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But if you are a religious person, of any religion, who believes in prayer, it seems like a house of worship, of any type, would be a bad place for staging such a hostage incident and threatening to blow it up. If you believe in prayer, it seems a house of worship would be a place where all that is concentrated, making your terrorist work all that much difficult, with the odds stacked against you.

Thankfully the hostage incident in Congregation Bet Israel ended peacefully, and I consider the death of the terrorist as a peaceful ending, because nobody else was hurt in the process. Good work by the FBI and other security forces, with the backing of God saying not in My house, urged on by all the prayers on behalf of the hostages.

The news is reporting on the consideration of a plea bargain in the Netanyahu cases that are currently in court. Supposedly there is some offer on the table and the two sides are considering it. 

Netanyahu's supporters, or at least many of them, don't want him to sign it and are protesting the possibility. They want him to stay in court and prove his innocence. 

Netanyahu's opponents, or many of them, don't want him to be offered a deal and want him to go through the lengthy court process and be found guilty and sit for many years in jail. They are protesting that a deal was [supposedly] offered and want it pulled and taken off the table.

While I wont offer Netanyahu or the prosecution any advice as to what should be in such a deal and at what point they can come to an agreement and sign, I see nothing wrong with coming to an agreement and getting this case out of the courts. Plea arrangements are common and Netanyahu, and the Prosecution,  has as much a right to making such an arrangement as does any other person in this situation.

It seems Rav Kook is known for his healthy eating habits, insisting on fresh foods without preservatives and other chemicals. 

Rav Kook has spoken out before against the eating of dried and sweetened fruits on Tu B'Shvat calling them poisonous and saying one is not allowed to buy them. This is due to the chemicals in them. Rav Kook has added that one should throw such dried fruits into the trash and it is not considered "bal tashchis" - being wasteful.

To that end, Rav Kook has now paskened that if one is going toe at such dried fruits on Tu B'Shvat (or any other time) the appropriate bracha for these fruits would be Shehakol and NOT Haetz as they are not considered fruit. One who buys such dried fruits is assisting in committing a sin and these destroy the world and our health.

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SPOILER ALERT below

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I feel like there are so many details that would have to be worked out to make this a viable program that it will never happen, even if it were to pass into law (which it almost definitely will not). How long does the owner have to live on the land, and if he doesn't but rents it out or lets it sit empty and himself or herself lives somewhere else, will they take it back? With thousands of soldiers joining and being released from the army every year, how quickly will they run out of land to give out, and then what - cancel the law? If it should pass, what are all these people going to do with all this land - will the State build new cities and towns for them or will a bunch of people just hold title to land in the desert but actually be able to use it? Will other interest groups who do not serve in the army get the program adjusted so it includes them even without army service?

It does seem that this is actually a rehash of a law proposal made by Gila Gamliel several years ago that never got passed. The question is if the Likud wants to show support for development of the Negev, why did they do nothing about it the past 12 years when they were in power?

Every year in honor of Tu B'Shvat the State of Israel, and KKL, goes on a planting binge around the country. This year it seems that the RAAM party, headed by Mansour Abbas and a member of the government coalition, expressed opposition to planting trees in the Bedouin corridor down south, saying it damages the land and the livelihood of the Arabs in the area.

Some reports say that the Bennett government capitulated to the threats and demands and canceled the planting events in the area. Other reports say the planting is set to continue and was only paused for a couple of days but has been restarted. And other reports say that the planting was actually stopped by the Netanyahu government in December 2020 when Amir Peretz was appointed to be in charge of the development of the area.

The Likud has jumped on the issue and Likud MKs went south yesterday for a planting ceremony to protest the Bennett government, in addition to sharp criticism leveled at Bennett for caving in to Abbas.

And MK Uri Maklev (UTJ) then criticized his political partners for this form of protest. Maklev protested saying that violating the Shmitta is out of bounds even in the name of protesting the Bennett government.

Perhaps the real reason the Arabs were opposed to the planting is because of it being a shmitta year! As they say, the work of the righteous is done by other people - צדיקים מלאכתם נעשית יל ידי אחרים.

I dont know how far south they were though, as a good portion of the south is not even considered halachically Eretz Yisrael. It is possible they did not even violate the shmitta in the process!

I remember there being a shark, a seal, an eagle and a kestrel. 

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