Cable cars ascend (left) and descend from Israel’s Masada National Park, a 2,000 year old Jewish fortress rising 1,350 feet above the nearby Dead Sea.
The ride is swift and easy, versus the long, laborious and occasionally frightening “snake path” to the top which some IDF infantry units are required to take in training. And Tom Ringwald, an old Army buddy, took to get down years ago, after riding the car up there.
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Tagged Israel, Masada National Park, Second Temple Era
It seems there was this Norwegian kid, see, who met this moose. And the kid had to save his little sister, see.
So (what else) he called on his intimate knowledge of World of Warcraft. And the rest is history. Cultural history. Sort of.
Too bad Mr. B. only plays Grepolis.
Via Dustbury.
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Posted in Blogosphere, Mr. Boy, Scribbles
Tagged Dustbury, Grepolis, World of Warcraft
One of the curious features of Israeli life is the way her young conscript soldiers carry their loaded M-4s, M-16s, and other automatic weapons everywhere they go. In uniform and out. It’s required.
You see them in the grocery, the mall, the bus stop, the street, heck, even in the elevator. Snoop and I were riding an elevator in a mall near his home in Rehovot when it stopped to let on two young black men, apparently Ethiopian Jews. Both were in uniform, and both were fully armed.
If you didn’t know better (or you were a Hamas groupie) you might call it an example of Israel’s menace. In fact it’s to help these warriors become intimately familiar with their weapons and to be ready in case the Arabs attack without warning. As they have before, and Hamas still does.
Instead of having to find an armory, they can go directly to their unit’s assembly point announced on Army radio. Like in 1973 when, on the last day of Yom Kippur, the Syrians threw more than a thousand Russian battle tanks into the Golan Heights. The IDF outposts held them, at great cost to themselves, as the reserves and conscripts raced to help.
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Posted in Israel, The War, Troops
Tagged conscript army, IDF, Israel, soldiers with guns
Hamas wanted it. Now they’ve got it. And, now, of course, they’re whining for a ceasefire, and their buddies in the European Union and the United Nations are condemning Israel for a “disproportionate response.” As if “you-kill-two-of-mine and I’ll-kill-two-of-yours” is the way real wars are fought.
Like Treppenwitz I find it increasingly hard to sympathize with the average Gaza Palestinian who allows Hamas to fire its mortars, rockets and, now, an anti-tank missile at an Israeli school bus without so much as a street protest. Have they learned nothing from the people of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Syria? Or are they just on Hamas’s side? Their willing partners in war crimes.
I am concerned for the young man with a critical head injury caused by the Hamas anti-tank missile, and the young conscript warriors of the IDF who must risk their lives fighting the barbaric arabs to defend Israelis. In the words of the song and the prayer: O Hashem, protect our men in arms. As they defend our land, shield them from harm. Hu yivarech et chayalei tzava hagana li Yisroel, Hu Yivarech.
The young warriors of the IDF, who fight the foes of the remnant of Israel.
With a great new song and video about them in Hebrew and English via Monkey In The Middle.
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Posted in Israel, The War, Troops
Tagged conscript army, IDF, Israel, Israel Defense Forces
From a Syrian admirer, no less. (Don’t miss the audio at the link.) Have to admit, I also think Tzipi is hot. Remind me to do a Rule 5 on her.
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 
