Disrupting their eternal rest Considered the most important cemetery in Judaism, its dry earth is sent all over of world. Yet despite its importance, and even though the state comptroller issued a harsh report about it, The Mount of Olives is still open and unprotected, at the mercy of the residents of east Jerusalem. Menachem Begin, Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, S.Y. Agnon and Rabbi Kook are turning over in their graves

If they only knew what was going to be happening someday in the future, it may very well be that Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, S.Y. Agnon, Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook and Menachem and AlizaBegin would have thought twice before requesting to be buried on the Mt. of Olives. The most ancient and largest Jewish cemetery in the world, and in all likelihood the most important, has in recent years been abandoned to vandals, criminals and illegals who turned it into an abused public area, more closely resembling a garbage dump.

Exactly two years ago, in May 2010, then-State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss referred to conditions on the Mt. of Olives in a report. “Rehabilitation of the cemetery is proceeding at a snail’s pace, its level of maintenance is unsatisfactory, security is extremely low, and vandalism and criminal incidents continue to occur in it. We strongly suspect that if security is not ensured, all of the monies and work invested in will go down the drain,” Lindenstrauss wrote at the time.

Related stories:

• Report: Security at Mt. Olives slipping
• Vandalism returns to Mount of Olives cemetery
• Yeshiva on Mount of Olives to get 24 more housing units 

Several years before, the government decided in “Priorities – Reinforcing the city of Jerusalem,” to allocate more than NIS 80 million (about $22M) to deal with this issue. “There are serious doubts that the investment of millions of shekels in restoration and development works will go down the drain,” wrote the comptroller, in an understatement.

In the two years since, there was little change. After all, the dead are unable to protest, and the authorities are turning a blind eye, resulting in no real change on the ground. The site, where many of the outstanding Jewish leaders of the past few centuries along with tens of thousands of other people are buried, has been abandoned and forgotten.

The first problem the Mount has is its location – east Jerusalem, fertile ground for nationalist-based vandalism. In recent years, hundreds of headstones in the cemetery were destroyed and shattered or covered with garbage and excrement. Families who came for gravesite visits to their dear ones’ final resting place found empty liquor bottles, used condoms and other evidence of especially lively ‘night life.’

“In the mornings, we have been finding charcoal grills, used syringes, and all sorts of ugly sights among the graves of leading Jewish leaders and thinkers,” is how Rabbi Haim Miller, former Deputy Mayor and head of the Movement for Jerusalem and its Residents, described the situation.. “It has become a nightclub and brothel for the Arabs of east Jerusalem who are destroying the gravestones and turning sections into dog dens. There is no greater shame for the Jewish State than this. It embarrasses me to state that in the largest Jewish cemetery in the world there is not even one toilet stall, and all of the faucets and benches have been stolen or destroyed.”

Mt. of Olives cemetery (Photo: Jeff Daube / ZOA, ICPHH)

The first Jews were buried on the mountain during the Bronze Age. With the construction of the Holy Temple on the adjacent mountain, the cemetery became popular among Jerusalem’s departed, because Jewish tradition holds that whoever is buried on the Mt. of Olives will not undergo painful torments during the resurrection of the dead (when the Messiah comes), and worms will not devour the body. Throughout the entire world, Jews are buried with a small sack of dust from the Mt. of Olives by their side.

In the late 1950’s, construction of a small mosque was begun in the Ras al-Amud Square on the old Jerusalem-Jericho road. Even before the Jordanian laws which were then applicable to the West Bank, construction of the mosque was never legalized. Only after the Six-Day War was the building completed, and a decision was made to maintain the status quo – the mosque would remain as built, but the land adjacent was declared State land because it is part of the ancient cemetery.

US Congressmen Jerrold Nadler and Eliot Engel (both from New York) with Conference of Presidents' Malcolm Hoenlein and ICPHH's Abe and Menachem Lubinsky (Photo Jeff Daube / ZOA, ICPHH)

However, when the siren for Memorial Day for the Fallen in Israel’s Wars and Terror Attacks recently echoed throughout the country, young people and the families of fallen soldiers standing in the ancient cemetery found it difficult to concentrate. Sounds of power hammers and machines for concrete were pounding away in the mosque adjacent to the cemetery fence, heard throughout the mountain. The laborers working so energetically were not doing so to deliberately disturb mourners, but simply because it’s the only day of the year they can build the illegal additions to the mosque without anyone disturbing them. The story of the mosque provides an instructive example of the Municipality of Jerusalem’s failure in handling open and transparent criminal acts.

More than 300 meters (984 feet) of the area belonging to the Mount of Olives cemetery has already been annexed to the mosque, which presently stands 10 paces from the plot belonging to the man who revived the Hebrew language, Eliezer Ben-Yehuda and his family, and only a few meters from the graves of Menachem and Aliza Begin. The former Prime Minister refused to be buried in the plot reserved for the great leaders of the Jewish People (on Mt. Herzl) and requested that, “when the time comes, I ask to be buried on the Mt. of Olives, near Meir Feinstein and Moshe Barazani.” Imprisoned by the British, his two underground comrades killed themselves rather than be hung, and now Begin is buried in a simple plot overlooking the Temple Mount from afar, but adjacent to the mosque.

The area on which the mosque is built is considered especially prestigious due to its proximity to the site of the Holy Temple (Beit Hamikdash) and the price of a tiny piece of land (a plot for a grave) begins at $20,000 – to the Burial Society (Hevra Kadisha). The demand is so high that the gravestones are situated very close to one another, and sometimes the only way to place a stone on a grave (Jewish custom upon leaving a gravesite visit) is to throw it from afar.

Photo: Yair Altman

In October 2010, right-wing activist Arieh King filed a first complaint with the Jerusalem Municipality. A few months afterward, Ofir May, head of the Municipality’s Inspectorate, wrote to Legal Counsel Adv. Amnon Merhav and to the Municipality’s Chief Prosecutor Adv. Einat Ayalon, “In the eastern section of the city, there are several mosques constructed without building permits, constituting construction felonies. Criminal case files were opened for them, however, the enforcement processes did not succeed in applying the Law, due to the sensitivity involved.”

May continued, and stated that “In the past, I contacted the Municipality’s Attorney on the issue, and he contacted the Attorney General about this, (however), I do not know whether there was an answer or what it was. The issue has recently come up again due to the construction work going on without a permit, enlarging the mosque in the Ras al-Amud neighborhood. I wish to receive clear directives on how to handle the mosques.” As of now, these directives have still not been received.

Since then, the mosque has only become bigger, and expanded into the cemetery area. Although Jerusalem City Hall claimed that this involved “an internal renovation of the bathrooms and moving the faucet installations,” they did demand that the Waqf cease adding to the building. Since then, the construction work has been conducted at night and on weekends, with the building serving as lodging for illegals.

A Jerusalem Police official estimated that this is a deliberate policy so as not to inflame hostilities. “Here there is a super-explosive potential in one of the most flammable places in the whole world,” said the Police official. “For one building, it’s not always worth it to set fire to the entire area. Sometimes it’s easier not to enforce every violation.”

The official response from the Jerusalem Police was that “enforcing the construction laws is the Municipality’s responsibility. The Police emphasize that each time it was asked to help Municipal Inspectors in delivering injunctions or enforcing them, they were accompanied by police officers who made sure to execute them fully and completely.”

Jerusalem City Hall stated. “The Municipality operates according to the Law and pursuant to instructions from the State’s Attorney on handling construction infractions in religious institutions. There is a construction infraction on that site, which is being handled by the Municipality in court. Continued handling of the issue is in coordination with all of the relevant authorities.”

Meanwhile, what is saving the Mount is the fact that among other graves are also the parents of a number of very wealthy Jews from all over the world. The brothers Avraham and Menachem Lubinsky, businessmen from the US, recently came to visit their parents’ graves and were shocked by the situation. They established the “International Committee for the Preservation of Har Hazeitim” and began to exert heavy pressure on the Israeli government and the Jerusalem Municipality.

The Americans find it difficult to grasp the feeling of insecurity that visitors experience at the Mount – a feeling to which most Israelis apparently have become accustomed. The pressure that they are exerting is now beginning to bear fruit in the form of widespread renovation of destroyed gravestones, the installation of 137 security cameras throughout the cemetery, and the arrest of dozens of young Arabs for vandalism.

For now, the overall effect of rehabilitating the Mount is displacing some of the terrorist stone-throwing activities directed at Jews traveling to the Mt. of Olives. Each week, drivers are stoned on the A-Tur and Ras al-Amud roads, usually by bored adolescents. The International Committee for the Preservation of Har Hazeitim recently sent a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appealing for an increase in the punishment to minors in the cemetery area, since they are usually detained and then immediately released.

“We are obligated to restore security and holiness to the Mt. of Olives,” declared American businessman Avraham Lubinsky, the Committee Chair. “In the majority of western countries and many US States, there is specific legislation requiring imprisonment for defilers of graves, up to several years in prison.”

The letter was signed by leaders of the Rabbinical Council of America, the National Council of Young Israel, Agudath Israel of America and the Orthodox Union, as well as the Executive Vice Chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Malcolm Hoenlein. All of the organizations benefit from a very strong lobby in Israel and the US. If not for tradition and history, perhaps it is through politics that those buried on the Mt. of Olives will have their honor restored.

"May G-d bless you with increased wealth and much nachas from your children. California is a warm place. Warm it up spiritually as well, with Judaism."

JPostTV: The story of Dr. Mengele's delivery girl

Leah London Friedler survived Auschwitz and ministrations of Nazi 'Angel of Death'. She tells her story for the first time in English to the 'Post'.

Israel Defense Forces- One of the Strongest Armies in the World

High and mighty: a trip to the Israel Air Force MuseumFrom Avengers and Mirages and Spitfires to blind spots and crash landings, the aircraft on display tell the incredible tale of a young nation’s survival

Shortly after Israel declared her independence, a column of Egyptian forces invaded Israel from the south and advanced towards Tel Aviv. Israel’s meager ground forces were unable to stop the flow of the Egyptian army and it seemed that Tel Aviv would quickly be overrun. Since Israel didn’t possess any combat aircraft capable of stopping the Egyptians, Israeli agents in Czechoslovakia quickly purchased four small World War II Messerschmitts, took them apart, loaded them into larger aircraft and rushed them to Israel for reassembly. 

Israel’s newly-acquired planes met and attacked the Egyptians near a bridge a mere 20-minute ride from Tel Aviv. Although two of the four planes were damaged, the Arab advance was halted. In part, this amazing success was due to the psychological effect on the Egyptians, who were astonished to find that our fledgling country had any air force at all.

The transformed Messerschmitt from the Independence War (photo credit: Shmuel Bar-Am)

The following day, a Messerschmitt flown by dark-skinned Canadian volunteer Milton Rubenfeld was hit by Egyptian fire. Rubenfeld parachuted into the water by Kfar Vitkin and suffered multiple injuries. Like the Egyptians, few Israelis were aware of the fact that their brand-new country had an Air Force — complete with airplanes! So when Rubenfeld stumbled towards them, area residents thought he was an Arab and started shooting.

Rubenfeld didn’t speak Hebrew, and desperately needed to let his captors know that he was Jewish. So he shouted out the only words he knew in Yiddish: Gefilte fish and shabbas! (Or at least that’s how the story goes . . .)

Along with other historic aircraft, several early Messerschmitts are on display at the Israel Air Force Museum near the Hatzerim Air Force base (outside of Beersheva). But what will leave the most impact — and probably touch your heart as well — are the stories they have to tell. For this museum is not just a collection of planes on a wonderfully landscaped tarmac: it is a living testimony to the State of Israel. (Noisy planes flying overhead every few minutes make the Museum seem even more alive than it already is).

After scavenging for parts from Spitfires that the British had discarded, Israeli engineers were able to build two. All they were missing were…motors! Providentially, four Egyptian Spitfires bombarded a Jewish target. The enemy Spitfires were downed and their motors were inserted into the new planes.

The Air Force Museum opened in 1991 with cast-off planes collected by its founder, former pilot and ex‑Israeli Chief of Police Brigadier General (res) Ya’acov Turner. There are several parts to the museum, including a wonderful indoor exhibit. But the main attraction is an enormous tarmac featuring over 140 types of aircraft, each with its own unique, riveting story.

Take the Auster, for instance, hard to miss because it is both small and bright orange!  Although the Messerschmitt is commonly billed as the first plane used by Jewish pilots in the War of Independence, it was really the Auster (known locally as the Primus) that was our first warplane.

Back in 1947, when the writing was already on the wall, former World War II pilots and navigators came to Palestine as volunteers and helped found the Jewish Air Service — predecessor to the Israeli Air Force. But where were they going to get warplanes? Nobody wanted to sell them to the Jews of Palestine, so they were reduced to lies and subterfuge.

Under false pretenses, volunteers bought British Austers abroad and smuggled them into Israel: the little planes were dismantled, and transported in crates labeled as agricultural implements.

The British had used Austers as observers, to assist artillery. It took imagination and tons of improvisation, but engineers transformed the little Austers into combat planes. Indeed, in 1948 there were 11 Austers in the first Jewish fleet.  But there was a problem. After the planes were loaded with as many explosives as they could handle, two pilots entered the cockpit and took off. Once over their target, the pilots dumped the explosives out of the planes. However, the bombs, homemade and totally unreliable, sometimes blew up immediately afterwards, seriously endangering the lives of the pilots.

Spitfire, Air Force Museum (photo credit: Shmuel Bar-Am)

As the War of Independence continued, it became clear that the fledgling Air Force needed aircraft better than Austers and superior to the Messerschmitts.  The British withdrawal from Palestine provided the solution, for when they left Palestine, they evacuated several Air Force bases. After scavenging for parts from Spitfires that the British had discarded as unusable, Israeli engineers were able to build two Spitfires. All they were missing were…motors! Providentially, soon afterwards, four Egyptian Spitfires bombarded a Jewish target. The enemy Spitfires were downed and their motors were inserted into the new planes.

A MiG 21, located on one side of the tarmac, boasts the numerals “007”. This plane was flown to this country by Iraqi pilot Munir Radfa, who defected in 1966 after ensuring that the Israeli government would get his family out of Iraq and pay him a substantial sum of money. On his arrival, Radfa was dubbed Double 0 Seven.

At the time, the MiG 21 was the predominant fighter plane used by Arab air forces. Israeli test pilots examined Radfa’s plane carefully in flight and discovered a blind spot, similar to that found in cars. The MiG’s blind spot was over the cockpit on the left hand side, and could keep a pilot from seeing that he was being attacked. Knowledge of the MiG 21′s Achilles’ heel gave Israeli pilots an edge that was to be significant during the Six Day War the following year.

Visitors will view a Mirage airplane whose 13 sticker‑medals refer to the number of its successful hits. Further along the tarmac, a small collection of Super Frelon helicopters includes the aircraft that carried President Sadat around Israel during his historic trip to this country.

Super Frelon, Air Force Museum (photo credit: Shmuel Bar-Am)

A Grumman Avenger like that on display was part of the American Navy in World War Two. A crew of 13 was on a mission to blow up a Japanese broadcasting station when it was hit by an anti‑aircraft missile. The aviator — later to become US president George H.W. Bush — bailed out before the plane crashed into the sea. There were no other survivors.

Two Syrian pilots were on their way to a base in South Lebanon in 1968 when they miscalculated and landed, by mistake, near Nahariya. Both pilots were returned to Syria in exchange for Israeli prisoners of war; one of the Syrian planes is on display.

Training planes called Tzukit have two seats — one for the instructor and one for the cadet. In 1967, the IAF’s Tzukits were drafted into the war, carrying bombs under their wings. Many pilots flying in Tzukits were killed during the fighting because the trainer-planes lacked ejector seats.

The museum features an excellent indoor exhibit, with displays of the gear worn by combat pilots, and a description of each item’s purpose. Signs explain exactly how modern ejection seats work, what happens when a pilot hits the sea, and what he/she carries in the all-important survival kit.

If you are lucky enough to visit the museum, ask for a guided tour (included in your entrance fee). For details, or to book a tour in English from outside of Israel, call +972 8 990 6853 (in Israel, 08-990 6853). Closed on Saturdays.

The RIETS Story

Havdalah Motzei Shabbat Zachor 5772

'Our children love martyrdom'

Here's Hamas' next generation at play as tweeted by the al-Qassam Brigades.
In an extensive expose published late last month, The Telegraphdocumented the extent to which Hamas is training Palestinian schoolboys to use assault-style weapons and battle Israel. The outlet documented how the Iran-backed terror group has introduced into the local curriculum military training for 37,000 Palestinian boys aged 15-17. The children are trained to attack Israeli positions and kill Israeli soldiers.

...

As if to put an exclamation point on its militarization of Gaza’s youth, Hamas’s English-language Twitter feed this afternoon tweeted a picture showing children role-playing what seems to be a military funeral. The feed declares that the children love “martydrom”:

 I'm sure they only do this because Israel makes them so desperate. /sarc.

More here.

'Don't worry Obama, Israel's got your back'

FILE—This file photo released on Tuesday, Sept. 21, 2010, by the Iranian Defense Ministry, claims to show the upgraded surface-to-surface Fateh-110 missile at an undisclosed location, in Tehran, Iran. Israel has carried out airstrikes against Syria twice in the past three days to target what officials say are shipments of highly accurate, Iranian-made guided missiles known as Fateh-110s. Israel worries the missiles could be transferred to Lebanon’s Hezbollah, providing a major boost to the Shiite militant group’s arsenal. (AP Photo/Iranian Defense Ministry,Vahid Reza Alaei, File)

Jerusalem - Israel has carried out airstrikes against Syria twice in the past three days, targeting what officials say are shipments of highly accurate, Iranian-made guided missiles known as Fateh-110s believed to be on their way to Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group. Here are some details about the missile:

—WHAT IS THE FATEH-110?

The Fateh-110, or “Conqueror” in Farsi, is a short-range ballistic missile developed by Iran and first put into service in 2002. The Islamic Republic unveiled an upgraded version last year that improved the weapon’s accuracy and increased its range to 300 kilometers (185 miles). Iranian Defense Minister Gen. Ahmad Vahidi said at the time that the solid-fueled missile could strike with precision, making it the most accurate weapon of its kind in Iran’s arsenal.

—WHY ARE THE MISSILES IMPORTANT?

Israel worries the missiles could be transferred to Lebanon’s Hezbollah, providing a major boost to the Shiite militant group’s arsenal. The Fateh-110 is more accurate than anything Hezbollah is currently known to possess. Israel and Hezbollah fought a month-long war in mid-2006 that ended in a stalemate. The missile would put almost all of Israel in range, and its precision guidance system poses a threat to Israeli infrastructure and military installations.

Muslims Steal Land from Christian Monastery… in East Jerusalem When Israel builds apartment buildings in Jerusalem, Hillary Clinton denounces them as settlements. But when Muslims seize Christian land, John Kerry is silent

If this is what is happening while East Jerusalem is still largely under Israeli rule, imagine what would happen if the peace gang got its way and the Palestinian Authority/Hamas took complete control of it?

The head of a monastery in East Jerusalem on Monday accused residents of al-Eizariyya of building illegally on church land.

Al-Eizariyya residents are constructing buildings on the private lands of the Holy Monastery of Martha and Maria, “brushing aside all religious, social and national values,” said Sister Efpraxia.

“This is a dangerous violation in broad daylight, and construction is ongoing despite our frequent appeals and calls. Such provocative acts are not acceptable by any rational human,” the abbess added.

The nun appealed to President Mahmoud Abbas and Jordan’s King Abdullah, custodian of holy sites in East Jerusalem, “to relieve the feeble people as soon as possible bringing these overt violations against the monastery’s property.”

She added: “Our properties and lands are not deserted properties, but rather Orthodox endowments and always will be. Next Saturday we will celebrate Lazarus Saturday. Dozens of pilgrims will visit the monastery from all over the world, and we wonder what we will tell them when they see these violations against the monastery’s property.”

When Israel builds apartment buildings in Jerusalem, Hillary Clinton denounces them as settlements. But when Muslims seize Christian land, then John Kerry is silent. Muslim Settlements are one of those things that we just don’t talk about, whether they are in Jerusalem or Paris.

The story is a familiar one. A Muslim clan claims ownership of the land and unilaterally seizes it defying the authorities to do anything about it. Due to the monastery being in a part of the city that the Palestinian Authority claims as its own, Israel has little ability to enforce the law there without running international protests.

To see what would happen to the Christians in Jerusalem if it falls into Muslim hands, we need look no further than what did happen to Christians in Bethlehem.

Christians used to make three-quarters of Bethlehem’s population. Now they make up a third.

George Rabie, a 22-year-old taxi driver from the Bethlehem suburb of Beit Jala, is proud of his Christianity, even though it puts him in daily danger.

Two months ago, he was beaten up by a gang of Muslims who were visiting Bethlehem from nearby Hebron and who had spotted the crucifix hanging on his windscreen.

A telling sign of how bad things have gotten is that the last time municipal elections were held in Bethlehem, Hamas won almost half the seats on the municipal council.

And under Hamas rule, as under the rule of their Muslim Brotherhood allies in Egypt, bad things tend to happen to Christians.

DELIVERING SHALACH MANOS ON PURIM IN FLATBUSH, BROOKLYN (responsible parent of the year award)

Dear Imam: Help! My husband treats Jews and Christians with respect!

An Arab Israeli woman wrote a letter to the fatwa department of Islamweb yesterday, asking advice.

Her husband likes to befriend Christians, Jews and Druze, and bring them into the house. He also wants to teach his children about the differences between Islam and other beliefs, and for them to offer greetings to Christians and Jews on their holidays. Other things he does are even worse, like drinking alcohol with his non-Muslim friends and making fun of Islamists. She is afraid his actions will corrupt the children. What can she do?

The answer refers to many other previous fatwas from the site:

• Christians and Jews cannot be considered believers. They are infidels, in every sense. 
• It is forbidden to greet them on their festivals (i.e., to say Merry Christmas.) If you ask, but they greet us during our festivals - shouldn't we reciprocate to show that Islam is tolerant? The answer is simple: Islam is the correct religion, they are kuffars, and tolerance does not extend that far. 
• Mocking Islamists or other Muslim religious leaders is a great sin. It is kufr even if it was only meant to be a joke.
• It is better not to hire non-Muslims as employees, or to give charity to non-Muslims, and certainly not if you are at war with them. However, inviting the peaceful ones to partake in Ramadan breakfasts is OK because then you are showing them how wonderful Islam is and you might convert them. 
• Serving alcohol to non-believers is also forbidden even if you do not drink it yourself.
• Even though he is your husband and you must obey him, it is forbidden to obey him in these matters.
• If your husband does not repent, then you must ask him for a divorce and take full custody of the children.

And Allah knows best.

(UPDATE: It should be mentioned that some prominent clerics in Egypt also forbade greeting non-Muslims on their holidays, and they came under attack by many other Egyptians, including officials and other clerics.)

I know that not all Muslims are Terrorists, but.....96% of the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists are Muslim

And the other four percent is a single animal rights activist. I blame Islamophobia for this shameless terrorist profiling. Also reality.

Interesting that with all of the obfuscation about domestic terrorism and Christian terrorism and Jewish and Lutheran and Episcopalian and Amish terrorism, 30 of 31 on the list are Muslim.
It’s easy to stand in front of a malleable press corps and claim that terrorism is not the exclusive domain of Islam, but when it comes to actual facts, they haven’t arrived at manufacturing charges….yet.

Much as the usual suspects may prattle on about the tiny minority of extremists, that tiny minority is a very specific tiny minority. It is not a tiny minority of any of the religions that Muslims complain about. Buddhists from Myanmar aren’t bombing the Boston Marathon. Neither are Nigerian Christians or Israeli Jews.

There is one religion with a major terrorism problem. It’s the tiny minority of extremists that founded Islam, drove out all other religions, and spread their system of belief around the world by the sword.

Video: When The Kotel Was Unisex Newsreel from 1936 shows haredi men and women praying side-by-side at the Kotel (Western Wall).

So much for the false claim by the Kotel's haredi Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz about what the authentic custom at the Kotel really is.

The Israel section of this video starts at about 4 minutes in. The prayers at the Kotel start about 9 minutes in.

The haredim appear to be reciting Psalms and personal prayers. Perhaps for formal prayer services, the men and women were separated by more space. (The Ottomans and the British did not allow a mechitza in those days, I think.)

Nevertheless, the men and women did pray together informally, as this video proves:

A sculptural mural depicting the Old City of Jerusalem by Artist Michoel Muchnik. (Credit: Eli Wohl/VIN News)

Warren Buffett: 'You're a nation of entrepreneurs with amazing talents' In an interview with Israel Hayom, the world's most famous investor heaps praise on Israel • "There is no other place like it in the world" • After spending $2 billion, he receives a dollar blessed by the Lubavitcher Rebbe.

The Midwestern city of Omaha, Nebraska, nestled amid vast corn fields and cattle ranches, simmered with excitement on Wednesday. Warren Buffett, the city's most famous resident, had just completed the acquisition of Israel's Iscar company. After acquiring 80 percent of the company in 2006, he waited seven years, watched its value double, and then completed the deal.

This Saturday, 50,000 people will come to the city to hear the guru of the global economy, the Mozart of capitalism, speak. There is no question that his most recent acquisition will be the subject of many hours of chatter. Eitan Wertheimer, Iscar's chairman, has a right to be pleased both personally and as an Israeli. He just carried out the deal of his life, and will now take (voluntary) early retirement. In addition, he has acquired the best possible public relations agent for the State of Israel.

In an interview with Israel Hayom, the world's most famous investor heaped praise on the country: "Israel is a great place to invest because of its people. There is no other place in the world where you find people with these qualities, as well as with the motivation and the ability to focus that you see at Iscar."

When asked for advice, Buffett replies, "I haven't been to Israel recently so its hard for me to give advice, but I form my impressions from Iscar, and the company makes me believe that Israel has a bright future. Iscar will never stop, even if there is a slowdown in world markets. Iscar never stops innovating with new products and never stops satisfying its customers. With the excellent management at Iscar, I just sit in the back seat and let the car drive itself. I don't have to do anything but rely on the management."

According to Buffett, "Israel should continue to do what it's doing. You are a nation of entrepreneurs with amazing abilities. Israel must continue to provide them with the best and most comfortable work climate. That is the government's responsibility: to create a comfortable climate for entrepreneurs.

Searching for more opportunities

Buffett began his affair with Iscar in 2006, when he purchased an 80% stake in the company for $4 billion. On Wednesday he said, "We became partners, and that was a positive first step. Both sides were satisfied, and since there were no problems, we decided to take the next step. The deal was completed two days ago."

To finish the Iscar deal, Buffett put in another $2 billion. But this may not be the last Israeli company Buffett invests in. When asked if he's looking for more opportunities in Israel, he said, "I'm always interested. I'm waiting for a phone call or an offer. Do you have one?"

Buffett is one of the richest people in the world, but he plans to donate 99% of his wealth. "There are criteria, but I have five foundations that deal with this and they are run by my children and by Bill and Melinda Gates. It won't help if someone comes knocking on my door, but you can take my wallet -- just for a photograph."

The Chabad dollar

Despite his many years of success, Buffett retains a youthful enthusiasm.

"Every morning, I'm excited to go work," Buffett said. "I enjoy working."

Before my meeting with Buffett, Chabad members asked me to give him a dollar blessed by the Lubavitcher Rebbe. I gave it to him at the end of the interview.

"You know, if I take this dollar with me to Israel, you'll see how I will turn it into ten dollars in Israel," Buffett said.

When I told him that the dollar was blessed, he immediately understood and said, "This will bring me luck? OK, I will keep the rebbe's dollar."

Before we left, Buffet was photographed with Wertheimer, and let Wertheimer have a photograph with his wallet.

"You can keep it," Buffett said. "There is already nothing in it. You took $2 billion from me after taking $4 billion several years ago. Now, I just have the rebbe's dollar."

Civil Trial Attorney Baruch C. Cohen's letter to the editor regarding the Los Angeles Lawyer Magazine's sanitizing Sharia abuses

Dear Editor:

The April 2013 edition of the Los Angeles Lawyer Magazine presented an article by Abbas Hadjian entitled: “The Children of Sharia” about how Islamic nations apply civil and Islamic legal traditions differently in matters of child custody and spousal support. The article gave credence and even reverence to Islamic Sharia law and read as if this was just an innocent comparative law course. The article said nothing about how Sharia is a savage and barbaric set of archaic laws that threaten American democratic rule of law. 

Shariah Law punishes violators of Islamic law with stonings, executions, amputations, whipings and beatings. Sharia law allows “honor killings,” genital mutilation, pre-teen marriages, polygamy, and divorce & inheritance rules that undercut the standing of women (i.e, testimony from non-Muslims and even Muslim women is given less weight than that of Muslim men). The list of human rights abuses of Sharia go on and on. 

How your excellent magazine could turn such a blind eye to such human rights atrocities and sanitize Sharia's abuses as a legitimate set of laws worth studying is beyond me. 

Baruch C. Cohen, Esq.

Turkish-Muslim TV Commentator Goes to Bat for Israel Despite the risks, Ozbudak believes that 'someone should speak up and say the truth, so others can follow.'

Ceylan Ozbudak

Ceylan Ozbudak is a Turkish TV commentator, peace activist, and supporter of the State of Israel. Ozbudak says she values the fact that

Israel has this democratic perspective which is very hard to find in the Middle East. There are minorities in the Knesset, which is hard to find in the Middle East. The democracy of Israel is something that we should all take an example from, as well as the religiousness. I am a religious person and respect religion.

According to Ozbudak, “People in the region look up to Israeli religiousness and this have set an example for other Muslims in the region.” Turkey, for example, has more mosques per capita than any other country in the world, even Saudi Arabia, and average Turks usually pray. Mosques are always full in Turkey. Thus, when the Jewish people value and respect their religion, it helps advance the cause of peace, for it helps Israel to fit into this very religious region of the world.

Ozbudak believes that Muslims around the world should recognize Israel’s right to exist:

According to Islam, Jews have the right to live in Israel until the day of resurrection, the end of the world. The Qur’an says, “Dwell in this land and when the promise of the End of Day comes to be fulfilled, we shall ensemble you there.”

Opposition to Radical Islam

She believes Hamas opposing Israel’s right to exist is merely one of many ways in which Hamas is behaving un-Islamically. Other manifestations include harming innocent people in violation of Islamic laws on armed conflict and engaging in offensive rather than defensive wars.  Ozbudak says that, “There is also no offensive war in Islam, only a defensive war. You cannot fire rockets at a place that is not fighting with you.”

Ozbudak is very much opposed to radical Islam. She claims,

They hate women, animals, art, science, every thing beautiful. What they are doing has nothing to do with Islam. It is a great danger to Islam.

Our Prophet had agreements with Jews and Christians, and they got along with them. The first Islamic country had Jews, Christians and Muslims living in peace. Caliph Umar invited the Jews back to Jerusalem. We learn Islam from these people. Al Qaeda and the Taliban have nothing to do with this.

Ozbudak, as an advocate for peaceful coexistence between Muslims and Jews, believes that the main obstacle to peace in the Middle East remains ideology. Thus, the ideology of hatred that permeates the Arab world needs to cease. She believes that the best way to diminish this hatred is to promote people to people interactions among the various peoples of the Middle East so that the peoples of the region can coexist with each other. In other words, peace should be built up from the bottom upwards.

Targeted by Terror

Unfortunately, Ozbudak and her group in Istanbul that supports peaceful coexistence within Israel have been targeted by radical Islamists for their beliefs. Evidently, al Qaeda had a list of targets within Istanbul. The first on the list was a synagogue, yet Muslim scholar Adnan Oktar, with whom Ozbudak is affiliated, was number two on the list.

Ozbudak believes this is because Oktar has been very outspoken in favor of peaceful coexistence with Israel. In fact, he and his friends have even held four conferences within Israel itself, as well as hosting members of the Israeli press and political leadership. Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau and Israeli Deputy Minister Ayoob Kara, among others, have appeared on his TV show.

Nevertheless, despite the risks, Ozbudak believes that “someone should speak up and say the truth, so others can follow.” In an era when radical Islam is on the upswing, it is refreshing to have a Turkish voice such as Ceylan Ozbudak supporting peaceful coexistence with Israel.

Eye Gouging and Paralyzing: Saudi Arabia’s Tribal Justice Saudi judges, all of whom are Wahhabi clerics, are free to implement punishments in accordance with their own beliefs.

A Saudi court ordered Ali al-Khawahir, a 24-year-old Saudi citizen, to be surgically paralyzed as punishment for a crime he committed as a 14-year-old, that had left his victim paralyzed. The Western media has described the court’s ruling as an “eye for an eye punishment.”

According to reports in the Saudi Gazette, Khawahir stabbed a childhood friend in the spine during an argument ten years ago. The punishment, as decided by the Sharia courts, is similar to other methods used to administer justice, including beheading, flogging, stoning to death and eye gouging.

This arrangement is the product of the religious and tribal structure upon which Saudi Arabia’s system of justice and law enforcement is based. Although Saudi Arabia is a theocracy in which the ruler is responsible for applying Islamic law, the actual system of justice revolves around a nexus of power and money, a structure that protects the tribal and religious values that keep Saudi Arabia firmly in the control of the House of Saud.

In 1971, the judicial system was revised — a move that consolidated the power of those at the top. Power-holders across the country were tasked with appointing a number of quasi-judicial bodies to deal with administrative and economic disputes. With no legislative authority, however, these courts required the clerics to sanction their existence. For this very purpose, the clerics set up the Institute for Religio-Legal Opinions.

The Institute has its own enforcers, known as the Mutawayyin – The Committee for the Exhortation to Good and Interdiction to Evil – who ensure that Islamic values are implemented. The Committee’s most notable moment occurred in 2002, when its members prevented young girls from leaving a burning building because they were not wearing headscarves; at least fourteen of the girls were burned to death.

Crucially, Sharia Law, applied in both the criminal and civil courts, is not codified. With no precedence or structure, except for half-a-dozen defined crimes, Saudi judges, all of whom are Wahhabi clerics, are free to implement punishments in accordance with their own beliefs.

In many ways, the system is feudal. As in medieval Europe, a blood-money payment to the victim’s family is evidently often permissible in lieu of legal retribution – an alternative to punishment presumably designed to prevent bad blood between different communities or tribes. In the case of Ali al-Khawahir, the price of avoiding paralysis is one million Saudi riyals ($266,000) – a price the family cannot afford.

Money, it seems, is the ultimate guarantor, facilitating both power and compromise. In 1982, Ghazi Algosaibi, the Western-educated Saudi Minister for Industry, proclaimed that the man who takes bribes is “active and intelligent, usually enjoying the respect of others.”

As some families are able to afford such financial redress, for those with wealth or influence, therefore, certain crimes are alluring and unconstrained modes of behavior. More often than not, those who can afford to pay blood-money are clerics or members of the 3000-strong royal family. Recently, for example, in Saudi Arabia a “celebrity” cleric raped and murdered his 5-year-old daughter, but was released after he paid the prescribed blood money to the child’s mother. The King, however, after a public outcry, ultimately overruled the court and placed the cleric back in prison.

Under such a system, however, not only can rich males can buy their way out of the judicial system, but according to one Saudi human rights group, the law rules that a father cannot be executed for murdering his children, and husbands cannot be executed for killing their wives.

Any discussion of inequality before the law however, is futile. Saudi’s justice seems designed solely to protect the power-holders. The legitimacy of the justice system, almost entirely based on Sharia law, is guaranteed by the Wahhabi clerics, who are rewarded with authority by the royal family.

The maintenance of “traditional Islamic values” therefore often seems to have more to do with the preservation of power and as an officially sanctioned outlet for the pathological wishes of fundamentalist clerics.

The Saudi armed forces also help to maintain the ruling family’s hold on the reins of power. While the clerics have their own enforcers and institutions, the National Guard chiefly consists of the descendants of those tribesmen who once fought with Abdul ibn Saud, the tribal leader who “founded” the House of Saud and first brought control over the entire country.

During the recent waves of protest throughout the Arab World, in Saudi Arabia there were only a few instances of dissent. The al-Saud regime, from what one can determine, did not even enter into discussion about any real political reform. Saudi Arabia suffers huge youth unemployment and its per capita income is less than that of neighboring Bahrain, where there were huge public protests.

In a recent report for the Council on Foreign Relations, F. Gregory Gause III, an academic at the University of Vermont, identified three key reasons for the suppression of all political discontent. First, at the beginning of the “Arab Spring,” the Saudi government provided two large payouts, equivalent to two months’ salary, for government employees, military personnel, and retired workers from large private-sector employers. Additional financial support was provided for unemployed youths through an expanded benefits system.

Second, security forces, recruited from tribes and regions which the regime regards as particularly loyal, were deployed to areas where the Shia population was involved in some small disturbances in February 2011. These forces demonstrated “that they were willing to arrest and shoot demonstrators, thus deterring larger protests.”

Finally, the regime utilized its patronage networks by calling upon the tribes, clans and religious courts to mobilize and support the regime. On March 6, the Council of Senior Clerics, the most important body within the religious-legal establishment, issued a statement forbidding demonstrations. Gause concludes that, “Al-Saud, aided both by their historical ties to the Wahhabi movement, central Arabian tribes, and important families, and by their vast oil wealth, have been able to build and sustain a broad network of support in the country.”

A number of Arab writers have drawn attention to the nature of the Saudi state. In his book Beyond Oil, the Kuwaiti academic Muhammed Ruhaimi concludes that, “Vested interests continue to block any rational or open political development.”

Saudi Arabia is paralyzed by the past. Immense oil-wealth has not brought about development; it has cemented the country’s tribalism and backwardness.

While it is possible that the king may commute the sentence handed down to Ali al-Khawahir, such an action only reminds the Saudi people of where true authority lies. The royal family is the source of legitimacy for the clerical courts and tribual institutions, which in turn guarantee absolute support of the royal family. By playing the clerics and institutions against the people, the House of Saud rises above justice and above the power struggle as it continues further to consolidate its power.

Originally published at the Gatestone Institute.