Pre-Elections Analysis, 6 Days and Counting Down …
The Case for Likud, by Evelyn Gordon
Netanyahu: Only the Likud Can Stop Olmert’s Withdrawal
Landau Concerned Over [Olmert’s] Plans to Hand Over Old City
Olmert: Only Pro-Uprooting Parties in My Government
Kadima Fears Low Voter Turnout
The Right Could Win it All. Here’s How …
NU-NRP: Students Don’t Buy the Kadima Bluff
It’s Time to Think Big and Take Power in Israel
Marzel: 57,000 Voters Commit to Hazit – Enough for Knesset Threshold
Another Take on Next Tuesday’s Elections …
With thanks to and permission of Ellen Horowitz.
Until a week ago, every time I spotted flocks of migratory birds from my kitchen window in the Golan Heights, I would grab the binoculars and rush the kids outside to watch a spectacular site. Nowadays, when I spot the flocks, I yell “duck”, grab the kids, and race into the house for cover.
That I have 10 chickens running around my backyard adds to my anxiety. I’ve come to like my chickens. If you recall, two years ago Purim, I expressed a different type of chicken anxiety in “One Tough Chicken.” And so every morning, I arise and look out of my window to see if they’re all still alive and well. It gives new meaning to the expression, counting your chickens before they…croak (G-d forbid).
Avi Bieber Speaks Out For What’s Right …
Received an email today from Manhigut Yehudit; a press release on Avi Bieber’s recent speech at Manhigut Yehudit 4th Annual Dinner on Shushan Purim.
By Faige Lobel,
Public Relations Director, Manhigut Yehudit USA
Nearly 450 people turned out for the Manhigut Yehudit 4th Annual Dinner on Shushan Purim (March 15, ’06) and they gave Israeli hero, Avi Bieber, a standing ovation. Avi is the young soldier who stood up to his commanding officer and a Brigadier General at Shirat HaYam, Gush Katif, informing them in no uncertain terms that Jews do not beat Jews, Jews do not expel Jews – it’s not right and it’s not just! For those statements, captured live on video and TV, Corporal Avi Bieber spent 56 days in jail.
Olmert’s Withdrawal: “Against United States Interests”
Americans Unite Against Further Pullout, by Aaron Klein
Excerpts;
Group calls Israeli plan to cede strategic territory victory for worldwide terror.
A number of Christian and Jewish American groups have announced the formation of an umbrella organization that will lobby against acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s plan to withdraw Jewish communities from the West Bank, arguing in part any withdrawal would be against United States interests.
“Olmert’s plan means the destruction of the Jewish state. Judea and Samaria is part of Israel’s biblical homeland. It borders Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and most other major Israeli cities. There is not a single doubt if Israel vacated this heartland it would be turned over to Islamic terror groups for use to attack Israel with missiles,” said Susan Roth, founder of the United Front for the Land of Israel, the new coalition of American organizations acting against an Israeli West Bank evacuation.
Overnight War News …
Gaza: IDF Kills 2 Palestinian Terrorists
Terrorists [Killed North of Kissufim] Were Affiliated With Islamic Jihad
18 Arrests Made in Counter-Terrorism Operations
Two Soldiers Injured in Shechem Counter-Terrorism Operation
Anti-Tank Rocket Fired at Soldiers
Kassam Fired at Israel, Lands in Gaza Strip
Two IDF Soldiers Lightly Wounded in Nablus
IDF Special Forces Foil Planned Terrorist Bombing
Firebomb Attack on Israeli Vehicle
Parshiyot Vayakhel/Pekudei 5766: Unity of Klal Israel = Leadership Accountability & Transparency …
This author has used the expression before, but this year it is truly appropo; What a difference a year makes. Last year, on Shushan Purim, rather than partying with the Rav in Jerusalem on Shushan Purim, a group of us were in Neve Dekalim installing a Sefer Torah. It was a gala celebration against that looming expulsion, then 4 1/2 months off. We installed the Sefer Torah and davened to Hashem that the gezeira be lifted.
Mofaz: Political Lightweight, Diplomatic Naivete’, Height of Arrogance …
Mofaz Presents Israel’s Final Borders
Full Text;
Israel will begin setting its final borders over the next two years according to a plan based on including the major West Bank settlement blocs and the Jordan Valley, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday.
Spelling out his vision of the future borders, Mofaz said in an exclusive interview that Israel would retain control over the settlements of Ofarim and Beit Aryeh, currently on the Palestinian side of the security fence. He also indicated that the withdrawal from the West Bank would include civilians and the military. But, he said, Israel would retain a “free hand” to operate within the evacuated areas at its discretion.
Esther Pollard to Olmert: “If the Prime Minister Will Not respond at Once … by Making an Immediate Appeal to President Bush … , Then He Personally will be Sentencing Jonathan to Death.”
Pollards Grateful After US Supreme Court Dismissal
For more background on Jonathan Pollard and his 21 years of incarceration in US Prisons for helping Israel and his betrayal by the Government of Israel, click here.
Excerpt;
Jonathan and Esther Pollard wish to express admiration, gratitude and profound respect to their American attorneys, Eliot Lauer and Jacques Semmelman, for their heroic, undying, untiring efforts to secure justice for Jonathan Pollard, against insuperable odds. Their courage, determination, dedication and devotion to the truth has done the Jewish People great honor and been an enormous Kiddush HaShem.
The Government of Israel’s Blogospheric Incompetence …
Prove Israel Cares About World Jewry, by Michael Freund
Excerpts;
For a country that is supposed to be concerned with safeguarding Jewish interests around the globe, Israel sure has a funny way of showing it. To get a sense of how the government views this issue, I decided to take a look at the Web site of the Ministry for Diaspora Affairs, which seemed like the natural place to start.
As it turns out, the Diaspora Affairs Ministry does not even have its own Web site, which speaks volumes about the role this body plays in serving as a bridge to world Jewry. Instead, it gets a whopping total of one – count ’em, one! – Web page that is static and bereft of any useful data, and which is, moreover, buried away deep within the confines of the Prime Minister’s Office site.