Originally published in the New York Daily News
By James Kirchick

Picture this hypothetical situation: A member of Al Qaeda boards a transatlantic flight bearing 269 passengers and crew headed for a major American city – let’s just say Detroit – with powdered explosives stitched into his undergarments. As the plane makes its final descent, the terrorist (at this point in our narrative, that’s what he is, both legally and morally), fails to detonate his illegal carry-on baggage, but he does draw attention to himself by setting his crotch on fire. Thanks to the heroic actions of some passengers, the man is subdued and, when the plane lands, taken into custody by the FBI.

There, he readily admits to his membership in the League of Extraordinarily Evil Men and taunts his captors with the news that, while he might have failed in murdering some 300 civilians, more such attacks are on the way. Told, however, that he has the right to remain silent and is under no compunction to divulge any information that might incriminate him in a court of law, this wanna-be mass murder quickly secures the services of a top-notch lawyer from a white shoe firm and, under the advice of his attorney, clams up.

This scenario, of course, is far from hypothetical, the stuff of college philosophy classrooms and speculative magazine articles. It is, rather, a fairly accurate description of the events that have transpired since last week, when the Nigerian-born Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was subdued in his attempt to bring down a Delta flight headed for the Motor City. While the Al Qaeda-linked 23-year-old gave his interrogators a grim preview of what may soon come from the hive of Islamist terrorism that is the state of Yemen, he has, according to federal officials who spoke with the Washington Post, “restricted his cooperation since securing a defense attorney.”
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It was Tuesday, December 30. We had been running in and out of the bomb shelter behind our Sderot Media Center office throughout the day, as Palestinian rockets exploded all around. Usually, when we enter the shelter, it is just us–the SMC office staff–and sometimes a few strangers off the street. This time, when we raced into the shelter, there was a group of Arab construction workers inside who had made it before us.

Ironically, the Arab construction workers were working on building a new bomb shelter nearby. In any case, there were two groups of us, Israelis and Arabs facing each other, when an unarmed Israeli soldier ran into the shelter and stood between us–right in the middle!

The situation was so ridiculous that one of my co-workers burst out saying–”now we can all talk about peace!–we’re all in here together.”

The Arab construction workers looked at us and we looked at them and just burst out laughing. The tension of the day was broken for just a few seconds.

We ended up talking about the rocket attacks and how frightening the day had been. One of the construction workers proudly told us that the bomb shelters would stand against those Palestinian rockets without any problem. “The rocket is nothing compared to this shelter,” he told us in Hebrew.

After we waited for the seconds to be over and the rocket to explode, we said goodbye to our new friends, the Arab construction workers and the quiet Israeli soldier, in a day filled with the terror and absurdities of war.

A Palestinian rocket exploded right outside a Sderot supermarket on Wednesday evening, December 17, in one of the worst Qassam attacks on Sderot since the ceasefire began. Rocket shrapnel lightly wounded three people, with one man suffering a light head wound, according to a MADA spokesperson on scene.

Fire trucks and ambulances lined outside the supermarket as shattered glass littered the entire area. Nine people including three young women were evacuated to Barzilai hospital in Ashkelon for severe shock.

The Qassam rocket caused heavy damage to at least 15 cars in the parking lot where it had exploded. The smell of serious gas leaks had Sderot firemen hosing the entire parking lot with water in order to prevent any fire.

Inside the supermarket, known as Victory, wine bottles lay shattered upon the floor, as shoppers made their way outside across puddles of wine and broken glass. Rocket shrapnel caused heavy damage to store merchandise, as the glass windows in the supermarket’s front entrance completely shattered.

A worker at Steimetsky Book Store across the street from the supermarket told Sderot Media Center, that she and her co-worker watched the Qassam rocket drop into the parking lot, about five meters away from the supermarket. “We saw the sparks and the smoke, and watched the rocket explode on impact. It was one of the most terrifying sights, I’ve ever seen,” said the worker, a student at Sapir College, who asked not to be named. (more…)

In addition to the incredible Holtzbergs, HY”D, four more special Jews were murdered in the Mumbai Chabad House. Herein follows a profile – courtesy of the Yeshiva World News website. Norma Schwartzblatt-Rabinowitz HY”D, Norma Schwartzblatt-Rabinowitz HY”D, Reb Bentzion Chroman HY”D, and Rav Aryeh Leibish Teitlebaum HY”D. They left behind at least 13 orphaned children under 13 as I can tell.

Norma Schwartzblatt-Rabinowitz HY”D

Norma Schwartzblatt-Rabinowitz was planning to make aliyah to Israel on Monday. The 70-year-old member of the Mexico Jewish community was volunteering during recent months in the Mumbai Chabad House.

This week, Mrs. Rabinowitz was planning to move to Eretz Yisrael to join her son and his family, who live in Bnei Brak. It was Norma who phoned Israeli consular officials in Delhi on Thursday, with a gun pointed to her head. She told consular officials there were four bodies, including Rabbi and Mrs. Holtzberg.

Because she is a Mexican national, a request was made via Interpol to inform her son and family in Eretz Yisrael as well as family members in Mexico.

Foreign Ministry and consular officials have not succeeded in locating her son, who they believe is not currently in Israel. (Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel) (more…)

As soon as Shabbat was over in Jerusalem, I rushed to my computer to see what the updates were from Mumbai. It didn’t take long for me to realize that my prayers over Shabbat had not been answered and that Rabbi Holtzberg and his wife Rivka were already dead. I didn’t know them personally but I’ve known others like them – in Montreal and Park Slope, in Toronto, Thailand, New Orleans, Los Angeles – pretty much anywhere I have ever traveled, there was a Chabad Shaliach, doors open, friendly and hospitable, never asking or anything in return and representing the very best of what Judaism is all about. Sure, we’ve all poked fun at these guys. I mean they are Hassidic Jews after all, with their funny hats and beards, and their odd ideas about the Messiah. We’d take advantage of their hospitality and kindness while always asserting “I am not a Chabadnik.”

But all that’s changed now. Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg were targeted solely because they were Jewish. Had any of us been in Mumbai the day of the attack, we too would have been similarly targeted by mere dint of our religious affiliation. It wouldn’t have mattered in the least to the cowardly terrorists if we were atheist Jews, or cultural Jews, or left wing peacenick Jews, or secular, LWMO, Reform, Conservative or Reconstructionist. If they called out for Jews and you had the balls to raise your hand, they wouldn’t have asked if your Mom was Jewish or if the Rabbi that performed your conversion was on the approved list of Rabbis put out by the Rabbinate in Israel. They would have targeted you without further question. Now I am not saying that we ought to allow our enemies to define who is a Jew, but what I am saying is that however we define ourselves, at least for the next little while, we are all Chabadniks.

Those of you wishing to contribute to a fund that will help rebuild the Chabad of Mumbai and benefit the surviving children of Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg, may do so by clicking here. It’s not much, but it’s the least we can do. You can read more about Gabi and Rivky at Chabad.org.

Hat tip to Talya for the link and the inspiration to not be angry.

Crazy. Two blocks from my house a terrorist took a bulldozer from a construction site and went nuts, crushing cars, knocking over buses and killing three people. Luckily he didn’t get far before he was killed.

In this dramatic video, you can actually see an off duty soldier take out the terrorist driving the bulldozer.

You can go to all the usual places for details – Jerusalem Post has good coverage. The point is, for those of you worried, all the residents of Beit Jewlicious are fine. Thanks to Sasha Perry for the pic…

There’s more video footage on Haaretz. It’s really disturbing too. I feel awful for the people that died, but I also feel bad for the guy that shot the terrorist and, call me stupid, but I also feel bad for the terrorist and his kids. How awful to be so full of hate…