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Prayer for Israeli soldiers

Invoking God’s protection for the members of the Israel Defense Forces.

He Who blessed our forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob — may He bless the fighters of the Israel Defense Forces, who stand guard over our land and the cities of our God, from the border of the Lebanon to the desert of Egypt, and from the Great Sea unto the approach of the Aravah, on the land, in the air, and on the sea.

May the Almighty cause the enemies who rise up against us to be struck down before them. May the Holy One, Blessed is He, preserve and rescue our fighters from every trouble and distress and from every plague and illness, and may He send blessing and success in their every endeavor.

May He lead our enemies under our soldiers’ sway and may He grant them salvation and crown them with victory. And may there be fulfilled for them the verse: For it is the Lord your God, Who goes with you to battle your enemies for you to save you.

Now let us respond: Amen.

(source: OU and Aish)

[It is the first time since 1 1/2 years that Israel responds to the rockets hitting the cities around Gaza. It is a sad thing, but needs to be done...]

Only one week from now I will be sitting on a bench at the seaside of Tel Aviv. The weather (no news anymore) looks very promising. :-D

Goal of this stay in Israel is a wonderful vacation and next to that to come back with a few great series of photographs.

For that reason I bought myself the greatest tripod and tripod head I could find for a decent amount of money. I have been buying tripod the last years, but all were not that expensive. In fact, not at all… That’s also why I bought more tripods. Never very satisfied about it. Not stable enough for portrait pictures, parts falling off or is just just wobbly.

Not this time. Advised by a fellow photographer (that’s you, Johan ;) ) I bought the Manfrotto 055XPROB tripod with the 804RC2 head…

Oh my G_d… This is finally a piece of equipment…

(sturdy, but extremely flexible – you can’t imagine, seeying it here standing just there)

So once and while you take preview on the weather you gonna have while being in Israel.

Today this peak was a little to much for me…

The weather in The Netherland in no more than 5 degrees celsius…

Check This!:

Watching the breaking news at BBC World about the terrorist attack at a yeshiva in Jerusalem right now. The title is ‘ISRAEL VIOLENCE: 9 people killed including attacker”.

For me it is interesting to see that the terrorist is counted in in the amount of killed people. Next to that the header “Israel violence” gives me a biased taste. Am I wrong?

In another report there is an interview with a certain Jerry Lewis. The interviewer states that the students at the yeshiva are learning about zionism. He is corrected by this Jerry Lewis, who says: “No, there are learning about judaism. They are reading scriptures and discussing them”.

There are no critical words about Gaza, where people are celebrating the newest killing of innocent religious students, by shooting in the air and kissing the soil.

The first report I saw, was followed by a commercial of World Travel & Tourism Council in Dubai 20-22 april 2008. Is this lack of critical questions caused by this?

Het is niet geheel bijzonder dat het NOS Journaal vanmorgen beelden laat zien over de enorme humanitaire crisis die in Gaza plaats vindt. We weten inmiddels wel aan welke kant ze staan, net als veel andere media. Niets nieuws onder de zon. Maar het bijgaande commentaar is weer bijzonder.

De tekst van de presentator:

Palestijnen uit Gaza gaan de grens met Egypte over voor hun eerste levensbehoeften

De beelden spreken boekdelen. Ik ben gewend dan beelden te zien van mensen die slepen met zakken met rijst, meel en andere noodzakelijke zaken.
Het enige wat ik hier zie zijn grote dozen met de rode streep: Ja, inderdaad, Marlboro sigaretten.

Ja, echt een enorme humantaire crisis!

Op de website van het NIK, het Nederlands Israëlitisch Kerkgenootschap, lees ik het bericht dat anti-joodse passages in de Tridentijnse liturgie zullen worden aangepast. Er wordt zelfs haast gemaakt en verwacht wordt dat de Latijnse teksten vòòr Goede Vrijdag nog aangepast zullen zijn.
Dat ik dit nog een keer mee mag maken…