The Implications and Consequences of Expulsion for the Jewish People
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Artillery Batteries Deployed Along Border with Gaza Strip, by Yaakov Katz (Jerusalem Post)
Cabinet Approves Call-Up of Reservists, by Herb Keinon (Jerusalem Post)
[Thousands] Gaza Palestinians Cross Egyptian Border [into Egypt]
Two Wounded by Rocket in Ashkelon
IAF Warplanes Seen Flying Over Lebanon [Reaction to Hezbollah Chief Nasrallah Threat of Retaliation Over Gaza Operations] , by Hana Levi Julian (Israel National News)
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[3] Rockets Land Near Ashdod in Farthest-Reaching Gaza Attack [More Than 40 km North of Gaza]
11 Rockets Fired at Israel Since Sunday Morning; None Injured
IAF Strikes Gaza City Government Offices
2 Killed by IDF in Beit Hanoun
2 Rockets Land in Ashkelon; No Injuries Reported
5 Rockets Land in Ashkelon; Warning Siren Sounds in Ashdod, Gan Yavneh
Barak Instructs that Gaza Crossings Open for Humanitarian Supplies [Aiding the Enemy During Wartime, Even While Pu\ounding Them??], by Yaakov Katz (Jerusalem Post)
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Parsha Mikeitz records the whole affair between Yosef and the brothers when they came to Mitzrayim to buy food and were accused by the Viceroy of being spies. We learned how after hearing their story and family history, Yosef demanded that they bring their youngest brother to him and incarcerated Shimon as insurance that the brothers would indeed return with Binyamin, their youngest brother. We learn that in the middle of Parsha Mikeitz, with the imprisonment of Shimon, the brothers recognized and attributed their predicament to the sin they had committed earlier by throwing Yosef into the pit and then selling him to the Mitzriyim. Yosef heard and understood their conversation and left their presence to cry silently. (Perek 42, posukim 21-24)
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Commentary;
Israel has apparently launched a major operation, dubbed “Cast Lead”, against terror in Gaza. President Shimon Peres has announced that “measures will not include invasion” but Defense Minister Ehud Barak notes; “it won’t be easy and it won’t be short.” Over 200 were killed and over 300 wounded in today’s initial strikes targeting numerous Hamas locations as well as weapons and ammo storage areas.
“Israeli-Arabs” have reacted with rioting and, in one case, an Arab attempted to run-down an Israel polliceman in Jerusalem.
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25 Mortar Shells Pound South as IDF Poises for Limited [??#@*??] Gaza Op, by Herb Keinon and Yaakov Katz (Jerusalem Post)
Popular Resistance Committees Spokesman: Tens of Thousands of Rockets in Gaza – Range Over 40 Kilometers, by Dr. Aaron Lerner (IMRA)
[Barak Decides:] Gaza Crossings Open Friday
Gaza Crossings Open [Under International Pressure]
Eshkol Region Leader: Why is Humanitarianism One-Sided?
Terrorists Shelled Eshkol Region Overnight [20 Mortar Shells Fired]
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On Thursday, this blog commented on a Ynet opinion piece entitled “We Lost Our Killer Instinct.”
The piece dealt with what many have perceived for some time; How Israelis have become more “I”, “me”, individual-oriented and how this orientation change relates to an IDF basically controlled by the Attorney-General and the so-called “Justice (sic) Ministry, by fear of the media, by fear of parents and the streets of Tel Aviv rather than by the chief of staff and defense ministry.
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Commentary;
It used to be that the spirit, the credo of the IDF was unity, was “follow-me” commanders and command structure, was the collective security of the nation — in all of its regions and sectors. It used to be that the pain felt in the Negev, in Galil, in Jerusalem was felt in Tel Aviv, Haifa, or for that matter, Beit Shemesh. Ynet’s Guy Bechor writes of the change for the worst saying;
“We see excess of individualism, whereby only the individual is of interest to us, rather than the State or the army.”
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LAF Reportedly Defuses Seven Katyusha Rockets Aimed at Israel
Rocket Explodes Near Ashkelon, No Injuries
Kassam Lands Near Ashkelon Beach
Kiryat Gat Gets Geared for Gaza Attack
Rocket Explodes Near Yad Mordechai, No Injuries
Rocket Attack on Kfar Aza, No Injuries
Kassam Rocket Lands Near Sha’ar Hanegev Kibbutz; None Hurt
Mortar Shells Fired by Terrorists Backfired
Two Mortar Shells Hit Open Area in Kibbutz Sha’ar Hanegev; None Hurt
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Commentary;
Readers may wonder why this blog has stuck pretty much to three topics in recent days; Bibi, Likud and Feiglin, Jonathan Pollard and the daily Gaza (and Yehuda, Shomron) war news.
The reason is basically because these three issues most closely focus in on the ongoing political/spiritual (or lack thereof) war between the forces of darkness, apathy and stagnation and the forces of light and Jewish self-pride and spirituality for the minds, hearts and souls
of masses of Israelis.