Day 3 – Friends, family and food

Hello friendly friends. I haven’t been able to go online really for the last couple of days but today I have internets. Kari, who reeks of awesomeness, picked me up so that we could work on assignments together. Yes I am in my third month of summer break and still have 2 assignments to hand in, my college obviously fails to see the point of a summer holiday. So let’s recap the last couple of days and the events that transpired.

Darko’s place

Day 3 started on Saturday evening (yes I am going biblical on your ass). Darko, along with Ash and Chris, picked me up to go over to his place. It is amazing what alcohol does for board and card games.

The first drunken board game we played was 30 Seconds. This game requires one to play a sort of verbal charades, describing a person/object/place on a card. The description cannot include words on the card or descriptions like “sounds like" or “rhymes with”. As many correct answers equals moves on the board subtracted by the dice roll or something like that. As Justine put it “0 is good and 2 is bad, if you get 0 you go more and if you get 2 you go less”, it made more sense as the drunk got nighter.

The whole scene unfolded in a tedious photography:

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The night was interrupted when Darko and Ashley transformed into Batman and Robin to drive into the night and fight crime at Ash’s house. <fiction> “You should have seen what the other guys looked like”, they told us as they limped in beaten and battered but victorious. </fiction>

After 30 seconds, we turned to a card game called Arsehole. The point of the game is to lose all your cards first. You then become the king of a nation with very low values and a failing economy. Second to fifth places become Queen, Middle-man, Arsehole 2 and Arsehole 1 respectively. In our version, Arsehole had to down a shot of Jack. when Jack ran out, we turned to pink champagne. The incident looked like this:

 

Using drunk-cam© technology to enhance the description, in reality, it actually looked more like this:

 

 

Tea at the Delmonts

The following morning, we got up to visit our good family friends the Delmonts. Unfortunately Simon, the youngest of the Delmonts was at work so we did not see him. Rob and Diana have been friends with my parents for centuries, and I grew up with Charlotte and Simon (who joined me for several years in a survival of the fittest contest which included events like slamming, punching and who can break the most fingers. Simon always got the sympathy vote, being half my size and all). Charlotte’s friend Kelly took Simon’s place at the gathering.

I also met the three newest members of the house hold, Rebecca, Rufus and a three-legged cat named removed by request of Warner Brothers inc.

 

Tea was served and we spoke of a range of wonderful things like crazy people, parents, becoming a Sangoma (Witch-Doctor) and more. An eye-witness claims that the scene looked like this:

  

 

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Family lunch

From Rob and Diana, we went off to my Aunt and Uncle in Kensington. They live in a beautiful house that my uncle designed.

 

On the menu for lunch were light starters, followed by a braai. My Uncle prepared and cooked the meat.

 

 

 

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After lunch we all sat around soaking up the sun and playing with the dogs. There are 3 dogs, Georgie and Rocko are border collies and Pepper is a pug. As Tali says, Pepper is “mooi van die leelikuid” (sp?) which means that Pepper is so bloody ugly that she is actually cute because of it.

And so that brings us to the end of a long day 3. If you enjoy reading my blog, you can click on the follow me link on the right column of the page. If you find any spelling/grammatical errors, please let me know.

Hope everyone in Israel is doing well.

Day 2 of my trippy trip

Hello friends and family. Its a sunny Saturday afternoon and I am sitting in my friend Dale’s cottage. Dale’s family is like my second family and it is always amazing to see them. Dale and Kari are my brother and sister from another… never mind the details. Anyways, they look like this:

Yesterday was a pretty cool day, I met up with another good mate, Darko and his fiancé Justine. We went off to eat pizza at a place called Mimmo’s. I ordered a chicken-tropical pizza which has chicken and pineapple on a 23cm base. Before I ate it, the pizza looked like this:

Justine and Darko look like this:

Justine did something I have never seen before, she put ice in her white wine. I found this to be extremely strange and documented it with a photo. The photo of the wine with ice in it looked like this:

 

After lunch, I went to my old shul, it was really nice to be back there, obviously since it was Shabbat I couldn’t take any photos, but if I was able to and there was a power failure at the exact moment I had taken the photo, it would have looked like this:

 

 

After shul I went back to the grandparents for Friday night dinner. Gran’s homemade food is always great, we had meat stew. After dinner Kari came to pick me up.

First we went out to a club called Manhattan. Clubs in SA are much better than clubs in Israel. The dress code at Manhattan is formal, no entry without a collared shirt. There are four bars surrounding a central dance floor.

Drinks in SA are really cheap. I bought a round of 3 drinks for a total of R56 or about 28 NIS. Here are some pictures from the bar area in the club

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After Manhattan, we went of to Fontana’s chicken. We got Prego meals and I drank Iron Brew.

Iron Brew is an interesting soft drink, originally from Scotland. I am not sure what flavor it is, but it tastes good. You should try it. No really, now, go find some.

We wrapped up the night at a bar called Billy the Bum’s. Some shmuck knocked Dale’s double Jameson out of his hand and didn’t even offer to get him a new one. The place was pretty packed and there were girls dancing on the bar. The scene can be described as such:

We headed home and I passed out for a good few hours before we went off for breakfast. I will probably go sleep a bit now and tonight I am going out with Darko and Justine.

Things I have noticed Pt. 2:

1. Drinks are cheap

2. Clubs are really high society.

3. South African houses have these interesting back doors that are split in half and I have never understood why. They look like this:

That’s it for now. Stay tuned for day 3 and more.

PS:

I almost forgot, the Amler’s have several Jack Russels. Jack Russels are the most awesome dogs ever. They look like this:

Welcome to South Africa

So here I am sitting in my grandparents’ apartment in cool but sunny South Africa. Its always surreal the first few days getting used to being back in SA. So far its been really good for a few reasons which I will get into later, but first, the flight.

We took off in a half-empty plane at about 9:30 am, I sat in a window seat, the view looked like this:

It was an extremely comfortable flight, probably because I had two seats to myself and the service was pretty good for El-Al. I watched Star Trek (again) and Night at the Museum as well as half of some Big Fat Greek Sequel or something. There was an Israeli guy behind me chatting up a South African woman for the duration of the flight which I found rather amusing.

When I wasn’t observing things inside the plane, I opened the screen and watched things outside the plane, the sky above the clouds looks like this:

 

I also tried to make shadow puppets on the opposite side of the plane. I thought a shadow of a bird flying next to us would make for interesting reactions, alas, nobody paid attention and my experiment failed miserably.

Johannesburg Inter Oliver Thambo airport has gotten pretty damned big and my grandparents were on hand to meet me as I landed. They look like this:

After a quick stop off at home, we rushed off to meet the rest of the family at Spur, a family grill house which serves decently prized meals. Food in SA is cheap, I got a 500gr. juicy steak with chips and onion rings, a soft drink and a beer. The grand total came to R130 rand or about 65 NIS. I found this amusing. Before I ate my steak, it looked like this:

 

My family, who I did not eat, looked like this:

After dinner, we went home where I watched UFC 7 until I passed out.

This morning, we went off to a mall near my old house to have breakfast and do some shopping. My mother had tried to convince me that South Africa did not have shower gel. I took this picture of the great South African shower gel shortage:

 

I also went off to buy some clothing. I bought 6 items including dress pants, and an evening jacket for a grand total of R615 or around 300 NIS. This was also amusing.

I am now sitting in the lounge writing this post while eating biltong. Biltong, for those of you who don’t know, is the most wonderful creation on this planet. It is made out of dead, dried cow and looks like this:

So onto the things I’ve noticed…

THINGS I HAVE NOTICED:

1. South Africa is really quiet, its amazing that what they consider a noisy restaurant is practically white noise in comparison to Israel.

2. The food is rich and tasty.

3. Most things are cheap, especially if you are paying with foreign currency.

4. The people are polite.

Tonight I will be going to my old Shul and then off to party with my friends. Only 6 days until my beautiful girlfriend arrives :)

Hope you enjoyed this recap of day one.

The Adam Segal

Pre-trip musings

This post is being written in Windows Live Writer. Seems like a pretty decent app so I will give it a go.

Its just under 2 weeks until I leave for South Africa and since I have such a great following, I think it would be splendid (nice is not a nice word) to document my journeys into deep, dark, Sandton City.

I am looking forward to a holiday, the first out of the country in almost 4 years. I will be seeing my family, Tali’s family and my good friends during the 3 week hurricane that is to be my trip to SA.

Today Tali and I bought a new camera for the trip. A Casio Exilim ex-S10 – Here, let me draw it for you:

 

Its a 10.1 megapixel camera with some sweet features including video in x.264 format which means all of you in the cult of Apple can download my vids to your iPods.

So I was playing around a bit with the cam today and took a few thousand pictures of the cats:

 

Norman

Roxanne saying hello

If anybody reads this blog, you can follow my pictures on my picasaweb gallery

So stay tuned for the adventures of Adam and Tali in Africa!

Technorati Tags: Adam,Tali,South Africa,Vacation

Gilad Shalit: The way it should be

Dear Hamas,

We have been playing this game for 3 years. Two wars later we are still anxiously awaiting the return of Gilad Shalit. We have tried countless times to reason with you, we have tried diplomacy, we have tried concessions and we have tried brute force. Each time, the sacrifice of your people and our own has been worth keeping Gilad captive. You think that this is sending us a message that you dictate the terms.

Our patience has finally run out. In the box this letter is attached to, is the head of a Palestinian prisoner we have just executed. We will be killing 1 prisoner every hour until you release Gilad Shalit. Tomorrow we will kill 2 prisoners every hour and so on. There will be no mercy; women and children first.

We know that Gilad is currently alive and while you may think you have leverage, let us warn you, if he does not return in one piece, all 11000 Palestinian prisoners will be executed. There will be no more hostage situations; if an Israel soldier is taken captive, we will carpet bomb the nearest village to his last known location. We will mourn him as a lost soldier of Zion and honour him as one who sacrificed his life for the protection of this great nation.
Your time of emotional blackmail has ended, this country has learned its lesson with Ron Arad, Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser. We will do everything in our power to bring our soldiers home safely, but never again will Israeli soldiers be used as bargaining chips to fuel your machine of terror. The choice is yours, return Gilad Shalit peacefully or face the consequences.

Once Shalit is returned safely and you recognize Israel's right to exist, we are willing to sit down and discuss the future of our peoples. There will be no more talk of land for peace; peace for peace is the only way to ensure that your people have a state of their own in the near future. Give up your arms, show us that you are responsible leaders and that you are willing to listen and cooperate for the sake of your people and then you will reap your due rewards.

But let this message be a warning, the Jewish people have survived persecution for millennia, nations have enslaved us, tortured us, attempted to annihilate us and yet there is one constant, they have fallen to dust and our people have gotten stronger each and every time.

The choice is yours, either you return Gilad and work with us to plan our joint future in the land of Israel or face the wrath of a nation who is tired of giving in to your demands without seeing an iota of progress.

Choose your fate.

The people of Israel

My thoughts on Ep. 6 of The Ultimate Fighter

This week's episode of TUF is one of the best I have seen in a very long time. Two great submission victories and 4 teeth knocked out - What more could a fight fan ask for?

Martin Stapleton vs. Cameron Dollar:

This was a quick match which ended with Dollar getting a submission victory. The lead-up was focused on Dollar being terrified of fighting and how the pressure of the house is getting to him. Dollar appeared to be humbled very quickly when he got picked to fight Stapleton.

Dollar reminds me somewhat of Chris Leben, a young cocky prick who needs a little bit of humbling to develop into a good fighter. The difference is, Leben believed in himself. Hopefully this performance will calm Dollar down a bit so that he can focus on fighting instead of talking shit.

As far as the fight goes, I think Dollar got a bit lucky with his early strike but managed to capitalize on it and put Stapleton away. I am not sure who was in more shock about the result, Dollar or Stalpeton but the fact that dollar, scared as his was, kept to his gameplan of taking the fight to the ground.

In my opinion, if a fighter doesn't show up scared, there is something very wrong with him. As long as Dollar can continue to harness his fear and convert it into match smarts, he will be fine. I will wait for him to fight again before I sing his praises but so far, he looks like he has the potential to be an undercard fighter in the UFC.

Frank Lester vs. James Wilks:

Frank Lester has got to be one of the most annoying people in the history of TUF. He is the kind of guy who gives fighters a bad name. James Wilks on the other hand seems to be a reserved, intelligent, well spoken English "bloke". 

The lead-up to this fight showed Lester exhibiting the exact opposite behavior of his U.S. team-mate. Lester, for some reason, has developed a hatred for James Wilks and proceeded to badmouth him constantly, going as far as to call him a traitor because he trains in the U.S. but is on the U.K. team. Maybe Lester should consider a career in pro-wrestling because he can talk shit but he can't fight.

While Wilks focused on training for the fight, Lester focused on beating Wilks up in the house and his pointless hatred distracted him from actually doing anything productive in his training for the fight. 

My favorite part of this episode was Demarques Johnson's offer to pay Lester $100 for knocking out one of Wilk's teeth... Sweet sweet irony will make an appearance later in the show.

The fight itself was, in my opinion a complete domination. While Wilks respected Lester's striking game, Lester, unprepared, didn't know Wilks even had a standing gameplan. The first round featured some back and forth striking, Wilks' attempts at several submissions and some clinch battles. 

Towards the end of the first round, Wilks nailed Lester with two sick knees, bloodying up his nose and knocking his four upper front teeth out of his mouth and lodging them deep into Lester's mouth guard.

Michael Bisping's antics were in my opinion pointless as the fighter was ready but the mouth guard wasn't.

The second round was a complete domination by Wilks. Lester realized the hard way that despite Wilk's preference for Jiu-Jitsu, he is not a one-trick-pony. Wilks gets the takedown, passes to full mount exactly as he had trained to do and applied the arm-bar. Did anyone else notice that Lester tapped before the arm-bar had even been locked in?

Overall, this is the kind of episode we should see more of in TUF. While Junie Browing was probabvly great for ratings, the core fans want to see good action from promising young fighters. Hopefully there is more of the same to come for the rest of the season.

 

In defense of Anderson Silva

Anderson Silva has come under fire recently due to what many consider to be two lacklustre performances against Patrick Cote and Thales Leites. Many feel that Silva is not doing enough to finish fights and judging by the boos in Montreal at UFC 97, many feel that they are not getting their money's worth.

In my opinion there is one person alone to blame for this. That man is Patrick Cote. Going into his fight at UFC 90, Cote knew all about how Anderson Silva's destructive power and amazing clinch had led to the demize of several great fighters including Dan Henderson and Rich Franklin. His vicious knockout power, exemplified in his match against James Irvin showed that Silva is not somebody you want to mess with. So Cote's plan was to go in and do what nobody else could do, his goal was not to win but to survive.

Unfortunately for Cote, his leg got the better of him and all his planning to remain elusive, not engage too aggressively and hope to frustrate Silva into making a mistake was for nought. Cote did not show up for this fight, he did not show up to take the title away from Silva and so he gave Silva no reason to exert more energy than he absolutely had to.

While Cote lost due to injury, there is no doubt that he was always going to lose that fight at the rate that it was going. Silva picked his strikes, outpointed Cote and never looked to be in trouble.

Thales Leites went into UFC 97 with the exact same attitude as Cote. His intention was never to beat Silva, it was to survive against him and as horrible as Cote's offense was, it was a million times better than Leites'. Leites came in confident that he could take Silva to the ground and dominate him with his Jiu-Jitsu but bar one succesful take down, Leites did absolutely nothing, he did not impose his will, he did not come near to a submission and when Silva got back to his feet, he was not going to let Leites put him on the ground again.

Leites was defeated from the second his takedown was stuffed. He had nothing but a ground game and once his ground game was removed, he stood in the Octagon for 20 minutes and tried to survive.

It's easy to blame Anderson Silva for these back-to-back boring debacles but there is more to MMA than highlight reel knockouts. Anderson Silva's responsibility is to defend his championship, not to attack challengers. He is the champion and when somebody comes into a fight with him, they should have the respect to meet him whether it be standing or on the ground. It is not Silva's responsibility to throw caution to the wind because his opponent refuses to have the balls to fight for the belt. No wonder Silva is bored, no wonder he is playing cat-and-mouse games.

The fact of the matter is this; Leites dropped to the floor after every close quarter engagement, he did not try to pull guard, he offered it to Silva and Silva is not stupid. There is no person in this world who can justify why Silva should have welcomed the opportunity to go into a BJJ black belt's guard, its Russian roulette and only inexperienced fighters would have done so.

We all love to see exciting fights but we are spectators and Silva is pound-for-pound one of the best fighters in the world. Sometimes to make his money, he needs to have boring fights, not because he doesn't want to fight but because his opponents don't bring their A game or their A game isn't good enough.

Alternatively, Jorge Gurgel who is an awesome fighter and a great ground tactician, threw away his UFC career for exciting fights. As exciting as Gurgel's fights were, they resulted in 3 losses in 4 matches and a boot out the door. Silva in contrast is a champion with a 10 fight win streak, (12 if you disregard the Okami match) and the last time a match of his went to a decision besides UFC 97 was in 2004.

UFC fans are spoiled, bloodthirsty and at the end of the day, don't care about Silva unless he is winning in spectacular fashion, so why should Anderson Silva risk his health, his title and his legacy for a bunch of jaded morons.

Anderson Silva is one of the greatest and when a fighter gets the privelege to get into a cage with Silva, he should go balls to the wall, not fall on his back every 20 seconds, its disrespectful to Silva and its an insult to all the other fighters who sit on the backburner waiting for their shot at the gold.

If the UFC want Silva in exciting fights, they need to find him opponents who challenge him mentally and physically. Until such a time, Silva will nonchalantly play with his food in order to earn his bread and butter. If people could appreciate the art of his elusiveness, the creativity of his strikes and his ability to adapt his tactics and strategies to complete neutralize his opponents, they would not be booing his efforts. Anybody can land a lucky punch, Matt Serra landed a championship worthy lucky punch; but it takes a real talented fighter to maintain the legacy that Silva has.

A Waking Nightmare

I dreamed of you last night... I was standing on the edge of a dark, dead forest. It was night time and the pale light of the full moon projected a silhouette of dread in front of me. You appeared, you took me by the hand and you assured me that everything would be okay. You guided me through the brambles and as we walked, the hard ground turned to soft grass, the dead trees blossomed and sunlight filtered in from behind us stopping dead against the invisible wall of darkness in front of us.

Suddenly the scene changed, we were in a small rowing boat during stormy weather and rough seas, something happened; I fell in. I struggled against the wild tide and tried to climb back into the boat, I slipped and started to sink. As I began to sink into the depths below, a hand reached out and grabbed me. It was your hand. You pulled me back to the surface, the sea was calm, the sky was blue.

I woke up, I was stuck in the forest again, barefoot, thorns under every step. I walked on bleeding feet for hours never finding the edge of the forest. After hours of excruciating pain, I gave up and passed out. I found myself in the water again, I drowned for hours and eventually I sank, I lay at the bottom of the sea waiting, drowning, over and over again.

I passed in and out of consciousness for years, I tried to swim back up but the pressure of the sea was too much. I thought of you through all of this, your image made the pain go away for a short while. Boats would pass over from time to time and I hoped that you would be there to save me. But each boat passed over with out slowing down and soon I was unsure as to how much of the sea had been replaced by the salty tears I had cried waiting for you to come back for me and pull me from this nightmare.

You were not there. I did not wake up.

Wasting Away

Something always happens at midnight. Something special and that's not necessarily a good thing. Wouldn't it be fitting if I had a grandfather clock in my room? It would add some sort of dreaded expectancy to what I am about to write. I won't know what it is until I finish it, but I know it cannot be a good thing.

The clock strikes midnight. Another day, another death, another reason to cry. Its not coincidental that our tears, those which show our greatest emotions come from our faces. We all hide our feelings yet we were born to show them. My face is a canvas on which the salty, transparent paint drips down never leaving the same pattern twice. Its no coincidence that another term for transparent is "see-through"; interpret it as you wish.

The clock strikes one. Evil has so many manifestations. People lying in hospital beds being defeated by something hardly visible through a microscope. Does a virus have emotion? "You have been accused of killing your host and are sentenced to death with them, how do you plead?" "With a smile on my face; your honour." What is the nature of this world in which a normal day can become a deadly day? Who has the wicked smile when a mother loses her baby? Who laughs maniacally when a family dies in a car accident while the teen who didn't want to go out that day picks up the pieces of her guilt-ridden broken heart?

The clock strikes two. We are born to ultimately die; this is our purpose. Our bodies racing against nature, life happens so quickly, most of the time we don't even stop to pay attention. Birds swimming in a puddle after fresh rains, that's great but we have appointments. Once the appointment with destiny comes, I'm sure most of us would have chosen to give those birds a few seconds more of our time.

The clock strikes three. I am lying in bed but I cannot sleep, not while this sinister message inside of me lingers. Writing helps get it out. But am I selfish for unleashing it on the rest of the world or noble for warning others of the dangers that lie within? I'm on special today, 25% off if you use the right credit card. What the hell does that even mean?

The clock strikes eternity... What time is it when a person laughs, cries, dies?

Musick

Why does it seem like happiness is temporary? Am I still waiting for this axe to drop? One day it may actually sever my head from my body but for now it just drops onto the back of my neck sending a blunt pain through me.

I'm used to it, misery is seasonal and yet we cling to it.

Its funny how music is generally divided between pieces about love - and happiness and how brilliant the world is now that the artist is swimming around in a fish-bowl pumped with dopamine - and the pieces where the artist is figuratively slitting his wrists and spilling the blood all over his sheet music.

Sometimes we make instruments laugh, sometimes we make them cry and if we're feeling particularly talented or refer to ourselves as "tortured souls" we can get an entire orchestra of instruments to tell the world how we feel.

Music makes it all so much better. No matter how angry the music is, the fact that somebody else was so miserable as to refer themselves to a paper psychologist seems to put a smile on our faces.

The music plays us more than we play the music.

Shoulders

"Another one?" they ask. They sit on my shoulder. That doesn't make any sense because I'm lying down yet I am writing and imagining myself to be in a sitting position. Its funny how they sit on my shoulder... bastards. Like they could ever have the audacity to make their way into my head. But when it all comes down to it, they are my head.

"Two in one day, someone is getting a bit eager..." Well who the hell asked you in any case? I can do whatever I want because I was granted the immortality of mind. Its encased at the moment but give it a few years. When the worms eat the rotting flesh, that's when you'll see who needs shoulders.

"He talks like he has the right to evaluate his own mental state, how haughty!" Oh and what the hell do you think you are? You sit there like you own a stake in something yet every bit of good I have ever provided you, love, affection, wealth, you had some negative comment about them at one stage or another... except the shoulders, never had a problem accepting those.

How many of you are there in any case? One for each topic in my head that could potentially have negative consequences? Too many; even one of you is too many. But who am I fooling? Would you like some more negative energy to feed on? How about a nice shoulder to sit on? I keep you because I choose to, not the other way round and don't you forget it!

"He talks to us like we exist!"
"Preposterous!"
"Yes, very foolish, we could not sit on his shoulders for he is lying down"
"Internal conflict, how ingenious"
"We're staying right here, on the shoulders, after all if he imagines himself in an upright position it must be so"
"Well only until the worms eat the rotting flesh, then we're in big trouble"
"Best make the most of it while we can"
"You're going to publish this piece of so-called writing now are you?"

You're damned right I am!

Thoughts of... what?

I always thought poetry was a cliché way of getting your thoughts out, who needs it?

Roses are red,
Violets are blue;
A lame clichéd form of expressing oneself
And look, I'm an artist!

How do I expect anyone else to understand me when the the door to my mind is locked and not even I possess the key?

I feel like I have touched death recently and in some ways have lost what little innocence may have remained inside me. Anger and disappointment have engulfed me and yet I am enjoying myself in general.

Does anyone actually give a damn? Maybe, there could be one person out there whose entire satisfaction in life is finding out what I give a shit about. I feel like I go to bed unfulfilled on a nightly basis yet I accomplish so much. It's probably just what I tell myself in order to stop the insanity from taking over. I think it would be much better that way... insanity, why the hell not?

I'll write a song about it, then I'll really establish myself as a bleeding heart, "wow, it has emotions" they'll say as they watch my imagination prowl its cage like a hungry tiger waiting to escape. If dreams that should torment don't, what does that say of the mettle of the person dreaming them?

Dreams... Well at least they entertain me and why not? Someone should appreciate the amount of thinking and obsession with mundane things my mind undertakes on a daily basis. Rather be obsessive than blind to the fact that the puzzle which is this world isn't something any grade-schooler could put together.

I'll write a short story about it, what better way to show the world how I over-evaluate myself. Shoot a film, pretend I have talent. Talent? What a stupid word... dogs have talent when it comes to barking, what a joke. People have talent when it comes to oversimplifying and overcomplicating their lives all at the same time.

I'll write a blog about it, that way I'll feel like I'm not alone. We all are, we just do it together.

Olmert: It was let MY people go.

Greetings friends,

So once again, our genius of a Prime Minister has released a batch of "palestinian" prisoners as a good will gesture. 451 this time and what has Israel received in exchange? Qassamim, excuses and the usual hate speech.

Maybe one of Olmert's advisors should tell the twit that firstly, it's not Pesach and secondly, Moses said "Let MY people go" not "Let THEIR people go"

This brain dead simpleton also opened his big arrogant mouth at Annopolis which at it's core was a big mistake. Olmert (Who shall from now on be known as Sesame Street) should never open his mouth, it should be sewed shut and as a "good will gesture" we will sew it into the shape of that goofy smile he loves so much.

So what did Sesame Street say at Annapolis? He said that Israel would be willing to give parts of East Jerusalem to the people of Narnia in exchange for peace.

WOW! BRILLIANT! Let's give these people a segment of our Capital city because giving them a part of our land worked so well last time! The peaceful environment in Sesame's head is reminiscent of those old cartoons where the antagonist gets bashed on the head and consequently has birds flying around it.

Yes Gaza is thriving and Sderot is under no threat of Qassamim at all. Just ask them. All the while the ignorant left carry on living their ignorant lives because after all, they're not the ones facing barrages of rockets day after day.

Ultimately, we have a major issue on the home front which needs to be dealt with before we even thinking of the people of MiddleEarth. That issue is apathy. Sesame Street had a 3% approval rating in March of this year and we got one rally! One protest of note. Its not enough, it's about time we sew this idiot's mouth shut for good.

Too many good men and women died during the 6 Day War for this ignoramus to give it away. And then what? We give them East Jerusalem and suddenly the Qassamim won't only be landing in Sderot. No peace plan has ever been worked out with the people of EarthSea and every time we have given them land, they have used it against us.

The time has come for the "palestinians" to show us that they are willing to give us peace in exchange for land!

In Honour of a Fallen Hero

On the third of March 2002, Steven Kenigsberg Z"L, lost his life in an act of terror. This post is written in his honour.

I remember it as if it was yesterday. Sitting in my friend's lounge as his mother was in hysterics, crying about the boy she had just seen on the news. Maybe it was a mistake, they had said in the report that he was 27; maybe crossed wires had led to the misinformation. Unfortunately, that was not the case.

I had heard a lot about Steven in the 8 or so months I had been in Israel, I had never met him but everyone seemed to speak about him with pride in the fact that they knew him. I walked home that day thinking to myself "Wow it's so strange how different it feels when a terrorist attack hits close to home." I was about to find out just how close to home it would hit.

I walked in to my apartment at the Raanana Absorption Center, said hello to my mother and mentioned that someone that everyone knew was murdered the night before. She asked me his name and as I told her, she looked at me and said what still haunts me to this day; "Steven Kenigsberg was your cousin."

At a loss for words, I walked out of the house, I didn't know how to react, I didn't know what to say. This hero that everyone else knew and loved was my own relative and he had been taken away before I ever got the privilege of meeting him.

Years passed and Steven would enter my mind every so often. I was so angry with the world, so angry with myself. Why had I never met him? Who had fought with whom in the family to prevent us from knowing each other? What if he was that one guy at the party I never said hello to? Or that South African in the restaurant or at the bus stop, who I listened to intently but did not wish to make conversation with? How many opportunities did I potentially have to meet Steven that I threw away?

Yet through all of that time, I felt so selfish, here I was thinking about Steven when I didn't even know him and yet the people who had known him, they had a right to feel loss, they had the right to mourn him.

I did however learn a very important lesson, the loss of Steven, was everybody's loss, whether you knew him, or whether you had never or would never have met Steven, he was Israel's and the world's loss. From then on, every soldier who fell in battle, was a family member, every civilian killed in terrorist acts, they too were family members. And yet Steven's image, his smile haunted me.

Several weeks ago, I stumbled upon a group on a popular website, set up in honour of Steven. I decided to write in saying how I had heard such great things about him and how I had only found out he was my relation after the tragedy. His brother, another unknown cousin, was the moderator of this group and he immediately messaged me to find out how we were related. After several messaging sessions, he invited me to Steven's hazkara.

Last Friday morning, I made my way to Hod Hasharon, met Marc, my newly found cousin and off we went to the cemetery. I stood at Steven's hazkara, fighting back tears constantly, wanting to break down and just release all of the emotion that had been built up within me since that night 5 years ago. I listened to Steven's family speak about him, in honour of him and with tears rolling down my face, I tried to imagine what it would have been like to have known my cousin, the hero. And I sit here now, with tears rolling down my face and Steven's smile, it still haunts me.

After the ceremony, I went to the Kenigsberg's house, I spoke with Marc about Steven and how I felt that I almost had no right to mourn him since I didn't even know him and my mourning would be incomparable to Marc's or to the rest of Steven's family. He countered by saying that everyone mourns Steven in their own way, regardless of how they knew him. We also spoke about life, quantum physics and plans to perhaps go to the same college. I met Steven's Step-Mom and brothers and sisters, I spoke to Steven's dad. I finally felt, even if it was in a very small way, that I had gotten to know him just a little bit.

Steven may be gone from us physically, but he lives in his family and in his friends every single day. My cousin, a true hero, who fell in a cowardly act of terrorism, someone I never met, but a person I will never forget.

On Friday the 9th of March, I finally got to say goodbye to my cousin Steven. I only hope, that one day, I will be able to say hello to him.

Rest in Peace Steven Kenigsberg Z”L, my cousin, my hero, may your smile haunt me for years to come.

When happy is not Gay!

[DISCLAIMER: The thoughts shared in this blog are my own and not the thoughts of anyone else including all members of Blogger.com

Furthermore, the statements herein are directed specifically towards individuals who wish to obstruct peace by purposefully holding their "Gay Pride" parade in Jerusalem.

I have nothing against gay people who choose to behave modestly instead of flaunting their homosexuality in mine and other's faces. I have gay friends and family members who I respect and admire, their sexual preference is not my business nor is mine theirs.]

Greetings my Rusteefarians, Today, as always, we brush on a controversial topic. A huge debate is raging in Israel at the moment about a gay parade that is to be held in Jerusalem this month. The main players in this monumental fight are the gays and the religious Jews. I'm going to introduce each side and tackle their arguments before giving you my thoughts on this entire situation.

We'll start off with the gays. The gays are proud. What they are proud of, I don't know. They claim that homosexuality is something you are born with and not a choice. Well then why are they proud of this? I'm left-handed, not by choice, I was born that way. You don't see me running around saying "I am proud to be sinister, let me dress up in left handed clothing and do left handed things all day!"

Obviously this gay "Pride" is absolutely drenched in shame and so their remedy is to shove it down our throats and accuse every hetero-sexual man, woman, child and aardvark that we are oppressing them. They believe Israel is a democracy and if they want to parade in the capitol that is their right and nobody can stop them.

In their corner they have the liberals. These people make me sick. "Live and let live" they say. They appreciate John Lennon's message of do whatever the hell you want, there is no heaven, no hell and no omnipresent being to judge you so all is good and have fun.

These people, who are generally against religion and hate all the old school confounds of morality, see no problem with the gays doing their stuff in Jerusalem. If the religious have a problem with it, they are nothing more than oppressors on the level of the Iranians and should stay in the Synagogue reading their holy books. Once the religious are law-abiding, tax-paying, army-serving citizens who don't denigrate Israel, they can have their say too.

In the blue corner, we have the religious and conservatives. The religious argument is simple. Jerusalem is our holy city, Judaism views homosexuality as an abomination and by holding this vile parade in their holy city, you are spitting in the face of their religion.

The secular-conservatives view the issue as follows: Homo-sexuality is wrong, men are not supposed to sleep with men, women are not supposed to sleep with women, we have children to protect and so this kind of parade should not be a public spectacle. A vegetarian would not like people eating meat in their house and so in a heterosexual society, being gay and flaunting it is offensive.

Now I fit into a specific category that is partly religious, fully conservative. I believe this parade is wrong, it’s inciting violence and it needs to be stopped before things get out of hand. Might I remind you before I continue, this is my opinion, therefore its right. If you think otherwise, go to someone else's blog and carry on listening to Lennon.

First off, homosexuality is not natural, all across the animal kingdom, male creatures mate with female creatures to produce a fertilized egg and offspring. This is how animals, including humans, are still around today. Now there are certain animals such as snails that are a-sexual or can change their sex so, if gay people are willing to take on the class of Gastropoda Erectus then they can have their parade. Homosexuality in nature is destined to die out, gay animals will not mate and so their genes die. Therefore nature is an oppressor such as the Iranians.

From a religious point of view, homosexuality is a complete abomination.

Leviticus 18:22: "Thou shall not lie with mankind as with womankind: it is abomination."

Leviticus 20:13: "If a man also lie with mankind as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they should surely be put to death...."

What we have there is a pretty clear indication that in Judaism at least, homosexuality is a big no-no. Christianity and Islam regard it in a similar manner. The Roman Catholic Church has decided that anyone who is gay should be chaste.

So with that being said, holding this parade, in the middle of the religious centre of the three major religions, all of who look down on homosexuality, is just looking for trouble. The religious people will not stand for it. Judaism has been around a lot longer then "Gay Pride" so people should respect that and if they have to have this parade, relocate it.

Of course the people who scream democracy are missing the entire idea of this country. Israel is, was and always will be a theocracy. As long as our flag is a Star of David on a shawl, as long as our national anthem cries for the Jewish soul and as long as we remember that the state was established as a Jewish state after six million Jews died in the holocaust. With that being said, even if Israel was a democracy, the appropriate action would have been a national referendum to let the people decide what was best.

Live and let live is not the answer. Homosexuality, once taboo is becoming a norm. This has to stop! First it will be homosexuality, then it will be incest, paedophilia, polygamy and God knows what other evils. Now before you argue that I am being irrational, let’s break this argument down.

Homosexuality, according to the gays, is something they are born with. "You cannot choose who you are attracted to" is the standard argument for this kind of conversation. So does that mean that if a brother and sister both consent to being with each other, they should be allowed? What about father and daughter, mother and son? "You can't choose who you are attracted to and if the gays can do it why can't we?" What about a 15 year old and a 30 year old who sincerely love each other? "If the gays can do it, why can't we?"

The gays need to understand that nobody cares what they do behind closed doors. I have friends and family members who are gay and what they do in their bedroom is their own business. The religious would have just as big a problem with a Mardi Gras or hedonism parade in Jerusalem because the message is one of immorality, physical lust and values that conflict with their religion.

If gay people want to be gay, that’s fine, but we don't need to know about it nor have it shoved down our throats because of their self-loathing. Believe me, the reason left-handed people don't have parades is because we don't feel ashamed and therefore don't seek justification.

Now the people who want democracy need to understand that democracy should not entail doing whatever you want regardless of other people's feelings. By having that parade in Jerusalem, you are inciting violence and offending people. Things have already gotten violent between the religious and the police and last night a Shul was vandalized in Tel Aviv.

I for one am not going to stand idly by and let this parade go through. If it is not cancelled, I will be in Jerusalem to protest. It is against all that I believe in and I don't need my children growing up in a society where you can do whatever you want.

John Lennon had a beautiful message, but what he did not seem to grasp is that people want to do what they want regardless of other people's feelings. If John's message is to truly be appreciated, this parade should not be held because it will hurt others. At the end of the day, the gays will still be together, but the people of Israel will be further torn apart.

"You may say that I'm a dreamer

But I'm not the only one

I hope someday you'll join us

And the world will live as one”

Where's Walid:

Paris, 1887, A woman's life was ruined as the Eiffel Tower was constructed on her house. Unaware that her house was even there due to the World's Fair being held in the location, constructors began building the famous French landmark.

When asked for a comment, the woman said this:

"I was sitting at home have a glass of Bordeaux, when all of a sudden I heard a huge crash, I ran into the bathroom to see a giant metal leg had been driven through the ceiling. I quickly ran to my bedroom and grabbed my thimble collection and miraculously made it out just in time to see my house crushed by the giant structure. I was so scared; I don't know why they would do this to me."

We at Rustee Rants, have uncovered the only photograph ever found of this tragic event:

Back from the Living

Hello my dearest Rusteefarians. Yes, yes, I know it has been some time now and many of you may feel abandoned but I am back. Better than ever? Probably not.

The thing about writing this blog - and the direction it seems to have taken me - is that there is literally so much screwed up news on a daily basis that its hard to choose what to write about which means I'll generally write about nothing.

However, at 03:55 in the morning, the brain plays wonderful tricks on you. Appears out of nowhere when you thought you lost the thing ages ago. So since we last spoke, our wonderful government did.... Well nothing actually. The dog is being wagged vigorously what with our figure-head president having a rape case thrown at him and people have casually moved on with their lives.

I'm okay with that when it comes to Tsunamis; London Bombings; Katrinas and all sorts of other SEPs(Somebody Else's Problem), but this is a little different. This is my problem. With 100 plus soldiers dying in vain and the 3 soldiers who were kidnapped in the first place, still not home, its time for a revolution.

Yet softened liberal Israelis will continue to sit at home and debate whether gays have rights too and if its acceptable for them to defile my holy city. That's not even worth debating, its an absolute disgrace and if you think otherwise, please write to "The People Who Give A Shit."

The worst thing about it is that the news these days only seems to feature one name. Gilad Shalit. Now I feel terribly for the Shalit family but since when was he the only kidnapped soldier? What about Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev? Why are they not getting the same media time? Is the government trying to make us forget that there are actually THREE kidnapped soldiers, not withstanding that Ron Arad celebrated his 20th anniversary since his abduction. I honestly hope that the man is long dead, his country failed him, why should he carry on living as a prisoner? I just hope he is at peace, dead or alive.

But in all honesty, this war took a hell of a lot out of me. I was a wreck pretty much every day, what with 5 or so of my friends being inside Lebanon. Thank God they all came back safe and if any of you are reading this, know how proud I am to be your friend, thank you! The truth of the matter is that I actually now fear that this pathetic excuse for a government cannot defend us from the trouble that brews in our near future. If Olmert is not out soon, I don't know what fate we will face.

Despite the recent war, Israel had quite the quiet time during the High Holidays this year. I think I am learning to appreciate this time more and more every year, it really is a beautiful season. While praying for inscription into the good book of judgment this year, I found it extremely difficult to hold back the tears whilst thinking about my fallen brothers and those who have suffered so much during this time.


Enough about that though. One of the top items on the news lately is the "Is it a nuke? Isn't it a nuke?" debate regarding North Korea's... NUKE. The sheer idiocy of this debate is mind-boggling. Does it really matter if the underground explosion in North Korea was a nuke or not?! The fact that they say it is, is enough evidence to show that if they do actually have one, they are not worrying about the consequences of using it.

This whole fiasco proves again that the United Nations is nothing but a worthless organization being manipulated by insane dictators, communists and muslim terrorists. Spot test: When a bully beats up a child at school with a baseball bat, do you:

A) Threaten to take away his stationery.
B) Make him sign a document stating that he will under no circumstances do it again.
C) Call all the teachers into a meeting to discuss a pointless solution to the problem.
D) Severely punish him and make sure that he understands that if he touches another child he will be even more severely punished.

Well according to the UN we do A; B and C because obviously the ruffian will see that the diplomacy that has completely failed on him thus far is actually the solution. When are this group of sponges going to finally disband so that we can see some proper consequence for a change. North Korea have taught Iran a valuable lesson. The Western World's bark is far greater than its miniscule bite. Expect Iran to be testing nukes in the near future.

Speaking of that test in North Korea, while the rest of the world were trying to determine the severity of this test, tragedy occurred. The North Korean government, careful to place the nuke underground, overlooked one small thing, they tested it directly under someone's house. The poor woman was sitting in her bedroom when she heard a faint rumble, realizing something wasn't right, she ran as fast as she could to escape the blast zone, with luck on her side, she barely escaped.

Rustee Rants has the only documented photograph of this incident:



And there you have it folks, the debut of "Where's Walid"

Hope you enjoyed the read, what will the aftermath of the test be? Where will Walid appear next? Stay tuned for more of Rustee Rants.

The Propaganda War

Hello my Rusteefarians, I hope everyone is doing well. So as you all know, Israel is still engaged in a bitter combat with Hizbulistan. Our Prime Minister is just the moron I thought he was and since I predicted shit to drastically hit the fan, I would like to say to all of you: I told you so!

So the latest news that's worth reporting is the use of the media by the Lebs and the fact that they are using disproportionate propaganda to win the war in every muslim and anti-semite's head.

The body counts from every operation by Israel in Lebanon is generally doubled. Every operation, from here on known as massacre, is another excuse for hizbula to bring out their spare dead children and go back and forth, throwing them into building remains and then taking them dramatically to the ambulance. Lather, rinse, repeat.

They really upped the ante this week however, we have an arab photographer who for the sake of true and accurate reporting, has been using photoshop to edit photos to give a more accurate depiction of what's going. Of course AP and Reuters grabbed the photos as quickly as they could, didn't bother to notice what a 5 year old would have, and published the photos much to our chagrin. And I'm honestly supposed to believe that AP and Reuters, the two biggest news agencies in the world, don't have a photo validation team? I call BULLSHIT!

Then we have academy award nominated Prime Minister Siniora, who decided to cry about his countries destruction on 2 occasions whilst addressing some bunch of idiots who were stupid enough to listen. Can you imagine if Winston Churchill started crying during WW2 or if Priam lay on the floor kicking his feet during the invasion of Troy. It's outrageous and all too funny at the same time.

But the truth of the matter is, Siniora is not the idiot, the people who believe his crap and his crocodile tears are. They are the kind of people who watch the introductory video on the flight - as to how to buckle your seat belt - every time!

The greatest unnoticed gem was the body count in Ghassaniyeh. The initial reported death toll was 40 people. Yes and the world went mad, because you don't just kill 40 people for no reason. Even if that no reason is actually because they are harboring terrorists and their missiles in their houses but lets not argue over irrelevant semantics. What was not really paid attention to, was the fact that Siniora just happened to mention, in passing comment between outburst of crying, that the death toll was actually only 1 death at the time and that 40 was reported because it seemed a good idea at the time.

Now 3 days later, and the world press has yet to clean up this little oopsie. When asked for comment, Olmert said: "This propaganda war that we are no doubt winning, is a great platform to launch a disengagement from the West Bank and Tel Aviv and Jerusalem."

So the issue really isn't how we are winning the war (and believe me, we are), the issue is that the world is taking a collective dump on us based on the inaccurate media reports they are receiving. How is Israel attempting to fix this situation? Well when you find out please drop me an email because somebody in the Government is bloody clueless. Wait... Everyone in the government is bloody clueless.

I'd like to end off today with what I hope is to become a regular part of Rustee Rants. I'm sure many of you have seen this picture:





This picture is apparently supposed to be of some women who lost her house in a bombing in Beirut July 22nd. The interesting thing is, she happened to appear mourning her house's destruction a few weeks later on the 5th of August:



Unluckiest woman in whole of Lebanon? I don't think so. Of course AP and Reuters have started waking up to the reality that most of what they are hearing from the Lebanese side is absolute rubbish and so have removed the photos and fired the multiple-offender photographer.

Too little too late, but never too late to take the piss. So allow me to introduce you to my latest feature on Rustee Rants: Where's Walid? What is Where's Walid? Well you'll just have to come back soon to find out.

Goodbye Blue Sky

Wow its been a while hasn't it. Suffice to say I don't have a lot of time to write as much as I used to and there is just so much I've wanted to write about that I haven't had a chance.

The biggest news around here, in case you've been living in a hole in the ground, is the war between Israel and hizbulla. Just to recap the story so far, us Israelis were offending everyone by minding our own business as per usual when suddenly palestinian militants decide to kill and kidnap our soldiers.

Of course we went in and tried to get our soldier back and as of yet we have been unsuccessful. The Lebanese pigs hizbulla decided to jump on the bandwagon and kill and kidnap soldiers and started firing katyusha rockets into northern Israel.

Here we are now 2 weeks later with rockets raining down every day and the biggest battle we've had to fight since 1982. The media as per usual has been extremely biased and anti-Israel, specifically BBC, running 15 minute news reports on the destruction in Lebanon and the deaths of innocent civilians, whilst briefly happening to mention, on passing comment, that "Oh yes, the Jews are dying too..."

Of course as per usual the militants remain defiant. Well gee that's a big surprise. Considering they are the biggest propaganda machine on the planet and people are still stupid enough to believe them. I have friends at the Lebanese border who seem to tell me otherwise.

We Israelis, for the most part, are sticking together, everyone is personally affected by this some way or another. I know someone who's son died defending our country and may he rest in peace. My cousins have had to evacuate their home in Carmiel due to the rocket barrages.

However as always, you have your left wing morons who constantly apologise to the whole world for us Jews even existing. These cretins have been protesting the war that us awful Israelis apparently started and are begging for negotiations. Well I have a solution lefties, we can drop you off in Bint Jbeil and you can negotiate with hizbulla.

If I had things my way, every left-winger would be removed from this country. There is nothing worse than a person who hates his own people and would rather see his own people die than the enemy. Of course left wings always know what's wrong, but when have they ever provided a feasible solution to the problem. Wait a second, remember when Ehud Barak almost gave away half the country? Well who walked away from those negotiations? Yes it was Arafat.

Which brings me to another point, hizbulla was founded, or so they claim, to push the Israeli occupation out of Lebanon, well last time I checked, we withdrew years ago! Of course the truth is, Arab-muslims are nothing but warmongering Jew hating pieces of shit who have no desire to live with us in peace. Its a common mis-translation, what they want is to live with us in pieces!

Kahane was right, and contrary to what many people believe, he was a righteous man who only wanted peace for both sides but knew that Arabs and Jews could never coexist together. I read an article by an Arab female on Ynet yesterday, in this article she discussed how Gaza was not really free and was actually more of an open air prison. Well I wonder why... Perhaps its has something to do with the fact that your people will never be happy until we are all dead. Perhaps its due to the fact that we left you our infrastructure and you destroyed it!

How many greenhouses and farms did you burn and defile. We turned Gaza into an Oasis and in less than a year in your hands, it was a desert again. This is obviously our fault. We gave you 33% of what you wanted and how much peace did you give us in return? Do you honestly believe that peace works when one side gives 100% and the other side decides to do as they feel? Why should we let you into Israel? Why should we wait behind you in the hospital? Don't you have your own hospitals?

Regardless of what is reported by the biased media, the facts are there. We live in a country about the size of New Jersey. The Arab states are the size of United States, Central American and Mexico combined. So how much space could we possibly be occupying if our entire country is one six-hundred-and-fiftieth of their own?

The war against the Zionist entity is not one of land dispute, its a religious war fueled by hatred and brainwashing. And the ultimate question I have to ask is WHAT IS A PALESTINIAN? Was there such a thing as a palestinian pre-20th century? And if all of them are refugees, where are they from? The answer is Jordan, these so called palestinians or Jordanian refugees. Of course there is more than enough open land across the Arabian gulf for these so called people to live in peace with their Arab brothers but the fact is nobody wants them!

Yesterday for me however was the greatest accomplishment of this war so far. We bombed a UNIFIL Base. Whether by accident or deliberate, there is no doubt in my mind that it was bloody brilliant. The United Nothings and Kofi Annan who have used their organization as nothing more than a proxy with which to spy, finally got what was coming to them.

If UN Resolution 1559 - which called upon Lebanon to establish full control over all of its land, for Syria to stop interfering in Lebanon and for ALL Lebanese militias, including hizbulla, to disband - had been kept, administered and adhered to by UNIFIL whose job it was to do such, maybe none of this would have been necessary.

All I have ever seen the UN do in the region is drive around in fancy Mercedes Benzes and SUVs in Herzilya Pituach. I am glad that the UN got hit, they are nothing but a bunch of interfering no good pieces of crap who have done nothing to improve any situation anywhere in the world.

The solution is to fight fire with fire. Nasrallah can preach all he wants, we know he is hiding. Just like Saddam did in his hole in the ground. Lebanon and the rest of the world can bitch all they want about Israel not exercising restraint. Better the devil you know guys because if I had a say in how this country was defended, gaza would be a parking lot and Lebanon, Syria and Iran would be past tense.

For the Israelis out their who stand by their country and their soldiers, united we have strength and God bless our soldiers and the people up north who have sacrificed so much for our freedom. Together we will stand strong and overcome this adversity as we have before.

אל תירא מפחד פתאם, ומשאת רשעים כי תבא. עצו עצה ותפר, דברו דבר ולא יקום, כי עמנו אל .ועד זקנה אני הוא, ועד שיבה אני אסבל, אני עשיתי ואני אשא, ואני אסבל ואמלט

"Do not fear sudden terror, or the holocaust of the wicked when it comes. Plan a conspiracy and it will be annulled; speak your piece and it shall not stand, for Hashem is with us. Even till your seniority, I remain unchanged; and even till your ripe old age, I shall endure. I created you and shall bear you; I shall endure and rescue."