------------------------------------------------------
Reach thousands of readers with your ad by advertising on Life in Israel

------------------------------------------------------

  -- Minister Yitzchak Goldknopf, after threatening again that the Draft Law must be passed before the budget or else.

It actually looked for a moment as if they were coming down from the tree once again as yesterday anonymous UTJ people commented that the law doesnt need to be passed before the budget but they need to see it advanced and see that it is being taken seriously. Goldknopf seems to have shot that down today.

On the one hand, this might be the first time he is saying to draft those who do not learn. I think many would have agreed to a compromise a long time ago had that been the policy in the Haredi leadership - let the ones who do not learn go to the army and the ones who do would be exempt. Unfortunately they always protected the ones who do not learn as well. 

Goldknopf can always be counted on to come up with gems that will upset many

------------------------------------------------------
Reach thousands of readers with your ad by advertising on Life in Israel

------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------
Reach thousands of readers with your ad by advertising on Life in Israel

------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------
Reach thousands of readers with your ad by advertising on Life in Israel

------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------
Reach thousands of readers with your ad by advertising on Life in Israel

------------------------------------------------------

The Attorney General has some problems with the decision saying due process was not followed, but I dont care about that. They can redo it following due process, or however that works. This seems to be a big fight right now but this doesn't interest me.

What I do find interesting is that just a few days ago Finance Minister Smotritch stated that they will not spend another agora on defensive measures, on "miguniyot", which is why he wont approve the defensive measures requested for the Sderot train. Smotritch said defensive measures make the IDF not try to win, and the IDF needs to be int he mindset to win. 

And just a few days later they are approving spending more than one agora on defensive measures in Judea and Samaria by the communities largely in the constituency of Betzalel Smotritch.

So, not for the train or anywhere else, and not in the Galil that is actually under fire right now, but yes in the towns of Smotritch's people. 

Hmmmmm...

I have no problem with his sense of morals. We can discuss whether Israel discriminates against Arabs or not. Arab Israeli citizens have full rights. Palestinians are not citizens of Israel so dont have the same rights, pretty much like in any country. 

If he feels that a country based on ethnicity is bad, I can potentially be ok with that. Discrimination is usually bad. 

But when you only call out Israel for ethnic discrimination and not any of the tens of other countries that do it, that's antisemitism, not morals. Do the Palestinians not discriminate based on ethnicity in their territories? Do the Iranians? Syrians? Iraqi? Sudanese? And many more countries can be added to the list. Where are they mentioned in this book?

And no, I am not going to read the book. The excerpts form the interview were more than enough to know there is no need.

a soldier spotted and identified Douglass Murray int he field and stopped to salute him for his honesty and bravery supporting Israel in the media

------------------------------------------------------
Reach thousands of readers with your ad by advertising on Life in Israel

------------------------------------------------------

Yom Kippur eve in shul. In this shul they sell the rights to open the aron for Kol Nidre rather than just giving the honor to the synagogue elders or wise men, as is common in some shuls. 

The gabbai is auctioning off the honors, including the honor of opening the aron kodesh for Kol Nidre and the bidders are doing what they do and things are getting exciting as they often do. Suddenly a voice calls out from the women's section of the shul with a high bid of 17000nis.

The bid was offered by Yelena Trufanova. Yelena had been a hostage held by Hamas who was released in one of the early rounds of hostage deals. Her son Sasha Trufanova is still being held hostage in Gaza. 

People started saying, let her win, leave her alone, her son is a hostage, she's the mother of a hostage, let her be, let her have it. people were stunned. Besides for the unusual site of a woman bidding for one of the honors (at least in many shuls it is unusual), now it is also a situation connected to the hostages. People were stunned momentarily into silence. After a moment the crowd recovered and got back to the bidding. 

The show must go on, and the top bid is now 17k, but with money going to the shul for covering a years worth of operating expenses, it was not just going to stop there. People continued to bid until someone won the auction for opening the aron kodesh to the tune of 21000nis.

As they prepared to start the services, the chazan was going to say a  blessing announcing the buyer, but instead of taking it for himself he dedicated it to the mother of the hostage who had bid against him - Yelena. Presumably he was still opening the Ark but on behalf of Yelena. The chazan then turned to Yelena to bless her, and she dedicated it to her son Sasha.

The shul and congregants then dedicated the entire set of Yom Kippur services to Sasha Alexander ben Leah Yelena to come home safe and healthy, in body and mentally. Amen

As part of a trip of the families of hostages to Bnei Braq before the holiday of Sukkot, we came to Rabbanit Koldetsky to get a blessing. By the way she mentioned that her husband, Rav Yitzchak Koldetsky has not slept on his bed since Simchat Torah (Oct 7 2023). The son in law of Rav Chaim Kanievsky z"l, a talmid chacham and rav in his own right, over 70 years old, decided to sleep on a board he placed on top of the mattress. Already for over a year....He remembers what happened. Daily.

You can go into the room to for yourselves. "How can one sleep comfortably when we have no idea how and where the hostages are sleeping?" Rebbetzin Koldetsky said...

This was always intriguing but it never seemed to be more than a theory and it always seemed somewhat like a bit of a crackpot theory. Over the years though my curiosity was always piqued when hearing Columbus news or reading things that referenced Columbus and in the back of my mind I always tried to fit things in with the theory that he was Jewish.

This Reuters article is the jackpot, even though I know it is still premature and disputed.

According to the article, a group of researchers led by a forensics expert tested tiny DNA samples taken from his grave in the Seville Cathedral and announced their findings that Christopher Columbus and his son Hernando both have DNA traits of Jewish origin. 

ok! Exciting news! and yes, still under dispute, but we'll take historical heroes as Jews in the meantime. And in today's world this wont go down so well - a Jewish European colonizer and everything that followed with the Native Americans and all that.. but still, for me, this is exciting..

------------------------------------------------------
Reach thousands of readers with your ad by advertising on Life in Israel

------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------
Reach thousands of readers with your ad by advertising on Life in Israel

------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------
Reach thousands of readers with your ad by advertising on Life in Israel

------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------
Reach thousands of readers with your ad by advertising on Life in Israel

------------------------------------------------------