Agricultural Moshavim Sector Marches to Salute Jerusalem

Thousands of members of the Moshavim (cooperative agricultural communities, as opposed to Kibbutzim, ed.)  Movement, and agricultural schols, from all over Israel, took part on Monday in the movement’s annual march to Jerusalem in honor of Jerusalem Day (Yom Yerushalayim), which celebrates the anniversary of the day Jerusalem was liberated by the IDF during the Six Day War.

Thousands of Jerusalemites filled the streets in the center of town to see them march by.

“This is a salute to Jerusalem by the those who settle and work the land. There are about 400 moshavim and tens of thousands of people participating in this march,” said Meir Tzur, Secretary General of the Moshavim Movement, one of the main, orignal settlement movements in Israel, whose members are cooperative villages organized as moshavim. Founded in 1920, the movement today has a membership of 253 moshavim. The regional authorities took responsibliity for organizeing and funding the parade.

Tzur added, “We are respecting Jerusalem so Jerusalem can respect us in the future. The importance is to bring youth to Jerusalem and know it and love it.”

“I come here every year, and every year Jerusalem is in my blood,” one of the participants said. “It will be in the blood of the State of Israel and the people of Israel. No one can give it away!”

All photos by Hezki Ezra and Hillel Meir

Palestinians have problems with Obama’s Mideast speech, too _ especially over ‘Jewish state’

JERUSALEM — U.S.-Israel tension over Barack Obama’s endorsement of Israel’s pre-1967 borders is obscuring a flip side of the Middle East coin: The past days’ speeches by the U.S. president contained difficult challenges for the Palestinians as well.
Addressing the American Israel Public Affairs Committee Sunday, Obama reiterated his request that the Palestinians drop their plans to appeal for recognition at the United Nations this fall, and — as he did in another Mideast speech Thursday — raised tough questions about an emerging Palestinian unity government that is to include the Hamas militant group.
Most difficult for Palestinians is Obama’s call to recognize Israel as the Jewish homeland, essentially requiring the Palestinians to accept that most refugees will be denied the “right of return” to what is now Israel.
Perhaps for this reason, the Palestinians have remained largely quiet about the substance of Obama’s speeches, seemingly content to watch Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu clash with the U.S. administration over Israel’s future borders.
“It’s really premature to jump into any of these details,” said Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, when asked by The Associated Press about the demands Obama made of the Palestinians.
The fate of Palestinian refugees is one of the most emotional and explosive issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians either fled or were expelled during the war surrounding Israel’s creation in 1948. Today, the surviving refugees, with their descendants, number several million people.
The Palestinians claim they have the right to return to their family’s lost properties. Israel rejects the principle, saying it would mean the end of the country as a Jewish democracy. Israeli leaders say the refugees should be entitled to compensation and resettled in a future Palestine to be established next to Israel, or absorbed where they now live.
In his speech last Thursday, Obama did not explicitly mention the refugees. But by saying a final peace deal must recognize “Israel as a Jewish state and the homeland for the Jewish people,” he appeared to back the Israeli position.
The issue is so central to Palestinian policy and society that no Palestinian leader can be seen as abandoning the rights of the refugees, particularly at a time when peace efforts are at a standstill and so many other difficult issues, such as borders and the final status of Jerusalem, remain unresolved.
Nabil Shaath, a senior Palestinian official, said recognition of Israel as a Jewish state would sell out not only the refugees, but potentially open the door to Israel expelling its roughly 1.5 million Arab citizens as well. This idea has never been seriously raised in Israel.
He said the Palestinian recognition of Israel’s right to exist, without any reference to national character, should be sufficient.
“We recognize Israel as a state,” he said. “It’s a recognition of a state to a state.”
In his two recent speeches, Obama took aim at two other central planks of Palestinian policy: plans to ask the U.N. in September to recognize an independent Palestine, with or without a peace agreement; and a unity deal struck between President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement and the Iranian-backed Hamas militants.
In Thursday’s speech, Obama warned that “symbolic actions to isolate Israel at the United Nations in September won’t create an independent state.” And referring to Hamas in Sunday’s address to AIPAC, a powerful pro-Israel lobby, Obama stated: “No country can be expected to negotiate with a terrorist organization sworn to its destruction.”
“We will hold the Palestinians accountable for their actions and their rhetoric,” Obama said.
Erekat insisted the world must embrace the Fatah-Hamas reconciliation, meant to end the split that has left rival governments in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The Palestinians claim both areas, along with east Jerusalem, for their future state, and Erekat said there can be no independence without reconciliation.
In any case, he said Abbas, and the umbrella Palestine Liberation Organization, dominated by Fatah, are the parties to negotiate peace with Israel — not the “unity government” of the Palestinian Authority which would be backed by both parties.
Erekat, like other Palestinians officials, declined to discuss most of the specifics of Obama’s speech, including the issue of the Jewish state. For now, he says the border issue should be the focus of Mideast diplomacy.
The Palestinians demand a return to the pre-1967 lines, which would require an Israeli pullout from the West Bank and east Jerusalem, though they are open to Obama’s idea of agreed-upon modifications through land swaps — as long as they are small.
Erekat said if Netanyahu accepts the 1967 lines he could raise any other matter in negotiations. “Before I hear the prime minister of Israel saying that he accepts this principle, I think it would be a waste of my time to discuss any other issue,” Erekat said.
Netanyahu says the 1967 lines are “indefensible,” and his anger toward the U.S. president seemed palpable at a White House meeting Friday.
But even Obama’s reference to the 1967 lines may not be entirely to the Palestinians’ liking.
Clarifying his position Sunday, Obama said those lines should be the basis for a peace deal, but that the final borders could be adjusted to accommodate “new demographic realities.”
That was seen as a recognition that Israel could keep at least some of the occupied area where it has settled Jews. Some 500,000 Israelis live in Jewish settlements, which are considered illegal by the Palestinians and the international community.
Obama also noted the 1967 lines have long been considered a basis for a final peace deal, most recently in previous negotiations that broke down in 2008. So his embrace of those borders is not revolutionary. “What I did on Thursday was to say publicly what has long been acknowledged privately,” he said.
After initial shock and anger toward Obama, members of Netanyahu’s hard-line coalition have begun to soften their opposition.
Limor Livnat, a Cabinet minister in Netanyahu’s nationalist Likud Party, called Obama’s speech on Sunday “excellent.” She praised his tough line against Hamas and support for Israel as a Jewish state.
“Following the prime minister’s words, the president sharpened his message and said things that he didn’t say clearly beforehand,” she told Channel 2 TV. “These are important things.”
___
Josef Federman can be reached at www.twitter.com/joseffederman

Researchers Claim to have Found Graves of the Tribes; After years of researching documentation, Yossi Hertzberg and Israel Stepansky are convinced that they know where Reuven, Shimon, Levi and Dina -- the children of Jacob are buried.

A pair of scholars are convinced that the graves were located on the Arbel -- Jacob's children - Reuben, Simeon and Levi and their sister Dinah. Israel Hertzberg, an Orthodox Jew from Jerusalem, and Yossi Stepansky, formerly a senior archaeologist for the Northern District of the Israel Antiquities Authority conducted a study that lasted 11 years and included collecting and validating records of the sources of 120 pilgrims' journey logs from the past 200-1000 years.

They were entitled to investigate rare documentation at Israel's National Library at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, where they found documents and dates of visits to the tombs by Jewish tourists. Joining their research was Israel Meir Gabbai, Chairman of "Ohalei Tzaddikik" or organizations which deals with rebuilding tombs and their research was approved by the chief Sephardic rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Shlomo Amar.

"In the Writings of the Ramban and in all the ancient travel diaries of pilgrims, they described the same path of visiting the graves of Reuben, Simeon, Levi, their sister Dinah, and even of Seth, Adam and Eve's child," said Israel Herzberg -- the journey went from the grave of Nabi Shuaib to the Arbel [mountain].

In journals, its describe how the graves of the righteous see the magnificent high synagogue, and the tombs are North of the ancient village, where the synagogue is located in the center.

According to records there is a cave with stairs leading down it it,to the grave of Seth and he was near the tombs of the tribes in the field which have large markers. Pilgrims describe Dinah's grave as having a myrtle/Hadas bush growing out of it.

Since in the modern era, that area is not plowed, it took us six years to find the graves. When we arrived we were amazed to discover in the cave, the Hebrew names of these pilgrims were engraved, dating back some 600 years ago.

I was rather skeptical of this discovery, so I went to the authoritative book on graves in Eretz Yisrael, the 2 book compendium "Holy Graves in Eretz Yisrael" by Israel Prize Winner, the noted geographer Ze'ev Vilnai (first edition, 1951. I use the third edition from 1985)

He notes the following; Page 88.

In the middle ages, Jews showed the grave of Shet, in the area of Tiveria, near the ruins of ancient Arbel. The pilgrim, [Rabbi] Shumel Ben Shimson who visited the area in 1210, writes about "the tomb of Shet, which we saw." In this same area, Rabbi Yaakov Ben Netanel HaCohen passed through and wrote: "And one marker was built like a house, memorializing Shet the son of Adam, and there is a well inside the house." The Ramban's student also went through that area in the early 14th century and writes about holy graves in the area of the Arbel: "And near there is another tzaddik's [righteous person] and a water pier flows over his grave, and is covered with sand and a building, and the water falls as if from a waterfall into a well in the building, and they say that is Shet the son of Adam." In another list of holy graves, the Arbel is mentioned as "Arbelata": "On the western side, Shet the son of Adam is buried, and near his grave is a large myrtle tree." The ruins of ancient Arbel are known to us today in the Arabic as "Irbid." Near them are the new settlements of Arbel and Kefar Hittim. In the entire area of the Arbel, there are no findings of any marker or grave of Shet the son of Adam."

When Vilnai researched his book in 1951, and then in the second and third publications of it, the house with the well had not been found.

Regarding Dina, he wrote on page 220:

"The Jewish tradition for the burial place of Dina, the daughter of Yaakov is in Israel" According to our sages, "Shimon [her brother] took her bones, and buried her in the land of Cna'an" [Breisheet Rabba 80:11] Jewish Pilgrims in the Middle Ages were shown her grave in the area of Tiveriya, at the Arbel, which is near Moshav Kefar Hittim. The Ramban in his explanation of the Torah writes: "And her [Dina's] grave is know to this day through Kabbala, and it is in the city of Arbel...and its possible that Shimon mercifully brought up her bones [to Israel for burial] or the children of Israel brought her with all the the bones of the tribes [sons of Yaakov] as was mentioned by our Rabbis." [Ramban, Breisheet 34:12] Also Rabbi Yaakov Ben Netanel HaCohen passed through the area in the end of the 12 century and mentioned her grave. A student of the Ramban, who visited the area at the beginning of the 14th century wrote: "And near the Arbel are 3 of the tribes of Yaakov and their sister Dina. Next to the grave is a large, nice myrtle tree, and no one is allowed to take a branch from it - neither Jew or Arab, lest they be punished." In the list of the Holy Places, Arbel is mentioned, "Arbalata...to the North are buried 4 of the tribes...including Dina the daughter of Yaakov, and all the graves are covered with large stones, and how is it possible than a man could have moved those stones?" [implying the stones are very large and heavy].

Today there are no signs of these graves, tombs or markers in the entire Arbel area...which is now called "Arbid" which has a nice, large ruin of a Beit Knesset, though any remains of graves or markers have vanished."

This appears to corroborate the discovery of the researchers.

1. Though written about centuries ago, the cave building / waterfall / well which is the traditional burial place of Shet, was not found till recently by the researchers. Vilnai knew it was written about but no one knew where it was.

2. The manuscripts of the Jewish pilgrims who wrote about the burial place of Shet, Dina and the other tribes were reviewed by the researchers, who found the names of the pilgrims and the dates they were there in the cave building which is ascribed to Shet, thereby corroborating it being the correct place.

3. The myrtle tree and large stone coverings of the graves match the document's brought by Vilnay.

So...it could very well be that based on the texts quoted by Vilnai, the researchers have indeed located the grave sites mentioned by the Jewish pilgrims and rabbis of the 12th-14th centuries.

Fascinating!

I'll update this post a bit later with Vilani's comments on the graves of Reuven, Shimon and Levi.

On my next trip up North to the Arbel area, I will have to try and locate them as well, and take some pictures.

Napoleon Bonaparte's Letter to the Jews April 20, 1799 "Rightful heirs of Palestine!"

Letter to the Jewish Nation from the French Commander-in-Chief Buonaparte
(translated from the Original, 1799)

General Headquarters, Jerusalem 1st Floreal, April 20th, 1799, 
in the year of 7 of the French Republic


BUONAPARTE, COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE ARMIES OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC
IN AFRICA AND ASIA, TO THE RIGHTFUL HEIRS OF PALESTINE.

Israelites, unique nation, whom, in thousands of years, lust of conquest and tyranny have been able to be deprived of their ancestral lands, but not of name and national existence !


Attentive and impartial observers of the destinies of nations, even though not endowed with the gifts of seers like Isaiah and Joel, have long since also felt what these, with beautiful and uplifting faith, have foretold when they saw the approaching destruction of their kingdom and fatherland: And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. (Isaiah 35,10)


Arise then, with gladness, ye exiled ! A war unexampled In the annals of history, waged in self-defense by a nation whose hereditary lands were regarded by its enemies as plunder to be divided, arbitrarily and at their convenience, by a stroke of the pen of Cabinets, avenges its own shame and the shame of the remotest nations, long forgotten under the yoke of slavery, and also, the almost two-thousand-year-old ignominy put upon you; and, while time and circumstances would seem to be least favourable to a restatement of your claims or even to their expression ,and indeed to be compelling their complet abandonment, it offers to you at this very time, and contrary to all expectations, Israel's patrimony !


The young army with which Providence has sent me hither, let by justice and accompanied by victory, has made Jerusalem my head-quarters and will, within a few days, transfer them to Damascus, a proximity which is no longer terrifying to David's city.


Rightful heirs of Palestine !


The great nation which does not trade in men and countries as did those which sold your ancestors unto all people (Joel,4,6) herewith calls on you not indeed to conquer your patrimony ;nay, only to take over that which has been conquered and, with that nation's warranty and support, to remain master of it to maintain it against all comers.


Arise ! Show that the former overwhelming might of your oppressors has but repressed the courage of the descendants of those heroes who alliance of brothers would have done honour even to Sparta and Rome (Maccabees 12, 15) but that the two thousand years of treatment as slaves have not succeeded in stifling it.


Hasten !, Now is the moment, which may not return for thousands of years, to claim the restoration of civic rights among the population of the universe which had been shamefully withheld from you for thousands of years, your political existence as a nation among the nations, and the unlimited natural right to worship Jehovah in accordance with your faith, publicly and most probably forever (JoeI 4,20).

"Palestine is big" -- PA says it includes all of Israel 3 PA TV shows present Israeli places Tiberias, Rosh Hanikra and all of Israel as "Palestine"

Contrary to the repeated statements by Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to foreign leaders that the PA recognizes Israel, the PA internally in Arabic continues to deny Israel's existence and to present a world without Israel.

The PA transmits the message to its people that it does not recognize Israel's existence, describing all Israeli land, cities and regions as "Palestinian." Palestinian TV is one tool among many used by the PA to disseminate this message.

In three recent programs on PA TV, which is owned by the PA and operated under the auspices of Mahmoud Abbas's office, Palestinians were presented with a world without Israel, which is the most explicit non-recognition:

1. The Israeli city of Tiberias was said to be "in northern Palestine, close to the Palestinian-Jordanian-Syrian border."
- "Palestine" could not share a border with Syria unless Israel did not exist.  Tiberias is in northern Israel and not "northern Palestine."

2. The coast of "Palestine" was said in an educational program to be 224 km. long, reaching Rosh Hanikra in northern Israel.
- The coast of "Palestine" could not be 224 km. long unless there were no Israel, since the coast of the Gaza Strip is only 40 km. long.

3. "Palestine is big - 27,000 sq. km.," said PA TV host.
- The area of "Palestine" could not be 27,000 sq. km. unless Israel were to disappear, since the West Bank and Gaza together are only about 6,000 sq. km. 

The following are the transcripts and context of the statements defining Israel as "Palestine":

1. Host: "In Palestine there are very beautiful historical sites and cultural and natural sites... The city of Tiberias is one such area, where history, nature and water come together."
Reporter: "The city of Tiberias is in northern Palestine, close to the Palestinian-Jordanian-Syrian border."  Click to view

[PA TV (Fatah), Nov. 23, 2010]

2. Question on PA TV quiz showThe Stars for university students:
"The length of Palestine's coast, along the Mediterranean Sea from Rosh Hanikra to Rafah is:
1. 152 km.
2. 224 km.
3. 375 km."
Representative from Bethlehem University answers: "224 km."
[His answer is confirmed correct.]
Note: Rosh Hanikra is Israel's most northern coastal point, and the coast of "Palestine" would be 224 km. long only if Israel did not exist.

[PA TV (Fatah), Nov. 26, 2010]

3. Amal Daraghmeh, chairman of the committee planning the "Palestine Conference for Public Relations, Communications and Media" said on PA TV that he hopes to include as many Palestinians as possible in the conference. The PA TV host responded: "Palestine is big - 27,000 sq. km."

[PA TV (Fatah), Nov. 29, 2010]

Die Land Iz Unzere - This Land is ours!

Agudat Chalamish, Haredim for Yehuda and Shomron, put out the above sticker as part of their latest campaign. This is their version of support for the letter signed by rabbis recently against renting/selling land to Arabs.

The sticker is a quote from Rav Yechaskel Levenstein, the revered mashgiach of the Mirrer Yeshiva, who said in a speech after the Six Day War that one must sense and feel the direct intervention by Hashem, and that eretz Yisrael is ours. Dis Land Iz Unzere - This Land is ours!

Near Havakuk HaNavi (Habbakkuk the biblical prophet), down the side of the mountain after a twist and a turn are a few small ancient blue domed buildings (blue domes are a sign of a holy kever around Tzfat)…A peak inside shows it’s covering the entrance to a burial cave…It’s the burial place of Rabbaynu Bachaya and his students…

The Portion: Vayishlach; A Feared Confrontation; Wrestling With God; A Sister's Honor

Gaza - Hamas: Only Jews From Before WWI Will Be Allowed to Live in Future 'Palestinian' State

Gaza City, Gaza - Only Jews who lived in 'Palestine' (as Arabs call the Land of Israel) before World War I will be allowed to live in the future Islamic 'Palestinian' state, a senior Hamas official said in an interview published Thursday. This would mean that no Jews aged currently under 96 would qualify for living in that state, regardless of where they are from.
The interviewer for pan-Arab newspaper Al-Hayyat asked terrorist official Haleel Al-Haya if Hamas wants Gaza to become an Islamic emirate. Al-Haya answered in the negative and explained that Gaza will be part of a future state of Palestine, "between the [Mediterranean] Sea and the [Jordan] River."
“We have faith in our Islamic, Arab and Palestinian belief that Palestine will be returned to its inhabitants and that the Zionist existence will end,” he stated. "The meaning of a Palestinian state is that there will be one united state, an Islamic Palestine... that will unite the Palestinians. The Jews will have no rights in it, except those who lived on the land of Palestine before World War I.”
Al-Haya also said that Iranian support for Hamas is not complicated by the fact that Iranians belong to the Shiite stream of Islam, while Gazans are from the competing Sunni stream. “We told [the Iranians] in the clearest manner that we will not agree under any condition for the Shi'ite stream to enter our land,” he stressed.

LAZER BEAMS: Rabbenu Bachiya ben Asher

Rabbenu Bachya ben Asher lived in Spain in the mid 1300's. He was a student of the Rashba (Rabbi Shlomo ben Aderet), who was a student of the Ramban (Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman, or "Nachmanides"). As such, he was deeply immersed in both the revealed and esoteric sides of Torah, strongly influenced by his teacher and his teacher's teacher. Rabbenu Bachiya's classic work in "Rabbenu Bachiya on the Torah", an exquisite, classic commentary on the Five Books of Moses.

Rabbenu Bachiya is buried near Hukuk in the Upper Galilee in a cave alongside his students (monument above the cave in the photo below). May his holy memory protect us, amen.

93 years ago on Tuesday, November 2, 1917, the Balfour declaration was issued.

Rabbi of Western Wall denounces UNESCO decisions; UN board expressed "deep concern" about Israeli activity at the Cave of the Patriarchs, Rachel's Tomb, Old City.

The Chief Rabbi of the Western Wall strongly criticized the decisions adopted by the UNESCO Executive Board two weeks ago regarding holy sites in Israel.  "This decision is contrary to history and the truth, and political considerations are behind it," Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz said in a statement. He noted that the portion of the Torah that mentions Abraham's purchase of the Cave of the Patriarchs was read across the world this past Shabbat, providing written proof that the area belongs to the Jewish nation.  "We have to condemn this organization, which is always acting against Israel, and to protest against their one-sided decisions which are undertaken without learning the history or understanding them," Rabinowitz continued. "The civilized world which knows the history should join us in our struggle to demand a change in the decision."

Parashat Chayei Sarah, Hebron City of the Avot

LTC Allen West in support of Israel

Myths and Facts 1: Do Jews Have A Claim to Israel? with Dr. Bard

PMW: PA TV: Tel Aviv residents are also "settlers"

In a PA TV program about the history of Jaffa (southern Tel Aviv), pictures of a Muslim cemetery in Jaffa included the caption: "Jaffa's holy sites are in the hands of the settlers."

The Palestinian Authority uses the term "settlers" to imply illegitimacy.

Palestinian Media Watch has reported on the PA's continued denial of Israel's legitimacy.

 Text: "Jaffa's holy sites are in the hands of the settlers"

 [PA TV (Fatah), Oct. 6, 2010]

The Holy Highway Through Judea And Samaria

ISRAEL MATZAV: Geert Wilders: 'Jordan is Palestine'

Here's another reason why Israelis should support Geert Wilders: He's on our side. This is from a Google translation of aDutch newspaperarticle.

"Judea and Samaria are Israel Jewish settlements there so the more the better," twittered the politician on Saturday.

Wilders is known as a friend of Israel and has in the eighties, a period spent on a kibbutz.

...

Commenting on his tweet Wilders let him know that nothing interests''that''its position is contrary to the Dutch foreign policy.

The PVV''will never support a Palestinian state, except for Jordan.''This country, he said, actually all the Palestinian state. ''Jordan is Palestine.'

Wilders was responding to comments made earlier by United Nations special rapporteur Richard Falk.

Vatican City - Israel: 'Vatican Synod Became a Forum For Arab Propagana'

Vatican City - Israel said Sunday that a meeting of Middle East bishops was hijacked by enemies of the Jewish state, after the gathering at the Vatican largely blamed Israel for conflict in the region.