Who are the Israelis?

[rylah]

Israeli pop star Omer Adam turns down Eurovision appearance over Shabbat clash

Although Mr Adam is not religiously observant, the 25-year-old has in the past made a point of not working on Shabbat, JTA reports.

A statement issued by his representatives read: “After a meeting between the sides, because rehearsals for the finale would be held on Shabbat, Omer decided – despite the great honour – not to take part in the event.

“He thanks them from the bottom of his heart for approaching him.”

Mr Adam, known for his blend of Mizrachi and Western pop music, first rose to prominence on the Kokhav Nolad singing contest, akin to the British Pop Idol.

 

[rylah]

Plant a Forest in Honor of Amiad Israel
A pregnant woman was critically wounded and six others lightly or moderately injured in a drive-by shooting attack near the settlement of Ofra, which took place on the last night of Hanukkah. Doctors delivered the baby of Shira and Amichai Ish-Ran prematurely due to the attack. He died three days later.

The parents named their baby Amiad Israel (our people are here forever).
Amiad would have been the couple’s first child.

PLEASE PLANT TREES OF LIFE IN HONOR OF AMIAD: www.israel365.com/plant

 

[Mindful]

Israel has captured territory from those that wage war against the tiny state, but each time it returns the land in a heartbeat in exchange for peace.

 

[P F Tinmore]

 

[rylah]

Highest paid Israeli soccer player

 

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Your News From Israel - Jan. 23, 2019

 

[Mindful]

Just this week, the newspaper of choice for many British liberals has published three articles about the Jewish state. All three are deeply critical.

Not that criticism of Israel is inherently wrong. Millions of Israelis are critical of their politicians and government on a daily basis. A problem emerges, however, when one’s criticism becomes so one-sided and shallow as to effectively parrot Hamas propaganda.

The Guardian’s editorial today is a case in point.

Literally, the day after only his helmet prevented an Israeli soldier’s certain death when a Hamas terrorist shot at him, The Guardian publishes a lead editorial which deliberately blurs the lines between peaceful protesters and violent rioters, failing to acknowledge that Israeli soldiers were tasked with preventing angry hordes from breaking through the security fence and descending on Israeli villages.

“One sentence in particular claims that Israeli soldiers ‘gas, shell and kill protesters’. Such a simple phrase, yet riddled with deception.”

Instead, the article opens with talk of “Palestinians” being “killed at the rate of around one a day”. The mind boggles at how sensible, educated people regard the fact that Israel defends itself from Palestinian violence using lethal force as somehow an indictment on Israel. Instead of questioning why Palestinians repeatedly eschew peaceful protests to take up arms and attack Israelis, The Guardian focuses on why Israel defends itself.

Instead of querying Palestinian motives, the editorial unquestioningly repeats the Palestinian mantra that these protests were about the “right” to return to ancestral homes. This is false on multiple fronts – first, because while that was indeed the original concept, the protests were swiftly co-opted by Hamas and used as a pretext to invade Israeli borders. Numerous videos exist of rioters and terrorists entering Israeli territory with machetes, burning Israeli army posts and fields to the ground, and destroying humanitarian crossings.

Second, there is no such right – the UN offered the Arabs and the Jews two states in this land. Instead of accepting as the Jews did, the Arabs called on the combined armies of Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq to attack Israel with the aim of destroying the nascent state. Yet Israel survived, and its borders were internationally recognized. There is no going back to what used to be. The Arab gambit failed.

“Israel has never shelled protesters at the Gaza border fence and to claim otherwise is an outright falsehood”.

Not content to repeat Hamas talking points, the piece makes some stunningly inaccurate and outright deceitful claims. One sentence in particular claims that Israeli soldiers “gas, shell and kill protesters”. Such a simple phrase, yet riddled with deception.

A Hatchet Job of an Editorial in The Guardian – Harry's Place

 

[Mindful]

My bringing in the Jewish Question failed her test of journalism at it’s finest.

Did she wait until the last minute to raise this as an issue in the hope that I’d fold, sacrifice the “focus on anti-Semitism” because it was nearly midnight on January 17th-18th? Had she consulted her donors or advisors and been warned that the piece was radical enough and that bringing in Israel and the Jewish question would only endanger her reputation and harm the site?

I’m not sure. But there is a lot of overwrought and over-righteous sensitivity, as well as ignorance based on disinformation among genuine feminists when it come to Jew hatred. For example, a few months back, I was being interviewed by another feminist editor about my new book “A Politically Incorrect Feminist”. After a good conversation which lasted more than an hour, she suddenly said: “But now I must ask you to explain or justify why you are a Zionist.” Said I: “But I don’t write about that in this book.” Said she: “But it’s important, we need to know.”

No matter what else I may be talking about, this kind of Kafkaesque interrogation has become my lot. My reputation always precedes me.

Telling the truth about Israel is a new Catch-22 situation

And this is the thing.

They'll bring in the Zionist topic, no matter what you are talking about. Even the weather.

 

[rylah]

Gush Etzion...10 min from Jerusalem, photographed by the students of the Kfar Etzion Sadeh school.

 

[rylah]

The land has responded to her people,
and kept the best fruits for them.

 

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Father of slain IDF soldier Yosef Cohen HY"D

 

[rylah]

Town and Villiage - Calling All Zionist Feminists and Feminist Zionists

 

[rylah]

A Feminist and a Zionist

 

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In The Palm of Their Hands

What an inspiration...
As Jewish sages wrote, there's was no redemption for Israel but through the merit of the righteous women in that generation, still true.

 

[rylah]

Increase in the number of grooms and brides who ascend to the Temple Mount

A significant increase in the number of grooms and brides who ascend to the Temple Mount on their wedding day. Including MK Yehuda Glick who's marrying and ascended this morning.

Over the past three years 755 grooms, brides, bar mitzvahs and Bat Mitzvah brides have ascended the Temple Mount. Those present at the mountain also congratulate the grooms on the special blessing that the Sages instituted for the groom on the Temple Mount.

In the organization Yero'eh, which encourages immigration to Israel and monitors developments on the Temple Mount, reports that the phenomenon of the grooms' ascension is increasing at a surprising rate.

In the year 5716, 138 bridegrooms and brides went up to the Temple Mount in the year 1777. In the year 5777, their number had already jumped to 333 grooms and brides.

Glick's ascension today was accompanied by his family and friends from the temple organizations. They mentioned that the rise of grooms to the Temple Mount is mentioned in the words of Chazal as a custom established by King Solomon to perform Hassidut on the Temple Mount.

Increase in the number of grooms and brides who ascend to the Temple Mount

 

[rylah]

Green returned to the Negev
After a summer with 1800 fires by the Arabs of Gaza, which consumed the flora and fauna from all over the Negev, the area is booming again. Watch the gallery taken by fireman then and now

 

[rylah]

Gush Katif Day is marked today in 900 schools
Today (Monday) marks the day of Gush Katif in more than 900 schools throughout the country

The Disengagement Law decided, among other things, to establish a Katif Center operating in Nitzan, and as part of its activities, a law was passed on Gush Katif Day in primary and post-secondary schools. The day was decided as the 22nd of Shvat, when the first settlement in the Gush, Netzer Hazani was also established.

In the last few weeks, the Katif Center has worked to build a pedagogic program to connect the young generation to the settlement enterprise, to connect the land through agriculture and to unite the people through the crisis that took place after the expulsion of the settlers by the Israeli government.

"We are trying to explain why the story of Gush Katif is still relevant today, we are telling about those who have been uprooted and built new settlements and continued to be pioneers, we are talking about agriculture and rootedness, a true connection to the land of the entire Land of Israel. A debate in Israeli society, and there seems to be no more suitable time for this than during an election period."


(Naveh Dkalim - Katif Center)

 

[rylah]

Netanyahu meets with Japan's economy minister: "A huge increase in Japan's investments in Israel - we want to see more"

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Economy Minister Eli Cohen met with Japan's Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Hiroshige Seko. This is the third visit in the past four years by the Japanese Minister of Trade. The minister arrived accompanied by 150 senior businessmen and 90 representatives of large companies.

The visit of the Japanese Minister of Economy to Israel marks another significant milestone in the strengthening of economic relations and business cooperation between Israel and Japan.

Netanyahu: "There has been a huge increase in Japan's investment in Israel, in recent years there has been growth in investments, which have increased 120 times, and last time I spoke about it, it was 44 times faster.

There are natural connections between us. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and I agreed that we should promote economic relations and that visit is part of that. I congratulate you and your colleagues. We want to see more trade, more tourism and more investments in both directions. Welcome to Israel".

 

[rylah]

When the king of Morocco gave Rabbi Amar the honorary medal
About five years ago, Rabbi Shlomo Amar visited the palace of the King of Morocco, Mohammed VI, who gave him the highest honor in the royal family.

It should be noted that Rabbi Amar was invited a year earlier to receive the honorary medal, but the annual ceremony fell on the ninth of Av. The rabbi sent a letter to the king explaining to him the fact that this was the national mourning day.

The king also respected the rabbi when he arrived in Morocco. When the Rishon LeZion landed in Spain, the king asked to bring him on his private plane.

Since the event, only a few pictures of the palace palace ceremony have been published. In recent days, Rabbi Amar's students have managed to obtain the documentation from the royal archives.

In 2018 when King Mohammed VI had to go through surgery, Rabbi Amar sent a letter of blessing saying "We carried prayers before G-d blessed be His name, for the wellbeing of the king and his quick recovery"

 

[Mindful]

Israel’s right to defend itself is “absolutely unconditional,” UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy said on Tuesday.

Speaking at the Conservative Friends of Israel’s Annual Parliamentary Reception, Hunt called the controversial 1939 White Paper limiting Jewish immigration to British Mandate Palestine on the eve of World War II a “black moment” in history — marking what was believed the first time a UK foreign secretary has expressed such a sentiment.

Hunt praised Britain’s “very strong deep-rooted friendship” with Israel, based on “a huge historic admiration” for what it has “achieved against all the odds.”

The UK’s top diplomat also vowed that his country would “always stand shoulder to shoulder with Israel in stamping out antisemitism.”

UK Foreign Secretary Calls 1939 White Paper That Limited Jewish Immigration to British Mandate Palestine a ‘Black Moment’ in History