FREE GILAD

TODAY, JUNE 25, MARKS THE 3 YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF GILAD SHALIT'S KIDNAPPING. AN ISRAELI SOLDIER CAPTURED ON ISRAELI SOIL BY HAMAS TERRORISTS. HE HAS BEEN HELD PRISONER SINCE THEN.

PLEASE REMEMBER HIM AND PRAY FOR A SUCCESSFUL MILITARY RESCUE

Still a Man of Destiny

This is a time of testing for our nation. Particularly it is a time of testing for the national camp. The Elections were one test, this 2nd test is much more serious.

photo: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=-3&id=1478280165

The Prime Minister of Israel is someone who probably has more pressure on him than anyone else in the world. Because we have allowed it in the past in order to have friends, we have let these "friends" simply tell us what to do, as if we were their personal possession. And we have acquiesced to many of their demands...or given lip service to agreement.

But today we have elected a man who holds Zionist values, who has the capacity to stand strong in the face of this pressure. And, last night, in his first speech before the nation and the world, in my opinion, he did just that.

But Bibi, no matter what he does or doesn't do, is lambasted by both the left and the right. He is the classic example of damned if he does and damned if he doesn't. The left can do what they want, but I still associate myself with the right and I am appalled at the cat calls to bring down this government.

What are these people thinking? Thank God the calls have died down given a day or two... yet there are still plenty of negative words like betrayal, buckling to America, etc.

As I have said before, if the train is off course and careening at breakneck speed down the side of the hill, the FIRST THING you have to do is STOP THE TRAIN. After that you can figure out how to get it back on the track.

All those who are feeling that Bibi's mere mention of a Palestinian state gives credibility to it and are ready to throw in the towel are not thinking clearly. Like a Palestinian state has never been mentioned by our government before? With whom would they replace Bibi? Tzipi Livni?? who not only wants the PA State to take all of Judea and Samaria but also all of east Jerusalem and the Golan??

Bibi outlined a Palestinian state that cannot exist - one that recognizes us as a Jewish state, one that is demilitarized, one that cannot have Jerusalem, etc. He knows and we all know that that will never happen. So, basically Bibi was saying, in the most clever of ways, "in your dreams, baby."

The PA got it. Not in a thousand years, they said. The Peace Process is dead. Why can't we get it?

Of all the times in our national camp history, we need to support this prime minister.

Obama was embarrassingly put in a corner. He couldn't say Bibi didn't recognize the option of two states...yet he, of course, knows as well it's not gonna work like that. To save face he went right back to "no settlements", but now there's no power in his words, his words have lost their punch.

What Bibi did was give us a platform to restate and affirm our sovereign position. No past agreements have ever worked, and he, better than anybody, can eloquently point that out. He can then say the obvious: "Here's the PA state we would accept. No deal? OK, no deal. End of story. We will annex the entire Judea and Samaria and finally put this subject to rest. It's time to move on."

That of course could be my own dream. But it's possible, and I am a firm believer in the impossible, so certainly I can put my stock in the possible.

America can and most likely will, turn it's corporate back on Israel. They will tighten the screws and in the end, will probably abandon our friendship. America then will truly be a divided nation as the people, for the most part, are with us. But God will not tolerate the turning stance against Israel. I'm afraid for America on many levels.

We, on the other hand, will stand alone in the nations, but with the power of the Almighty as our wings and strength. It's not easy, it will get even harder, but it's the only solution.

I still believe that Bibi Netanyahu is a man of destiny - no matter the pundits cackles and calls, and no matter the well-meaning, but short-sightedness of the leaders of the various Zionist movements.

I don't know about you but I'm checking for my seat belts, and grateful the miklat is now cleared of furniture. But then I'm offering a prayer to heaven to see us through.

You Did It Bibi, You Were Brilliant. Kol Hakavod.

The Long Hot Summer

Things are beginning to simmer a bit...and we may be facing a long hot summer here in Israel. The temperature , both literally and figuratively, rose considerably after Barak Obama's Cairo speech a week ago Thursday. Now, we are waiting with bated breath for Bibi' policy speech tomorrow night, hoping and praying he will respond with conviction and strength.

Obama delivered a one/two punch against Israel...some very offensive and inaccurate assessments, juxtaposed with both overt and subtle messages of oneness with Islam and Muslims worldwide, especially in it's stance against Israel and Jewish right to the Land of Israel. Obama applied words and phrases which were understood by Muslims, but which the Western mindset will have missed altogether.(See TodayinIsrael for commentary)

Throw Ahmadinejad's victory party into the mix, along with our own domestic and economic issues and you have the makings for a volatile, heated up summer.

I must say that Obama's speech stirred the country. Rarely have we had such a direct verbal attack and total lack of understanding of the situation, expressed by a sitting US President. It was stunning, quite honestly. As a result, people who never speak out, people on the left, as well as the national camp, are calling the Prime Ministers office and writing to Bibi Netanyahu, urging him to stand strong and not give into Obama's demands.

I guess there's a positive side to almost any news.

Turning Point 3

Today was Day 3 of a nation wide readiness drill - called "Turning Point 3" - designed to prepare army and citizens in the event of a missile attack. Soldiers were called up to miluim (reserve duty), the appropriate security and police personnel were geared to "practice" whatever it is they are taught to do. Individual citizens were to take shelter wherever they found themselves, either in a miklat (bomb shelter), or a safe room, or wherever was safest around them.

Photo Iranian missile test: SEPAH NEWS VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS

I was at a local sidewalk canion (shopping mall) when the sirens went off. They were barely audible, certainly softer than the Yom haZicharon and Yom haShoah sirens. There was a simultaneous announcement on the radio and television, but quite frankly, if the hour of the drill had not been publicized, very few people would have known it even happened.

Such a stark difference between the drill this morning and our response to it, and our responses to the sirens on our Memorial days. Perhaps we are simply better at mourning our dead than preparing for our future.

Still, there was an air of excited nonchalance (NOT an oxymoron) as the "hour" approached. The "drill" was the talk of the day as we sat, drank coffee and waited. Jokes, light banter, and the familiar camaraderie that exists between us unfolded, but behind that banter I also heard and saw the "something else" that exists between us. It's an unspoken collective awareness of the possible scenarios that might lie ahead, precisely because of the collective memory of what we have already experienced, and what we live day to day. It's our reality.

Approximately 10 minutes before the "event", people started talking a bit louder, an expectation of something about to happen rising in the air. People moved a little closer together, as if together, we would be safer. Actually, that is part of our reality, we are at our best as a People when we are in crisis.

This wasn't a crisis, of course, it was just a drill. But it was a drill that reminded us that we've been through many drills - real ones. The residents of Sderot, and towns along the southern borders, as well as those in the north, have already had many and constant real life exercises to practice. I have had my own runs for shelter when in some of those towns. Sometimes a safe room was available, sometimes we stood under a doorway...like in an earthquake. You do your best.

Today, no one moved. We just continued on with whatever we were doing. There is a miklat there but most of the people in the canion didn't know that. I knew because I have been in it, and like most miklatot, it is full of other things being stored there. And it is tiny. Even if it were completely empty, there would be room for just a very few people, and the rest...would be standing outside I guess.

Most citizens did check on their safe rooms, locate the miklatot in their neighborhoods and at least have given some thoughts to actions and reactions. I finally located mine, but we can't get into it as someone in the building has jammed it full of papers and things.

It's not that we are really nonchalant or lackadaisical....it's just...well, alright already, we know the big one is coming...nuke, earthquake, bolts from heaven.... It's Israel - our minds are already stretched as far as they can go in the survival mode. We do the best we can, that's it, and the rest is up to G-d.

I told my friend Shay that I wanted to write about today, but it was so uneventful there wasn't much to say. He told me that if I was going to write about sirens and shelters I should write about this drill, because, he said, if I wait to write about the next time there was a siren....there was a long pause.... we looked at each other and understood...