Israel's Pool of the Arches Like You've Never Seen It Before and IDF Razes 11 Illegal Arab Structures Near Jericho’s Jewish Archeological Site and When Did Zionism Begin? By Rabbi Uri Pilichowski and When Jews Took Nothing Lying Down by Harold Goldmeier
Yehuda Lave is an author, journalist, psychologist, rabbi, spiritual teacher, and coach, with degrees in business, psychology and Jewish Law. He works with people from all walks of life and helps them in their search for greater happiness, meaning, business advice on saving money, and spiritual engagement.
The Three are Rabbi Yehuda Glick, famous temple mount activist, and former Israel Mk, and then Robert Weinger, the world's greatest shofar blower and seller of Shofars, and myself after we had gone to the 12 gates of the Temple Mount in 2020 to blow the shofar to ask G-d to heal the world from the Pandemic. It was a highlight to my experience in living in Israel and I put it on my blog each day to remember.
The articles that I include each day are those that I find interesting, so I feel you will find them interesting as well. I don't always agree with all the points of each article but found them interesting or important to share with you, my readers, and friends. It is cathartic for me to share my thoughts and frustrations with you about life in general and in Israel. As a Rabbi, I try to teach and share the Torah of the G-d of Israel as a modern Orthodox Rabbi. I never intend to offend anyone but sometimes people are offended and I apologize in advance for any mistakes. The most important psychological principle I have learned is that once someone's mind is made up, they don't want to be bothered with the facts, so, like Rabbi Akiva, I drip water (Torah is compared to water) on their made-up minds and hope that some of what I have share sinks in. Love Rabbi Yehuda Lave.
When Did Zionism Begin? By Rabbi Uri Pilichowski
Children in the Yemenite immigrants' camp at Rosh Ha'ayin, circa 1950.
Take a survey of proponents and opponents of Zionism and ask both groups when Zionism started, and you'll receive answers spanning thousands of years. Most movements have an easily defined start date; a movement is usually founded in response to a specific event, an injustice, or a rebellion against ruling powers. While there might have been an evolution that led to the movement's formation, there's commonly a seminal date that people can point to as the day when the movement began. Zionism is an exception to this general phenomenon; there is no consensus on Zionism's start date.
Zionism's opponents claim the movement is a modern phenomenon. They accuse it of being a modern European colonialist project. In an article titled, "A Century of Settler Colonialism in Palestine," Tariq Dana and Ali Jarbawi argue: "Throughout the past century, the Zionist movement constructed the most sophisticated settler-colonial project of our age: the State of Israel. The violent birth of Israel in 1948 and the subsequent colonization of the entirety of the land of Palestine after the 1967 war are indeed reflections of Zionism's successes in fulfilling its settler-colonial ambitions in Palestine." It is clear that Dana and Jarbawi view Zionism as a modern settler-colonial project.
In 1897, Theodore Herzl, a lawyer by training and journalist by profession, hosted the first Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland. It was at the Congress that he founded the World Zionist Organization and published a resolution called the "Basel Program" declaring that Zionism aimed to establish a legally assured home for the Jewish people. It outlined steps the WZO would need to take to achieve its goals. Herzl's movement was called "Zionism" and is more accurately called "Modern Political Zionism." Zionism's opponents use Herzl and 1897 as the start of Zionism. In using a relatively contemporary start date, the opponents of Zionism can disparage Zionism as a young movement without historical provenance.
As a movement, Herzl's modern political Zionism had a slow start but eventually took off. Herzl passed away prematurely as the movement gained popularity, and others took up his struggle. While the stated goal was to establish a Jewish State in what was then called Palestine, their underlying objective was to save Jews around the world from rising antisemitism. Early Zionists aimed to establish a refuge for Jews to escape threats that would eventually become a Holocaust. They aimed to create the Jewish State in the Land of Israel because it was the Jews' historic homeland and the Zionists felt they had the right to establish a Jewish State there.
Herzl's modern political Zionism movement started in the late 1800s, but Zionism, the movement that seeks to establish a Jewish state on the land of Israel, has a record that stretches much further back in history. The Jewish people count Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as their first ancestors. They sought to establish the land of Israel as the place for their children. Moses and Joshua were the leaders of the Jewish people more than 3,000 years ago. They led the Jewish people from Egypt to Eretz Yisrael and charged the Jewish people with conquering the land from the now long deceased Canaanite people and settling it. The Jewish people governed the land for over 1,000 years, were briefly exiled by the Babylonians, and returned to rule the land in a second commonwealth for over 400 years.
After the Roman Empire conquered and exiled the Jews almost 2,000 years ago, the Jews strove to return to their land. Three times a day Jews prayed to return to the land of Israel, ended their two most sacred nights of the year with cries of "Next year in Jerusalem," and spent three weeks a year mourning their state of exile in the hope of returning to their land. During their 2,000-year exile there was always a Jewish presence in the land of Israel, and those Jewish residents pined for their fellow Jewish brothers and sisters to return home. Zionism, the connection of the Jewish people to the land of Israel, is integral to Judaism and the Jewish people.
Counting Zionism as a modern movement, let alone a colonialist settler movement, is not only inaccurate, but it also paints millions of Jews who strove to make the Zionist dream of returning the Jewish people to their homeland as nefarious characters. Early political Zionists weren't starting a new movement in the late 1800s. Herzl, Nordau, Jabotinsky, Weizmann, and Ben Gurion strove to fulfill 2,000 years of unfulfilled Jewish dreams. Their idea and movement weren't novel. What made them stand out was thinking that dreams don't have to be the stuff of legend; with enough will there is a way to make all dreams come true. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and Joshua's efforts were resurrected by Herzl and his colleagues.
IDF Razes 11 Illegal Arab Structures Near Jericho's Jewish Archeological Site
photo Credit: Wikipedia / Chaim / CC SA 3.0
Hasmonean royal winter palace near Jericho
The Civil Administration together with officers of the Border Police on Monday took action against 11 structures that were illegally erected by Arabs in the area of the Hasmonean Palaces archaeological site in Jericho. The buildings were razed by authorities.
The construction is yet another attempt by the Palestinian Authority (PA) to establish facts on the ground in Area c, the parts of Judea and Samaria under direct Israeli control.
The Hasmonean Palaces, which were also used by King Herod, are some of the most important archaeological sites found from the Second Temple period – about 2,000 years ago.
On the site, which began as an agricultural estate in the days of King Yochanan Hyrcanus I, his successors including King Herod built magnificent winter palaces down in the Jordan River Valley for use when Jerusalem got to be too cold.
As part of a tour conducted in the area by the head of the Civil Administration, Brigadier General Fars Atila, an enforcement effort in the area was agreed upon as part of a campaign for the preservation of archaeological sites and for greater security enforcement overall in Area C.
Archeology staff officer in the Civil Administration, Hanania Hizami said, "The preservation of the archaeological sites in the area is placed at the top of the Civil Administration's list of priorities."
"The enforcement activity that was carried out is part of the many efforts we are leading," he added, "with the aim of eradicating the phenomenon of illegal construction and preserving the ancient and holy places for the Jewish people throughout Judea and Samaria."
Israel's Pool of the Arches Like You've Never Seen It Before
