BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS

Barack Obama's Middle East Expert By Ed Lasky The idea of this guy as President? Scares me! Like giving a baby a loaded gun. Barack Obama's real thinking about Israel and the Middle East continues to be an enigma. The words he chose in an address to AIPAC create a different impression than the composition of his foreign policy advisory team. Several advisors have evidenced a history of suspicion and worse toward Israel. One of his advisors in particular, Robert Malley, clearly warrants attention, as does the reasoning that led him to being chosen by Barack Obama. A little family history may be in order to understand the genesis of Robert Malley's views. Normally, one should be reluctant in exploring a person's family background -- after all, who would want to be held responsible for the sins of one's father? However, when close relatives share a strong current of ideological affinity, and when a father has a commanding persona, it behooves a researcher to inquire

Absolutely Disgusting! Ariel man poses as rabbi, rapes woman to ‘repair her soul’ Yonatan Bassa, 38, posed as Rabbi, forced woman seeking counseling to have sex in order to 'repair her soul'; defrauded her of $18,000 by Vered Luvitch The Tel-Aviv District Court charged 38-year-old Yonatan Bassa of Ariel with rape and committing an indecent act Tuesday, after the latter had sexually assaulted a woman who had turned to him for counseling while he had posed as a rabbi. The indictment states that Bassa would claim to be a rabbi and give Torah lesson to Jewish penitents, or ba’alei teshuvah, even though he was never ordained. In March 2007, he was approached by a woman who had asked for his guidance and help in returning to the Jewish faith. During this first meeting he asked the woman for money to ‘redeem her soul’, and instructed her to stop psychotherapy as well as all psychiatric medication. Bassa’s charge obediently stopped taking her prescribed psychiatric medication, an

OLMERT LACKS MORAL AUTHORITY When your own military turns on you, time to leave the dance. Hint, hint... Reserve soldiers say Olmert 'lacks moral authority', must resign 'Prime minister lacks the moral authority to send us out to battle again,' soldier who took part in Lebanon war says. His comrades say Israel should focus on returning kidnapped soldiers home by Rony Lifshitz Despite the release of a generally critical report on Wednesday that endorsed key decisions Ehud Olmert took during the 2006 war in Lebanon, a group of reserve soldiers who took part in the campaign are calling in him to resign, while others contend that Israel should now focus on returning kidnapped IDF soldiers Eldad Regev, Ehud Goldwasser and Gilad Shalit. "To us, the reserve soldiers who fought in the war, one thins is clear: Our trust cannot be regained," First Sergeant (res.) Lior Dimenes told Ynet. "The prime minister lacks the moral authority to send us out to battle again.&

HEY, SHE DOESN'T WANT TO DIE! UPDATE: A friend from my paralegaling days sent me this early this morning. I apologize I am usually at the gym or the doctor in the mornings and don't see these things right away. The full text of Ms. Allaithy's Complaint - Click here Unfortunately I understand now what this girl is going through, because in some ways - I have been there. I myself, have my lawyer asking me every once in a while as my divorce is being finalized, if she can finally (as she says) file charges for "Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress" and "Negligent Infliction of Emotional Distress" on a third party. She's seen all the evidence and believes I have a strong case. In deferrence to the family of the third party, and because of the kind of person I am - have refused. Now, there's additional libel charges possible. So it's come up again. What's unfortunate is that MSM is buying this old story! The WOMAN is "scor

The Hidden Power In Your Fears By Avalon De Witt Who wants to be afraid? In every moment, each of us is given the choice to love or to fear. A simple choice, one might think. But in this world, with violence, terrorism, war and disease becoming every day life for so many, is there anyone who hasn't struggled with fear? Whenever we're about to make a major leap forward in our spiritual development, fear always steps into our path. It's the antagonist in all our personal stories. It's true that we attract what we fear. The more we fear a thing, the more likely it is to happen. And if left unchecked, fear can take control of our lives. Yet, everything has a purpose and fear is no exception. There is good reason to be afraid of some things. Fear is a messenger that warns us there may be danger ahead. Its purpose is to guide us toward actions that will protect us as well as our loved ones. It is natural and healthy to feel fear. But like other natural tendencies we have, we&

HATERS & BAITERS I will never understand people who label others they don't agree with as "haters." Case in point, DEMOCRAT HATERS. Now I am not a Democrat or a Republican. I consider myself liberal in some areas and conservative in others. I never vote a party line. I do a lot of reading and thinking before I make decisions. Yes, I am disgusted with President Bush and his cronies. They're an embarrassment to their party and the country. But a hater? Hating someone takes a lot of energy. Terrorists hate blindly. I'm not a terrorist. There's just a few things I hate: Lying, Exploiting the vulnerable, Evil and asparagus. Our country was founded on disagreement and discussion. Anyone who's read some of the recent books about the antics of our Founding Fathers knows it wasn't one big happy powdered-wig-fest. There were some pretty extreme ideas and everything was on the table. That's still the only way America will grow and flourish.

OFFICE STRESS IS KILLING, LITERALLY Work really can kill you, according to a study on Wednesday providing the strongest evidence yet of how on-the-job stress raises the risk of heart disease by disrupting the body’s internal systems. The findings from a long-running study involving more than 10,000 British civil servants also suggest stress-induced biological changes may play a more direct role than previously thought, said Tarani Chandola, an epidemiologist at University College London. “This is the first large-scale population study looking at the effects of stress measured from everyday working life on heart disease,” said Chandola, who led the study. “One of the problems is people have been skeptical whether work stress really affects a person biologically.” Heart disease is the world’s leading cause of death. It is caused by fatty deposits that harden and block arteries, high blood pressure which damages blood vessels, and other factors. The researchers measured stress among the c

MISSING THEM Missingthem.net is staging an art-inspired protest today at airports around the world calling attention to three missing Israeli soldiers - Ehud Goldwasser, Eldad Regev and Gilad Shalit - who were kidnapped from Israel’s northern border with Lebanon and southern border with Gaza in 2006. More information can be found on the site of advocacy group HaBanim (meaning, “the sons” in Hebrew) including how many days all three have been missing in action - which is at least 560 and counting - and how you can help (donating or signing their petition). As part of the demonstration, volunteers from around the world will wait at airport arrival halls with blank notices. You know how there are always people waiting with signs welcoming their loved ones, seeking clients or assembling groups? Well, although the signs will be symbolically blank, there are plenty of people waiting for these three young men to come home. The website is mostly in Hebrew but there is enough English here and

Online Dating - Bad No Matter What There isn't enough money or influence in all the world to get me to do online dating. Ever. I had one stupid online relationship about 5 years ago, with someone I "thought I knew" who assured me they'd 'never hurt me' yet preyed on my good nature at a very dark & vulnerable time, when I was being severely abused. I haven't heard from this friend of over 25 years since. The stays in the hospital from non-stop vomitting were pretty powerful reminders, too. I can't stress enough that people feel powerful & anonymous behind a keyboard. They do & say things they would never dream of doing in the light of day. They smear, they engage in salacious activity and then walk out the door to work the next day as Mr. Or Mrs. Normal. (This is called the "Online Disinhibition Effect") As for online dating? I know of ONE person who met his next wife through J-Date. Yes, I said "next" wife. Tha

Using Music to Lift Depression’s Veil by Alan Zale Many people find that music lifts their spirits. Now new research shows that music therapy — either listening to or creating music with a specially trained therapist — can be a useful treatment for depression. The finding that music therapy offers a real clinical benefit to depression sufferers comes from a review by the Cochrane Collaboration, a not-for-profit group that reviews health care issues. Although there aren’t many credible studies of music therapy for depression, the reviewers found five randomized trials that studied the effects of music therapy. Some studies looked at the effects of providing music therapy to patients who were receiving drug treatment for depression. Others compared music therapy to traditional talk therapy. In four out of five of the trials, music therapy worked better at easing depression symptoms than therapies that did not employ music, the researchers found. “The current studies indicate that music t

JEWISH RENEWAL AND THE HOLOCAUST One could argue that all post-war Jewish theology is post-Holocaust theology. Without taking a stand on the historical debate as to whether or not the Holocaust is a unique event in general or in Jewish history, the existential impact of this catastrophe was such that Jewish thinking after the war was by necessity thinking through the war. Elie Weisel once said that he understood how someone who was a believer before the Holocaust could become an atheist afterward, and how someone who was an atheist before the Holocaust could later become a believer. What was incomprehensible to him was someone whose theological worldview was the same before and after the Holocaust. Understanding Jewish Renewal as a post-Holocaust phenomenon requires us to understand the role the Holocaust played in its development. Turning toward the Holocaust Jewish renewal's founder and architect, Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi (b. 1924), was born into a Hasidic but semi-enlighte