The day before the Likud primary last month, some of you may have found an essay entitled, "The Likud primaries and Shalom Aleichem's silverware." This essay appeared here, on http://tuviainil.blogspot.com, and on http://jewishleader.blogspot.com . The essay used an idea from a Shalom Aleichem story to suggest that it might be a good idea to use voting station monitors in the upcoming Likud primary, to make sure voting would remain honest (the essay is below, dated January 30, 2012). I have found no other political writer in Israel—and no Anglo news outlet—who discussed the need for voting place oversight. No other political observer, so far as I can tell, raised the issue of ‘bad behaviour’ potentially occurring during the vote. In fact, it wasn’t even mentioned in the news. Only Tuvia Brodie saw the issue, realized its significance and then thought enough about it to publish it for you before the election. If you have been reading this blog for the last two months, you understand that there has been more to this primary than ‘met the eye’; but if you have been turning to other sources for Israel news, you would have seen virtually nothing about the primary. It was hardly mentioned.
But the primary was in fact extraordinarily important. You saw that in the blog’s essays. In addition, since there had been trouble at the polls against Feiglin in the last Likud primary, it seemed obvious that, with this primary so crucial to Netanyahu—and Israel-- (see the essays), trouble was again possible. Did anyone else spot that? No. That’s why this particular Shalom Aleichem essay was noteworthy-- because it gave you an alert: there could be trouble ahead. That alert now becomes significant because Moshe Feiglin—the losing candidate in the primary’s two-man competition—has filed a formal complaint to Likud alleging voter fraud in voting-day procedures and in the vote-counting process. Suddenly, the story of this primary isn’t over. Suddenly, you realize you had been warned. Once again, this blog gave the story no one else was talking about. Once again, the media has been shallow: news of fraud at the polls against Feiglin has so far received (as of February 15, 2012) little, if any, attention. Except here.
This difference between what you’ll find here and what you’ll find in the news goes beyond this election story. When you review the blog entries here, going back in time, you will see news analysis that few have attempted. For example, no one else appears to have noticed political oddities within a ‘boycott’ news story that appeared January 22 (see “A Likud primary boycott: really?”, January 24, 2012, and “Likud primary results: who won, who lost?”, February 5, 2012 below). No one else wrote so extensively about what’s at stake in the Likud primary. No one else has so focused on how the Jerusalem Post (arguably, Israel’s premier news outlet) ignores IDF leadership bias against religious soldiers—countervening explicit Israel government goals. The list goes on. Check out the older entries. See for yourself. The essays you see here uncover realities far beneath the surface. Perhaps the only place in Israel you can go to get this kind of focused, in-depth insight is http://tuviainil.blogspot.com.
Your friends, who look to other sources for information and understanding of Israel, may not get this level of analysis, this insight. So far as they are concerned, you may be unique because your understanding of Israel is different: through this blog, you can see unpublicized public issues and hidden currents that will create tomorrow’s headlines, not yesterday’s news.
I encourage you to tell your friends about this site. I want you to share your ‘uniqueness’ because Israel (where I live) needs you to be informed. If this sounds like ‘self-promotion’, it is: I want you to understand what this blog offers. But this is also more than simple self-promotion because Israel faces an existential threat. She needs you –and your friends. You need to be informed—and knowledgeable. As the threat to the world’s only Jewish state becomes more serious, you will see the enemies of Israel become increasingly excited about destroying her; and as that excitement grows, you will see increased pressure against Jews world-wide. That includes America. That could include you.
That’s why I want you to share this site. Let your friends know what you have learned here—about the stories behind the news and about the ‘threshold of greatness’ series you have read here (see below). You need to prepare. As the world—and Islam—turn against Israel, you could become part of the struggle for Jewish survival. Your friends need to understand the nature of that threat—and the footsteps of greatness that lie beneath those threats; indeed, those footsteps may be the most important story of all—and your friends will learn about them here, on this blog.
More and more, you will see Israel called an apartheid state (to prepare for this accusation, read the blog entry, “Apartheid, the Mahdi and the surprise”, June 6, 2011). You will hear that Israel builds ‘illegal settlements’ (read the entry, “West Bank ‘setlements’: J’accuse”, April 10, 2011) . You will hear how the Goldstone Report was right to label Israel as guilty of war crimes and as a violator of International human rights; and you may even hear that the Goldstone has become irrelevant (don’t believe that—instead, read the entries, “Connect the dots: Food-Goldstone -War crimes”, April 17, 2011; “The Goldstone wars begin,” April 24, 2011; “Abbas and Goldstone: beware the company you keep,” May, 23, 2011; “Was the Bin Laden killing illegal? Ask Israel”, May 24, 2011; “Goldstone lessons”, May 26, 2011).
To understand the meaning of all of these essays, you might choose to re-read “History, Israel and Redemption: are they connected?”( June 19, 2011), and then work through the “on the threshold of greatness” series, a group of thirteen essays that appear July- September, inclusive, 2011; it would be best to begin in July, with essay number l (one).
Prepare. Read. Listen to how the world talks about Israel. Listen closely to their words. Share this blog site so that others can join you to discuss what you all see and hear. As the world turns against Israel, we really do stand on a threshold of greatness. But if you are not prepared…well, let’s say you must be prepared; and this blog is a good place to start because there is news from Israel you may only see here.
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