An interesting synchronicity: yesterday two kassamim – Arab terrorist rockets – fired from Aza hit Ashkelon, the exquisite seaside city of 110,000 people just south of Tel Aviv. As it happened, neither of them hit anyone, but it was a signal that the rocket and missile deluge is only a hairbreadth away, anyplace in Israel. I took this picture of part of the Ashkelon beach a while ago. Gorgeous, isn’t it?

What also came to light yesterday was testimony from a gynecologist from Ashkelon, Dr. Mirela Siderer, to the infamous UN Human Rights Council – what a joke that name is. Dr. Siderer was stuck and seriously injured in May, 2008, when a rocket fired by Islamic terrorists struck the clinic where she was working.

But Dr. Siderer her tell her story herself. This is a slight abridgement of the testimony she offered in Geneva:




"Distinguished guests, permit me, distinguished panelists, please permit me to say something from the heart. I’ve come here to give you my personal story, my personal tragedy. I am not a politician. I don’t deal in politics. Just what happened to me.

I’m 53 years old. I was born in Romania. I studied medicine in Romania. That’s where I met my husband and I came to Israel to be with him. He too is a physician. I live in Ashkelon, and am known in my city by many patients, including women patients from Gaza who would come to me for treatment before the Intifada.

My life was quiet, like anywhere in the world with the usual day-to-day issues of ordinary life. I raised two children. My son is 16 and in high school, my daughter is attending Tel Aviv University where she’s studying international relations.

This whole quiet life that I had was altered in a split second in a moment when one day in May 2008 in the evening without any alert, without any prior warning a rocket landed in the clinic where I was working. I must say that at that time it was a very tense time. There were many rockets landing in the area, but for some reason I continued to work because I felt I was secure in my clinic. I knew that I’m in a hospital in a clinic and places like that where people are being treated nothing’s going to happen. It’s a protected place. And yet it happened.

Within a split second the place was utterly demolished. The clinic is situated at the upper story of one of the shopping malls in Ashkelon and I found myself under the debris. For a few seconds I lost consciousness, but then very quickly I became conscious again. I understood what was happening at that moment and I saw blood, a lot of blood coming out of my left arm, but I couldn’t do anything to stop the bleeding.

In the room with me was a patient. I was concerned to talk to her to tell her not to fall asleep, but to remain awake until someone comes to save us. The patient, too, was critically wounded. She got to the hospital with her abdomen open and her intestines exposed.

Instinctively I looked for my mobile phone and I called my husband who is also a physician and told him I had been very badly injured, and that he should come to save me. My worst injury was in the face. I felt like a ball of fire spinning inside my face. All of my teeth flew out.

The rescue team arrived and quickly transferred me to a hospital. From that moment my life changed radically. I heard that in that event there were over 100 people wounded in the shopping mall. Just people who were shoppers, nothing more.

Since then I’ve undergone six operations; five plastic operations and one in the mouth for my teeth. I have a piece of shrapnel almost 4 centimeters lodged on the left side of my back very close to the spine, but at the moment it cannot be removed. Perhaps it will never be removed so long as it doesn’t cause other complications. I have more operations to come, and I hope that I will look better. It’s very difficult for me to endure the way I look and it also impairs my breathing. I apologize.

But of course the worst is my psychological state. What was my sin? What was my crime? I’m a Jewish physician working in Ashkelon. I studied medicine to help people. I didn’t care if they were from Gaza, from anywhere in the world, from Israel, wherever. What was my crime? What did I do wrong? Why did I wind up in this situation? I just want to mention that I’m just an ordinary citizen.

I never played a role in any act of war. I never took part in any battles. I don’t even know what battles are about. I have no understanding of terrorism. I want you to understand that. I have no understanding of killing children, killing women, ordinary people, innocent people, but never the less I do have a great deal of sorrow for all of the victims, for the children and the women on the other side. They too are innocent. This has to stop. It has to stop.

I have a letter from the police, the Israeli police that says that the rocket that hit me was sent by the Islamic Jihad. This isn’t a state that’s at war with the state of Israel. It’s a terrorist organization. This has to stop. Enough of this bloodshed.

Enough of this suffering of everyone, of all innocent people on both sides. I - I apologize. This is my story. This is what I’m immersed in. Thank you very much."

When the 429 page Goldstone Report was issued, not one word of Dr. Siderer’s testimony was included, although Goldstone himself had invited her to appear and testify. Her name appeared once, in reference to a technical matter.

Nothing of Dr. Siderer's story appeared, but page after page detailed the suffering of the Arabs Goldstone finds so much more compelling.

When I was in seventh grade, I plastered a bumper sticker on the bumper of my dad’s car: “Get US out of the UN”.

That was right then, it’s right now – for both Israel and the US.

Yom Kippur beings tonight at sunset.

For 25 hours, all of Israel is basically shut down – nothing is open. The airport is closed. No one drives a car or goes anywhere. Most people put on white clothing. We don’t eat, drink, cook, take showers or even wash our hands beyond what’s absolutely necessary.

And that’s not just the “religious”, either. It’s pretty much the standard behavior for everyone in the country. Even among those who call themselves ”secular”, observing Yom Kippur is a country-wide tradition.

One thing Israelis do on Yom Kippur is to walk in the streets. Since there’s no traffic, no cars of any kind, people love the opportunity to walk in the middle of the roads. Kids ride bicycles or skate. By sunset tonight, and all day tomorrow, the roads will be filled with people, whole families, dressed in white, walking, many with dogs on leashes or riding bikes.

It’s a scene that startles most of us newcomers. The first year I was here, I was walking across a pedestrian footbridge over one of Beersheba busiest streets, except that that night, there were no cars. Just throngs of people dressed in white, walking, talking and enjoying themselves. I was so astonished at the sight – it’s really amazing – that in my gawking, I forgot to watch where I was walking myself, and tripped and fell. I ended up with bruised knees and a sore foot, but nothing more serious. Now I try to pay a little bit of attention to where I’m going myself.

When the Holy Temple stood in Jerusalem, this was the day in which the High Priest would enter the Holy of Holies, to offer the most profound prayer of the entire year. It must have been something – the most sacred moment of the year, conducted by the one single official designated to represent Israel, but not just Israel, but indeed the whole world.

So what would you think he would pray for, in that one single chance he had, to ask something of the Creator of the World?

Did he pray for peace? Success? Health? That the Temple not be destroyed?

No, none of those things were mentioned.

In the holiest moment of the whole year, the holiest man on earth prayed for ….. rain.

In addition, he included a couple of other thoughts. He prayed for the welfare of the King of Israel. He prayed for fruitfulness for the nation, that trees would bear fruit, that women would not suffer miscarriages.

And just in case G-d needed a little nudge, he also suggested that if there were travelers out on the roads who were praying for dry weather, that G-d should ignore those prayers. (Never hurts to ask!)

It wasn’t a long prayer – he was advised to keep it short. "And in the outer chamber he uttered a short prayer. He did not make the prayer long so as not to frighten Israel." (Yoma 5, Mishnah 1)

The photo above is one I took just outside of Arad, in the heat of the summer, just off the road to Yom HaMelach, the Dead Sea. You can see why we long for rain – and all the fruitfulness and productivity it represents.

May we all be written in the book of life for another year. Gmar hatima tova!

I haven't said anything about the infamous Goldstone Report to the UN on the Gaza War, first, because I believed it was too big a topic to cover, and second, because it's so unfair and infuriating it's hard to remain rational when discussing it.

Good thing I didn't say anything myself, because here is someone -- Prof. David Altman -- who said it far better than I ever could.

Read it, pass it along.




September 17, 2009
To: The Honourable Justice Richard Goldstone

Your Honour,

Through your conduct you remind all of us of the divine words in the book of Genesis, when God says to Cain, “The blood of Abel thy brother cries unto Me from the ground.”

Haunted by hatred and eaten up by a sense of inferiority, Cain put an end to Abel’s life because of jealousy and resentment. He was convinced that this action would avenge his sense of being spurned and forgotten. But then he heard a voice reverberating, a voice that henceforth he will always hear, wherever he goes, saying: “The blood of Abel thy brother cries from the ground.”

What was in your mind, Justice Goldstone, when you became the emissary of the world’s most intractable states? What were you thinking of when you became the representative of Sudan, Syria and Libya? Sudan – a country that on a daily basis commits genocide as the world stands by, silent. Libya – a country that has no democracy and no human rights, a country that sentences innocent people to death on trumped-up charges, that sends terrorists to blow up a plane carrying hundreds of passengers, that sends terrorist ships to attack cities and innocent people in Israel. And Syria, where people have been butchered extra-judicially and without trial, a state that supports terror and the murder of individuals, joins these two in an unholy alliance.

What was in your mind, when there is a deafening silence in the face of the slaughter in Darfur, in the face of the deaths of hundreds of thousands in Sri Lanka, in the face of those killing their brothers in Afghanistan and Iraq, without any reaction from the world? What were you thinking of when they gave you a remit to investigate crimes committed by a life-affirming democratic state?

What we wish to say to you, sir, is that you are a rebellious son of a great people. We are a life-affirming nation. We are people who love peace and hates war. We are a people who have proven that we are ready to do much for the sake of peace and to pay a heavy price, unlike all those who surround us and desire war.
Wars have always been imposed upon us, and when we have taken up arms, it has always been with tears in our eyes and out of concern for ourselves and our fellow man.
We respect the rules of war – both those that have been laid down by mankind, and those that have been dictated to us by the Creator.

Who is it that we are confronting? A Jihadist terrorist organization, that sanctifies death, that calls for the destruction of your brothers’ homeland, who massacre us, who fire their bombs at our homes and targets our children, our wives and our elderly, and celebrates when its bombs hit their targets.

Whom are you defending Your Honour when you point a falsely accusing finger at us, when an army goes out to defend homes and towns, and informs and asks its neighbours to move away, in order to prevent loss and anguish? We do not make use of human rights for public and international propaganda purposes. We believe in human rights and democracy.

Your job – to destroy the image of the State of Israel and each and every one of us – resembles those who collaborated with the Nazis, because they believed the Nazi propaganda that the Jews are guilty and hence must be dealt with through the Final Solution.

We despise you, Your Honour. Not because of your repudiation of your people, of your homeland and of your father’s home, but because of the evil and the absence of justice that you are serving beneath your judicial robes, when you lend a hand to baseless and unfounded blood libels.

This selfsame State of Israel, which withdrew at a heavy, heart-rending price from every single square inch of the Gaza area, which has no border disputes with this terrorist entity, an entity that has disengaged itself from its brothers in the West Bank and killed its opponents from its own ranks in cold blood – this selfsame authority has openly committed the war crime of abducting a soldier and isolating him from international institutions and his family. Not only that you defend these people – you have become their official spokesman and you try presenting us, who are fighting for our lives, in a light of evil and wickedness – completely unjustified in fact and in truth.

You were chosen to do a cover-up job, in order to prove that even one of our own sees our actions and our defence as a crime.

I must say: you are not one of our own. Go and graze in foreign pastures, join those ultra-Orthodox extremists who have joined forces with Ahmadinejad, who has declared a jihad on Israel and the Jewish people and needs such partners, who in the past were called kapos.

You are far from us, you do not belong to us, and you are not welcome among us. The blood of our brothers, who died because they fought with clean hands, who died because they were not prepared to put innocents at risk, the blood of my relatives who died when they turned their back on a woman who was breastfeeding, behind whom terrorists were hiding, who took them out as they used the woman and her baby as cover – the blood of these people cries out to you from the ground and calls you a modern Cain.

I am a proud Israeli, I love my homeland, and I long for peace.

The only democratic country in the Middle East – a country that is called Israel – represents our national collective. We believe in justice, in human rights, in humaneness, in love of one’s fellow man, and in the Jewish belief that says: every individual that was created in His image is important.

We are not killers, we are not blood-thirsty murderers, we do not wish to punish those who hate us, but to extend to them our hands in peace, in friendship, and in understanding.

You did not hear such words in the Hamas countries. They are not even prepared to recognize us. They desire our destruction. These people, who fire from inside schools, mosques, and ambulances, they need you in order to prove that we are harming their human rights.

I was a partner to those who devoted their lives during the operation to working in the humanitarian operations room which was involved with saving lives, providing food and fuel, caring for the other, and dealing with any breach, even an inadvertent one, of any human right, the sort of thing that can take place during wartime. Regrettably, our foes do not have such an operations room.

But you knowingly and deliberately ignored this, and became part of the well-oiled machinery that is designed to deprive us of any legitimacy. Some of this well-oiled machinery seeks to portray us as monsters, out of a desire ultimately to make possible the destruction of us and the State of Israel.

Cain is cursed, and those who follow his path shall be cursed too, since their crime reverberates ad infinitum, and because of them the blood of Abel, their brother, continues to cry out from the ground.

And I – from this beloved country, I cry out like this blood, and as I cry out, so I say, “Cry, the beloved country, cry out against the traitors, who have pounced on you like birds of prey and desecrated your honour.”

Sincerely, but not with kind regards,

Dr. David Altman
Senior Vice-President
Netanya Academic College

AAAUUUUGGGGGGHHHHHHH. Here we go again.

The serious hype of the “tripartite” meeting headlines news reports this morning.

In spite of terrorist Abu Mazen’s (dolled up in his bespoke suit, he calls himself Mahmoud Abbas) much-repeated statement that he will not meet with Israeli PM Bibi Netanyahu until there’s a total freeze in construction in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem, he finally agreed to meet, so long as his lackey, the Community Organizer, was there to help.

The three – Bibi, Abu Mazen and the Community Organizer – met in Washington’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel, accompanied by their various ‘seconds’: Missus Bubba, carrying the Community Organizer’s pistols. Bibi backed up by thank-goodness-for-loose-canons Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and by Israel’s own Pillsbury Dough Boy, Defense Minister Ehud Barak.

Abu Mazen -- in addition to having the Community Organizer on his side -- was also accompanied by PA negotiator Saeb Erekat a man MK Benny Begin describes as a "wild beast of a man" – using the term from Genesis to describe Ishmael, the forerunner of the Arabs.

What a motley crew that was. I hope Bibi kept his back to the wall.

Israel’s leftist news media is proclaiming a sort-of victory for Bibi, based on the time he personally was able to bask in the presence of The One -- 40 minutes, for the tete-a-tete, from which Bibi emerged “acting like a scolded American clerk” said MK Michael Ben-Ari . Still, Bibi got 40 minutes of face time with The One, whereas the three-party meeting took only 15 minutes, hardly long enough for a grip and grin.

But now, listening to The Big Three tell us what took place in that meeting makes me wonder if they were in the same room.

Bibi reported, "There was general agreement, including on the part of the Palestinians, that the peace process has to be resumed as soon as possible with no preconditions."

The Community Organizer’s version was that both Bibi and Abu Mazen had “vowed” – get that! – “to move ahead with the diplomatic process” seeming to indicate, some dreamers believe, to be backing down from his previous calls for a total settlement freeze.

I doubt very much that Bibi “vowed” to do any such thing – we tend to take “vows” very seriously in these parts. But its Abu Mazen’s version that’s interesting.

In his statement released after the meeting, Abu Mazen said, "We also demanded that the Israeli side fulfill its commitments on settlements, including on natural growth.” Talks would only be renewed, he said, "based on our stated position" -- that is, the PA's insistence that Israel withdraw to the 1949 armistice line, also known as the Green Line, or the pre-1967 border.

So there you have it: three different versions. Talks will begin with no preconditions; everyone “vowed” to move ahead with the talks; and finally, that talks would only be renewed if Israel agreed to withdraw to the ‘Auschwitz borders’, the 1967 “green line” – which is a heck of a lot different, by the way, than just talking about halting construction in the “settlements”.

So once again, we leave it to thank-goodness-for-loose-canons Avigdor Lieberman to tell us what really happened:

Lieberman pointed out that what the Arabs say and what they do are two entirely different things. In fact, he said, "The other side is demanding all sorts of steps in Judea and Samaria." Israel "has been ready from day one to sit down and immediately talk with all the sides and all the neighbors, without preconditions."

Not so, the Arabs. They demand everything they want, upfront, as a precondition to negotiations.

Imagine going in to buy a new car and telling the dealer, “I’m open to negotiating the price of this car, but not until you agree to sell it to me for $30,000, provide a ten-year guarantee on all parts and service, throw in emergency road service, bi-monthly tune-ups, free tires every 60,000 miles, upgraded leather seats, CD and DVD player, and a new motorcycle for my kid.” See how far that gets you, in the real world.

It’s totally frustrating. Why do we bother with these silly meetings? It’s totally pointless.

And here’s the real kicker: for every one of these so-called agreements, or “accords”, or even “road maps”, what happens is that Israel, in good faith, agrees to this that and the other thing. But the Arabs refuse to agree to anything – sometimes they walk out, sometimes they appear to agree, but then just do what they want to do anyway.

But then, the world holds Israel responsible for doing everything the agreement required, anyway. The Arabs walked out, didn’t sign, refused to agree, did nothing, took none of the steps required of them, such as stopping terrorism and incitement. But still, Israel is held accountable by the world community for fully performing our side of the agreement.

We ought to just stay home. At one point, Bibi said something very profound: Until the Arabs agree to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, there’s no point in trying to negotiate anything.

That was absolutely correct. If they continue to refuse to recognize our legitimacy as a nation, what’s the point of talking?

'SU CASA ES MI CASA'

That’s the Community Organizer’s version of the familiar Spanish words of welcome: My home is your home.

Except The One has changed it to suit himself: Your home is MY home.

At least that’s the way he regards Israeli homes. Not for himself, you understand. He already has that place at 1600 Pennsylvania. No, the Community Organizer has promised to give our homes in Israel to the “Palestinians” for them to live in.

If this yahoo in DC weren’t sitting on so much power it would be almost funny. I tried to think of some historical parallel where there’s a truly off-his-rocker leader ruling a country, but other than fiction and movie comedies, I can’t come up with one.

Suffice it to say, the Community Organizer has passed from mere megalomania into sheer insanity.

His blithe reassurance to the Arabs – “Palestinians” – that they shouldn’t be concerned about continued Jewish building in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, because one day those houses will be theirs, is nothing short of breathtaking.

According to a report in World Net Daily, the Community Organizer is “fed up” with Israel. To be honest, I can’t say I blame him – when you’re trying to take over the world, and a bunch of chutzpadik Jews continue to make it tough, I guess most people would lose patience.

So fed-up Obama decided to take matters into his own hands. He assured top “Palestinian” officials that they will eventually be living in the homes that Jews are building now.

"We heard from the U.S. that no matter what Israel is building in the West Bank, it will not affect a final status agreement to create a Palestinian state," said the PA official. "The Americans told us (Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu might construct in the West Bank for now but we (Palestinians) can enjoy these houses later. The evacuated homes will not be destroyed like some were when Israel pulled out of Gaza," the official said.

Worse yet, that same “top Palestinian” reported that the Community Organizer has now signed unto the plan offered by PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad: If within two years, Israel still hasn’t capitulated to the Community Organizers plans for us, then the Community Organizer and/or the United Nations – hey, in two years, that might be the same thing – will simply declare a “Palestinian” state, and order the Jews evicted from Judea, Samaria and all of Jerusalem.

Well, hmmmm. That’s food for thought. But the Community Organizer better be careful -- if the Iranians manage to wipe us out first, it will take all the fun out of it for him.

And this comes just the day after Zbigniew Brzezinski -- you remember him, Jimmy Carter’s National Security Advisor – called on the Community Organizer to bomb Israeli planes if we try to protect ourselves from Iran.

“We have to be serious about denying them (Israel) that right,” Brzezinski said. “If they (Israeli planes) fly over, you go up and confront them. They have the choice of turning back or not. No one wishes for this but it could be a 'Liberty' in reverse."

It’s starting to sound like the Community Organizer also bought into the notion articulated a few years ago by Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah. He’s the one who said that creating Israel was a good idea. With all the Jews in one place, it would be that much easier to get rid of them.

"OUR TIME HAS COME"

Yesterday I was enjoying a lovely Rosh Hashanah lunch with friends and several other guests, when someone pointed out that the US Embassy in Israel penalized American Jews who came to work at the Israeli Embassy. Specifically, if the employees allow their children to attend an American-English school, the educational costs are paid. But if they choose to send their children to a local school — where the children could learn Hebrew and immerse themselves in the local culture – the employees must pay for it themselves.

Inappropriately, I admit, I laughed and said something like, “That sounds like Obama,” whereupon the person sitting next to me – another regular civilian who didn’t know any more about it than I did – nearly exploded. “That’s INSULTING! Obama had nothing to do with it!”

Well, the Community Organizer wasn't with us yesterday, so I'm not sure who would have been insulted, but the other guest was quite right: It wasn’t the time or place to argue politics, especially when it was obvious any such discussion would have been pointless. Only 4% of Israelis have a positive opinion of Barack Hussein Obama, and without doubt, the person sitting next to me was one of them.

For obvious reasons that person isn't likely to be reading this blog, but now I’m wondering how many other people still think the Community Organizer operates its Israeli embassy and “east Jerusalem” consulate with any positive regard for the local Jewish population or – apparently – toward its employees who happen to be Jews.

So here’s a few ways that things have changed – there’s that word again – since the Community Organizer began his reign. It was NOT this way under previous administrations.

First: The US consulate in “East Jerusalem” serves part of Jerusalem, plus French Hill and Gilo, as well as all the citizens of Judea and Samaria, 800,000 of them Jews. But its website – check it out yourself -- http://jerusalem.usconsulate.gov – is designed to help Arabs only. The only two languages offered are Arabic and English, not Hebrew (which happens to be the language the majority of the residents, of all ethnicities, speak). Workers at that Consulate speak only Arabic and English, and no Hebrew option is available on the voice mail system.

Second, take a look at what programs and ‘cultural opportunities’ the Consulate offers. On today’s menu, nothing at all relates to Jews or Judaism. There are many different sites in which Ramadan is prominent – and not a single one in which Rosh Hashanah, which took place on Shabbat and yesterday, is even mentioned. Nor is any other Jewish holiday. The only reference is to Muslim holidays, practices, celebrations and greetings.

When asked why this is, the US Consulate officials explain that it’s because east Jerusalem – including all of Jerusalem’s Old City as well as the Western Wall -- plus all of Judea and Samaria are regarded as “occupied territory”.

That's familiar nonsense of course, but the absurdity of their claiming Jerusalem's entire Old City for the Arabs is patently obvious.

For those of you in the US who haven’t yet wandered in the glory of Jerusalem’s Old City, it’s home to the Temple Mount and the Western Wall, for Jews; the Church of the Sepulcher for Christians, the Dome of the Rock and the al-Aqsa Mosque for Muslims. The Old City itself is divided into four quarters, Muslim Quarter, the Christian Quarter, the Jewish Quarter and the Armenian Quarter.

But now the US Consulate that serves all the residents of those areas operates only in English and Arabic.

Among today’s news offerings on the Consulate website is a story about how the Consulate is honoring “Fifty University Graduates” in an internship program. The ‘honor’ ceremony is being held in Ramallah, Yasser Arafat’s old stamping ground, where Jews are forbidden to enter.

Then there’s a gushing story about kicking off a “month of Ramadan outreach” by the Consulate, starting with a Ramadan Quiz Night.

But none of that equals the headlined link to Hussein Obama’s way-beyond-disgusting September 11 memorial message – in which he switches the memorial from remembering those killed by Muslims on September 11 to a “Patriot Day and Day of National Service” instead.

All of this has been protested by the American Israeli Action Coalition (AIAC), which states that the Jerusalem Consulate website “totally denies the existence of Israel or Israelis.” AIAC chairman Harvey Schwartz commented. "The Obama administration`s continued efforts to marginalize Israel are becoming more evident daily. The U.S. Consulate`s efforts…demonstrate that those efforts are continuing unabated."

But it’s not just the US Consulate in “east Jerusalem” – it’s the main Embassy in Tel Aviv, too.

The Embassy website contains a link to their “Human Rights Report: Israel and the Occupied Territories” which criticizes Israel for being a Jewish state and laments the authority of rabbis who act according to traditional Jewish law.

Under the subtitle “Freedom of Religion,” the Embassy site states, “The Basic Law and Declaration of Independence recognize the country as a ‘Jewish and democratic state,’ while also providing for full social and political equality, regardless of religious affiliation. The government recognized only Orthodox Jewish religious authorities in personal and some civil status matters concerning Jewish persons. The government implemented policies including marriage, divorce, education, burial, and observance of the Sabbath based on Orthodox Jewish interpretation of religious law, and allocations of state resources favored Orthodox Jewish institutions.”

It charges that “many Jewish citizens objected to exclusive Orthodox control over aspects of their personal lives” -- all of this, without noting that traditional Judaism has been the basis of the Jewish people for 3,500 years.

The Embassy appears to complain that “legal missionaries faced harassment and discrimination by some haredi (Ultra-Orthodox) Jewish activists and organizations and certain local government officials.”

“Legal missionaries”?? What’s that? Missionary activity per se is illegal in Israel -- although the government is notoriously loose in enforcing the law.

In short, throughout, the Embassy website uses its authority to criticize the host state. I wonder how many other US Embassies around the world operate like that?

I did get a chuckle out of the fact that out of seven video links available, five feature Missus Bubba giving a speech or statement. I guess now we know that the website is being managed by her staff, not that of the Community Organizer. She's probably licking her chops, waiting for 2012 just like the rest of us.

Of course, none of this is much of a surprise for those of us who live here. Ask just about any American Israeli who’s had to visit the US Embassy for something – to register the birth of a child, renew passports, get help with Social Security benefits – and virtually everyone will tell you how nasty the US employees are, how rude and condescending. At times, it’s almost embarrassing to be an American in Israel, because almost everyone who had to contact the Embassy came out frothing at the mouth.

So. Do I know that the Embassy’s policy regarding education of Jewish children of American employees has changed recently? No. I don’t. And the link to “Embassy employment opportunities” on the website isn’t functioning at the moment.

But given what we do know about all the changes the Community Organizer has instituted the Embassy and the “east Jerusalem” Consulate, it wouldn’t surprise me a bit.

Oh, and thanks to reader Fred, who informs me that on September 25, there will be a national prayer gathering of Muslims on the west front of the U.S. Capitol Building. Some 50,000 Muslims plan to attend from mosques all across America, with prayers scheduled to run 15 consecutive hours, from 4:00 AM until 7:00 PM.

The site is where U.S. Presidents have been inaugurated since 1981, or as their website puts it, “Echoing off of the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument and other great edifices that surround Capitol Hill.”

If you have a strong stomach, check that website yourself: www.islamoncapitolhill.com (Turn DOWN your speakers.)

Their final exhortation? “Our time has come.”

Israel is alive with the sound of music.....

Napoleon Bonaparte came to tour the holy land in 1799. One night he slept Ramle, an Arab/Jewish city that today is virtually a suburb of Tel Aviv. For several nights, Napoleon slept in a hostel that wasn’t far from a Moslem minaret, tower. Several times a day – including just before dawn – a Muezzin would climb to the top of the tower and sing out the call to prayer.

Poor exhausted Napoleon was getting tired of being awaked so early every morning, day after day. The next time the Muezzin climbed the tower and started to sing, Napoleon got up, pulled out his gun and shot the guy dead.

That’s one way to handle it.

In recent weeks, Baruch Marzel of Hebron/Kiryat Arba has been facing the same problem. Saudi Arabia maliciously gave money to the local Arabs so they could buy a very powerful loudspeaker and broadcasting system, from which they now broadcast their prayers, five times a day. Just to be obnoxious.

Marzel – one of those pesky “settlers”, and therefore someone I admire hugely – was getting just as tired of it as Napoleon had. But he found another solution.
“I rented a powerful system and put on Carlebach (music) every hour of the day,” Marzel said. The IDF asked me to stop, I told them that when they stop I'll stop – and believe me, they'll stop,” Marzel said.

I wish Marzel well, but I’m not at all sure an awful lot of Arabs won’t -- secretly, if nothing else – find themselves enjoying the Carlebach concerts.

Most of you probably know of Reb Shlomo Carlebach -- that’s him, pictured. Here’s a video of one of his songs, singing at a “Hoshana Rabba” Sukkot service:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvIIRiy2Udg

For you folks in Rio Linda, Shlomo Carlebach (1925-1994) was a charismatic singer/songwriter/holy man, whose songs and warm, Hasidic style inspired a whole new movement in Jewish rock n’ roll. No matter who you are, where you live, or what you do, chances are you’ve heard some of Reb Shlomo’s melodies, whether you recognize them or not.

So I not sure Marzel’s tactic will work.

Now that I think about it, back in 1993, when Bubba ‘I-never-had-sex-with-that-woman’ Clinton was President, he, too, found himself getting disgusted with the practices of a minority religious group.

Bubba took a far more lethal approach. When his federal agents - the Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms and Tobacco – decided they could no longer tolerate the presence of the religious dissenters in Waco, Texas, they also tried obnoxious noises to harass the community. They played recordings of Buddhist chants, dental drills, and screaming, slaughtered rabbits.

When the BATF still couldn’t oust the dissenters from their home, Bubba’s Attorney General Janet Reno gave the order to saturate the compound with CS gas, even though she knew the community didn’t have gas masks to protect their children.

Not that it mattered – the gas caused the buildings to catch fire, and 86 men, women and children were burned to death.

Can you even imagine what would happen if anyone in Israel acted like either Napoleon or Janet Reno?