My Terrible Hebrew

So, my wife's religious aunt from Israel is staying with my inlaws for the chagim, and she only speaks Yiddish and Hebrew. My inlaws speak fluent Yiddish and some Hebrew, and my wife speaks nearly fluent Hebrew, so there are no communication issues - for them. But me, I'm the moron who can't speak Hebrew (or Yiddish) a lick, and am completely unable to interact without their translation help. It is not making me happy.

You see, I can read Hebrew, and can pray in Hebrew, and know some words here and there in Hebrew, but as far as conversing in it I'm a complete disaster and it really pisses me off. The one thing that I've taken from this frustrating experience is the need to get off my ass and actually learn how to speak Hebrew once and for all. Consider this is my "resolution", so to speak.

Without knowing Hebrew I am unable to accomplish any of the goals I have as a Jew, both religiously and logistically. The time has come to climb this great mountain once and for all, so expect my posts in the future to include updates on my progress with this mission.

Anyhow, I had a very meaningful and enjoyable Rosh Hashana, and am very much looking forward to the rest of the holy days over the next few weeks. A special thank you to Nanc for checking in with me during my sabatical from blogging - I really do appreciate it.


~MZ

MZ is alive

Just currently lacking motivation to post very often. Happens from time to time. Hope all of you are well, and please continue to check back periodically for updates.

:)MZ

Illegal Arab squatters to be expelled

A ridiculously belated ruling to be sure, but still nice to see the illegal scum being tossed out like the pigs that they are.

(IsraelNN.com)

Yitzchak Herskovitz, 78, has won a critical battle in his 16-year legal struggle to regain control of his property from Arab squatters in Jerusalem. The Jerusalem District Court ruled in his favor that the contested property, in southern Jerusalem’s Givat HaMatos neighborhood, in fact belongs to him.

Herskovitz must now begin the complex process of having the illegal trespassers removed from the site. It appears clear that the police will have to be involved, and/or that the squatters will appeal the ruling yet again.

~MZ

Anti-Zionists suffer stinging defeat in Jaffa

In a stinging, bitter rebuke, a Tel Aviv courtroom today ruled against an anti-Zionist effort to prevent Religious-Zionist Jews from establishing a small neighborhood in Jaffa, the port city located just south of Tel Aviv with a very large arab population. The lawsuit was filed by ACRI (Association for Civil Rights in Israel), an anti-democratic, anti-Zionist/anti-Semitic, leftist organization that opposes the existence of the Jewish State (for more information about ACRI, go here).

In the ruling against the anti-Zionists, Tel Aviv District Court Judge Yehuda Zaft delivered a scathing condemnation of ACRI: “I would note parenthetically that on the face of it, the petitioners’ position reflects a built-in contradiction. On the one hand, they claim against limiting the availability of the apartments to the national-religious sector in a manner that is discriminatory and unequal – while on the other hand, as can be learned from the petition itself, the petitioners have acted and are acting to find housing for the Arab community in Jaffa; it need not be assumed that they are seeking land for construction for everyone, but rather only for one specific sector.”

“Had the winner of this tender targeted the apartments for the Arab sector,” concluded Judge Zaft, “it appears that the petitioners would not have found anything wrong with this.”

A bad day for anti-Semites, but a good day for Zionists.

~MZ

Netanyahu Speech

Obfuscation: the concealment of intended meaning in communication, making communication confusing, intentionally ambiguous, and more difficult to interpret.

Since Bibi Netanyahu lacks the intestinal fortitude to tell Barack Obama to go to hell, he instead chose to give a speech outlining how he will consider a two-state solution if the arabs lay down their weapons, cease all terrorist activity, have the PA take power over Hamas in Gaza, keep Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel, and have a completely demilitarized Palestinian state.

He may as well have told Obama to go to hell.

Bibi has in the past been hostile towards settlement growth, so his current determination to reassure America that he opposes any new settlements is not a new development. However, he did refuse to say he will end the "natural growth" policy, which means he took at least some kind of stand against Obama's unwanted arabist encroachment. In some respects he did a masterful job of backhanding away Obamessiah's demands, while at the same time, on the surface at least, throwing in that "two state" bone to allow America's dearest dictator to save some face.

I am expecting very little good from Bibi, who ultimately is a self serving pragmatist capable of much deeper concessions than he gave, so what I received from the speech was about the best I could hope for from a nationalist perspective. What it boils down to, politically, is Bibi will continue the status quo, which, though imperfect, is a marked improvement over the Kadima/Meretz policies of unconditional surrender we've seen under Sharon/Olmert/Livni.

~MZ

US Ties to Israel

American relations to Israel have long been considered not only just a valuable alliance by most Jews, but the absolute rock of Israel's very survival as a state. Surely, a survey of American Jews would reveal at least 90% convinced that US aid and political support is not only critical to Israel's survival, but the ONLY reason Israel is able to exist at all.

By such measure, Israel is simply a charitable, non-profit donation entity under the oversight of the US government. It's true sovereignty, in fact, remains rather blurry even for most Jewish supporters of Israel, who often believe Israel is obliged to act as any Jewish Federation receiving large donations - thankful, and willing to ultimately bow to what the donors want, and, if not, the funds will be cut off and they will no longer be able to survive.

I find the labeling of Israel as just another large Jewish non-profit agency incredibly inaccurate and condescending, and as a result have come to believe that perhaps having an administration more antagonistic towards Israel, as Obama's seems to be, may, in the long run, end up beneficial in pushing Israel in the direction of achieving authentic independence.

The fact of the matter is Israel is much more self sufficient than so many inflated Americans and nervous Israelis would have us believe. America gives Israel a paltry (by today's standards) $5 billion per year in aid. In return, Israel gives the US highly beneficial technology and intelligence, plus often does America's bidding in absorbing and confronting islamic terror. When taking everything into account, America is in many respects more dependent on Israel than Israel is of America, but, alas, perception is the rule, and Jews everywhere still see America as the parent nation without which Israel would surely be wiped off the map.

Sadly, the same dysfunctional perception exists in Israel, too. Come election time, the majority of voters will only choose candidates that they feel will please America, and not necessarily in their own independent self interests. They are terrified that should someone get elected that America doesn't approve of they will suddenly face another Holocaust without the parent US administration coming to the rescue as the savior.

The problem with such dependency on the US is that America's interests are often times counter to what actions and policies are best for Israel, often placing them in risky security predicaments, emboldening and empowering their enemies, and leaving them judged by the arabs as neutered, powerless and vulnerable as a result.

So, what is best for Israel, then? For starters, America needs to consider Israel an ally, not a country with a "special relationship". If Israel is attacked, well, then America needs to react the same as they would if Canada or Britain were attacked, i.e. with unconditional support for their response, not moral equivalence.

U.S. pressure on Israel to concede to their worst enemies under threat of blackmail may be all well and good with rich liberal donors, whose inflated egos lead them to believe they are the ones making Israel possible, like it's some kind of PBS documentary about Jewish life, but it's not good for the Jewish State and puts millions of Jewish lives in peril.

Time for Israel to start make decisions for themselves, like adults, and for America to begin treating them like friends, not dependents.

~MZ

Koran Scholar: Pigs are Jews and must be exterminated

Those wacky Islamic scholars have demonstrated yet again their legendary sense of humor by declaring that all pigs are descendants of Jews, and therefore must be exterminated as a species.  

What's that you say? No way!  Really?  You mean to tell me that they're serious?  Well, that can only mean one thing: Time for Israel to concede some land and release a few thousand imprisoned terrorists!

PMW: All pigs alive today are descendants of the Jews who were turned into pigs by Allah, according to a senior Egyptian religious leader. Since all pigs are descendants of Jews, it is obligatory to kill all pigs, says Sheikh Ahmed Ali Othman.

Presumably if pigs were merely animals, they would not face destruction. It is their Jewish ancestry that condemns them to death.

The Jordanian newspaper Al-Hakika al-Dawliya adds that this is not the only opinion. It cites Sheikh Ali Abu Al-Hassan, head of the Fatwa Committee at Al-Azhar [Sunni Islamic university], who believes that all the Jews who were turned into pigs by Allah died out without reproducing, and therefore there is no relationship between today's pigs and Jews.

Can't wait for President For Life Obama's arrival in Egypt, where he'll again declare America as an unconditional friend of the islamic world, and insist that Israel expel all the Jews from Judea to create an Islamic Palestinian State as a "good will gesture" for peace.  

~MZ