proportionate response

There's no way to avoid it. It seems Jews are not well liked in the world, and likewise, Israel among the nations of the world. I don't know if it could happen anywhere else in the world, that one country would aim missiles at the villages and the cities of its neighbors, and that other countries would tell the country that was attacked, that it should restrain its response. The Hezbollah is often described as a terror organization. It has been identified as such by Nato and the UN, but it has its representatives in the govt of Lebanon, and it seems that Lebanon thinks that this organization can shoot missiles from their territory, and it has nothing to do with them. Well, we just don't accept that. Last night, as a family was sitting down to their Sabbath dinner in a small town, on one of the smaller mountains in Israel, a missile hit their house and injured all of the family, and killed the grandmother and the grandson. Hmmmm. What are we going to do about that? The point is, that the different Islamic terror organizations around us, neighboring our country, have made it a policy to target innocent citizens. That's what the Pals do too. They send people to blow up in city buses in order to scare the shit out of us. And you know what? It does just that. It scares us hard. But it doesn't make us give up, because we're a stubborn people. When we retaliate, we don't target the innocent countrymen of the terrorists. But because they often hide behind or in between their fellow citizens, sometimes when we're trying to put terrorists out of this game, that is, to shoot them between the eyes, things get a little messy and we hit the people right next to them. But it isn't because that was our objective. We are a very empathetic people. We have a lot of compassion for the "other". We take a lot of shit before we start fighting.

We occupied Southern Lebanon from about '82 till around 2000. Why did we do that? Because terrorists on the other side of the border were shooting at us all the time. We were often condemned, and eventually we moved out of there having been given the promise from the UN and other world bodies, that our border would be recognized. Since then, we have been attacked any number of times across the border. One time, three of our soldiers on patrol of the border were kidnapped by terrorists wearing UN uniforms. Did other countries come to our aid? Did Lebanon or the UN straighten things out and return the soldiers? No.

Often, when our citizens or soldiers are kidnapped, it is for the purpose of a prisoner exchange. But who do these terrorists want us to release. Well, this time, I heard Nasseralla mention one guy whose story I know well. He was a guy who killed off a whole family after bursting into their apartment where they lived peacefully. He should have gotten the death sentence. But he didn't. Because Israel doesn't believe in the death sentence. They gave him life imprisonment. And now there have been a number of other fierce crimes committed to release this scum.

So, stubbornly we resist. We don't start fights. We are happy to live in peace with all people. But we are tired of being shot at and hurt, and whoever is doing it, is going to pay the price.

Anyone wishing to respond is welcome to write me at humpict@017.net.il

All are welcome to see my photography at:
http://www.humanpicture.net/

Shavuoth

The holiday of Shavuot is called the holiday of weeks, because it is seven weeks, that we carefully count after Passover, as we approach this holiday of the giving of the law. It is also called the harvest holiday, and in many ways the law that Moses brought down from Mt Sinai was the harvest of freedom, after leaving slavery in Egypt on Passover. It is interesting to note that we speak of the event as the giving of the law, and not the receiving of it, because it was given, but each person has to decide on his own if he wants to accept it. It's not automatic. Just as freedom is not really automatic after emerging from slavery. How often people have chosen an anarchistic path after escaping slavery, wanting no law and no restrictions as some people trampled the rights of others. But from the bible we learn that freedom is only known when one has limits and values, and a way of life.

Two of the most important values of the Jewish people, is the celebration of the Sabbath, and the dietary laws which are called kashruth, or being kosher. And this is a holiday when most Jews eat dairy dishes. Because the laws were just given, and people were not used yet, to separating meat from milk, and knowing the proper way to kill an animal for the purpose of food. So our ancestors ate dairy on this holiday, when the holy bible was given us. Anyone who has known orthodox Jews, knows how elaborate the rules are for the separation of meat and milk. Yet the rule itself was given as a very short sentence: don't eat a calf in it's mother's milk. This awareness, this state of consciousness, that one should separate between these two functions of nature, the milk which is the function of all mammals to sustain their young, and that other natural function of many animals, ourselves included, to eat other living things as food, is an important part of our sensitivity to nature and to the environment.

One more tidbit about this holiday. It is common for Jews to learn Torah, the law, all night on the eve of Shavuot, and this is because we remember that while some Jews started learning as soon as the torah and the mishnah (the verbal philosophy of Jewish law) were given, many fell asleep and missed this study-in. and how many times have I seen that! That when students started working on a huge project, with a whole lot to learn, they get tired and just go to sleep.

My best wishes to all my friends on this wonderful holiday. Enjoy the cheese cake!

Anyone wishing to respond, is welcome to write me at:humpict@017.net.il

more of my photos here: http://humanpicture.net/

news from New Orleans

The best coverage I've seen of hurricane and New Orleans is on Channel 4 New Orleans. They are broadcasting from the PBS station in Baton Rouge, and Yahoo Broadcast has committed large servers to provide the live video stream on the Internet. The journalists live there, know New Orleans, that says it all . . .http://www.wwltv.com/George

modesty

one of the things I love about Jerusalem is that you can find a modest mermaid in graffiti, on a fence.

what lies ahead?

the enormity of the disaster

It is hard to comprehend
That in America
That country which cares for others
More than any other in the world
Whose army is greater
Whose might is the greatest
The richest,
The most technological
How is it
That they can’t deal with this disaster?

Is It A Miracle?

You might think it horrible. Too horrible to think, and certainly too horrible to say, but I have heard it said by a lot of people in the last few days. Simple people, and sophisticated people, and some apologized for what they said, and some just threw it out. But what I heard was that what happened in New Orleans is a miracle! You look at the sights on the TV or in the newspaper, at all the houses ruined, and at the people thrown out of their homes by a natural disaster, and your only inclination is to reach out and express your sympathy, and try to give a helping hand. How could someone say that!? That it is a miracle? But I've heard it said.

When we use the word miracle in English, It sounds like some wonderful positive occurrence at the hand of God. And it is wonderful, but it isn't always positive. The Hebrew word for miracle is "ness", which means a flag, pennant, or standard. The idea is that we're going along in life and taking everything in this wonderful creation for granted, and then all of a sudden, God plants something that is different from the "natural" occurrences in this world, and it is meant to remind us that there is something greater than we are in this world. And we are, looking at the pictures from Gush Katif, with ten thousand people thrown out of their homes because the Arabs don't want to live next to a Jew in their so-called territories (although they don't mind living next door to us in our neighborhoods), and the Americans have supported this travesty of human rights even though in Serbia, a few years back, they called this "ethnic cleaning"! And then, one week later, A big storm comes from the ocean, and takes a little strip of land in the middle of America, and wipes it out, and innocent people are thrown out of their homes, and even the governor of that state tells people that they should leave their homes! Could it be that it is a lesson from on high?! There are those, who understood the enormity of the injustice in Israel, who understand that this is a shame and a travesty to human kind. And some of these people read the bible, and feel that what happens today too has the weight of stories we read in the bible.

What do you think?

haveil_havalim