Arggghhhhh!!!!!!!!!!

Probably one of the worst feelings in the word is embarassment. In Judaism, to embarrass someone is considered as if killing the person. It's a big deal to try not to embarrass someone.

In general, embarrassment is the feeling of not being good enough or smart enough in front of other people, I think.

Like, when we have to get up in front of a crowd and we're terrified about falling on the steps on the way up, it's because we feel like we'll look stupid if we do that.

Then there's a phrase, "the bigger they are, the harder the fall."

So here we are... the Jews... the ones who are supposed to be a Light Unto The Nations... that's pretty big. That means we can, and do, fall pretty darned hard.

We have allowed ourselves to be duped by the world into thinking we need to depend on other nations. We think that our survival depends on America's giving us weapons, or the EU's buying our produce and accepting our scholars.

Leaving Gaza and the homesteads in the northern Samaria region in 2005 was stupid, stupid, stupid.

We let the world persuade us that it would be for the best. We let our leaders tell us they would take good care of all the people they were forcing out of their homes. We let our yearning for peace convince us that once we left Gaza, if the terrorists kept attacking us, we would go in and kick butt, once and for all.

But now we know that isn't the reality. Now we know there are still pioneers living in the equivalent of shanty towns, three years later still waiting for what their leaders and our government promised them for resettlement.

Now we know that the terrorists shoot rockets at our cities on a daily basis -- Yesterday more than 50... more than 20 in a 30-minute time period!!

And now, now, we are letting the world talk us into trying to make a cease fire with Hamas, with Egypt as one of the brokers, instead of taking care of our own people.

Don't get me wrong -- I have friends in the army... if there is a "large-scale action" in Gaza, people will die on both sides, and selfishly, I don't want to hurt or have my friends hurt when, G-d forbid, our soldiers get wounded or killed.

But how much more of this are we supposed to take? When is crying "wolf" not tolerated anymore?

I mean, seriously -- Hamas has NEVER stopped calling for our destruction! Egypt has done NOTHING to stop the flow of arms into Gaza. What are we doing? A "cease fire" means NOTHING.

I am embarrassed that I was originally one of the pro-disengagement people. I hate feeling stupid.

Our entire country should be embarrassed that we keep letting outsiders make our decisions for us. It is stupid.

And I'm not just babbling -- we can do a quick run-through of the history of the State of Israel and see how clear this is.

1947 - The UN votes for Israel to have a state. The Arab Palestinians deny the authority and attack us harder than ever, immediately.

1948 - After being completely abandoned, and in fact being put in worse situations, by the British, we declare our independence. Most countries refuse to give us weapons with which to fight, and we win through G-d's miracles and the ingenuity He gave us (I mean, seriously -- we used loud noisemakers in lieu of weapons, and it worked -- that's miraculous.)

1967 - We try getting the world to understand that Egypt is going to attack us, yet the world refuses to get involved. We defend ourselves based on a Talmud principle (One who comes to kill you, kill him first.), and miraculously, we win in six days.

Then it starts going downhill...

1973 - The Arabs attack on Yom Kippur, and immediately we let the world start convincing us of what we should or shouldn't do. The war lasts for months, during which approximately 1% of our population is killed.

1982 - We invade Lebanon to try and stop the attacks from there, and then we let the world tell us how to run our war. The war lasts for 18 years, and when we finally decide it's over, we turn tail and run.

2000-2003 - The suicide attacks ramp up, and Israelis live in terror. We let the world influence how we react, always "showing restraint" and trying to explain ourselves when we actually do anything that might help us defend ourselves.

2005 - Present - We let the world convince us we should disengage. Now we see how that has failed miserably.

When we had leaders who did what needed to be done, we succeeded. When we let the rest of the world decide for us, we did not.

Most non-enemy countries' populations believe the world is a better place with Israel in it. But what they don't understand is that we need to follow the rules we live best by -- Jewish rules, which celebrate life, but are realistic enough to know that not everyone else celebrates it -- in order to thrive.

And we ourselves don't understand that if we would just do what we're supposed to do, not only would we be okay -- but the whole world would be affected by our behavior.

G-d willing, we'll realize it soon...

In Case You Missed It...

A French (!) appeals court has finally ruled, bottom line, that the Al-Dura footage was faked.

Just a re-cap, in short:

1. You probably recognize the photo, even if you don't recognize the name.

2. The photo was taken from a video filmed on 30 September, 2000 -- Just two days after what is considered the beginning of the "Second Intifada." Because of the timing, poor little Mohammed Al-Dura became the symbol for the so-called victims of "Israeli agression."

The press all over the world ran with the story about how terrible it was that this little boy was caught in the cross-fire and killed by the IDF.

3. The filming was done by Talal abu Rahme, an Arab Palestinian cameraman who works for French TV and CNN. The footage was sent to French Channel 2, and broadcast with commentary by Charles Enderlin, the Middle East Correspondent stationed in Jerusalem (He was not present at the filming.)

4. Enderlin and French2 distributed the film footage, which had been edited to remove a few seconds of footage, to anyone who asked for it -- free of charge.

5. Between 2000-2004, evidence began piling up that the footage had been faked, and Enderlin had been lied to about the truthfulness of the video.

6. In 2004, a French media critic, Philip Karsenty, publicly called for the dismissal of Enderlin and his boss for having not cleared the record even after having discovered that the original footage had been faked.

7. In order to clear his name, Enderlin sued Karsenty for libel. The original court that "heard" the case did a clearly shoddy job of trying to find the truth, and the case went to appeals.

There are probably hundreds of websites with claims that each side is true, but if one simply views the evidence, it is CLEAR that the entire thing was faked. Faked. FAKED.

And since this video was one of the first faked videos out there, and it did such an effective job of making Israel look bad, other "journalists" have followed by faking other photos and video.

What really stinks is that there really are at least some poor Palestinian people out there who want to live in peace, at least I hope there are, yet they are unfortunately calling "Wolf!" long after most of their original sympathizers stopped believing the cry for help.