I can't imagine a heart so cold and unfeeling that it wouldn't want to help our troops in any possible way. So when I came across the following list of web sites, I thought all of you would like to know about them.
http://www.operationhomelink.org - Free computers for spouses or parents of deployed soldier in ranks E1 - E5.
https://www.operationuplink.org - Free phone cards.
http://anysoldier.com/ForSoldiersOnly.cfm - To sign up for sponsoring soldier care packages for theater.
http://www.operationshoebox.com - free shoebox care package.
http://www.treatthetroops.org -free cookies.
http://bluestarmoms.org/airfare.html - lowest airfare available.
http://bluestarmoms.org/care.html - free care packages.
http://www.heromiles.org - free air travel for Emergency Leave, and for the family members of injured soldiers to travel to Medical facility.
http://www.bluestarmothers.org/airlinespecials.php - Airline discounts for R & R.
http://www.booksforsoldiers.com/forum/index.php - free books, DVD's, CD's.
http://www.militarymoms.net/sot.html free care packages (your family member signs up to have sent to you).
http://operationmilitarypride.org/smsignup.html - free care packages.
http://www.soldiersangels.org/heroes/submit_a_soldier.php - get adopted to receive stuff.
https://www.treatsfortroops.com/registration/index.php - free gifts and care packages.
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Nov2004/n11232004_2004112312 free shipping/packing materials for shipping to troops.
And don't forget to thank them individually and applaud them collectively.
Thursday, October 5
Franks and Foley
Talk about tempests in teapots! Why don't Republicans remind the nation that Rep. Barney Franks (D-MA) is still serving in Congress. He, unlike Foley, actually did have sex with a homosexual back in the 1980s, complete with the attendant scandal. Didn't hurt his career at all. Perhaps it's better to do it than to talk about it.
Sunday, September 17
Through The Glass Darkly
Saudi "scholar" Suleiman al-Omar declared in June 2004: "Islam is advancing according to a steady plan. America will be destroyed." He may be right and here are some of the reasons why:
* American dependence on Middle East oil. Although American nuclear scientists had learned how to neutralize and dispose of nuclear waste, the US Department of Energy shut down the only facility in this country that could accomplish that safely and without risk. It would take 20 years to reactivate it.
* American insistence that entrepreneurism and free markets, competition and freedom of choice are the way to a better life for Muslims. Islamists reject that. "The West calls for freedom and
liberty. Islam rejects such liberty. True liberty is obedience to
Alla," as Sheikh Mohammed al-Tabatabi said in 2004. Judeo-Christians understood that and built America on those principles in the first place. America has lost her moral focus.
* The division in America over the war. Some don't believe we're at war at all, others want to take the fight to the terrorists. Some advise "dialogue," others want to nuke Islamic sites. "A house divided against itself" cannot win.
* The fact that the Muslims use the media and the Internet quite skillfully to con Western politicians and especially the Western media. The fact that al-Jazeera is aided and abetted by Western journalists is an example of this.
* The low level of Western political leadership. There is no FDR on the political scene with the ability to con, charm and downright lead this country into the kind of all-out effort to win this war or any other. The nation must be rallied the way it was in the 1940s, to be willing to make the necessary sacrifices to get "down and dirty" to win this thing. The position of Secretary of Defense should NEVER be held by a civilian, especially in wartime.
* The lack of understanding, especially among American "progressives" of the true nature of the Islamic revival. They prefer to blame the revival on colonialism, ignoring the truth of Islam -- its oppression of dissent, its maltreatment of women, its hatred of groups like Jews and gays and its committment to use violence against them. "Progressives" prefer to overlook those little details and instead call attention to the mistakes Western governments have made in the past.
* Inconsistency in US policy. The "experts," academics and commentators who are the apologists for the worst that is done in the name of Islam. Bloggers and pundits who believe that their opinions are more important than the issues. With all this conflicting advice, US policy has become increasingly inconsistent.
* Underestimation of the Muslim world community and misunderstanding the nature of Islam. It is not a "religion of peace" nor is it a "religion hijacked" or "perverted" by "the few". Its moral intransigence and its jihadist ethic along with the refusal of most Muslims to share a common set of values with non-Muslims is justified by the Koran.
As David Selbourne wrote recently in the London Times, "Islam is not even a religion in the conventional sense of the term. It is a transnational political and ethical movement that believes that it holds the solution to mankind's problems. It therefore holds that it is in mankind's own interests to be subdued under Islam's rule. Such belief therefore makes an absurdity of the project to "democratise" Muslim nations in the West's interests, an inversion that Islam cannot accept and, in its own terms, rightly so. It renders naive, too, the distinction between the military and political wings of Islamic movements; and makes Donald Rumsfeld's assertion in June 2005 that the insurgents in Iraq "don't have vision, they're losers" merely foolish."
If we pull out of Iraq and leave Afghanistan, it is entirely possible that the best that could happen would be that we in the United States will have to learn to live as the Israelis do -- with terrorist bombings in our restaurants, hotels and theaters because Americans refuse to see the true nature of what we're up against. It's even more likely that we'll face nuclear suitcase bombs in our cities once Iran acquires capability to spread that technology around.
It's certainly not the future we invisioned for our grandchildren.
* American dependence on Middle East oil. Although American nuclear scientists had learned how to neutralize and dispose of nuclear waste, the US Department of Energy shut down the only facility in this country that could accomplish that safely and without risk. It would take 20 years to reactivate it.
* American insistence that entrepreneurism and free markets, competition and freedom of choice are the way to a better life for Muslims. Islamists reject that. "The West calls for freedom and
liberty. Islam rejects such liberty. True liberty is obedience to
Alla," as Sheikh Mohammed al-Tabatabi said in 2004. Judeo-Christians understood that and built America on those principles in the first place. America has lost her moral focus.
* The division in America over the war. Some don't believe we're at war at all, others want to take the fight to the terrorists. Some advise "dialogue," others want to nuke Islamic sites. "A house divided against itself" cannot win.
* The fact that the Muslims use the media and the Internet quite skillfully to con Western politicians and especially the Western media. The fact that al-Jazeera is aided and abetted by Western journalists is an example of this.
* The low level of Western political leadership. There is no FDR on the political scene with the ability to con, charm and downright lead this country into the kind of all-out effort to win this war or any other. The nation must be rallied the way it was in the 1940s, to be willing to make the necessary sacrifices to get "down and dirty" to win this thing. The position of Secretary of Defense should NEVER be held by a civilian, especially in wartime.
* The lack of understanding, especially among American "progressives" of the true nature of the Islamic revival. They prefer to blame the revival on colonialism, ignoring the truth of Islam -- its oppression of dissent, its maltreatment of women, its hatred of groups like Jews and gays and its committment to use violence against them. "Progressives" prefer to overlook those little details and instead call attention to the mistakes Western governments have made in the past.
* Inconsistency in US policy. The "experts," academics and commentators who are the apologists for the worst that is done in the name of Islam. Bloggers and pundits who believe that their opinions are more important than the issues. With all this conflicting advice, US policy has become increasingly inconsistent.
* Underestimation of the Muslim world community and misunderstanding the nature of Islam. It is not a "religion of peace" nor is it a "religion hijacked" or "perverted" by "the few". Its moral intransigence and its jihadist ethic along with the refusal of most Muslims to share a common set of values with non-Muslims is justified by the Koran.
As David Selbourne wrote recently in the London Times, "Islam is not even a religion in the conventional sense of the term. It is a transnational political and ethical movement that believes that it holds the solution to mankind's problems. It therefore holds that it is in mankind's own interests to be subdued under Islam's rule. Such belief therefore makes an absurdity of the project to "democratise" Muslim nations in the West's interests, an inversion that Islam cannot accept and, in its own terms, rightly so. It renders naive, too, the distinction between the military and political wings of Islamic movements; and makes Donald Rumsfeld's assertion in June 2005 that the insurgents in Iraq "don't have vision, they're losers" merely foolish."
If we pull out of Iraq and leave Afghanistan, it is entirely possible that the best that could happen would be that we in the United States will have to learn to live as the Israelis do -- with terrorist bombings in our restaurants, hotels and theaters because Americans refuse to see the true nature of what we're up against. It's even more likely that we'll face nuclear suitcase bombs in our cities once Iran acquires capability to spread that technology around.
It's certainly not the future we invisioned for our grandchildren.
Friday, August 18
Face It, America
Until the USA faces the truth, we are in mortal danger. The truth:
1. There are no innocent civilians in World War III.
As long as there are mothers who will fill their baby's bottles with chemicals and take them on airplanes to blow them up, there are no innocent civilians.
As long as parents allow their children to carry explosives in back packs with the intention of blowing up restaurants and convoys, there are no innocent civilians.
But most important of all, as long as the Muslim community refuses to take responsibility for the insurgents in their midst and decline to purge them, one-at-a-time if necessary, there are NO innocent civilians.
If the Lebanese army would rout the Hezbollah from Lebanon, there would be no Israeli invasions. If the Syrians and Iranians would purge the killers from their midst, there would be no danger for the rest of the world.
In the meantime, however, the United States should (and really must) blow up all of the Iranian and Syrian oil fields to cut off terrorist financing.
1. There are no innocent civilians in World War III.
As long as there are mothers who will fill their baby's bottles with chemicals and take them on airplanes to blow them up, there are no innocent civilians.
As long as parents allow their children to carry explosives in back packs with the intention of blowing up restaurants and convoys, there are no innocent civilians.
But most important of all, as long as the Muslim community refuses to take responsibility for the insurgents in their midst and decline to purge them, one-at-a-time if necessary, there are NO innocent civilians.
If the Lebanese army would rout the Hezbollah from Lebanon, there would be no Israeli invasions. If the Syrians and Iranians would purge the killers from their midst, there would be no danger for the rest of the world.
In the meantime, however, the United States should (and really must) blow up all of the Iranian and Syrian oil fields to cut off terrorist financing.
Thursday, August 3
Hezbollah is Our Enemy, Too
by Jeff Jacoby Boston Globe
According to a pair of Gallup polls released last week, 83 percent of
Americans say Israel is justified in taking military action against
Hezbollah, while 76 percent disapprove of Hezbollah's attacks on
Israel. Yet when asked which side in the conflict the United States
should take, 65 percent answer: neither side. Indeed, 3 in 4
Americans say they are concerned that the US military will be drawn
into the fighting, or that it will increase the likelihood of
terrorism against the United States.
Gallup's numbers suggest two things. First, that most Americans,
sizing up the warfare in northern Israel and southern Lebanon,
recognize that Hezbollah is the aggressor and that Israel is fighting
in self-defense. And second, that most Americans believe this fight
has nothing to do with the United States.
Welcome to Sept. 10.
For years Osama bin Laden had preached that it was "the duty of
Muslims to confront, fight, and kill" Americans. His adherents had
responded by blowing up the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, and
slamming a boat laden with explosives into the USS Cole. Yet most
Americans paid no attention to Al Qaeda and its threats — until 3,000
people lost their lives on Sept. 11, 2001.
Has nothing been learned from that experience?
Hezbollah's barbaric assault on Israel — kidnapping and murdering
soldiers who weren't engaged in hostilities, firing waves of missiles
into cities and towns, packing rockets with ball bearings meant to
maximize suffering by shredding human flesh — is part and parcel of
the radical Islamist jihad against the free world. Nothing to do with
the United States? It has everything to do with the United States.
Hezbollah hates Americans at least as implacably as Al Qaeda does,
and rarely misses an opportunity to say so.
"We consider [America] to be an enemy because it wants to humiliate
our governments, our regimes, and our peoples," railed Sheik Hassan
Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, at an enormous rally in February
2005. (Video of Nasrallah's speech, which was broadcast on
Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV, has been posted on the internet by MEMRI,
the Middle East Media Research Institute.) "It is the greatest
plunderer of our treasures, our oil, and our resources. . . . Our
motto, which we are not afraid to repeat year after year, is: 'Death
to America!' "
And from tens of thousands of Hezbollah supporters came the answering
cry: "Death to America! Death to America! Death to America! Death to
America!"
These are anything but empty threats. Prior to 9/11, Hezbollah was
responsible for more American casualties than any other terrorist
organization in the world. Among its victims was Army officer William
F. Buckley, the CIA station chief in Beirut who was abducted by
Hezbollah in March 1984 and who died after 15 months in captivity of
torture and illness.
And the young Navy diver Robert Stethem, singled out during the 1985
Hezbollah hijacking of TWA Flight 847 and brutally beaten before
being shot to death.
And William Higgins, a colonel in the Marine Corps and commander of
the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, who was seized by Hezbollah
in February 1988, tortured, and eventually hanged. (As Michelle
Malkin perceptively noted last week, the tape of Higgins, bound and
gagged and swinging from a rope, was one of the first publicly
disseminated jihadi snuff films.)
And the 241 US servicemen murdered by Hezbollah on Oct. 23, 1983,
when a suicide bomber drove a truck rigged with 12,000 pounds of TNT
into their barracks at the Beirut airport.
And the 19 US servicemen killed in the 1996 bombing of Khobar Towers
in Saudi Arabia.
For more than two decades, Hezbollah's Shi'ite fanatics, backed by
Iran and sheltered by Syria, have made it their business to murder,
maim, hijack, and kidnap Americans with the same irrational hostility
they harbor for Israel. Yet when Tony Snow, the Bush administration's
gifted spokesman, was asked on July 19 whether the president
believes "that this is as much the United States' war as it is
Israel's war," he answered, "No," and then tried to change the
subject. A moment later the question returned: "I don't think you
really answered the part about why is this not our war?"
Snow's incredible reply: "Why would it be our war? I mean, it's not
on our territory. This is a war in which the United States — it's not
even a war. What you have are hostilities, at this point, between
Israel and Hezbollah. I would not characterize it as a war."
9/11, it was said time and time again, "changed everything." No
longer would Americans walk around with eyes wide shut, oblivious to
the threat from the Islamofascists. Not our war? Listen again to the
Hezbollah hordes: "Death to America! Death to America!"
They're serious about it — deadly serious. Why aren't we?
According to a pair of Gallup polls released last week, 83 percent of
Americans say Israel is justified in taking military action against
Hezbollah, while 76 percent disapprove of Hezbollah's attacks on
Israel. Yet when asked which side in the conflict the United States
should take, 65 percent answer: neither side. Indeed, 3 in 4
Americans say they are concerned that the US military will be drawn
into the fighting, or that it will increase the likelihood of
terrorism against the United States.
Gallup's numbers suggest two things. First, that most Americans,
sizing up the warfare in northern Israel and southern Lebanon,
recognize that Hezbollah is the aggressor and that Israel is fighting
in self-defense. And second, that most Americans believe this fight
has nothing to do with the United States.
Welcome to Sept. 10.
For years Osama bin Laden had preached that it was "the duty of
Muslims to confront, fight, and kill" Americans. His adherents had
responded by blowing up the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, and
slamming a boat laden with explosives into the USS Cole. Yet most
Americans paid no attention to Al Qaeda and its threats — until 3,000
people lost their lives on Sept. 11, 2001.
Has nothing been learned from that experience?
Hezbollah's barbaric assault on Israel — kidnapping and murdering
soldiers who weren't engaged in hostilities, firing waves of missiles
into cities and towns, packing rockets with ball bearings meant to
maximize suffering by shredding human flesh — is part and parcel of
the radical Islamist jihad against the free world. Nothing to do with
the United States? It has everything to do with the United States.
Hezbollah hates Americans at least as implacably as Al Qaeda does,
and rarely misses an opportunity to say so.
"We consider [America] to be an enemy because it wants to humiliate
our governments, our regimes, and our peoples," railed Sheik Hassan
Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, at an enormous rally in February
2005. (Video of Nasrallah's speech, which was broadcast on
Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV, has been posted on the internet by MEMRI,
the Middle East Media Research Institute.) "It is the greatest
plunderer of our treasures, our oil, and our resources. . . . Our
motto, which we are not afraid to repeat year after year, is: 'Death
to America!' "
And from tens of thousands of Hezbollah supporters came the answering
cry: "Death to America! Death to America! Death to America! Death to
America!"
These are anything but empty threats. Prior to 9/11, Hezbollah was
responsible for more American casualties than any other terrorist
organization in the world. Among its victims was Army officer William
F. Buckley, the CIA station chief in Beirut who was abducted by
Hezbollah in March 1984 and who died after 15 months in captivity of
torture and illness.
And the young Navy diver Robert Stethem, singled out during the 1985
Hezbollah hijacking of TWA Flight 847 and brutally beaten before
being shot to death.
And William Higgins, a colonel in the Marine Corps and commander of
the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, who was seized by Hezbollah
in February 1988, tortured, and eventually hanged. (As Michelle
Malkin perceptively noted last week, the tape of Higgins, bound and
gagged and swinging from a rope, was one of the first publicly
disseminated jihadi snuff films.)
And the 241 US servicemen murdered by Hezbollah on Oct. 23, 1983,
when a suicide bomber drove a truck rigged with 12,000 pounds of TNT
into their barracks at the Beirut airport.
And the 19 US servicemen killed in the 1996 bombing of Khobar Towers
in Saudi Arabia.
For more than two decades, Hezbollah's Shi'ite fanatics, backed by
Iran and sheltered by Syria, have made it their business to murder,
maim, hijack, and kidnap Americans with the same irrational hostility
they harbor for Israel. Yet when Tony Snow, the Bush administration's
gifted spokesman, was asked on July 19 whether the president
believes "that this is as much the United States' war as it is
Israel's war," he answered, "No," and then tried to change the
subject. A moment later the question returned: "I don't think you
really answered the part about why is this not our war?"
Snow's incredible reply: "Why would it be our war? I mean, it's not
on our territory. This is a war in which the United States — it's not
even a war. What you have are hostilities, at this point, between
Israel and Hezbollah. I would not characterize it as a war."
9/11, it was said time and time again, "changed everything." No
longer would Americans walk around with eyes wide shut, oblivious to
the threat from the Islamofascists. Not our war? Listen again to the
Hezbollah hordes: "Death to America! Death to America!"
They're serious about it — deadly serious. Why aren't we?
Wednesday, August 2
A Jewish View of the War
Date: July 30, 2006 2:48 PM
Dear -----,
There are four buses parked outside the public school just down my
block . The buses fill up with tens of soldiers who are on their way
up to the north .They are reserves. I can see some men in uniform in
the playground, pushing their young kids on the swing. They don't
know when they will be back. 2 weeks ago, on Friday night, Shabbat,
in the middle of the night, 3 other buses left from the same
location. From all over the country different units are called to
meet at their location to be bused up with their group.
We are in our 21st day of the war.
Though in Ra'anana rockets do not fly, and for that we are totally
grateful, there IS a local daily war effort.
Two weeks ago our shul e-mail sent out an urgent message. 150 people
have arrived at the local dormitory school. They need towels. "We
want 100 towels, new or used by 7:30 *tonight*". When I dropped some
off at 7 it looked like they had met their goal.
Next e-mail, same day, due to lack of time "we" (a local young rabbi
and his family) bought groceries and toiletries for these 150 who had
literally fled their homes in the north. We are looking for donations
to cover the cost of items *that have already been bought and
distributed.* Talk about cutting out the middle men. Talk about
taking matters into your own hands.
Later in the week the municipality of Ra'anana asked for residents to
house people from up north. At first I thought, it was enough, I had
done my part. There wasn't much room and I'm not home during the day
to look after strangers in my house. But then I thought, they are
fellow Jews with missiles landing near their homes. Some are old, and
some are babies and they are running EVERY HOUR to the local shelter
because they live in apartments without a useable shelter.
So I called and offered our house. I called 3 times to offer because
no-one was taking me up on my offer. After that I realized that God
was sending me a message. If no-one is coming and you offered 3
times, then maybe he is giving you a break!
The next day they joyfully called and told me they had found the
perfect family, dati , 2 young kids from Tzfat.
"They are in a bad way," the social worker said. They want to leave
first thing tomorrow morning (it was Thursday night). I called right
away, to "invite" this family.
"Well. we aren't sure. My husband wants to be with the family for
Shabbat"
It turns out that this is not uncommon. The wives want to get away
and the husbands prefer to stick it out.
"Call me after Shabbat", I said, if you still want to come.
I haven't heard from them.
Our kids keep asking, are they coming? are they coming? They want
people.
Earlier in the week another e-mail went out that an organization
called "Table to Table that collects food for the needy and delivers
packages was putting together packages for the soldiers. Asking for
volunteer to help pack I went, (Elisheva brought Elana, Avital and
Eitan were still in camp) 3 long tables were set up, assembly-line
style in a dark, un-air-conditioned warehouse. Donated goods from
Elite, and private donations, were swiftly loaded into individual
bags, chips, chocolate bars, jelly beans, sometimes soap, then tied
and tossed into a huge crate. We filled one crate every 12 minutes.
We filled about 10 such crates in an hour. Then huge guys loaded the
crates up onto 2 trucks, which were driven up north to be handed out
to soldiers.
From the beginning of the war a family in R'anana has used their
house a place to drop off cakes to give to residents in the north as
a small treat to let them know we care and that it is hard to bake
for Shabbat when you are running all day to the shelters. They
collect from 8-10 Friday morning and have someone drive the cakes up
for Shabbat. After 2 Fridays they asked us to please pack up and send
some art supplies to occupy the kids who are stuck for hours in the
shelter. So it was a chance for people to get rid of all their extra
coloring books and stuff. Some people even went out and bought new
art supplies. I went out and bought different art supplies, window
paints and transparencies, markers and construction paper, mosaic
tiles and cardboards and glue. I found some old shoe boxes ( a few
too many of those in my house) and small gift boxes and made boxes of
2 craft projects each for about 10 kids. Then we printed big
labels "craft projects made by Eitan , Avital, Elana and Noam
Fortinsky, Akiva 73 Rannana." Sometimes people want to know where its
from to thank you and put a name or family to a gift. Anyway, when I
delivered the boxes on Friday morning I saw there were tables of
stuff, cakes, coloring books, reading books a few toys. The organizer
came over and thanked me over and over. "how did you think to package
it,? Where did you get the boxes? If everyone would package we
wouldn't have to spend hours sorting through tables of stuff and
repackaging into boxes!"
I really didn't realize it was a big deal . I just thought it would
be easier to hand out that way.
On Shabbat my friend came over to me and said she started crying when
she saw my small boxes. Of course she was there delivering her brand
new craft materials and books but she said she was so moved to see
the names of the kids and those neat small boxes that she just
started crying.
You see, everyone is making an effort. Everyone is trying. Because
this is our war. Though we are not on the front lines, our friends
kids are. When Benjy Hillman of Shwartz streeet in Ra'anana's apache
helicopter crashed,everyone was affected. He was married 3 weeks
before. When Ro'I Klein, father, husband and son, who grew up in
Ra'anana, was killed as he threw himself on a grenade in Binj Bent in
order to successfully save his 2 fellow soldiers, all fellow Jews
were amazed at his bravery.
Although we aren't on the front lines we are the home front
supporting them and our need to help and their needs, are our
responsibility.
The rav said this Shabbat that Rambam, in Hilchot Melachim, talks
about a war like this. It is not a war for our children, or our
parents or even for our country. It is a war for Hashem. WE are doing
the fighting for him. All of our soldiers truly know that. That is
how they can throw their own bodies on a grenade. Because the Mesirut
Nefesh for Hashem is what drives all of us to do our best, and we all
pray. It is what will help to rebuild the Beit Hamikdash , in our
day.
So, that is what we are doing these days in Ra'anana, and that is
what it is like living in Israel during a war and I hope I got some
of the feeling across in a way different from the regular media.
Wishing you all a Tzom Mo'eel,
Hadassah
Dear -----,
There are four buses parked outside the public school just down my
block . The buses fill up with tens of soldiers who are on their way
up to the north .They are reserves. I can see some men in uniform in
the playground, pushing their young kids on the swing. They don't
know when they will be back. 2 weeks ago, on Friday night, Shabbat,
in the middle of the night, 3 other buses left from the same
location. From all over the country different units are called to
meet at their location to be bused up with their group.
We are in our 21st day of the war.
Though in Ra'anana rockets do not fly, and for that we are totally
grateful, there IS a local daily war effort.
Two weeks ago our shul e-mail sent out an urgent message. 150 people
have arrived at the local dormitory school. They need towels. "We
want 100 towels, new or used by 7:30 *tonight*". When I dropped some
off at 7 it looked like they had met their goal.
Next e-mail, same day, due to lack of time "we" (a local young rabbi
and his family) bought groceries and toiletries for these 150 who had
literally fled their homes in the north. We are looking for donations
to cover the cost of items *that have already been bought and
distributed.* Talk about cutting out the middle men. Talk about
taking matters into your own hands.
Later in the week the municipality of Ra'anana asked for residents to
house people from up north. At first I thought, it was enough, I had
done my part. There wasn't much room and I'm not home during the day
to look after strangers in my house. But then I thought, they are
fellow Jews with missiles landing near their homes. Some are old, and
some are babies and they are running EVERY HOUR to the local shelter
because they live in apartments without a useable shelter.
So I called and offered our house. I called 3 times to offer because
no-one was taking me up on my offer. After that I realized that God
was sending me a message. If no-one is coming and you offered 3
times, then maybe he is giving you a break!
The next day they joyfully called and told me they had found the
perfect family, dati , 2 young kids from Tzfat.
"They are in a bad way," the social worker said. They want to leave
first thing tomorrow morning (it was Thursday night). I called right
away, to "invite" this family.
"Well. we aren't sure. My husband wants to be with the family for
Shabbat"
It turns out that this is not uncommon. The wives want to get away
and the husbands prefer to stick it out.
"Call me after Shabbat", I said, if you still want to come.
I haven't heard from them.
Our kids keep asking, are they coming? are they coming? They want
people.
Earlier in the week another e-mail went out that an organization
called "Table to Table that collects food for the needy and delivers
packages was putting together packages for the soldiers. Asking for
volunteer to help pack I went, (Elisheva brought Elana, Avital and
Eitan were still in camp) 3 long tables were set up, assembly-line
style in a dark, un-air-conditioned warehouse. Donated goods from
Elite, and private donations, were swiftly loaded into individual
bags, chips, chocolate bars, jelly beans, sometimes soap, then tied
and tossed into a huge crate. We filled one crate every 12 minutes.
We filled about 10 such crates in an hour. Then huge guys loaded the
crates up onto 2 trucks, which were driven up north to be handed out
to soldiers.
From the beginning of the war a family in R'anana has used their
house a place to drop off cakes to give to residents in the north as
a small treat to let them know we care and that it is hard to bake
for Shabbat when you are running all day to the shelters. They
collect from 8-10 Friday morning and have someone drive the cakes up
for Shabbat. After 2 Fridays they asked us to please pack up and send
some art supplies to occupy the kids who are stuck for hours in the
shelter. So it was a chance for people to get rid of all their extra
coloring books and stuff. Some people even went out and bought new
art supplies. I went out and bought different art supplies, window
paints and transparencies, markers and construction paper, mosaic
tiles and cardboards and glue. I found some old shoe boxes ( a few
too many of those in my house) and small gift boxes and made boxes of
2 craft projects each for about 10 kids. Then we printed big
labels "craft projects made by Eitan , Avital, Elana and Noam
Fortinsky, Akiva 73 Rannana." Sometimes people want to know where its
from to thank you and put a name or family to a gift. Anyway, when I
delivered the boxes on Friday morning I saw there were tables of
stuff, cakes, coloring books, reading books a few toys. The organizer
came over and thanked me over and over. "how did you think to package
it,? Where did you get the boxes? If everyone would package we
wouldn't have to spend hours sorting through tables of stuff and
repackaging into boxes!"
I really didn't realize it was a big deal . I just thought it would
be easier to hand out that way.
On Shabbat my friend came over to me and said she started crying when
she saw my small boxes. Of course she was there delivering her brand
new craft materials and books but she said she was so moved to see
the names of the kids and those neat small boxes that she just
started crying.
You see, everyone is making an effort. Everyone is trying. Because
this is our war. Though we are not on the front lines, our friends
kids are. When Benjy Hillman of Shwartz streeet in Ra'anana's apache
helicopter crashed,everyone was affected. He was married 3 weeks
before. When Ro'I Klein, father, husband and son, who grew up in
Ra'anana, was killed as he threw himself on a grenade in Binj Bent in
order to successfully save his 2 fellow soldiers, all fellow Jews
were amazed at his bravery.
Although we aren't on the front lines we are the home front
supporting them and our need to help and their needs, are our
responsibility.
The rav said this Shabbat that Rambam, in Hilchot Melachim, talks
about a war like this. It is not a war for our children, or our
parents or even for our country. It is a war for Hashem. WE are doing
the fighting for him. All of our soldiers truly know that. That is
how they can throw their own bodies on a grenade. Because the Mesirut
Nefesh for Hashem is what drives all of us to do our best, and we all
pray. It is what will help to rebuild the Beit Hamikdash , in our
day.
So, that is what we are doing these days in Ra'anana, and that is
what it is like living in Israel during a war and I hope I got some
of the feeling across in a way different from the regular media.
Wishing you all a Tzom Mo'eel,
Hadassah
Sunday, July 16
Friday, July 7
From Bagdad to the New York Times
Lt. Tom Cotton writes this morning from Baghdad with a word for the New York Times:
Dear Messrs. Keller, Lichtblau & Risen:
Congratulations on disclosing our government's highly classified anti-terrorist-financing program (June 23). I apologize for not writing sooner, but I am a lieutenant in the United States Army and I spent the last four days patrolling one of the more dangerous areas in Iraq. (Alas, operational security and common sense prevents me from even revealing this unclassified location in a private medium like email.)
Unfortunately, as I supervised my soldiers late one night, I heard a booming explosion several miles away. I learned a few hours later that a powerful roadside bomb killed one soldier and severely injured another from my 130-man company. I deeply hope that we can find and kill or capture the terrorists responsible for that bomb. But, of course, these terrorists do not spring from the soil like Plato's guardians. No, they require financing to obtain mortars and artillery shells, priming explosives, wiring and circuitry, not to mention for training and payments to locals willing to emplace bombs in exchange for a few months' salary.
As your story states, the program was legal, briefed to Congress, supported in the government and financial industry, and very successful.
Not anymore. You may think you have done a public service, but you have gravely endangered the lives of my soldiers and all other soldiers and innocent Iraqis here. Next time I hear that familiar explosion -- or next time I feel it -- I will wonder whether we could have stopped that bomb had you not instructed terrorists how to evade our financial surveillance.
And, by the way, having graduated from Harvard Law and practiced with a federal appellate judge and two Washington law firms before becoming an infantry officer, I am well-versed in the espionage laws relevant to this story and others -- laws you have plainly violated. I hope that my colleagues at the Department of Justice match the courage of my soldiers here and prosecute you and your newspaper to the fullest extent of the law. By the time we return home, maybe you will be in your rightful place: not at the Pulitzer announcements, but behind bars.
Very truly yours,
Tom Cotton Baghdad, Iraq
Dear Messrs. Keller, Lichtblau & Risen:
Congratulations on disclosing our government's highly classified anti-terrorist-financing program (June 23). I apologize for not writing sooner, but I am a lieutenant in the United States Army and I spent the last four days patrolling one of the more dangerous areas in Iraq. (Alas, operational security and common sense prevents me from even revealing this unclassified location in a private medium like email.)
Unfortunately, as I supervised my soldiers late one night, I heard a booming explosion several miles away. I learned a few hours later that a powerful roadside bomb killed one soldier and severely injured another from my 130-man company. I deeply hope that we can find and kill or capture the terrorists responsible for that bomb. But, of course, these terrorists do not spring from the soil like Plato's guardians. No, they require financing to obtain mortars and artillery shells, priming explosives, wiring and circuitry, not to mention for training and payments to locals willing to emplace bombs in exchange for a few months' salary.
As your story states, the program was legal, briefed to Congress, supported in the government and financial industry, and very successful.
Not anymore. You may think you have done a public service, but you have gravely endangered the lives of my soldiers and all other soldiers and innocent Iraqis here. Next time I hear that familiar explosion -- or next time I feel it -- I will wonder whether we could have stopped that bomb had you not instructed terrorists how to evade our financial surveillance.
And, by the way, having graduated from Harvard Law and practiced with a federal appellate judge and two Washington law firms before becoming an infantry officer, I am well-versed in the espionage laws relevant to this story and others -- laws you have plainly violated. I hope that my colleagues at the Department of Justice match the courage of my soldiers here and prosecute you and your newspaper to the fullest extent of the law. By the time we return home, maybe you will be in your rightful place: not at the Pulitzer announcements, but behind bars.
Very truly yours,
Tom Cotton Baghdad, Iraq
Tuesday, July 4
Careless Talk of The Times
"Careless talk" is what the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times have published without responsibility, apology and without remorse. Vital intelligence has been compromised by irresponsible "leakers," reporters, editors and publishers. The person who leaked the report about the US tracking and cutting off terrorist funds should be prosecuted for treason, as should the reporters, editors and publishers of both newspapers.And frankly, since there is something each of us could do to stop such media irresponsibility, I don't understand why someone hasn't called for a boycott of both those newspapers.
Perhaps the American people don't understand the seriousness of the situation. Perhaps they've forgotten that we have undergone a series of attacks from an enemy that is far more elusive and far more destructive than any we have faced before. Certainly the editors and publishers of those two former great publications don't understand the nature of the problem.
They are quick to criticize the Administration for not publishing their plans for executing the war and when someone leaks vital and sensitive information to them, they are quick to publish that information with no regard for the damage it may do -- not only in terms of American lives lost but in terms of how those revelations might shut down intelligence gathering.
Of course terrorist militants knew we were trying to shut down their financing; what they didn't know, and what the NY and LA Times were happy to reveal to them, was how our government was going about it. I suspect those editors and publishers know full well the damage they have done, and they knew before they did it.
When our grandson was a small boy, he did not like mushrooms at all and went to extremes to avoid them. Once he even said, "I hate mushrooms so much that I hate everyone who likes mushrooms." That's about the way I feel about an irresponsible press that places this nation in further jeopardy and refuses to correct a terrible wrong. I think I hate the LA Times and the NY Times and everyone who likes them.
Sunday, June 25
"The sky is falling....The sky is falling."
Parade, the Sunday feature in newspapers all over the country, came out with a good one this morning (Sunday, June 25, 2006. It features an article by Eugene Linden titled, "Why You Can't Ignore the Changing Climate." Linden, who obviously hasn't researched his subject beyond the false UN reports and Gore's unscientific rantings, tells us the weather is changing. (Duh!)
In his sky-is-falling report, Linden claims that "We're making it worse" by burning gas and oil in engines. ". . . gas-guzzlers contribute to climate change," he writes and adds that those furnaces and engines have "pushed carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere far above where they've been for hundreds of thousands of years." Citing the thoroughly debunked Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (go to www.sepp.org and do a search on the panel for the truth), and Science Magazine (whose professional science credentials are non-existent)as his proof.
Now, no one would argue that the climate isn't changing -- it has been warming (and cooling and warming again) since the end of the Ice Age. The question is whether civilization has anything to do with it and there is NO (I repeat NO) true scientific evidence that it does. Again, if you're interested in what real scientists who have studied these things for years have to say on the subject, www.sepp.org is your best and most authoritative voice on the subject.
On that site you can also find out WHY certain politicians are so anxious to perpetuate this myth, but that's not what prompted this piece.
It's the last section in the article that caused me to do a double-take and sent me here, to the computer. In a section captioned, "Climate Has Destroyed Past Civilizations," Linden says that a drought in Mesopotamia 4,200 years ago destroyed that civilization (no doubt a result of the gas-fired SUVs and industrial furnaces of the Akkadian culture!) and that climate caused the collapse of the Mayan culture as well as the end of Norse expansion into the New World in the 14th century.
Doesn't Linden see that those very points destroy his argument? Yes, the climate has changed -- off and on, back and forth -- since the beginning of time. But hydrocarbons and man-made pollutants have only an irritant affect on local atmospheres. Scientists who have studied climates for years contend that there is absolutely no credible evidence to justify the claim that man has any control whatsoever over the climate.
"Past civilizations had no way to know that climates could change," he writes. "We do." But those civilizations also didn't have the technology Linden claims is causing climate changes. It follows that the technology in question wasn't a factor then, and isn't now. The reason for giving up gas-fired engines is more significantly grounded in our dependency on oil from the Middle East. But it's silly, useless, egotistical and foolish to claim that man can control the climates of the earth by getting rid of gas-fired engines, etc. The sky isn't falling, Mr. Linden.
In his sky-is-falling report, Linden claims that "We're making it worse" by burning gas and oil in engines. ". . . gas-guzzlers contribute to climate change," he writes and adds that those furnaces and engines have "pushed carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere far above where they've been for hundreds of thousands of years." Citing the thoroughly debunked Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (go to www.sepp.org and do a search on the panel for the truth), and Science Magazine (whose professional science credentials are non-existent)as his proof.
Now, no one would argue that the climate isn't changing -- it has been warming (and cooling and warming again) since the end of the Ice Age. The question is whether civilization has anything to do with it and there is NO (I repeat NO) true scientific evidence that it does. Again, if you're interested in what real scientists who have studied these things for years have to say on the subject, www.sepp.org is your best and most authoritative voice on the subject.
On that site you can also find out WHY certain politicians are so anxious to perpetuate this myth, but that's not what prompted this piece.
It's the last section in the article that caused me to do a double-take and sent me here, to the computer. In a section captioned, "Climate Has Destroyed Past Civilizations," Linden says that a drought in Mesopotamia 4,200 years ago destroyed that civilization (no doubt a result of the gas-fired SUVs and industrial furnaces of the Akkadian culture!) and that climate caused the collapse of the Mayan culture as well as the end of Norse expansion into the New World in the 14th century.
Doesn't Linden see that those very points destroy his argument? Yes, the climate has changed -- off and on, back and forth -- since the beginning of time. But hydrocarbons and man-made pollutants have only an irritant affect on local atmospheres. Scientists who have studied climates for years contend that there is absolutely no credible evidence to justify the claim that man has any control whatsoever over the climate.
"Past civilizations had no way to know that climates could change," he writes. "We do." But those civilizations also didn't have the technology Linden claims is causing climate changes. It follows that the technology in question wasn't a factor then, and isn't now. The reason for giving up gas-fired engines is more significantly grounded in our dependency on oil from the Middle East. But it's silly, useless, egotistical and foolish to claim that man can control the climates of the earth by getting rid of gas-fired engines, etc. The sky isn't falling, Mr. Linden.
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