Dear Kumah,
Shalom - I have some news for you: with G-d's help, Malkah and I are making Aliyah Sunday, November 3rd. We are moving to Beit El, a town twenty-five minutes north of Jerusalem - it is the place where Yaakov dreamed of angles ascending and descending the ladder standing between heaven and earth. At Beit El I will take a position with Arutz Sheva Internet radio and Malkah will attend Ulpan in neighboring Ofra.
Yahooweee!!!
I know its pretty sudden - but an opportunity has opened up and I feel we must take it. We have been waiting for this time, and now the Kadosh Baruch Hu has answered our prayers. Don't worry, our organization, Kumah, will go on and on. We have lots of plans for Kumah in the US and Israel. I will let you know about it in the near future.
If you feel like celebrating with us and catching a bit of the Aliyah spirit, I invite you to come over to our apartment in the next few days and get your hands into the ma'ase (the act) of Aliyah. Bring some drinks and say LeChaim to Aliyah, Eretz Yisrael, and the Jewish people.
Give us a call or just come on over.
Our Address:
501 West 189th Apt. 4J
Manhattan, New York
(Take the 1/9 train to 181)
Our Telephone:
212-928-7996
Hope to see you or hear from you soon,
KUMAH!
Yishai and Malkah
A trend to watch
The Economist
reports (thanks to
slashdot for the link) on the trend towards finding alternative energy sources. They talk about some of the work being done to produce cars that run on something other than oil, most likely hydrogen-powered
fuel cells. The importance to world peace of reducing our dependence on Arab oil cannot be underestimated.
The article talks about ways that the US government can encourage this trend, but indicates that they are not doing as much as they could. This is a huge opportunity for Israel, who would stand to gain the most from reduced dependence on oil. If Israel can encourage research on fuel-cells, then it can be the world leader in something that everyone would benefit from. One way to approach this would be through the tax on cars. Give a large tax break for fuel-efficient cars, and charge no tax on no-fuel (zero-emission) cars. Finally, use the revenue from the ridiculously high car tax (I think it's 100%) for funding Israeli research into fuel-cell cars.
Perhaps in five to ten years, we'll be seeing Americans and Europeans driving around in Israeli-made zero-emission cars.
This just in! No massacre!
JPost
reports that the IAF has footage proving there was no massacre in Gaza. I hadn't even heard there was a massacre; I guess we learned from Jenin that we need to go on the defensive even before anyone else goes on the offensive.
Yishai once said to me, after hearing a very defensive speech about Jenin, "Please believe me! I just came from the matza factory, and I promise, no Christian baby's blood was used!" We need to stop being so defensive; in the end, it just makes us look bad, as if we really think any reasonable person could call a minor anti-terror offensive a "massacre." It also makes us sound weak, when we are always apologizing for every step in this war.
I'd rather hear more positive statements about how we are going to win the war on terror - not so that we can get back to negotiating the Oslo agreements, but so that we can actually defeat the terrorists. Isn't that the point?
Arutz 7
Arutz 7 has stopped broadcasting on the radio in Israel. This sad situation comes from the fact that A7 has had to operate illegally for 15 years. The article, as expected, focuses on the anti-Right sentiment that caused the station to be shut down. But the issue seems more basic - why can't anyone get a radio permit? It's not just the right - the article mentios Abie Natan, who ran a left-wing pirate radio station off a ship. It is ridiculous for Israel to restrict radio to government-owned stations. Of course the public is going to want more than that.
Please post in the comments if you can shed some light on the broadcasting laws in Israel, and why Arutz 7 can't become legal.
Update: David Wilder of Hebron has started an
online petition to reopen Arutz 7.
Another Update:
JPost editorial on the issue.
The Fastest-Growing Jewish Population
Take a look at
this article from the Telegraph (thanks to
Protocols for the link). Apparently, the fastest-growing Jewish population in the world is none other than Germany's. A quote from the article:
Mr Spiegel said many Jews chose Germany because they had to fight anti-Semitism in their homelands.
"The thinking is that a country with the history that Germany has is unlikely to let anti-Semitism become a danger again, so that is why they come to Germany," he said.
Seems like a pretty safe bet, right? Or, to quote the
Simpsons, "No one who speaks German could be an evil man."
If people who are suffering from anti-Semitism around the world are turning to Germany as the answer, then surely we are not doing a good enough job of promoting the return to our homeland (that is, the land of our fathers, not the "Fatherland"). Unlike Germany, Israel is more than just a temporary respite from anti-Semitism, but the permanent home for Jews.
