Yom Hamishi, Thursday

So while the Western press focuses on Arafat's saying there may be a "hunda" or truce, at the same time, in typical Arafat fashion, he was sending homicide maniac bombers into Israel. Here's information about yesterday's olive branch from Arafat and his Tanzim activists:

Suicide bombing suspects nabbed in Kafr Qasem

By Amos Harel, Roni Singer and Yair Ettinger

A terrorist attack was foiled yesterday morning when a large explosive charge was found and diffused in Kafr Qasem. Police captured two 21-year-old Tanzim activists from Nablus - a suicide bomber who brought the explosives and his guide.

The bomber had intended to blow himself up in the crowded Petah Tikva market, which could have caused many casualties, police sources said. The two suspects, both members of the Tanzim's Al Aqsa
Brigades, were caught due to accurate intelligence information. Defense establishment sources expressed concern over the fact that the bomb was made of standard explosives, which cause much greater damage
than nonstandard explosives.

"It is not difficult to guess what the results of this bombing would have been had the bomber reached his destination," a senior security source said.

The bomb was discovered a few hours after a high alert was declared, following the Shin Bet's
tip to the police at about 7:30 A.M. that two terrorists had entered Israel in the area of
Petah Tikva, Rosh Ha'ayin and Kafr Qasem.

Large police and border police forces started combing the area, accompanied by a police
helicopter. Police road blocks caused huge traffic jams in the entire region.

"The intel was very detailed, so we knew we were looking for a large, young man wearing shorts
and a black shirt with yellow sleeves," Chief Superintendent Eretz Yefet said.

Yefet and his men drove around Kafr Qasem in jeeps. At the fourth square on the main street,
they turned right and went into a small street. "Suddenly we saw on the left a large man with
shorts and a black and yellow shirt, walking peacefully with a backpack. In fact, he looked
like a north Tel Avivian on the way to the beach. We suspected he might be our man and
apprehended him, believing he was carrying the explosive," Yefet said.

The police took the bag away from the suspect, searched him and found two batteries. "Then we
realized something was wrong. We made him open his bag and, to our surprise, he did so
readily, showing us that there were only clothes inside. But, at the same time, some of
us found another bag, of blue cloth, hidden nearby between a garbage container and a pole,"
Yefet said.

When the policemen told him to open the second bag, the suspect adamantly refused, saying it
belonged to a friend, who apparently fled as soon as he saw the police jeep approaching.

"We insisted and pressured him to open it. He remained calm but refused to touch the bag,"
Yefet said.

While the policemen waited for the sappers to
arrive, the second suspect was arrested nearby.
The first suspect admitted at the beginning of
his interrogation by the Shin Bet and the
police that he was the suicide bomber.

The sappers exploded the blue bag a little after 10 A.M. and the sound of the explosion was
heard over a great distance.

The two suspects apparently did not receive any help from Kafr Qasem. The investigation also
indicates that the suicide bomber brought the explosives from the territories.

The explosion formed a large crater, about a meter deep, by the roadside. It damaged the
road and nearby houses, shattering windows and doors and tearing out shutters.

A number of Kafr Qasem residents complained yesterday that the police did not bother to
evacuate people from their homes before blowing up the bomb. They said many of their homes and
cars were damaged.

The residents were not surprised by the suicide
bomber's entrance to the seam-line township.
"It's no problem to get here, they come by
foot. The passage from the territories is
open," complained council head Sami Isa. He was
referring also to other residents of the
territories, who have been entering the
township freely and increasing the crime rate,
according to police.

Many residents complain of beggars and vendors
from the territories, whom they regard as a
nuisance.

Kafr Qasem's security chief, Ali Badir, heads a
volunteer force that is trying to get rid of
Palestinians from the territories. Badir said
dozens of residents asked him yesterday to
speed up setting up a local civil guard to stop
the Palestinians from entering.

Fatah was considered until now less advanced in
dealing with explosives, compared to Islamic
organizations, and the use of standard
explosives surprised the defense establishment.
Defense sources said the bomb may have been
provided by Hamas or Jihad, noting that
activists of various organizations sometimes
arrange a suicide bombing jointly.

Yom Revii, Wednesday

Boker tov m'Los Angeles. Today on the front page of the LA Times was a picture of blindfolded and handcuffed suspects from the West Bank being marched in front of an IDF army vehicle with a big red star of David. On the front page of the NY Times, a similar picture was run, but from a distance, and without the star. To the uneducated reader, this would look like another example of Israel's capricious behavior on the West Bank. Most people, however, will not read this story from today's Jerusalem Post (kol ha kavod to the Border Police who once again have saved dozens of lives):

Bombing thwarted, 3 Palestinians dead, soldier wounded


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Margot Dudkevitch Jun. 25, 2003

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Border Police units thwarted a suicide bombing Wednesday morning when they captured two Tanzim terrorists in Kfar Kassem, one of whom was carrying a bag containing a 10-kilogram explosive device packed with nails and shrapnel.

Police arrested the two Fatah Tanzim terrorists, Nidal Abu Al-Hak, and Muhammad Ramadan, both from Nablus on the West Bank, and detonated the bomb in a controlled explosion, leaving a huge crater in the ground. Kfar Kassam is an Israeli-Arab village 20 kilomoters (12 miles) northeast of Tel Aviv.

Security services said the terrorists' target was most likely the market in Petach Tikva.

Palestinian sources said that one Palestinian was killed in an IAF helicopter missile attack on two cars in the Gaza Strip Wednesday evening. The IDF announced Wednesday evening that two air force helicopters fired a number of missiles at a terrorist cell in Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip that was about to fire Kassam rockets at Israeli targets.

Also Wednesday two Hamas gunmen were killed and an Israeli soldier was wounded in a gunbattle in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip.

Gunmen opened fire on soldiers at positions on the outskirts of the town, sources said. Soldiers fired back and a gunbattle ensued, during which two Palestinians were killed. A soldier wounded lightly by shrapnel was treated at the scene and then taken to Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon.
Hamas claimed in a statement that the battle erupted when its men fired an anti-tank rocket at the Israeli position.

Military and police were placed on high alert early in the morning after receiving intelligence warnings that a potential suicide bomber and an accomplice had crossed into Israel to carry out an attack.

Scores of roadblocks were set up in the densely populated Sharon region, an area bordering the West Bank and a frequent target of Palestinian militants.

Large numbers of Israeli security services swarmed into Kfar Kassam after receiving intelligence that a terror attack was being planned. One of the Tanzim terrorists was spotted and was asked what the contents were of the bag he was carrying. "You have nothing to check. I only have books," replied the Palestinian.

"There is no doubt that a huge disaster was prevented, " a senior police source said on condition of anonymity. "We are talking about a huge explosive device."

The reported attempt came as Palestinian officials awaited a response from Islamic militant groups about a proposal to suspend attacks against Israelis.


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Yom Shani, Monday morning in Los Angeles (afternoon in Jerusalem)

Wow...there are so many feelings swirling around in my jet lagged being right now after a few days back in Los Angeles. One thing I can definitely say is that once you're away from a place you can start to truly reflect on the experience to see what has been learned. Without question, as this blog I think shows, my relationship to Israel and the people of Israel has been transformed. I know so much more about the culture, the people, the political situation, the reality of life in Israel. This truly struck me the other day at a bat mitzvah party when a video presentation of her life came on and I saw the love of her family from the time she was an infant until the day of her bat mitzvah. During the video I began to think about those in Israel who have lost children or parents, and the simchas (happy events) that will not be. It did not diminish my joy at this wonderful young woman who is such a blessing to her family and to the Jewish people, but it allowed me to observe that what happens in Israel is not an abstraction to me.

This was brought home all the more so when I was paging through the American newsweekly Newsweek and there was the most graphic picture I have ever seen in an American periodical of the pigua on Rehov Jaffa from the week before. It had one of the Orthodox rescue workers next to the bus with a body hanging out the window, some of the features of the person still visible but the humanity, the life, the neshama of the person gone. It took my breath away.

Let's change the subject.

My first Shabbat in Los Angeles was very nice, visiting with many, many friends. It was strange to think that because of the ten hour time difference the Shabbat in Los Angeles ended when most Israelis (who still have work) were going to work on Sunday morning!

Since Thursday it's been about reconnecting to many folks as well as running around to find a vehicle, a cell phone, and all the other things that are about re-entry into American life. The new car will get pretty good fuel economy; I'm really on the warpath against these big wasteful vehicles that Americans love to drive--really terror-mobiles because each time they get their gas-guzzling fuel tanks loaded up, it's like just writing blank checks to the Saudis. There is definitely a moral dimension to this. Of course, as a rabbi to be, it's not something that I'll be able to express without subtlety. Some folks think they've just got the right car for car pooling. And after being in Israel where the cars are small because gas is expensive, as are the cars themselves, it comes as a shock to see what's on the road here.

So that's it for now. Shavua tov, a good week, a week of quiet, please God, for the people in Eretz Yisrael. My body is in Los Angeles but my heart remains in Israel.

Yom Shishi, Friday (From Los Angeles)
I want to share this wonderful article from Friday's Jerusalem Post. Shabbat Shalom!

Gay pride - and Israel's, By Bret Stephens


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Jun. 19, 2003

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Today, June 20, gay and lesbian Israelis will parade through Jerusalem's streets, from City Hall to Independence Park. The march was supposed to have taken place last week; it was postponed after one of its organizers, 47-year-old American immigrant Alan Beer, was murdered by a Hamas suicide bomber aboard Bus 14A.

For those of us who devote a good amount of thought and breath defending Israel from various calumnies - particularly those coming from the hard Left - the fact that this march is taking place at all is excellent news. So Israel is a theocratic state? Show me an equivalent march taking place in Iran or Saudi Arabia. So the Israeli army is an instrument of Fascist oppression? Maybe, but gays and lesbians serve in the IDF's ranks without formal discrimination - more than can be said for the US armed services.

Why, then, should those most opposed to this march be the same people, more or less, who are most ardently "pro-Israel"?

"This is a disgusting parade which has no place in a Jewish state," said Itamar Ben-Gvir, a spokesman for the outlawed ultranationalist Kach movement who also confessed to taking down 30 rainbow-striped flags in downtown Jerusalem. "The gay and lesbian community is a marginal, fringe group, and they must not be given a public stage," added MK Nissim Ze'ev of the haredi Shas party.

I know at least a few people who'd argue that it is Ze'ev and Ben-Gvir, not Beer, who represent a "fringe." But put that argument aside. The question is, when we boast that Israel is "the only democracy in the Middle East" (Turkey honorably excepted), what are we really saying? Exactly how does it distinguish us from our neighbors and enemies? And what obligations does it impose upon Israelis, gay and straight?

ONE WAY to get at these questions is to point to what we're not. For starters, we're not a country that treats homosexuals the way the Palestinian Authority does.

A few months ago, watching the news in the run-up to the Iraq war, I spotted a couple of demonstrators marching to a "Queers for Palestine" banner. Note the preposition. While most of the antiwar marchers were merely against war (even if this meant keeping Saddam Hussein in power), these two were for Palestine. I spent the remainder of the evening trying to think of the nearest equivalent. Blacks for the Old South? Jews for the Ayatollah? "Recovered" homosexuals?

In fact, "recovered" is what Palestinian gays must be if they are to survive in "Palestine." As Yossi Klein Halevi wrote last August in The New Republic, Islamic law prescribes five separate forms of death for homosexuals. To these, the Palestinian Authority adds several of its own. In the West Bank city of Tulkarm, Halevi reports, a young Palestinian homosexual he calls Tayseer "was forced to stand in sewage up to his neck, his head covered by a sack filled with feces, and then he was thrown into a dark cell infested with insects and other creatures he could feel but not see... During one interrogation, police stripped him and forced him to sit on a Coke bottle. Throughout the entire ordeal he was taunted by interrogators, jailers, and fellow prisoners for being a homosexual."

Tayseer's story is one of hundreds. Halevi also tells the story of one Palestinian homosexual who was put in a pit in Nablus and starved to death over Ramadan; of another whose PA interrogators "cut him with glass and poured toilet cleaner into his wounds"; of a third who lives in fear of his life from his brothers.

"It's now impossible to be an open gay in the PA," says Shaul Ganon of Aguda-Association of Gay Men, Lesbians, Bisexuals and Transgender in Israel.

All this is of a piece with the broader treatment of homosexuals throughout the Muslim world. The Taliban used to put homosexuals to death by collapsing a wall on them. In Malaysia, the maximum penalty for sodomy is 20 years in prison and "mandatory whipping." In Egypt, an increasingly severe crackdown on homosexuals is now entering its third year. In April, Brazil put forward a gay-rights resolution at the UN Human Rights Commission; Muslim countries successfully filibustered it.

And so on. Of course, everybody knows this, though nobody talks about it much. And of course, everybody knows that Israel is a comparatively receptive place for gays and lesbians, though nobody talks about it much, either. Along with South Africa, France, Ireland, Canada and Spain, Israel has been in the forefront of granting legal protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation. So when we say, "We are the only democracy in the Middle East," we are not simply making a statement about our political structure, but about social and cultural attitudes. We are a typical Western state. Nothing demonstrates it better than today's march.

"TYPICAL," HOWEVER, is also problematic. Typical Western states also mass produce and widely disseminate pornography, ingest gigantic quantities of narcotics and generally suffer every plague of affluence. The gay-rights movement, some argue, belongs in this category.

I don't buy this for a second. But I appreciate why the argument is made. "Gay-Pride Parade Sets Mainstream Acceptance Of Gays Back 50 Years," went a headline a few years back in The Onion, a satirical newspaper. "'I'd always thought gays were regular people, just like you and me, and that the stereotype of homosexuals as hedonistic, sex-craved deviants was just a destructive myth'" the paper "quoted" Hannah Jarrett, a fictional 41-year-old mother of four. "'Boy, oh, boy, was I wrong.'"

The Onion gets it exactly. For decades, the basic problem with the gay-rights movement has been that it tended to make opposite demands. It rightly insisted on mainstream acceptance and equal protection of the laws. Insanely, it then proceeded aggressively to flaunt its every difference. The aim, it seemed, was not to join a mainstream in the manner of the black civil rights movement or feminism, but to overthrow the very concept of "mainstream."

The result was to confirm every lurid prejudice about gay life. Sexually promiscuous? Emotionally unstable? Morally suspect? Politically radical? The icons of gay life in the 1970s and 1980s, from Michel Foucault to the Village People to Calvin Klein, all giddily seemed to answer yes.

My guess is that the way in which the gay-rights movement pursued its agenda set it back by at least a decade. That both the IDF and the British military allow openly gay service members ought to have been enough to show that the US armed forces could have done the same - but the gay community bears its share of the blame for making its case such a difficult one to make. Ditto for gay marriage, which only this week was legalized in Canada: This was something that ought to have happened ages ago, if only more of the gay community had been demanding it back then, and if (male) gay relationships did not have a reputation for being so fickle.

Now this is changing. As Andrew Sullivan writes, among gays "a need to rebel has quietly ceded to a desire to belong. To be gay and to be bourgeois no longer seems such an absurd proposition. Certainly since AIDS, to be gay and to be responsible has become a necessity."

Sullivan is right - indeed, has to be right. Those who opposed the gay-rights revolution cannot realistically expect that today's homosexuals will simply be pushed back into the closet. And to preserve existing legal barriers against gays would only perpetuate a gay subculture that is both neurotic and alienating. The only decent conservative alternative is to insist that gay men and women join the social and cultural mainstream - and enact the policies required for them to do so.

WHICH BRINGS me back to Beer. Cleveland-born, a software engineer, "Al" was also an observant Jew who came to Israel five years ago because "it gave him the opportunity to pray as he wanted and live the [Jewish] life he wanted," according to Ze'ev Pertrucci, a former roommate. Interviewed by The Jerusalem Post in 1999, Beer said his homosexuality had presented no obstacles to joining an Orthodox synagogue.

"My understanding of being Orthodox is that there is a long list of mitzvot to keep, which is what I do," he said. "It doesn't bother my being religious."

Testifying in the Knesset the same year, Beer told a parliamentary committee he was "proud of my many identities": Gay, Orthodox, Jerusalemite, Zionist. "People can be both free and holy," he said. Friends recall his "American swagger," his Hawaiian shirts, his passion for cinema, his "infectious laugh," his willingness to volunteer, easygoingness.

Beer was murdered after returning from a shiva call for a friend up north. Had he not been on that bus, he would have marched Friday for gay pride. Would any of us not want him back? And would any of us, really, not have wanted him there?

bret@jpost.co.il


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Yom Hamishi, Thursday (From Los Angeles)

Arrived after a LONG flight back to LA from Tel Aviv. Spent much of my flight (when I wasn't sleeping) speaking to Israelis in Hebrew. Most of the folks on the flight were Israelis; there are very few tourists visiting Israel right now. I enjoyed that I was able to mostly understand them and they me.

I don't know how many of you have had 34 hour days before...but that's 24 hours normal day plus the ten hours I gained flying to LA. Very strange indeed. I don't know which end is which right now. It'll take a few days to sort out, in addition to being in this strange environment that was once so familiar.

Yom Hamishi, Wednesday afternoon.

All my bags are packed, but I'm not ready to go. I'm leaving on a jet plane early tomorrow morning for LA so the hours on the ground here in Eretz Yisrael are slowly eeking away. Celebrated last night by buying a wonderful bottle of fine Israeli wine, Petit Castel 200 from Domaine du Castel, a winery not far from Jerusalem. Most of the wine that we get from Israel is not great (that's being generous). This one, however, holds its own with the best of them. A rich, full bodied red that was a pleasure.

So that's it...a nap, dinner, off to the airport and then watch those lights recede within five minutes of taking off. . .

Yom Shilishi, Tuesday afternoon

FROM HAARETZ this afternoon:

Kach members torch, pull down Gay Pride flags in Jerusalem

By Haaretz Service
Activists of the outlawed extremist Jewish Kach
movement overnight torched and pulled down
rainbow-striped flags set by the Jerusalem
municipality in the city's center as decorations
accompanying a Gay Pride Parade to be held
Friday.

The parade was to have been held
last Friday, but was postponed
for a week after a member of
the gay-lesbian community was
killed in a Wednesday suicide
bus bombing, Israel Radio
reported.

It quoted newly elected Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lopolianski as defending
the right of gays and lesbians to hold the
parade. "Everyone has his march of the living,"
he was quoted as saying, adding that though he
himself marches in other parades.

Ultra-Orthodox Shas MK Nissim Ze'ev, declining
to comment on the flag-burning, said the parade
should be forbidden. The gay-lesbian community
"is a marginal, fringe group, and they must not
be given a public stage." He said the parade
"sends a negative message to our youth, and
delegitimizes the Jewish family unit."

Baruch Marzel, an unsuccessful Knesset candidate
and ex-leader of the Kach movement founded by
the militant late Rabbi Meir Kahane, backed the
flag-burning, criticizing fellow Orthodox
politicians for remaining silent over a march
that he said would "violate the holiness of
Jerusalem."

"This parade in the holy city of Jerusalem is an
abomination. It is a disgrace to every Jew, and
therefore I certainly have no reservations
about the flag burning yesterday evening on
King George Street."

Jerusalem City Manager Eitan Meir said the
municipality allows groups of all kinds to hold
parades in Jerusalem, and that a valid license
had been granted for the parade and a rally to
follow.

_________

There is Jerusalem l'mala and Jerusalem shel mata: shel mala, higher Jerusalem, is what we pray for, that Jerusalem should be a holy city, a city of peace. Jerusalem shel 'mata is the lower Jerusalem, what's real and on the ground. A city of division. Between fundamentalist Jews and secular Jews and Jews who are Conservative or Reform. Between ultra-nationalists and those who want to make the city function as, well, a modern city. That the flags were up at all was a marvel; that they got torched, I'm afraid, was to be expected. In a place of extremes, no one is safe. The rabbis said it was senseless hatred that led to the Exile.

Yom Shilishi, Tuesday

What makes this place so different? Howzabout the thousands of people crowding around tables and tables of books at the Israel Museum last night as Hebrew Book Week gets underway. We are a people that celebrates the book and you could see this celebration last night. Crowded, loud, people were happy, with their children. It's important to remember that this is a country where people still have kids and raise them here and do things with them that kids do everywhere. Like at the mall you can always see a kid riding on one of those horses (you know, put a quarter in and ride for a minute.)

Back to last night. It was fun, also, to run into so many people that I've met in the last year, almost everyone outside of my immediate HUC community. I love my classmates, but I made a special effort to get out and become part of the community over the past year.

The Sachnoot (Jewish Agency) had a great deal on the divrei Torah of Nehama Leibowitz so I bought them last night ($80 for the set of seven books). I'm so excited about how I'm building my library. Again, people of the book.

So in the States you think: okay, UCLA has it's big book fair. Normal. But this is the Middle East, and Israel is the only country living in modernity that has such a free and vibrant publishing industry. Think about it: a country of six million people can support its own publishing industry. And we're not just talking Sefri Kodesh (holy books). We're also talking about novels, children's books, art books, cultural books, magazines, newspapers, etc. It's very exciting.

The Israel Museum is next to the Knesset, so all night last night I could see both the flags of Israel over the museum and the Knesset lit up across the street. Powerful symbols in a powerful place.

Off to another day of squeezing all that I can out of Jerusalem; tomorrow it's Masada.

Yom Shani, Monday morning

Up early today again...seems that early light is quite attractive to wake up to see...especially as the golden/pink Jerusalem light begins to glow. Went to the local shul this morning and on the way home looked at the view over the Judean Hills at the Dead Sea and Jordan.

Yesterday was all over the city, by foot, taking it all in. From downtown to Rehavia to San Simon to German Colony, back to downtown. I'm just trying to breathe it all in and take it all in before it slips out of my daily reality.

Motzeai Shabbat, After Shabbat, Saturday Evening

An hour after Shabbat ended Yuval received a phone call from a social worker at another school to discuss one of her students who was lightly injured in last Wednesday's attack on civilians in downtown Jerusalem and her mother who was heavily injured and remains in the hospital. Those are all of the details that I have. . .

The twilight hour, as Shabbat edges its way toward hol (the rest of the week), we walked around Rehavia with our good friends David and Laura. We enjoyed the quiet of the street, the people passing saying "Shabbat Shalom," the late-afternoon color of Jerusalem (that magical goldish/orange/reddish hue), the architecture of Rehavia. We returned to their apartment for Havdala on the roof. . .

My last Shabbat in Jerusalem (for now, anyway), I had a quiet lunch at home after spending the morning davening at Shira Hadasha, a modern Orthodox shul on Emek Rafiam in the German Colony. Last night we were at Kol Ha Nishama for a beautiful Kabbalat Shabbat and then dinner with my remaining classmates here in Jerusalem.

Now that Shabbat is over I'm continuing my packing and trying to figure out how to take the most of my remaining four full days here. . .

Shavua tov!

AN IMPORTANT PS

Dear Readers,

Today I sprung for the $15 to get rid of the banner ad on this site. Until now they were for buying shofars or hotels in Israel...they are there based on the subject matter of this site. However, tonight there was a political ad that, if you've been reading this site, know that it in no way, shape or form reflected my political beliefs....Thus, in the spirit of free expression (e.g. MY EXPRESSION), the ads are now a thing of the past. I apologize for anyone who ran into this ad today (about home demolitions in the terror-tories). If you understand Israeli policy, the homes of terrorists are destroyed.

Tonight there was video on the news of the family of Wednesday's homicide bomber from Hebron moving their stuff out because they know what's coming. It may not be the most effective deterrent, but if it makes one homicidal maniac think twice, it works. In a situation where you have human beings acting on their most primitive urges, who is to say where the morality of it is.

David

PPS In israel, it's not Friday the 13th...it's Yom Shishi, the 13th

Yom Shishi, Friday

Next week Friday will be Friday...I'll be back in the United States, in Los Angeles. So tomorrow night at this time I will be spending my last Shabbat (for now) in Jerusalem: I promise to soak it all in.

Wednesday's murderous attack in downtown Jerusalem continues to have fallout. The victim toll of those murdered is up to 17. An irony (this is a place of abundant irony) is that downtown Jerusalem, of all places, is festooned with the rainbow colored flag for Gay Pride (June is the month for gay pride around the globe). It is quite striking to see these brightly (gaily?) colored flags across from City Hall, surrounding Zion Square (the site of that major right-wing rally about a week ago), surrounding Gan HaAtzmaoot, and especially on King David Street, right in front of school.

Tomorrow was going to be Jerusalem's second Gay Pride Parade, a modest affair compared to Tel Aviv and the major cities of the United States. This afternoon, however, the sponsor of the parade, the Jerusalem Open House, sent out this message:

Dear friends,

As a result of yesterday's suicide bombing in the center of Jerusalem, Jerusalem's 2nd pride parade Love without Borders (originally scheduled for tomorrow - Friday, June 13th) will be delayed by a week. Yesterday's bombing was one of the worst in Jerusalem since October 2000, the echo of which felt strongly in the center of Jerusalem as well as at the Open House itself.

Amongst those killed in the bombing is JOH member Alan (Al) Beer, one of the prominent volunteers at the JOH.  The Jerusalem Open House mourns with his friends and family.  The funeral will take place tomorrow (Friday) at 11:00, in the Giv'at Shaul cemetery.  The Jerusalem Open House calls upon its members to respect Al's life and his memory and attend the funeral.

The parade will take place a week later than planned, on Friday June 20th.  No changes occur in the route of the parade or the schedule for pride day, excluding the delay by a week.

We cannot joyfully parade in the heart of Jerusalem while funerals are taking place - including those of neighbors and friends. Postponing the parade by a week is the only course of action we can take now, an expression of human sensitivity towards the city we live in.

In hope for better days. . .

Yom Hamishi, Thursday morning, 5 a.m.

The sun is just a crack on the horizon right now. Birds are awake and slowly the light is increasing, beginning to reflect on the Jerusalem stone. It is another day. Our rabbi and teacher, Michael Marmur, spoke to us this year about the idea of liminality. Liminal, based on Latin for threshold, refers to a sensory threshold, a place that is barely perceptable. As the sun is on the horizon, this new day is in its liminal moment, where nature is following its natural course, bathing the city in light with the promise of a new day. . .


MORE


Here is the URL to analysis in today's Ha'Aretz:
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/302672.html

Watching CNN, Sky and BBC yesterday it was predictable that all three would connect what happened yesterday to the attempt on the Hamas head on Tuesday. But as the press here in Israel notes this morning, the bus attack yesterday afternoon was planned before the events of Tuesday--murders of this magnitude take more than one day to plan. Think about it: Hamas has to decide to do it, pick out which moron will take the bomb and kill himself as he kills, get the bomber his costume that fits (haredi Jew), pick out which bus to attack and at what time, get the bomber his bomb, get him into the center of Jerusalem at rush hour. It is clear....this murderous attack was premeditated, just as Sunday's attack on the soldiers was an example of showing how "well" the terrorists cooperate with each other...all three terrorist organizations claiming responsibility.

Yom Re-vi-i, Wednesday

There was a major pigua in downtown Jerusalem today; 16 people are dead and another 94 are injured. This comes the day after an attempt on the life of the head of Hamas, who devotes his life to the idea of the end of the Jewish State and the Jewish People living on this soil. In response to an attack on him, he responded as he does, sending a person to kill others by blowing himself up (again dressed as a haredi, or ultra-Orthodox.) Note that he doesn't send himself to do the job...just another poor, ignorant, rabid fundamental primitive sub-human.

Another round of phone calls: are you okay? Did you hear? Another round of emails.

Before the dead are even identified, let along buried, people are saying that Israel caused this by trying to take out a major terrorist. Let's understand something here: Israel tries to take out a major terrorist, the way the US is going after Bin Laden and Huessein. In response, 16 civilians are killed in the center of Jerusalem and President Bush condemns Israel for going after the guy. The attempt on the Hamas "leader" was after he, along with Jihad and Fatah (Arafat's gang of thugs) took credit for killing the soldiers near Gaza earlier this week, a response to the so-called Road Map.

Israel has a right to defend herself. But right now is not the time to point fingers at Sharon and say that he caused Hamas to do this: this is what Hamas is organized to do, it is its reason for being.

Before we criticize, let's take a moment to pray for the dead and injured and their families.

Yom Shani, Monday

Funerals of five Israelis today, killed by Palestinian terrorists. Here's Safire on what's going on:

June 9, 2003

After 1,000 Days

By WILLIAM SAFIRE

WASHINGTON

"We will not allow anyone to drag us into a civil war," declared the Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas yesterday.

His disloyal opposition ? Hamas, the Islamic Jihad and Yasir Arafat's Aksa suicide brigades ? sent a different message to Abbas and other Arab leaders who had just met with President Bush in Aqaba.

The three terrorist groups, acting jointly, sent a trio of suicides dressed in Israeli uniforms into an Israeli Army post near Gaza. They killed four soldiers before being shot dead themselves. The terrorist Front then released a video showing the killers posing with assault rifles and a Koran, and informed the world that "the blood of Palestinians says that we are unified in the trench of resistance."

Could there be any more dramatic declaration of Palestinian civil war?

On one side is Abbas, duly elected by the Palestinian Authority's Legislative Council, reviled by the terrorist Front because he believes more war on Israel will bring only further misery to Palestinians.

On the other side is the fundamentalist Hamas-Jihad-Aksa Front, whose sworn mission is to drive the hated Jews out of the Middle East. United as never before, these fundamentalists are determined to overthrow Abbas and any "moderates" able to negotiate a peace.

Playing both sides as usual is Arafat, helping the Front undermine Abbas before that veteran negotiator builds a local following that would end the war. Arafat tried to make Abbas seem like an Israeli-American stooge at the recent summit by having an aide hint that American pressure edited a deal-breaking "right of return" out of the Palestinian's remarks.

Thus we have one side, the terror Front, abetted by Arafat, openly waging civil war to take over the Palestinian cause, while the other side ? the Palestinian Authority, newly headed by Abbas ? protests that it won't let anyone "drag us into a civil war." The side that is fighting is winning.

But how can there be a civil war if Palestinians are not killing Palestinians? Simple: the rebel Front kills Israelis, forcing Ariel Sharon to order retaliation against terrorists, and Palestinians, both terrorists and bystanders, are casualties ? by rebel Palestinian design.

The rebels know that no government under sustained terrorist attack can afford to remain supine. Israel must continue to strike back until the new leadership of the Palestinian Authority takes control of the killers within its own population.

The main excuse for inaction in the past has been that the Palestinian police force ? a sizeable, well-equipped army, aware of the hideouts and logistics of the rebels ? is supposedly demoralized, beaten down by Israeli counterattacks, helpless against the fanatic rebels of the Front.

Maybe, maybe not. Giving Abbas the benefit of the doubt, Sharon directed his defense minister, Shaul Mofaz, to work out a step-by-step arrangement with Muhammad Dahlan, Abbas's new security chief.

Dahlan is to choose a given area to assert loyalist Palestinian Authority control. The Israeli Defense Forces will pull out. As 100 percent effort to stop terror in that area is demonstrated, on to the turnover of the next village or city, until rebel-held neighborhoods are shrunk and the P.A. gains internal control ? the necessary prerequisite to statehood.

Will Sharon respond to the diminution of terror by dismantling unauthorized hilltop outposts, removing travel restrictions and otherwise making life easier? Of course; despite what he calls "1,000 days" of the intifada, Sharon has the national backing to make concessions that do not undercut security despite anguished outcries from longtime supporters.

Can Abbas build similar backing to confront and defeat the terrorist Front ? or will he settle for a meaningless "cease-fire," allowing terror to rearm and prolong his people's agony?

He will get no help from Europe, Russia or the U.N., which will berate Israel and treat with Arafat. He may get grudging financial aid from the Saudis and security help from Egyptians, only because President Bush, after liberating Iraq, has timed his intervention so he can be the credible "steward of accountability."

But no comprehensive outside imposition will bring durable peace to the Middle East. It will follow the Palestinians' victory over a terrorist minority that dragged them into civil war.  

Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Yom Rishon, Sunday

I got my grades and I'm happy to say that I passed everything.

Friday morning as the sun rose I gathered with a number of Conservative and Reform members of the community to daven at Robinson's Arch, located at the southern end of the Western Wall. We were under armed guard because the ultra-orthodox at the Wall don't take kindly to men and women davening together, let alone a woman leading the davening beautifully. It was truly moving to be there as the light grew stronger with our voices, singing out the praises of Hallel gazing on the cornerstones of this truly magnificent achievement...how they built these walls without heavy machinery always amazes me.

I spent Thursday night studyng with a group called Ta'Shma...Go and learn, committed to a pluralistic learning environment. It was outside on a roof in the German Colony, which was nice (e.g. being outside helps keep you awake.) The problem with staying up all night is that it's like getting jet lag without going anywhere.

Last night I was at a concert at Yung Yiddish, an organization here in Jerusalem that has collected 50,000 yiddish books and is storing them in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa. The concert was by Sharon Bernstein, a recently invested hazzan (cantor) in the conservative movement. She has a voice from heaven, and these songs, even without understanding the words, were beautiful. Especially meaningful was watching the faces of the older folks present who sang along with eyes twinkling as part of a culture that is largely gone came back to life.

This morning, Sunday, I'm at school, saying goodbye to some folks, finishing some lose ends, etc. It's weird being here with so many students gone. . .I'm going to continue to experience this netherworld over the next few weeks...neither being fully in Israel nor fully in the US. Transitions are like this.

Yom Chamishi, Thursday, Evev Shavout

Hag Shavout Sameach! Tonight is a festival of learning around Jerusalem and I'm going to indulge in as much as I can. This is been a major week in Israel...and there may be some movement in the process to allow Israel to live side by side with our neighbors. As I've said before, terrorism must be controlled if it has a hope of proceeding.

Just as dangerous as Hamas, Jihad, and their respective battle cries is the far right here in Israel, the movement that gave rise to the hate speech that was the prelude to the killing of Yitzhak Rabin, may his memory be for a blessing. These folks were on display last night, variably described as tens of thousands, forty thousand, or twenty thousand. What's important to know about this is that it didn't enjoy the support of many mainstream politicians. We're dealing with Arik Sharon here which is a different breed of animal from Rabin. They consider him one of their own and they don't quite know how to react.

In any event, it's important to put everything in context. So please read this article from today's Ha'Aretz and don't like the extremes (extreme left or extreme right) be your judge for what is happening here. Movement will come from the middle.


Only 20,000 answer settlers' battle cry


By Nadav Shragai and Gideon Alon


Around 20,000 settlers and their supporters rallied
last night in Jerusalem's Zion Square to protest
against the deal struck at the Aqaba summit
between Israel and the Palestinians to implement
the U.S. and internationally backed road map for
peace.

But despite promises of support
from Likud, National Union and
National Religious Party
ministers, as well as prominent
MKs from the right, there were
few political representatives.
Three ministers from the right
who voted against the road map
and ministers who abstained did
not appear at the rally.

Minister Uzi Landau said he would campaign
against the road map inside Likud institutions,
Agriculture Minister Yisrael Katz said he was
busy preparing the Likud convention for Sunday,
Transport Minister Avigdor Lieberman's press
advisor said he had prior committments.

The Council of Jewish Settlements in Judea,
Samaria and the Gaza District (Yesha Council)
issued a statement calling the Aqaba summit "a
humiliating ceremony in which the Israeli
government celebrated its surrender to
Palestinian terrorism." Yesha Council
Secretary-General Adi Mintz said the government
was likely take steps that would cross "red
lines."

Speaking at the rally - held in the same venue
where Yitzhak Rabin was infamously compared to a
Nazi SS general a month before he was
assassinated - was National Religious Party
Minister Effi Eitam, and MKs Zvi Hendel and Uri
Ariel, of the National Union. They earlier sent a
letter to Sharon indicating that the moment the
government starts implementing the road map and
evacuating outposts, they will quit the ruling
coalition.


That's the article. Not going to end on politics, though. I'm going to end on the wondrous miraculous revelation of Torah, the connective tissue of all Jews throughout Israel and the world.

Reexperience the revelation at Sinai and remember that the Torah belongs to all Jews.

Yom Shilishi, Tuesday

Your guide to Bush's Visit to Aqaba and Sharm El Sheikh

It's simple: The Palestinians stop the terrorism against Israel and there will be progress. You might see lots of talk about dismantling illegal settlements on the West Bank, but most of those are scrappy little outposts with a few trailers--it's no big deal to take them down (and some were taken down earlier in the year anyway.) The press likes to make a big deal about the settlements--but if they don't make an equally big deal about terrorism they're missing the story.

This is a war without a front, so it's difficult to figure out the way to a solution, especially since Abu Mazen, the new Palestinian prime minister takes his marching orders from Arafat: he's a front man that allows the US to speak to someone from the Palestinians. We still don't know if he has the juice to make it happen. It's if Hamas and Islamic Jihad stop their terror AND the Fatah-affiliated terrorists (Fatah is Arafat's organization.)

It is important that if Israel pulls out of some cities, such as Bethlehem, that there not be any more terrorist attacks from there. Unfortunately the pattern has been the same recently: make a gesture, pull out, terrorist attack on Israel, reoccupation by the IDF. Terrorism does exactly the opposite of what needs to happen to achieve a Palestinian state.

So watch the news, check out www.haaretzdaily.com, be skeptical, and remember that all the talk about a Palestinian state won't make a state happen unless terrorism stops. Then at least the discussion can begin.

Yom Shani, Monday

I'm so screwed up on the days right now...there was no school yesterday and then this morning was just the test....and after I finished the test....voila, I'm now 20% of the way to being a rabbi...or, as you will note, I've changed it to say that this is a journal of a SECOND year rabbinic student.

When I walked off the campus today I came home to meet the guys who were taking four boxes to be shipped. The moving back to the US has officially begun even if the boxes were only taken to HUC.

I was walking around HUC this morning...marveling, as I have all year, at its physical and natural beauty. We have a fulltime gardener who makes the place bloom like the Garden of Eden. The buildings, most of which designed by Moishe Safdie, are also beautiful, with lots of outdoor spaces to enjoy the views of the Old City. The sun hits the buildings in different ways during the day and glows at night...it is a truly magnificent campus which I will miss more than I can say. I'm also proud that Progressive Judaism has such an important and beautiful landmark right smack dab in the most prominent location of the city....adjacent to the King David Hotel....you can't do any better. Of course when the land was first offered to HUC it was on the border with the Jordanian Legion firing into Israel from the Old City so no one really wanted it. I'm wondering if there's some form of kismet happening here. . .

I plan on spending some quality time on the campus before I leave the country just to enjoy being there without having to be in the classrooms. Speaking of classrooms, I emptied out my locker today and started cleaning up here at home. And let's just say that a number of trees died for my education this year. I can't imagine what HUC's copier budget is for the year, but I'm sure our dean gives it a large line item.

Speaking of our dean, he gave another wonderful sermon on Saturday morning in the synagogue. He's off to London to work on his dissertation, leaving the affairs of state to my mentor. She's beyond wonderful and completely up to the task. Next year's students, while they won't have our dean's humor, will have our acting dean's incredible presence.

Can I stay for another year??? Or two or three?

Yom Rishon, Aleph Sivan, Rosh Hodesh, a/k/a Sunday

Shalom. Tomorrow is my final in Biblical Grammar...I'll know more about Hebrew grammar than most Israelis. One Israeli last night called me "miskan" meaning "poor guy" because I have to learn this stuff. But I love it...reading the text in the Bible in Hebrew and being able to sort it all out is fun stuff for a future rabbi.

The after effects of the pigua that was near my house are wearing off, thankfully. I see how people get on with their lives here because there is no choice. And now it's June and on June 19 I return to the United States after a year here.

I just went to the supermarket and still noticed the flag of Israeli flying in the wind. . .

And I received information on my student pulpit next year which will be located in the Northwest, near Seattle.

So today's study day, then the test, then start my farewell--for now--to the land and people of Israel.