Moadim L'Simcha

A guy who calls himself LudwigVanQuixote over at Little Green Footballs put this comment up today. If he had a blog, I'd link it. But he doesn't (as far as I know). So here's some food for thought and for conversation, an extrememely important point that doesn't get made often enough.

For those who claim that Israel does not want peace, they really need to consider the Temple mount.

In Judaism the is only one Temple. The one in Jerusalem, the one where we believe Abraham took Isaac, the one that was the center of our faith, the place where our tradition teaches the very presence of G-d manifested itself in the Holy of Holies.

There is no more sacred place to us in the world.

Yet we leave two Mosques squat on top of it.

If the Muslims had ever taken the Vatican and turned it into a Mosque, how long would the Catholics let it remain so if they got it back? How long would Haiga Sophia stay a mosque if the Greeks ever got it back?

How long would the Muslims let there be a Church in Mecca?

Yet,

We leave those structures squat on our holiest site - even when we know it was built specifically to announce Islam's supremacy over us and all other faiths. I will be clear. I have nothing against mosques, but that one is a painful abomination to my nation.

Yet,

We would rather have peace.

Anyone who thinks that Israel and the Jews have not sacrificed for peace is a fool. We have given our dearest blood.

Indeed.

Chag Shavuot Sameach and

Shabbat Shalom.

Eternal and undivided

So the palestinian arabs "demand" a militarized state on every inch of the land Israel "occupied" in 1967, with Jerusalem (including the Old City) as its capital? Too damn bad.

Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu speaks for me, and for most Jews I know, and for most Israeli Jews, without question:

United Jerusalem is Israel's capital. Jerusalem was always ours and will always be ours. It will never again be partitioned and divided.

Emet (truth).

And I may have my differences with Israeli President Shimon Peres, but today, on Yom Yerushalayim, he was hitting on all cylinders.

The size of Jerusalem is measured not by its geography but by its history," said the president. "Geographically, Jerusalem has no distinction; no river runs through it, there is no beach nearby and the mountains surrounding are not extraordinarily high. But there is no city in the world with a historical wealth to match Jerusalem, both political history and spiritual history.

Yes.

Jerusalem was, and remains Israel's capital. Israel never had a different capital and Jerusalem has never been the capital of another people. Fierce battles took place here, more than anywhere in the world. The city charmed rulers who wanted control of it, it drew in peoples who wanted to force the city to serve their purposes. Legions sieged its walls, and the Jewish people had to defend its spirit as well as its alleyways time after time. At times Jerusalem almost met its undoing but it remained the inextinguishable hope of the Jewish people, which pledged 'never to forget thee, O Jerusalem.

Absolutely.

When Jerusalem was in non-Jewish hands, Jews were not allowed to pray at the holy places, while under Jewish rule, it is open to all faiths and all forms of prayer.

Yet another point that bears repeating and that the rest of the world was only too willing to ignore and is only too happy to forget. Not again. Never again.

The blood spilled in Jerusalem was the blood of our soldiers, but also the blood of the Jewish people, flowing through the veins of our existence.

42 years ago today, Jerusalem was reunited under the sovereignty of the State of Israel. Jerusalem is the beating heart of the Jewish people. For millenia, we have cared for her, yearned for her, prayed for her, adored her and adorned her. You don't rip the heart out of a living body. Not while it has an ounce of breath. Not while any of us do.

Block break

It's one of those things. Just as soon as I break through this block ... I do hope to be back. In the meantime ... here's a beautiful blooming bush at Qumran.

Shabbat Shalom.

Headache

I do not get migraines and I rarely even get headaches. But there's this one muscle in my back that sometimes goes into a knot and then I can't do much of anything until someone works it out or it goes away on its own. Today I've had one that refuses to respond to rubbing, pushing, prodding, kneading or any other sort of attention. It just keeps getting worse. And as a result I'm just a big puddle of uselessness. Sorry.

Meanwhile, Israel had a birthday Wednesday. It's not like me to miss commenting on that joyful occasion but stuff has been going on and this knot is likely in part a response to that. Stress. I need to make some changes, I think.

Happy belated Yom Ha'atzma'ut and Shabbat Shalom.