The esteemed Judge Goldstone.

I spoke with a friend of mine who saw combat in Gaza this past January. He told me about having to kill a seventy year old man.

These are the kind of stories that the media love.

The United Nations Human Rights Commission just published the report of Judge Goldstone accusing Israel of war crimes. The report is five hundred pages long, much of it devoted to tales of Israeli atrocities — based almost entirely on Palestinian accounts.

Now, put yourself in my friend’s position and decide if he is a “war criminal.”

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Chaya Bailey Bat Kelev

Last week, my family had a bit of a crisis. Our beloved dog Bailey swallowed something that was never meant to be swallowed, and it tore up her belly and intestines.

She spent a week and a half in the vet clinic in Maale Adumim where she underwent two major operations. At one point, the vet told us that the odds were heavily against her making it home.

Those who are not pet owners are forgiven for not comprehending how torn apart a family can be when a pet is near death’s door. All of us went to bed on Rosh Hashana crying, wondering if we would see our Bailey again.

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Tuesday morning, LBD and I did our usual Monday morning ride. We ride down Derech Avot, past Eretz Ayalim, and the real fun stuff starts near Gavna. It is a long technical descent down around the hills past Bat Ayin Bet. Then comes a hellish wonderfully challenging ride back to the top. For a few kilometers you are climbing steeply through a narrow valley that seems to go on forever. By the end, your heart beats through your jersey and your lungs are on fire. No matter how many times I have ridden it, I always question my sanity while doing the climb.

A better time to question sanity is actually on the downhill. At the beginning is a very steep paved 100 meter concrete descent. That gets your speed up. After that it’s a white knuckles — hold onto your bike and pray like it’s Yom Kippur – ride down a trail full of twists, turns, rocks and ditches.

My goal is always to keep up with LBD who is the club’s hands down specialist when it comes to technical descents flinging bike and rider off a cliff.

We were going on a very fast clip when I realized I was drifting off a bit to the left of the trail. I had lost concentration for a split second — a big “no-no” when riding fast down rocks. I tried to slow down a bit and leaned to my right to edge back to the center of the trail when…

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The view from my window

Another year has gone by that I can count myself fortunate enough to live in the holy land of Israel. As I look out my window at the Judean hills where I have chosen to make my home, I think about just how amazing it is that I am able to live and raise a family in the land that had been promised to the Jewish people so many thousands of years ago.

Thousands of years of Jewish history have not been easy ones. We have faced murder and terror in every part of the world where we have lived. So despite the current ominous news reports, I think that we actually have it relatively good right now. What Jew in history would not want to trade places with those of us who make our homes in this holy place?

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Maybe an investigation of Angolan child soldiers?

Anyone want to go to Angola?

According to the U.S. State Department, Angolan human rights abuses include:

• unlawful killings by police, military, and private security forces;
• torture, beatings, and harsh and life-threatening prison conditions;
• corruption and impunity;
• arbitrary arrest and detention;
• restrictions on freedom of speech
• forced evictions without compensation; and
• discrimination and domestic violence and abuse against women and children.

Not sounding like too much fun?

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