Israel Perspectives: Feeling 'Right' at Home: The Daily Grind

Today's edition of The Daily grind highlights articles that will:

* Take us back in time 30 years to Entebbe
* Take us back in time 12 years, where a mother still grieves over the fate of his son who was kidnapped and murdered
* Show us who our "neighbors" truly are
* Inform us who is no longer welcome at the Western Wall
* and, of course, there's always the Qassams...

Without further ado...

1) ANALYSIS: Launching a rocket at Ashkelon is an invitation to war - Ze'ev Schiff - Ha'aretz

The firing of a rocket from the Gaza Strip to Ashkelon's center on Tuesday constitutes an unequivocal invitation by Hamas to war.

If that's the case, then what were the 1,200+ Qassam rockets that have been fired into Sderot over the last 4+ years? Chopped Liver? Is the blood of the residents of Ashkelon redder than the blood of those who live in Sderot?

2) Western Wall area cleared of beggars - Haim Levinson - Yediot Achronot

Owing to the steep rise in the number of visitors to the Wall over the past year, the presence of beggars at the site increased considerably. Some 300 beggars settled in the area and were hassling visiting tourists...

Western Wall Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch responded to the move: “For the Jewish people, prayer and tzedaka come together. However, the way in which the beggars conducted themselves at the Wall was a desecration.”

3) PA seems poised to use kids as human shields - IMRA - Palestinian Media Watch

4) Muhammad Deif presents: Hamas' military academy - Roee Nahmias - Yediot Achronot

Muhammad Deif, head of Hamas' military wing and the senior Palestinian terror suspect wanted by Israel, said Sunday night that "all the land conquered in 1948 is Palestine's land. Every Muslim in the world has the right and duty to fight in order to liberate this land because it is Muslim land."

In case you missed it, he said that Israel (no matter how small) has no right to exist anywhere in the Middle East. He also happens to be affiliated with Hamas, which was elected to represent the "Palestinian" cause.

Lovely.

5) A government's flawed morality - Isi Lieber - Jerusalem Post

The extent to which the IDF has been conditioned to operate under terms of engagement that dramatically inhibit its ability to strike back at terrorists was exemplified by OC Air Force Maj.-Gen. Eliezer Shkedy, who told the Jerusalem Post: “If we know that a terrorist who is in the midst of firing a Kassam aimed to kill, is holding his son's hand, we will not fire."

If that is the approach of the IDF, we have truly lost the plot. To hold back from eliminating a terrorist directly engaged in a potentially lethal act of terror directed against civilians is not a manifestation of morality or humanity. It reflects utter confusion and the application of false values which violate the primary obligation of a government to defend the lives of its citizens.

Right on the money.

6) Our World: From Yoni to Gilad - Caroline Glick - Jerusalem Post

The legacy of Entebbe for the world couldn't be clearer. The message of the raid is that nations must never give in to the demands of terrorists. Through their war crime of taking over the Air France jet, the terrorists declared war not only on Israel but on all who abide by the norms of human decency and value freedom. If Israel is brought to its knees 30 years later, it will send the message throughout the world that the barbarians are the victors after all.

While the Entebbe raid is vested with deep significance for the entire world, its significance in shaping Israel's national psyche has been deeper still. This was apparent on Sunday evening on Mt. Herzl. As speakers stood at the foot of his (Yoni Netanyahu's) grave and one by one discussed the significance of Yoni's life and his death for Israelis today and for generations of Israelis to come, it was clear that Yoni - now immortal - is an embodiment of Israeli exceptionalism, Israeli morality, Israeli Judaism, the Israeli warrior ethos and the inherent justice of Zionism.

7) No strength for silence - Esther Wachsman - Ha'aretz

I don't know if we're living in George Orwell's "1984" - where good was bad, bad was good, peace was war and war was peace - in Chelm, the city fabled for its stupidity, or in evil Sodom. In any event, this is not the country I moved to 36 years ago out of Zionist enthusiasm, as the daughter of Holocaust survivors...

And then, in October 1994, our Nachshon was kidnapped by Hamas...

It's very difficult for me to understand the mentality of our leaders, on both the right and the left. It's difficult for me to understand the response given by then vice premier Shimon Peres - who announced that he had won the Nobel Peace Prize, along with Rabin and Arafat, on the same Friday on which the ultimatum was issued on my son's life. Peres was asked his opinion on the "peace" that he had achieved in Oslo in light of my son's abduction, and he responded that peace processes involve "calculated risks." When Peres came to comfort us after the funeral, I told him I felt he had come to comfort a family on the death of a son with no name - that he was simply a "calculated risk" in his dream of a new Middle East.

Until now, I have not spoken to the media... I am speaking up and writing to you now solely due to the inspiration of Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak Hacohen Kook, the first chief rabbi of Israel, who said: "I am not speaking because I have the strength to speak; I am speaking because I do not have the strength to be silent."