by Rabbi Shraga Simmons
Not sure how to begin? Look no further!
The key to a meaningful Shabbat experience is that it shouldn't feel just like "any other day." Rather, we want to create a special mood. This means getting dressed up in our nicest (or favorite) clothes, buying or preparing our favorite foods, and setting aside uninterrupted time to reflect and appreciate what our lives are really all about.
How do we break loose from the whirling weekday pattern and get into a "Shabbat-state-of-mind"? The key is to remove outside distractions. If you're just beginning, try going through all of Friday night with no canned entertainment: no TV, no radio, no movies. If you're really brave, no telephone either! This helps pulls us out of the regular weekday cycle, and propel us into "The Shabbat Dimension."
Here are the basic steps of turning Friday night into Shabbos. Click on the links for more detailed "how-to" articles.
1) Candle Lighting. The image of a Jewish woman kindling her Sabbath candles is a timeless symbol of Judaism. Eighteen minutes before sunset, we light the candles, inviting peace and harmony into the home, infusing the atmosphere with physical and spiritual light.
Candle ...   more »

Ronen Bergman presents new revelations, offers comprehensive review of Israel's struggle against Iranian threat
Yigal Walt
Everything you wanted to know about Iran but were afraid to ask: In recent years we have seen the emergence of a growing, multifaceted Iranian threat to Israel. Ranging from the support it offers terror groups to its nuclear ambitions; Tehran increasingly appears
to be on a collision course with the Jewish State, and possibly with the entire western world.  
But what do we know about Iran? What are the key elements that direct its anti-Israel policies? And what efforts have Israel's intelligence arms and security forces undertaken in order to counter the growing threat? Some answers to these and many other questions can be found in "The Point of No Return," a comprehensive account of Israel's struggle against both Iran and Hizbullah by Ronen Bergman.  
Bergman, a regular contributor to Yedioth Ahronoth and Ynetnews who is increasingly establishing himself as one of Israel's foremost security and terrorism experts, based his work on hundreds of conversations with senior officials in Israel and abroa,  as well as thousands of previously unpublished documents. The fascinating result is a book that reads partly like a ...   more »

In march marking two years since disengagement, evacuees break through police barrier, leading to a few arrests; four evacuees entering Palestinian territory are rescued by IDF. 'Eventually, we will return home', says Elei Sinai evacuee

Shmulik Hadad
Hundreds of Gush Katif evacuees, mostly youths, marched toward the evacuated settlements Nisanit and Elei Sinai in the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday, marking two years since the disengagement.  
Upon arriving at the Nativ Ha'asara community, some of the marchers broke through the police barrier in the area and managed to reach the fence which separates between the community and the remains of Elei Sinai and Nisanit.  
Gush Katif evacuees: Return is a matter of time  / Anat Bereshkovsky  
Former residents of Jewish settlement bloc mark two-year anniversary of Gaza pullout with rallies in Kisufim, Netivot, Sderot. Many still feel abandoned by government      
Hundreds of police officers were sent to the area and clashes broke out between officers and marchers, a few of which were apprehended for investigation.  
Later Thursday, IDF forces rescued four marchers who had managed to cross the border fence into the northern Gaza Strip. Military sources said that the four climbed over the fence ...   more »

Right-wing activist running in Likud elections says financial success not enough to sustain country, claims leadership lost faith
Attila Somfalvi
Right-wing activist Moshe Feiglin, a candidate for the Likud leadership, will launch his campaign against party leader Benjamin Netanyahu Wednesday evening.  
In an interview with Ynet, Feiglin said he was running for the position because he wanted to bring the “spirit” back to Israel.  
“My main message is that without spirit, all of the material success we’ve supposedly achieved means nothing,” he said.  
“The most difficult problem lies in the fact that citizens of Israel do not believe in the future of their country, with all its financial success. It’s proven in the polls, and it’s a terrible thing.  “That’s why we need to get the spirit back. That’s what I want, that’s why I’m running, and I believe I will succeed.”  
Do you believe a higher power will give you the victory?  
No, no. I’m neither a wise man, nor a prophet. I’m not trying to convince anyone to change the way they live. The leadership of this country has lost faith in the righteous path and in God.  
The basic beliefs that ...   more »

By Scott Wilson
Updated: 2:39 a.m. CT July 26, 2007
HEBRON, West Bank - The barrier Israel is constructing in the largely rural West Bank is effectively separating Arab from Jew along much of its 456-mile length. But the broader project of disentangling the two peoples in the absence of a peace agreement is failing in urban areas such as Hebron, where the most radical elements of Islamic and Jewish nationalism are gaining strength.
Within Hebron, the separation is enforced not only by Israeli barriers but also by military checkpoints and curfews intended to protect the roughly 700 Jewish settlers living within the city's most historic and religiously important areas. Securing the small Jewish minority has a potent impact on the lives of the city's 150,000 Arabs, who voted last year to fill all nine of the district's parliamentary seats with candidates from the armed Islamic movement Hamas
This city, set among prolific vineyards, was among the first destinations for Jewish settlers following the 1967 Middle East war, when the Israeli military occupied the West Bank. Fired by a four-millennia-old religious claim to Hebron, the settler enterprise here is among the most ideologically determined in the territories. Its expansionist goals ...   more »

Israel should focus its energies away from settling the West Bank and begin investing its future elsewhere, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday in an interview with Al Hurra Television, a US-sponsored service broadcasting in the Middle East.
"I believe that Israel understands...that it has obligations that need to be met and need to be met now, because the future of Israel is not in the continued occupation of the West Bank," Rice said. "The future of Israel is in building a strong Israeli state in places like the Negev and Galilee."
Rice was reiterating remarks made by President Bush on July 16 in a White House speech devoted to Israeli-Palestinian issues.
The secretary of state revealed that during her next trip to the region she would help promote both the dialogue between Israel and the Palestinians and the broader Arab-Israel track. "There is…much that can be done by Arab states to support the progress that the Palestinians and Israelis need to make…[and] when the conflict ends it should end for all parties," she said.
Rice also said that were Israel and Syria to embark on a diplomatic track with the hope of garnering a peace agreement, the ...   more »

Terrorists will try to carry out an attack on the United States within the next 90 days, a former Israeli counterterrorism intelligence officer predicts.
Juval Aviv, head of the New York-based intelligence company Interfor and a special consultant to the U.S. Congress, told Fox News his information is based primarily on intelligence "floating in Europe and the Middle East."
An event is "imminent and around the corner here in the United States," he said. "It could happen as soon as tomorrow, or it could happen in the next few months. Ninety days at the most."
Aviv, author of "Staying Safe: The Complete Guide to Protecting Yourself, Your Family, and Your Business," said Americans should look at what happened in London and expect mass transportation to be the next target of attack.
"We have put all of our emphasis, right or wrong, on the aviation area," he said. "What has happened, in the last two to three years, based on information we have, the terrorists have realized that they cannot hijack a plane in America soon because the passengers are going to fight back."
The terrorists are aware, he said, that they have been successful over the last 50 years in ...   more »

Did you hear about the religious fundamentalist who wanted to teach physics at Cambridge University? This would-be instructor wasn't simply a Christian; he was so preoccupied with biblical prophecy that he wrote a book titled "Observations on the Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse of St. John." Based on his reading of Daniel, in fact, he forecast the date of the Apocalypse: no earlier than 2060. He also calculated the year the world was created. When Genesis 1:1 says "In the beginning," he determined, it means 3988 BCE.
Not many modern universities are prepared to employ a science professor who espouses not merely "intelligent design" but out-and-out divine creation. This applicant's writings on astronomy, for example, include these thoughts on the solar system: "This most beautiful system of sun, planets, and comets could only proceed from the counsel and domination of an intelligent and powerful Being . . . He governs all things, and knows all things that are or can be done."
Hire somebody with such views to teach physics? At a Baptist junior college deep in the Bible Belt, maybe, but the faculty would erupt if you tried it just about anywhere else. Many of them would echo ...   more »

As travelers waited with baited breath to find out whether the general strike that began Wednesday would be expanded to include Ben-Gurion Airport, Histadrut Labor Federation Ofer Eini and Finance Minister Ronnie Bar-On were set for a "white night" of talks, hoping to break the deadlock.
An earlier report that the airport might not close, after all, went unconfirmed. Meanwhile, it geared up to allow takeoffs every three minutes.
A total of 120 flights carrying 20,000 passengers were expected to slip out of the country before 6 a.m. Thursday, when the general strike was scheduled to affect Ben-Gurion, Channel 10 reported.
El Al Israel Airlines has advised passengers flying out Wednesday night to be at the airport five hours before their flights were scheduled to depart.
General strike in Israel
Health services will wheeze through a shutdown
Analysis: Eini chooses right time to act
Manufacturers could lose NIS 1b. a day
B-G passengers not worried - yet
Officials: Mere threat of strike damages tourism
'It wont break us'
600 French olim to arrive ahead of B-G strike
Don't fly off the handle!
An earlier meeting between Eini and Treasury Wage Director Eli Cohen ended without results. Before he sat down ...   more »