Weekly Israeli Poll Avg: Likud-Beteinu at 38; Labor at 22; Right would earn 69 total seats.

Posted on: November 11th, 2012

This week’s average shows Likud Beitenu and Labor position similar to last week. Shas gains and takes the third position while Lapid’s Yesh Atid drops and falls into the fourth position. Hadash passes Meretz, while Kadima and Independence pick up gains. Am Shalem is also picking up steam. The right block gains ground this week with the help of Shas and Am Shalem’s gains.

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It’s Raining Rockets Again

Posted on: November 11th, 2012

I have to much I want to write about...but my mind is filled with two numbers - 30, and 9. Thirty is the number of rockets fired at Israel last night, hours after an Israel armored jeep was hit with an anti-tank missile, critically injuring two, lightly injuring two other soldiers. Nine is the number of rockets that had been fired at Israel by 9:00 this morning...schools in some areas are closed; people again ordered to stay near shelters.

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Haredim Throw Rocks, Eggs, at ‘Abomination Apartment’

Posted on: November 11th, 2012

Pashkvils (warning posters) were spread around the neighborhood, criticizing women wearing tight clothes, calling them "animals." According to the website Hadrei Haredim, the woman in question is being accused of luring young Haredi women to her path.

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The Ant-Churchill Tries to Rise Again

Posted on: November 9th, 2012

Could there be an Israeli politician more cynical than Ehud Olmert? Yesterday he accused PM Netanyahu of alienating President Obama — as if Obama could dislike him more — by ‘intervening’ in the US election.

I Love Hevron

Posted on: November 9th, 2012

As part of our effort to attract our beloved, Diaspora readers with honey, rather than to smash them repeatedly over their heads - in the next few blogs, we will travel the length and breadth of Eretz Yisrael, just like our forefather Avraham did in obeying God’s command, “Arise, walk about the Land through its length and breadth! For to you I will give it!”

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Three Things to Do Before Meeting Your Financial Planner

Posted on: November 9th, 2012

Did you know that the most important part of a financial planning meeting occurs even before you set foot inside your financial adviser’s office? Before you meet for the first time, you need to do your homework. Even the most professional adviser can’t help you if you haven’t done these three things.

Can an Orthodox Jewish Woman Have it All?

Posted on: November 8th, 2012

As I began reading an article in the Forward by Aurora Mendelsohn about whether a Jewish woman can have it all (meaning a career and an observant family) I received a call from my daughter about an article in the Chicago Tribune about one woman who does have it all.

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Orders are Orders

Posted on: November 8th, 2012

For many Israelis, the Presidential election in America had a special urgency because of the increasing nuclear threat from Iran, and the hope that Romney would take a more militant stance than Obama. I wrote a short story on the tragedy of looking to America for our salvation, which appears in my award-winner collection of short stories, “Days of Mashiach,” which was translated and published in France this year by a non-Jewish publisher, with reviewers comparing me to Voltaire and the famous fable writer, Jean de la Fontaine. Big deal. Anyway, enjoy the story, and for readers who value true Jewish literature, I invite you to check out some of my other books at Amazon.

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Abbas Announces 10-Month Moratorium on Jew-Hatred (Satire)

Posted on: November 8th, 2012

Imagine if Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced a 10-month partial freeze on incitement and antisemitism in the West Bank in a bid to restart stalled peace talks with Israel.

Jewish Support for Obama Not Mystifying

Posted on: November 8th, 2012

Somewhere between 68 and 70% of American Jewish voters went for Obama, depending on whose exit poll you believe. Israelis that I talk to are mystified. “Are they crazy? What were they thinking?” they ask. It’s not really mystifying. Here are some general facts about non-Orthodox and secular (the large majority) American Jews.

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When Palestinians Blow Themselves Up, Before Reaching Israel

Posted on: November 8th, 2012

Since we believe Palestinian Arab casualties that result from Palestinian Arab mis-handling or misfiring of Palestinian Arab explosives, guns, rockets, mortars and the like almost never get reported in the mainstream news media, we will be watching to see how much coverage this incident below gets. It appears at this moment on a Bethlehem-based (and somewhat Hamas-hostile) Palestinian news site.

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Are You Thinking Clearly? (Podcast Part II)

Posted on: November 8th, 2012

How do you make the important decisions of your life, such as what to study or where to invest your money? Is there a mathematical strategy to thinking clearly? On this week’s Goldstein on Gelt show, Professor Michael Starbird, professor of mathematics and author of “The Five Elements of Effective Thinking,” talks about how we make decisions and how to think clearly.

Four More Years

Posted on: November 7th, 2012

Once again I find myself congratulating the man I did not vote for. Barack Obama has been re-elected for a 2nd term as President of the United States. As I said in my endorsement of his opponent, the President is a good and decent man. I don’t think he has been a bad President. He just hasn’t been a great President.

No! No! Don’t Rebuild Galut!

Posted on: November 7th, 2012

I know that I promised to lay the sledgehammer aside for awhile, but a few of yesterday’s news items made me batty. In one of them, the UJA-Federation of New York announced it was earmarking ten million dollars in emergency hurricane relief to its local network agencies and synagogues. Chevre! Chaval al hakesev!

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Arabs Sending Children to Provoke and Be Killed by Israeli Soldiers

Posted on: November 7th, 2012

Placing innocent Palestinian children in potentially dangerous situations, cynically hoping for a media coup stemming from any overreaction by IDF soldiers, is indeed shameful. However, such provocations by the Tamimis pale in comparison to an antisemitic Palestinian political culture which consistently sends messages to their youth that martyrdom – dying, or even murdering Israeli Jews, to advance the Palestinian cause – is one of the most important political values they should aspire to.

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Killed for Complaining About Graffiti

Posted on: November 7th, 2012

In Los Angeles, gang members have begun targeting residents who complain about "tagging."

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So Now What?

Posted on: November 7th, 2012

There it is: four more years of Barack Obama. What does it mean for Israel? The bilateral talks with Iran run by Valerie Jarrett will continue. One can hope for the best, but it is very unlikely that an agreement will be reached that will include the effective dismantling of Iran’s bomb-building capability. It’s not at all comforting to think that Israel’s security will be in the hands of Jarrett, Obama’s Chicago fixer. One can speculate what Romney might have done differently, but that is not an option now.

America Has Spoken

Posted on: November 7th, 2012

America has spoken. Obama has been given and has claimed his victory. America will get the government and the leaders it elected and cannot now cry over the results that will come in the next four years. Some of us can and do regret the results, but we will live with them, no weaker than we were yesterday, no less aware of what this so-called victory will mean for Israel and for the US.

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Next Year in Jerusalem: Obama Wins Second Term

Posted on: November 7th, 2012

It's been said that if Obama wins, that would be a big push for Aliyah. I'm not sure how that works out considering the fact that 70% of Jews who voted, voted for Obama. I guess it's that 30% that might be considering their options.

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Ha’aretz’s Good News Poll

Posted on: November 6th, 2012

Can we trust Haaretz reporting on polls? After Eldar and Levy on those "apartheid" stories? Here's the latest, "For the right man, Israelis would make peace" which makes the claim that "The consensus is moving to the right, but that doesn't mean Israeli Jews won't support a deal with the PA if the right leader comes along, a new study shows."

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