RUTHFULLY YOURS

http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=6107
Much ado about Adelson

There is nothing like a few racy quotes from billionaire philanthropist Sheldon Adelson to get the liberal media in a tizzy. With all the carry-on surrounding statements he made on Tuesday evening at Yeshiva University in New York, one would have thought that he had the ear of U.S. President Barack Obama and the power to shape American foreign policy.

This is as laughable as the media frenzy that ensued over the casino magnate’s comments, made in the course of a forum on “Iran, Assimilation and the Threat to Israel and Jewish Survival.”

In the first place, Adelson’s highly publicized backing of Republican contenders to prevent Obama’s election in 2008 and reelection in 2012 failed. His current level of influence on the administration in Washington, then, is nil.

Secondly, the 80-year-old businessman and ideologue — who makes a habit of literally putting his money where his mouth is — has never made a secret of his political positions, however abhorrent they may be to his left-wing detractors. So, none of his public remarks should come as a surprise, least of all when they relate to issues closest to his heart and about which he is happily vocal. Tuesday night’s forum, moderated by “America’s Rabbi” Shmuley Boteach (best-selling author of “Kosher Sex” and other books on marital relations), covered three such topics.

The right-leaning, predominantly Jewish audience came to hear Adelson, Wall Street Journal columnist Bret Stephens and Yeshiva University president Richard Joel discuss the pressing matters of the day from a conservative viewpoint. They were not disappointed.

WWW.HEBRON.COM

MAY THIS COMMUNITY OF ZIONISTS AND PIONEERS GROW AND PROSPER IN THE FIRST CAPITAL CITY OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE…..RSK

A few days ago, speaking to a group of young adults, one of the people asked me what’s my motivation to live in Hebron. My answer contained a few elements.

Usually my first stop on tours is Tel Rumeida, a great place to start. Because this neighborhood is actually ancient Tel Hebron. If Ma’arat HaMachpela is where the Patriarchs and Matriarchs are buried, this is where they lived. Two walls, one 4,500 years old, dated to the era of Noah, and another, 3,700 years old, from the times of Abraham and Sarah, ensconce a stairwell, over 4,000 years old. We are almost 100% sure that our Forefathers walked these stairs.

Today, the stairs reach the only road accessing this neighborhood. Archeologists have explained to us that under that road, at the end of the stone stairs, are probably the Gates to the ancient city of Hebron.

This site is, for me, probably one of the most important places, not only in Hebron, but in all of Israel, and in the world. Why? Tomorrow, together with literally tens of thousands here in Hebron and Kiryat Arba, we will read in the Torah how Abraham, almost 4,000 years ago, purchased the Caves of Machpela for us, his children. TheTorah states twice, specifically, exactly where this transaction occurred, when he paid 400 silver shekels (today valued at $700,000) to Efron the Hittite. That place is, the gates to the city.

Why Oslo Failed There are many specific and readily identifiable reasons for the failure of “Oslo,” a term that – though originally signifying the accords signed twenty years ago between Israel and the Palestinians – has become a commonplace shorthand for the Middle East peace process. Most obvious, perhaps, is the plainly unacceptable Palestinian insistence […]

www.geraldahonigman.com

Now, I’m not complaining, mind you…

There’s an expression, “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.” I get it. But it doesn’t make what I’m about to share with you any less aggravating.

Just within the last few weeks, while engaged in several different programs on the Middle East, I had three men come up to me with their explanation of all of the region’s woes.

All were intelligent individuals. I assessed this after long conversations with them.

Their conclusion…

It’s all Israel’s fault.

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-Ed-Contributors/Are-settlements-worth-it-329689 Conflating security and defense costs with assistance to settlements distorts reality and masks more serious economic problems. Opponents of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria (“settlements”) charge that they drain our economy, diverting funds that should be spent within the 1949 Armistice (“Green”) Lines. They accuse the government of giving settlers unwarranted discounts and […]

http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/novelists-view-world/2013/oct/24/nobody-survived-holocaust/ — We were waiting for the jitney to take us to the train station after a day and a night of gambling in Atlantic City.  I had not done too well with the horses at Caesars, but there is nothing new about this. There were a few of us standing around. The lady with […]

http://washin.st/17MiK7E

The paper’s new Egyptian columnist has repeatedly appeared on Arabic media outlets expressing the kind of circular, paranoid reasoning normally confined to fringe blogs in the United States.

Alaa Al-Aswany is Egypt’s preeminent novelist. His 2002 best-seller “The Yacoubian Building” highlighted the political corruption, moral duplicity, and economic inequality of contemporary Egypt, and established him as one of the most influential critics of Hosni Mubarak’s regime. His star grew brighter following the 2011 uprising that ousted Mubarak, when Aswany became an oft-quoted voice of the Egyptian opposition — “The Face of Egypt’s Uprising,” as the Wall Street Journal put it — and he is generally regarded in the Western press as an authentically “liberal” Egyptian intellectual. It is likely thanks to this reputation that the New York Times announced earlier this month that it was giving Aswany a monthly column as part of its newly expanded opinion section.

It is a choice that the Times will regret, however, because despite his brave stance against Mubarak and his broadly progressive pronouncements in English, Aswany is hardly a liberal. He is, in fact, among Egypt’s most prolific conspiracy theorists, and he often uses his very public platform to reinforce some of Egypt’s most popular bigotries — and he typically does this when speaking or tweeting in Arabic, which is why the Western press often misses this aspect of his public persona. Aswany said on Egyptian television, for instance, that a “massive Zionist organization rules America,” which is why “Obama is not able to go against Israel’s desires.”

Another Tack: Attracting a crowd of people It sometimes becomes downright politically and diplomatically inconvenient to tell it like it is. At such junctures creative copywriters conjure up imaginative alternatives. This was the kneejerk inclination after a Gazan bus driver slammed his vehicle on February 14, 2001 into a bus stop at the Azur junction, killing […]

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Column-one-Israels-European-challenge-329699 Only be exposing the truth behind the lies will we strengthen our European friends and so increase the possibility that our relations with Europe may improve one day. Last month, the European Union pushed European- Israeli relations to a new low. In mid-September, the IDF enforced a High Court of Justice order to destroy […]

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/the-donald-tells-a-story?f=puball Last night Donald Trump, the honoree at TAS’s annual Robert L. Bartley dinner (RLB was the legendary Wall Street Journal editorial page guru for three decades), told an anecdote that explains why governments mess up so often.  During the mayoralty of Ed Koch the city tried to renovate Wollman’s skating rink, a legendary Central […]