The 'tween Pesach and Holocaust Memorial Day Havel Havelim

Last week it was Passover, and today is Holocaust Memorial Day. Next week it'll be the Israeli Memorial Day for Soldiers and Victims of Arab Terrorism immediately followed by Yom Ha'atzma'ut, Israeli Independence Day.  So I expect to get you to send me lots of great blog posts for Havel Hevalim. This week's edition of Havel Havelim is hosted by Esser Agaroth and it's full of fascinating blog posts. So please read, comment and share, thanks.

We coordinate HH on our facebook page. Please send me (shilohmuse at gmail dot com) your links until this coming Friday before Shabbat. The following week will be hosted by Adventures In AliyahLand.

Holocaust Memorial Day is when Israeli and Jewish leaders make all sorts of wonderful speeches that make them all sound like strong Right wing leaders, yes, to the Right of Jabotinsky and Uri Tzvi Greenberg. No doubt there are professional speechwriters who make a killing during this season, like those who can live a full year off of their etrog sales. I know that I sound like a terrible cynic, but I'm telling the truth.

“Very few world leaders understood the enormity of the threat to humanity posed by Nazism….. The bitter and tragic truth is this: it is not that they did not see it. They did not want to see it. And why did they choose not to see the truth? Because they did not want to face the consequences of that truth.”
Prime Minister Netanyahu explained that world leaders in the 1930s adopted of a policy that was based on “one axiom – avoid another confrontation at any cost.”
He quoted the Biblical phrase from the Book of Psalms, “They have eyes, but cannot see; they have ears, but cannot hear.”
Netanyahu then turned his attention to Iran, which has called for destroying Israel and is recognized by the virtually the entire western world as retrying to develop a nuclear weapon.
“Today, just like then, there are those who dismiss Iran’s extreme rhetoric as one that serves domestic purposes,” he said. “Today, just like then, there are those who view Iran’s nuclear ambitions as the result of the natural will of a proud nation – a will that should be accepted.
“And just like then, those who make such claims are deluding themselves. They are making an historic mistake.”

This speech isn't policy it's just a well-crafted speech. The words are true, but Bibi isn't going to act on them.

The phrase, term "havel havelim" comes from Kohelet, Ecclesiastes and means "vanities" or in Yiddish "norishkeit." That's what I think of all these speeches. They are just words. I find more truth coming out of blogs by ordinary people. That's a reason I keep blogging and am one of the coordinators of Havel Havelim.