Point to Ponder: The BDS (boycott, divestment & sanction) movement is very selective. While its PR campaign is excellent it fails to tell its supporters about the life-saving Israeli and Jewish inventions which they should avoid. Follow the link and see what an Arab speaker has to say to his audience.
The Ultimate Response to BDS
Point to Ponder: How paradoxical it is that while there are so many attempts by Moslems, by some Christians, by anti-Zionists and others to rewrite history and remove all Israeli/Jewish connections to Jerusalem and this land, it was thanks to the illegal Moslem excavation on the Temple Mount that the half shekel coins used as tax for the Temple were discovered.
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Point to Ponder: Again and again the BBC shows itself to be not only to be biased against Israel but also guilty of shoddy reporting. Omissions and half-truths are among the special talents of the BBC and its reporters.
BBC omits vital background information in Temple Mount rioting story
The history of Madaba pre-dates the arrival of the Arab invaders which came from the Arabian peninsula in the 7th century, supplanted the local population and intrduced, by force, a new religion. Continue reading
Point to Ponder: We are seeing history being rewritten and we remain silent. According to their own testimony over the decades up until the late 1960’s the Palestinians were never a nation or a people. Now, together with other anti Jewish and anti Israel groups the have embarked on a two-prong falsification of historical facts.
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Point to ponder – despite this revelation nothing has or will change at the NYT. Anna Blech deserves every praise for her research and presentation.
Watch her : Downplaying the Holocaust — Sulzberger & NY Times: Anna Blech at TEDxHunterCCS
Points to Ponder – this amazing rapper song has so many points to ponder I couldn’t keep count. Please share with all your contacts. Continue reading
Are you tired of reading about the Middle East because it seems to be so confusing? This very brief letter, published in the Financial Times, simplifies everything in a few sentences.
The Middle East Explained In One Excellent Letter To The Editor
Shalom
On Wednesday evening Jews all over the world will be celebrating the New Year and I am sure than many, both Jews and non-Jews, occasionally ponder: what is a Jew? Continue reading
As it is impossible for us to be made aware of all the events occurring all over the world our media, wherever we live, serve as filters, deciding what is newsworthy and what is not. We, who are inclined to believe that freedom of speech is a supreme value, would not dream of calling those filters censorship. Continue reading
Waking from a dream needs courage – to face reality
MUST READ: An Israeli peacenik meets the reality of Palestinian Arab intransigence
12th December, 2009
To my Dear Family and Friends
Last night, before lighting the Shabbat candles, Jews around the world lit the first of eight candles in the Hanukiah, celebrating Hanukah, the Festival of Lights, which commemorates the rededication of the (Second) Temple after it had been desecrated and plundered by order of Antiochus, ruler of the Seleucid Empire. Continue reading
Holocaust, Holocaust Denial, Anti-Semitism and Anti-Zionism
The Holocaust and Holocaust Denial are subjects which many people feel have been over flogged, for want of a better expression. The never ending reference by Israelis and Jews to events which took place seventy years ago, two whole generations ago, are considered by some to be counter productive especially when we recall that millions of people lost their lives in that terrible period. Six million Jews is a small proportion of the total deaths of WWII.
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4th July, 2009
Every now and again (like now) I ask myself why I write my newsletters and articles. And then I tell myself that I write because I want open minded people out there in cyberspace to have a deeper insight into the events here in this corner of the world (i.e. Israel & her neighbours), to be aware that there are two sides to a coin, two sides to any story, or, to use the current “in” phrase when relating history, there are two “narratives“, an Israeli and a Palestinian. I want you, my readers, to have the tools to be able to establish which is based on facts. which. I believe you have open minds and want to hear “the other side”. Continue reading
Contrary to the opinion held by those trying to de-legitimise the State of Israel, Israel does not owe its existence to the Holocaust. The League of Nations, in 1917, recognised the right of the Jewish people to re-establish their homeland in Palestine (historically known as Israel, Judah and Judea until the name was changed by the Romans in the second century), where the nation was born and from which it was twice exiled.
7th February, 2009
As we here in Israel watch the news about our little corner of the world, as reported by all the international stations , and read the editorials and commentaries from the most influential newspapers world wide, we are painfully aware of all the usually deliberate half truths and downright lies that are endlessly repeated. We cannot but help recall the exact same situation when Israeli troops attacked Jenin Continue reading
27th January, 2009
One of the saddest aspects of the Israeli attack on Gaza was the suffering of the civilian population, particularly the children. Israel has been accused of “lack of proportion”, but the equation is not how many dead on each side in the two week offensive. Continue reading
Israeli building on the West Bank and in parts of Jerusalem has become an accepted mantra to excuse terrorism against Israel. Repeated so often its accuracy is rarely questioned. But there are many, many questions one could ask. Continue reading
Part of newsletter 27th Dec. 2007
Last night I saw a very powerful South African movie – “Tsotsi”. I was born in SA and although I haven’t been back since coming to live in Israel I still have family and friends there and keep abreast with the news. The movie, which presented a microcosm of the poverty and despair of a large portion of the population, set me thinking. Measuring poverty and despair are so subjective that, to be trite, one man’s poverty is another’s wealth. Continue reading
Just when we are lulled into thinking that maybe things are improving in this corner of the world, we are rudely awakened by the latest bout of Moslem violence on the Temple Mount. What caused it? The professed reason is the allegation that Israeli plans to tunnel under the Temple Mount, thereby endangering the sanctity and stability of the Dome of the Rock and the El Aksa mosque – Islam’s third (!!!!) holiest site (after Mecca and Medina). Continue reading
Dr Yehuda Avner
Newsletter December 2006
Yehuda Avner was privileged to work with many of Israel’s more illustrious Prime Ministers and his memories of the personalities and the events in which they participated are most entertaining. Continue reading
Newsletter – 16th December, 2006
I am sure that most of my readers are aware that Jimmy Carter has just had a new book published. Although I have not read it, the cover and the reviews horrify me. I have chosen an article by David Horowitz, author of numerous books including an autobiography, as it appeared on FrontPageMagazine.com on December 14, 2006. If as reputable person as a former president of the USA can ignore, or even worse, twist historical, documented facts why should we expect less from the average Jew/Israel hater?
Jimmy Carter: Jew-Hater, Genocide-Enabler, Liar. By David Horowitz Continue reading
Newsletter 29th July, 2006
Since there seems to be almost total consensus that Iran is responsible, to a larger or lesser degree, for the current violence on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, my readers may be interested in a few words about the history of Iran, or as it was known prior to 1935, Persia. No less interesting is to see how that history entwines with Jewish history and, in its earlier stages, with the Hebrew Scriptures. Continue reading
Newsletter 7th July, 2006
Islam, its origins and its meaning, are so much in the news but few have the time to rely on anything more detailed than the brief comments and allusions which appear in the media. In this newsletter I hope to give a slightly wider background. I have been toying with the idea for some time but the final push came from a book I have just finished reading, “In the Shadow of the Prophet” by Milton Viorst. Published in 2001 this book is not part of the post 9/11 literature dealing with the Moslem world. Continue reading
Denis Prager & Joseph Telushkin Newsletter 6th May, 2006
This article is largely based on a book I have just finished reading – “Why the Jews?” by Dennis Prager and Joseph Telushkin, from which I will be quoting extensively. Continue reading
Newsletter 7th December, 2005
In 2001 the civilized world was outraged by the Taliban destruction of statues of Buddha in Afghanistan. As I wrote in my newsletter of March 2001, at that very same time the area below the Temple Mount in Jerusalem was similarly being vandalized but this destruction was met with a thundering silence. Continue reading
Newsletter 15th November, 2005
Last week I was privileged to join the ranks of the very few who have had the opportunity to actually see, first hand, the mosaic floor of what may well prove to be the ‘oldest known Christian Church’. For this I have to thank the VIP I was guiding and his well-connected hosts!!! Continue reading
Newsletter 13th August, 2005
Tonight is erev Tisha be-Av, the evening of the ninth day of the month of Av, a fast day in the post-Torah Hebrew calendar of festivals and fasts. But unlike Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, which could be described as a Shabbat (meaning a complete rest from work) dedicated to introspection and penitence, Tisha be-Av is a day of mourning on which we are permitted to work and travel. Continue reading
This year, as we mourned as we do every year, for over six million Jews who were killed in Europe, for no other reason than that they were Jews, the world (or much of it) recalled that in May sixty years ago WWII in Europe came to an end, Auschwitz was liberated.
