Showing posts from December, 2015

Uri Lupoliansky's Celebration

This week Uri Lupolianski had his sentence dramatically reduced in a Supreme Court appeal, from six years in prison, to just six month of community service. Lupolianski expressed joy and relief at this judgement - saying he will continue his good works at Yad Sarah; he headed to the kotel to celebrate & thank God. Lupolianski emerged from the court session looking ebullient and told the gathered media that he “would continue to work for the good of the country.” ( JPost ) According to Arutz 7: MKs Moshe Gafni (UTJ) and Uri Maklev (UTJ) have expressed their pleasure with the reduced sentence, saying, "We are happy and congratulate him with wishes of good health. He should continue with the good deeds that he has been doing for decades, and should continue helping the Jewish People." The reason for the huge reduction in sentence by the Supreme Court was that Lupolianski's health is apparently deteriorating due to cancer and the Court decided this would put

The Wedding War Dance

Immediately following the claims that the Shabak (Internal Security Intelligence Forces) have used forms of torture on the Jewish suspects of the horrific Duma arson attack, a shocking video has now been released, showing a wedding dance with young men wielding knives, guns and even stabbing pictures of 18-month-old Ali Dawabsheh (who died shortly after the arson from his wounds). I share the disgust which has been widely evoked by this video. The music itself is a well known song "Zochreini Na", based on a verse in Judges 16:28, quoting Samson, blinded in Gaza, saying “let me with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes” "זכרני נא וחזקני נא אך הפעם הזה האלוהים, ואינקמה נקם אחת משתי עיני מפלשתים" The song was was written and popularised by Dov Shurin and it has since become a staple at many weddings. Here is Dov Shurin himself at the Chabad HQ 770: On some occasions, the song is accompanied by "shtikim" (pranks) - with rev

When Torture Is Legal

Details are emerging about the treatment of the young men arrested as suspects in the horrific Duma murder case. According to the two suspects who have just been released, to the parents and to their lawyers, these suspects have been held for three weeks in isolation, prevented from seeing their lawyers, sexually abused, physically tortured (including being bound in a doubled-up posture), systematically deprived of sleep (itself a form of torture) and refused permission to practice religious requirements. Reportedly, at least one of the men has attempted suicide by slitting his wrists and stated to the court that he's willing to sign any confession, to anything, if only they will let him out. If true, this would not only be outrageous in itself, but would cast considerable doubt on any confessions extracted under these circumstances. The response from Government Ministers, including Prime Minister Netanyahu, Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett and Internal Security Mini

Terrorists Using Primitive Methods

Last night's Security Zone program on Army Radio, with Tali Lipkin Shachak, discussed the dual issues of nuclear and conventional threats to Israel's security. At one point in the program they referred to the current horrors of knife and vehicle attacks by Palestinian terrorist as "primitive". Certainly when compared with the Iranian Nuclear Threat, etc. Spontaneous attacks by people who, generally, do not have previous records of terror activities, or even training, armed with a kitchen knife (or even scissors) or simply aiming their car at a group of pedestrians and running them down, are methods which could have been practiced hundreds or even thousands of years ago (perhaps a horse instead of a car). Yes, they are primitive. Additionally, they have tended to aim for 'hard' targets, such as soldiers, armed security guards and 'settlers' (many of whom are armed). With promises of a direct path to heaven, these terrorists have a death-wish.

Uziah Tzadok - Phenomenal!

This year's Music School (Beit Sefer Lemusika) TV contest was won by Uziah Tzadok. This young boy is a phenomenal singer and also has poise and innate modesty - in short - Star Quality. It's also touching that he's a sidelocks/peot-wearing Yemenite boy from a large orthodox family. I recommend watching the three clips: 1. Uziah singing Kesh'halev Boche 2. Uziah's mentor Yoram Gaon visits the Tzadok family 3. Having won the contest, Uziah Tzadok and Yoram Gaon sing a duet.

Trump's Blunder

Obama's administration and like-minded folks have been excessive in their apparent blindness to the exclusively Islamic relationship to terror. The clear and current danger of such politically-correct values is that they hamper the US ability to counter terrorism, when they cannot even name it. It is essential that screening for terrorists and potential terrorists use statistics to their advantage, not to the advantage of the terrorists. If (effectively) 100% of terrorists are Muslim, then failing to shortlist intelligence and security search criteria to include ethnicity and religion, is a nonsense. Donald' Trump's controversial proposal for a blanket ban on all Muslim immigrants, until such a time as "the representatives of the US government know what's going on here", has stepped too far in the opposite direction. Yes, practically, such a step would severely impede the entry of potential terrorists into the USA. However, Trump's statement i

Shtar - Beit Shemesh Rock Group Excels at Eurovision Pre-Conetst

Local Beit Shemesh anglo-band "Shtar" scored top marks in the pre-qualifier contest for Eurovision. They also came over as mentches - fine fun frum people. I was proud!!

"Mida Keneged Mida" - Turkey, Russia and Israel

Have you noticed the parallels... 2010: Turkey sends a flotilla of ships to break Israel's naval arms-blockade on Gaza. 2015: Russia sends Su-24 aircraft to bomb Turkmen Syrian rebels, probably enters Turkish airspace. 2010: Israel navy stops & boards the ships, resulting in 9 dead. 2015: Turkey shoots down the Su-24; pilot and one other dead. 2010: Turkey's leader Erdogan is hopping mad. 2015: Russia's leader Putin is hopping mad. 2010: Israel says they had every right to stop the ships. UN Agrees. 2015: Turkey says they had every right to shoot down the Russian aircraft. US agrees. 2010: Erdogan insists on formal apology from Israel. 2015: Putin insists on formal apology from Turkey. 2010: Netanyahu expresses regret. 2015: Erdogan expresses regret. 2010: Erdogan not satisfied. 2015: Putin not satisfied. 2010: Erdogan imposes diplomatic and commercial sanctions on Israel 2015: Putin imposes diplomatic and commercial sanctions on Tu