Reactions

As we hear the awful, horrible news, I just needed to put my thoughts out there. My neighbors are suffering the worst type of suffering, needing to bury their only son. Any problem I have pales in comparison.

The first issue is that tomorrow I need to explain what happened to my children.  How do you tell a 4 year old that her friend's brother is never coming back? 

Next, to all of you out there who are thinking of vocalizing the thought "look at all the achdut and good deeds that came from this tragedy" that what you are saying is "these poor innocent children had to die, and their parents had to suffer immeasurably because we are all assholes who can't be nice and civil to each other for 5 minutes."

Third, I am hearing celebratory fireworks from the surrounding Arab villages. Can we please not so kindly and subtly escort them out of here once and for all.  Frankly I am sick of people walking on eggshells talking about good Arabs. There may be 2 or 3 of them out there, but I would feel better if those couple of good ones were living somewhere else along with the vast majority who are evil worthless child killing pieces of shit.

While we are on the subject of our neighbors, can we stop using the term "bringing them to justice." There is no justice for child killers. There is no due process for someone who thinks that kidnapping and killing children is a legitimate form of protest. There is only death, preferably in a hail of bullets to the crotch. And the people who raised and educated these assholes should be forced to witness the family home bulldozed from the inside. They are equally guilty, as are the politicians who justify this sick twisted thought process.

Finally I am sad. Sad for the parents, sad for the siblings, sad for the friends, sad for the world that will no longer have these wonderful children around to watch them grow and contribute positively to our world that so desperately needs good people, sad for all the children who will lose their innocence tomorrow when we parents tell them about it, sad for all us parents who now have to go to sleep regretting every time we lost our temper or ignored our children, just as these poor parents will do, sad that we can't protect our children at all times from every bad thing, whether it is horrible, terrible news, or horrible terrible people, sad that these kids last moments on Earth were the worst moments of their lives. I hope that this is as sad as we get, and the parents are given the strength to deal with this horrible, senseless tragedy. 

The Empty Seat

This past Shabbat, like most Shabbatot, we invited another family for lunch. Just like most Shabbatot, the guests came and sat down where my daughter set their places.  Well almost everyone, one seat was empty, the seat of the oldest son who, like every other boy in his class, was spending the meal together.  That is every boy except one, the empty seat, the reason for the empty Shabbat greetings, where every greeting was not "Shabbat Shalom," but "any news?"

This morning, like most mornings, I walked my kids to school, and then went to Shul. Just like most mornings, the same group of people who have the luxury of not needing to leave before 8am to get to work or school showed up, wrapped in talitot and tefillin, ready to begin our day. Well, almost everyone was there, there was one empty seat, a seat occupied by a student on Sunday mornings and vacations, next to his father, was empty.

I sat in Shul this morning, like most mornings, with friends and neighbors, davening quietly, including the father next to the empty chair.  But this morning, instead of being able to go through our normal quiet davening routine, we were all disturbed and interrupted by the silent scream coming from the empty chair, the emptiness that filled the one minyan that is never crowded.

No rant today, That will come after our empty places are reoccupied by by our missing children.

My we see Gilad Michael, son of Bat-galim,
Yaakov Naftali, son of Rachel, and

Ayal, son of Iris T’shura,
returned safely and quickly to their homes and families.

Tag!

I was thinking about how I felt about Ariel Sharon last week.  For many of us, there is still a lot of anger at the man who was a hero and leader to many of us Settlers. We feel the hurt one feels when betrayed by a family member, and while he saved us, he also caused us tremendous pain. Personally, for many years, he was a hero to me. The time I was part of his security detail at a speaking engagement in Chicago was one of my proudest moments and greatest memories. That all changed on August 15th, 2005.  At that moment he became worse than all those that call for the evacuation of Judea and Samaria, all those that dilute the value of the life of a child just because they are raised over the "Green Line," the Pereses and Livnis and all the other Jewish Israeli politicians who would sell us out for meaningless words on a piece of paper and a Nobel Peace prize.  He became the Benedict Arnold of the Settler movement. Yet at the same time, we can't just erase the hero he once was as well. Many may have wished he would know firsthand the feeling of losing his home as well, but nobody would wish on him the fate he suffered. The irony of all the world leaders and leftist politicians sending condolences was not lost on me as I read the news last Sunday morning. There I saw 2 items in the news that seem connected, yet I haven't seen anyone else mention it.

The first item was the assault by the Arabs of Kusra on a group of Jews.
The second item being the death of former General and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

 The Jews that were attacked claim they were hiking from one Yishuv to another, while the Arabs claim that the Jews were on their way to carry out a price tag attack.  A price tag attack is an act of vandalism that has nationalistic motivations.  It is usually directed at local Arabs, or Israeli Civil Administration, to protest the evacuation of outposts and destruction of Jewish property.  According to CNN and Haaretz, these are acts of terror, on par with shooting and firebombing children.  Regardless of your position on these attacks (personally, I think they are stupid and don't help our cause), there are 3 things to keep in mind.

1. Over 90% of the attacks referred to as "Price Tag" are found to be cases of Arabs or leftists trying to frame the Right.
2.Price Tag didn't start after the Disengagement, it has actually been the policy of the Israeli government in the past.
3. The man that created and ran the original Price tag gang was none other than Ariel Sharon.

If Sharon had died 10 years ago, before he could have instituted the mass expulsion of Jews from their homes, far fewer people both in Israel and Worldwide would have mourned his death. While there would have been no mixed feelings from the right, leftists and even most Western leaders would have joined the Arab world in celebrating his death.  Until 2006, Sharon was best know for miraculous battlefield victories,  supporting the settlers to "conquer every hill," and leading Unit 101 during Israel's formative years.

That's right, since the Disengagement, the left has tried to bury one of Sharon's greatest legacies. From 1953-1955, Unit 101, under the command of Sharon carried out several deadly cross-border raids on both military and civilian targets in response to terror attacks on Israel.  The goal was to make the price of attacking Israelis so high that the Arabs could not afford to continue.  The Unit was so effective, that it was later merged with the Paratroopers, and many of their tactics are still taught to Israeli infantry and special forces today. So basically, Sharon's job, given to him by Ben-Gurion directly, was to run deadly price tag missions whenever there was an attack on Israelis, and it was effective.  For all of the Left's righteous indignation about the "price tag" attacks, it was a leftist Prime Minister, along with the etrog of the Left, Sharon, who put it to it's deadliest use in Israeli history.

Like I said at the beginning, I don't support the current version allegedly done by some of the Jews.  I think that spray-painting cars, cutting trees, and other such acts of vandalism are nothing more than criminal acts and don't discourage terror today. The idea of extracting a high cost, or institutionalizing collective punishment is nothing new in this region.  The seeds of the deterrent power of price tag attacks were sown by none other than Ariel Sharon. So while Obama and the Israeli left are sending their notes of condolence over the death of the man who fulfilled their wishes and dreams in sending Jews from their homes, let's mourn the loss of the real Ariel Sharon, the dedicated protector of Israel, who was willing to do whatever it took, and extract any price from the enemy, in defense of all of us.

If it ain't broke, the government can fix that.

A lot of hot air has been expended by various government officials about the real estate crisis recently. Every minister has a solution for the problem of out of control prices.  And every one of these solutions has one thing in common, they all show that nobody in the government has ever worked in real estate and construction.  Hearing our esteemed finance minister speak about the government setting up a company to build and market rental properties honestly drives me to drink.  Does anyone actually believe a man that thinks middle class problems are not enough money to vacation abroad more than once every couple of years has any concept of the type of people in the rental market, and what their needs are.  Honestly our government's answer to fixing the problem of rising prices has been to repeatedly raise the minimum needed for a down payment. this shows that nobody in the government or Bank of Israel has no concept of either the middle class or any other market considerations in real estate.

The actual biggest issue in the Israeli housing market is supply.  There is a 30,000-40,000 unit shortage per year. Raising the minimum down payment won't change that, people will still need to live somewhere, all you are doing is making it harder for them to purchase a place where they can stay long term.  That doesn't change the fact thatchers till need to live somewhere.

If the government was serious about solving the housing shortage they would need to make major sweeping changes.

First of all, they would need to spend major money on transportation. Most people in this country are not willing to spend more than an hour commuting to work.  Since most of the jobs are still in the Merkaz, that means that bigger highways and hi-speed rails are of paramount importance if you want people to move out of the Tel-Aviv area and into other places.  A major highway should have more than 2 lanes in either direction.

Second, they need to make EVERY SINGLE PIECE OF LEGALLY BUILDABLE LAND available for purchase, with the caveat that construction must begin within 5 years or the land reverts to the government.  There is no reason why the land should be left locked away. If a developer thinks that on a specific piece of land he should need to wait until the Land Authority decides it wants to offer that piece, if it chooses to at all.  Let the market and private industry set the land price, not the government.  As we say in real estate, ultimately, a property's value is what someone pays for it.  

Ultimately this won't change until we require that ministers must have previous experience before they can be come minister of whatever department they will head up. If our construction and housing minister was never a real estate broker or developer, he will never have a use understanding of what it takes to get a home built and sold. If our finance minister was never an accountant or controller, he will never understand what it takes to budget or finance a development. If our industry and trade minister was never a business CEO or other senior management officer, he will not have an understanding of how to best allow the government to let businesses grow and flourish. Ok I guess we are making some progress on that one.

Basically if the government wants to help people be able to get an affordable home, and keep the market from getting out of control, they need to stop interfering so much, and just let the market take it's natural course, without subsidies or restrictions.

I know some of you will say that what happened to the American market shows that you need regulation, but remember I said remove, interference, not regulation, they are 2 vastly different things.

This is of course just one man's opinion,  it just happens to be a man with more experience in the industry than all of the government officials trying to get headlines with their sound bites and half baked plans combined, that's all.

Winds of Change

Change happens, even to people like me who try to avoid it at all costs.  I do not generally subscribe to the Barneyism that "new is always better." However, even I can admit that sometimes change can be a good thing.

I have recently left my slightly soul sucking dead end job and returned to the exciting world of real estate.  That is a big change on many fronts.  First of all, it means that instead of working nights I am home with the family at night. This is both great and terrifying. It's great to be able to see my kids in the evening, or to be around while everyone is hanging outside on the street while the kids ride bikes and bimbas up and down the street.  Just as an aside, I understand that the plural of bimba is bimbot, but I refuse to use a word that sounds like the sefardic pronunciation of an inappropriate description of a type of woman that I certainly don't want to say my son was riding.  

It is however terrifying to realize that for the first time, I am without any sort of salary, and am completely dependent on commission. Equally as terrifying, is the realization that I have no idea how anything happens in the house during these hours.  The last time I was home for bedtime on a regular basis was 5 years ago. At that time we only had 2 kids and one of them was a baby.  Bedtime with 4 actual kids scares me, and my kids can smell fear.  This is why I have asked my nearly infinitely patient wife to ease me back into the system.  If I suddenly was expected to handle bath and bedtime by myself, I have a feeling we would see some sort of situation where it would be the lost boys vs Hook. And as we all remember, Hook gets eaten by an alligator.  My wife, understanding my completely rational fear of deadly water dwelling creatures like alligators and sharks, has been kind enough not to expect full participation right away, but rather has been easing me into it.  

Change can also be exciting.  I am really enjoying my new job.  I actually look forward to going to work for the first time in years.  I enjoy rejoining normal society again, going to work in the morning, coming home before midnight, meeting my neighbors, even helping with math homework, the rest of the homework my wife is better suited for.

All in all, change can be good, maybe I'll even have some spare change in my account at the end of the month, who knows. That would also be a good change.

...but is it safe?

I wanted to wait a few days before writing this post, while I may be an insensitive jerk at times, I am not a complete ass.
Is it safe where you live?  Aren't you worried?  These are the questions that are asked to every settler, but I find that Olim are asked them more often. People make assumptions about the areas of Judea and Samaria based on third hand stories reported on CNN and their own over active imaginations.
The truth is that I find myself asking that question to my American friends as often as they ask me.  Here, we have armed guards and metal detectors at the malls, train stations, restaurants, and schools.  I carry a gun everywhere I go.  You see soldiers, both on and off duty, with rifles strapped to their backs in the streets.  Police have the right to stop and search you if you look suspicious.  Security and vigilance are visible everywhere you go.
In America, everything is open.  Mall security are not armed, and are there to prevent shoplifting and vandalism.  There are whole States that prevent me from carrying a firearm for self-defense.  Soldiers don't patrol the streets.  Schools that want metal detectors put in are subject to all sorts of criticism.  There is a generally relaxed attitude toward the security situation. 
It is an interesting dichotomy.  Here in Israel it may appear more like a police state than an open democracy, but the truth is, we are talking about perceptions rather than realities.  The fact that we have soldiers on the streets and bag searches at mall entrances allows us to breath easier and have a better appreciation for the freedoms that we have.
When we went on a picnic in Tel Aviv over the Pesach holiday the police suddenly came and evacuated the area.  It seemed that a unattended bag was seen in the area.  Very quickly, the area was sealed off, and the bomb squad showed up to check it out, and if they were not sure about it, destroy it.  Right before the bomb squad did their thing, the bag's owner came running in apologizing for forgetting his cooler bag.  The fact is that this whole situation happened because the average person here is vigilant Someone saw a bag sitting alone, and instead of ignoring it, decided that it's better to be safe than sorry, even at the cost of a minor inconvenience.   Sure, you could say that we have all those things because we need the extra security, but after recent events, can you honestly say that you don't need the same security.  It has become obvious that terrorists may call the Middle East home, but they are definitely willing to commute for work.  There is no longer such a thing as a place that is immune from attack or violent action, only protected from them. It is an unfortunate fact, that the average American needs to learn to be just as vigilant. 
I find this ironic in light of the violent crime rates.  The US far outranks Israel in both violent crime and firearm related crime rates.  Here in Israel, certainly in my hometown, I have very little concern letting my children run around the neighborhood.  MiniMe is spending his afternoons hunting down loose wood and fallen trees for his upcoming Lag Baomer bonfire.  Princess can go down the block to her friend's house unsupervised, and if she goes any farther, she just needs to call us.  Even Curly Sue and Little Red can play by themselves in the front yard.  When visiting my parents, who live in a nice quiet suburb in the US, we won't even let MiniMe play unsupervised in the back yard.  They certainly can't run ahead in the mall or stay with the shopping cart in line at the grocery store while I grab something I forgot from the refrigerator section.   Here the average gun-carrying citizen is not carrying because of fear of being mugged or raped, but I do believe that because the average person could be carrying, there is less of a chance that a criminal will attept to mug or rape someone.
I am not saying that it is all rainbows and unicorns here, but we here in Israel, and certainly in the communities of Judea and Samaria are aware of that and protect ourselves accordingly, thus allowing ourselves and children the freedom we enjoy.
We Settlers stand in solidarity with the victims of the bombing in Boston, but at the same time, I do need to ask, when will you come home?  Here instead of feeling safe and secure, you can be safe and secure.  Until then, stay safe.

Rememberance Day

Last night, at 8 pm, as I stood in the emergency room with Little Red (story for another time), the siren sounded, signaling the start of Rememberance Day for the fallen heroes that defended the Jewish Homeland. Everyone, young and old, religious and secular, stood silent for one minute, to commemorate those who no longer stand amongst us. I have had few religious experiences more touching and profound, than the minute or two a year, when we all stand together, paying our respects to all the soldiers who gave the ultimate sacrifice, so that people they never knew or would never know could live out our lives as full Jews in the Jewish homeland.
As an oleh who was not given the chance to serve, I am deeply moved by the somberness and unity of the day. It's a day of reflection and paying respect to our brothers and sisters who were killed in the line of duty. Television and radio stations forgo their usual drivel to tell the stories of each of these heroes. As someone who grew up with Memorial Day as a day of picnics and sales, it really puts things in perspective. We have a chance to see what is important, and it gives a little more insight into another unique feature of Israeli society, the central role of family life. Here, family is in all aspects put first. The day of the birth of your child is a paid vacation day. Women are given by law 3 months paid maternity leave, with the option of taking another 3 months unpaid. A Brit is a perfectly legitimate excuse for being late to work. Employers expect that you will use all of your vacation days. For most of the country, Friday night is family time. I could go on and on, but my point is, with so many families being incomplete, with so many who have lost someone in defense of our Home, everyone understands, accepts and expects that time spent with the family is to be cherished. This is one of the beautiful things about having Independence Day immediately following Memorial Day. First we pay our respects to those that gave their lives for ours, and acknowledge the sacrifice and loss of the family left behind, then we move on to family celebrations of the fact that their sacrifice was not in vain. Life here continues, families grow, and we continue to stand tall, as Light Unto the Nations, and the fulfillment of G-D's promise to our forefathers.
So tonight, as we cross the threshold of 65 years of independence, and the continuing of the fulfillment of G-D's promise to "return His sons to their borders," I will hug my children a little tighter, knowing that I owe thanks to G-D and and all the families of this wonderful country for the opportunity to be a part of the great family of the nation of Israel. I will silently pray, as we watch the flag rise and the fireworks explode above us, that in the coming year, our greater family of the nation of Israel from Eilat to Karzrin, and from Tel Aviv to Talmon are able to be just slightly less dysfunctional, and that we should be able to celebrate each other's successes, as well as our collective ones, together, as a family. May our national family know no new suffering, and may we see our greater family grow and expand, both through natural growth, and our long lost family overseas finding their way home.