US journalist Austin Tice has been missing for 12 years when he was kidnapped in Syria

Vladimir Putin just agreed to ask deposed head of Syria Bashar Al Assad about Tice and where he might be located.

Nadia Cohen, the bereaved widow of the heroic Israeli spy Eli Cohen, called on Bashar Assad, President of Syria to release the bones and remains of her husband.

Cohen, speaking at an international conference for war injuries in Nahariya, called on Assad to forgive, to extend a hand and to give us his remains, hoping for a response unlike when previous requests were made. Cohen said she is stretching out her hand in peace and Eli Cohen should be able to feel he is in the land that he loved, and we the family should get comfort.
source: Walla News

Since I was a young man I have always felt some connection to and admiration of Eli Cohen and have read a lot about his story. Despite the fact that I see no reason why Bashar Al Assad, in the middle of a civil war in which he brutally kills and maims thousands upon thousands of his own people, would answer such a request positively, I am rebroadcasting Nadia Cohen's call for Assad to release the remains of Eli Cohen and pray and hope that perhaps one day, sooner rather than later, Assad has a change of heart and perhaps some compassion and responds positively.

Avraham Cohen, the brother of Eli Cohen - aka "Our Man in Damascus" based on the name of the book written about him, revealed a new and fascinating tidbit about his deceased hero of a brother..

Avraham Cohen has been gathering every morsel of information he has been able to find about his brother. As you surely know, Eli Cohen was a spy for Israel in the Syrian government in the 1960s, and much of Israel's success in the Six Day War on the front with Syria can be directly connected to information passed along to Israel by Cohen about war preparations, as well as his influence within Syria setting them up for Israel.

Cohen revealed a never-before-known incident about his brother, and how he was moser nefesh to eat matza on Pesach even in Syria.

Eli Cohen operated in Syria under the name Kamel Amin Thaabet and posing as a successful businessman he made strong connections at all levels of the Syrian government.

Avraham heard the following story from a Syrian-Jewish woman who told it to him after having made aliyah to Israel. She claims to have been a witness to the story as a child in her father's shop.

Early on in Cohen's career in Syria, in 1962, shortly after he arrived in Syria, he went through a market in Damascus. This woman's father operated a shop in the market. Cohen approached him and said he is very hungry and needs food. The man, her father, responded that because it is the Jewish holiday of Pesach he does not have any bread or pita but only has matza available. Thaabet, aka Cohen, responded that he does not know what this matza is, but he is so hungry and needs something to eat, whatever it may be. Her father gave him the matza, and, she related, Cohen took his food to the corner of the room, mumbled something to himself and ate the matza, before leaving.
source: Kol Hai News, among other sources

After the release of the video of Eli Cohen's execution, the Syrian rebels are reportedly now saying that they will be returning Eli Cohen's body (bones) to Israel.

A report appeared in Lebanese news saying that the Syrian rebels have access to and will be returning the remains of Eli Cohen to Israel. The report was removed a short while later.
source: Walla News, NRG

I have serious doubts as to the veracity of this report, though I do hope it will come to be true.

While I normally avoid large, mass, events in my old age, this is a funeral I would try to go to.

I hope it happens. Eli Cohen deserves an honorable Jewish burial.

the rebels in Syria have uncovered this 52 year old video clip of the execution of "Our Man in Damascus" Eli Cohen, and have publicized it.

I don't usually watch or publicize "snuff" videos, but Eli Cohen has always fascinated me. This video clip makes me both sad and in awe. Sad for what we are seeing, how Eli Cohen, a great hero who saved thousands, tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, of Jews from being killed. Yet we are seeing the face of a Jewish hero. Not just in an old book or picture, but an actual video of him. We are looking at greatness, at a martyr.

2 days ago, the 16th of Iyyar (in English the original date was May 18th, 1965), was the 50th yahrtzeit of Eli Cohen, a great hero of Israel, who was executed in Syria for being a spy for Israel. Our Man in Damascus.

I have avoided Bet Shemesh news for a while now... but the time has come to return to Bet Shemesh..

Here are two pieces of big news items in Bet Shemesh, though they are clearly connected... I just don't know if the timing of these two items happening on the same day is intentional or coincidental..

First, yesterday Mayor of Bet Shemesh Moshe Abutbol announced that he has gone to the police and has filed a complaint regarding residents of the city who have incited against him and the haredi community, incitement to murder.

Examples of incitement included in the complaint were all from online posts that contain hate, deprecating comments and insults, slander, libel, curses, aimed at himself (Abutbol), the Haredi community, the community's representatives in city council, and against the Ashkenazi community, as well as calls for illegal violence, a tax revolt, banning a community and discrimination.. haredim have been called cancers, pigs, filthy, satan's children, traitors, penguins, etc.. as well, there have been actual calls to violence against haredim and to chase the haredim out of town, to throw them to the dogs, things like "we will break your bones", "we will beat you up", etc. and many curses like they should all get cancer, the entire heftziba neighborhood should be destroyed, get a heart attack, etc.

The city spokesman, Matti Rosenzweig, said that this is the beginning of a new zero tolerance policy against violence, and it includes even verbal violence.

It seems the police have confirmed that the complaint has been filed and they are looking into it to determine if anything illegal has been done. so far, the police said, nothing among the materials submitted by the mayor contain any proof of actual threats to murder.
source: Bechadrei and Kikar

Some points in that are just amazing:
 * the Haredi community nationally is talking about a possible tax revolt, and that is ok, but when some local non-haredis talk about a similar option it is illegal, considered incitement, and becomes content in a police complaint.
 * Moshe Abutbol is complaining on behalf of the ashkenazi community?
 * "zero tolerance" is interesting, so why doesnt he complain to the police about the shul that was vandalized by extremists two weeks ago? what about attacks on buses? what about a local haredi askan and radio broadcaster who yesterday called for the air force to shoot a missile and wipe out the entire "old Bet Shemesh"?

and now, part b of this item, after the police complaint, Abutbol is working on a libel suit. He plans to sue, for 150,000nis, anybody who writes negative comments about haredim online. source: Kikar

I wonder if that will only include people writing about haredim in Bet Shemesh or haredim anywhere they might be..

The police complaint is one thing. If he was incited against, he should file a complaint. A suit agsint people who slander him, that is also fine. But is he the defender of all haredim that he has to busy himself with lawsuits against people who write against haredim? let those victims sue for themselves. He is mayor of a city and needs to work and focus on the city, not on all this extracurricular activity.

Anyways, on to item #2...

Plans to divide the city are stepping up. Even Eli Cohen is now supporting the division, after remaining opposed to the idea for a long time. Yesterday Cohen made a very long announcement explaining his reasons why this is the only option and even calls on Abutbol and members of his coalition to join in this effort and do it properly and orderly. Cohen and the members of the opposition behind him held a press conference yesterday afternoon making the announcement official.

Abutbol's response was that it is not going to happen, is not practical, and the government would not do it and it does not make economic sense.

There is definitely going to be a big push to divide the city, and the guys in the Likud are very powerful and can move mountains among the MKs and Ministers, but in the end I cannot see it being approved. It would be bad for the country as a precedent, and while perhaps in Bet Shemesh they are looking for a narrower solution, the government has to keep a broader perspective on things and cannot let this happen.

The third item:
Aliza Bloch (remember her?) is suing Naftali Bennet and Habayit Hayehudi for leaving her in tremendous debt and not fulfilling their commitments to her. I am not surprised. I hope she wins her case.

in Bet Shemesh election news...

Eli Cohen, candidate for the position of mayor of Bet Shemesh, put out his jingle for the month of Adar - using a famous Purim tune "Vnahafoch hu", and wrote that this is precisely our goal - to bring about a reversal for the city of Bet Shemesh - instead of extremism, openness; instead of fighting, discussion; instead of favoring associates, fair and equal treatment of all.. the month of Adar will be a month of change in Bet Shemesh..

the song:


sure enough, his song was quick to draw criticism from his opponents and detractors. People wrote in on his Facebook page accusing him of using Judaism and its songs as an ax to grind with... of course the other side has no problem using Judaism for their political purposes - their signs all over the neighborhood excerpt a verse right out of the megilla calling on everyone to gather together and protect their lives (ostensibly from the attack of Haman and his supporters)...



only one side is allowed to use Judaism and Torah for their election propaganda..

and in other Bet Shemesh news...

the upcoming elections is having an effect on the planned "million man rally" of the Haredi community to protest against Netanyahu and the new draft law being passed.

According to reports in Kikar and Bechadrei, they are having trouble scheduling the rally. The Gerrer Rebbe insists the rally be on a Sunday, so that they can have simultaneous rallies  in other locations around the world, something that is only possible on Sunday when people are not working.

That leaves only two Sundays in the immediate future, and both are problematic:
 * this coming Sunday is Rosh Chodesh and selichos cannot be said on Rosh Chodesh (and that would optimally be a main feature of the rally)
 * the following Sunday which is right before Bet Shemesh elections and might adversely affect preparations and motivation - it would take the askanim away from their preparations, and it might increase non-haredi motivation to go out and vote. From another perspective, the rally can also contain a call for rallying around Bet Shemesh in order to oppose the government - motivate locals to vote and work for the Haredi success in Bet Shemesh while also encouraging others form around the country to go help out in Bet Shemesh (without voting).. but ti seems the non-haredi motivation is a greater concern than the haredi motivation - maybe they figure every haredi resident will be going out to vote and they dont need any additional motivation.

It looks like the decision will be to make the rally sooner rather than later, and it will be this coming Sunday, and they will say tehillim without selichos.

.

I have heard both Eli Cohen and Benny Rabinovitz (a haredi spokesman recently appointed as spokesman of Rav Shteinman) speak a lot recently on different radio shows.. Everything they say here, I have heard them say time and again in other interviews.

I sort of like this Rabinovitz fellow.He frames the issue here in an interesting way.. my two comments are:
1. I am impressed that he throws criticism at the haredi community, saying that they should stop acting like everything is elections of the shtieble.. even though it won't help (as far as becoming liked by the establishment)
2. he tries to minimize the seriousness. even while admitting there was illegal activity, he plays it down by saying it was not really forgery. forgery is only when a ballot box has 250 voters registered on it but pulls in 300 votes - not when it has the right number of votes but the wrong people were the ones who voted, and its not so bad to let someone else vote for you, though it is illegal....

Eli Cohen wrote this letter as a response to a rabbi after the one sided terrible sinas chinam and sheker being spread by Chadash and the ‎Abubol for Mayor campaign

To: Rabbi XXXX shlita
Re: Clarification

In light of the libelous, hate filled, fabricated and unprecedented attacks against me from the
activists in the campaign of my opponent, and as they themselves state they are only doing so out of propaganda considerations, I hereby declare:

1. I have consistently spoken out for the Haredi community and at every juncture in my public
life I aided the Haredi community as much as I was able, and G-d willing I will continue to aid the Haredi community in the future, as per its needs with no discrimination G-d forbid. Just as I aided the Biala Rebbe at the request of Rabbi Litzman, when I served in the position of the Director General of the Aliyah and Klita department in the Jewish Agency. The opposite is true as I will prove that permanent structures for the Torah and educational institutions that today are housed in caravans are definitely attainable.

2. The spirit of the Shabbat that is so unique to Beit Shemesh was always important to me and that was the basis upon which I raised my family. In contrast to the libelous, false and malicious words said, I never expressed any desire to institute public transportation on Shabbat nor do I support any form of public chillul Shabbat, as it is clear to me that our city has and always has had a traditional Jewish atmosphere.

3. With regard to the Nahari Law and the status of Yeshivot, I would like to clarify in a clear manner, that the Torah world was always important to me and close to my heart and therefore I will work as hard as I can to find the public financing in order to maintain the law in its present form.

4. All of the talk concerning the alleged stopping of construction for the Haredi population is based on false rumors. However I said and continue to claim, that we should build for Haredim as well as for other populations such as newcomers and young couples from Beit Shemesh, the children of the founders and builders of the city, out of the supreme value of “Doing what is good and just” as it says in the Torah.

5. In contrast to the distortions of the truth presented to Hagaon Rav Shteinman that were published and exposed, I have never been supported by Lapid and Yesh Atid. The absolute opposite is the truth: I rejected a generous offer from the Yesh Atid party out of a desire to build a positive relationship with the Haredi public.

It is important to note that the real issue with regard to the municipal elections in our city is
the professional management of the city, out of a policy of equality, transparency and honesty. All
attempts to divert the discussion to a war of religion and mudslinging, stem from irresponsible machers and spin doctors that are setting one group against the other, without considering the future of the city and the need to live
together in harmony on the day after the elections. It is my hope that these sincere words from the depth of my heart will fall on receptive ears that seek to hear the truth as it is.

In peace and brotherhood
Eli Cohen



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Donate to the Schneider Hospital so I can run the Schneider benefit marathon..

5+ years ago, prior to the previous elections, the candidates running for the position of mayor of Bet Shemesh held a debate. An actual debate, American style. It left a lot to be desired in its format and especially in the moderation, but it was definitely something that is rarely seen here in Israel.

There has been no debate this time around, but there is a sort of online debate - both Moshe Abutbol and Eli Cohen have written pieces for the Jerusalem Post... not really a debate. not a debate at all, actually, but as close as we are going to get.

Moshe Abutbol

Eli Cohen

I have not seen an article by the third candidate Meir Balayish.


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Donate to the Schneider Hospital so I can run the Schneider benefit marathon..

Moshe Abutbol and his four doctors might be proud of their program to put some translators into City Hall so English speakers will have someone to talk to in their own language, but with Eli Cohen as mayor English speakers wont need intermediaries and translators to get by - he himself speaks English, as do many of the people around him!




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Donate to the Schneider Hospital so I can run the Schneider benefit marathon..

PM Benjamin Netanyahu released a statement saying that he supports Eli Cohen for mayor of Bet Shemesh!

The local news media, Shopping Mekomi, published on their Facebook page Netanyahu's announcement in support of Eli Cohen for mayor and in support of the Likud for city council.

Here is the real story of why I am voting for Eli Cohen as mayor of Bet Shemesh...

About 10 months ago I was introduced to Eli Cohen. I was brought to a small meeting, with about 10 other people though some of them knew him already, to meet him, hear his background, his ideas and his vision, and to talk about what we wanted from the next mayor.

Most of the people in the room, myself included, described some of the problems of the city - be it clean streets and parks, be it roads full of potholes, be it the falling socio-economic rating of the city, or whatever else - expressed their main issue being we want to live in a normal city - no fighting, no extremism, crazy fights over mehadrin buses, fighting over where schools can and cannot be located, and pointing to Mayor Moshe Abutbol's main failing being in that area - the city has gotten far more extremist under his leadership. I am tired of cringing when I tell people I am from Bet Shemesh.

I am tired of having to explain that it is only a small group of crazies, but they are very loud and cause harm to the haredim as much as, or maybe even more, they cause to the rest of the city. I, as did most others is the room that night, said I want to live in a normal city. Clean, well run, diverse, and normal.

So what happened?

I think that as the campaign got off the ground and it took a direction of running on the platform of being a professional I simply got caught up in that idea. Sure, I have written and talked about Moshe Abutbol's failings in giving in to extremism, especially regarding the Orot school incident, in private to people, but not really as the main idea. I think I got caught up in the campaign theme of professionalism as being the main idea. But it is not, for me..

I have refused to participate in online discussions fighting about who does or does not get credit for the various advances in Bet Shemesh in the past few years, such as new malls and road development. While surely one can argue who precisely deserves the credit, I felt uncomfortable doing so, as if denying Abutbol any credit for the successes of his term rings of being ungrateful. Even if I don't like him for some things and think someone else can do it better, it does not mean I have to deny him the credit for his successes, or at least some of the credit.

Nobody is perfect, and no mayor anywhere in the world, as successful as he or she might be, has perfect success in every aspect of running his, or her, city. Every mayor has successes and failures. I am even sure that Eli Cohen, as professional and experienced as he is, won't be perfect and not everything will work out as planned. Running any city, especially Bet Shemesh, is complex and so many things are involved in every aspect of the city management, and not everything can be changed so easily or quickly. Somethings will work and some won't. That's just the way it is.

That being said, even on purely a professional level, I think Eli Cohen will be a better mayor than Moshe Abutbol has been. I disagree with the retort that at least Abutbol is better than Dani Vaknin was - because so what? Yes, I agree he is better than Vaknin was, but looking to be better than Vaknin is setting a very low bar, and accomplishing that is not a reason to deserve a second term.

But that is not the main issue.

The main issue is that Moshe Abutbol has allowed the city to go the way of the crazies. We are living in a city where extremists have the upper hand, where I have to explain myself when telling colleagues in Tel Aviv or elsewhere where I live, when someone comes from elsewhere to meet with me in Bet Shemesh he confirms whether the directions I gave him will take him through an area where they are throwing stones.

So what changed? Why am I suddenly realizing that this is the main issue and not the idea of professionalism that I and everyone else has been touting all along?

I think there were two things in the past few days that happened.

1. Suddenly I saw laid out very clearly Moshe Abutbol's successes. As part of the campaign, people arguing on behalf of Moshe Abutbol have pointed to a series of successes (ignoring the failures, of course, but that is besides the point). And when looking at the list of successes, which are almost completely limited to the "big picture" and not the small details of the situation of the city, I thought to myself so he has some failures, but look at all these successes. Maybe I am wrong. Maybe he deserves to keep his seat. Eli won't be perfect either.

and

2. the following guest post was originally posted on Facebook on a page supporting Moshe Abutbol (I got the author's permission to post it below), and that reminded me of how I got involved in all this in the first place, and that the real issue was not whether Moshe Abutbol cleaned the streets well enough or not, but did he give the crazy extremists too much power and recognition. And he did. And with all the other problems, many of which I only became aware of because of my involvement with the campaign, the issue of the extremists is really the problem with Bet Shemesh.

Saul said it better than I can, so continue reading Saul's post below..

a guest post from Saul Behr

I'm going to cut through a lot of fluff and distill down to the core of the reason why I'm voting for Eli Cohen rather than Moshe Abutbul.

You can post as much as you like about the "fantastic" achievements of Abutbul's term of office: Road 10, Kenyon Neimi, Rama Gimmel, whatever. Frankly, I don't give a ki hu zeh about that. Because to me, the defining theme of Abutbul's term of office has been that he has been as divisive and parochial a mayor as you could imagine.

Five years ago, hot on the heels of Barack Obama's successful employment of the tactic, Abutbul came to power on a similar hopey-changey ticket, where he posed as the "Mayor for everyone". He had gathered a broad base of support, not just from charedim, but also from many secular and traditional parties. I seriously considered voting for him, though I eventually voted for Lerner, and when he won, I was just glad that Vaknin had been ousted.

Like Obama, Abutbul pulled a bait-and-switch on us. Everything about his stewardship of this city for the past 5 years has been about furthering the narrow UTJ/Shas agenda. I'm not saying he did nothing for other parts of the city, but whenever the extreme charedi agenda came into conflict with anyone else, Abutbul reflexively took a position to either bolster or appease the extremists. Examples: Near lynch of Natalie Mashiach, Orot Banot, bus stonings, Residu Center, the Ma'ar, exercise equipment being removed from parks when extremists schreied about tznius, general contempt for the law in RBS-B. And don't hide behind the argument that law enforcement isn't the mayor's job: if you have a mayor who makes it a priority to stamp out crime, violence and intimidation, then he can do for RBS-B what Rudy Giuliani did for Central Park.

As a result, from having the broadest ever coalition at the start of his tenure, every single non-Charedi party has since left the coalition, as well as Tov. Take a look at who is supporting him now: only the charedi parties. Not a single non-charedi political party, NGO or other interest group is endorsing Abutbul.

On the other hand, Eli Cohen, whom the Abutbul campaign keeps baselessly accusing of being anti-charedi, has support from every sector of the population, including the charedim (Tov).

Does that not give you pause for thought?

Of course it's important to have proven managerial skills, but as far as I'm concerned, it's far, far more important that the mayor of the city should be doing the job with the interests of all its residents at heart, not just the sector that elected him. A divisive mayor causes sin'as chinam, in both directions.

As it happens, Eli Cohen satisfies both requirements. Moshe Abutbul fails on both.

everybody wants to be heard, but nobody wants to listen..

I admit that I am a bit surprised by the number of people in the haredi-anglo community who have sent me comments saying they are supporting Eli Cohen but can only do so quietly and anonymously, for understandable reasons, as well as people who want me to post things for them here. Not everything can be posted, for a variety of reasons, but here is another...

Guest Post by Anonymous Haredi-Anglo in RBS

I attended a meeting along with about seventy others with the current mayor Moshe Abubtol in the new Anglo shul Shaarei Tefillah last night. He had apparently requested to come and hear the residents' issues and to address them. He was assisted by Aharon Ungar who gave a brief introduction, including the illogical claim that Eli Cohen would open entertainment on Shabbos, then allow shops to be open on Shabbos which would force their traditional workers to work then, and then allow public transportation on Shabbos which would bring in people from the non-religious moshavim to Beit Shemesh. Also Dr Dov Rosen translated to and for him.