Boker tov, Boulder!

IDF gets Matzoh

Yeshiva World

Arutz 7 is reporting that the IDF has begun distributing 100 tons of matzos to soldiers throughout the country. Using 180 trucks, the annual operation brings traditional foods to the troops serving from the Golan Heights to the Egyptian border.

Besides the standard fare of food, the army has replaced wine with grape juice and has added fish to the menu for soldiers unable to be with their families for the traditional Seder on the first night of Passover.

Do you believe this?

What a threesome.

United States House leader Nancy Pelosi, center, and Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison stand with Israel's Deputy Premier and Nobel Laureate Shimon Peres prior to their dinner at a restaurant in Jaffa, near Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, March 31, 2007. Earlier in the day Pelosi, the leader of the U.S. House of Representatives toured Jerusalem holy sites , along with a congressional delegation that included Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress. The tour came on the delegation's first full day in Jerusalem, the first stop on their fact-finding trip to the Middle East. (AP Photo)

Maybe they'll all go to Syria together... maybe stop at Club Med Gaza on the way.

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Did ya hear the one about the two beggars?

I thought we'd ease into this new week with an old Jewish story/joke/metaphor from Chabad.org:

A Seder Story

There were once two beggars who used to go around begging together. One was Jewish and the other a gentile. As the night of Passover approached, the Jewish beggar offered to help his non-Jewish friend get invited to a seder (the festive Passover meal accompanied by many commandments and rituals) and get a good meal. "Just put on some Jewish clothes and come with me to the synagogue. Everyone brings home poor guests for the seder. It's easy, you'll see."

The non-Jewish beggar happily agreed. On the first night of Passover they went to the synagogue, and sure enough, both got invited to different homes for the festive ceremony.

Hours later they met in a predetermined place in the local park. But to the amazement of the Jewish beggar, his friend was blazing mad.

"What did you do to me?" He shouted. "You call that a meal? It was torture!! It was hell! I'll pay you back for this--you'll see..."

"What do you mean? What happened?" the Jew asked.

"What happened? As if you didn't know! You Jews are crazy--that's what happened! First we drank a glass of wine. I like wine, but on an empty stomach... My head started spinning a bit but I figured that any second we would begin the meal. The smell of the food from the kitchen was great. Then we ate a bit of parsley. Then they started talking, and talking, and talking. In Hebrew. All the time I'm smiling and nodding my head as if I understand what they're saying--like you told me to--but my head is really swimming and hurting from the wine and I'm dying of hunger.

"The smell of the food from the kitchen is making me insane, but they don't bring it out. For two hours they don't bring anything out! Just talking, and more talking. Then, just what I needed.... another cup of wine! Then we get up, wash hands, sit back down and eat this big wafer called matzah that tastes like newspaper, leaning to the left (don't ask me why...). I started choking, almost threw up. And then finally they give me this lettuce, I took a big bite and wham! My mouth was on fire. My throat! There was horseradish inside! Nothing to eat but horseradish! You guys are crazy....

"Well, I just got up and left. Enough is enough!"

"Ah, I should have told you." replied the Jew. "What a shame! After the bitter herbs is a glorious meal. You suffered so long; you should have just held out for a few more minutes...!"

The editor comments:

Jewish history is a seder. We've had our appetite teased with small moments of triumph. But mostly we've had "bread of faith" that our palates can't really appreciate. And generous helpings of bitter herbs.

The lesson? Two thoughts come to mind. You need patience to be a Jew. And since we've swallowed the maror already, we might as well hold out one minute longer and get the feast...

Riddle of the Day

Meryl Yourish has such a great sense of humor; I love how she phrases things. For example, this "Exit question" --

What can Keith Ellison do on a visit to Al-Aqsa that Joe Lieberman can’t do on a visit to the Temple Mount?

photo from the New York Times

The answer is distinctly unfunny, but I do like the way she put that question.

Shavua tov: "The right time"

97-Year-Old Woman Joins Twelve Great-Grandkids in Israel

A 97-year-old British Jew has become one of the oldest people to ever make Aliyah (immigrate to Israel). Herta Lowenthal joined her twelve great-grandchildren in Israel last week, emigrating from Britain, where she lived most of her life.

Lowenthal told the British Totally Jewish (TJ) web site that moving to Israel was the fulfillment of a life-long dream.

“My daughter made Aliyah after [she graduated] university at age 21,” she told TJ. “I’ve always wanted to go and decided it was the right time. It’s a special incentive to be there with the family.”

Prior to her Aliyah, Lowenthal visited her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren twice a year, staying in an apartment above her daughter’s home in Haifa.

Lowenthal watched the founding of the State of Israel and visited every year for most of its existence. “I’m filled with deep admiration for all the people who have built such a wonderful country out of virtually nothing,” she said.

According to the TJ report, Lowenthal’s daughter confronted her mother during the Sukkot Festival last year and told her she would have to make a decision at some point whether to live in England or Israel. “She immediately said Israel. I thought it would be nicer while she is independent, healthy and able to enjoy it,” she said.

Mazal tov to Herta!

DANGER!

I don't usually blog on Shabbes, but since there is danger involved I thought I should warn you ASAP.

From Bill Schneider, CNN Senior Political Analyst:

.... Only two Republicans in the House ... and two in the Senate ... voted to support a deadline. Other Republicans are standing with President Bush, despite public opinion. That's a dangerous thing to do in a democracy, as Republicans learned in the election last November.

So why are they doing it? For one thing, their base is with them. Most Republican voters continue to support President Bush. Republican opinion on Iraq is almost exactly the reverse of the country as a whole: By 59 percent to 34 percent, Republicans want their representative to vote against a deadline, according to the Pew poll.

This has been a public service announcement.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

Good Shabbos

Rabbi Lazer Brody:
Birkat HaIlanot ~ Blessing of the Trees

Once a year, during the Hebrew month of Nissan, we have the special mitzva of making a blessing over (at least two) blossoming fruit trees. According to Kabbala, this blessing is deeply significant, and helps correct the soul that is reincarnated within the tree. That soul is forever beholding to the person that makes the blessing, for he or she has done a great favor in helping that soul attain its tikkun, or correction.

... here is the blessing,

In English: Blessed are You, Hashem our God, King of the Universe, who let nothing lack in His universe and created within it good creatures and good trees in order to give pleasure to human beings.

In Transliteration: Baruch ata Adonoi, Eloheinu Melech ha-olam, she-lo chisar be-olamo klum v-vara vo beriyyot tovot ve-ilanot tovim lehanot bahem bnai Adam.

In Hebrew: ברוך אתה ה' אלהינו מלך העולם שלא חסר בעולמו כלום וברא בו בריות טובות ואילנות טובים להנות בהם בני אדם

A Pox on the Ivory Tower

I used to have so much respect for academia. Like many of us, I find the anarchy and fascism so prevalent on our campuses to be utterly devastating. For the moment, though, let's put aside any discussion of the implications for the future of our country, and just consider a couple of specific situations...

First, Barnard College. According to this report at Phi Beta Cons (an NRO blog that supplies "the right take on higher ed"), if one seeks the truth in the academic world, one had best remain anonymous.

*The statement of the Va’ad ha Emet (Truth Committee) was composed by scholars familiar with the fields relevant to an evaluation of Facts on the Ground (Israel Studies, archaeology of the ancient Near East, and toponymy.) They feel a need to remain anonymous because of the vituperative political climate on the campuses where some of them are employed.

The Va’ad ha-Emet feels that this statement is a useful contribution despite the anonymity of its authors, because the assertions are specific and verifiable, and, therefore, do not depend upon the reputations of the individual authors.

In other words, veritas as sine qua non.

So what's the Va'ad ha Emet statement all about? Uncovering the Truth about Nadia Abu El-Haj.

You may remember that Nadia Abu El-Haj is an assistant professor of anthropology seeking tenure at Barnard.

A graduate student at Duke University, she turned her doctoral thesis into a book: “Facts on the Ground: Archeological Practice and Territorial Self-Fashioning in Israeli Society.” One admiring reviewer (from the University of Chicago) said the book offers “an anthropology of colonialism and nationalism, which follows Foucault and Said” in which “she points to the convergence of archeology’s project with that of colonialism.” Others have not been so kind.

For this book is not really about archeology at all. Rather it is a relentless attack on how and why Israelis, Jews really, have done archaeology in the land they have the audacity to call Israel. For the past, like the present, is merely a cruel and daring fiction foisted on the world at the expense of Palestinians, a social construction, as the orotund phrase has it. Ignoring or destroying whatever got in their way, Jewish archaeologists have been relentless in their pursuit of the Jewish past to claim the land and its history for modern Israel, and of course to dispossess Palestinians and their “claim” to the past.

But El-Haj, it seems, is not really an archeologist. There is not the slightest evidence that she has ever seen the work of Israeli archeologists, ever visited a dig, ever studied the history of the development of Israeli archeology, ever inquired as to how Israeli archeologists choose the sites they do choose for digs (do they get instructions from the Jewish Agency? The ZOA? The Mossad?). She appears not to have any record of the kinds of artifacts the Israeli archeologists, often working with Western, non-Israeli and non-Jewish colleagues, have discovered, catalogued, and meticulously studied.

Albeit anonymous, the Va'ad offers a "Brief Evaluation of Methodology and Use of Evidence" in Abu El-Haj's book. They cover

• command of the Hebrew language (she has none)
• familiarity with previous scholarship ("she demonstrates no awareness")
• use of anonymous sources and unsourced assertions (she repeatedly makes assertions - "shocking, if they were true" - based on unnamed sources or no sources at all )
• slander (based on stories from unnamed sources, she conducts a "direct, personal attack" on someone who otherwise should be considered a colleague)

Their summary:

Facts on the Ground exhibits an inability to understand the language (Hebrew) of the nation that the author pretends to study, a broad failure on the part of the author to encounter the scholarly work in her field, a failure on the author’s part to understand the use of evidence, and, finally, descends to the baseless slander of a highly respected scholar.

It's obvious that this woman does not merit tenure anywhere, but those who agree with her anti-Israel sentiment are - at least temporarily - held to be more powerful than truth. And the few who still value the truth are afraid. Maybe I should have more sympathy for them, more understanding for their desire to protect their livelihoods, but as someone once said,

“If I am not for myself, then who will be for me?
And if I am only for myself, then what am I?
And if not now, when?”

Now then, Columbia. You no doubt remember the riotous behavior of students who objected to the speaking engagement of Jim Gilchrist, founder of the Minuteman Project, back in the fall.

What do you do if you don't agree with an invited speaker? Well, if you're a student at what is considered a top tier university you rush the speakers, shout so they can't speak, wave signs condemning the speakers as racist or some other evil politically correct ist while proclaiming your goodness and self righteousness and then whine, complain and whine some more if threatened with punishment for disruption.

Ethel Fenig reports at The American Thinker that these students have received their punishment. Three students

"were charged with simple violations of the University's Rules of Conduct. The resulting warnings, which will be notated on students' transcripts and remain there until the end of 2008... place no financial or academic constraints on the person[s] charged."

Wow.

Three other students - including one whose conduct placed another "in danger of bodily harm" - faced more serious charges but were given equally light "disciplinary warnings."

Read Ms. Fenig's article. I can't bear to blog this anymore (the students are gloating over their "victory").

I am convinced that if the world had cared about busloads of Jews getting blown to bits in Jerusalem, we wouldn't be facing global jihad like we see today. Likewise, if we as a society had responded appropriately when a moral giant (and visiting foreign dignitary) got a pie in the face at Rutgers back in 2003, we wouldn't see the arrogance and chutzpah of these jerks at Columbia today.

Last I heard, the moronic delinquent who attacked Israeli Minister Natan Sharansky had his degree "delayed" six months by Rutgers and was fined $200 for disorderly conduct.

And here he is, four years later, demonstrating against the war in Iraq. Why he's still on the Rutgers campus four years after graduating, I don't know.

All I do know is, he should have been expelled and or thrown in the slammer... years ago.

Rutgers University graduates Abe Greenhouse, right, and Tom Howard strike a pinata labeled "Happy Birthday Iraq War," during a demonstration against the war in Iraq on the campus of Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J., Tuesday, March 20, 2007.... (AP Photo/Mike Derer)

Condi opens mouth, inserts foot (and breaks promise)

And Rick Richman catches her in the act:

Condi's Favorite Sharon Speech

.... Under The Disengagement Deal, Sharon received an express promise from the United States that the only avenue forward after disengagement would be the dismantlement of Palestinian terrorist capabilities and infrastructure -- before any negotiations on borders, refugees, Jerusalem or any other final status issues.

Sharon would have been shocked to learn that, this past Monday, Condoleezza Rice came to Jerusalem to urge Israel to start negotiating final status issues, without insisting on either Phase I or Phase II of the Roadmap as necessary preconditions ... and cited Sharon’s “Herzliya speech” to support the disavowal of that deal.