Desicritics Author: Ruvy

Why Neither India nor Pakistan Should Rely on America: Part I - Who Really Runs America?

Ruvy — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 15:02:57 EDT

This series of articles is written as an object lesson for you as to why you cannot trust the United States government as any kind of partner. This is as true for Pakistanis as it is for Indians, Sri Lankans, Nepalis, Bangladeshis or any other residents of the Indian sub-continent.

The series has three parts.

This article examines how the United States got to the apex it did. The second uses Israel as an example of American duplicity regarding its supposed "friends" or "allies". The third views what might have happened and how the world would be different if indeed the United States supported the State of Israel as one-sidedly as so many charge.

These articles is not written in an attempt to "inform" you of events in Israel, the Levantine or the Arab world. Unless you have relatives or business interests here, you probably have no reason to care.

The point of this series is to allow you to apply the sad lesson we provide of how a great power double-crosses a small one. There are many such examples of this, but I can speak as a resident of the victim. Indeed, not only Jews in Israel have been victims of this double-cross, but Arabs as well.

Before continuing further, I want to make clear several things. First; I live in Israel, in Samaria to be precise. While I reside in Israel. I am not a Zionist. The word "Zionism" was originally invented by English Christian theologians in the 17th Century; as a Jewish idea, it was originally expounded upon by rabbis from Serbia and Russia in the early 19th Century (though not called by this name), and was made palpable and real by secular Jews who wanted little to do with ritual, religion, or even with G-d. The creation of Zionism, the State of Israel, has been a success until recent years. The essential goal of Zionism, bringing the majority of Jews in the world back to the homeland, has nearly been completed. It is evident to anyone who lives here that the closer we come to that basic goal, the weaker the movement to achieve it becomes, and the weaker the apotheosis of Zionist ideology, the State, becomes as well.

Second; even though I live in Israel, I was born and raised in the United States and lived there for several decades before coming home to Israel. My field of study was political science and public administration, and I added to these subjects comparative government and linguistics. In addition, I was active in politics in the United States in both major political parties. This gave me a good grasp of the American political system and how it evolved.

Finally; I'm not slamming the people who inhabit the United States, the average folks known as Joe Sixpack. Americans, by and large, are a decent, generous and kind people, even if they are too Amero-centered for their own good. Perhaps they are too naïve at times. But the decency of the average American should never ever be in question.

The government of the United States, now in the hands of an oil and banking establishment for some eight decades, is a very different story. In this article, when talking about "America", I'm not talking about her decent inhabitants; I'm talking about her evil régime.

One last point. Credit for much of what you see in this article goes to Joel Bainerman, an Israeli investigative journalist, economist and publisher. My errors in relaying the data he has taught me and others is my responsibility alone.

And now to business.

The first three words of the American Federal Constitution of 1787 are "We the People" and if you ask most Americans, "who runs America?" that is the most likely answer you will get. The people.

If it were only true.

It isn't. It probably never was.

First of all, the United States were not designed to be a democracy at all, but a federation of states with a republican form of government. While the word "republic" comes from the Latin rex publica (one sees the root in the Russian word respublik) meaning "the people rule", and in spite of the fact that modern Greece is called Ελληνική Δημοκρατία ('Ellinikí Dhimokratía) which is translated as "the Hellenic Republic", the two words "democracy" and "republic" do not have the precise same meaning in English.

A republic connotes a form of government which is not monarchical in nature. Thus, the Republic of Florence, where Niccolo Machiavelli was a mid-level bureaucrat, was not a state where the average Florentine had a real voice in government. Only a small class of Florentines had any voice at all, and they ruled the country.

But the Principality of Florence, which succeeded the Republic upon its fall, was a monarchy, with the son supposedly succeeding the father. Machiavelli's book, De Principatus, "The Prince", was in essence, his curriculum vitae submitted to the man who had exiled him to his estate after overthrowing the republic. While the book has long outlasted the la famiglia Medici that Machiavelli was trying to impress, Machiavelli did not get his job back.

When first established in 1776, the various states restricted voting to white males only, usually only Christians who owned property. So voting was restricted somewhat for several decades. For all of this, the states that comprised the United States did move closer towards popular rule, and the American republic did edge towards democracy in the 1800's.

But a business oligarchy took the country over after its civil war in 1865, and controlled its industrialization. As the 19th Century progressed to a close, the rich men who built huge industries out of the steel plants of the Midwest, the railways, the ships, the meat packing plants and the like realized that competition was not "rational", so they bought each other out, building huge monopolies known in America as "trusts" and "rationalizing" the industries they controlled. This is the kind of stuff most American kids skip over in school, because it is so damnably boring, but it is precisely these events in America that provided the model for the concentration of wealth in the succeeding decades.

What American teachers tend to focus on is not the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few, but the efforts of the American government to combat that concentration of wealth, known as "trust busting". To make a long story short, American businessmen felt stymied in building monopolies in the States and looked out at the wide world instead, and started investing money in it in the early 1900's.

They invested all over the world; Germany, Turkey, Russia, France, as well as China, Cuba and Latin America. And when a world war broke out in 1914, the profits of many firms went right down the tubes.

This had consequences. One consequence was that rich American businessmen determined that they would not be burned again in another world war. They examined the Treaty of Versailles that crippled post-war Germany, the Russian Revolution, and the way people were buying Henry Ford's affordable "Model T" and made their moves.

Their first presumption was that there would be a rematch between Germany and Britain or the United States. They set up a triumvirate of banks - one was the Thyssen Bank in Germany, the second was the Union Bank in New York, and the third was a bank in the Netherlands. The idea was that the Netherlands would probably be neutral in this coming war, and that Germany and America would be on opposite sides. That is what had happened in the first war, and so they expected the pattern would hold.

If the Germans won this second world war, then the rich businessmen would be compensated for their losses in America through the Thyssen bank "looting" the assets of the Union Bank (and presumably others). If the Americans won the second world war, the rich businessmen would be compensated through the Union Bank "looting" the assets of the Thyssen Bank. In either case, the Dutch bank was supposed to e the intermediary.

It didn't exactly work that way, but these rich businessmen had foresight.

They also had the brains to make sure that they would have some level of control over who ran the governments. In America, they set up a "Council on Foreign Relations" to infiltrate the State, War, Navy and Commerce departments of the American government with their employees. The idea was to provide a pool of "respectable" professors and administrative types who would watch over their interests. They did the same thing in the United Kingdom. These councils still exist today, and in either the United Kingdom or the United States, if you do not have ties to the respective councils, you get nowhere fast. Note how Ron Paul was locked out of the national debate before McCain sewed up the nomination.

Investing in overseas political control was a bit trickier.

One act of these businessmen was to invest in the Soviet Union in an attempt to bring it to stability. This might have been their first act, persuading Lenin to introduce the New Economic Plan (NEP) in the early twenties; but Lenin had the temerity to die, and his successor, Joe Stalin, was a xenophobe.

The next move was to try and find someone who could be controlled in the Weimar Republic that had succeeded the German Empire. These businessmen found an ambitious young man originally from Austria, and they invested in him, building him a fancy house. This turned out to be a better investment - Adolf Hitler eventually became Reichskanzler in 1933, and continued his business ties with his American investors, attempting to use them to get some foothold in the American economy. And as these businessmen had foreseen, there was another world war, and they made sure that they were compensated for their German investments through the Dulles brothers, one of whom was an attorney on the Allied War Compensation Board set up after the war.

The final big move was to invest in a source of fuel for the "Model T" and its successors, and to lay the groundwork for a continuing fortune. This came by investing some money in the wastes of Arabia, arming the ibn Saud clan to the teeth, and supporting them as they stole Makka and Medina from the Hashemi family, its traditional guardians for centuries. The Hashemi family had to be satisfied with emirates in Mesopotamia and "Transjordan"- the eastern two thirds of the territory the British had allotted for a Jewish national home. The money wasn't a gift to the ibn Sauds. It was a deal. American and British oil companies got to control the oil under the ground. The ibn Sauds - now "Saudis" - got the sand. At least that's how it looked in the 1920's.

Thus is was that bit by bit, the oil and banking companies came to dominate America. One of the key parts of winning their dominion over America came from getting rid of trolley cars and replacing them with buses; getting rid of trains, and replacing them with trucks. These two moves guaranteed the dominion of oil over all other fuels. Gradually, the American State Department became the pliable tool of American corporations. Much of the Japanese drive for empire was a drive to control oil, and the same was true for the Germans. Americans never thought of using alcohol to fuel tanks, as did the Germans. They never had to.

With the Germans and Japanese broken and defeated by August 1945, the American oil and banking establishment bestrode the world like a colossus. And Americans, living the best lives that could be imagined at the time, never even dreamt that their country and that their democracy had been stolen from them.

Hepatitis, Food and Politics: Life in Israel During a Sabbatical Year

Ruvy — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 03:20:45 EDT

When you are as poor as we are, being forced to forget the affairs of the week and concentrate on thinking about G-d one day a week is well, a godsend. And that is one of the nice things about attempting to observe the mitzvót (commandments) of the religion of Israel. You get to truly enjoy the Sabbath because you have to forget your weekly concerns and concentrate on a taste of "the world to come".

There are other mitzvót that are a lot tougher to deal with on a daily basis. One is the commandment to allow the Land of Israel to lie fallow for one year every seven years. That is what is supposed to happen during this year, 5768, which according to the Christian calendar, began at sunset on 12 September 2007.

In life generally, you either eat or you perish, and if you eat a lot of fruits of the land - vegetables, nuts and fruit - you either grow the food or you die. Israel grows most of its own vegetables and fruit, and fruits and vegetables make up a really important part of the diet here. Partly, this is because fruits and vegetables contain water, something badly needed in a semi-parched land; partly this is because fruits and vegetables fill you up, another important requirement for food. One falafel sandwich on a láffa, a huge piece of thin bread used as a wrap, a sandwich filled with vegetables of all types, is enough to keep you going for quite a while. And vegetables come with every meal here. Pancakes do not come with eggs - they come with vegetables.

What is Shmitá?

If you are forbidden to grow vegetables for a year to allow the Land of Israel to lie fallow, you have quite a problem. But before going on, let's be absolutely clear about what we are talking about.

WHY is this an issue? According to the Torah, "...When you come into the Land I give you, the Land shall observe a Sabbath rest for HASHEM. For six years you may sow your field and for six years your may prune your vineyard and you may gather in its crop. But the seventh year shall be a complete rest for the Land, a Sabbath for HASHEM; your field you shall not sow and your vineyard your shall not prune. The after-growth of your harvest you shall not reap, and the grapes you had set aside for yourself you shall not pick. It shall be a year of rest for the Land." [vayikrá/Leviticus 25:2-5 THE CHUMASH; Stone Edition Torah, Haftarot and Five Megillot with a Commentary Anthologized from Rabbinical Writings, © 1993]

First of all, the laws of the Sabbatical (shmitá) year apply only to those lands ruled to be "within the Land of Israel" according to the Torah and the Talmud. This leaves some leeway, but the territory south of Be'ersheva towards Eilat may not necessarily be within the Land (being in the State of Israel is a whole different issue); the same is true for what were known as the Jewish settlements of Gush Qatif in the Gaza Strip. Second of all, the laws apply to working of the LAND. If you have a greenhouse that grows food and the floor of the greenhouse is plastic tarp separating the earth from the floor with drip irrigation coming down, it is not considering working the LAND. Thirdly, this applies ONLY to the Children of Israel and the righteous foreigners permitted to live in the Land. This does not apply to anyone else.

According to Machon Mamre's Laws of the Sabbatical and the Jubilee, (translated from the Hebrew) "There are in all, twenty-two commandments concerning the Sabbatical and the Jubilee." The most important that concern us here are:
1. Every seventh year shall be a Sabbath from creative work (i.e systematic planting and harvesting);
2. The land shall not be worked during this year (the only thing you are allowed to do is to weed the land);
3. Trees shall not be worked during this year (i.e. systematic harvesting of apples and other fruits of trees);
4. Reapers shall not cut the after-growth;
5. Your vintners shall not prune the vines;
6. You shall set aside all that the land has given;
10. You shall count a cycle of this kind every seven years;

The remaining fifteen commandments deal with cancellation of loans, freeing (Hebrew) slaves, sanctifying the fiftieth (Jubilee) year, and the rules concerning the Jubilee year.

So, how do you cope?

One obvious solution presents itself immediately: import the stuff. The problem with importing anything is increased cost. In addition, you do not have the supervision required to make sure that species have not been mixed in the same field, or have been handled properly. Finally, you can have issues of freshness, though refrigeration usually take care of that.

A second solution is to buy from your neighbors: our neighbors are Arabs who own their own land and grow their own vegetables and are more than happy to sell the produce they harvest. And the Haredím, the Jews known as "ultra-religious" in the popular press, are more than happy to buy. So is the army, lots of supermarket chains and a lot of restaurants.

The third solution is to grow fruit and veggies in greenhouses with a tarp underneath as had been done in Gush Qatif, or to buy from Jewish farmers who farm lands that are not part of the country according to the Torah and Talmud, but which are within the political borders of the State.

The fourth solution is to ignore Shmitá altogether, a solution preferred by secular G-dless types, but one which does not go over that well with the majority of us who believe in G-d. Our buying power dictates what the market carries.

And now to the Kike culture contaminating everything here

This e-mail came my way a couple of days ago.

From: L. L.
Sent: Saturday, September 15, 2007 11:49 PM
Subject: INFO FOR YOU - SHMITA PRODUCE WASH WELL

If you buy Bada"tz [the Haredi council that approves food - RiJ] vegetables during shmita, wash them very, very thoroughly as irrigation water of the Arabs in Judea and Samaria is often contaminated with sewage.

Last shmita (and the shmita before) there were outbreaks of hepatitis in
Bet Shemesh, mostly in the Kirya Haredit and in RBS B [Ramat Bet Shemsh, Beit - a Haredi neighborhood - RiJ].

This is not F.U.D.. I personally know people who ate Bada"tz vegetables and contracted hepatitis during shmitta."

The Haredím buy according to what their rabbis tell them to buy. Their rabbis (at least in Bet Shemesh) tell them to buy from Arabs. The Arabs have a habit of defecating in the fields where they grow food, in addition to allowing contaminated water to irrigate their produce. Whether this is done out of hatred of Jews, or just plain carelessness or laziness on the part of the Arabs is not for me to say, but the hepatitis breaking out during shmitá years does not lie.

Nor can I state that all the Bada"tz Councils (there is one for each significant Haredí community) endorse buying from Arabs. This is something I do not know. It may be that the Bada"tz Council in Jerusalem or Beitar Illit refuses to buy from Arabs. This I cannot say for sure. So it is unfair to paint all Haredím with the same brush.

Nevertheless, the danger of hepatitis or other forms of food poisoning does not appear to concern the "holy ones" leading the Haredí community in Bet Shemesh - or if it does, they do not communicate that concern adequately. Given that the army, police, and lots of supermarkets and restaurants also buy from Arabs during a shmitá year, and given that there are only seven public health inspectors in the entire country, this can be a bit of a problem.

A friend of mine replied to the original e-mail:

You buy Arab produce, you take your chances! Last Shmita year there were several outbreaks of hepatitis from eating dirty produce.

Another friend wrote:

THESE IDIOTS!!!

They TRESPASS ON A DOUBLE MITSVÁ MI-DE'ORAITÁ [two commandments written in the Torah - RiJ (USHMARTÉM 'AL NEFSHOTÉKHEM M'ÓD M'ÓD [and you shall guard your body and soul very carefully - RiJ]) by purchasing produce from SONÉI YISRAÉL [haters of Israel - RiJ] and MURDERERS, by giving money to our enemies, with which they purchase explosives and weapons; and [the Hareidim] purchase produce which is irrigated with sewer discharge and can KILL THEIR CHILDREN (from escherichia coli, to vibrio cholerae, etc.), so as to make POLITICAL STATEMENTS, which THEY THINK are just anti-Zionist, but are JUST AGAINST TORAH GIANTS LIKE RABBI ELCHANAN SPECTOR and against common sense.

LAST TIME AROUND THEY OBVIOUSLY GOT PUNISHED AS A CONSEQUENCE OF THEIR ACTIONS, this time it will be no different.

My friend's righteous anger was all good and well, but I needed to buy vegetables (remember those pancakes and veggies?)

So I went to the owner of a makólet (a small supermarket) in the yishúv (village). I was told that the yishúv only buys from Jews since the Intifada of 2000 - because of the Intifada. So, hand it to the Arabs for shooting in the foot their own chances to make a decent living. But at least, if we buy our veggies and fruit in the yishúv, we will not be buying Arab piss and defecation or increasing our chances of hepatitis.

But eating falafel in restaurants, or shwarma, or any salad of any kind in a restaurant, is out until the shmitá year is over. The year 5768 is a leap year on the rabbinic calendar, so that means it will be 384 days long. It's worse than "364 shopping days till Christmas." It's 384 days (plus however many days it takes to use up the Arabs' pissed on "produce") till the next mouthwatering falafel sandwich.

That is going to be one long wait....

Life and Death in Israel: Automobile Accidents

Ruvy — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 13:17:30 EDT

Folks reading the news overseas or watching CNN, "Faux" News, the BBC, CBC, or TV1 or TV2 in France, read about peace plans, and peace processes, terror attacks and terrorists, the "poor Palestinians" and American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice swishing her spiked heeled derri�re and her nasty face from one place to another, spinning one lie after another while she attempts to pursue "America's best interests" and the lie the Americans and Europeans call "peace in the Middle East".

But life and death in Israel is about a whole lot more than the trash you folks see or read overseas.

First of all, to my surprise, Israel has a drinking problem - something I did not realize was true, but is. Secular Jews have taken to driving with open bottles as they go to and from the nightclubs that open on Friday night (in violation of the Jewish Sabbath), and the inevitable happens when liquor gets mixed with people who drive like madmen, hate to be taken for suckers, and who are chasing a good time. Every weekend, more human sacrifices are made at the altar of secular madness because of the drunkenness of the drivers. Just like in America.

The biggest cause of death outside of disease here is automobile accidents.

Unfortunately, not all automobile accidents are caused by drunk driving. Working days here are long, and the trips that one makes from home to work or school can be long and very tiring. I regularly fall asleep on the bus ride to Jerusalem from Ma'aleh Levona and back.

A couple of days ago, Aviatar and a neighbor boy were hitching a ride - a common practice in Judea and Samaria for teenagers (and adults) who do not drive. The driver fell asleep at the wheel; the rider at the passenger's side grabbed the wheel, the driver roused himself and the two managed to swerve the car out of the direction of an on-coming car, avoiding a head-on collision. But the two cars did collide. Aviatar, apparently in the back seat, was hit by the on-coming car, and suffered brain stem damage and bleeding around the brain. Of all the passengers, he was the only one hurt. He was taken to Hadassah 'Ein Kerem Hospital, put in intensive care and seemed to be improving - but yesterday, Thursday 12 July, the blood around his brain was apparently too much for him to survive as other than a vegetable; Aviatar slipped away to the other side...

So it was that last night I went to a funeral at the Shilo cemetery, a funeral that started at 11:00 at night. Holding outdoor funerals at night is apparently a common practice in Israel. Jewish law requires that the body be buried as soon as possible, and particularly within 24 hours. Headlights dotted Highway 60 as car after car pulled into Shilo, parking along the road and unloading more passengers who walked up quietly to the cemetery. When the ceremony began, there were something on the order of 500 people there; come to pay honor to Aviatar Mordekhai ben Akiva v'Malka, z"l, a youth not even eighteen years old, and one of six children of a village family.

It was here that you could see the people of the village of Ma'aleh Levona and the village of Shilo knit and pull themselves together, as grown men cried and wept out loud, inconsolable in their weeping. My sons, used to the stoicism and denial of emotion that encompasses so much of American society, could not believe this. My younger boy commented that he had never seen nor heard grown men cry so hard and so loud.

Jewish funerals are simple events. The rabbi of the village began what are called hesped�m - a term that loosely translates as eulogies - and others who knew Aviatar continued. After a while, someone said "éfo �bba?" (where's dad?) and Akiva was given the microphone. Some parents are, at such events, able to say some remarks of farewell. Akiva, unable to, did what any male Jew does upon the death of a loved one. He recited Kadd�sh, a prayer that indicates moving from one stage in the prayer liturgy (or in life) to the next. Aviatar's brothers who were aged 13 and above also recited Kadd�sh and the body was brought up to the grave that had already been dug. Aviatar's body was lowered into its final resting place, covered in only a shroud, as Jewish law requires. The final prayers were said, and one individual, the father of the young man who had fallen asleep at the wheel said the final remarks, asking the forgiveness of Aviatar for all that he had done, before the ceremony ended with the bereaved father reciting Kaddish once more.

All I can hope for was that those whom I or my loved ones ride with in future will either stay awake at the wheel, or pull over to the side of the road and grab forty winks for a few minutes...

A life might be at stake.

Bar�kh Day�n haEmét - Blessed is the True Judge.

May the memory of Aviatar ben Akiva v'Malka be only for a blessing upon his family and friends and upon all who knew and loved him. May the Almighty comfort his family, all who knew and loved Aviatar, z"l; may the Almighty comfort all the mourners in Israel.

Shabbat Shalom from the Hill of Frankincense (Ma'aleh Levon�) in the mountains north of Jerusalem, the Eternal Capital of the People of Israel.

War on Israel's Gaza Front - Repeating The Past

Ruvy — Tue, 22 May 2007 04:56:52 EDT

Ma'aleh Levona, Israel

It appears that once again open hostilities have broken out between Israel's military forces and the reinforced Hamas terrorists based in the Gaza Strip in southwestern Israel. It is not as if Hamas had ever ceased attacking the country. Almost as soon as Israeli military forces withdrew from the Gaza Strip in September, 2005, Qassam rockets no longer fell on the villages of the abandoned Gush Qatif, the sacrificial offering made for the sake of peace; they fell instead on S'derot, with missiles also aimed at Ashkelon, where about one third of the country's electricity is produced.

Upon reflection, while Ashkelon will be a target, it is apparent that rockets will not attempt to hit the Ashkelon electric plant - crippling that plant will cut off the Gaza grid as well. Unless the Hamas leaders in Gaza are far stupider than I give them credit for, they themselves will not cut off their own electric supply. Benyamin Netanyahu, prime minister from 1996 to 1998, called for cutting off electricity and water to Gaza a few days ago, but the gutless fools in office will not pursue this route. Their masters in Washington would not approve.

There have been a number of Arab casualties of this conflict over the few days or so that raids have taken place from Israel, and one woman, Shirel Feldman, z"l, of S'derot, was killed last night when a rocket found her car and blew it up with her in it.

It is relatively clear to this writer that the IDF is not at all prepared for this conflict. Many of the reasons for this were given me in confidence, and they are structural in nature. Beyond that I'm not at liberty to go into specifics. But the Egyptian army facing us in 1948 was in similar condition, and describing it will not breach security. In a sentence, it's officers were over-funded while the soldiers on the field were under-supplied.

These conclusions were confirmed in whispered discussions near Government Hill Sunday with a man whose son had been sent to the Gaza front. He said, "My son is near Gaza. You know when he got to his base, there were no supplies; no bullets, no artillery shells, barely any rifles, no underwear, no food, no water – nothing.” When standing guard at the village gate a couple of months ago, a young kid was telling me of his experiences in Lebanon last year; what the man talking to me about on Sunday was describing was the exact same logistical nightmare we faced in last year’s war with (it really hurts to type this) HizbAllah.

Hamas, by contrast, has learned from the conflict in 2006. When HizbAllah blanketed northern Israel with Katyusha rockets, the government ran away and the residents, deserted by its corrupt timeservers, fled themselves. They fled to Tel Aviv, then to Jerusalem, Eilat, Modi'in, and to the interior of the country, to places like Efrat, Ariel, Ofra, and this village that I write from.

Given that the goal of Hamas is to eradicate Israel from the map, one of the points they need to cover is depriving Jews of a refuge from their attacks. So, they have decided to extend rocket attacks to Judea and Samaria. This will effectively cut off Judea and Samaria as a refuge, as well as to deprive the country of the strategic depth it needs to defend itself.

At this point, it appears that Israel's government will restrict itself to pin-point attacks, tank incursions and targetted killings. Needless to say, this will not stop the Qassams flying over our country. What is not mentioned in the press is the possibilitry of HizbAllah deciding to join in the fray, attacking Israel much as a vulture picks the eyes out of a sick animal in the desert. We have the ability to end all this nonsense very quickly. We have nuclear missiles that we can use to destroy the main bases of our enemies, like Damascus, Teheran, and Riyadh, and the Aswan High Dam (to prevent Egypt from ever threatening this country again) but using these missiles will not solve the immediate problems of under-supply or give our soldiers the ability to destroy the Hamas bases in Gaza, or the HizbAllah bases in Lebanon. Using nukes there is just not wise policy. Ironically, the American demands on the criminal régime (calling it a government is a travesty in using English, and an insult to the actual functioning governments in the world) in Jerusalem to avoid infrastructure damage and civilian casualties may save its butt in the short run.

But only in the short run.

So the immediate threats will remain, potential knives in the back for Ehud Olmert and his crew of clowns, including the eminence grise behind it all, Shim'on Peres. And reservists, if again treated as they were last year, may arise and ditch the idiots and perhaps even wield those knives. One can be an incompetent restaurant manager and get away with it, or be an incompetent bureaucrat and get away with it, but being an incompetent military commander can bring swift justice at the hands of soldiers who will have felt stabbed in the back as though by a traitor.

When I stopped being the bagel and lox Jew I had been all my life and came to actually believe in G-d, I realized that the day would arrive when our military would not be enough to withstand the murderous onslaughts of our enemies, and that we would have to call on the help of the Almighty to succeed in battle.

That day appears to have arrived. But the situation may have to get a lot worse before leaders arise who will humble themselves before the L-rd. One can only pray.

The Winograd Report on Israel's Defeat in Lebanon Hits The Fan

Ruvy — Wed, 9 May 2007 07:46:35 EDT

9 May 2007
Ma'aleh Levona

May Day! May Day!

That has been the cry going out from the "prime minister" Ehud Olmert and "security minister" Amir Peretz, the Two Stooges whose goose was cooked when the Winograd Report hit the fan during the evening hours of 30 April. The Third Stooge, former IDF "chief of staff" Dan Halutz, had already been sacked and is now hiding out at Harvard in the groves of academe. Various press reports have talked about how scathing the report was etc., etc., and of the "political earthquake" that hit Israel.

Gimme a break!

From hundreds of anecdotal reports, Israeli soldiers were sent forth without adequate supplies to engage the enemy in the north, HizbAllah, attacking them along the line of expectation, the precise path that HizbAllah expected to be attacked.

Woo hoo! Way to go, retard!

The sins of Olmert and crew have already been hashed over hundreds of times since last July, when the fool brazenly bragged about recovering hostages "kidnapped" by HizbAllah in the north and Hamas in the south - and then refused to follow even a reasonable strategy to do so. Everyone has been calling for the idiots' heads since being sent home from the north with reservists leaving huge signs at the edge of Jerusalem - "Take Responsibility For Your Mistakes! Quit and Go Home!"

When the Katyusha rockets began hitting the northern third of Israel last July 12th, the government and administration ran away, leaving the citizenry to fend for themselves. The government has not even transferred to the "responsible authorities," the idiots who ran away, the millions of shekels needed to enable the recovery of the northern part of the country. Today (Thursday 3 May), there is a general strike to protest that fact.

All the Winograd Report has done has been to put the obvious into official language that not even the pretendedly magisterial Olmert, or the "little captain" Peretz, can deny.

Getting Around the Rule of Law

Let's do a little analysis of all this, remembering these points. Olmert, who was the Vice Prime Minister when Ariel Sharon had his major stroke early in 2006, was kept in office by a subterfuge of the law. Ariel Sharon did in fact die in Hadassah, as David Bedein reported. But he was dragged back from the dead, and stuck on life support machines for political reasons.

According to Israeli law, had Sharon been declared dead, the head of the political party he headed when he became prime minister in 2003 would have succeeded to the position of interim prime minister, and new elections would have been called. The head of the political party that Sharon headed upon accession to the prime minister's office in 2003 was the head of the Likud party, Benyamin Netanyahu.

By declaring the prime minister "impaired," Attorney General Menahem Mazuz avoided the possibility of Netanyahu becoming prime minister and thus allowed Ehud Olmert, and Sharon's fake political creation that Olmert now headed, "Kadima," to continue in office and attempt to form a government if it won a sufficient number of seats in the elections.

So an operation was done upon a corpse, and reports came out regularly about Ariel Sharon's condition to maintain the fiction that he was the sitting prime minister, while Ehud Olmert ran for office while sitting in the prime minister's chair. Now that Olmert has been in office for a year and half, Sharon has been airbrushed out of the political photos. Scarcely a word is said about the body of a man now hooked up to life support machines.

Why?

Way back in 2004, Sharon, after declaring his intent to pull out of Gush Katif, offered to hold a referendum within the Likud party to allow the members of the Likud, whom he represented, to decide on pulling out. It appeared at first that he would actually follow the desire of the voters, his own supporters, in the matter. In the end, he lost the referendum, and declared that he would go ahead with a withdrawal anyway. But, deferring to the voters of his party, he would only order a withdrawal from a few of the 24 towns and villages in Gush Katif. A report harshly critical of this referendum and of Israel's presence in Gaza noted the following:

Predictions from within Likud are that he will now offer only a partial withdrawal from the Gaza Strip of only those of the 21 settlements "most exposed" to violence. The occupation of the Gaza Strip would be essentially unchanged.

Enter Menny Mazuz. The attorney general declared that Sharon had to pull out of the entire bloc of Gush Katif as he said he would. What power had Mazuz, whose position as attorney general did not qualify him to try to make security policy? Mazuz had possible indictments sitting in his drawer - indictments of Ariel Sharon and his son Omri to begin with, for various kinds of fraud, campaign violations, and the like. Mazuz, who had been a protegé of Yossi Beilin, a staunch advocate of withdrawal from Gaza, Judea and Samaria, was merely following "his" party line, and using the indictments in the drawer as his weapon.

By 6 May 2004, Mr. Sharon, picking up the hint, returned to the line of pulling out of Gush Katif entirely, and stonewalled his way through the entire effort. And what was the central plank of the "Kadima" party that Sharon founded in 2005 after the withdrawal from Gush Katif? Withdrawal from all of Judea and Samaria, unilaterally, if need be. This was the policy known as "convergence".

The loss in Lebanon basically did in that policy. Oh, Olmert will pretend to support it, and his foreign minister Tzipi Livni will talk about a "Palestinian state" and all that trash - but the people of Israel are not willing to buy that bill of goods any more. But if a knight on a white horse comes to the nation's rescue...

the Knight on a White Horse

So we see Olmert facing the desertion of his coalition as Kadima minister after Kadima minister tries to figure out a way to replace Olmert without facing the danger of new elections. Labor Minister Eitan Cabel quit the government urging his fellow ministers from the Labor party to do likewise, including Mr. Peretz; the chief of the coalition quit, calling upon Olmert to do likewise, Tzipi Livni has already tried a putsch within the Kadima party - and failed. If you examine this page listing articles in Haaretz, you'll see one major name in Israeli politics absent.

Deputy Prime Minister Shim'on Peres has been the eminence grise in this government, the fellow who knows where all the bodies are buried (literally). While Olmert has publicly faltered, Peres had remained quiet awaiting the release of the interim report of the Winograd Committee to confirm the incompetence of Mr. Olmert, his security minister and former chief of staff. But Peres moves carefully, and has been campaigning quietly to oust Olmert and take the position himself. A Stratfor analysis dismisses him as a possible replacement for Olmert, arguing that the situation calls for someone strong in security, rather than diplomacy. That would rule out Tzipi Livni, who appears to enjoy the support of the Hebrew press.

Let's take another look at Peres, then. It can be fatal to under-estimate him. While he was never a general in the army, he has credentials that make him very strong in the area of security. He initiated atomic energy research in the 1950's in Israel and in the 1970's he was instrumental in Israel's "acquiring" nuclear material for its clutch of nuclear missiles. In 1976, he orchestrated the rescue of 100 Israeli hostages from Uganda, the daring operation at the Entebbe airport that killed Yoni Netanyahu and brought his brother Benyamin into the political limelight.

In addition, Peres has a resource that virtually none of his contemporaries, friend or foe, has - a solid Jesuit education. The Jesuits are famous for their ability to teach strategic thinking, and Peres learned at their knee. Considering the woeful strategic abilities of the present crew of stooges, and keeping this in mind, let us look at three possible scenarios for the medium future.

1. One is that Olmert is driven from office and is succeeded by Peres, who promises to bring a fresh approach and to save the Kadima party from its natural fate - extinction. But there is a corollary to this scenario, one that I've examined before. This is that Katzav is also driven from office in one way or another, and that Peres steps forth as the deGaulle of the country, seeking to combine the posts of state president and prime minister and end the instability of the counry's political system. This is the "knight on a white horse scenario." Given that there is virtually nobody else to run the country who has any level of competence (with a couple of execptions), the Israeli "maiden" kisses this knight whom she has spurned so many times before.

2. The second is that Olmert is driven from office and that either Tzipi Livni or Avi Dichter takes his place. Katzav is driven from office in one way or another, and is replaced by Peres as state president. Because of Peres' ties overseas, he exercises considerable behind the scenes influence, far greater than his office warrants, and he seems again to be a "knight on a white horse", serving as mentor for the younger cabinet members and being invited to sit in on their meetings.

3. The final scenario is that Olmert is able to hold onto the "seat" of prime minister but will be forced to accede to rule by others - like his deputy prime minister, Peres.

What do all three scenarios have in common?

The European Union, with some help from NATO, will be invited in to "expedite" the "peace process" - that is to say drive out Jews from their homes in Judea, Samaria, the Heights of the Golan, and very possibly parts of Jerusalem itself. It is unlikely that the IDF, more and more composed of religiously observant soldiers, will be either willing or able to carry out this vicious anti-Jewish act.

In the week since the Winograd Interim report has come out, little has happened here in terms of real change, except that people are beginning to think seriously of a government without Ehud Olmert. Amir Peretz brags about Israel being "more prepared for a war in Gaza than they were in Lebanon" but nobody takes the idiot seriously. The power lines, that is to say the European fleet off of Lebanon and the American fleet off of Iran, have gone nowhere. But, we do see
Olmert trying desperately to save his seat by having secret negotiations with the Arabs over kicking us out of our homes.

Evil men never learn, do they?

Restaurant Review: Sbarro's in Jerusalem's City Center

Ruvy — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 00:52:01 EST

I first became acquainted with Sbarro's a quarter of a century ago when I lived in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn with my first wife. It was located on 86th Street where the "B" train runs on an "el" in the Italian section of the neighborhood. It looked like a typical salumeria (sausage shop) with salamis and various other treif (non-kosher food) hanging down from the ceiling. They sold hero sandwiches and the like, lunches for the Italian working classes of Bensonhurst. We never ate there - period.

I next became familiar with Sbarro's after the marriage to my first wife fell apart and I was living in the streets of Saint Paul. I had managed to secure a bed in a Catholic shelter (the Jews run no homeless shelters in St. Paul or Minneapolis- a different, far less pleasant story) and had made friends with a fellow from Wisconsin named Dan Ehmke who, like the shelter, was Catholic. I had finally managed to secure temporary employment with the State of Minnesota (for just a little over minimum wage) and, since I had no real expenses, my bank account was beginning to fill up.

I first got rid of the trappings of living on the streets was when I got my first check from the Minnesota Department of Administration. The bank was closed and I wanted to celebrate. Dan Ehmke's "banker" was Jim Flaherty, the beefy ex-marine of an Irishman who owned Flaherty's just off East Seventh Street. Jim Flaherty cashed my check and I bought a few beers. Those few beers at Flaherty's bar in the summer of 1983 were the absolute closest I came to inebriation in my entire life. Even half drunk, I realized that alcohol on my breath would cost me my room at the Catholic shelter. I did not want to sleep in the bus station or the flea and cockroach and infested Union Gospel Mission (the main Protestant homeless shelter in Saint Paul). So I dragged Dan out of his favorite haunt and the two of us stumbled down Seventh Street toward downtown where there was a Burger King. There I ate two double whoppers and regained my sobriety. After the whoppers we cut back to the Catholic shelter via what was then a prosperous commercial building with a large food court. Passing though the food court I saw Sbarro's - and the sign that really caught my eye - "All the pizza you can eat for three dollars every Wednesday".

After that, every Wednesday the two of us pigged out at Sbarro's. We ignored the charitable dinner handed out to the rest of the bums at the Catholic shelter; we avoided their grace over meals. We didn't stand in line to pay with our dignity for what was called free food. Instead we paid with our own money and ate in style.

Inside the restaurant, the sausages hanging from the ceiling were still there, but they were all artificial. Sbarro's had made itself over into a pizza shop and mall inhabitant and had lost much of the distinctive Italian flavor it had had in Brooklyn. But the pizza was still much better than most of the pizza obtainable in Saint Paul. And ten slices of pizza (we couldn't stuff ourselves with more) for $6.00 dollars (plus tax) was a deal not to be avoided. Finally, it gave me a chance to brag about the superiority of food from New York. After Labor Day the sale at Sbarro's ended. Dan Ehmke and I found a different hang out.

A short time after Adina married me in 1988, Dan Ehmke died in a car accident. He's watching as I write this story now. This brings us to Sbarro's in Jerusalem. Now of course, everyone knows how an Arab blew himself up at this restaurant and killed some twenty people in the process. And those who have followed the news know that Sbarro's made a big stink about rebuilding their restaurant on the corner of King George V Street and the Jaffa Road. What did not make the news was that a week or two ago my oldest son got stuck in an elevator at the Absorption Center. A young Iranian girl found him two worry-filled hours later and in our gratitude, we treated her to dinner at Sbarro's.

Immediately after Shabbat ended, we took the bus downtown and there it was, complete with guard at the door. Inside is a large sign in Hebrew stating how Sbarro's is with the Israeli people. Also there is a small electric memorial light burning for those killed in the terrorist attack. There are no artificial sausages hanging from the wall. Any signs of the salumeria I saw twenty five years ago in Bensonhurst are gone. There is a big sign saying that the restaurant is kosher. But it is kosher dairy. Meat is verboten.

As I remembered the delicious pizzas I gulped down in Saint Paul eighteen years ago, my mouth watered with anticipation. It took more than a few minutes for the slices of pizza to arrive at the table. When they did, it was disappointment city. The pizza, which was very expensive, was not hot but greasy and oily. It just didn't have the kick that New York pizza has and I can't imagine any respectable Italian from Boston (Sbarro's originated in Boston) liking this stuff. But that wasn't the worst part, though it should have been. When Shimon had to go to the bathroom he was faced with a one shekel (23�) charge. You would think that a restaurant that charges its patrons to go to its bathroom would have a clean roomy facility complete with soap and towels. There was no soap and no hot water. When Adina went to the bathroom, there was no toilet paper - not even the cheapest kind - and there was water all over the floor. Dan Ehmke was probably having one hell of a laugh from his place Upstairs watching this. In my tortured Hebrew (we had been in Israel only one month) I wrote a note to the manager complaining of the conditions in the restaurant.

So the moral of the story - a bomb attack and international publicity do not, in and of themselves, improve the quality of food in an establishment. If you ever come to Israel to visit us, the pizza shops on Ben Yehuda serve better pizza for less. And do come and visit!

Epilogue: This was written originally in October 2001. Since then, Sbarro's has had to move from its roost on the corner of King George and the Jaffa Road to more modest quarters down the Jaffa Road a few doors away from Zion Square. I have not seen fit to revisit the restaurant, and have lots less money now than I did in October 2001. Additionally, after suffering a heart attack, pizza does not have the attraction for me that it once did. So it is unlikely that I will give them a second chance. But I do hope they have learned to stock a bathroom better...

News Analysis From Israel – Is Expulsion From My Home In My Future?

Ruvy — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 00:31:09 EST

Ma'aléh Levon�, Israel
29 January, 2007

I did patrol duty last night in Jerusalem (28 Jan.). It was much easier than the usual duty of standing in the cold (or heat) with a rifle. I got to sit in my partner's vehicle, where it was warm, watching the heavy downpour of rain and driving wind as people tried to flag down rides at one of Jerusalem's trampiadas. It was cozy in the car. All that was missing was Dunkin' Donuts and some coffee.

We left patrol a bit early so that I could try to catch the 9:00 p.m. bus out of town. But because my cell phone (which doubles as my watch) was five minutes slow, I missed the 9:00 p.m. bus going to Ma'aléh Levon� out of Jerusalem and was stuck waiting for the 11:15 bus. Staring at the station clock which read 9:05, and seeing no bus at my platform, I made the best of a bad deal and rushed to a nearby supermarket, hoping that they were open. They were, so I bought some toilet paper (even police volunteers need toilet paper) humus, dates, and cornflakes (Kellogg's – the good stuff).

I schlepped all this to the Central Bus Station, bought some bourekas and strong coffee, and finished writing an article on Dr. Gerald Schroeder's appearance at a Root & Branch presentation at the Israel Center on 28 December last. I was tired and very much looking forward to getting home. I had been in town on one patrol or another since 9:00 in the morning.

The 148 pulled out of the station at 11:20 traveling north to French Hill, P�sgat Ze'év and some villages on the way home – Kokh�v Ya'ak�v, Ofr�, Shvut RaHél, Shil�, 'El�, and Ma'aléh Levon�. The bus winds up in Ariél where I think the driver holes up for the night.

I was contemplating what I would do if confronted with the question of being evicted from my home by the Israeli army, and whether my kids should serve in a military that might try to make us homeless, when the young woman in front of me threw up in the aisle.

A bunch of people gathered round on the bus to help her, getting a barf bag for her, giving her tissues, encouragement, etc., and offering her a beverage to sip on. I kept waiting for the stink of vomit to fill the air. It didn't. Instead the faint odor of bad beer wafted up, just enough to make me aware of it, but not enough to disturb me. I began to wonder about the young woman in front of me when the bus slowed to a crawl.

In front of us, one vehicle down was a long IDF flatbed truck, the kind that hauls tanks and artillery pieces. But this flatbed was not carrying any tank. The vehicle on it was huge. I couldn't help breaking into English. "What is that thing?" I asked, more to myself than anyone else.

The fellow standing next to me looked at me and said in English, "that's a D9. It was used to destroy houses in Gush Qatif. It took about five minutes to destroy a house. I remember seeing them do it in Am�na."

He then got into a discussion (in Hebrew, discussions often sound like arguments) with some of the others on the bus as they started to pay attention to the D9 themselves. I asked the bunch talking about this in Hebrew, "is this our future?" They were silent. So was I.

I studied the machine, looking for weaknesses in it that might be exploited. If there is to be a D9 in my future, I can't just sit there and let my jaw drop as it approaches. Somehow, I (and others like me) will have to stop it. Rachel Corrie tried to stop it by standing in front of it. I'm not that stupid.

It seems unreasonable, if not criminal, to say I'll shoot at someone who tries to destroy the home I live in. But the government planning to destroy my home – and the D9 I saw moving to a military base in Samaria last night is proof of these plans – is not asking me.

I remember Rachel and Moshe Saperstein waging a valiant, but law-abiding battle against the expulsion from their beachside home in Nevé Dekal�m, one of the villages in Gush Qatif. Moshe, a retired humor columnist for the Jerusalem Post, wrote articles for Judy Lash Balint's Jerusalem Diaries and made trips overseas to try to garner support. Rachel, whom Moshe had referred to as La Passionara in his articles, gave interviews to journalists world wide, raising a hue and cry (a geshrei in Yiddish) to anyone who would listen. And they were not the only ones. But the government of Israel was determined to suppress their voices, arresting teenagers as young as twelve and jailing them for weeks at a time as "security risks" for participating in demonstrations and expressing their rights to petition and freedom of assembly as supposedly guaranteed under law. All the classic techniques of a Soviet dictatorship were employed here to suppress freedom of expression and to distort it into something it wasn't. Israel is not a democracy.

But more to the point, Moshe and Rachel Saperstein were expelled from their home in Nevé Dekal�m. Nothing stopped the government juggernaut and for months, the Sapersteins lived in a hotel room in Jerusalem. They now live in what is known as a "caravilla," a slightly enlarged version of a pre-fab made from spit and cardboard, and they live in a "caravilla" colony. Rachel Saperstein has a will of iron. But Moshe is a broken man.

Seeing that D9 on the bus pushed back to front and center in my mind the fact that the government most assuredly had an agenda to make me and 200,000 more like me homeless within the near future and that in spite of all that it had said in the recent past about not pushing for an expulsion in the future, it was definitely back on the table.

When I saw that the Israeli government had reportedly offered to give control of Judea and Samaria to the European Union, in order to expel Jewish residents to clear the way for yet another Arab state in our midst, I was reminded of all the warnings I had read from Emmanuel Winston, Dr. Eugene Narrett, Barry Chamish and others. Several years ago, Winston had speculated that a European "swift reaction force" would be used to bring down a government here in order to erect an Arab state. Barry Chamish had said repeatedly that this would be done at the invitation of the Israeli government, with the initial purpose of expelling Jews from their homes here in Judea and Samaria.

Writing in the Jerusalem Post, Ephraim Inbar, the director of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University of Tel Aviv, whose presentation at Root & Branch inspired my article "Lo Nor�" recommends foreign (as in Jordanian & Egyptian) rule for Judea and Samaria, arguing that the "two state solution" advocated for so long by the ruling elites here, is a failure and the Arabs are incapable of self-government.

I draw you once more time to the story that got this series going some time ago, which appeared in Debkafile on 4 September 2006. We finally see why there has been a buildup of European forces off of Lebanon for the last several months, one which has not yet dissipated. Indeed, they are to be sent here, just as I speculated they would be months ago.

There are just a few more points that need to be made here. First, when the Israeli government/media want to hide a major news development, they cover it up with a "crisis." While this story about turning over control of Judea and Samaria to the EU was breaking, it was being drowned out by the "crisis" of Moshe Katzav being indicted for rape, and by stories of Shimon Peres circling the office of the presidency like a vulture. Except for Arutz Sheva and David Bedein, the Israeli media has not touched the issue of who will control Judea and Samaria. Indeed, had I not seen that D9 on the Shekhém Road last night, I would not have had my own attention attracted to the plans being drawn behind closed doors.

When thinking about all this, my mind is immediately drawn to the lines in the Book of Daniel describing the "handwriting on the wall" that affrighted King Belshazzar of Babylonia [Daniel 5:25-28].

Now this was the writing that was inscribed: M�NE M�NE T�KEL, UPHARS�N. This is the interpretation of the matter: M�NE (counted) - G-d has counted the years of your kingship and terminated it. T�KEL - (weighed) you have been weighed in the scales and found wanting. P�RES (broken up) - your kingdom has been broken and given to Media and Persia.

But even more appropriate to the present situation are words inscribed on a parchment nearly a quarter millennia ago and a third of a world away, words that are barely visible, but which ring out with a clarity of a bell proclaiming freedom throughout the land.

…when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such a Government and to provide new Guards for their future security." [American Declaration of Independence, July 1776]

The road to redemption may well be through revolution.

Israeli Politics: Katzav Attacks His Accusers - Has a Real Leader Finally Arisen?

Ruvy — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 01:38:40 EST

A number of months ago the state president of Israel was accused of rape. Complaints were made, accusations were made; the state president asked the attorney general to investigate and to clear his name. For six months, Moshe Katzav has been silent as the press has attacked him, as the police have attacked him, and as power hungry fools known as politicians have attacked him. Wednesday evening, on national television, he struck back, exploding in anger at his attackers and accusers.

It was the kind of response his attackers deserved and continue to deserve. Someone has finally called the bastards what they are and given voice to the anger and contempt felt by many average Israelis for the regime that rules hand in glove, stomping on the poor man here, lying, and responding with an arrogance that calls for extermination in the gas chamber. The ruling elites of the State of Israel are the shit kikes that Hitler missed. Moshe Katzav was polite in his words.

Arutz Sheva, gave Moshe Katzav the benefit of the doubt and covered his speech. Yediot Ahronot, through its English language on-line outlet ynetnews, gave the establishment view of his speech. In the morning, Yediot Ahronot's Hebrew edition called on Moshe Katzav to quit in big headlines. Now the headline reads in English "Professors call Katsav's conduct despicable."

Katzav's words to the nation Wednesday night ring true to all that I have been saying for over a year at Blog Critics Magazine and elsewhere.

I know what bothered you - that six years ago I was elected President [defeating Shimon Peres]. You wrote at the time that it was the end of Zionism, etc. I should be ashamed of myself? You should be ashamed of yourselves for writing such things about a democratic vote in the legislature!
---At this point, a Channel Two news anchor interrupted, and Katzav responded furiously:

You have talked for six months, and now it's my turn! No, you won't talk here! If you don't like it, you can get out! I was silent for six months, and now you don't want to hear the truth! Channel Two - yes, Channel Two, the same station that has been spilling my blood for six months!

Katzav said additionally,

I have been in public service for over 35 years; I have never hurt a single man or woman, my hands were clean, even when my opponents did all they could to besmirch me.
I saw myself as a symbol of all those who do not belong to the elitist, ego-swollen clique of those who were born with a silver spoon in their mouths, who see themselves as the only ones worthy of representing the public!"

Katzav was pushed to do the dirty work of the Sharon and Olmert regimes, promising the Vatican control over parts of Mount Zion in return for - a synagogue in Spain! That plan didn't work, fortunately and the Vatican has not gotten control over more of Mount Zion - yet.

Perhaps it was his failure to accomplish treason for Sharon, Peres and Olmert that led to the rape charges in the middle of last year. Perhaps Peres would like to combine the posts of state president and prime minister in the near future, and emulate Adolf Hitler as a f�hrer here, and for this he needs Katzav out of the way. Or perhaps Katzav is right. After all, he is not an Ashkenazi Jew like most of the ruling elite here. He is a Mizrahi Jew with roots in Persia.

In any event, Katzav called bullshit as he saw it Wednesday night, and it is long past time that he did. Maybe, we are seeing the emergence of a man we can actually rally around, one who is not afraid to call a spade a spade. Who knows? One can always hope.

Ruminations on the Destiny of the People of Israel

Ruvy — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 02:11:32 EST

Writing on this subject is very tricky. "Destiny" implies something far more than a mere political analysis. The truth is, the more I think about it, it is the destiny of the people of Israel that I am meant to pay attention to.

But before I go further, I need to set down some definitions, so that you, the reader, know exactly what I'm talking about. Otherwise the semantic confusion can prevent you from understanding either the meaning or the import of this article. In addition, I would like to express my thanks to Rabbi Yehoshua Friedman for fine-tuning certain points of Jewish law.

So, here we go.

I. Laying out the terms

Zionist movement: a largely secular movement to bring Jews home to the Land of Israel.

State of Israel: the political expression of the Zionist movement.

Children of Israel: the descendants of Jacob (Israel), son of Isaac, son of Abraham, son of TeraH, a high priest in Sumer, in the city of Ur, who left for the city of Paran when the king he served died. After a period of time, Abraham, commanded by G-d, continued westwards to the Land of Canaan.

People of Israel (Hebrews): the descendants of the sons of Israel, who were divided into a number of tribes.

Land of Israel: territory designated by the Torah [BaMidb�r/Numbers 34:1-15] or the Tana"kh [Ezekiel 47:3-23, 48:1-35] as the territory that G-d has given the People of Israel.

Kingdom of Israel: This has three definitions.

a) the Kingdom of Sha'�l (Saul), David and Shl�mo (Solomon) which extended as far as the Euphrates River at the height of its power;

b) the secessionist kingdom of ten tribes that separated from the tribes of Yehud� (Judah) and Shim'�n after the death of Shl�mo (Solomon) and accession to the throne of his son ReHav�m. With time, this kingdom weakened and the territory of the tribe of Benyam�n became part of the southern kingdom of Yehud� (Judah);

c) in messianic times, the Kingdom of Israel will be the entity that succeeds the State of Israel and any other entity that rules here.

Jews: Originally, the descendants (tribe) of Yehud�, one of the sons of Israel. With time, the tribe of Shim'on merged into the tribe of Yehud�, and with time, the tribe of Benyam�n merged as well [Scroll of Esther 2: 5-6]. At the time of its fall, the Kingdom of Yehud� represented the tribes of Yehud�, Shim'on, Benyamin and those people of the tribe of Lev� who lived within the borders of the kingdom. The descendants of these people are the Jews mentioned in definition #1.

a) According to Halakh� (normative Jewish law), a Jew is the child of a Jewish mother, or a convert to the religion who accepts the entire corpus of 613 commandments of the Torah. If male, the convert needs to be circumcised. All converts are required to immerse in flowing water or a mikv� (ritual bath). According to the rules of the Rabbinate, the official Jewish religious body in Israel, the forgoing definition is the only definition of who is a Jew.

b) According to the ministries of interior and of absorption of the State of Israel, the forgoing definition is the primary definition of who is a Jew. But these ministries will accept other individuals who have Jewish grandparents as Jews. It should be noted that the Israel High Court of Justice has ruled that non-normative (i.e. non-"Orthodox") conversions from overseas will be accepted as well. But at the same time, the ministry of the interior has refused to accept some converts, even "Orthodox" ones, for automatic citizenship, requiring a rather arbitrary waiting period and naturalization process.

Israeli: This has two definitions.

a) one who lives within the State of Israel, or who has Israeli citizenship and who is subject to its jurisdiction;

b) an artificial cultural construct, a creation of the Zionist movement, an attempt to create a new Jew, one uninfluenced by the rabbis and the decadent Jewish culture of Eastern Europe.

Palestine: This has three definitions.

a) The territory of the Land of Israel under the name given it by the Romans in 100 CE or so, Syria Palestina. This name was given the territory to insult the Jewish (Judean) inhabitants of the country, as the name Palestine recalls the name Philistine, an Aegean people that fled to this country, settling in the vicinity of what are now the cities of Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon and Gath, and who were traditional enemies and persecutors of the Children of Israel;

b) the territory covering both sides of the Jordan River granted to the Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland by the League of Nations as a "Mandate", with the stated purpose of creating within it a "Jewish national homeland." The British separated most of this territory from its direct rule and administered it as the Emirate of Transjordan with the son of Feisal, Sherif of Mecca and Medina, Abdallah, as Emir. Under international law, the Palestine Mandate was the successor state to the Ottoman Empire where it had jurisdiction. The successor states to the Palestine Mandate are the State of Israel and the Kingdom of Jordan;

c) the political construct of Arab terrorist organizations who wish to end the State of Israel, and to end the Jewish presence in this region.

Palestinian: This has two definitions.

a) A resident of the territory of Mandate Palestine, an individual under its legal jurisdiction. It should be noted here that for the entire period of British rule, the Arabs resident in Mandate Palestine did not self identify as "Palestinians," but as members of the Arab "Umma;"

b) an artificial cultural construct of the terrorist movements representing the Arab refugees who left the Palestine Mandate during the war that broke out in 1947-49. A great deal of "academic" work was done by the Husseini family to construct a history for this non-existent nationality. Additional work was done by discredited scholars such as Edward Sa�d, who was shown by Justus Weiner to have lied about basic facts about his own life. Only after the founding of the Palestine Liberation organization, did the Arabs claim to be "Palestinian."

Now to clarify my own biases.

I am a Jew. I am a citizen of the State of Israel, and therefore an Israeli under definition "8a" above. But when I express my own opinions, I am not talking as an Israeli, under the artificial construct of "8b" above. I speak as a Jew, and as a member of one of the tribes of Israel.

As for me, I believe that the State of Israel is collapsing of its own corruption and lack of purpose, as it has already served its purpose. But it will be replaced, not by a "Palestine," but by a Jewish entity far different from what we have seen, and one that is able to cope with the coming reunification of Yehud� (the Jews) with the brother tribes that appeared lost to history. Nothing is lost under the sight of G-d. I refer you all to the Book of Ezekiel [Ezekiel 36:6-38, 37:1-28].

There is one further thing I must make absolutely clear here. In writing this, I'm not dealing with the "Arab-Israeli crisis," the "Middle East crisis" or any other of the cataracts that stand in the way of free flow of thought, ideas, people and commerce in this part of the world. I'm not writing about peace, I'm not writing about war. I'm not writing about making peace or making war. Those issues are not for this article. I'm writing solely about the destiny of my people, the People of Israel.

II. Where do I come in?

I believed, when I pressured my wife to move to this country, that the reason for the move was to protect my children from the corrosive influence of American culture, and to prevent them from assimilating into it, marrying non-Jews, and likely losing their Jewish heritage in the process. So, I listened very carefully when a thirty year old Israeli, the fellow on the other side of the counter of Pizza Maestro, which used to serve excellent pizza in the East Talpiot neighborhood of Jerusalem, explained to me that my sons would assimilate into Israeli culture. I had already figured out that what passed for Israeli culture was a very pale imitation of the corrosive culture I had thought I had left behind in America.

After having a good think, I turned on the laptop we had brought with us to the absorption center and started re-reading the essays that Barry Chamish wrote about the political establishment in Israel. I started re-reading the nightmare complaints of other recent and not so recent immigrants to this country. I started to compare my own experiences to the ones I read about, and carefully compare what I really wanted to do with what I was doing as a new immigrant.

I realized that I had been duped. My goal - getting away from American culture and assimilation into it - had been a mere carrot. There was something further behind this immediate goal that I did not really understand - something that has only become clear in the last couple of weeks.

Did G-d come to me in the fireplace, like one of those wizards in the Harry Potter books, to tell me my destiny and that I had been duped? No. We don't have a fireplace, to start with. We have a small (too small) electric heater to keep our house warm. And G-d didn't show up in the heater either, as an Entity that didn't become consumed.

This was a slow realization, one that has come to me with the people that I "chanced" to meet, and in the events that have "chanced" to occur in my life.

For example, was it chance that an agnostic who identified himself culturally as a Jew but who did not really observe any of its laws, met a woman who knew nothing about Judaism, but who knew more about faith in G-d than a deck of theologians? Was it chance that I, the agnostic who challenged even the purpose of his bar mitzvah from the bim� in the synagogue (after doing a workman-like job of chanting the verses required of me) was now forced to teach this woman the Judaism he had run away from? Was it chance that I had always talked about the perfect number of children being four, (and hoping in his heart that he would have four boys) that I fathered four sons - one aborted by the mother, one who died after sixteen weeks in the womb, and two that lived?

Was it chance that after applying my wife's basic formula of "G-d will provide" after walking out of a night auditor's job in disgust with absolutely no idea of where the next paycheck would come from found, by "chance", that he could return to the management job he had left at Burger King four years earlier? Was it chance that we were able to buy a house in Saint Paul in 1993, at the lowest interest rate in forty years, and realize a gain of over 100% in its sale eight years later in one of the hottest real estate markets our neighborhood in Saint Paul had seen in decades? Was it chance that the commander of my volunteer police unit insisted that I be assigned to Tuesday night duty instead of the Friday morning assignment I preferred? Was it chance that I met Aryeh Gallin on the first night I was doing patrol, and discovered how much we had in common in our outlooks in political affairs?

Was it chance that after meeting Aryeh Gallin and becoming associated with the Root & Branch Association that he runs, I was able to meet people like Barry Chamish, Dr. Gerald Schroeder, Vendyl Jones, Dr. Paul Eidelberg, Moshe Feiglin, and a whole slew of other people who represent the bubbling pot of intellectual ideas in Jerusalem and the rest of the country?

Was this all chance?

No. I don't think so. I don't really believe in chance. I used to. Now, I don't. Not anymore. In my life, I have been pushed, indirectly sometimes, sometimes in a most rude way, to understand that a G-d runs the universe and that my survival depends on trust in that G-d.

There are no links to check all this out. My life is not a URL on the internet. But now, based on all this, when I see works that doubt "mere chance" being the ruling force of the universe, I'm not too hard to convince.

III. A picture of the future

In early December, Aryeh Gallin sent me e-mails about a post-doctoral student from India. There is nothing special about that. Israel has world class universities, like the Technion in Haifa and the Weitzmann Institute near Rishon l' Tzion, and India sends thousands of young men and women to study science here. But Dr. Aafreedi, the young man whom Aryeh wanted to invite to speak at the Israel Center in a Root & Branch presentation, is not a scientist. He is a historian. In addition, he was studying Jewish history with the intent of linking it to the history of his own people, the Pakhtun who live in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, to our own.

The Pakhtun claim to be descendants of the tribes that were expelled from our country when the Assyrians conquered the northern Kingdom of Israel (see definition 6b) 2,700 years ago. They are not clear which particular tribe, but a Jewish woman I chanced to meet on the bus a couple of days ago said that the Pakhtun are descendants of the tribe of Ephraim. Dr. Aafreedi apparently believes the same thing, particularly about the "khel" or "tribe" of Afridi, his own. Jewish history, and the history of the People of Israel generally, appears fraught with delicious ironies and the Child of Israel who lacks a sense of humor lacks sense altogether.

A large number of the Pakhtun comprise the Taliban.

Dr. Aafreedi spoke on 20 December 2006, but due to changes in the Egged bus routing, I was unable to get to town to be master of ceremonies that night. I only got to meet Dr. Aafreedi in Jerusalem last Thursday (11 January). Put simply, he is the best news our people have seen in 2,700 years, since the Assyrians destroyed the northern Kingdom of Israel. He is a fellow Israelite. He is one of over 40 million fellow Israelites, including, yes including the Taliban. G-d, indeed, has a sense of humor, a sense of humor sharper than the sharpest of needles.

It's enough to make a guy laugh till the tears come out of his eyes in pain, and cry until the tears come out of his eyes in joy.

For over two millennia, Jews have more or less considered themselves the only remaining Children of Israel, figuring that the other tribes had been lost to history. We have taken a term from the Bible "shear�t" - remnant - and applied it to ourselves. Thus, you see the name of many synagogues in the Western world - "Shear�t Yisraél" - Remnant of Israel. Apparently, this may be a misperception.

In addition to all the forced converts away from the religion who are now coming back to the faith, like the descendents of the Spanish and Portuguese "anusim," we Jews now have to come to grips with the fact that we are only a small portion of a larger people. According to Rabbi Dr.Yehuda Bohrer, one group of Israelites from the general area of Bokhara claim to be descended from the tribe of Reuvén. They never lost their laws or traditions and have retained the links with Jews and are now considered as Jews.

Unlike the members of the tribe of Reuvén, the Pakhtun appear to have lost much of the ties to our people. Nevertheless, they have been claiming to be Children of Israel for over a thousand years; they claim that the original king Afghana, the first king of the royal line of Afghanistan, was a descendant of Sha'�l, of the tribe of Benyam�n. Jewish merchants who lived in Kabul always could travel without fear to the Pakhtun lands, where they were recognized by the Pakhtuns as fellow Children of Israel. Today, the Pakhtun, who live in places that have media hostile to the State of Israel, like India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, look upon us Jews as brothers from the wrong side of the tracks. If there is the possibility that Dr. Aafreedi can prove the claims of his people using methods that go beyond mere references in Persian or Jewish writings, then we Jews have the interesting task of "recognizing Joseph" (Ephraim was a son of Joseph). And the Pakhtun are going to have to get to know their brothers, the Jews.

Oy vey!!

Reminiscing About Mother

Ruvy — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 15:41:30 EST

My mother passed away 20 years ago about this time of year. I'm this unspecific because while on the Christian calendar, she died on 13 January 1987, on the Rabbinic calendar that we use to commemorate holidays, births, deaths, weddings, anniversaries, etc, she died on 12 Tevet 5747, which came out on 2 January of this year.

Thinking about my parents, both of whom have died, is painful not merely because of the normal sense of loss that one feels at the fact that one's parents are no longer there to share one's triumphs with, which is a sense of loss that never goes away. It is additionally painful because I was a lousy son. For example, I did not even think to light a memorial candle in my mother's honor until last night (16 January) when I came home from patrol.

I wasn't the kind of kid who got into trouble with the law; nor did I do nasty or malicious things to either my father or my mother. But I was unthinking and unable to fathom feelings in others, to such a degree that when a neighbor lady exclaimed to me forty years ago in a tone of disbelief, "can't you see that your mother is lonely?" not only did I not know what to say, I had no emotional reaction at all. I probably had this unbelieving stare, the look of a child who had just been explained that 2+2=4, but who understood neither the meaning of one nor two and who therefore could not comprehend so elementary an equation. A high intelligence quotient does not signify emotional understanding, and for a good part of my life I probably had an emotional quotient running close to zero. But enough whining about me.

My mother was born in the summer of 1908 in New York County, and went to public schools in the Bronx. She had vivid memories of the Spanish flu of 1918-19 because she was already 10 years old. There is an old rolled up photo of a bunch of children apparently graduating elementary school. This photo was kept in the vault along with my grandmother's pistol, as though it were a secret.

It was.

For reasons unknown to me, my mother lied to the United States Social Security Administration when she got her Social Security number. She said she was born in 1913. The fact that this was not true didn't come out until she was in her sixties, when my father passed away. That was when we opened up the bank vault. At the time, New York had a law that required all the contents of a vault to be held for the probate court if not opened before the death of the owner, so we rushed to the bank to empty it before the bank got wind of my father's death. When I looked at the photo, I could see the date on it, and the fact that my mother was in the picture along with the other children in the school. By the time I was twenty-five, I had read enough Sherlock Holmes novels to deduce the birth date of the children in the photo. Ten year olds do not generally graduate the sixth grade in America, and the date gave her age away. It turned out that my mother was the same age as my father.

Her diabetes was also a secret, at least until she had to get a pill for it called "Orinase." The doctor had told her she could not have more children after I was born because of the diabetes, which is why I did not have any younger siblings. She very much wanted a daughter, and while my being a boy was a joy to my father, who wanted desperately to carry on the family name (I'm the only grandson of my paternal grandfather with the family name), it was a terrible disappointment to my mother, who wanted someone who could grow to be a companion to her in her old age, as she had been to her own mother.

Disappointment that I must have been, she kept her thoughts to herself and gave me love and attention. She was kind and affectionate, and defended me before my father, who had high standards that I never lived up to. But she had a poker face. You never knew what was going on in her mind, and she kept her own counsel very well.

If I didn't understand this clearly already, it became crystal clear to me when I was 14 years of age. The symptoms of a neurological disorder I have made themselves known when I was twelve, and while I cowered in fear of attacks from this disorder, my mother merely told me to take my medicine and not to be afraid. Bookish lad that I was, scouring encyclopedias out of mere boredom, I ran across a disorder that sounded a lot like what my symptoms indicated. My mother, confronted by an angry teenager demanding the truth and worked up in a rage of righteous fury, couldn't deny the facts on the table. But her desire to protect me killed what trust I had for her and soured my relationship with her. From then on, I was determined to leave home - though as I pointed out earlier, I was so unaware of my own feelings that I didn't realize it. But my own studies now started to include a detailed study of ocean currents. Because New York is a port, the easiest way to get away (and the most dangerous) was by sea.

My mother was a poor woman from a poor family. Her father had died in 1928, just weeks after making the last payment on the family burial plot which was his, and is now my, only piece of real property. My mother had a job with a manufacturer of steam shovels, but when the market crashed in October 1929, the owner of the firm overbalanced himself from the window and wound up dead on a sidewalk in Jersey City.

My oldest uncle, a dentist, probably helped when he could, but he had to pay off the debts from dental school on the holes in people's teeth. And as more and more people lost jobs from the deepening depression, fewer and fewer could pay for my uncle to fill up those holes with amalgam. My younger uncle left the Bronx to try his luck in Chicago. He met a young woman there and moved to El Paso Texas, changing his very Jewish name in the process, so that he could sell furniture to people who no longer would demand to see the horns on his head before making payment.

So my mother and my grandmother moved from apartment to apartment in the Bronx and elsewhere so that the landlords demanding rent would not be able to keep up with them. In the winter, they burned furniture to keep warm. She and my grandmother set up a table on the street and sold pencils and pen points made in Czechoslovakia to get money for food and ice (for the icebox). For the longest time, I had some of those pencils and pen points after she passed away. I always had pencils to write with as a child.

Finally, the Roosevelt administration was elected, and with it came a program that eased her poverty and gave her a sense of dignity - the National Reconstruction Administration. When the Supreme Court outlawed the National Reconstruction Administration, my mother got a job with the New York City's Office of Home Relief, renamed the Department of Welfare. In the 1930's she worked, took care of her mother and hoped to meet a man. In the 1940's she joined the New York City Civil Guard, a paramilitary organization that would have taken over had the city come under attack from Germany or the Empire of Japan. She was already 40 years of age when she met my father, a widower who lived in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. I was the child of their old age.

My own childhood memories of her consist of running to various relatives as my mother attempted to patch up the vicious feuds that plagued her family, both on her mother's and father's sides. Once my father taught her to drive, she was happy to take the car and go to New Haven, Passaic and Newark, where her family had settled outside of New York. My father was happy to stay home on weekends, playing pinochle with his friends or watching baseball. When my mother was not dragging me off to see some relative, my father was. As she got older, funerals took more and more of her time...

My father lived long enough to be invited to my wedding with the young lady who became my first wife. After we got married, shortly after my father died (in Jewish tradition, one does NOT postpone a wedding because of a death, unless the ritual requirements of mourning make the wedding impossible) I did what little I could to make my mother's adjustment to widowhood easier. She understood enough to keep her mind active, and joined the neighborhood crime watch programs. I encouraged her to join the Republican Party - not out of any ideological belief - she wouldn't have been caught dead voting for a Republican for major office - not after what she had to endure during Herbert Hoover's presidency. But since so few Republicans were registered in Brooklyn, the Republican party was always on the watch for people who could fill in as "election commissioners," the folks who take one's name, and sign one in to vote in primary and general elections. It paid, and it was money, and that was the key point for me. Finally, after much jawing, she agreed to do so, and did benefit.

When I moved to Minnesota to go to law school, I worried about my mother, but I didn't have the money I needed to go home to visit like I ought to have. After my first marriage fell apart and I was living on the street, I always could have gone home to Brooklyn to live with my mother. But I didn't. I didn't want to go home like a beaten dog with my tail between my legs, a failure slinking back to mama. As much as my mother might have needed me, I needed to be on my own, even if that meant standing in the cold waiting on line to eat in a goyisher soup kitchen instead of helping her make dinner in her own kosher kitchen in Brooklyn.

But the price I paid for my independence, something which I should have obtained 10 years earlier, was my mother becoming depressed from loneliness. I could not possibly have expected her to move to Minnesota to be with me, not in her mid seventies, and I couldn't move back to Brooklyn to be with her; it would have killed off what little sense of real independence I had developed. And my mother would have tried to interfere with my life, not for her sense of power, but for my own good. When I mentioned to her that I was dating a woman, her first question was, "is she Jewish?" When I equivocated, she said nothing, but the very next night I got a phone call from an old flame in Brooklyn who was unmistakably Jewish. I said nothing to my mother about the incident. I was more amused than angry. But, though I didn't know it at the time, I had a hint of what the future held for me. The woman who called me was born in Israel, and it is likely, had I pursued the unlikely course of coming back to Brooklyn to marry this girl (by now I was very serious about meeting a woman and having kids), that at some point we would have moved here to live.

My mother eventually began getting minor strokes, and my sister (the daughter of my father's first marriage) would look in on her when she could. When I discovered my mother had cashed in her life insurance policy because she had no money, we had a major argument over her moving to Minnesota to be with me, or me moving back to Brooklyn. I wanted to make sure I'd at least have money for a funeral, so I bought a policy for her. When I spoke to her last around Christmas in 1986, I remember telling her about the bonus I had gotten as a manager at Burger King. A week later, my sister called, telling me that my mother had had a major stroke and that I should come back to Brooklyn and set her affairs in order.

Before I left, I called up the Sholom Home in St. Paul. I was determined that my mother would get good care if she even had the possibility of recovering from her stroke, and had determined that she would be close at hand - I saw a future of visiting her daily, making sure she was well taken care of, and making sure she at least had the attention and love of the son who had finally figured out that his lonely mother needed company. But it was not to be. Her stay in the hospital in Brooklyn caused her to develop pneumonia, and a week after she had suffered a stroke she died from a heart attack.

So why am I writing all this?

I've written a great deal about my father, may he rest in peace, and feel that I've done what I could to do what I feel he would have wanted me to do with my life. We have two good sons, two good boys who honor G-d, who honor their parents, who are decent to their friends, and who, G-d permitting, will be good fathers who will carry on the family name and pass on the family history to our descendants with honor.

But what about my mother, who wanted the daughter to comfort her in her old age? I was never a comfort to her at all, only a disappointment. Nevertheless, she raised me and loved me. She held on to life until she heard that I had earned a bonus on my job, indicating that I'd be alright, and that I'd finally grown up enough that she didn't have to worry about me. And then she went to her eternal rest. What reward did she get?

And what reward can I give her now, twenty years after her death?

Every Sabbath we read at out table the last twenty-one verses of the Book of Proverbs, called �shet Hay�l, "woman of valor". In most homes, it is chanted in the Hebrew. In our home, it is chanted in the English, for my wife because she does not yet understand Hebrew. It is recognition of the Sabbath Queen, but it is, at its most basic level recognition of the woman who makes the Sabbath enjoyable with her hard work. Let this then, be my mother's recognition, for all the world to know that her little boy misses her terribly and is truly sorry for all that he didn't do to praise and comfort her in her life...

ברוך דיין אמת
Bar�kh Day�n Emét - Blessed is the True Judge

�shet Hay�l

Who can find a woman of valor? for her price is far above rubies.
The heart of her husband safely trusts in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil.
She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life.
She seeks wool, and flax, and works willingly with her hands.
She is like the merchants' ships; she brings her food from afar.
She rises while it is yet night, and gives meat to her household, and a portion to her maidens.
She considers a field, and buys it: with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard.
She girds her loins with strength, and strengthens her arms.
She perceives that her merchandise is good: her candle does not go out by night.
She lays her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff.
She stretches out her hand to the poor; she reaches forth her hands to the needy.
She is not afraid of snow for her household: for all her household are clothed with scarlet wool.
She makes herself coverings of tapestry; her clothing is silk and purple.
Her husband is known in the gates, when he sits among the elders of the land.
She makes fine linen, and sells it; and delivers girdles unto the merchant.
Strength and honor are her clothing; and she shall rejoice in time to come.
She opens her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the guide of kindness.
She looks well to the ways of her household, and eats not the bread of idleness.
Her children rise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her.
Many daughters have done virtuously, but you excel them all.
Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that fears G-d she shall be praised.
Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in the gates.

Retrieved from The Book Proverbs at Wikipedia as edited by yours truly.