Rav Shmuel Eliyahu, Chief Rabbi of Tzfat, issued a psak this morning decreeing that tachanun should not be said during the services today. Additionally we should all make the bracha of Hatov V'Hameitiv, and say Mizmor L'Toda.

Minister Amichai Eliyahu today suggested that we go nuclear and put an end to Gaza, and the hostages being held there would be a price we would just have to pay, casualties of war.

According to his widow, slain Iranian nuclear chief scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh wanted to die the death of a holy martyr.

The significance of the gas deal with Greece and Cyprus is that we are turning Israel into a nuclear superpower... uhhh, a superpower of energy

  -- PM Benjamin Netanyahu, in today's government meeting..

The hot debate today is did Netanyahu slip up saying "nuclear" and then correct it quickly, or was he letting it out in a way that looks like a mistake but is significant enough to let everyone, at least those who need to, know..

the news today is all about Israel striking and destroying a nuclear reactor in Syria ten years ago. At the time everyone "knew" but now that it has been officially acknowledged, everyone officially knows.

I have been thinking about what I can say about this matter. There are all sorts of angles worth discussing. I have decided to mention just one aspect of the story.

As part of the release, it became known that the politicians (Ehud Olmert, Ehud Barak, Tzippi Livni, and others) making the decisions sent Eli Yishai to Rav Ovadia Yosef to inform him and to give the mission his blessing and prayer. In addition, the IDF Chief of Staff asked Rav Shmuel Rabinovitch to daven for the success of the mission.

All these people, secular politicians and generals, leaders of a secular army and a largely secular state, none of them known for being even somewhat traditional, went to rabbonim for brachas and prayers prior to engaging in such a critical mission.

Maybe they don't talk about God and His part in modern State affairs as often as we might like. Maybe we accuse them often of forgetting God's part and being too focused on "my power and my might" - kochi v'otzem yadi - but at the end of the day, when the going gets tough, when it comes down to anything important, they value and ask for the blessings and prayers of the religious leaders and value their part in affairs and consider them as crucially necessary as any other aspect in preparation for critical missions.

The Iranians have put out a video of a simulation of an attack on Israel..
In the simulation they shoot rockets at us, targeting Tel Aviv, Haifa and Dimona (the site of the supposed nuclear reactor) - and while Israel shoots down some rockets with the Iron Dome system,  many get through and destroy Israel's major cities.
I do not know why Jerusalem is not included - maybe it is too sacred for them to destroy or maybe because of the many Arabs who live there..



From the website Iran's View (The Persian Perspective):

While the new round of nuclear talks between Iran and the P5+1 – five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany – begins in the Geneva on Thursday, Iranian state TV aired a documentary about Iran’s missile capabilities in confronting external threats and responding to any strikes against its soil.The one hour long documentary includes a video simulation of Iranian respond to an airstrike by Israel against Iran’s nuclear facilities.Ignoring international law Israel repeatedly threatened to bomb Iran. In 2012 Israeli military leaders have conducted a war game simulating a strike on Iranian nuclear facilities.In the Iranian video simulation of responding to possible Israeli air strike, Iran used its Sijjil long range missile to hit critical targets in Tel Aviv.

I hope the breakdown of talks in Europe with Iran announced last night is actually a good thing. If everything is as it seems (and it rarely is), Iran would have gained everything while giving nothing. It is amazing that it fell apart because of France''s refusal to accept the terms - France, of all countries. Good for them. It is a strange day when we seem to be able to count more on France than on the United States to do the right thing.

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

Pretty doomsday stuff going on over at the Herzliya Conference. With Chief of Staff Benny Gantz speaking yesterday at the conference describing the threats against Israel and explaining the need to continue disrupting Iran, today head of military intelligence Aviv Kochavi spoke about how 200,000 missiles are pointed at Israel at all times, the threat from Iran and what Iran currently has available and how quickly they could make progress to building nuclear devices.

The following video clip is a depiction of what a nuclear attack on Israel might have looked like. It has been up for a few days, and I think it is pretty difficult to watch, which is why I have not posted it here until now. With the speeches given by Gantz and Kochavi it seems more realistic. If you are overly sensitive, feel free to ignore...

Quote Of The Day

I don't think Iran would develop a nuclear weapon, since it would be of little use to it... What can Iran do with a nuclear weapon? For example, will they hit Israel? How many Palestinians will die? And if you think Iran hits Israel, their cities will be safe? if Tehran were to attack Israel, it would be destroyed the next day.

-- Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the absolute monarch of Dubai

There is a lot happening with Iran and nukes today:

1. Turkey is now saying it is unfair to pressure Iran about its nukes.
2. Turkey is saying Israel threatened to bomb Palestinians with nukes.
3. France said the whole attempt to make a deal with Iran is to stop Israel from bombing them.
4. Libya/Qadhafi has said that the Palestinians should be allowed to have nuclear weapons.
5. Russia has said today that Iran has the right to develop nukes.
6. Iran announced they are developing atomic fuel.
7. (probably more that I am not aware of)

I wonder why the sudden spike... is there something unusual developing?

In today's newspaper there was a report of a study some organization had done (I no longer have a copy of the paper and I do not remember the name of the organization that conducted the study) regarding the forecast of what would happen in the event of nuclear war in the Middle East.

The study came to the conclusion that Israel, if attacked by Iran and Syria, would suffer tremendously with great losses. We would lose, the study estimated, about 800,000 people from direct nuclear hits, plus more from fallout and other damage. The center of losses would be focused in the major cities of Haifa, Tel Aviv and Ashdod.

On the other hand, the study continued, Iran would suffer much greater losses. The study concluded that we would wipe Iran out completely.

The study is based on the idea that Iran would be in possession of up to 50 fairly small nuclear warheads with which to attack Israel. Israel, on the other hand, would have up to an arsenal of over 200 nuclear warheads of the larger variety of over 1 megaton each, with which to attack Iran.

I hope that the balance is even more in our favor and the report is being overly cautious. I am just curious how they came to these estimates considering Israel has never admitted to having nuclear weapons and how many we have even if we do. As well, why do they assume Iran would only have small warheads available and why only up to 50?

It was kind of funny to see the maps in the paper depicting the expected attacks and ranges. Our little Israel was placed next to Iran which is much bigger.
The map of Israel showed nuclear hits in the three main cities (other than Jerusalem - I am not sure why they would not strike Jerusalem. I guess because of the Arab population there and maybe because of the Temple Mount). They had these squiggly lines showing how far around the cities would be affected.
The map of Iran showed a nuclear hit only on Tehran which is in northern Iran. Yet the squiggly lines were depicted as destroying the whole rest of the country, not just the immediate area around the hit (as it did by Israel). If Israel hits Tehran and can destroy the whole country from Tehran, that means the countries to the north (Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan and others) might be in danger as well. I guess that is what they mean when they say "Woe to the wicked, and woe to his neighbor".

Again, I hope, for my sake, the people doing the study were not being overly optimistic but realistic, but the contrast seems extreme.

I hope it never comes to this point and we never have to find out how accurate the report was....

A couple of weeks ago in the Mishpacha magazine, there was an article about the Israeli operation to bomb OSIRAK - the Iraqi nuclear reactor, and some of the religious aspects of it.


In this weeks Mishpacha there was a "Letter to the Editor" in which the author relates a fascinating story related to the above article. I felt I had to share the story with you.


I am going to translate the letter (from Hebrew) as it was printed. I do not know if the details are accurate and how much of it the writer was actually privy to, but this is what he wrote:


In that year, 1981, on Lag B'Omer, as the Holy Rebbe Rav Moshe Mordechai of Lelov was leaving the grave site of the RASHB"I (Rav Shimon Bar Yohai), he turned to a group of his chassidim and said, "I have accepted upon myself something that is beyond my capabilities, but I had no choice."


The chassidim, obviously, had no idea what he was talking about. The rebbe continued, "If one fights with the power of evil, one is capable of overcoming it, but one must take into account that there will be casualties."


A few days later, at midnight, the Rebbe (who lived in the Geula neighborhood of Jerusalem), took a taxi to the Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital. He went up to the Neurological ward and went from room to room checking everything out. Without saying anything and no explanation, he completed examining the ward. When he finished, he got a taxi and went back to his home in Geula.


A couple of weeks later, on the eve of the Shavuos holiday (this was June 7, 1981 - the day of the attack), the Rebbe told his gabbai to call Prime Minister Menachem Begin and to bless him with good fortune and success for the operation.


The gabbai did as instructed. When Begin received the message, his face fell in distress. He was concerned that the greatest State secret had somehow been leaked.


As the holiday of Shavuos began, the chassidim in the shul of the Rebbe noticed that something unusual was happening. The Rebbe asked a number of times if anybody had heard any news. The Rebbe turned often to the Aron Kodesh. He opened and closed it a number of times. His prayers were more intense than usual.


At the end of the holiday, the Rebbe was informed of the success of the operation to blow up the nuclear reactor. Immediately after he heard the news, he became completely paralyzed.


He was immediately taken to the hospital - Hadassah Ein Kerem. He was placed in care in the Neurological ward and remained there, in complete paralysis, for 6 years, until his death.


Only then did his chassidim understand his cryptic messages from Lag B'Omer, and his behavior over the holiday. One cannot imagine how much affliction the holy tzadikkim take upon themselves in order to save and protect other Jews.

A British newspaper, The Sunday Times, published information today saying that they have leaked information that Israel is planning a nuclear strike on the Iranian nuclear facility.

Needless to say, this information made waves and spread like wildfire. The PM refused to deny it or confirm it. Some think the information was leaked for the specific purpose of being a veiled threat against the Iranians, so they should realize "we are serious" and prompt them to back off their plans.

This has been all over the news today and is splashed all over the front of all the newspapers.

I consider this media irresponsibility. The media, in an attempt to sell newspapers (and advertising) look for the splashiest, most provocative information and publish it. We constantly read about "secret" meetings between enemy countries (specifically Israel and various Arab countries, but also other warring states) that are no longer secret because of the newspaper and his leaking source.

There is an issue of national responsibility and that should be preserved. If the national representative feels the need to meet secretly with the rep of another country, it is because he feels that the publicity will only harm his efforts. Yet the next day that meeting is frequently no longer secret and all gains are washed away because of a leak (granted, sometimes it is media spin and is intentional for the purpose of letting people think you are actually doing something like holding secret meetings).

In this case we have a similar situation. I read in the newspaper today a glaring headline saying that a source says Israel is already practicing a nuclear strike in test sites in preparation of an attack on Iranian nuclear facilities.

Because we successfully destroyed the Osirak nuclear reactor in an amazingly successful strike, everyone is just assuming that it is no problem to take out the Iranian problem.

They forget that a large part of the success in Osirak was the element of surprise (aside from the element of G-d). Nobody had ever heard of such plans and the attack was executed with such precision that the whole world was shocked and surprised, not just the Iraqis.

Yet ,because of that, we have no element of surprise today in the case of Iran, yet everyone expects a similar attack, despite the more difficult conditions. All the media can do is talk about it. Does the press think that the Iranians do not read Israeli newspapers? Maybe they do not read the Sunday Times in the U.K.?

Such leaked information only harms the cause and there are times where it would be more prudent for people to keep the information secret.

I only hope that it really was leaked for the sole purpose of scaring the Iranians. If Israel really is planning and practicing an attack, that leak will likely be at fault if such an attack takes place and fails.