Iran is “fully committed to preserving Assad’s regime,” Iranian sources told the paper. The sources confirmed that Iran has considered opening a front against Israel.

The report comes on the heels of the Obama administration’sannouncement that it will providemilitary aid to Syrian rebels.

The United States has been providing Syrian rebels with non-lethal assistance for some time, and is upgrading its support in light of a report finding that the Assad regime used chemical weapons.

The report in the Independent warned that the U.S. decision to arm rebels “has plunged America into the great Sunni-Shia conflict of the Islamic Middle East… the U.S. is now fully engaged on the side of armed groups which include the most extreme Sunni Islamist movements in the Middle East.”

New involvement in Middle East conflicts will not turn out well for America, it predicted. “Every suicide bombing in Damascus – every war crime committed by the rebels – will be regarded in the region as Washington’s responsibility.”

Last week the head of a Dubai think tank reported that Syria’s civil war has become afight for Iranian power.

“The issue is hegemony in the region. If Iran wins this conflict and the Syrian regime survives, Iran’s interventionist policy will become wider and its credibility will be enhanced,” said Gulf Research Council director Mustafa Alani.

Hizbullah, too, responded to the U.S. plan to aid rebels by pledging its continuing support for Assad. The Lebanon-based Shi’ite Muslim terrorist group has played an active role in the Syrian civil war for several months, and has continued to do so despite Arab League condemnation.

I made the decision to make aliyah and live in Israel as a teenager, before meeting my husband, after taking on, due to the influence of NCSY, the more “accepted” or “popular” mitzvot like Shabbat and kashrut.  I remember how I announced it to my parents.

In a way you must feel sorry for my parents.  I was a strange kid.  In the mid-1960′s when other kids were becoming “hippies” and discovering drugs, I was “getting high” on Torah.  They couldn’t imagine where they had gone wrong.   I was just too different for them to accept.  Nobody’s kids were anything like me.

Then I made this grand announcement:

“I’m going to live in Israel.”

And knowing that they’d use all their intelligence and logic to try to convince me otherwise, I continued with:

“It’s a mitzvah, and just like you couldn’t stop me from keeping Shabbat and Kashrut, you can’t stop me from making aliyah.”

I accepted that mitzvah, for good or for bad, and believe me it wasn’t easy coming to 1970 Israel.  But just like one loves one’s children, no matter what, and we don’t return them if “faulty,” that’s how living in Israel is for me.We made aliyah as a young couple, very idealistic and probably stupid to boot.  Not stupid because we made aliyah, but stupid because we never learned the system so that we’d have a financially comfortable retirement.  Many “anglos,” English speaking immigrants to Israel have the problem.  Other “lantzmen” groups don’t.

I don’t think we’d be as comfortable financially if we had stayed in the states.  We probably wouldn’t have had five kids either.  We’d never have had been able to afford the tuition in the Jewish schools, nor health care.  I don’t know if we would have had been home owners either.  Here in Israel we’ve always owned our own home.  We never paid rent.

Israel is the only place we’ve been as adults, not counting two years on shlichut in London 35 years ago.  I developed all of my cooking and baking skills in Israel.

I’m always fascinated by all the programs to attract “western immigrants” to Israel, like Nefesh b’Nefesh.  It all sounds so cold and rational, so businesslike.

There’s a magic about living in Israel, things that can’t be computed. My personal bonus is that I honestly consider my life here in the HolyLand to be wonderful.  I have no compaints.  I can’t imagine having a better life any other place in the world.

I’ve never regretted a day that we made our home in Israel just weeks after our wedding.  We came by boat, not by plane.  No matter how you come, there are things you get by living in Israel that aren’t in “this world.”

Just come!

The aftermath of the April 15, 2013 bombings in Boston, Massachusetts, has focused attention on the failure of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) to carry out an adequate investigation of the suspected bombers despite warnings from Russian authorities. This failure has partially been attributed to a full scale campaign of political correctness waged inside the bureau and throughout the U.S. government under the Obama administration against any attempt to link jihadi terrorism with anything remotely connected to Islam of any variety (the most radical versions included).[1] This has extended into other segments of the government as well, particularly the Department of Defense.

One of the primary contributors to this widespread political correctness campaign has been the U.S. government’s disastrous Muslim outreach policies extending back to the Clinton administration and the 1993 World Trade Center bombings. The U.S. government’s historical outreach program, regardless of whether it has been a Democrat or Republican in the White House, has been based on a schizophrenic policy: In many cases federal prosecutors have gone into federal court and identified American Islamic organizations and leaders as supporters of terrorism, and no sooner have left court before government officials openly embrace these same organizations and leaders as moderates and outreach partners. In several notable cases, the FBI’s outreach partners have been under active FBI criminal investigation and were later convicted on terrorism-related charges at the time the outreach occurred.

In the case of the Cambridge, Massachusetts, mosque attended by the suspected Boston marathon bombers, when the plethora of extremist ties to the Islamic Society of Boston were reported, a mosque spokesman replied that they could not be extremists since they regularly participated in outreach programs with the FBI, Department of Justice and Homeland Security.

This exemplifies the chronic failure of the U.S. government’s outreach programs.

OUTREACH FAILURE: THEN AND NOW

When President Obama hosted his annual Iftar dinner in August 2010 to commemorate the Muslim celebration of Ramadan, the list of invitees published by the White House was curiously missing the names of several attendees-all of whom were top leaders of organizations known to be purveyors of jihadi ideology and implicated by federal prosecutors in financing terrorism.

Yet it was not like they had crashed the party. In fact, one of the individuals missing on the official White House list, Mohamed Majid, president of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), was pictured in a news service photograph sitting at the front table just a few feet from the president as he spoke. When Majid was hailed by Time Magazine in November 2005 as a “moderate Muslim cleric” who was helping the FBI fight terrorists, he quickly published an open letter to his congregation on the mosque’s website assuring his congregants that he was doing no such thing, stating that his relationship with the FBI was a one-way street only to communicate Muslim community concerns-not to report on individuals suspected of terrorist activity.

It was just a few years ago the attorney general of the United States was canceling Muslim outreach events for the sole reason that Majid would be present at the meeting, because the Department of Justice had just named the ISNA as an unindicted co-conspirator in the largest terrorism financing trial in American history.

Majid’s connection to terrorism, however, goes back even farther than that, since the offices of the mosque he leads, the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS) Center, were raided by U.S. Customs authorities in March 2002 in a wide-sweeping terror finance investigation. In an affidavit requesting a search warrant for the raids, Customs Agent David Kane testified that Majid’s mosque was being used to launder hundreds of thousands of dollars for the targeted terror finance network that shared offices with ADAMS. An appendix to the Customs Service affidavit also names eleven ADAMS Center officials as targets of their terror finance investigation.[10] Yet Majid and the ADAMS Center are still considered legitimate outreach partners by the FBI as of the writing of this article.

This was just the most recent episode in the disastrous attempts at outreach to the Muslim community since the September 11, 2001, attacks. In addition, with the release in 2011 of President Obama’s strategic plan to combat “violent extremism” to expand outreach to these same terror-tied groups, the present administration seems intent on compounding the disaster wrought by previous administrations.

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“We have no faith… in the so-called negotiations,” said Omar Barghouti, head of the BDS movement, which lobbies worldwide for the economic, cultural and academic boycott of Israel.

Speaking to the AFP news agency on the sidelines of the fourth annual BDS conference at Bethlehem University at the weekend, Barghouti said the talks were “absolutely useless, just another smokescreen to allow Israel to continue its colonization its building of settlements.”

Barghouti said, however that even if Israel does cease construction, negotiations would still be unacceptable.

The only way to ensure the “Palestinians” secured all their rights is through the non-violent “resistance” of a full boycott of Israel, he maintained.

Barghouti said that for there to be peace, the Israelis must guarantee the right of return for “Palestinian refugees” everywhere and equal rights for Arab Israelis, as well as a complete end to the “occupation of Palestinian territories.”

The Arab world defines several million descendants of Arabs who fled pre-state Israel as “Palestinian refugees,” and defines all land east of the 1949 armistice line – including the Old City of Jerusalem and other historically Jewish areas – as “occupied Palestinian land.” The area in question is home to more than 560,000 Israelis.

At the conference, local BDS leaders called on the PA leadership not to “play the role of mediator between us and Israel,” demanding instead that they focus their energies on sanctioning the Jewish state.

One of the BDS movement’s more celebrated supporters is South African anti-apartheid icon Desmond Tutu, who addressed delegates by video conference. ”This is a universe where right will ultimately prevail, and you are on the side of right,” he said, according to AFP.

Pink Floyd bassist Roger Waters also sent a message, urging fellow musicians to refuse to perform in Israel as part of the cultural boycott. Israel, “uses performances by foreign artists to create a facade of normalcy and acceptability,” he told them in a pre-recorded message. Waters also praised a recent decision by renowned British physicist Stephen Hawking to pull out of a Jerusalem conference to be hosted next week by Israeli President Shimon Peres as part of the academic boycott — a move listed by BDS as one of its notable achievements of the year.

In a separate but related development, the European Union has also called for clear and unambiguous labeling of products being exported from Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.

But the move, which was to have been approved by EU foreign ministers in May, has been delayed until the end of this month, reportedly at the request of Washington in a move denounced by Palestinian legislator Mustafa Barghouti as “disappointing.”

Barghouti continued to proclaim his hatred for the Jewish state, asserting, “The only alternative is violence.”

About a decade ago a startling survey was undertaken by Antony Gordon and Richard Horowitz under the title of ‘Will Your Grandchildren Be Jews?’  It revealed a dwindling number of Jewish offspring in the United States alone. Their later survey revealed an even starker portrayal that suggests aside from the orthodox community, Judaism is literally dying out in this major part of the Jewish Diaspora. There appeared little to suggest that a sufficient move towards orthodoxy would also be able to stop this disturbing process from reaching its horrific conclusion.

Assimilation, might be an easy excuse to explain the exodus away from Judaism. However, we strongly believe that assimilation does not occur in a vacuum. Accordingly, AM will introduce many other critical factors into the equation in the hope of providing marker buoys on this perilous journey. Without a clear navigational chart, G-d forbid it will not only be the Egyptians getting lost at sea.

Everybody is protesting and asking the question why is not helping. I don’t want to be left out and I want to protest too. What can I do to help institute change in Israel?

——————————————————————————————–

Advice as given by David Kilimnick:

Dear Special Friend who feels left out and also wants to change Israel. As we are Anglos and we know what is better for everybody, let us look at the issue and what we can do. New olim (Jews that made Aliyah) from westernized countries are called Anglos, because we must all come from ancient Germanic ancestry.

Nearly everybody has been complaining about high prices in Israel over the past year. There have been protests and even conversations at Shabbat dinner tables.

You’re right about most protests not helping because their message isn’t clear. Some want better financial deals, others want to stop channel 10 from bad television programming, and others prefer female bus drivers to sit at the rear when driving. The protesters must unify to offer any realistic chance of change.

Yes, you’re absolutely right, the protests don’t always make their point clear. I thought the tent protests for free houses and clothes of last summer, were because parents didn’t want to pay to send their children to summer camp? That was made clear when the protest stopped once school began. If the demonstration would have called it the ‘Give us stuff for free’ protest’, then the goals would have been much clearer and change would have already been established.

Not to toot my own horn, but I joined some people last week and activisted myself. I was pulled into the protest, because I saw some cute women. My ability to care about what is going on is secondary to my sense of excitement. They pulled me in because of women and a loud speaker.

The guy was chanting something that rhymed and it was rhythmic. The point was clear- we need a beat. The protest began with a ‘Democracy now. Democracy now.’ They repeated it. Saying ’Democracy now’ twice gave it more of a ring, even if they said it in Hebrew. I was involved. I like democracy. Then they started chanting, ‘Stop racism.’ Yeah, I like racism. We can stop that. Then they went on, ‘Cheaper prices.’ I started going crazy, screaming, I became the center of the protest. That is a cause that we need to fight for. I want deals. More sales NOW.

My emotions were in a frenzy; they had just mixed every protest into one, and they won me over. Then they started chanting ’people should give up their homes in Rehavia.’ At that point they lost me and I went back to my fine home right off Ramban street in the Rehavia area of Jerusalem,  without a date.

My dear friend, once again. as you realized protesting in this way does not help. No protest will stop a capitalist from selling for a profit, and no protest will stop a government from raising taxes to a point where it is pointless to work.

I must commend you on your longing to take initiative. But what are you going to do? You must now take that next step and put yourself out there.

Find your way onto the streets in the middle of the day, make your point. Quit your job so you have time to make your point. Be out there fighting for lower prices because you do not have a job!

For questions you would like David to answer, please email: info@aliyahmagazine.com

David Kilimnick: Jerusalem’s Comedian performs at the Off The Wall Comedy Basement every Thursday & Saturday, in downtown Jerusalem and may also be contacted to perform for tour groups in Israel & Synagogue fundraisers around the world.                                                                                                              david@israelcomedy.com  Ph: 972(50)875-5688   

Heath Campbell of Holland Township and his now-estranged-wife Deborah first made news headlines in December 2008, when a ShopRite refused to put their son’s name on a birthday cake. Their son, Adolf Hitler, who was at the time three-years-old, and his two little sisters Joyce Lynn Aryan Nation and Honszlynn Hinler Jeannie were subsequently removed from their home by the New Jersey Division of Youth and Family Services, and placed in foster care.

While the state said there was sufficient evidence of abuse and neglect to warrant such action, the Campbells claimed that the children were removed merely due to their names. ”I’m going to tell the judge, I love my children. I want to be a father, let me be it,” Campbell told NBC10 as he arrived  in court Monday to petition for the right to visit his youngest son. ”Let me prove to the world that I am a good father.”

According to reports, he arrived in court dressed in full Nazi regalia, and accompanied by a member of his organization, Bethanie White, who was also donning Nazi signs. Asked if he felt his choice of attire was appropriate given his situation, Campbell responded, “Well, if they’re good judges, and they’re good people, they’ll look within and not what’s on the outside.”

Campell found the pro-Nazi organization “Hitler’s Order” after losing custody of his children and separating from his wife.

Like anyone without a strong foundation in Judaism, Dale became easy prey for both eastern & western religious cults. However, throughout his remarkable journey and despite all odds, Dale managed to keep alive a flickering flame of Judaism and a love for the Jewish Homeland in Israel.

His adventure took him across many continents, and led close to the inner circle of highly influential leaders. Dale is a first cousin of the famous Jewish singer Barbara Streisand. He was also a close confidante of an internationally acclaimed guru and even stayed in the home of the Beatle’s George Harrison, himself a follower of that spiritual leader. Dale came through his own brush with fame and its associated trappings, to discover for himself the humble but great source of Judaism. 

This story is still unfolding before our eyes. It encompasses the very real ‘wandering Jew’ complex that even today lures many Jewish & Israeli youth to explore foreign cultures, with potentially damaging results. In sharing this epic adventure Dale hopes to encourage such youth at risk to appreciate the wonderful heritage that Judaism and the State of Israel has to offer.’                          

The Jew’s Inner Cry

I was raised in a Jewish family near Los Angeles. My parents were both from a strict Jewish background. I never met my mother’s parents as they passed away before I was born. My mother once told me that her grandfather was a teacher of Rabbis. They were from Poland. My fathers’ parents were very Orthodox and came from Galacia. As I grew up, my parents tried hard but little by little compromised on Jewish points. Though I had my bar mitzvah and went to schul on Yom Kippur as well as celebrated Chanukah, as well as some Hebrew school, my parents didn’t do all the things a Jew should do.

Many things about Judaism I never learned.

I remember once when I was quite young, about four or five years old sitting in the schul. Inside, there was a huge beautiful Magan David stained glass window. It made a strong impression on me as I thought ” how great God is” I can never forget that day!

After my bar mitzvah, at about the age of 14, I started experimenting with things, as was natural for a kid of my age. I grew up in the 60′s in California. I really was a searcher of truth, and what better place and time could there be to begin that quest!

As I hitchhiked from L.A. to Northern California many times, I would meet Hare Krishna’s along the way and had many talks with them. At that time I had no idea that Judaism also shared many teachings about the soul transmigrating to different bodies to perfect itself. Neither like many other Jews living in California at that time, did I have any idea as to how sublime the Torah was.

However, with a natural Jewish inclination towards the spiritual, and denied the opportunity to find it within Judaism at that period, I got interested in an Indian religion and studied it intently.

I joined the Hare Krishna movement, complete with their colorful costumes and street theatrical performances! Being a good universal Jew, I became very strict in their teachings and based my life around it. My desire for a more uplifting spiritual dimension had for now been temporarily met.

While some wondering Jews made their own version of Aliyah within the vast American continent or the Australian outback, at the impressionable age of 19, I made my first trip to India. What an adventurous people we Jews are!  Can you imagine exchanging delicious bagels for dry chapatti bread? At least the taste was closer to matzos!

Let me explain a little about Indian religion, as I understood it. It has many diverse and different branches to it. My own interest was perked when I studied Indian healing and astrology. Over time, I became quite proficient in Indian astrology as I had a teacher of astrology in India. During my own spiritual healing process, I came to better understand Abraham, our forefather’s taste for studying the stars before finding the one divine source behind our universe.

But for then, it would be many years before I would truly experience that light.

I would be locked in the Indian mode for 34 years! This included a period when the Beatles were spreading the message of the Maharajah, and Ravi Shankar was the Jimmy Hendrix of the sitar. It also included the start of an endless track of so many good young Israeli’s, so intensely drawn to the allure of the enchanted east.

I sat at the feet of gurus in India in their huts. I bathed in the Ganges River. But I always knew I was a Jew even though Indian philosophy tried to say that I wasn’t. Even though I was involved in Indian philosophy, there was something deep down inside telling me that I was different. I knew that to be true and couldn’t fully accept all of the Indian religious beliefs and culture. My Jewish Nefesh was always telling me something. Even with some of the chants of the Hare Krishna’s, I would sing them to myself in the tune of Shalom Aleichem or Hava Nagila, not as easy as it sounds! I would even tell people that I was a Hindu Jew. However, I didn’t go so far as adopting the name of Guru Ravi Streisand.

I was the epitome of the Jewish joke about ‘oy…my son has become a guru, but he’s doing well!’

I was indeed doing well, giving lectures in many countries about my acquired knowledge it. In Mexico at the Hare Krishna center, I taught basic Sanskrit to children. I really was committed to it. Can you imagine 34 years? I could tell you stories that would turn ones head around.

Looking back, I realized that at that time the Hare Krishna movement had many Jews and most of the leadership was Jewish. Accordingly, during my progression with that movement over that period, I never thought it was wrong as a group, as so many Jews were involved. Little did I know how wrong it really was for a true Jewish soul. Thankfully, having emerged into the true Jewish path, I felt some consolation knowing that it’s now possible to help Jews who go off the dereck from Judaism, to steer them back to being a Jew and follow the teachings of Judaism. On a personal basis, I like to encourage one to be strictly Torah observant and also to be proud that they truly are Jewish and special, and know that Israel is really our true home.

However, revisiting the past,  I still had a long way to go. Unfortunately, during all those years, I had marital problems and never really experienced shalom bayit (peace at home). I encountered many unfortunate events in my personal life. The road was to get even harder, as we shall soon discover in the next episode.

Editor: Part Two of this incredible journey of self-discovery will be published soon