Then they make war anyway.

It’s as if the entire Islamic culture is a real-life parody of the “Mars Attacks” Martians.

Now, if Abbas were to convert to Judaism, announce that the Torah says that G-d promissed the land to the Jews, and that the Jews promised to follow the Torah, and that following the Torah includes Torah study, and includes observance of Shabbat, shemittah and kashrut, THEN Olmert and his bunch would decide that Abbas had crossed the line.

The fact that Bialik was wrong about the meaning of religion, and that Alterman was wrong about staying “dirty” has led to the current lack of life in the “Jewish” state today. It is becoming only the religious who still understand what it really means to be a Zionist as people like Olmert try to flee their identity. Had they lived in Europe, they would have been in the lead of the groups that proclaimed “Berlin is Jerusalem”. Only because they are in Israel and citizens of that state do they push themselves forward and attempt to cause the suicide of the state. That way they can justify their desire to run away to themselves.

We see from Purim what it really means. Moshe and Yehoshua fought Amalek without ever losing sit of the fact that it is only when we remember that we owe it to Hashem that we can win.

(paraphrase) When Moshe raised his hands, the Children of Israel won, when he was forced to lower them, they faced defeat. Was it actually the hands of Moshe that caused them to win or lose? It was actually, when the Children of Israel remembered Hashem that they were able to win.

How did the work on the temple restart after it had been stopped (as explained in the book of Ezra). When Chagai the prophet told them to start building again without waiting for permission, the order rescinding their permission was “lost”. Looking at the timeline in Ezra, we can figure out that the king at that time was the son of Achasverosh and the letters reinstituting the permission must have been written by Mordechai and Esther “in the king’s name” (he must have been a child then given the time interval shown in Ezra).

Yes, because the settlements are more than just housing. They are the front line of the War On Jews the Palestinans wage against Israel, and when they were uprooted from the Gaza Strip, that front line was pushed back to Sderot and now Ashkelon.

Pulling the settlements out of the West Bank will similarly move the front line of the War On Jews back to Tel Aviv.

Israel carries on building irregardless.

The comments about them being “illegal” or “unhelpful,” does lend credence to the “Palestinians” false claims to Jerusalem, and the rest of Judea/Samaria though. Which is irritating.

(No, Gordis is not an ultra-orthodox nut: he’s a scholar at the Shalem Center.)

That’s why the Labor-Likud divide is also a secular-religious divide: people with a living connection to Judaism have no problem justifying Israeli self-defense.

Meryl – this one is worth a post and a link. Read the whole thing:
http://www.danielgordis.org/Site/Site_ViewDispatches.asp?id=16

wake up Israel!!!