Focus on Israel/Dov Gilor

Few countries in the world have the concern for its citizens that Israel has.

The new Sanhedrin first met in Tiberius because it was foretold that it would be renewed there and would be relocated to Jerusalem.

I recently read a background story about presidential candidate Barack Hussein Obama online in the New York Times, and I seriously began to worry.

Last week Israel remembered the Holocaust but received a rude reminder that its immigration policy admits many non-Jews into Israel.

Last week, I raised my hand holding my little red voting card and voted myself out of office.

Olim in those days left behind all their friends and much of their family, and, unlike today, found it expensive and difficult to be in contact with them.

In Israel, when a politician wants to label the start of a process, he often uses the concept ". . . first!"

We created an organization of former Bnei Akiva of North America members who have fulfilled the dream of living in Eretz Yisrael.

By the time you read this article, Arafat will have died, and many will say good riddance.

We have now lived in Israel for more years than we lived in the USA, and our joy in living in Israel knows no bounds. We are living in our homeland with our people. We loved America and are proud to be American citizens, but Israel is our home. We strive each day to keep our focus on the wonderful things that life in Israel offers. We are happy that Israel and the USA are allies and help each other. Unfortunately, we are often upset and concerned by the political situation and by the attitude of the world to the Jews.

It really is time for painful sacrifices for peace. No one wants his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren to suffer the pangs of war and strife. It is time to end the strife and make peace in the Middle East.

Is it true that creatures from outer space visited New Mexico and that the U.S. government suppressed the story to avoid worldwide panic?

I am often amazed by the reaction of world governments to the bullying tactics of the Muslim world.

Do you understand the daily rocket attacks against Sderot, Israel?

Israel Independence Day is a national holiday in Israel. This year it falls on Tuesday, April 20th and is celebrated either publicly or within the family circle. The ceremonies begin eight days earlier with Holocaust Memorial Day. One week later, we commemorate Israel's fallen soldiers and terror victims on Memorial Day. As the sun sets, the national flag is raised from half-mast, the music begins to play, and the festivities begin in honor of Israel's 62nd anniversary.

Part I of this series introduced the 6,000-mile driving tour to the Canadian Rockies that my wife, Barbara, and I took in the van driven by my brother, Avi, and our sister-in-law, Martha.

The cleansing of Europe of its non-Muslim population will be accomplished in another two or three generations.

Israel is celebrating 40 years since the reunification of our holiest city, Jerusalem, and the miraculous victory of the 1967 Six-Day War.

When Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak attempted to break the link between the Har Bracha Hesder Yeshiva and the IDF (Israel Defense Forces), few of us were surprised. Ehud Barak is the head of the Labor Party who seems to be using this anti-religious "weapon" in order to make a political comeback for his failing leftist party. His anti-religious position is well known, and his attempt to discredit Rabbi Eliezer Melamed and the Hesder Yeshiva movement is not unexpected. In the past, other politicians have used their opposition to religion to improve their political status, and Barak knows that he and his party are falling apart.

We in Israel need Nefesh B'Nefesh. Every time this organization brings in another planeload of olim, the welcome is so uplifting, the arrival is so exciting, the emotional high is so stimulating, that several old-timers go to the airport ceremonies just to be reminded how important American and Canadian aliyah is.

The Israeli elections are over. New Knesset members have been sworn in. Ehud Olmert resigned several weeks ago, and his party will not form the new government. Despite all this, Ehud Olmert is still the Prime Minister of Israel!

There was a time in Israel when any yarmulka was a negative factor in attaining a senior position in a company. When I first arrived in Israel some 38 years ago, the situation for senior religious employees very much reminded me of my days in America when I was looking for a computer job 42 years ago in New York City.

As Israelis suffer the stress of disengagement and the beginning of the dismemberment of the Jewish homeland, it is still important for American religious Jewish families to come on Aliyah.

In the 1940's and 1950's, many young American Jews were brought up with the twin goals of living in Eretz Yisrael and replacing the lost Jews murdered in the Holocaust.

I am not sure if many readers understand the severity of a young soldier's life during periods of conflict.

Renana and Jay (Yaakov) Wolff made Aliyah in 1993 from Oak Park, Michigan, where they were serving as the Bnei Akiva internal emissaries (young couples who, prior to leaving to live in Israel, serve in towns that do not have a large Jewish college presence).

There seems to be a whole group of people who have little or no knowledge of early aliyah from America, but who insist on making ridiculous statements about us.

Have you noticed that some problems just won't go away?

Today is a very special day; it is the fourth day of Chol HaMoed Sukkot; it is the first day of the end of the building freeze in our community. Will the freeze end or will the cute trick of the Arabs work? They demanded a 10-month building freeze in Judea and Samaria, and then they waited nine months before they decided to sit down to start negotiations with Israel. When they finally did sit down, the first declaration of the Arabs was that the freeze must continue. The world leaders promptly agreed and declared that it is only right that if the Arabs finally agreed to negotiate, Israel should freeze building in Judea and Samaria. "How could we evil Israelis start building again when the Arabs so graciously agreed to talk to us?"

I remember my first visit to Israel in 1956. I was attending the first American Bnei Akiva Hachshara training program in Israel.