Chit Chat

By Ted Belman

From now on comments on every post must relate to the content of the post.

Comments that don’t relate to the post must go here.

Any person who contravenes this demand will be put on moderation. Also their offending comment will be trashed.

The reason for this demand is so that people who want to read comments which pertain to the post, don’t have to wade through the chatter.

Everyone will be happier.

April 16, 2020 | 7,908 Comments »

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  1. O’Hara earned the nickname “Baby Elephant” for being a pudgy infant.[4] A tomboy, she enjoyed fishing in the River Dodder, riding horses, swimming, and soccer,[11] and would play boys’ games and climb trees.[7]

    O’Hara was so keen on soccer that at one point, she pressed her father to found a women’s team, and professed that Glenmalure Park, the home ground of Shamrock Rovers F.C., became “like a second home”.[11] She enjoyed fighting, and trained in judo as a teenager.[12] She later admitted that she was jealous of boys in her youth and the freedom they had, and that they could steal apples from orchards and not get into trouble.[13]

    O’Hara first attended the John Street West Girls’ School near Thomas Street in Dublin’s Liberties Area.[14] She began dancing at the age of 5,[4] when a fortune teller predicted that she would become rich and famous, and she would boast to friends as they sat in her back garden that she would “become the most famous actress in the world”. Her enthusiastic family fully supported the idea.[15] When she recited a poem on stage in school at the age of six, O’Hara immediately felt an attraction to performing in front of an audience. From that age she trained in drama, music, and dance along with her siblings at the Ena Mary Burke School of Drama and Elocution in Dublin.[10] Their affinity with the arts prompted O’Hara to refer to the family as the “Irish von Trapp family”.[4]

    O’Hara (right) with sisters Margot and Florrie in 1947
    At the age of 10, O’Hara joined the Rathmines Theatre Company and began working in amateur theatre in the evenings after her lessons.[16] One of her earliest roles was Robin Hood in a Christmas pantomime.[10] O’Hara’s dream at this time was to be a stage actress. By the age of 12, O’Hara had reached the height of 5 feet 6 inches (1.68 m), and it worried her mother for a while that she would become “the tallest girl” in Ireland as Maureen’s father was 6 feet 4 inches (1.93 m). She expressed relief when O’Hara only grew another two inches.[17]

  2. @Thank you for the correction. I’d rather be well-informed than right. I don’t know this film.

    “…Charles Laughton was a co-producer on this movie, and he reportedly interfered greatly with Hitchcock’s direction. Laughton initially was cast as Joss, but he cast himself in the role of the villainous Pengallan, who originally was a hypocritical preacher but was rewritten as a squire because unsympathetic portrayals of the clergy were forbidden by the Production Code in Hollywood.[3] Sidney Gilliat did these rewrites as a favour to Hitchcock.[4]

    Laughton then demanded that Hitchcock give his character greater screen time. This forced Hitchcock to reveal that Pengallan was a villain in league with the smugglers earlier in the film than Hitchcock had initially planned.[5]

    Laughton’s acting was a problem point as well for Hitchcock. Laughton portrayed Pengallan as having a mincing walk that went to the beat of a German waltz that he played in his head,[6] and Hitchcock thought it was out of character. Laughton also demanded that Maureen O’Hara be given the lead after watching her screen test (her acting in the screen test was sub par, but Laughton could not forget her eyes). After filming finished, Laughton brought her to Hollywood to play Esmeralda opposite his Quasimodo in the hit 1939 version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, after which she became an international star.[1]

    On release, the film was a substantial commercial success and in March 1939 Hitchcock moved to Hollywood to begin his contract with David O. Selznick. Thus Jamaica Inn was his last picture made in Britain until the 1970s.[6][7]…”

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamaica_Inn_(film)

    Lot of personal as well as professional and some autobiographical detail in the article about her that might interest you. It’s quite long.

    “…Early life and education

    O’Hara with her mother, Marguerite FitzSimons, in 1948
    Born on 17 August 1920,[4] O’Hara began life as Maureen FitzSimons on Beechwood Avenue in the Dublin suburb of Ranelagh.[5] She stated that she was “born into the most remarkable and eccentric family I could have possibly hoped for”.[6] She was the second-eldest of six children of Charles and Marguerite (née Lilburn) FitzSimons, and the only red-headed child in the family.[7] Her father was in the clothing business and bought into Shamrock Rovers Football Club,[8] a team O’Hara supported from childhood.[9]

    ‘O’Hara inherited her singing voice from her mother,[7] a former operatic contralto and successful women’s clothier, who in her younger years was widely considered to have been one of Ireland’s most beautiful women. She noted that whenever her mother left the house, men would leave their houses just so they could catch a glimpse of her in the street.[4] O’Hara’s siblings were Peggy, the eldest, and younger Charles, Florrie, Margot, and Jimmy. Peggy dedicated her life to a religious order, becoming a Sister of Charity.[4]

    O’Hara earned the nickname “Baby Elephant” for being a pudgy infant.[4] A tomboy, she enjoyed fishing in the River Dodder, riding horses, swimming, and soccer,[11] and would play boys’ games and climb trees.[7]

    O’Hara was so keen on soccer that at one point, she pressed her father to found a women’s team, and professed that Glenmalure Park, the home ground of Shamrock Rovers F.C., became “like a second home”.[11] She enjoyed fighting, and trained in judo as a teenager.[12] She later admitted that she was jealous of boys in her youth and the freedom they had, and that they could steal apples from orchards and not get into trouble.[13]

    O’Hara first attended the John Street West Girls’ School near Thomas Street in Dublin’s Liberties Area.[14] She began dancing at the age of 5,[4] when a fortune teller predicted that she would become rich and famous, and she would boast to friends as they sat in her back garden that she would “become the most famous actress in the world”. Her enthusiastic family fully supported the idea.[15] When she recited a poem on stage in school at the age of six, O’Hara immediately felt an attraction to performing in front of an audience. From that age she trained in drama, music, and dance along with her siblings at the Ena Mary Burke School of Drama and Elocution in Dublin.[10] Their affinity with the arts prompted O’Hara to refer to the family as the “Irish von Trapp family”.[4]

    O’Hara (right) with sisters Margot and Florrie in 1947
    At the age of 10, O’Hara joined the Rathmines Theatre Company and began working in amateur theatre in the evenings after her lessons.[16] One of her earliest roles was Robin Hood in a Christmas pantomime.[10] O’Hara’s dream at this time was to be a stage actress. By the age of 12, O’Hara had reached the height of 5 feet 6 inches (1.68 m), and it worried her mother for a while that she would become “the tallest girl” in Ireland as Maureen’s father was 6 feet 4 inches (1.93 m). She expressed relief when O’Hara only grew another two inches.[17]…”

    – Maureen O’hara – Wikipedia

  3. SEB_
    I hate to disagree with you since things are going on so smoothly, but Laughton did NOT “discover” her for that picture. She starred with him in Jamaica Inn, which was a pre-war film-just.

    I knew the FitzSimons family; used to buy chocolate and other items in their little shop. O’Hara was many years gone by then.
    .

    Jimmy and I used to chase around -especially girls, and have a few drinks etc, the usual early manhood behaviour.

  4. SEB-

    There’s no accounting for taste. I still think it was “soppy”, and completely dampened the general hilarity of the movie which had been moving along so nicely.

    It had no place in that movie at all. It reminds me-in quite a different sphere- of the interjected Christian fakery in Josephus, as all the experts have said, totally against the normal flow of th narrative.

    Eusebius, the faker-in-chief…..The master of “interpolations”……….!!!

  5. SEB-

    I have never been able to face watching anything about the persecution of Jews especially on the screen. I got to know some of the persecuted who were smuggled into Ireland and whom I met in school. Their stories filled me with horror, which has not dissipated over all this time.

    As you know, I’m a first generation from the Shtetl, and grew up with strong and often violent Jew hatred which I have described on these pages more than once. My naturally aggressive nature came early to the fore and has remained with me.

    Charlie Ruggles did not play “the father”, I don’t recall children, he played “Egbert Floud”. Ma Pettindill was so good in her part that she should have had an award. Seen her many times, always good, can’t recall her first name but think her family name is Ebourne.

    I thought that reciting the Gettysburg Address, was a lot too shmaltzy , and in fact deteriorated from the hilarity of the film.

    The cut out in which Ruggles visualised Indians with himself tied to a stake and being swarmed by howling dervishes was really priceless, also the line …” A real China Person??”

    I’m not surprized that you’ve seen and appreciated so many of my favourites. One time this was so marked that you said “we are a symbiotic pair” (paraphrased) and although that seemed to sink into abeyance on other matters I find it is still with us..

  6. @Edgar And that was just one in a shopping mall! Yes, Ruggles of Red Gap has been one of my favorite movies since childhood. Another is Jean Renoir’s “This Land is Mine” which you can watch online. 1942/3. The only film of the genre of that time that even mentions the persecution of Jews. A bildungsroman about a timid school teacher in Vichy France who transforms under pressure and becomes an anti-fascist hero. Almost everybody becomes or reveals themselves to be their opposite in the film. The court room speech is spellbinding. I found it later in a book of best monologues of 1942. I believe Laughton discovered Maureen O’hara for this film. I always cry at the end. I’m not somebody who cries at the movies. It came out the same year as Casablanca 1942/43. It wasn’t released all at once. Better film in my opinion. One of about 10 films of that genre released at that time. Renoir was the son of the painter.

    The father in Ruggles of :Red Gap, the actor who plays him is named Charles Ruggles by the way.

  7. @Edgar And that was just one in a shopping mall! Yes, Ruggles of Red Gap has been one of my favorite movies since childhood. Another is Jean Renoir’s “This Land is Mine” which you can watch online. 1942/3. The only film of the genre of that time that even mentions the persecution of Jews. A bildungsroman about a timid school teacher in Vichy France who transforms under pressure and becomes an anti-fascist hero. Almost everybody becomes or reveals themselves to be their opposite in the film. The court room speech is spellbinding. I found it later in a book of best monologues of 1942. I believe Laughton discovered Maureen O’hara for this film. I always cry at the end. I’m not somebody who cries at the movies. It came out the same year as Casablanca 1942/43. It wasn’t released all at once. Better film in my opinion. One of about 10 films of that genre released at that time. Renoir was the son of the painter.

    The father in Ruggles of :Red Gap, the actor who plays him is named Charles Ruggles by the way.

  8. SEB_

    Yes I checked the Sth Korean Library out. It gave me quite a shock to think that it is loaded with millions of books books books. At first I thought it was a cruise ship.

    I never imagined anything like that. .

  9. SEB-

    Another book which I recommend and which I know is on Proj, Gut. is “Potash and Perlmutter”. It’s by Montague Glass. I have a copy and used to read it to my children as they were growing up.
    It was in HUGE demand in my home, and I quickly learned how to speak in the P&P lingo. In my opinion it’s a “clever” book..!!

    It’s the first of a series and in my opinion by far the best one. It was made into a play and I recall one of my dear mother’s cousins quoting from the play. this was the first i’d heard of it and I was about 12.
    I always remembered the quote and later picked it up in my favourite used bookstore. The quote from the play was not in the book -as I recall.

    In fact my daughter Rachel, asked me for it and she still treasures it.

    Goyim would not appreciate these works; it takes Jews to understand the inner meanings, and most likely, like myself, they know people who are exactly like the characters portrayed.

    Then there’s “Ruggles of Red Gap”, by Harry Leon Wilson, no Jewish content but FUNNY. Charles Laughton headed a wonderfully well cast group in the movie.
    In our house we used to screen it at least twice a year- or on demand.

    By coincidence Laughton played the part of Ruggles, the perfect “valet/butler”, and a major actor in the cast was Charlie Ruggles.

    Thenn there’s a priceless “Bindle” series by the publisher/writer Herbert Jenkins, and the famous “Barge” stories by W.W. Jacobs, whose fame rests on what I consider a silly one act play (in which I once had the major role) “The Monkey’s Paw”.

    And so on and so forth.

  10. SEB-
    You’ll realise that Schnorring is an old Jewish tradition, and in certain areas never demeaned the recipient of largess. It was a traditional duty for Jews to give charity as much as could be spared, even the poorest in the village gave. All very true.

    In fact many or most of the Yeshivas used to send their reps travelling around the world especially the areas from which they originally came, to collect donations, and who would also stay with donors to save money.

    I had a cousin who lived in Jerusalem and used to make a regular circuit of Ireland and England. He’d stay with us for a few days collecting from the Dublin Community and then on to other cities. His Yeshiva was Yeshiva Tiferet Tzvi. His two sons were editors of the Israeli Womens’ Magazine L’Isha.
    You’ll very likely enjoy it.

    I’ used to go through Project Gutenberg almost ever since I discovered it and must have read a couple of and books thousand stories there. For instance ALl the early Astounding Science Fiction, and Amazing pulps for several years, each with maybe a dozen stories and/or serials, as well as a Readers Corner, in which many of the readers later became famous science fiction writers themselves.
    I recognised many of them. I used to read them from cover to over…literally all the adverts,(perhaps 30 or more pages), finishing with the Charles Atlas full back cover page, and the poor shnook who got sand kicked in his face before he took the Atlas course.
    (In Project G. I started at “A” and got down to “O” before I discovered other sites).
    I mentioned this many years ago on this site.

    My reading has always been omnivorous.

  11. SEB-

    One of the jokes I recall from Ausubel goes like this:….

    “Two schnorrers who made their living from the Rothschilds, were discussing them whilst standing outside the railings surrounding Rothschild’s Family Burial Mausoleum,,,, they turned and looked at the ornate building, and one said….

    “These Rothschilds certainly know how to live”…

    At the time being much younger, I thought it was funny, but now with advancing age, I’ve changed my mind.

  12. SEB-

    Another book you might look out for, because to me it’s a classic. I bought it before you were born.

    It’s “The King of Schnorrers” by Israel Zangwill. Written in the early 1890s.

  13. @Edgar Did you click on the link I said to check out. Amazing photograph. South Koreans are real bibliophiles. They have libraries that look like this..:

    “The largest underground shopping center in Asia, COEX Mall, can now boast a library filled with over 50,000 titles to its name. Occupying a whopping 2800 square-meters in size, the brightly lit two-storey athenaeum has rightly been named Starfield Library after long being referred to as the Open Library.”

    https://www.lonelyplanet.com/news/seoul-south-korea-library-coex

    Korea also boasts the oldest printed book using metal moveable type. 1377. The Jikji.

    “Jikji
    Dating from 1377, Jikji was printed in the Heungdeok-sa temple in Cheongju, using movable, cast metal characters. It is considered by the international community, including UNESCO, to be the oldest known document printed using this process.”

    75 years before Gutenberg.

  14. SEB-
    At $7+ you got a bargain, assuming it’s a hard cover. You’ll enjoy it. As before I’d like to get your impressions of the contents. Many are subtle, almost Talmudic. These are rare items I’m sure.

    You see, books are and have been my constant lifelong habit from early childhood, since I taught myself to read at age 21/2, (according to my elder sister who was 12 at the time -and present)
    I recall walking along the road with my brown paper bag for my first day
    at school at around the same age.

    ***I’ve described both incidents on this site in the past***

    So you see, I’m an addict, and of course like to be proven right in my opinion of individual books.

  15. @Tanna
    @Sebastien
    @Edgar
    I never bought the Sasson book due to its broad range of history. I am told it was worth the read, but personally I prefer more specific histories. I totally agree with Edgar about Zeitlin’s three vol. set on the Judean State. Excellent book.

    It is a great pity that the random book stores which used to be spotted with some regularity has been lost to our current age. There are still a few about, but very few unfortunately. Everything today is largely ‘printed’ in ebooks and kindle, but I rather like the sound of the pages turning as I read thru a real book.

  16. Tanna Yes. I double checked. It was the men’s room, alright, and a staff member held the door open. There are so many histories. Do you recommend the Sasson?

    This is what Wikipedia says about him

    Haim Hillel Ben-Sasson (Hebrew: ???? ??? ??-???? (1914 in Valozhyn – 16 May 1977 in Jerusalem) was professor of Jewish medieval history at Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the editor of History of the Jewish People.[1]

    Ordered it for $7.20 plus .99 tax and $3.99 shipping, $12.20. From textbookrush.com One site wanted $56 plus tax and shipping

  17. @Tanna Yes. I double checked. It was the men’s room, alright, and a staff member held the door open. There are so many histories. Do you recommend the Sasson?

    This is what Wikipedia says about him

    Haim Hillel Ben-Sasson (Hebrew: ???? ??? ??-???? (1914 in Valozhyn – 16 May 1977 in Jerusalem) was professor of Jewish medieval history at Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the editor of History of the Jewish People.[1]

    Ordered it from textbook.rush.com for $12.20 including tax and shipping. GreT variation in prices. One site wanted $56 plus tax and shipping.

  18. @Edgar Serious bookstores and circulating libraries where you can find something you are looking for are a thing of the past, like phone booths.

  19. @Edgar I’m assuming. Certainly new to me. I ordered the Ausubel for just under $7 including shipping used from Thrift books just now on my phone though I’ve read other anthologies. Arrives in 5 to 12 business days.

  20. New ADL Survey Documents Alarming Rise in Antisemitic Beliefs Among US Voters

    In today’s Algemeiner. Can’t copy link.

    But, read to the end!:

    “However, support for the right of an independent Jewish state to exist was “overwhelming,” the ADL said. Nearly 90 percent of respondents said they disagreed with the statement “I do not think Jews have the right to an independent country.”

    Asked whether they would vote for a pro-Israel politician, 24 percent of respondents answered negatively, while 21 percent said they would not “feel comfortable buying products from Israel.”

  21. SEB-

    Very fortunate in your picks. Let me know what you think about the Donna Gracia book. Nothing in a novel can surpass her actual real life story. Her dedication and utter brilliance were endless.

    As for the Jewish Humour book, I don’t see any reason for one because I am convinced that Nathan Ausubel covered this subject completely in his “Treasury of Jewish Humour”. I doubt if he missed anything.

    I also have have his Treasury of “Jewish Folklore/humour/Traditions” etc., Both are exhaustive……Priceless..

    But you’ll have all the jokes etc from the last 60 years that Ausubel would not have, which is ample reward. Many likely duplicated with different names but the same structures.

    Enjoy them.

  22. Mr. Zorn, On that men’s room on the West side. You sure you did not walk into the lady’s room. I did that once by mistake. Took care of business and left.:)

    The Rise and Fall of the Judean State by Solomon Zeitlin you and Edgar where talking about I don’t have. But I did pick up A History of the Jewish people by H.H. Ben Sasson the other day for $3.00. I guess with all this antisemite’s going around the prices are decreasing. This book was published in 1976, with almost 1,200 pages.

  23. @Edgar Funny, you should mention it. Earlier this week, I picked up 2 books from West Side Judaica on their used book table where books are $10 instead of around $40, which I just started reading. And one of them is a novel published in 2010 about none other than Dona Gracia Nasi! “By Fire Possessed” by Sandra K. Toro. I see Amazon, Abe Books and other used book sites have it.

    The other, serendipitously – is somebody up there listening? – from 1981, “Israeli Humor – the Content and Structure of the Chizbat of the Palmah” by Elliot Oring. It says it was published as part of the State University of New York (SUNY) series in Modern Jewish Literature and Culture, Sarah Blacher Cohen, editor. and again, various sites have it, including Amazon and Barnes and Noble and I see an article Oring wrote about it himself.
    https://campanthropology.org/2022/08/22/elliott-oring-on-his-book-joking-asides/

    Also, a professor with a distinguished bio.

    “Elliott Oring (born 20 April 1945) is an American author of academic books primarily relating to the topics of folklore, humor, and cultural symbolism.[1] Oring is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at California State University, Los Angeles, and serves on the Editorial Board of Humor: International Journal of Humor Research.[2][3] In 2010-2011 he was President of the International Society for Humor Studies.” – Wikipedia

    this was his first book based on his doctoral dissertation.

  24. SEB-

    Let me know when it arrives. I hope it is the 3 Vol set. I don’t know of any other .I got mine with a box of books I’d ordered from The Jewish Publication Socity in the very late 1970s.Or maybe 1980. I also ordered and got a wonderful biography of Dona Gracia Nasi, a most wonderful woman of Jewish faith,.\You should look up about her probably the most wonderful woman Judaism ever produced. I have much admiration for her.
    Truly the original “woman of worth” whose “price is far above rubies”…….

    And of course, a biography of Daniel Mendoza …….,and not least
    “The Nitzachon Vetus”, with a wonderful introduction by Rabbi Prof. David Berger. I’m sure they are all on the internet. The polemics are in Hebrew with the English Translation on the opposite page. Some of the language……HIGHLY indelicate .phew !!!!

    This last is a collection of Jewish Polemics against all the Christian beliefs, in the most open and ridiculing way. It shows that Jews during the late Middle Ages were certainly NOT cowed and defensive. Quite the contrary. It is a large book.

    I mentioned the Nitzachon Vetus a few times on this site some years ago, but there was o interest then.

    ****Yes the Name of the College has always fascinated me by it’s alternate meaning***** A bit embarrassing i always thought. Likely founded by a Scotsman.

  25. @Edgar Yes. What a name for a college. For example: To a surgeon: Where did you go to school, Doctor? Oh, Dropsie College. But then, not long ago, I was surprised to learn that UPS delivers packages to Italy. I mean, who would use a delivery service whose name was pronounced, “Oops”, right? Like the Marx Brothers bit from “Night at the Opera” (1935) in which they are tossing around a package addressed to somebody named, “Fragile” (pronounced, “Fragilly”) 😀
    Impressive bio. I know you don’t like Wikipedia but there is an excellent bio and comprehensive bibliography with an absurd criticism at the top from the Wikpedia editor that there is only one source when there are clearly 8. (So much for the criticism that it is unedited. Actually, I once put in one for an important event my mother had organized and they didn’t even include it. But, it’s really comprehensive and usually accurate. How many encyclopedias can you say that about? I’ve rarely looked up something, no matter how obscure, that didn’t have an entry. Though, there are a lot of links to information about him, actually. Including an article that says he disputed the value of the Dead Sea Scrolls for Judaism.

    Check it out. Says, “Solomon Zeitlin (Hebrew: ???????? ???? ??????; Russian: ????? ???????, romanized: Shlomo Cejtlin (or Tseitlin, Tseytlin); 28 May 1886 or 31 May 1892 – 28 December 1976) was an American Jewish historian, Talmudic scholar and in his time the world’s leading authority on the Second Commonwealth, also known as the Second Temple period.[1] His work The Rise and Fall of the Judean State is about the Second Temple period….” and then goes on from there.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon_Zeitlin

    *

  26. David Friedman presents: ‘The Future of Judea & Samaria’ sovereignty plan
    Former US Ambassador to Israel’s new proposal calls for full Israeli sovereignty over Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley, alongside Palestinian enclaves with maximum civilian autonomy subject to Israeli overriding security control.
    Israel National News
    Mar 1, 2024, 1:09 AM (GMT+2)

    Former US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman on Thursday unveiled a new proposal calling for full Israeli sovereignty over Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley.

    Friedman presented an outline of the proposal at an event of the Keep God’s Land movement during the National Religious Broadcasters Conference which was held in Nashville, Tennessee, last week.

    The full plan, titled “The Future of Judea & Samaria”, was devised by the former ambassador’s Friedman Center for Peace Through Strength. It makes note of Israel’s biblical claims to Judea and Samaria as well as its importance to Israel’s security due to its close proximity to all of Israel’s population centers.

    “If transferred to Palestinian control, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv will be within short distance of rocket fire,” the plan says.

    “A security threat that cannot be overstated — a Palestinian State is an existential threat to the State of Israel,” it states, noting that “efforts by past US governments to design security protections for Israel if it surrenders this territory have all failed.”

    The plan highlights that Judea and Samaria are at the core of the Israeli-Palestinian Arab conflict and that all prior attempts to resolve the status of the region have failed.

    “Two-state solution is a dead letter; Israel has no margin of error and the Palestinian leadership has proven unreliable as a peace partner. Nonetheless, even after the October 7 assault, the US Administration is still pushing this outcome,” it states, adding that a one-state solution, on the other hand, “simply swaps an untenable military risk for an untenable demographic risk.”

    The vision for the future offered by Friedman’s plan calls for a tripartite agreement among Israel, the US and an expanded group of Abraham Accord Muslim countries; Israeli sovereignty over all of Judea and Samaria; a Marshall Plan for Palestinian Arabs funded largely by Gulf neighbors; Palestinian enclaves with maximum civilian autonomy subject to Israeli overriding security control; Palestinian Arabs afforded permanent residency and Israeli travel documents, but no voting in national elections, with Arab-Israeli citizens unaffected.

    The plan deals with the question of whether the US can support a solution without full Palestinian Arab equal rights and argues that it can.

    “Yes, this is not apartheid. In racist South Africa, blacks were taken from their homes and placed in “bantustans” in awful living conditions. Here, Palestinians are guaranteed that they will keep their homes with significant economic improvement and internal controls. Palestinians will receive full civil rights other than the right to destroy the world’s only Jewish state through demographic power.”

    It points out that he US “holds territories that do not participate in national elections (e.g. Puerto Rico, Guam etc.). Those arrangements are accepted because they provided significant reciprocal benefits.”

    In addition, it says, “More than 40 nations have a national religion, including most of the Gulf states. Their laws are designed to protect their national faith. There is room in the world for a single Jewish State.”

    Friedman’s plan argues that, in contrast to prior right-wing efforts within Israel, this vision is a win-win as it is a holistic solution to improve stability of the region; addresses head on the realities on the ground, including the need to improve Palestinian quality of life; builds upon Abraham Accords breakthroughs; ensures that Judea and Samaria is sovereign territory of the State of Israel in accordance with biblical prophecy and values, and guarantees that the most holy of sites to the Christian and Jewish faith remain preserved and accessible to all.

    https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/386050

  27. @Edgar Thank you. No information but a photo of the dust jacket of the hard cover. Doesn’t say anything about volumes. Won’t arrive for a couple of weeks.

  28. SEB-

    Mazal Tov, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it. You were lucky then. I should imagine it’s long out of print. Was it the 3 Vol set or all in a single volume?

    I hadn’t heard that there was a single volume. encompassing the whole set. You should look him up on the internet, a very learned man.
    Dropsie College I think.

    You should check to make sure that you didn’t get only Vol.1. It is hard cover set, with the dust covers a series of perpendicular black thick lines.etc.

  29. I just used the men’s room at the Upper West Side Apple store and – I kid you not – there are 2 booths, no urinals, and a free tampon dispenser.

  30. SEB-
    My recollection is that there was a sort of “no conflicting” meeting” between Judah Maccabi and Roman emissaries in an early contact, but as far as I know, was just that, never more . Because of the Greek’s inner turmoil, Israel under the Makovim was de facto independent until
    Simon reigned as Sovereign.

    When Ptolemy was invited to take sides in an internal struggle between 2 brothers, rivals, about 70 years later, one could say that this was the end of Jewish independence until 1948.

    (one brother inherited the rule, being the elder, the other the High Priesthood; but because of their temperaments a reversed role would have been much better}

    BUT in this period there was very much inner dissent, because for the first time in Jewish History, both the Kingship traditionally assigned to the Davidic line, and the High Priesthood, (always from the line of Zadok) were taken by one family.

    The brief period (9-10 years) under Queen Shulamit after her husband Aristobulus died, are regarded as “The Golden Years” of the Maccabi period.

    This is to the best of my recollection

    As for Assyria I am sure they were always expansionist enemies. And Egypt was nearly always hegemon over the Jewish State. from their earliest contact.

    G-D picked a real hotspot to lead the Children of Israel to, right at the link between the mighty powers of the ancient world, and through which one or the other HAD to pass, either as a conqueror or through a subservient People,, to war on the other.

    The early history is just a passage of one or the other major power (one of them being Egypt) through a minor kingdom, Israel, to get at the other.

    I find more satisfactory to read of the period leading up to the dissolution of the Jewish State as in Solomon Zeitlin’s 3 vol account “The Rise and Fall of the Judean State.

  31. @Edgar I was just quoting the Kahane essay. Actually, I only knew about the Maccabees alliance with Rome and just recently at that. Ancient history was never my thing snd we didn’t even have a bible in the house. Just Alan Watts, etc. iI didn’t know what he was as talking about with Assyria but let it go as his main point was the thing not the illustration. Can you recommend any readings on alliances with Assyria and Egypt?

  32. Sebastien-
    You mentioned Assyria so you were right into the Torah. The instance I can recall where Israel allied itself with another was with Egypt-which you also mention- and the Navi said that not to rely on Egypt which WAS a “broken reed”. I believe the invading enemy then actually WAS
    Assyria.

    For me the inference was clear, but you say NO, so what were you thinking-if not just scattering words around???

  33. @Edgar
    @Tanna

    Gantz, Eisenkot, Gallant Pressuring Netanyahu to Yank Ben Gvir from Temple Mount Decision Making
    By David Israel – 20 Adar I 5784 – February 29, 2024 0

    https://www.jewishpress.com/news/israel/temple-mount-har-habayit/gantz-eisenkot-gallant-pressuring-netanyahu-to-yank-ben-gvir-from-temple-mount-decision-making/2024/02/29/

    Great satirical, sarcastic tone of the article. Nice.

    Now, it appears the fat lady hasn’t quite sung. Yesterday, they had yanked him, today, they are pressuring Bibi to yank him.

    “the three Conceptzia IDF-commanders-turned-war-cabinet ministers,”

    “The three amigos demanded” ? marvelous

    I’m guessing neither of you recognizes the reference. It’s from the comedy movie, “The Three Amigos” (1986) Starring Steve Martin, Martin Short, Randy Newman and featuring Chevy Chase from the original Saturday Night Live.

    Something like if he called them, “Keystone Cops” ?

    See plot:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Amigos

    (which in turn is obviously a parody of “The Magnificent Seven” (1960), which in turn is an American Western remake of the Japanese film, “The Seven Samurai” (1954),directed by Akira Kurasawa and starring Toshiro Mifune, who was my favorite actor when I was a teenager in the ’70s. The Wikipedia article doesn’t note this.

    Oh, and of course, “The Three Musketeers.”

  34. @Edgar
    @Tanna

    Gantz, Eisenkot, Gallant Pressuring Netanyahu to Yank Ben Gvir from Temple Mount Decision Making
    By David Israel – 20 Adar I 5784 – February 29, 2024 0

    https://www.jewishpress.com/news/israel/temple-mount-har-habayit/gantz-eisenkot-gallant-pressuring-netanyahu-to-yank-ben-gvir-from-temple-mount-decision-making/2024/02/29/

    Great satirical, sarcastic tone of the article. Nice.

    Now, it appears the fat lady hasn’t quite sung. Yesterday, they had yanked him, today, they are pressuring Bibi to yank him.

    “the three Conceptzia IDF-commanders-turned-war-cabinet ministers,”

    “The three amigos demanded” ? marvelous

    I’m guessing neither of you recognizes the reference. It’s from the comedy movie, “The Three Amigos” (1986) Starring Steve Martin, Martin Short, Randy Newman and featuring Chevy Chase from the original Saturday Night Live.

    Something like if he called them, “Keystone Cops” ?

    See plot:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Amigos

    (which in turn is obviously a parody of “The Magnificent Seven” (1960), which in turn is an American Western remake of the Japanese film, “The Seven Samurai” (1954),directed by Akira Kurasawa and starring Toshiro Mifune, who was my favorite actor when I was a teenager in the ’70s. The Wikipedia article doesn’t note this.

    Oh, and of course, “the Three Musketeers.:

  35. @Edgar
    @Tanna

    Gantz, Eisenkot, Gallant Pressuring Netanyahu to Yank Ben Gvir from Temple Mount Decision Making
    By David Israel – 20 Adar I 5784 – February 29, 2024 0

    https://www.jewishpress.com/news/israel/temple-mount-har-habayit/gantz-eisenkot-gallant-pressuring-netanyahu-to-yank-ben-gvir-from-temple-mount-decision-making/2024/02/29/

    Great satirical, sarcastic tone of the article. Nice.

    Now, it appears the fat lady hasn’t quite sung. Yesterday, they had yanked him, today, they are pressuring Bibi to yank him.

    “the three Conceptzia IDF-commanders-turned-war-cabinet ministers,”

    “The three amigos demanded” 😀 marvelous

    I’m guessing neither of you recognizes the reference. It’s from the comedy movie, “The Three Amigos” (1986) Starring Steve Martin, Martin Short, Randy Newman and featureing the great Chevy Chase from the original Saturday Night Live.

    Though the film, is, on its own terms, obviously a parody of the “Magnificent Seven” (1960) with Yul Brynner, which I see was remade in (2016) and which in turn was an American adaptation of the Japanese film, “The Seven Samurai” (1954) directed by Japanese director, Akira Kurasawa and starring the great Toshiro MIfune, who was my favorite actor, when I was a teenager.

    Something like if he called them, “Keystone Cops” 😀

    See plot:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Amigos

  36. Peloni and Mr. Zorn:

    Peloni, I believe they are treating it as a joke. No ammo or at least not enough! Then they put a ship and its crew in the danger zone. Like having sex without protection. Just a matter of time and somebody is going to get knocked up. A missile will get through, statistically it is only a matter of time. Then Biden, has his excuse to get involved on a level they have only dreamed about. Your analysis, on Ben Givir, I agree, when we step back and look at this situation, Israel would not be able to come out smelling like a rose in world opinion.

    Mr. Zorn, I’ll take your bet. Ramadan starts Tuesdays, March 10, and runs through Tuesday April 9, 2024. The Hebrew calendar dates are Adar 29/30 base on when Ishamel rings the bell, running through Nisan 1.(April 8)

    Here’s what’s interesting. (music please from the twilight zone)!!

    This is a leap year. Also know as a (pregnant year- Shenat haibur) According to the Talmud the earliest date the calendar can be intercalated is in AV(august). Something happened in Av(August) last year that 3 months later led to October 7(Tirshri 22) a women pregnancy begins to show at 3 months. At nine Months the baby gets birthed. Nine months falls out on April 8, 2024. My bet is that what was conceived back in Av, and showed it’s self for the first time on Oct 7, will become full born before Passover.

    The average pregnancy is 280 days / 40 weeks. the Median time is 38 wks. and 2 days. Grandma, use to say, “the bread is done when the bread is done. Baby’s can come two wks. early or two weeks late.

    In case anyone is not paying attention. Their will be a total solar eclipses Apr. 1, 2024 . Nisan 1, 5784.

  37. @Edgar

    “You are referring to Egypt being “a broken reed”. I don’t believe that Assyria was ever anything but an expansionist enemy of Yahud. or Samaria (Shomron).”

    Not me. I don’t even recall reading that. I wonder who said it or what it means, for that matter. This is not my area of expertise.

  38. @Sebastien

    What’s the renewed Russia hoax you mentioned?

    I was referencing the Smirnov case, with which you are no doubt acquainted. Margot Cleveland does a good job explaining the case and its relevance to the continuation saga of the Russia Hoax:
    Democrats Spin Weiss’s Latest Indictment Into New Russia Hoax To Let Biden Skate In 2024

    They will use this as far as it takes them, and as Cleveland notes, the Russia Hoax, while exposed as a fraud, has repeatedly served its purpose. First in undermining the Trump presidency and then again doing the same with Hunter Biden Laptop in the minds of those who were less discerning of reality.

    Cleveland, Carlson and others like to use the Hunter Laptop to explain the limit of election rigging in 2020, which frankly defies credibility given all that has been exposed, so she also suggests that, by extension from the Hunter Laptop, the Russia Hoax was responsible for Biden ‘winning’ the 2020 election, but the truth about the election rigging in 2020 should be recognized as being far greater than this.

  39. SEB=

    You are referring to Egypt being “a broken reed”. I don’t believe that Assyria was ever anything but an expansionist enemy of Yahud. or Samaria (Shomron).