The views expressed on this blog are those of the author/s, and do not necessarily represent those of any other individuals or organizations.
Assertions made by any commenter should not be assumed to be true until checked out thoroughly. They are allowed only for the issues which they raise - so that people can be alerted to investigate so as to avoid harm or correct evils perpetrated or mistakes made.
Acceptance of a comment is no guarantee of its accuracy or context. Even notices quoted in the name of major Rabbis or experts need to be checked out to see that they were actually authorized by those rabbis or experts before they are believed.
I am a Torah-observant Jew, who has learned in Yeshivah high school in the USA, and at several Yeshivot and Collelim here in Israel, in addition to having a Masters' Degree in Business.
My blog Email address is:
catriel {dot} lev {at} gmail {dot} com
I am a Torah-observant Jew, whose deep Chassidic roots cause him to be considered a member of the Dati-Leumi (Religious Zionist) community; since all that I have learned from my Rabbeim (Rabbis) about Judaism and Chassidut leads to the conclusion that the religious practices of the Dati-Leumi community provide the most religious way to observe Judaism, since they include observance of ALL of the Mitzvot (commandments), including those involved in thanking HaShem for his miracles performed for us in recent generations.
My deep religious commitment causes me to be very concerned for the welfare of my fellow human beings in general and my fellow Jews in particular. As such, I am very concerned that we all preserve peace in the world as well as in our individual communities and towns and cities; and I am also concerned for the presentation of the truth and protecting it from the lies and misrepresentations which occur so often in our world.
Therefore, I chose the name "VeHaShalom VeHaEmmet", which means "And the Peace and the Truth", based upon the verse in Zechariah (8:19) for my blog, where I hope to be able to present ideas for building peace and truthful communication between people and communities.
Readers should also be aware that sometimes I use satire to convey a point!
The founder and president of The Israel Project, which educates reporters and leaders about the Mideast, has some suggestions in the Jerusalem Post online edition, which are worth some serious thought, about improving the portrayal of Israel in the world, and the way we "do business" with the world:
One group which is trying to think "outside the box" about dealing with those who oppose Israel in the world is Israel’s National Student Union which is working on a ‘reverse flotilla’ sailing toward Turkey to remind the world of Turkish hypocrisy as reported in the Jerusalem Post online edition:
From all of the discussion of the naval action by the IDF against the "peace flotilla" from Turkey, I gather that just about every Israeli feels that our Navy was unprepared for the situation as it actually occurred.
If you are right-wing you are apparently supposed to think that this is so because of our weak position vis-a-vis our right to the land of Israel, and if you are left-wing you are apparently supposed to think that this is so because of our "occupation" of the territories; but something tells me that ad hoc dealing with situations is simply an ingrained Israeli characteristic. To paraphrase Mark Twain (or perhaps Charles Dudley Warner, Twain's collaborator on The Gilded Age), "Every Israeli talks about preparation, but none of them does anything about it!"
Israeli planning often reminds me of the ironic sign that was popular during my childhood:
Most of us seem to agree that the Latma satire exposing the true outlook of the "peace flotilla" from Turkey through humor (see my post:
for the video) was a tremendous, after the fact, success in our PR campaign, even though it was produced by a private Israeli group rather than the Israeli Government; but why were we not better prepared for the PR battle in advance.
Everybody seems to feel that our "SEALs" should not have had to face beatings and knifings by the "peace activists" on board the Mavi Marmara and should not have been forced to fire back (and, once again, explanations as to why we weren't prepared seem, largely, to run along "party" lines); but NO ONE seems to have thought about this beforehand!
It seems to me that there are historical reasons which have built up this Israeli tendency toward ad hoc behavior (we couldn't exactly plan far ahead when our own land was occupied by foreign nations, like the Turks and the British, who restricted our freedom of action, and even our freedom of movement at times; and once we got so good at "planning on our feet", we never seem to have bothered with true long range planning), but at this stage in our national history, it is quite ridiculous.
I don't have any really bright ideas as to how to get our leaders (and our businesses, and our offices, etc.) to truly exert themselves on advance planning, but it seems to me that someone could have thought of "spying out" the deck of the Mavi Marmara and basing a boarding plan upon what we saw on that deck. If the "activists" with their knives and clubs would have been spotted, the IDF could have planned to "take them down" one by one with tranquilizer darts, like in the movies (or some other intelligent scheme to keep the "activists" from actively attacking our boarding party). Of course, this occurred to ME only after I saw the videos of how badly our soldiers were beaten and knifed; but, then again, nobody pays me to devise tactics for the most successful way to board a boat trying to break a blockade.
It turns out that an Israeli student organization is working on flotillas to aid the Kurds and/or Armenians suffering from Turkish persecution, which, of course, will expose the hypocrisy of the Turkish government which criticized Israeli for not letting the "peace flotilla" of the Turkish terror-support group go freely to Gaza.
Here is what I consider a great satire of the "peace flotilla" which exposes the lack of desire for peace, and the true hate-motivated attitude of those who, on Monday, 31/5/2010, attacked our soldiers who tried, in a peaceful manner, to enforce the blockade of Gaza: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOGG_osOoVg
