t these days?

“The Beit Lahiya massacre was caused by an Israeli strike that targeted a Qassam leader,” Hamas said in a statement, referring to its armed wing.

An IDF spokeswoman denied any Israeli involvement.

“It was not related to the IDF. There were no IDF operations. It was an internal explosion,” an IDF spokeswoman said in Tel Aviv.

You read these quotes every time there’s a ‘work accident’, and they get picked up immediately by all the news services. If it rained in Gaza, it’d be blamed on Israeli tank shells destroying ‘Palestinian’ clouds. Read more »

I dont know if you have been reading the papers lately, but it seems like there is a fire sale going on in Israel in terms of its territory. I can’t say I 100% understand the need to negotiate with your enemies, especially when they approach the negotiations as more of list of demands.

Syria: We wont speak with you unless you hand over or commit to hand over he entire Golan first. THEN we can discuss peace.

Lebanon: Forgetting of course the fake government up there that represents mostly Hizbullah, the refrain is the same. Vacate the territory first (Shebaa Farms)and THEN we can discuss peace.

Gaza: Well, no surrender demands here, though Hamas is trying to make sure that Israel wont stop if from smuggling in more weapons. In fact Israel is actually acceding in part to their demands for a ceasefire.

Read more »

I didn’t have time to think up anything illustrious to post today regarding the Jewish world. Between my morning routine, running out to PlainJew for a friend’s baby naming party and try to finish making the cheesecake before the holiday, I think I get a mulligan. Read more »

In keeping with the spirit that weekends should be fairly relaxing and we shouldn’t have to stress out when there is fun to be had, I figure I’d find something nice and light to post.

We all know how the dollar has been tanking relative to, well…pretty much everything. The Euro, the pound sterling, a baloney sandwich. You name it. And these days, even against the formerly lowly shekel.

Here’s a related sketch from Eretz Nehederet, the Israeli equivalent of SNL. It’s pretty funny. And dont worry all of you with an American Yeshiva education. It’s in English. Read more »

Starting Out: I would like to firstly thank my friend Michael for not only hosting this blog but helping me to get it started by uploading the software and getting the basic configuration down. I will obviously need to do a little more reading and searching around on the internet to find out the information I need to blog on my own, but I do appreciate the initial help. Thanks man!

Purpose: Unlike some earlier blog attempts, I really hope to keep this one on the straight and narrow. I won’t bore everyone by telling them this will be the BLOG to end all BLOGS. I don’t plan on posting on the most mundane things. I will mainly be posting on things that concern Judaism and Israel and, on occasion, some pictures and something that’s laugh out loud funny. Basically, I intend for this to be informative to those who care about what going on in Israel, what’s going on in Judaism in general, maybe a story or two of things I have seen or that have gone on in my life that somehow relate. I certainly welcome your comments, be it on what I have posted or what I can do to make this a better and more informative site. I’m pretty sure no one is reading this right now (except for me and maybe Michael), but I hope to get the word out soon.

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