Weekly archaeological finds are incontrovertible evidence of the Jewish connection to this land. Now it’s in the footsteps of King David to the fortified city of Sha’arayim, in the Valley of Elah where David fought Goliath, as described in the book of Samuel. The Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem has mounted an outstanding exhibition of artifacts from that location that shook the academic world. See it with Walter who paints pictures in sound.

How: The Arabs try to destroy all evidence of the Jewish connection with Temple Mount, by illegally digging there and tipping everything into Arab Landfills.

Plus: The real Chabad Lubavitch. An insight into their philosophy and achievements. Walter talks with the Chairman and Managing Director of this extraordinary Chasidic movement Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky.

The Walter Bingham File 18Sept.2016 – PODCAST

It’s been 15 years now after the 9-11 attack on the United States. Where is the World now, in the course of history? Are we safer now than we were then? And if not, why? What mistakes is the world making in quelling the terror?

Tamar speaks with Shifra Hoffman of VictimsOfArabTerror.org and Shuva.net as they cover the news in Israel and around the world. Also, INTR’s Technician ‘The K-Man’ has returned from a trip to Sweden. Tamar talks to him about traveling on the 15th anniversary of the 9-11 attacks. Plus, listeners call in and give their take on the security situation of the world today.

The Tamar Yonah Show 11Sept2016 – PODCAST

{Originally posted to the author’s blogsite, Emet m’Tsiyon}

One of my favorite Disney theme park rides and songs is definitely “It´s a Small World,” with its colorful twirling dolls and sweet lyrics respectively. I always found the combination to be very relaxing and uplifting at one and the same time.

While on the subject of a few of my favorite things, another of my best-loved pastimes is the wonderful series of Small Miracles books that I have read and reread multiple times over the years. And among the stories I most enjoyed are the dating and marriage tales where the Divine hand is clearly visible. I vividly remember one in which the spouses somehow appear in each other’s photos years before they actually meet, and another in which the couple’s paths cross at a holy site designated for praying for one’s mate.

So I feel especially blessed that I have experienced both the small world phenomenon and the pre-destined shidduch reality, all in one obviously bashert bit of matchmaking.

Being that we moved 15 times over the course of the first 30 years of our marriage, it should come as no surprise that we have met quite a few people of all stripes in various cities and countries across the globe. My husband, especially, regularly bumps into students he has taught in his many decades of chinuch, as well as teachers who have taught for him in his seventeen years of being a school principal.

So it was far from shocking when he discovered that a rebbe/assistant principal who had worked with him for several years a couple of decades ago now resides in our very same Anglo neighborhood in the Holy Land. In fact, my husband was honored to receive a kibud at that rebbe’s son´s bris in a local shul shortly after we arrived.

Whenever the two of them meet, they routinely exchange warm greetings and catch each other up on their respective family’s latest developments.

That is how they recently found out that each of them had a child in the parsha – we a 22-year-old-son and they a 20-year-old daughter. A cute piece of trivia, but not all that unusual.

Months later, however, when the kids´ names had already been redt to each other a few times by a number of shadchanim, they decided that they may as well give it a shot.

The rest, as they say, is history.

We already knew that her Dad had taught for ours, and that a couple of our older children had been his students. Likewise, we still remembered a sampling of anecdotes from those years that illustrated what a chevra-man he was. And my husband recalled him as being a born educator, unfortunately an all-too-rare breed.

What we did not remember was that this particular daughter was the only one of their seven children to be born in that city during the time that her father taught there. And that yours truly prepared a full-course dinner for her family to welcome her into the world (and presumably to help the new mother at the same time). That, to my mind, is a classic example of ¨Shlach lachmecha al pnei hamayim…¨ (Cast your bread upon the waters…) in a most literal sense. In exchange for a postpartum meal, we ended up with a new daughter-in-law some 20 years later! Quite a return on our investment, to say the least.

The other bonus is that all the parents already knew and liked their prospective mechutanim, and the shidduch fit like a comfortable leather glove.

Incredibly, both families later came across long-forgotten pictures of the other in their photo albums (echoes of Small Miracles): One of our Abba holding the new baby at the aforementioned bris of the kallah´s younger brother, and a couple of the kallah´s siblings, proudly dressed in their Purim costumes, featured in their former principal’s collection. And no doubt there are other similar proofs of ongoing yad Hashem moments yet to be discovered.

Seventy-one  years ago this past Saturday, August 6, the world changed. With the dropping of one bomb mankind had finally found a weapon that could wipe out the entire population, literally at once.

The United States had been working on developing an atomic weapon, after having been warned by Albert Einstein that Nazi Germany was already conducting research into nuclear weapons. By the time the United States conducted the first successful test (July 1945), Germany had already been defeated. The war against Japan was still being fought.

President Harry S. Truman was warned his advisers that any attempt to invade Japan would result in a horrific number of deaths–up to a million. So he ordered that the new weapon be used to bring the war to a speedy end.

On August 6, 1945, the American bomber Enola Gay dropped a five-ton bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. A blast equivalent to the power of 15,000 tons of TNT reduced five square miles of the city to ruins and immediately killed 80,000 people. Tens of thousands more died in the following weeks from wounds and radiation poisoning.

On August 9th, three days later another bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki, killing nearly 40,000 more people.

A few days later, Japan finally announced its surrender.

Lately there has been much revisionist history about the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Some say that Japan was poised to surrender before these horrible weapons were dropped, that Truman did not have to use the Atomic Bomb. If this was the case no one told Truman– no one told the Japanese Emperor either.
At noon on August 15, 1945, the Emperor of Japan announced Japan’s surrender over the radio. This was the first time in history the people of Japan had ever heard their Emperor’s voice. He blamed the surrender on the horrible new weapon.

The enemy, moreover, has begun to employ a new most cruel bomb, the power which to do damage is indeed incalculable, taking toll of many innocent lives. Should we continue to fight, it would only result in the ultimate collapse and obliteration of the Japanese nation . . . but would lead also to the total extinction of human civilization. Such being the case, how are we to save millions of our subjects, or ourselves, to atone before the hallowed spirits of our Imperial ancestors? This is the reason we have ordered the acceptance of the provisions of the joint declaration of the Powers.

Soon after the US developed their atomic bomb others developed the weapon. In 1949 the world was horrified as Soviet Russia tested an atomic weapon. The world settled into what eventually became known as mutually assured destruction (MAT). No nation wanted to use nuclear weapons because any first strike could be answered with an equally destructive response.

Over seven decades later there are nine countries that have gone nuclear. Along with the U.S. there is Russia, United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea, and Israel (although officially Israel will not say whether or not they have nuclear weapons). Beyond those we know that Iran is close to the weapon, and since the P5+1 deal was announced, Saudi Arabia has been shopping for the technology.

The use of the atomic bomb to end WWII was as horrible as it was necessary. Two bombs ended up killing over two hundred thousand people, wounding countless others (and that doesn’t even include the birth defects) but it was still much less than what a land invasion would have caused.

By seeing the destruction, the repugnant human devastation of this weapon mankind may have worked even harder never to use it again. Thankfully in the seventy one years since, no country has dared to use these horrific weapons whose killing power has been refined and expanded.  But that may change as Iran whose leaders see a nuclear holocaust as a way to bring the Muslim version of the messiah, moves toward the bomb which it may use itself or share with its terrorist partners. Sadly the Obama administration seems to naive to stop that from happening.

No nation knows sorrow like the Jewish Nation. No people has suffered like the Jewish People. No god has been slandered and defamed throughout history like the God of the Jews.

Yet not only did the Jews endure; we thrived and prospered. Each time a new enemy arose to cut us down, like a plant pruned for new growth, we blossomed anew. There was suffering; there was sorrow. The “cup” of Jewish tears truly overflows, but we hold fast and firm. Eternal People that we are, we persevere.

Yet this last month in Israel was crushing. In a frenzy of hatred, thirteen-year-old Hallel Ariel was brutally stabbed to death in her bed in Kiryat Arba. Shortly after, in the latest horror in the two-hundred-year old Arab crusade against the Jewish people in the Holy Land, the beloved Mark family from Otniel were gunned down in their car. Both Hallel and Rabbi Mark were added to a long list of Jews killed al Kiddush Hashem.

Rabbi Mark’s wife Chavi was hurt badly; two of their ten children were wounded. Chavi survived but has a long haul in front of her. (Please continue to daven for Chava Rachel bat Ayelet Hashachar.) The children are, baruch Hashem, not in danger. Shuki Gilboa, a security man who fought the terrorist that killed Hallel, lost an eye but has finally been released from the hospital.

People learn to deal with tragedy. They live through natural disasters, terrible as they may be. They pick up the pieces as best they can and go on with life. We in Israel are “used to” hatred and violence, but we are not immune. Each additional disaster wreaks havoc anew. We find ourselves shuffling the confusing pieces in the puzzle of life, trying to keep our emunah intact and our belief in an All-Powerful, Benevolent God alive and in good condition. We want to serve Him with love and joy. But who can wholly eliminate the niggling thoughts…? How can God allow this to happen to such wonderful people? Is a child not safe in her bed? Can a family not travel safely on the roads? Are we to forever be a lamb among the wolves? After suffering through the Holocaust, have we not suffered enough? When will we finally sit peacefully, each family under its vine and fig tree? Are we not yet entitled to greet Mashiach? What unsettling thoughts! Yet our Father in Heaven knows that we, His children, are seeking His support and understanding.

Jews are rachmanim bnei rachmanim. We are instinctively merciful – often (and often foolishly!) even to our enemies. When confronted with grief or misfortune, we immediately sigh, empathize and try to mitigate the suffering. Unfortunately, today, when the world seems engulfed in hatred, violence and angst, we have countless opportunities to sympathize. Nonetheless, there is a limit to how much suffering one can carry in one’s heart.

This is why I rarely get excited about events in Libya, Turkey, England or Iraq. Or America. Fifty years in Israel have given me enough to think about without trying to solve Uncle Sam’s problems. (Is there still an Uncle Sam?) I wish my American friends and relatives well and I pray for the welfare of the United States. That’s the most I can do, so I sigh and move on. The bulk of my energies are reserved for problems closer to home.

Nonetheless, this past year, America has filled my mind, my heart and my computer screen. As I follow the unbelievable election news I can only pray that God has some undreamed of surprise up His sleeve, so to speak – that Americans will not be forced to choose between what the media has dubbed “the election between the Clown or the Crook.” I mourn for the great ideal and country that America was… and could be.

The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, Maj. Gen. Yoav (Poly) Mordechai, expressed sharp criticism in his meeting Thursday evening with senior staff of World Vision, who are currently in Israel. The Coordinator conveyed the need for the organization to publicly condemn the incident and assume responsibility immediately.

The Coordinator presented to the organization the findings and confession from Mohammed El Halbi’s interrogation regarding his exploitation of the organization’s donations for Hamas’s military wing. The WV representatives emphasized that it renounces any support, direct or indirect, for Hamas, and intends to operate transparently and in coordination with COGAT, as required.

But World Vision Australia chief executive Tim Costello told the Guardian Thursday that his charity was “mystified” by the charges, because independent audits had found the charity’s programs in Palestine were “clean.”

Costello told Guardian Australia: “I want to reassure Australians that World Vision’s money in Gaza is being spent on reducing poverty for Palestinian people, not terrorism.”