Hamas Issues Call to War

The Telegraph reports that at least one member of the Hamas government has issued a call to war. Call me what you will but I would welcome a declared war as opposed to the existing war of attrition.

"A Palestinian minister called on his security forces to take up arms last night after Israeli tanks re-occupied a tract of northern Gaza, provoking the fiercest clashes since an Israeli soldier was seized 11 days ago.

Israeli troops killed at least 21 Palestinians as the air force launched missile strikes and tanks took up position among the Palestinian homes. One soldier was killed.

Saeed Seyam, the Palestinian interior minister and a member of the governing Hamas Party, declared a state of emergency and called on his forces to fight "this cowardly Zionist aggression". Israel has arrested a third of the Palestinian cabinet and destroyed Gaza's only power station since the seizure of Cpl Gilad Shalit on June 25."

Stop The ACLU Coalition Nonsense

In some circles it is currently considered cool to bash the ACLU and to pretend that they are a dangerous organization. These people will cite chapter and verse about all of the many ways in which they allege the ACLU is hurting America, but they rarely discuss the benefits that the organization brings or why it is advantageous to continue a system of checks and balances.

They have a very narrow definition of what civil liberties are and like to run amok like chicken little screaming about how their own are impinged upon. Oftentimes the liberties that they claim are being infringed upon are those that are constitutionally illegal.

Kesher Talk has a very important post that describes how they have gone overboard. Here is a big chunk of that post.

"Once in a while I am reminded of why I insist on calling myself a liberal hawk. I mean "classical liberal values", which is increasingly not what "liberal" means anymore, and why I am no longer a member of the ACLU. I support their original mission (just as I supported Amnesty International's original mission), but every organization is susceptible to mission creep and bias.

But, while some conservatives also believe in a strict interpretation of the Establishment Clause, on this issue the label "liberal" still fits me the best, and here I make common cause with many fellow Jews with whom I disagree on the Iraq War, the 2nd Amendment, and many other issues.

The Stop the ACLU Coalition exemplifies the kind of conservative who makes me call myself a liberal. Its latest project is called "Expose the ACLU Plaintiff," and yes, it's just what you think it is.

When an individual, group or even church (yes, there are churches that support the ACLU) is using the ACLU (or similar groups like Americans United, People for the (Anti) American Way, Freedom from Religion Foundation and American Atheists) to facilitate removal of a cross, the 10 Commandments or other religious symbols or the ceasing of prayer from a school or government entity, we want the community to know about it.

The proud first use of this campaign, on March 6th of this year, was to harass the Dobrich family, formerly of Indian River, DE. The Dobriches moved to Wilmington to escape threats from their neighbors, because they were one of two families (the other choosing anonymity) to challenge pervasive bias at their children's school. (More background here.) Patriot Boy - among many bloggers who jumped on this story - has a screen shot of the original post. (Scroll down to the middle of Patriot Boy's post.)

(Here's the current page. The proprietor Nedd Kareiva says he made "some minor corrections" to the page (i.e. removing the Dobrich family's street address and phone number) "not as a direct result of your e-mails but because I believe it was the right thing to do. However, there will be no more changes.")

Other bloggers who don't show the best face of conservatism are rallying around Nedd. Jay of the Stop the ACLU blog wants you to know that it is a separate entity from the Stop the ACLU Coalition. But he doesn't disapprove of Nedd's campaign:

. . . we reject any and all race/religion/ethnicity-based personal attacks on anyone, with special protection due children. Second, we reject physical violence on individuals and incitement of the same.

But he doesn't reject the tactic of revealing people's personal information; about Nedd in particular he only says:

We support each others main cause of exposing the dangerous agenda of the ACLU, but obviously use different methods. I can’t control what Nedd does, and he doesn’t control what I do."

Sometimes logic escapes them.

Evolution of Kitchen Part 278

The evolution of a kitchen. Part one can be found here.

The range is going to be located on the wall on the left. See picture below.

The wood is covering what will be a 4x4 bay window overlooking the kitchen sink.

Change is in the air

There is all sorts of stuff going on around here. More on this later.

Formatting Issues

Well something I tried to do to this blog didn't agree with it and now it appears that many if not all of my posts have lost some of their formatting. Paragraphs have disappeared and all you see are chunks of text.

UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am working on a fix that I hope will take care of this but I am not sure that it will work. I dread the idea of having to go through and do it all by hand. ARGGGGHH!

A Year Later

Virtually a year ago we watched scenes like the one in the video below with great trepidation and a lot of hope. The fervent desire and prayer that the pain of disengagement would lead to something greater and better.



Today I offer my thoughts and well wishes to Gilad Shalit and his family as well as to all who fight on his and our behalf.

A safe return to your home and our thanks for your service. May we all be witnesses to a better time and place. We should live long enough to see a time in which our children wonder why it took so long for peace to come.

Because They Can't Steal Our Kids

Daniel Gordis has an exceptionally powerful dispatch. Read this selection and then read the whole thing. Emphasis in bold is mine.

"And then, I was driving down Hebron Road, a main drag in our part of town, and I stopped at a red light. It’s been hot this week, so all the cars had their windows closed and the air conditioning on. There was another car in the lane to my left, and one to the right. The newscaster (for who wasn’t tuned to the news?) announced that that Gilad’s parents had written him a letter and had made it public. He then read the text (the translation is mine, but the Hebrew original is posted):

“To our dear, sweet Gilad,

Mommy and Daddy, Yoel and Hadas, are terribly worried about you, want to hear you, and hope that you are healthy and that you feel OK, as well as you can in your circumstances. We hope that you will be able to read these words, and we want you to know that all possible steps are being taken so that you can return home to Hila and the Galilee, as quickly as possible, to your family, and to your room that is waiting for you….

Know that we are thinking of you at every moment, [hoping] that you are somehow managing, and that you will make it through these difficult moments. We know and believe that the people holding you also have families, and will know what it is that we are enduring, and will know how to take care of you and [safeguard] your health.

We love you and send you strength.

Mommy and Daddy”

As the newscaster finished reading the letter, I happened to glanced out the windows of my car. Both drivers to my side, one a man in his fifties and one a woman in her late twenties, were wiping tears from their eyes. The windows didn’t need to be open to know what they’d been hearing.

And then, what had been rumors of a second kidnapping proved true. On the West Bank, the PRC claimed to be holding Eliyahu Asheri. An eighteen year old kid, now in the hands of animals, for the crime of hitchhiking. His picture, too, went up on all the websites (and is also posted). Another big child. Wearing a t-shirt, sitting under a tree. With a wide smile. And a numb country didn’t know what to do. (Eliyahu, of course, was shot in the head the day they kidnapped him, and was buried yesterday. Another reminder of who our neighbors are.)

In the meantime, the IDF was amassing tanks, APC’s and artillery along the border, just minutes away from the high school that I’d visited in November. The enormous array of armor was a relief, at least to people here. Because they can’t steal our kids and think that we’re simply going to let it go on. Then, a few nights ago, the movement into Gaza began. Now, days later, the campaign still goes on. We’ve bombed here and there, have taken out much of their electric power, destroyed some bridges, sealed Gaza tight, buzzed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad summer home with four F-16’s. But still, no Gilad. So the IDF arrested dozens of members of the Hamas government. And still, no Gilad.

The rest of the world thinks we’re looking for a kidnapped soldier, so they don’t really get this massive reaction. The EU’s beginning to express concern. Bombing bridges was OK, but arresting the members of Hamas’ parliament, they think, is a bit over the top. Buzzing Assad’s palace, we’re told, was provocative. Maybe.

The reason they don’t get it is that they think we’re looking for a soldier. But we’re not. We’re looking for Gilad. Everyone I hear talking about it calls him by name. Never “the soldier.” Always Gilad. Our cell phones are buzzing with text messages reminding us to say a Psalm for him. Email in-boxes are filling with the same reminder, and even include the text of the Psalm, so you can say it right when you open the e-mail. And then, you’re supposed to forward it.

For the past several mornings, as our kids have woken up, the very first words out of their mouths have been “Did we find him?” They just have to look at us to know the answer. Not yet. The unbearable week drags on.

The international press is abuzz with the accounts of what Israel’s troops are up to. It’s an interesting word, that term “troops.” One of them (though not one who’s in Gaza) has a bedroom across the hall from ours. She got some mail the other day, but she was away in the army, so I walked upstairs to leave it for her. To the left of her desk was her knapsack, which, for some reason, she hadn’t taken with her back to the base. Draped over the chair behind her desk, a shirt from her uniform. And on her bed, her stuffed animal, Curious George, or “Curious” as we’ve all called him since he joined the family the week she was born nineteen years ago.

The combination of her uniform shirt draped over the chair, and Curious lying there all alone, almost as if he was waiting for her to come home – especially this week – was simply too much. I just needed to get out of her room. So I put the mail on her desk, gave Curious a last glance, left the room and firmly shut the door. "