Blog/January 2009/Jan 9th

January 9th (See this week's devar torah)
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Hi again!

This week we started with the news that Israel had commenced shelling the Gazan terrorists, in preparation for ground operations against them. This was both welcome and frightening news -- welcome, because without ground ops it would be difficult to extract Hamas from Gaza, and frightening because of the cost in lives of our soldiers, as we attempt to be the "fairest" army ever to exist.

It was a week where we gave a lot of thought to matters of war and peace; hoping for the latter while prosecuting the former. The necessity of war is made clear when one realizes what sort of people our enemies are. People who educate their children that Jews are apes and pigs; where cynical use of cartoon characters is used to instill virulent hatred. People who fire missiles from within UN schools, and then cry "foul!" when Israel finally responds. People who cynically and deliberately use their own people as "human shields". The world community only sees fit to condemn Israel - as if they can delay the day of reckoning with Islam by siding with the "religion of peace" in its unholy war - without even having the decency to be embarrassed about lecturing us about "moral behavior".

Despite the fact that most of the Arabs in Judea and Samaria are not joining their "brothers" in Gaza, there are some too close to home, who think otherwise. May they be obliterated soon!

And now for something completely different. You Seattle-dwellers, who have suffered with heavy snow and a dingleberry mayor, might appreciate this ode to the snow, meant to be delivered to the rhythm of A Christmas Carol.

You who have known me for years, and know about my anti-Microsoft inclinations, have often chided me for it. Well, once again I am proven correct! Microsoft is not only evil, they are amazingly incompetent as well. And yet, he gains on us ...

We had a bunch more experience with the Israeli medical system this week. Esther had an exam to do, so on the fast day (10 tevet) we went to the specialist's office. The appointment was at 8, and we made sure to be there on time. He didn't show up until 9:20. OK, he's busy ... then she had a 20 minute procedure; after which we waited three and a half hours for him to release her from the hospital. She could have left half an hour afterwards. However: she got her medical results immediately, in hand, before we left the hospital. Likewise, Sarah had an exam this week and within a day or two we had all the results from the tests. I really like getting the test results immediately. The most difficult part of Esther's procedure was waiting afterwards, listening to a fellow patient tell us all about her (extremely long) list of maladies. I mean, we were there over three hours ...

Anyway, given that the nations of the world won't protect us, and our enemies have sworn to kill us wherever we are, maybe now would be a good time for you to give serious thought to coming home to the only place in the world where a Jew can live a completely Jewish life. All things considered, it's the best place on Earth for a Jew to be.

Until next week,
Shabbat shalom!

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