A letter I wrote to the British media...

Sir,

As a Londoner who has made his home in Jerusalem, I write to you with a tear in my eye. Yesterday's dreadful attack on Israeli citizens was not the first, nor will likely be the last, in a long chain.

September draws closer and the possibility of a Palestinian state becomes imminent, it is pertinent for us to ask ourselves whether the Palestinian leadership truly desire to live in peace with their Israeli neighbours. For all the talk of the evil of the occupation, Israelis have no assurances that the Palestinians seek to root out terrorism. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas might sound moderate, but scratch the surface and we see that terrorism is still glorified in the Territories. Just last year, Abbas dedicated a town square in the memory of Dalal Al-Mughrabi, a terrorist who hijacked a bus and murdered 37 Israelis in cold blood in 1978. Two summer camps also have the dubious honour of being named after this woman. It is evident that the Palestinian leadership is not interested in peaceful relations with Israel. Peace will only come when the Palestinians demonstrate their commitment to bring to justice and cease raising their children in an atmosphere of hate. Why is the Palestinian government not being pressured more to stop this wicked incitement? And why is Israel expected to allow a state characterised by such evil to arise?

Yours sincerely,

Elan Miller
Jerusalem

How to Start a Blood Libel in Four Easy Steps

This is a guest post by Yedidya Kennard.


STEP ONE - WRITE THE STORY

This is important. This is the story that you will have to stick to till the end, no matter what. It helps if part of the story is already well known - not true, but well known. For example, if your target is known to be an agressor, whether he is or isn't, this saves you a lot of work. For this reason it is important to keep a running campaign of libels, making all of them easily accepted.

The setting for your story is important. Boats are good, they bring to mind sun, beaches, deck chairs etc. If you can make it look like your target is bringing violence to a peaceful place, its always good. Of course, if your target is an army, you have an added advantage - soldiers are always associated with violence.

Try to link words with yourself that are associated with non-violence, that way even if you clearly are shown to be violent people will still be more inclined to believe you. Words like 'humanitarian' are good. Try and create a name for yourself involving words like 'freedom' or similar. It doesnt have to be relevant or true in any way, but if you can make it stick in the media they won't change it, no matter how clearly it is wrong.

STEP TWO - THE ACTION

It is important to be seen to lose. People like an underdog. Most people won't care who started or what happened; the main thing is the result. It may seem strange, but here you only win if you are seen to lose. After that, nothing else is really important. Also important is equipment, again you want to be seen here as the underdog. Words again are key. 'Guns' sounds bad, 'sticks' sound like a playground fight - even if you can kill people with them. 'Slingshots' are great too, remember, they are effective, they were once the long range weapon of choice, but now they sound like toys. Even knives and broken bottles sound harmless when put against guns. If you have to provoke at long range then you can still use this - call your rockets 'homemade' and all people will see is Grandma baking cookies. Harmless.

STEP THREE - GET YOUR STORY OUT FAST.

Speed is key here. Once the story is out there it won't stop being out there. Remember, journalists need stuff to report all the time, so if you get your story out there even 2 or 3 hours before the target gets his version out, you have a massive advantage. Journalists wont check if your story is true or not, as long as it is said by someone, they can report it. Once it is out there and there is no response from the other side, it becomes accepted as fact. It is far harder to change a story, or to challenge an established narrative, than it is to start one.

STEP FOUR - STICK TO THE SCRIPT!

This is perhaps the most difficult and most critical part. Once the other side get their act together they will of course challenge your account, and may even have evidence to back themselves up. What you have to understand here is that evidence is irrelevant. A story, however obviously wrong, will never die. However, some skill is needed to keep it as the mainstream version of events. You need to be able to lie with a straight face, despite the evidence against being right in front of you. You can practise this by looking at the sky and declaring 'The sky is green!". Once you can say this and even believe it, try to make other people believe it.

Remember, someone out there already believes your story; he will want to keep on believing it instead of seeing it being proven wrong. Help him - if he sees someone else denying the evidence, then it's easier for him to do so as well.

A great tactic to use here is emotive language. Put evidence against emotion, emotion always wins. Words again are key. If your side is seen using violence, call it 'passive resistance', it sounds good even if it's wrong. It has the word 'resistance' in it so it sounds plausible. If you can say it enough times, instead of seeing your person stabbing someone, all the viewer will see is an old wisened man in a loincloth. Also, if your words stick, then anyone challenging them is seen to be obviously changing the accepted version of events, which is very hard to do.

That's it! It all comes down to the words, whether they have any bearing on reality at all is totally irrelevant. Get your story out first, get the media to accept your words and the story will run and run. Of course, if you have a media and a population for some other reason ready to accept your version, so much the better! Always remember, the truth is irrelevant, it's the Story that counts.

Saw this in an email I recently received

I saw this quote in an email I recently received. I find it absolutely incredible.

"All the nations are one day going to come together and start talking peace amongst themselves. This talk of peace will have one underlying goal: to destroy Israel. And their rationale shall be: because they [the Jews] established for themselves their own government; and though the Jews will be in tremendous danger at that time, nevertheless they will not be destroyed; in fact, from that very situation they will be saved."

Written approximately 500 years ago, by Rabbi Moshe Cordevero ("The Ramak") on Zohar Bereishis, 199.

Pilgrims

A few years ago, when I had just started learning at Yeshivat Hakotel, I discovered something about the Old City of Jerusalem. Although I was residing there and had a bedroom in the Old City that I could call my own, I soon realised that I didn't quite have the same rights as most people around the world have.

The yeshiva year starts with the Hebrew month of Elul and continues to Tisha'a B'Av, just over eleven months later. Coincidentally, the month of Elul is when Sefardim start observing the Jewish custom saying Slichot, in preparation for the impending Days of Judgment.

And so, when living in Yeshiva, I quickly had to re-adjust to a reality in which my bedroom, that sanctum of calm and relative solitude, was regularly pierced by the sound of dozens of Jews traipsing their way through the Old City's central square, strumming guitars and pounding drums, as they made their way to the Kotel. Yes, this was my bedroom and I hoped to sleep properly, but I quickly came to the realisation that my bedroom was located smack in the middle of one of the world's greatest heritage sites. The right to quiet during the night is a given for most people, but not for residents of the Old City - certainly not during the Slichot period.

Interestingly, I happened to visit the Old City the Shabbat before Yom Kippur, as I was invited out to eat there. While I was there, somebody told all present that at midnight that night, the last night before Yom Kippur, there would be a mass Slichot at the Kotel. He explained that the last night of Slichot before Yom Kippur is typically the "Sefardi Slichot;" and that Rav Ovadia Yosef (Israel's Sefardi Chief Rabbi) would be taking part, and claimed that literally thousands of people would be there. I knew that he wasn't kidding, but the claim didn't really excite me all that much, as I'd been at the Kotel in previous years during Slichot and witnessed thousands of people filling the plaza.

I ended up going back to my home in Nachlaot; I had to get up in the morning and I didn't really want to be up till 2am. I took my normal route home, passing through the centre of town on my way. There were lots of people around, which was fairly normal. What wasn't normal was that as I got closer to home and walked down the street that mine branches off, Rechov Agrippas, I noticed lots and lots of people walking in the opposite direction to me.

There were all different types of people, and I was trying to figure out whether there was some big event going on in town that I didn't know about... and then it hit me. These people were all Sefardim and were headed in the Kotel's direction. It was the biggest, best night of Slichot and to many of these people, there was no question that they would be taking part.

Some of the people were religious, some not. Some men wore kippot on their head, some were bare-headed. Others elected to use a hooded top as a makeshift head-covering, and still more walked while clutching a Kippa which they would later don. The ladies were not exactly homogeneous, either. While some dressed in the Haredi way, covering up flesh and obscuring curves, many were wearing clothes that would be deemed entirely inappropriate and incongruous with the Haredim who frequent the Kotel on a regular basis.

By their dress alone, I would never have guessed that these people feel a connection to their religion at all. I pictured these people standing at the Kotel, wanting to make a link to their religion, and striving to forge a connection with God. It makes me happy to know that this country, secular as it is, maintains such a strong link to religion. People talk of the increasing Haredi demographic in an almost bitter way, but it gives me hope to know that the average "secular" Sefardi Jew connects so strongly to his roots.

A cause for hope (Part II)

On the second day of Rosh Hashanah, (yes, I do realise that I have posted since then, but I wanted to keep things in chronological order,) I was invited out to lunch at a friend's house about two minutes away from where I live. Unfortunately, for me, I had to walk about 30 minutes instead, as I was staying at my old yeshiva, Yeshivat Hakotel in the Old City for chag.

On the way back to the Old City, at around 5 'o clock, I walked through Ben Yehuda, which would normally be buzzing at any other time of year apart from Shabbat and the other chagim. There were a few people milling around who didn't seem to be observing the day in accordance to Jewish law, but really it was very quiet. As I approached the square at the bottom where Ben Yehuda and Yafo meet, I noticed a man blowing a Shofar. Not so unusual, I thought to myself - I'd been at the Kotel earlier in the day and heard and saw people come with their own Shofarim and blow them, almost for fun. I particularly remember seeing one twenty-something man, around my own age, who had brought his own Shofar with him, and who seemed intent on making quite a show of himself. So to see a few Haredi men standing in the square in town didn't seem to be much to take notice of.

But as I came closer, I realised that they weren't blowing "for fun," but were blowing for an elderly irreligious man. It made me smile to see the dedication these men have, to take time out on Rosh Hashana to hit the streets and do something for their follow Jews. All too often, we are bothered by the Haredis begging for money. In Jerusalem, there have been umpteen stories over the last few years of Haredis who have forced separation of the sexes on the street and on buses, and other stories of how Haredi men have rioted against Shabbat desecration. As a "dati leumi" (this term literally means national religious, but also encompasses a lot of Modern Orthodoxy) Jew, I despair when I hear how Haredi Jews use strict and dogmatic methods to make a point. And at the same time, when I see how important it is to them that every last Jew hears the Shofar, I find cause for hope.


These people knew that on Rosh Hashanah they wouldn't receive payment or a donation to their cause, but they went out anyway because they cared. Trying to scare other Jews into following the Torah will never persuade them to reconsider a change in their lifestyle, but doing things like this out of love, and without demands can.

I was reminded of how I was in a pub in downtown Jerusalem with a friend a couple of years ago on Chanukah. The pub had Christmas lights and decorations up, and there was no indication that any of the patrons of the pub cared that this was Chanukah and that to an observer, this could have been a pub in a Christian country. But in the middle of my visit, a Haredi man walked in and asked the pub staff if they wouldn't mind turning down the blaring music for a minute. They complied, and as the entire pub looked at the incongruous man in the strange clothes, he took out a menorah and candles, set them down on the side of the pub counter and started to recite the blessings aloud.

Immediately the atmosphere changed, and everyone started singing along with him. When he reached the end of each of the brachot, an almost-fierce "Amen" was heard from all around me. While most people in that pub would never have lit candles by themselves, they really, genuinely cared to see somebody come in and light for them. I only hope that the Haredi world adopts this approach more often and shares it's brand of Judaism with others rather than shunning them and criticising them for not complying.

A cause for hope

Although I blog fairly regularly, I don't think I've ever posted an entry of a personal nature here. Last week, I attended the Nefesh b'Nefesh International Jewish Bloggers Convention in Jerusalem (read my report for the Jerusalem Post here) and one of the speakers mentioned that while blogs often have specific topics, it's still nice to write those "slice of life" entries and share your experiences with others. The speaker went on to explain that for a person living in Efrat, for example, it might not seem all too interesting at first to describe one's daily commute, but to someone living on the other side of the world the idea of waking up and facing the Judaean hills, driving through biblical landscape on the way to work in the knowledge that the only traffic jam one might encounter would be from a wayward flock of sheep - well, that might be almost exotic to some. With this in mind, I've decided that it's high time that I share some of my experiences.

The first thing I want to relate is an event that occured last Monday. I had locked my bike outside the Shuk and after retrieving it, noticed that somebody had touched my gears, as they had been reset from 21st gear (3 and 7) to something like 8, as the numbers were lower around 2 and 4. I was a little bit annoyed, but I soon became genuinely irritated when I saw that the gear chain had been knocked off, too. For those readers who haven't had to put a bike's chain back on the gears, I should explain that you get your hands dirty and oily from touching the greasy chain. After realising that I had no option, I set about fixing the bike.

Just as I was about to get started, an elderly man stopped to ask me if I could help him by taking his heavy bags as he walked to the bus stop on the other side of the road. I told him that I needed to fix my bike, but that I would be with him in a second. The man was rather insistent, but I explained that I would need a little time first.

Putting a bicycle chain back in place (illustrative)

After fidgeting with the bike's chain for a few seconds to no avail, an Arab teenager, almost certainly one of the many Arab workers in the Shuk, strode towards my bike, took it from me gently and in a split-second had the chain back on. Hugely impressed and appreciative of his kindness, I thanked him and shook his hand. It was truly heartening to see that despite what the media makes out to be total disharmony between Jews and Arabs, there's still co-operation between the two groups and away from the media spotlight, there are still instances like this that give you hope. But the boy, unaware of my goofy smile, then turned round to the old man, took his bags and walked him across the road. If there's one thing I can take from this it is that while we can never work with extremists, there will definitely be people "on the other side" who are not extreme and who want peace too. It is up to us to find a way of working with them and alienating terrorists and those who incite hatred and violence against us.

Incredible video clip

A friend posted a link to this on facebook, and I simply had to share it here.


Members of the Stermer family talk about how they hid in caves for nearly a year during World War II to avoid discovery by the Nazis.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Spotted in the Old City of Jerusalem

As with anywhere in the world, you get to see funny T-shirts, but Israel and Jews have spawned their own particular brand of humour. Anyone who has visited Israel in the past ten years or so will immediately recognise the "America don't worry, Israel's behind you" and "Guns and Moses" T's, but these have now become standard fare and have lost their freshness. So once in a while, when someone innovates, you have to stand back, smile, and scratch your head at why you didn't think of it first! And when I saw this Tee, I did a genuine double-take, I loved it so much!

Anyway, I got the permission of the "copyright holder" to take a photograph in order to publish here, but he wisely insisted on me cutting off his head. Without further ado...






Don't know about you, but I love it!

(Shiduch is loosely translated to: "Partner set up by a matchmaker.")

A quick joke I saw online

I read this recently and loved it, hope you do too...

A story is told of a Jewish man who was on the underground reading an Arab newspaper. A friend of his, who happened to be in the same carriage, noticed this strange phenomenon.

Curious as he was, he approached the newspaper reader. "Moshe, have you lost your mind? Why are you reading an Arab newspaper?"

Moshe replied, "I used to read the Jewish newspaper, but what did I find? Jews being persecuted; Israel being attacked; Jews disappearing through assimilation and intermarriage; Jews living in poverty. So I switched to the Arab newspaper. Now what do I find? Jews own all the banks; Jews control the media; Jews are all rich and powerful; Jews rule the world. The news is so much better!"