Israel and The Sin of Expulsion
The Implications and Consequences of Expulsion for the Jewish People
Excerpt;
Brigadier-General Gershon HaCohen, who headed this past summer’s expulsions of Jews from Gush Katif and northern Samaria, has been moved up the chain of command to the rank of major-general, the IDF Spokesperson’s Office reported on Thursday.
HaCohen will be assigned to the IDF’s Command College, a move seen as a sign of approval for his handling of the expulsion, many of those evicted remaining refugees today, without homes, places of employment or basic amenities.
Gush Katif: Seven Months Later, by Rachel Ginsberg
Excerpts;
What was to be a 10-day stay has turned into an odyssey of uncertainty whose provisional end will only be seen in another few months when the Zelingers and other evacuees from the community of Neve Dekalim will be settled in temporary quarters at Kibbutz Ein Tzurim. Five years down the line, the remnants of their community will be reunited in permanent housing near Kibbutz Amatzia in the sparsely populated Lachish region.
“People assume that after seven months, we’ve all gotten our lives back together, we’ve picked up our compensation checks and gone forward,” Dana says. “It’s not true. Almost no one has received compensation. Unemployment is rampant and savings are gone. No permanent housing solutions have been created yet. And those highly-touted ‘caravillas’ that some families are living in, which are really just prefab caravans with fancy red roofs, are also just temporary.”
‘In Their Death They Prevented Tragedy’
Another Account of Events;
Kedumim Victims Prevented Disaster
Settlers Blame Olmert for Terror Attack
IDF Investigating Jordanian Infiltrator
UPDATE: IDF: 350 Shells Fired at Northern Gaza Over the Weekend
Arab Teen Apprehended With a Knife at an IDF Checkpoint
IDF Fires Close to 200 Shells at Gaza
Rabbi Eliyahu Releases a Statement of Warning & Instruction
Excerpts;
Former Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu told a conference of rabbis in Jerusalem’s Binyanei HaUma Convention Center that it is forbidden to enter into a coalition government that advocates additional surrender of land to the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority (PA).
The forum was an urgent meeting of rabbinical and other leaders, addressing concerns of the new incoming Kadima-led government supporting additional expulsions of Jews from their homes in Judea and Samaria.
For context, click here and here.
Officials Turn a Blind Eye to Ongoing Illegal Arab Construction
Excerpts;
While police on Thursday took the unprecedented move of granting a Land Day rally permit in Lod, area residents decried what they insist is the double-standard regarding illegal Arab construction.
Three Israelis killed in West Bank suicide bombing attack
3 Israelis Killed in Terror Attack at Kedumim Gas Station
Excerpts;
Three Israelis were killed Thursday night after a suicide bomber blew up inside an Israeli car near the gas station at the entrance to the settlement of Kedumim in the northern West Bank.
According to Kedumim Regional Council head Daniella Weiss, the three Israelis killed included an elderly couple from the settlement and a girl from the center of the country. The names of the victims were being held until all the families could be notified.
The first word of our parsha; Vayikra begs discussion of why the small “aleph” in Vayikra, and what it indicates regarding Moshe Rabbeinu’s level of principle, integrity and standard of leadership of B’nei Yisrael.
We are told how Hashem, Kav’yochal, would call gently, affectionately “Moshe, Moshe” in a voice for Moshe Rabbeinu’s ears only and Moshe would respond “Here I am.” (Rashi on Perek 1, posuk 1 Metsuda Linear Chumash & Rashi with footnotes)
Commentary;
Perhaps Olmert’s “Convergence” will go the way of Barak’s pre-campaign push to draft Chareidim. It’s two massive in scope and too economically costly. The American aid that Israel banked on with the Gaza expulsion never materialized as the US was stuck with a major refugee problem of it’s own from the massive Hurricane Katrina.
In order to satisfy Labor’s socieo-economic demands, there will be no additional funds available to defray both the massive military/police costs of executing such an expulsion and the costs of restitution to the residents of an expulsion of the scale and magnitude of 80,000 Jews.
Excerpts;
Humility is not presumptive Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s strong suit; nor is winning an election usually conducive to developing such a trait. The circumstances, however, require humility, and not just because the winner arrives as a stand-in for the comatose Ariel Sharon.
The voters have indeed given Olmert a mandate, but there is a gap between the tentative confidence shown in his path and the momentous steps our new leader has promised to take. Given the election results, it will take a mighty effort and all of Olmert’s skills not to tear this country, and its economy, apart.
US: No Comment on Eitan’s Election
Main Points;
1/ Rafi Eitan, leader of the Gil Pensioners’ Party, to the Knesset; “… considered an “unindicted co-conspirator” in the Jonathan Pollard spy case and might be taken in for questioning if he enters the US.”
2/ He was “former senior Mossad official, was head of the branch dealing with technology and science … recruited Pollard, … and served as his operator, receiving top secret information from him.”