Rav Shalom Cohen has been quoted as having said, allegedly, that we do not need an army, and it is the tefillos that protect klal yisroel. He said this, supposedly, when someone asked him at a rally to say a tefilla for the soldiers.

I cant believe Rav Cohen would say such a thing. I have to assume he is being misquoted. Otherwise he sounds ridiculous and perhaps senile.

Of course the tefillos protect Israel. That does not negate the need for an army. Perhaps the tefillos are in addition to the army's protection, or maybe the tefillos are what make the army successful in its missions, or not (God forbid).

Even at the time of the highest level of giluy shechina and when bnei yisroel was ever at the highest spiritual level, the Jewish nation (when it was self-ruled) had an army. At the times of King David, Moshe Rabbeinu, King Saul, King Solomon, and throughout the history of the kings of Israel the nation had an army. God requires it of us, as part of our hishtadlus and as part of the natural order of how the world works. One can say perhaps that one shouldnt rely on the army as much as we or they do, but to say the army is unnecessary is just ridiculous.

Or perhaps Hamas should be making the ceasefire with Rav Cohen. The Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal said he would make a ceasefire with Israel only after Israel is demilitarized...

I must say, I am pretty impressed..

the FAA decision to cease flights to Israel was entirely non-political and only safety related. As soon as Ted Cruz threatened the FAA with an investigation and to hold up nominees with certain questions, their non-political decision was immediately reversed. Suddenly they decided the threat had gone away and the slies above Israel were once again friendly...

amazing

in honor of El Al flying when other airlines wont..

US Secretary of State John Kerry is a very daring man. He is willing to risk it all for the sake of a possible ceasefire.

After the FAA decided it was too dangerous to fly to Israel and therefore grounded all flights (interesting that they haven't grounded flights to the Ukraine - where two planes were actually shot out of the air), John kerry said that would not stop him, and he today flew to Israel.

John Kerry was willing to take the very serious risk of having his airplane shot out of the sky by a missile, for the sake of peace.

Thank you for your determination, Mr. Kerry.

A generous person from Netivot, Tomer Sagron, heard that the soldiers fighting in gaza have not had the opportunity to shower in a few days. He went down to the border with a truck and massive tanks of water, and set up a field shower for soldiers...

the real Hamas victory over Israel as a result of the FAA flight cancellation is that the the Israeli skies are empty, while the skies over Gaza are full of airplanes (F16s) flying..

oh wait

News reports are saying that President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas has sent his family over to Jordan, to be out of harms way over here in Israel and the Palestinian Territories.

There has been a lot of scoffing because of the news report. Look at what kind of a leader he is, sending away his family to safety while everyone else is stuck here suffering...

I have 2 comments:

1. what suffering were they worried about? The conflict is in gaza, not Ramallah and Judea and Samaria (aka the West Bank). Do they know something we do not? is the conflict going to expand for some reason? what were they afraid of?

2. I think he is a great leader. I think he did the right thing sending away his people. I thought all his followers should follow suit and, on their own free will, choose to leave the country and go live elsewhere. If enough of his followers follow his example, many of the problems in the Middle East will be solved by default.

somebody donated tzitzis for soldiers fighting in Gaza. yeshiva guys from the Mir Yeshiva are spending their breaks tying the new tzitzis.

obscenity alert...