Gilo has been a residential suburb of Jerusalem since 1971. The land was purchased by Jews before World War II.

The land of Gilo in Jerusalem was purchased by Jews before World War II

The suburb of Gilo is very different from the so-called Jewish outpost in Judea and Samaria, whom the Arabs and International media calls «The West Bank». Gilo is not in East Jerusalem as widely reported, but in southwest Jerusalem within the municipal borders.

It is a Jerusalem neighborhood with a population of around 40,000. The ground was bought by Jews before WWII and settled in 1971. There is no inference whatsoever that it rests on private Arab land.

Source: The Jerusalem Post.

My comment:

To claim that Jews can not build in Gilo is not only racism against the Jewish people. Its also a daylight robbery of Jewish properties.

The Arabs have always been jealous of the Zionist Jews, that returned to Eretz Israel. In modern time, the great return home to Israel started around 1895. The Jews that returned home purchased land, wherever there was a owner to be traced in this massive wasteland.

The Jews purchased sand dunes, and rocky soil.

When the Jews liberated the so called West Bank from Islamic occupation in 1967, Jews also came home to the Mountains of Zion. They gave the local Arabs the job of constructing houses. The Arabs had a saying:

«Good the Zionist are building such beautiful houses. Because one day we will just take the key´s from them, and declare these houses as Palestinians properties».

In plain English: This is theft and robbery, promoted by Islam as a struggle for independence.

Why has Gilo first developed in 1971?

Because from 1948 to 1967, East Jerusalem was occupied by Islamic forces. The Kingdom of Jordan did not give Jews access to their properties in the suburbs. The Islamic occupation was the real Apartheid.

The first act had ended, and night’s curtain fell heavily onto Amman’s jagged cityscape. Artificial lights splashed the limestone hills with neon colors, as if to herald a second, more spectacular act.

We had spent our Friday afternoon like virtually every Friday afternoon: my aunt and I tidied up our homes; my aunt’s husband prayed jum’a at the mosque and picked up edibles from the bakery; then, we all packed into the car and cruised off to the scenic outskirts of the city.

Earlier that afternoon, we had driven along a narrow road hugged by striated clay-colored hills, and my aunt’s husband reminisced about swimming in Jerusalem. (I’m not sure what triggered the memory; there was no water in sight, but, who knows, really. The mind’s eye sees much more than meets the eye.)

“That’s not right.” My aunt frowned at her husband, and I frowned at her. Since when were early childhood memories liable to scrutiny? But my aunt continued, “How old were you?”

“I don’t know, but I remember it distinctly. Swimming with my siblings in Jerusalem.”

“So you must have been — what? — three at least, maybe four, if you can remember.” She clicked her tongue, unconvinced. “How old are you, ya zalameh (oh man)?” At that, I perked up. Did she just ask what I think she asked? Does she really not know her long-time husband’s age?

I needed to hear this. I mean, if you manage to keep your age secret after thirty-some years of marriage, you’ve got to be the best con artist alive.

“‘Ammu (Uncle), you don’t know your age?” I was sitting up like a sprightly hare, holding the back of my aunt’s seat.

He smiled, as if that were an answer.

“No, he doesn’t know his age.” My aunt translated.

“My mom told me that she held me in her arms [when she fled] in ‘48.” This was a clue to the mystery of his age.

I suddenly wished I were better at mental math. 1948 was a long time ago — over sixty years. Then, he had been old enough to have stored a valid memory, but young enough to be carried in his mother’s arms.

“They didn’t take the birth certificates with them,” my aunt said of her husband’s family.

This story was not unfamiliar. My grandparents — Allah yirhamhum, may Allah have mercy on them — have lived and died, and the dates on their tombstones are approximate.

Still, I thought, I  cannot imagine what it is to live and not know how long I’ve lived.

What must it be like to measure your years not by a solar or lunar calendar, but by the number of wrinkles on your face, the number of white hairs at your temples?

If you don’t know how many years you’ve burned through, how are you supposed to figure out how many matches you have yet to light? But perhaps it doesn’t actually matter. After all, we may feel entitled to a certain number of matches — perhaps a full 42 count — but none of us actually knows how many our box holds. We simply go from year to year, striking that birthday match, all the while hoping that it won’t be the last.

Somewhere along the unpaved roads from Jerusalem to Amman, my aunt’s husband lost his age. Perhaps it’s taken residence in the city’s oldest quarters, crumbling with its walls and aging with the parapets. Perhaps it’s still a child, splashing around in a pool within earshot of al-Masjid al-Aqsa.

Wherever it’s gone, it’s unlikely that it’ll be back.

But I’m not one to mourn a lost name or date. Yes, I might consider his age among the casualties of that war, but I’ll not forget that the war cost countless others far more. My aunt’s husband is numbered among the lucky, the survivors. This, even if he has no number to his name.

Entre les idées préconçues, les manipulations politiques et les mensonges des mass médias nourrissant autant le choc des civilisations que les croisades modernes ou la guerre des religions, Mecanoblog vous invite à suivre The Divine Book. Une série théologique basée sur le message de paix entre les hommes, commun des trois religions monothéistes que sont le Judaïsme, l’Église du Christ et l’Islam, et qui a été réalisée par l’équipe Wake Up Project à qui nous devons déjà les séries The Arrivals et Phase 3.  Mecanoblog tient à signaler que le site ne cherche aucunement à faire du prosélytisme pour un dogme en particulier ou à influencer l’opinion de quiconque mais uniquement à relayer une source d’informations pour vous permettre d’élargir votre horizon sur le débat tant disputé qu’est la religion.

 http://www.wakeupproject.com/

 http://nemesisnom.wordpress.com

Première partie : Introduction

Deuxième partie : Jésus (pbsl) dans le Coran

Troisième partie : Jésus (pbsl) n’est pas Dieu

Quatrième partie : la Bible originale

Miss Nefesh B’Nesh’s flash mob in Jerusalem to Smooth E’s Hanukkah Hey Ya?

Hanukkah will here very soon. Show off your dance moves at Light It Up! Get your tickets now http://www.paloaltojcc.org/light

hat tip to ck

John, an apostle

Here is wisdom.  Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is six hundred threescore six. – “mark of beast,” BIBLE, recorded by John (Rev 13.18).

(John, born son of Zebedee, in Israel – died [tradition] at Ephesus, Asia-modern Turkey)

Converted to Christ, on shore of the Sea of Galilee

Sanctified, in Upper Room, Pentecost, Jerusalem

My latest piece in Zeek Magazine explores the implications of the threatened unilateral declaration of statehood by the Palestinians and the Israeli decision to expand the settlement of Gilo in East Jerusalem. I explain how it amounts to one of the final challenges and opportunities for the Obama Administration to save the two-state solution.

Dancing in the streets of Jerusalem!

Where else can you dance in the streets on Hanukkah except Jerusalem?

Par Leila Mazboudi

Des rabbins sionistes ont revendiqué haut et fort ce qu’Israël a toujours fait tout bas depuis sa création. Dans un recueil intitulé ” Dogme du roi “, inspiré des préceptes de la Thora, selon les auteurs les deux rabbins Itshak Shapira et Youssi Allistor, et s’apparentant au ” Prince ” italien de Machiavel, une véritable sentence de mort  est lancée.

Répondant à la question, quand est-il permis de tuer les ” autres “, (ou les Goyims selon le terme hébraïque donné aux non juifs), elle en appelle à tuer par anticipation, par prévention et par vengeance tout ceux qui sont contre Israël, que ce soit de par les actes, les paroles, ou  même les sentiments. Par extension, elle permet de tuer mêmes ceux qui ne sont pas les ennemis d’Israël, mais seulement parce qu’ils se trouvent sr le lieu où se trouve l’ennemi à abattre. De part et d’autre, le manuscrit vise surtout les civils.

” Partout, là où la présence de ce Goyim pourrait porter atteinte à la vie d’un Israélien, il est permis de le tuer, même s’il aime les autres peuples du monde, et n’est pas coupable de la condition naissante “. Et d’expliquer ” qu’il faut tuer quelqu’un qui ne veut pas tuer de Juif lorsque ceci permet d’empêcher la mort d’un juif  “.

Concernant les civils en temps de guerre, le pamphlet ne prescrit aucune précaution. Bien au contraire, arguant “  les nécessités de la guerre “, il accorde une certaine légitimité à leur massacre: à l’origine, selon les préceptes de la Thora, tous les Goyims sont censés avoir du sang juif sur les mains. Lorsqu’il s’agit du peuple de l’ennemi, les règles sont encore plus sanguinaires. Tous sont considérés être des ennemis voire des combattants, du fait ” qu’ils aident les combattant, les encouragent ou expriment leur satisfaction quant à leur combat “.
En dehors des temps de guerre, ils devraient faire l’objet des mesures de rétorsion, dans le but d’opérer ” l’équilibre de terreur “. Le texte cite: ” Ceux qui appartiennent au peuple de l’ennemi sont l’ennemi, car ils aident les assassins. Raison pour laquelle il faut agir avec eux par vengeance et selon la loi du talion; la vengeance est indispensable avec eux pour rendre vain le mal. Les actes pourraient parfois être féroces mais ils ont pour but de créer un équilibre de terreur efficace “.
    
Mêmes les enfants ne sauraient être épargnés: Qualifiés ” d’obstructeurs du chemin“, il devient permis de les tuer à bout portant: sont évoqués les fils des commandants des ennemis d’Israël, car le fait de les tuer devrait permettre de faire pression sur leurs pères. Figurent aussi les enfants qui peuvent constituer une menace lorsqu’ils grandiront, ou ceux qui constituent un obstacle dans l’affrontement des méchants ou durant les opérations de sauvetage de Juifs.
 
Une sentence de mort peut même être décrétée à l’encontre de ceux qui critiquent Israël, ou a contrario de ceux qui flattent la résistance contre lui. Faisant partie des “oppresseurs“, le paragraphe les concernant permet des explications aléatoires, voire arbitraires.  ” … est considéré oppresseur celui qui affaiblit notre royaume de par les paroles “. 
 
Selon des observateurs, la publication de ce livre qui dispose déjà du soutien d’un  grand nombre de rabbins influents, à l’instar d’Itshak Guinsbourg, Dov Léor et Jacob Joseph est porteuse de plusieurs significations. De point de vue sociologique, il illustre une volonté d’insuffler à son paroxysme l’esprit belliciste à tous les Israéliens, voire à tous les sionistes pour les amener à s’investir totalement, en cas de guerre. S’attaquant de front à ceux qui sont contre l’entité sioniste, le livre n’en comporte pas moins insidieusement des menaces contre ceux qui sont contre la politique israélienne ou s’aventure à la critiquer. Ils pourraient désormais payer de leur peau leurs positions. Pas seulement en Palestine, mais aussi partout ailleurs dans le monde. De par la franchise avec laquelle il révèle la dimension frôlant les thèses d’extermination du  dogme qui régit l’action militaire et d’intelligence de l’entité sioniste depuis sa création, il reflète plus que jamais l’arrogance d’impunité chez les Israéliens.

Une arrogance qui ne saurait dissimuler la peur qui l’attise !

Source : Al-ManarTV http://almanar.com.lb/NewsSite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=110748&language=fr

It is every person’s dream to reach and step foot on the land most holy to them. For Muslims they have Mecca…The Hindus the Indus River…and most of all, Jerusalem for the Jews and Christians. It’s been awhile since I last step foot on Israel and I was back again recently to assist a group with their pilgrimage. Like what we usually do when we escort groups, we make sure everything is in place to make their trip more meaningful. The usual route I take begins in Egypt, and then Israel and lastly Turkey. A more orderly fashion if you read and walk thru the Bible. But on my last trip, it was Jordan, Israel and lastly, Egypt. When I first came to Jordan, I thought it was just another Arab country filled with sand. I was wrong the moment I saw the sand and rock city of Petra (now part of the 7 new wonders of the world). You will be in awe looking at the facade (which reminds me of Transformers 2: Revenge of the fallen).  The valleys and plains in that country is really incomparable to any place. Israel was said to be “land of milk and honey”. When you get there, you would understand why. Can you imagine a land in the middle of the desert where you could see plants flourishing, animals grazing and people lives as if they were your next door neighbor. Should you be amazed in its modern structures and the technology they have harnessed, how much more for the old city of Jerusalem. If South Africa is the cradle of the civilizations, Jerusalem is the heart of all pilgrimage. Housing major religions (Muslims, Jews, Orthodox Christians, etc) in a walled city no bigger than the Vatican, it is almost as if you were living inside the Bible. Part of the trip is going to Qumran, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were uncovered (Dan Brown must’ve been here and gotten hold of the scrolls). For those who could take the challenge, climbing Egypt’s Mt. Sinai is one of the greatest. The top is a haven for photographers especially with their DSLRs. A vantage point whether it is Sunrise, noon or Sunset. The oohhs and aahhhs doesn’t stop there and continues with the Pyramids and Sphinx. For the finale, a Nile River cruise with buffet dinner topped with belly dancers and music. You may hear stories of these sort a dozen time but experiencing it right there is beyond joy! Most of all, a pilgrimage or a trip to the Holy Land is not just for those people who are almost knocking on Heaven’s door or just around the eve of their lives, it is a trip for the young ones and young at heart. You don’t need to be spiritually inclined or a deep to the bone sinner to be invited to the Holy city. The Holy Land is inviting everyone to be there. Who knows what’s in store for you in that place.

-Troy A.

COMMERCIAL BREAK—Zeji Ozeri, left, pauses with microphone in hand during
filming of a commercial of I-Chamba, owned by Vic and Lea Sefler, seated at right. Telemundo videographer is Nancy Castro
________________________________________________________

By Donald H. Harrison

SAN DIEGO – Zeji Ozeri is a man of three cultures—Mexican, Israeli, and now American—and as a singer, song leader, comedian, documentary film maker and an entertainer on the local Telemundo station, he has developed strong followings among Jews and Hispanic citizens of this city.

“What you have to understand about Zeji is that there are probably more than 1,000 Jewish kids in San Diego who have fallen in love with Jewish songs through him,” commented Todd Salovey, director of the Lipinsky Family Jewish Arts Festival at the San Diego Rep.

“My kids have been taught by Zeji—and whenever Zeji comes to my synagogue (Adat Yeshurun) to pray, I feel as if a celebrity has come in—that’s the effect he has on so many people,” he said.

Rabbi Simcha Weiser, headmaster of Soille San Diego Hebrew Day School, has a similar opinion:  “He communicates beautifully with children,” he said. “He is able to inspire kids to sing – and that is not as simple as it sounds.  He puts so much heart, feeling and emotion into it.”

Although Ozeri had learned his prayers at the Yavneh school in Mexico City, which he attended from kindergarten through high school graduation, he did not really learn the Jewish liturgy until after he came to San Diego.  His first job in San Diego as a song leader and later as a  shaliach at the Ken Jewish Community were not permanent, and while he was in the process of becoming a resident alien with a green card, other organizations—although they admired his work—were reluctant to hire him, lest they run afoul of immigration laws.

Rabbi Arnold Kopikis, who was then the spiritual leader of Congregation Adat Ami – the forerunner of Ohr Shalom Synagogue – told Ozeri he wanted him to lead songs, and help with the services, at Adat Ami, where a large percentage of the membership was Spanish speaking.  Kopikis, an Argentinian rabbi, had served previously in Mexico City, where he had met Ozeri as a youngster.

Although Ozeri had friends who let him stay at their homes during this period of his life in the 1990s, he never wanted to stay with anyone too long—he was so embarrassed by his financial situation.  Occasionally, money was so tight, he had to sleep in his car.  So, while recalling in an interview how Kopikis had reached out to him in his time of need, Ozeri’s voice started to quiver, and he had to stop for a moment to regain his composure.  Rabbi Kopikis, now head of the San Diego Center for Jewish Culture and Creativity, is one man to whom Ozeri says he he will be eternally grateful.

“I always like to call him ‘Broza,’”  Kopikis later told me, “because his singing style reminds me so much of (popular Israeli singer) David Broza.”

Besides as a singer, Ozeri became known to Salovey as an actor and a director—appearing at the Lipinsky Family Jewish Arts Festival as a member of the Spanish-language repertory group, Teatro Punto y Coma, for several years.

A friend from Mexico City and the Ken Jewish Community also in the group was Robert Moutal, who then was head of production for the Telemundo television outlet in San Diego.  Moutal, a member of Congregation Beth El, subsequently was promoted to general manager.

When a position opened for a local morning host on Telemundo,  Moutal recommended Ozeri, but a woman from Texas got the coveted job.  Forty-five minutes after telling Ozeri the sad news, Moutal phoned him back.  The woman apparently had changed her mind.  “The job’s yours.”

For the last six years, on Monday through Fridays, Ozeri has prepared three 150-second segments per day—each of which typically is broadcast twice.  The segment may be a commercial, or a comedy sketch, a brief interview with a visiting celebrity, or whatever else Ozeri may dream up.

On a recent morning, Ozeri was doing a commercial in the studio for I-Chamba— a company whose name means ‘Got Work?’  Owned by Vic and Lea Sefler, whose children go to Soille San Diego Hebrew Day School, I-Chamba is a web-based employment service for blue-collar workers.  As Ozeri ad-libbed a commercial, Lea Sefler couldn’t help but laugh off-camera.

“His personality is amazing,” she said. “He really has fun.  We tried to find some way to explain our service with the right slang word in Spanish, and he just picked the right one.  He is very funny, with his choice of words, and his energy.  He has a following in the Spanish market, and when he does the commercials, we get phone calls right away.”

Pitching products is just one part of his job.  Videographer Nancy Castro remembers that he “had a chimpanzee with one of his segments, and  the chimp kept on hitting his head like a coconut.  Zeji was playing off it.”

On another occasion, cameras whirled as Ozeri waited for his Telemundo-arranged blind date, zooming in as he realized that he had been “stood up,” Castro recalled.

Although Moutal is Ozeri’s boss, he says there is nothing he likes better than when his star asks him to appear in a sketch with him. “We do a segment in which he plays an Argentinian professor and I play a Spaniard, who says fallacies, and he corrects me,” Moutal said.  “It is a very light segment.”

Ozeri is physically recognizable – “slender, bald, with big eyebrows, he is easy to cartoon,” says Moutal.  “At the very beginning, we tried to dress him up, but it didn’t fly, so now he dresses casually and the clients like that.  They like his approachability.”

Viewers often recognize Ozeri as he goes about town, Moutal said. “They approach him as a friend.  ‘Hey, you’re Zeji.  How’s it going?’ like he’s their friend, and he is very nonchalant about it.  Sometimes they will ask for his autograph.”

Ozeri and Moutal traveled together to Israel to make a documentary film about the popular Hebrew song,  Erev Zavat Chalav U’Devash (The Land of Milk and Honey), and its composer, Eliyahu Gamliel, whom Ozeri describes as “our grandfather, everybody’s grandfather.”

The song, which almost everyone in Israel knows, has become something of a trademark for Ozeri, who will get requests for it if he fails to sing it at performances.  “He  personally brought the tradition of that song to San Diego,” Salovey says.

The documentary won three local Emmy awards for Telemundo; so far, Ozeri has won or has contributed to winning six such television awards.

He also has recorded two CD’s of Jewish music and that’s just the beginning—or perhaps the middle—of Ozeri’s story.  He says he has some other documentaries planned, is working on some English-language theatre productions, and expects to be recording more music.

So what is the background of this San Diego personality, who came to this city about 20 years ago?

Zeji is short for Zejaria in Spanish, or Zachariah in Hebrew and English.  His father, Aharon, was from a Yemenite Jewish family that ferried across the Red Sea from Yemen to Egypt and walked to Israel, where Zeji was born the eldest of four children.  His mother, Raquel Sefchovich, was a Mexican Jew who visited Israel on a year-long program, where she met and fell in love with Aharon, a soldier in a Nahal unit assigned to helping build a new kibbutz.

Coincidentally,  Kibbutz Erez, where his parents met, is one of the 10 kibbutzim of Sha’ar Hanegev, which became the partnership region of the United Jewish Federation of San Diego County more than a generation later.

Ozeri’s parents settled in Mexico City, to which his mother had returned to help in her family’s business.  After Aharon came to visit, they were married.  Born and raised in Mexico City, Zeji attended the Yavneh Hebrew School from kindergarten through graduation—and remembers the school as being similar to Soille San Diego Hebrew Day School, where today he teaches Hebrew songs, only Yavneh was staffed  by “fewer rabbis.”

The Yavneh School—named for the community in Israel where Torah learning was continued, even after the fall of the Second Temple—was an Orthodox institution, but many of its teachers and students were either secular or less observant, Ozeri remembers.

He recalled that while he was a student, a new headmaster came to the school – a rabbi who felt that morning  prayers for the students should be mandatory rather than optional.  Ozeri was among the children who rebelled over this change in schedule, hiding in the school bathroom with his legs above the toilet seat so he could not be spotted under the stall door.  It was no use; the rabbi would open the door of the bathroom and call out, “Okay, Ozeri, I know you’re in there, go to Tefilah (prayers)”

Insistent as the headmaster was, he also was tolerant, treating Ozeri’s rebelliousness as simply a youthful phase rather than outright disobedience. After a while, Ozeri started enjoying the morning sessions in which he learned his Hebrew prayers, and says, today, all these years later, he is glad that he had such grounding, because he can pray in fellowship with other Jews anywhere in the world.

The school was small, and students were regularly pressed into service for various school activities.  Ozeri found himself in the school choir, and in the Israeli folkdance troupe.  These experiences and active participation in the youth organization, Maccabi Hatzair, were important factors leading to Ozeri’s career.

Rising through Maccabi Hatzair from a camper to a counselor, he was chosen to spend nine months in Israel to learn to become a Jewish community leader.  Again coincidentally, he was sent to Kibbutz Or Haner for three months – it is also a kibbutz in the Sha’ar Hanegev municipality — and was surprised that kibbutzniks living in that section of Israel adjacent to the Gaza border still remembered his father. Ozeri spent three months on the kibbutz, another six months in Jerusalem at a school for leaders from abroad, and rounded out the tour with a stay in Ramat Gan for seminars at the headquarters for the Maccabi World Union.

At first, he admitted, he had a negative impression of Americans, thinking them hopelessly uninformed about other countries – Americans were surprised, for example, that there even was such a phenomenon as a Mexican Jew.  Furthermore, he said, Americans seemed to be more one-dimensional in their interests than his fellow Mexicans.  It was his impression that Americans picked one subject or activity—whatever it may be– to do very well, but didn’t try to distinguish themselves at anything else.  Mexicans, by contrast, did a lot of things well, but perhaps did not achieve the level of expertise that  Americans attained in their singular fields, he reflected.

Notwithstanding these differences, he made friends with the English speakers—and is particularly grateful to one American and one young Englishman with whom he went on an excursion to Mahane Yehuda market place in Jerusalem, where they began to play their guitars and sing Simon and Garfunkel songs, quickly drawing an admiring crowd.   Impressed, Ozeri decided he would learn to play the guitar at the first available opportunity.  It was a way to have fun, get in front of a crowd, “and, okay, it was also a great way to get girls” grinned Ozeri, who after two long-term relationships is still a bachelor.

In the Maccabi Hatzair program, there was an all-in-fun rivalry school boy rivalry between the Mexican and Americans, which took the form of water fights in which the Mexicans would spray the Americans with a hose, and yell “We want Texas back!  We want California!”

Ozeri was becoming hooked on Israel, but he didn’t know it yet.  He went home, graduated from Yavneh School, and started to enroll at Universidad de las Americas in Mexico City. After he told officials there he did not plan to attend the morning masses, he learned that the classes he wanted to enroll in somehow already had been filled.  ‘You know what,” he told his parents, “I’d rather go back to Israel  and go to school there.”

His father, in particular, agreed, and Ozeri was off to Tel Aviv University, where he majored in theatre and minored in Jewish Studies.  Ozeri came from a working class family—and as he tells the story, his folks gave him $500 and wished him luck in Israel.  Any expenses over and above that, he’d have to earn.

His previous certification as a Maccabi World Union counselor served him in good stead; he was chosen to be a counselor for students from foreign countries, many of them Americans.  Ozeri remembers meeting groups of them at Ben Gurion Airport and quietly shepherding them to the bus.  Then he would count them—loudly, enthusiastically, in Spanish!—and the startled students would wonder if they somehow had landed in the wrong country.

As counselor for the overseas students, he arranged trips to various parts of Israel as well as volunteer projects for them to participate in.  As their residence adviser, he offered a shoulder to cry on when students felt homesick or, in the case of some of the young women, mistakenly believed themselves to be pregnant.

One community service project he helped organize was the donation of old clothing to people living in the poorer sections of Tel Aviv and Jaffa.  Given his own economically needy condition, he became a recipient of some of the clothing himself.  In particular, he remembers obtaining his first-ever pair of Levi jeans.

Because his Hebrew was not good enough to merit parts on stage, Ozeri’s focused his theatre studies on backstage work—lighting, costumes, props, curtain.  All the while, his academic minor of Jewish Studies was becoming increasingly important to him, especially lectures by Survivors about the Holocaust and by pioneers about the establishment of Israel.  In Mexico, history had been something that happened long ago, to people he could not necessarily relate to, but hearing Survivors tell their stories in the new Jewish state—where never again would Jews face such humiliation and degradation—reinforced his parents’ teaching: “Zeji, always remember who and what you are.”

In Mexico, he reflected, people thought of him as a “Jew,” whereas in Israel, where everybody was Jewish, people thought of him as a “Mexican.”   At Tel Aviv University, one of the buildings in which he studied was called the Mexico Building, as money for its construction was donated by Mexican Jews.  Ozeri remembers looking at the Mexican sculptures associated with that building and thinking “I’m in a Mexican bubble.”

Graduation burst the bubble, and not long after visiting his family at home, he was off to Los Angeles at the invitation of his uncle to make movies for the Mexican market.  But his uncle got very sick with cancer, and Ozeri had to sell the movies the uncle already had made.  In Los Angeles, Moises Edid told him that his brother Abraham—whom Ozeri had known at Maccabi Hatzair—was living in San Diego County, so Ozeri decided to come down for a visit.

Edid took Ozeri to a party in the Eastlake area of Chula Vista, and “I opened the door, and it was filled with Mexicans.  I knew there were (Jewish) Mexicans in San Diego, but I had no idea there were so many.  I saw people who went to school with me—Joel and David Chayet – and there were even two first cousins who I hadn’t seen in maybe twelve or thirteen years.  One of them, the face looked familiar—the last time I saw her she was seven or eight, but now she was grown up—and I said, ‘is your name Sharon?’  And when she said it was, I said ‘I’m your cousin Zeji.’”

With his guitar, he led some singing at the party, prompting David Chait, who was working as a shaliach at the Ken Jewish Community (the Spanish-language JCC) to invite him to become a song leader at the Ken’s camp.

In turn that led to Ozeri eventually becoming the shaliach at the Ken, as well as to other jobs as a song leader at  San Diego Jewish Academy, at Soille San Diego Hebrew Day School, and at Ohr Shalom Synagogue, among others.

“I had a double identity as a Mexican and a Jew,” Ozeri reflected.  “Now as a San Diegan, I have a triple identity.”

*
Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World

Legal experts discuss fate of settlers if Arab Palestinians unilaterally declare state in West Bank

The Jewish township of Ofra might be forced to surrender to the yoke of Islam in the name of «peace».

Legal experts told Ynet last Monday that if the Palestinians go through with their plan of unilaterally declaring a state in the West Bank, the settlers there could find their status changed to that of illegal residents.

The dean of Bar Ilan University’s faculty of law, Professor Yaffa Zilbershatz, told Ynet that in the case of Palestinian statehood, «the settlers would become a minority that an enlightened state must respect». .

Zilbershatz said that a growing trend in international law dictates the settlers could not be expelled as a minority, and that the Palestinians must offer them citizenship.

But she warns that the Palestinians would not have to respect this trend.

«The Palestinians could claim that the settlers are not legitimate residents, meaning they reside on territory in violation of international law, because they are citizens of a holding country and they should not have been allowed to live in the held territory», she said.

«On the basis of this claim, they could deport the population from the area, as though they were illegal residents».

But Dr. Ruby Seibel, former legal adviser to the Foreign Ministry, says the settlers fate will be determined by Israel, not the Palestinians.

«Israel is eventually the one to decide», he said. «In any case most countries in the world currently see the settlements as illegal… so their position according to international law is in a gray area».

Seibel claims that international law does not recognize unilateral declarations of statehood, so not only will the Palestinians not be able to determine the status of the settlers, they will also be incapable of setting their own borders.

«Borders need to be determined by the countries involved», he explained. «One side cannot just up and determine a one-sided reality. They can solve this with negotiations or they can resort to legal means».

Source: Ynet

“Read! In the name thy Lord and Cherisher, Who created-”

Surah Al Alaq, verse 1, the 1st Revelation

Assalamualaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh, my dear brothers and sisters.

The other day I looked up Jerusalem on Google Maps for a training program and found this:

Jerusalem, Israel

I guess I missed the news report announcing their sovereignty over Jerusalem. Or perhaps there wasn’t one..?

Surah Ali Imran, verse 54, ‘And (the unbelievers) plotted and planned, and God too planned, and the best of planners is God.’

I am very pleased that the Royal Court secured some of the most important awards at the Evening Standard Awards yesterday.

I loved Enron, with Sam West, and Jerusalem with Mark Rylance.

Mark Rylance’s performance was one of the best I’ve ever seen on stage, so it would have been a travesty if he didn’t win the Best Actor.

The only performance I’ve seen that tops it in the last five years was Chiwetel Ejiofor as Othello at the Donmar Warehouse. That performance was elemental, he was like a huge storm cloud moving across the stage rather than an actor. He really reclaimed the play from Iago (a far weaker performance by Ewan McGregor), and rightly was awarded the Olivier Award for Othello in 2008?

Another recent excellent performance by Dominic West in Life is a Dream, also at the Donmar. Although he didn’t reach the same levels as Rylance and Ejiofor, his incarcerated prince was powerful and nuanced.

Having managed to miss every single show that Rylance has been in over the last 10 years, I was kicking myself when I saw him in Jerusalem. I now want to go and see shows like Endgame and I generally can’t stand Becket.

I think Rylance will sweep the boards at other Awards with his performance as Rooster, and my money is on him to pick up the Oliviers. Jerusalem won Best Play but it is only a good play and not a classic; it’s Rylance that lifts it above being just good.

Enron is overall a better production, so it’s fair that it picks up Best Director for Rupert Goold.

I love Ian Rickson, the director of Jerusalem and the ex-artistic director of the Royal Court.

He directed a fantastic production of The Seagull as his final show there – also starring Ejiofor, as well as MacKenzie Crook (surprisingly disappointing in the main role), Pearce Quigley, who for me stole the show as the awkward school teacher, Katherine Parkinson from the IT Crowd, Kristen Scott Thomas, Carey Mulligan now flying to fame in An Education. All incredibly impressive in a hilariously funny, yes funny, verision of Chekhov.

But Jerusalem was ponderous in places and could have done with a slightly firmer hand, so I don’t feel too bad for Rickson losing out to Goold.

Enron, although not quite as good as everyone is making out, is a beautifully composed production. It weaves together storytelling about financial products (surely the best way to learn about boring accountancy issues) with choreographed musical numbers of a type hard to categorise, and startling original and disconcerting imagery.

I did think that the scenes in court and the final monologue with Sam West is slightly anti-climatic, a bit of a damp squib after the perfectly orchestrated rest of the play.

Both Jerusalem and Enron are transferring to the West End in January 2010.

Would highly recommend both of them.

You can get tickets for both plays through the Royal Court Box Office on 020 7656 5000 or online at www.royalcourttheatre.com

But you can’t beat the £10 nights on a Monday at the Royal Court — which is what I paid for great stalls seats for both Enron and Jerusalem. Just sign up to the mailing list and get in there quick for future productions.

David, the King

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.  He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.  Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever. – “Shepherd Psalm,” BIBLE, recorded by David (Psa 23).

(David, born, Bethlehem – died Jerusalem, a.k.a. “City of David,” fleshly ancestor of Jesus Christ)

King of Israel (1056 – 1015 BC -Ussher)

I have an idea for a new bumper sticker: Visualize Sharia Law. The thought comes from a bumper sticker from the eighties: Visualize World Peace. Picture what it would be like to live under Sharia Law. Islam divides the world into only two groups, the House of Peace (Islam) and the House of War (infidels). In other words, they are at war with the rest of us until we submit. Islam is committed to total world conquest. The word Islam literally translates as submission. This does not sound bad to Western thought because we have been birthed out of a Judeo-Christian heritage, which teaches submission differently. Islam’s submission is imposed by Sharia law, while our kind of submission is voluntary. Their submission is actually domination. One example is the idea of offense. Jews and Christians are offended all the time. We are taught to respond with forgiveness. Islamists demand laws be passed to criminalize offense to Muslims. It is a contrived offense as a means to an end. Sharia is imposed inch by inch and yard by yard on naïve slumbering Westerners till it is too late.

Jesus defeated satan in the wilderness by speaking the Word of God, He said, “Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God”.

Don’t forget Jesus was very weak and hungry; He was at His lowest, that is when satan comes to you saying it is hopeless, you are finished, it is all over.

My friend the devil is a liar.

David the shepherd boy said,” God delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear, surely He will deliver me from this uncircumcised Philistine {Goliath}.

Surely God will deliver you from your problem, so, shout it out “SURELY GOD WILL DELIVER ME” The Bible says,” Call upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver you”.

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The Shaya family in their Jaffa home

Despite this blog’s title, this post is on something you can read about in Haaretz. I do add some analysis and access to additional materials, but the primary reason for the divergence is emotional. Not only is this a story of extraordinary injustice, it is also about the family of a friend and colleague, Mary Koussa.

You can read the entire saga of the Shaya family in this Haaretz article, but the gist is fairly simple. In the 1920’s, Salim Khoury Shaya, head of Jaffa’s once prosperous Greek Orthodox Palestinian community, built a house for his family. He had seven children. In 1948, a census was taken of the remnants of Jaffa’s Palestinian community. Empty houses were taken over by the State of Israel, according to the Absentee Property Law (more about that at the bottom of this post). The Shaya house was a unique case. Three of the siblings were absent (in Lebanon), but four were present. So the State proclaimed itself “partner” and legally took over 40% of the house.

Decades passed and, except for a number of failed attempts in the 50’s and 60’s, to sue for full property rights, the Shaya family didn’t hear much from the government. Their area of Jaffa (near Ajami) was a slum no one was really interested in. That all changed about four years ago. The Jaffa coast went through accelerated gentrification and property prices skyrocketed. Amidar, the government owned housing company that administrates most Absentee Properties, saw an opportunity for a windfall. Contrary to popular perception, most of the Palestinians living in the area are not descendants of the pre-1948 residents, but descendants of refugees displaced during the war from other parts of the country, and are now tenants of Amidar. Therefore, their eviction, on a variety of pretexts, was relatively simple. In 2007-2008 alone, Amidar issued at least 400 eviction notices in the Ajami neighborhood.

The few Palestinian owners were more of a problem. But in 2007, some bureaucrat looking through old case files discovered the Shaya family’s vulnerability and hatched a plan — slap them with an exorbitant demand for years of back rent for the 40% of the house “owned” by the government and then demand that the “partnership” be dissolved through sale of the house to a third party. The Shayas don’t want to leave their ancestral home, but their attempts to buy out the State were rebuffed, and now Amidar and the Israel Lands Administration (ILA) have taken them to court. They want them out.

Even from the perspective of Lieberman’s Jewish-Nationalist school of thought there is much that is wrong with this story.  As a devil’s advocate, I would ask his disciples in the government, why persecute “good Arabs?”  The Shaya’s are fully integrated in Israeli society. One of the second generation siblings worked at the Tel-Aviv municipality for his entire life. An uncle was the first Palestinian policeman recruited in Jaffa by the Israeli government in 1949. A visitor at the Sunday family gatherings hears a mix of Arabic and Hebrew. Why is Israel taking them back to the Nakba that it wants to force them to forget through legislation?

For Israelis who still believe in a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and for genuinely “pro-Israel” Jews abroad, this kind of reopening of 1948, which is also happening in Jerusalem and Haifa, is no less than suicidal. It severely undermines the premise of 1967 as the starting point for a diplomatic solution, with its implications regarding the 1948 refugees.

For all Jews, or at least those that see Judaism as a culture and a moral code, rather than an ethnic filter, the story of the persecution of the Shaya family presents a grave injustice for which we, as a collective, are responsible. It often seems to me that the apparatus of our government has lost any sense of justice and morality. Indeed it took a Palestinian citizen of Israel, the family’s lawyer, Adv. Hicham Chabaita of Tel-Aviv University’s Human Rights Clinic, to point out the immorality of suit.

This is how Chabaita opens his defense (Hebrew original here):

Adv. Hicham Chabaita

As in the story of the ‘Pauper’s Lamb,’ the plaintiff, a government authority, is cynically requesting, with no shame whatsoever, to dispossess the defendants of the home that has been their property since it was built by their grandfather decades before the State was founded, and thus to expel them…This case is not a regular civil suit, despite attempts of the State to present it as such…We are speaking about hard, uncommon facts, an outcome of the unique context of the 1948 War.”

Right above is  an excerpt from Samuel II, chapter 12, verses 1-4. Here it is, English translation alongside Hebrew original.

So the Lord sent Nathan to David. When he came to David, Nathan said, “There were two men in a certain city, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had a great many flocks and herds. But the pauper had nothing except for a little lamb he had acquired. He raised it, and it grew up alongside him and his children. It used to eat his food, drink from his cup, and sleep in his arms. It was just like a daughter to him. When a traveler arrived at the rich man’s home, he did not want to use one of his own sheep or cattle to feed the traveler who had come to visit him. Instead, he took the pauper’s lamb and cooked it for the man who had come to visit him.”

Chabaita also reminds the court that the Israeli Supreme Court described the Absentee Property Law as “meant to fill a temporary role: to preserve absentee properties lest they become abandoned and open to looting.”  He also dug up the protocols of the Knesset debate around the enactment of the law and quotes the Members of the First Knesset, keenly aware of the circumstances of their own people, so recently displaced and dispossessed, describing its purpose in the same way.

The Tel-Aviv Magistrate will hear the case in January.

[You can write the Shaya family at shaya.house@gmail.com]

PakAlert

By Sajjad Shaikh

The coming of the Mahdi is one of the major signs of Judgement Day. Unlike the minor signs his appearance will signal that the Final Hour is near and that believers must ensure that they are ready to endure its trials and tribulations (fitan).

The Mahdi will come at a time when Muslims will have become disunited and where tyranny and corruption will have prevailed.The situation will be so bad that a person would wish he was not born or that if someone died he would wish that it was him.

The story of al-Mahdi, as recounted in the sunnah, is a story of hope where the struggle between Haqq (Good) and Baatil (Evil) results in the believers gaining victory over the disbelievers, where the earth is filled with peace and justice due to the just rule of al-Mahdi. It is narrated by Abu Said al-Khudri (ra) that the Messenger of Allah (Sallallahu alaihi wassalam) said: “At the end of the time of my ummah,the Mahdi will appear. Allah will grant him rain, the earth will bring forth its fruits, he will give a lot of money, cattle will increase and the ummah will become great.” (Reported by al-Haakim in his Mustadrak, 4/557-558).The story of mahdi is one that encourages the believers to work for the unity of Muslims and the justice of Islam via the establishment of the Khilafah and the application of the Shariah as the believer knows that one day the whole world will be enlightened by the light of Islam and falsehood shall vanish. But until that day comes he must take encouragement from the bashaarat (glad tidings) of the Messenger (Sallallahu alaihi wassalam) and strive and work for Islam following the Sunnah of the Messenger (Sallallahu alaihi wassalam).

So it is sad to hear sometimes that some find in the story of Mahdi an excuse and justification for inaction, taking the fatalistic view that we as an Ummah cannot, and even should not, do anything about the corrupt situation until the Mahdi appears at the end of time and establishes the Khilafah. Clearly, this is not the message the Companions (may Allah be pleased with them) took when they heard the story directly from the lips of the Messenger (Sallallahu alaihi wassalam). They heard this story and they took its lessons and they worked tirelessly, first in Makkah in order to establish dar al-Islam and then after its establishment in Madinah to consolidate and extend the influence of the Islamic state.After the death of al-Mustafa (Sallallahu alaihi wassalam) the Sahabah appointed Khulafah who extended the authority of Islam even further until the light of Islam had spread to a large part of the world. So how can it be that the coming of the Mahdi has become an excuse for the resignation to the corrupt reality? Indeed, if we analyse the authentic reports about the coming of Mahdi from both a prophetic and legal point of view we can conclude the following:

The Khilafah will not be established by the Mahdi but he will be a Khaleefah coming after the death of the Khaleefah before him. In other words the Khilafah will have been established by the Muslims before the coming of the Mahdi.This can clearly be seen in the hadith narrated by Umm Salamah (ra) that the Messenger of Allah (Sallallahu alaihi wassalam) said: “Disagreement will occur at the death of a caliph and a man of the people of Medina will come flying forth to Mecca. Some of the people of Mecca will come to him, bring him out against his will and give bay’ah to him between the Rukn and the Maqam. An expeditionary force will then be sent against him from Syria but will be swallowed up in the desert between Mecca and Medina. When the people see that, the God fearing people of Syria and the best people of Iraq will come to him and swear allegiance to him between the Corner and the Maqam. Then there will arise a man of Quraysh whose maternal uncles belong to Kalb and send against them an expeditionary force which will be overcome by them, and that is the expedition of Kalb. Disappointed will be the one who does not receive the booty of Kalb. He will divide the property, and will govern the people by the Sunnah of their Prophet (peace be upon him) and establish Islam on Earth. He will remain seven years…” (Reported by at-Tabarani in al-Awsat.According to Ibn Hajar in his Majma’ az-Zawaid the transmitters in at-Tabarani’s narration are sound and authentic.)

Notice the above hadith states that disputes will take place at the death of the Khaleefah and consequently a man will come forth who after being given bay’ah as the khaleefah will declare himself to be the Mahdi. So clearly Mahdi will not establish the Khilafah Rashidah that will return as foretold in the ahadith, and as well he will not be the first Khaleefah after the destruction of the Khilafah and nor will he be the last Khaleefah. Rather, he will be a just Khaleefah who will establish the justice of Islam on earth.This is from the perspective of the account of the story as prophesised by the Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wassalam).

From a shar’I or legal perspective the hadith which detail the emergence of the Mahdi do not establish any Shariah rules for the reality of Muslims of today, as they relate to a different situation when the Khilafah exists.A Hukm Shar’i or divine rule comes for a manaat (reality to which the hukm pertains) which requires a ruling, which is our current reality and not the end of time which will be signaled by the major signs of the day of judgment.A hukm shar’i essentially is a request to do an action or refrain from it whether by way of obligation (wujoob), prohibition (tahreem), encouragement (nadb) or discouragement (karaaha).Although the hadiths about the Mahdi do not request the obligation to establish the Khilafah, as they are largely ikhbari (informative) in nature and as the Khilafah will already exist when the Mahdi comes (which is why we say this reality is inapplicable), but they certainly do NOT say it is not obligatory to work for a Khilafah when it does not exist. Indeed the Shariah rules established at the time of the Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wassalam) are applicable till the end of time as long as they pertain to the reality for which they came. So not only must the Muslims abide by them, so must the Mahdi and so did ‘Isa (Alaihi as salam) who came not as a Prophet but as a follower of the Shariah of Muhammad (Sallallahu alaihi wassalam). So if the coming of a great Prophet like Isa (as), after the prophethood of Muhammad (Sallallahu alaihi wassalam), cannot suspend the rules of the Shariah, how can the coming of the Mahdi suspend them?

As for the hukm shar’i on what to do when the Khilafah does not exist, as we see in our situation today, we need to refer to the following hadith of the Messenger (Sallallahu alaihi wassalam) as it addressed that very manaat (reality): “Whosoever dies without a bay’ah on his neck dies the death of Jahiliyyah.” (Reported by Muslim in his Sahih).This hadith clarifies by its implied meaning (mafhum) that it is not permitted for a Muslim to live without the presence of a Khaleefah as it censures the one who dies without his presence. Consequently, it becomes obligatory on the Muslim to work for the presence of a Khaleefah who will rule justly and work to remove, through only da’wah and political struggle, the Ruwaibidah that are our current despicable rulers.This is our reality today and the work to establish the Khilafah is the vital issue that the Muslims cannot neglect.

Whilst the coming of the Mahdi is an important subject in the books of hadith, it is almost as though some have taken the subject as a “get-out” clause to not work for the return of the Khilafah and the giving of bayah to the next Khaleefah.As though the mere mention of Khilafah in the time of Mahdi in some way excuses Muslims from their obligation of removing the corrupt regimes of today.Yes, there will be a Khilafah again inSh’Allah, but will we all be of the ummah that lived in darkness and did nothing to change that situation? And wait for Allah (SWT) to bring a people that loved him and He (SWT) loved.

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ مَن يَرْتَدَّ مِنكُمْ عَن دِينِهِ فَسَوْفَ يَأْتِي اللّهُ بِقَوْمٍ يُحِبُّهُمْ وَيُحِبُّونَهُ أَذِلَّةٍ عَلَى الْمُؤْمِنِينَ أَعِزَّةٍ عَلَى الْكَافِرِينَ يُجَاهِدُونَ فِي سَبِيلِ اللّهِ وَلاَ يَخَافُونَ لَوْمَةَ لآئِمٍ

“O you who believe! If you ever abandon your faith, Allah will in time bring forth (instead of you) people whom he loves and who love Him – humble towards the believers, strong towards all who deny truth: [people] who strive hard in Allah’s cause, and do not fear to be censured by anyone who might censure them” [5:54]

This documentary was created by a Turkish Scholar which proofs that all major prophecies by Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) have been fulfilled and we are living in the last age where we will witness the arrival of Mehdi and Jesus Christ (pbuh)

The Spiritual War

967, a report was issued under the presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson, “The iron mountain report” which was a global research study on the possibility and desirability of peace in US. This was the era of cold war, the time when US was in the middle of Vietnam war and both US and Soviet Union providing excuses to Egypt, and Jordan that they can’t help them for the upcoming invasion on Israel (the 6 day war). How funny it seems now that the biggest opponents of cold war were practicing same diplomacy tactics when it comes to the sovereignty of Israel and dealing with Muslims. One can say that this was the right time to look for world peace and this study was conducted just for that…. or not. This report has reached the conclusion that the worst thing that can happen to United States and its national security were if world peace were to come about. It said that “if lasting peace could be achieved in the world, it would almost certainly not be in the best interest of the society because war is an essential part of the system, war is an essential part of the economy”. Period.

The above concept refers to the teachings of Leo Strauss a professor at Hebrew University of Jerusalem and who is known to be a political Zionist. It is widely believed that it was his teachings that fostered neoconservative foreign policy of George W. Bush’s administration. It was his teachings that resulted in the formation of Neo-cons or more accurately “Neo-con Evangelist Christian Zionists”. Among his famous students being Paul Wolfowitz, who was deputy secretary of defense during U.S. led Iraq war and William Galtson who was a senior advisor to President Bill Clinton on domestic policy. It is hence no surprise, that Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld who are known for orchestrating the whole Iraq war, are among the well-known neo-cons who crave for war to fill their own interests.

The concept of keeping society intact by keeping them in a fear of constant war is not just a Western doctrine. Chanakya, who was an adviser and prime minister to the first Maurya Emperor, Chandragupta and who played an important part in the foundation and governance of Maurya dynasty used to say, that in order to gain control over the people of the country, always keep them in war with your neighboring dynasty or country. Hence it is not surprising at all that India has never been on good terms with it’s neighbours and these terms don’t seem to be on their way to improvement anytime soon..

Why global peace is such a dangerous phenomenon that it used to and still threatens the mightiest of empires and countries. If we dig deeper, the idea of world peace has been reduced to symbols from ancient mythology that are the very opposite of everything that reflects positive energy. For example, the sign of world peace (the dove) is in reality a ritualistic symbol for the Illuminati. Why the most powerful and influential people of the planet are scared of global peace? This is not a matter of imposing martial law on the people of the planet, the upraising of new world order. This has nothing to do with gaining more power or taking over the world or implanting RFID chips in humans as if they are “products” tagged with a number, these are just small pieces in the bigger picture. Believe it or not, even the most ritualistic or evil of mankind wants to get enlightened with satanic power, the power of evil, the power of their satanic god “Lucifer”.

The Satan challenged ALLAH (SWT):
“O My Lord, because Thy hast put me in the wrong, I will make (wrong) fair-seeming to them on the earth and I will put them all in the wrong. Except thy servants among them, sincere and purified (by Thy Grace)” (Al Hijr: 39-40)

And the war has been waged on mankind ever since. The question here is, who was purified by the will of God and how many dedicated their lives to serving the sinister plan of Satan, who thrives on anarchy, war and mayhem. The world peace is a threat to those who are the followers of satan. This is a war of spiritual values, the religious beliefs of the good and the evil, this is the war of the verses..

President George W. Bush told French President Jacques Chirac in early 2003 that Iraq must be invaded to invoke Gog and Magog, the Bible’s satanic agents of the Apocalypse. The president of the United States, in a top-secret phone call to a major European ally, asked for French troops to join American soldiers in attacking Iraq as a mission from God. During the Iraqi invasion in 2003, their out of office statement was that “Gog and Magog are at work in the Middle East…the biblical prophecies are being fulfilled…this confrontation is willed by God … and this is necessary before the beginning of the new age”. Now all of a sudden the prophecies from the book of Ezekiel and Jeremiah (Jewish Books) are so important for them that they were willing to forget their very own New Testament which clearly tells us the downfall of their evil (read: satanic worship) in such a way that even their ultimate savior Jesus (PBUH) won’t help them.

But as Bible says:
“Seeing they see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.” (Matthew 13:13)

Even Quran tells us about Zulqarnain and the wall that he built to keep Gog and Magog from spilling onto the earth. Yes we allowed them to manipulate our ancient history by replacing Zulqarnain with Alexander the Great but this is just another example of our ignorance. We might have seen the movie “Alexander the Great” and admired it but we have no fear or knowing of the second coming on Gog and Magog prophesized in Quran:

“But when Gog and Magog are let loose and they rush headlong down every height (or advantage). Then will the True Promise draw near” (Al Anbiyaa:96-97)

There is nothing significant about Horus sharing same life events as of Jesus. What most of us don’t know this Egyptian methodology of Horus is same as the methodology of Nimrod with her mother Semiramis and the miraculous birth. Horus who was also known as the “war god” or the “god of war” is associated with the falcon. The great seal of United States which features the “falcon” on one side and “pyramid” on the reverse side, strongly reinforces their dogma of following the Horus and Egyptian gods. A detailed study of events occur in the Mesopotamian region (present day Iraq, with some parts of Syria, Turkey and Iran) will give you so much more that will change your point of view on macro level. The Operation Iraqi Liberation wasn’t about just OIL. For them Iraq (former Babylon) is the land of their serpent Gods. For them they are the new leaders of the planet. They will prove what once has been joked by Ronald Reagan on international media that “What is that we need to build world peace … an attack from some outer space, an alien attack that will unite us under one supervision” (New World Order).

You may call them evil beings or satan worshippers … you can see them worshipping and presenting sacrifices to Moloch every year in July (The Bohemian Grove) and still we don’t understand why they are doing this? Nimrod was the first monarch on this earth who wanted to take over the whole world. Today Nimrod statue is present in Israel with Nimrod being one of the most famous names among its inhabitants. He was a “fire-worshipper” and he’s been idealized in a country formed on the ideology of a monotheistic religion. It’s hard to imagine what kind of evil we are dealing with and knowing no evil makes you one of them. This is what they are trying to do to keep us ignored and in return we are becoming a devil within our ownselves.

No matter how much you talk about the Holocaust of World War II, no matter how much you yell over the legality of Belfour Declaration, blame Lawrence of Arabia, Mufti Amin Al Hussaini (the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem), Anwar Saadat anyone. According to Jews, creation of Israel is the fulfillment of the prophecy written in Torah (old testament).

“I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence, and give Him no rest, till He establish, and till He make Jerusalem a praise in the earth”. (Isaiah 62:6, 7)
Then say to them what Adonai Elohim says: ‘I will take the people of Israel from among the nations where they have gone and gather them from every side and bring them back to their own land”. (Ezekiel 37: 21)

If we dig history further, these verses are in conflict with each other and we will notice a pattern in them which will lead us to the present time, to the world we know today. The problem is we have forgotten our history our roots, we have been put into sleep deliberately and they, they have memorized history like no one’s business.

In the “book of Daniel” comes a story about a prophet of God named Daniel who, while explaining the meaning of a dream seen by the king of Babylon, ‘Nebuchadnezzar’ prophesiezed the upcoming world events. This was the time of Jewish exile into Babylon. It was here in Babylon the Jews started learning and practicing black magic known as “Kabbalah”. It was a time for the creation of Talmud and Mishnah, both being books of law that deviates Jews from the original commandments given to Moses and which govern the present day Israel. Prophet Daniel in the year 333 BC prophesized about the upcoming empires of the world. In the end of it he prophesized that, 2300 years from then on, an “evil empire” will emerge on the face of this earth and from that point we will enter into the end of times. Do your math and you’ll find out that the year is 1967. The year in which after the end of 6 days war with Palestine, Syria, Jordan and Egypt, Israel was able to capture the Sinai desert, Golan heights, West bank and Jerusalem. It was after this war that Israel emerged on the face of the earth as a superpower : An empire founded on murder and injustice: or in the words of Prophet Danile (PBUH), an ‘evil’ empire. He also prophesized that 45 years after the creation of the evil empire, the time for the coming of Antichrist or Dajjal will be very near. Do your math again and find out which year he is referring to.

This is a war initiated by Satan himself and it is a battle for our soul. Dajjal being the final of Satan’s weapon for inflicting unbearable pain on the sons and daughters of Adam, is about to be unleashed into this world. The Quran teaches that for Nimrod came Abraham, for Pharoah came Moses and for Dajjal will come Jesus (PBUH). So, the question that we need to ask is; are we ready for this war on the ground and more importantly within ourselves? The misinterpretation and manipulation of holy scriptures is nothing but a warfare technique chosen by satan and his followers. Those who understand this know that this is in every sense a ’spiritual’ war.

שועל!

שם הטוב יודע לשלוח ברכה לכל אדם אשר דורש ברכה אפילו אם זה בבוקר של יום כיפור ואלוקים הקדוש ברוך בוא (אדושם) יושב בסלון שלו ולא מתאים לו להריץ דיבורים כי הוא מת לג’חנון ומחכה שהמקו הזה בז’בוטינסקי יפתח.

אלוקים אוהב פרנסה טובה, בריאות, נשמה, נשימה, מים, ים, אגם, אוכל, קמח, פסטרמה, מיכל ינאי, מי זה, אוכלים ונהנים, צ’יפופו, אולגה, רנו פסקל, יואב סגל, קוקו מאילת, אבו צ’יצ’ו, חומוס, הכל בסדר, כן, גידי גוב, ואפילו דברים טעימים שמצופים בשוקולד.

אלוקים אוהב את כל השועלים והשועות והחיות הקטנות ואפילו הרסק עגבניות הזה שהילדים שמים ליד המלאווח וליד הפתות ועל הצ’יפס, נו, הדבר האדום הזה שנראה כמו דם של ווסת, נראה לי קוראים לזה קיצ’יפ, קיטשיפ, קיטשופ?

יהיה בסדר, כי כולנו ילדים של החיים.

שועלות!

Yay!  I’m finished with the book!  This post covers pages 631 to 723.  It finished up touring the rest of the Holy Land.  Then they explore parts of Egypt but by then they are all tired of touring the world.  So they go home, and Mark Twain writes a few letters to the editor and then a book that is surprisingly called “The Innocents Abroad.”  That is the overview.  I will write some specifics now.The Holy Land in this section mainly consisted of Jerusalem, which most every street and hill has Biblical significance; but also Bethlehem and surrounding areas, which Twain talks very little about.  I was stuck by there is a particular place for everything in the Bible.  You may believe that that is obvious; if the events of the Bible are true, then they had to have happened in particular places.  Yet I’m sure that for many events they can approximate where it happened but not exactly pinpoint.

Therefore, I think that there were tourist traps even in Mark Twain’s day.  I am not sure that temporary resting places for the patriarchs like Bethel (Genesis 28:19) can ever be pinpointed, yet Twain went to a place that tour guides called Bethel.  On the other hand, Twain went to ruins of Jericho as well that can be authenticated.

The most absurd case of tourist traps happened in this section.  There were indentions in the wall in Jerusalem that the tour guides said where when Jesus fell.  Also here is some absurdity (after finding a stone that looks like a human face worn by kisses from a whole lot of pilgrims):

The guide said it was because this was one of “the very stones of Jerusalem” that Christ mentioned when he was reproved for permitting the people to cry “Hosannah!” when he made his memorable entry into the city upon an ass.  One of the pilgrims said, “But there is no evidence that the stones did cry out– Christ said that if the people stopped from shouting Hosannah, the very stones would do it.”  The guide was perfectly serene.  He said, calmly, “This is one of the stones that would have cried out.”  It was of little use to try to shake this fellow’s simple faith — it was easy to see that. (633)

In relationship to my previous post where I wrote that Twain does not think highly of the Israel, here is another quote that sums that up nicely.  It is in response to a quote from Life in the Holy Land, one of the tour books that Twain and company used.

Which all of us will freely grant.  But it truly is “monotonous and uninviting,” and there is no sufficient reason for describing it as being otherwise. (671)

On a more humorous note, this quote is about salt from the Dead Sea after swimming in it:  ”We scrubbed it off with a coarse towel and rode off with a splendid brand-new smell, though it was one which was not any more disagreeable than those we have been for several weeks enjoying.” (658)

The book ends with several chapters that could have been endings.  However, like the Lord of the Rings, it kept going.  (However, I do like the Lord of the Rings but the third and final movies does have a few whiteouts, a few blackouts, and one map-out.)  Twain evidentially got tired of writing to.  On page 699-701, he writes a long list of “I shall not describe” this or that.  If he did expound on these topics, I could easily see him writing for two hundred pages more.  Maybe he just didn’t like writing about much in Egypt, I don’t know.

He also republishes what he wrote to the editor in pages 713-718.  He calls it a “complimentary” letter but it’s really not that complimentary.  I don’t think of this book in so favorable terms as well.  For if you read the letter to the editor, you have no need to read the book.  You probably will get as much out of it.