Maybe something positive can come out of this ugliness - by Yahya Mahamid

...He gets up and gives me an innocent smile and waves. I smile back . Another bomb follows immediately after, above us this time and we are told to retract behind cover. I don't see him again but I hope the situation will improve for him and me one day.

Yahya Mahamid..
08 April '19..
w/permission from author

Sitting with my back to the metal barrier, I take a second to adjust my helmet when all of a sudden I hear a loud bang against the barrier. It's started- the Friday riots on the Gaza border. I adjust my Kevlar vest, take a breath and stand up to take a look at the other side, all while trying to keep as much of my body under cover.

I'm shocked to see mothers going hand and hand with their kids. Yes, kids, not older than 10-13 coming to the weekly protest as if it were a normal Friday activity.

Our orders are clear. Respect human life and the purity of our arms, it's nothing new after all; it's the IDF code of ethics and that's how we always operate.

I take my sharpshooter sight and start scanning the crowds looking for anything suspicious (bombs & guns). While looking through my sight, I start smelling the familiar smell of burned tires. I know that tear gas will follow so I put on my gas mask and look at the madness that is assembling in front of my eyes.

The adults, mothers & fathers I assume, sitting on the green grass plane enjoying some cold drinks and snacks, while their kids are running towards the security fence, throwing rocks and anything they can get their hands on at us.

I take cover after another rock hits the barrier again. I could've sworn that these rocks travel almost as fast as my bullet. I adjust my protective glasses and take another peak-we can't have the security barrier get damaged.

I stand up again to take a look at the crowd that's growing like a hate tumor on steroids and suddenly I hear an explosion. I look through my sight again, while looking through the black & grey crowd.

I see him. He's sitting with a large blue hoodie, looking straight at me. I take a look at him through my sight to get a closer look and he is just sitting there, looking straight at me like he's staring into my soul. He's not older than 10 years old

'Heroes to Heroes' - To be treated like royalty, and to know they're not alone.

New Jersey-based organization 'Heroes to Heroes' brings groups of former U.S. soldiers to Israel, where their distress, they feel, doesn't fall on deaf ears.

Yardena Schwartz..
Haaretz..
31 October '13..

Greg Grutter did four deployments in Iraq and three in Afghanistan, where he suffered traumatic brain injuries after being the victim of a suicide bomber, and one year later, a roadside bomb. Last month the Rhode Island native -- who was discharged a year ago, suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) -- was in Israel, along with nine fellow war veterans all hoping to recover. “I’m on the path to getting better, and this trip has gone a long way to help,” said the 47-year-old father who has undergone three operations for neck injuries suffered in Afghanistan.

The idea that former U.S. soldiers with horrific memories of their deployments in the Middle East would go to Israel to heal isn’t exactly a given. But Teaneck, New Jersey native Judy Schaffer was convinced that a trip to Israel would hasten their emotional and spiritual recovery.

“There a lot of great veterans organizations in America, and they are doing great things. But it’s very hard to restore someone’s faith and spirit...in New Jersey or Montana. I think that Israel is the only place where that can be done...quickly,” explained Schaffer, founder of Heroes to Heroes, an American non-profit organization that brings traumatized U.S. veterans to Israel for a journey of spiritual healing.

Schaffer, daughter of a World War II veteran and a granddaughter of two World War I veterans, envisioned a Birthright-type trip designed meticulously for non-Jewish American war vets -- of Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. Since she founded the organization in 2011, it has organized and financed three Israel trips for war vets.

Afraid of Freedom

Moshe Feiglin
Manhigut Yehudit
11 Tishrei, 5770
(Sept. 19, '10)

Translated from the NRG website.

Nobody has to worry about the allegiance of the religious officers and soldiers who are crowding the ranks of the IDF today. IDF documents made public after the expulsion from Gush Katif show that statistically, it was actually the soldiers who were not connected to a religious framework who refused to obey orders - and that phenomenon was negligible.

There is a different phenomenon though, that should be worrying those people who view freedom of thought, freedom of choice and freedom of conscience as a threat to their hegemony.

Polls and in-depth studies unequivocally prove that Israeli society is rediscovering its Judaism. The fascinating aspect of this phenomenon is that the younger generation of Israelis is actually closer to traditional Judaism than their parents. This Yom Kippur, more young people fasted than their adult counterparts. In the past, the opposite was true. The synagogues and community leaders were relegated to the "old generation," while the youngsters wanted nothing to do with "religion". But now, Israeli society is becoming more and more faith-based, with the younger generation blazing the trail.

Israeli society is becoming more faith-based - not more "religious." The phenomenon that we are experiencing is much broader than the "repentance movement" in its strictly religious parameters.

In the days of entertainer-turned-rabbi Uri Zohar, to "repent" meant to turn from a "secular Jew" into a "religious" or "haredi" Jew. But these definitions do not reflect reality. The question that actually defines the status of a given Jew on the faith continuum is: Is G-d present in your life or not? There are Jews who observe the commandments, but have left G-d out of the picture. There are even "progressive" movements that excel at that. On the other hand, there are Jews who still have not connected to Jewish law in its entirety, but experience G-d as very much present in their lives.

On this fundamental level, all of us are returning to G-d all the time. This ongoing experience is not a move from one end of the social spectrum to the other, but a gradual cohesion of the two extremes- together with G-d.

Only a person who fears G-d benefits from true liberty:
"And the midwives feared G-d and did not do what the king of Egypt told them, and they let the children live." (Exodus 1)

Two Hebrew women whose lives were worth no more than dust in the Egyptian gulag refuse to obey the orders of the greatest king in the ancient world - the Egyptian Pharaoh - and don't throw the Jewish baby boys into the Nile River. Their fear of G-d preserved their liberty.

As part of my sentence for "sedition" against the Oslo Accords government, I did community service in a state nursing home. One of the old gentlemen there told me his own story about a different gulag:

"When I went to first grade in the Stalin-era public school in Russia, I made sure never to ask permission from my teacher to let me use the bathroom. It was very important to me to be sure that when I would need to ask permission to go to the bathroom, she would believe me and let me leave the classroom. I knew that I would need to use this escape route when the state nurse would come to check the personal hygiene of the students. If she would find the tzitzit (ritual fringes) that I had under my shirt, she would report me to the authorities and my father would be sent to his death in Siberia."

My friend in the nursing home told this story very matter-of-factly. But it gave me the goose bumps. I was in awe of the father who would risk his life for his faith and the little boy whose fear of Heaven made him truly free at the ripe old age of six.

The wave of return to G-d that Israeli society is now experiencing will necessarily lead to liberty for our Land as well. That is what the people in the ivory towers have to watch out for - not for the religious soldiers.

If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.
.

Leftist hypocrisy in Hebron

Op-ed: Hebron myths, leftist propaganda countered in wake of ‘dancing soldiers’ video


Orit Struck
Israel Opinion/Ynet
12 July '10

Orit Struck heads the legal department in Hebron’s Jewish community and runs Judea and Samaria’s human rights organization

The radical leftist camp was all over the video showing IDF soldiers dancing in Hebron as if it found a great treasure. The camp’s spokespeople quickly declared that the clip was filmed “on a major street in Hebron, or one that used to be major at least. Arab movement on the street is limited, school children go through metal detectors, and soldiers screen the adults.”

How terrible, thinks the average Israeli, who regularly goes through at least one metal detector or security guard at restaurants, movie theaters, or malls.

The radical Left has been trying to convince us to put on its own distorted glasses. Through these glasses, history begins in 1967, Hebron is a “Palestinian town,” and every street we see must be “Shuhada Street,” the city’s central thoroughfare.

Yet the street chosen by the soldiers as a dance floor happened to be the one right above Hebron’s ancient Jewish cemetery. The 80th anniversary of the 1929 massacre was marked right below this street. From their grave, the 67 murder victims must recall the British soldiers who did nothing while the City of our Forefathers turned into a killing field – these victims must prefer the dancing IDF solders.



The street in the clip is known as “Tavger Road,” named after Professor Benzion Tavger, who in 1974 chose the restoration of the Hebron cemetery over a university position. “The cemetery was neglected, the tombstone shattered, with Arabs using them for construction,” Tavger said to explain his choice. The cemetery was desecrated and destroyed under the command of Jordanian soldiers, who controlled the city until they were replaced by our dancing soldiers.

Right below of the improvised dance floor also lie the graves of baby Shalhevet Pas, Mordechai Lapid, and his son Shalom, as well as dozens of others murdered in Hebron merely for being Jewish. The Arab murderers did not take into consideration the “peace” deals signed by their leaders, forcing the IDF to adopt a policy of separation between Jews and Arabs.

(Read full article)

If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.
.

Clash of Perceptions: A Picture is Worth 10,000 Academic Theories

Barry Rubin
The Rubin Report
07 June '10

What if two groups are in conflict and have a completely different way of looking at the world, thus often misperceiving each other? Many Westerners say nowadays that their societies misunderstand the Middle East or Muslim-majority societies and the correct response is to apologize humbly, make amends through unilateral concessions that will prove they are nice, and avoid any possible offense.

But maybe the misunderstanding is in the opposite direction from what they think.

Consider this small example with big implications.

Hurriyet, a Turkish newspaper, ran as its lead article on page one a story about what it called photos the Israelis didn’t want the world to see. Many Westerners who read these words would expect to see some kind of atrocity—Israelis murdering or injuring people--that Israel wanted to hide. That's the implication in a Western context.

In other words, a large portion of Western intellectuals, media, academics, opinion-makers and policymakers are portraying the following image: Israel is too tough, cruel, and violent.

But that is not what Hurriyet is talking about, nor is it the perception of Israel’s actual enemies. For the picture doesn’t show Israeli soldiers shooting or beating. No, not at all.

It shows Israeli soldiers, beaten and captured by the Jihadis as crying.

Hurriyet claims that Israel somehow hid or erased these pictures “because the images of desperate, scared, and weeping soldiers would have harmed the image of the troops." [Incidentally, that’s untrue. Soldiers can be seen crying in the TV news coverage of almost every military funeral.]

(Read full post)

If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.
.