Jihad's Self Defeat??

This is straight up stolen from Andrew Sullivan's blog but I found it to fascinating not to post. Check 'em out:

From the New Yorker:

“We now have before us two schools of thought,” Kamal Habib, [a key leader of the first generation of Al Jihad], told me. “The old school, which was expressed by Al Jihad and its spinoff, Al Qaeda, is the one that was led by Ayman al-Zawahiri, Sheikh Maqdisi, Zarqawi. The new school, which Dr. Fadl has given expression to, represents a battle of faith. It’s deeper than just ideology.” He went on, “The general mood of Islamist movements in the seventies was intransigence. Now the general mood is toward harmony and coexistence. The distance between the two is a measure of their experience.” Ironically, Dr. Fadl’s thinking gave birth to both schools. “As long as a person lives in a world of jihad, the old vision will control his thinking,” Habib suggested. “When he’s in battle, he doesn’t wonder if he’s wrong or he’s right. When he’s arrested, he has time to wonder.”

And from Newsweek:

The Simon Fraser study notes that the decline in terrorism appears to be caused by many factors, among them successful counterterrorism operations in dozens of countries and infighting among terror groups. But the most significant, in the study's view, is the "extraordinary drop in support for Islamist terror organizations in the Muslim world over the past five years." These are largely self-inflicted wounds. The more people are exposed to the jihadists' tactics and world view, the less they support them.

An ABC/BBC poll in Afghanistan in 2007 showed support for the jihadist militants in the country to be 1 percent. In Pakistan's North-West Frontier province, where Al Qaeda has bases, support for Osama bin Laden plummeted from 70 percent in August 2007 to 4 percent in January 2008. That dramatic drop was probably a reaction to the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, but it points to a general trend in Pakistan over the past five years. With every new terrorist attack, public support for jihad falls. "This pattern is repeated in country after country in the Muslim world," writes Mack. "Its strategic implications are critically important because historical evidence suggests that terrorist campaigns that lose public support will sooner or later be abandoned or defeated."

Check out the full lengths for more information, I hope everyone in America had a wonderful Memorial Day this week, Shalom Aleichem.

Quote of the day 5/25/5768

As most of you know I love quotes, I think this first quote does a wonderful job of encapsulating the Meron experience and the second one is just famous and wise advise. Enjoy.

Be careful to act with true innocence and simplicity but not foolishly. Sophistication however, is quite unnecessary. Simplicity, innocence and faith can bring you to the highest level of joy" -Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, Litukey Moharan

"If I am not for myself than who will be for me? When I am for myself, what am I?"-Pirkei Avos 1:4

Kiruv

It’s the common name for Jewish Outreach, at Aish we get a healthy dose of experience with this. Aish HaTorah is in fact of the biggest and well know Kiruv Organizations; our Rosh Yeshiva is Noach Weinberg who is one of the great Rabbis of our generation. Another organization is Chabad and they have been my main source of Jewish upbringing those two and Birthright Israel are the reasons I’m studying at Yeshiva. And as I spend more time learning and practicing Judaism I find that I to am a one person Kiruv Organization. At Yeshiva I interact with all sorts of different people from every imaginable background and at every amazing place in their spiritual and practical awakenings. I woke up this morning and davened Shacrit at shul. I followed the whole thing; I even got there late figured out where we were pretty quickly and off I went. I got to make an alyih to the Torah because I’ve been going to morning services for most of the month. I was thinking that I’ve be become very comfortable in the Jewish world. When I got up to the Bimah and saw the torah in front of me, I got so nervious I’ve resited in many ways becoming a part of this world, there are many things I still disagree with, and yet I am a part of it, making an alliyah is a part of being part of the community. When I boy becomes Bar Mitzvahed he’s calling up to read from the Torah, before he gets married he gets called up. It’s recognition of a relationship to the community. It was very cool even if my knees were shaking the whole time. After wards people shake your hand and tell you, you did a good job, everyone’s doing a little Kiruv of their own. I spent Thursday in Meron, it was Lag Ba’Omer the 33^rd day of counting the Omer. In Meron every year there is a crazy festival, Around Rabbi Shimon bar Yokai’s grave on the side of a mountain, 200,000 Jews come in and out and dance and sing all night long. Me and my friend Noach went, we met up with a much of other Aish guys who had made the journey. After the sun went down it started up huge sound system’s got turned on and everyone davened and snag and danced. In one big room chassid’s crowed and danced it was like a mosh pit I lasted for 10 minutes before I got out, in other open areas pits were being stuffed with cotton and oil for the bonfires that dot the mountain, they much like everything and everyone else burned all night. It was amazing dancing in that crowd stationed everywhere were less crowded areas with food and water so tired Jews could sit down and reenergize before going back out. On of our rabbis was there popping out out of nowhere explaining and showing us all the sites. Amazing experience it reminded me that what initially got me into Judaism was the music the ecstatic feeling you get when singing songs on Shabbat and the feeling of unity it brings. Noach and I were talking about the crazy scene trying to think of how to describe it, and I can’t not fully anyway. I can’t describe the feeling you got being there, how the moon hung over the festivities glowing orange while fires burned, children age three got their first haircuts and everyone celebrated the glory of Hashem. And I thought about myself at the beginning of my journey on Birthright, when I first got to Aish and how uncomfortable I still felt and how I feel now. Now That I understand the mitzvahs so much better and practice some many more of them. It’s a duel process knowing where your limits and limitations are and challenging yourself and also giving yourself time to understand them. And then over time you begin to feel it, all the way down inside and then you can begin to share it slowly and tentatively you can even start to explain yourself to other people and more importantly to yourself. Because it’s a scary thing, it requires time when you feel like you don’t have it when you just want to get your life going. But I’ve realized it all been worth it. Amazing, simply amazing.

Floating on a Wave

I’m not a writer, what I mean by that is I don’t force myself to write when I don’t want to just so I can put up content on the blog or just so that I’ll have something to remember every single thing that happens in Israel with. That’s just not my style that being said Peasch was a month ago and still nothing has been written on what happened. It was a crazy week, I had Seder with my Aunt and Uncle who were in town it was lovely, weird as well. This was the part of my family who I used to consider religious or observant now I look and I see things so much differently. I’m not judging but it is a very weird experience for me to be with family who I thought of as so religious, because their just not. And that’s not a bad thing but it is very strange for me. It made me see how far I’ve come, and helped me reflect on where I’m going (oh how I wish I knew) After Seder Chol Hamod was in full effect for the next week the Old City of Jerusalem was a festival a crazy, wonderful, crowded festival. Music was being played in every corner of the Jewish Quarter all day and late into the night. There were so many people here that it was almost impossible to move, I had to use every bit of my knowledge about the shortcuts and back ways to get anywhere in less then twenty minutes. And it was totally incredible Pesach, Shavous and Succot are the three holidays where we as Jews are commanded to return to Jerusalem and with Shavous right around the corner (that’s when g-d gave us the Torah) I’ll have been here for 2/3rds of the trifecta. It was such an incredible feeling it can’t be properly described.

Since then I’ve just been hanging around, two of my Uncles came to Israel for a few days and it was great getting to see them. Its hard seeing family here it really makes me feel the distance. I’ve been thinking a lot about when I’ll go home, I know that as everyday passes it just gets harder and harder to be here. Yeshiva life can really break people; I’ve seen it happen to almost everyone, without so many outside distractions a person must focus inward and often times it’s not a pretty sight. I just don’t know how much longer I can continue to live in a community where I don’t fit in, don’t want to fit in. I think about what I’ll do when I get back to New York. Most likely I’ll keep doing yeshiva for a little while. My skills are just starting to get better, and I think with another six months to a year of work I’ll really be able to get a good grasp on them. That’s what I’m thinking for now anyway. Life in Israel is getting exciting Lag Ba’Omer is this week, and me and some friends are planning on going up to Meron where from Thursday to Sunday there will be something like 200,000 Jews celebrating, dancing, singing etc. I can’t wait, Shalom from Eretz Israel.

In the Middle of the frying pan

Living in Israel is like living in the middle of a frying pan. The current political situation here is to crazy to be ignored. With soon to be former(Hurray!!) President Bush arriving earlier this week, Hezbollah and by extension Iran's nearing takeover of Lebannon and a world that seems contention to let Iran become the worlds next Nuclear power, things here are tense. You can just feel it in the air, I have a good friend here who is currently training to become a Paratrooper in the IDF and he's excited and scared. The threat currently facing Israel is more real then it has ever been with Iranian influence in Syria, Lebanon via funding Hezbollah and Gaza via Hamas and their ever increasing influence in Iraq Israel is facing the threat the likes of which it has never seen before. I'm not trying to bang the war drums, but I've looked at this every way I can and I think appeasing Iran in its current form is akin to appeasing Germany in the 1930's interestingly enough the West is responsible for creating both enemies, as always mida kineged mida (measure for measure) seems to be in effect. With that in mind I'm posting a link to this website DEBKAfile so you can(if interested) get a more complete picture of the situation here(provided that you read other news sources as well) All is well in the Holy Land its been beautiful and warm here, but tis getting hotter and I know that trend will continue, hopefully me and my Northeaster sensibilities will be able to withstand the heat when it comes. Shalom Aleichem.

The yeshiva life

Being in Israel... what can I say about the experience that I haven't already said? Its weird lately I feel like I've had nothing to say about it, it simply is. So strange, Over the last six plus months I've grown and struggled and laughed and even cried just a little bit. I've become a religious Jew, something I never would have seen coming just three years ago. I've realized I can't hide it anymore, that I can't pretend I see life one way when in the moments of clarity I have its all seems so obvious. I've tried to find an identity for myself in a strange community and by and large succeeded. I've worked hard at living in the moment and I think I've done a pretty good job. Yeshiva life is like that, there aren't a lot of distractions to occupy you. You really have control over every moment of your day, its your time here, your time to try your best to figure it all out(well not it all, thats unrealistic but you get what I mean) . I got to see some family over the last month. Its difficult because its so great to see them but its also makes me realize what a foreign world I've entered into. They don't altogether get it and thats scary. To think about living in a world that the people closest to you might never truly understand. My grandmother has said on more then one occasion that our family's greatest blessing and curse is that we all love each other so much. And it's true calling home every week is difficult it makes me feel the distance so much, its makes me realize that I just picked up and left at the beginning of a good start to my adult life. It makes me think about New York and all the great yeshiva's there, where I could be studying instead of being 6000 miles away in our ancient and beautiful home land. This trip is amazing, every moment of it even the hard moments sometimes especially the hard moments. I've created relationships here that have been forged out of the highest highs and the lowest lows. I don't regret a thing. I have Emunah in Hashem that all is as it should be. I'm grateful of all that I have been given, I love Israel. Shalom.

A New Zman

This is my first post in a while, Pesach was wonderful, maybe I'll write about it soon but I'm not sure. For now I've started classes again which is nice its great to have some much needed structure in my life. I'm going to try to stick it out here for as long as I can, after almost two full days I think it might just be a good semester, god willing I'll be able to deal with it here I really think I'll be able to enjoy the summer in Israel before heading back to the United States, thats my plan for today anyway. I've really just been trying to enjoy my time now, serving god with joy and working on finding a little bit of happiness in this crazy world. Much love, eretz Israel and Shalom Alechem.