Melissa's Musings(My opinionated view of life)

Ambassador Oren: Why Israelis Care about Peace | IsraelPolitik Imagine that you’re a parent who sends her children off to school in the morning worrying whether their bus will become a target of suicide bombers. Imagine that, instead of going off to college, your children become soldiers at age 18, serve for three years and remain in the active reserves into their 40s. Imagine that you have fought in several wars, as have your parents and even your grandparents, that you’ve seen rockets raining down on your neighborhood and have lost close family and friends to terrorist attacks. Picture all of that and you’ll begin to understand what it is to be an Israeli. And you’ll know why all Israelis desperately want peace. Recent media reports, in Time magazine and elsewhere, have alleged that Israelis — who are currently experiencing economic growth and a relative lull in terrorism — may not care about peace. According to a poll cited, Israelis are more concerned about education, c...

Michael B. Oren: Reason for optimism in Mideast talks By Michael B. Oren http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | (MCT) Israeli and Palestinian leaders are in Washington in an attempt to make peace — again. This summit marks the latest chapter in a story that began on the White House lawn 17 years ago when Israelis and Palestinians committed themselves to ending the conflict once and for all. Since then, every round has failed and bloodshed has continued. Against the backdrop of Tuesday's Palestinian terrorist attack that left four Israeli civilians dead, including a pregnant Israeli woman, why should these negotiations be different? Is there any reason for optimism? Indeed, there is. For the first time in history, most Arab leaders view a Middle Eastern state other than Israel — Iran — as their major enemy. The Israeli government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is strong, stable and deeply committed to ...

Op-Ed Columnist - Oy Vey, Obama - NYTimes.com Is President Obama good for the Jews? For more and more Jewish-Americans, the answer is no. Earl Wilson/The New York Times Charles M. Blow Go to Columnist Page » Related Times Topic: Barack Obama Readers' Comments Readers shared their thoughts on this article. Read All Comments (261) » In a Pew Research Center report issued on Thursday and entitled “Growing Number of Americans Say Obama Is a Muslim” (tragic in its own right), there was another bit of bad news for Obama: the number of Jews who identify as Republican or as independents who lean Republican has increased by more than half since the year he was elected. At 33 percent it now stands at the highest level since the data have been kept. In 2008, the ratio of Democratic Jews to Republican Jews was far more than three to one. Now it’s less than two to one. Entir...

Polygamy is a term that describes a marriage of more than one spouse.  Most people and cultures use the term polygamy when they mean polygyny.  Polygyny is the term for having more than one wife.  Today we have Muslims who are allowed up to four wives.  The practice of Islam is a topic for another blog yet to be written so I will not opine about that cult here and now. :-)  Most cultures are traditionally patriarchal, which of course means that males are more dominant and determine the laws/rules.  In the TaNaKh(Torah, Neviim and Kethuvim-the Law, Prophets and Writing, which is termed the 'Old' Testament or Covenant by the Christian faith) we do see instances of polygyny which seemed to be the exception rather than the norm and seemed to be practiced more for political alliances by royalty more than anything else.  There are also rules spelled out if a man is to take more than one wife~for example, he cannot marry the sister of the first wife while t...

By George F. Will Thursday, August 19, 2010 JERUSALEM In the intifada that began in 2000, Palestinian terrorism killed more than 1,000 Israelis. As a portion of U.S. population, that would be 42,000, approaching the toll of America's eight years in Vietnam. During the onslaught, which began 10 Septembers ago, Israeli parents sending two children to a school would put them on separate buses to decrease the chance that neither would return for dinner. Surely most Americans can imagine, even if their tone-deaf leaders cannot, how grating it is when those leaders lecture Israel on the need to take "risks for peace." During Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's July visit to Washington, Barack Obama praised him as " willing to take risks for peace ." There was a time when that meant swapping "land for peace" -- Israel sacrificing something tangible and irrecoverable, strategic depth, in exchange for something intangible and perisha...

So much to do today and this week!  Oy! :-)

Hope to update the blog later!

Many blessings to you and your families!

Caroline B. Glick: Are you aware that HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF TAX-PAYER DOLLARS are going toward training armies that don't hide their goal of destroying Israel? What you need to know about Israel's American-made foes http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | It wasn't a US Army sniper who killed IDF Lt. Col. Dov Harari and seriously wounded Capt. Ezra Lakia on Tuesday. But the Lebanese Armed Forces sniper who shot them owes a great deal to the generous support the LAF has received from America. For the past five years, the LAF has been the second largest recipient of US military assistance per capita after Israel. A State Department press release from late 2008 noted that between 2006 and 2008, the LAF received ten million rounds of ammunition, Humvees, spare parts for Lebanese attack helicopters, vehicles for its internal security forces "and the same frontline weapons that US military troops are currently using, including assault rifles, au...

David Harris: To the Chorus of Chronic, Compulsive Critics of Israel 21 15 views 196 Get World Alerts Email Comments 196 You just can't contain your rage against Israel, can you? A mere mention of Israel and you're out of the starting gate in record time with another tirade accusing it, and its defenders, of every conceivable evil in the world - from Nazism to Apartheid, from blood libel to mass murder. The facts be damned--they only get in the way of your outrageous assertions and gross distortions. You follow the approach recommended by Lenin: "A lie told often enough becomes the truth." Your narrative is pre-cooked, airtight, and impervious to reason. It's filled with a hat...

JPost.com | BlogCentral | In the Trenches | Israel and conversion: Oy vey, here we go again! The Knesset, Israel's parliament, is once again involved in conversion issues, thanks to a bill introduced by David Rotem of the Yisrael Beitenu Party. If history is any guide, the damage could be deep. Yes, there is a problem in Israel. Many arrivals from the Former Soviet Union are not recognized as Jews and wish to be. Finding a solution is important. But in this case, the proposed cure - to further empower the chief rabbinate - may be more harmful than the illness. I am a Jewish pluralist. I recognize that we are all on one journey, even though we proceed on many diverse paths. Having devoted my career to the defense of the Jewish people, I do not make distinctions among Jews. In my book, all Jews have the inalienable right to live in freedom, equality and safety. Sixteen years ago - July 18, 1994 - ...

In Judaism, Second Amendment states' rights would never be up for debate In Judaism, Second Amendment states' rights would never be up for debate By Rabbi Yonason Goldson Is there any way for words to retain their clarity despite the persistent evolution of cultural references and values? Is there any method for protecting ideas from the ravages of changing times and sensitivities? Indeed there is. It predates the United States Constitution by 31 centuries http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Last month's Supreme Court ruling affirming Second Amendment states' rights (and coinciding with the predictable Republican grilling of Supreme Court nominee Elana Kagan over the same issue) has brought back into the spotlight the constitutional ambiguity regarding gun ownership in the U.S. of A. A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and...

White House vs. Boy Scouts, Part 4 White House vs. Boy Scouts, Part 4 Posted: July 12, 2010 1:00 am Eastern © 2010 (Editor's note: In Parts 1 , 2 and 3 on the White House vs. the Boy Scouts, Norris gave proof concerning how the Obama administration is creating an arm's-length relationship with the BSA and how President Obama's advocacy of the BSA compares to the past 100 years of U.S. presidents. In Part 4, Norris caps the series by discussing how "The Boy Scout Handbook" must be one of the White House's greatest literary threats.) In Parts 1, 2 and 3 of this series on the "Boy Scouts vs. White House," I showed how the Obama administration is distancing itself from the Boy Scouts of America, or BSA, because of its conservative positions. Specifically in Part 2, I showed how, just a week after President Obama denied the invitation to attend the BSA's 100th anniversary gala in his own backyard (Washingto...

Open-Borders DOJ vs. America - HUMAN EVENTS Open-Borders DOJ vs. America by Michelle Malkin 07/07/2010 The Obama administration's lawsuit against Arizona, officially unveiled on Tuesday, is an affront to all law-abiding Americans. It is a threatening salvo aimed at all local, county or state governments that dare to take control of the immigration chaos in their own backyards. And it is b...