Election Results UPDATE: Kadima Clings to 1 Seat Lead; Do IDF Votes Hold Victory Margin?
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Commentary:
With over 99% of the vote counted on Wednesday, Kadima still clings to a slender 1 Knesset seat lead over the Likud as the real results seem to closely relate to the exit poll data .
The nearly completed actual results showed that the Arab parties gained 1 seat to total 11 while the Left dropped 16 seats vs their position in the current Knesset while the Right picked up 19 seats and the Religious parties dropped by 4 seats vs the current Knesset. Israel National News reports that the soldiers vote could affect which party garners the most Knesset seats:
Exit Polls: Kadima Holds Slim Lead, Likud Closing-In on Real Count
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Commentary:
Israel’s polls closed at 10:00 PM and the major Israeli media exit polls [here, here and here] and initial election returns showed Tzipi Livni and Kadima with a slim 2 Knesset seat lead over the Likud and its party leader Binyamin Netanyahu.
These exit polls indicate that Kadima won 28-30 Knesset seats while the Likud garnered 27-28 Knesset seats. Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu party won 14-15 seats while Ehud Barak and the Labor party showed 13 seats on all of the exit polls. Shas finished fifth winning between 9-10 seats.
Monday War News: IAF Retaliates for Sunday’s Rockets on South, Humanitarian Aid Continues Despite Rocket Attacks, IDF Explodes Bombs Found Near Hevron, Molotovs Thrown at Cars, Buses, 5 Terrorists, 93 Illegals Nabbed
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IDF Bombs Hamas Police Station [Other Targets] after Rocket Attacks, by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu (Israel National News)
Excerpts:
“Israel Air Force F-16 planes strafed two Hamas terrorist positions, including a police station, in Khan Yunis in south-central Gaza, in the pre-dawn hours Monday. No injuries were reported, but the targets sustained damage.”
Humanitarian Aid Continues Despite Ongoing Attacks [No UNRWA Shipments, but World Food Program, World Health Organization and CARE Continue], by Hana Levi Julian (Israel National News)
Parsha Yithro 5769: What Brought Yithro to B’nai Yisrael?
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We learn that when Yithro had heard all that Hashem did for B’nai Yisrael, he left Midian with Tzippora and Moshe’s two sons and went to join with the Jews.
We are not absolutely certain as to whether any one specific event Yithro heard boosted him to circumcise himself and to go out to join the B’nai Yisrael, and if so, which exact event it was, or whether it was the sum total of all he had heard which convinced him to become a Jew.
In the sefer Ner Uziel: Perspectives on the Parsha, Rabbi Uziel Milevsky z’l writes on Parsha Yithro (p. 380-383) writes indicating that were Yithro have come to join the Jews after Yetziat Mitziyim or after the cri’at Yam Suf, it would have been unlikely that he could have joined with the Jews due their concern as to what his motivations might be; i.e. whether he was anxious to be on a winning team, on the right side, not unlike many athletes who, when reaching free agency status, seek the best deal, to earn more that their peers, to join onto the team which has gone all-the-way. Rabbi Milevsky cites indications that B’nai Yisrael didn’t accept Gerim during the reigns of David HaMelech and Shlomo HaMelech when B’nai Yisrael was at the zenith of prestige and power in the world.
Friday War News: Ceasefire Violations — 2 Kassams Hit South Israel, Weapons Tunnels Continue to Operate in Gaza; 8 Terrorists Nabbed
Aish HaTorah Rosh Yeshiva Rabbi Noah Weinberg Passes Away
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Commentary:
Rabbi Noah Weinberg, the founder and Rosh Yeshiva of the internationally known Aish HaTorah Yeshiva was niftar Thursday morning in his Jerusalem home at age 79.
The Aish.com website reports that R’ Weinberg z”l was recently diagnosed with a serious illness:
Update: December 24, 2008
After undergoing chemotherapy and radiation treatments in Israel earlier this year, Rabbi Weinberg has been recuperating but is still very weak. In the midst of all this, Rabbi Weinberg never stopped moving forward in his lofty goals. He came to Aish HaTorah in Jerusalem almost every day – teaching and strategizing ways to help the Jewish people.
Likud Paying Huge Price in Lost Votes for Bibi’s Demotion of Feiglin
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Commentary:
The Jerusalem Post’s Gil Hoffman reports Binyamin Netanyahu has apparently engaged Avigdor Lieberman and Yisrael Beiteinu in a battle to regain votes for his Likud party as polls indicate that the gap between Likud and Kadima is narrowing while Yisrael Beiteinu’s popularity is mounting. Hoffman notes that;
According to a Ma’agar Mohot poll broadcast on Channel 2 last night, the Likud has lost six seats, including three to Israel Beiteinu… The poll showed Israel Beiteinu receiving 19 seats.
Comments On the 4 Major Party Leaders
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Commentary:
We’ll begin with the totally absurd first.
It appears as if the election position of Ehud Barak and his Labor party has become sooo dire that he has completely given up on wooing centerist voters in favor of bringing Meretz voters back. Otherwise, why else would he offer such an outrageously absurd idea as a 48-kilometer tunnel connecting Gaza with Judea “…under Israeli sovereignty with Palestinian control of the traffic”?
According to Israel National News reports on Barak’s Gaza-Judea tunnel scheme:
Out-of-Court Settlement Turns Tables on IDF Manpower Chief General Elazar Stern
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Commentary:
In May, 2008, IDF Sgt. Hananel Dayan found himself expelled from the IDF for his failure to shake the hand of then Chief of Staff Dan Halutz during a ceremony honoring 120 outstanding IDF soldiers, of which Dayan was one. Dayan opted-out of shaking Halutz’s hand as his (Dayan’s) family was among the Jews expelled from Gush Katif in August, 2005. Immediately after the incident, Dayan was verbally dressed-down by IDF Manpower Chief General Elazar Stern. Two links, here and here, recall the incident.