Marty Roberts: Staying Real in Israel…”The Marty Roberts Show”

Have you noticed who led the U. of Maryland Terrapins to victory in the NCAA women’s basketball championships?

It was Shay Doron of Israel. The starting guard led her team to a huge upset victory over Duke in a dramatic second-half comeback, after being down by 13 at the break.

“…Toliver had 16 points, four assists and just three turnovers in the title game. Final Four Most Outstanding Player Laura Harper and Shay Doron also scored 16 for the Terrapins, who were charter members of the Final Four 25 years ago but struggled before Frese took over the program in 2002….”

Shay was 6 for 6 free throws, coming back to play tough, Israeli style, after being physically pounded by Duke players towards the end of the game.

She came to U. Maryland from Great Neck, NY, but played in Tel Aviv before that, having led the Israel National Team to a Div B European championship in 2005. That same year she also led the US team to victory in the Maccabi games.

Shay, we’re proud of you here, in Israel, but we’re waiting for you to come back home!!!

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The latest edition of “The Marty Roberts Show”, for Wednesday, April 5, is posted.

In today’s show, I focus on sport in Israel, highlighting Ellen and my running in the 14th annual Jerusalem Half Marathon earlier this week.  I focus on the current state of amateur participatory sports, like running and cycling, in Israel.

Things sure have changed since I first started running in Israel 7 years ago.  At that time, my wife and I had the roads to ourselves.  Now, every highway and byway in the country is loaded with health-seeking missiles, running, walking and biking away at all hours of the day and night (literally!)

With all of the amateurs out training morning noon and night, you would think that participation in the racing events would expand, but the competitive Israeli mentality apparently doesn’t allow for that.  It’s still almost all “speedy-fasts” that show up at the running events, leaving the slugs like yours-truly FAR behind the pack.

More to come later on the race experience.

I also talked about miracles in today’s show, those that choose to believe in them, and those that don’t.

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Seems like it’s not “in” to believe in miracles today, is it?

Modern thought would seem have it that only primitive or ignorant people would be so stupid as to REALLY believe that there is a Supreme Creator at all, let alone that he interferes in OUR world in such an unbelievable way as to perform miracles of nature…

Or does it?

Both the Ha’Aretz and Jerusalem Post carried this Reuters story:

The New Testament says that Jesus walked on water, but a Florida
university professor believes there could be a less miraculous
explanation - he walked on a floating piece of ice.
Professor Doron Nof also theorized in the early 1990s that Moses’s
parting of the Red Sea had solid science behind it.

I’ll leave the Jesus-question-thing to my Christian friends to thrash out, but as to Moses and the REED Sea,(that’s Reed, not Red, according to the original Hebrew)…

…Of course it was a strong wind that split the waters so that Moses and the Jews could keep going on their merry way from Egypt to Israel.

…Of course the reason that Pharoah’s soldiers were all drowned under the returning wave of sea water sea was because the wind stopped blowing just as THEY were in the middle of their sea-crossing, in hot pursuit of the Jews!

But that’s exactly the point…the Jewish view of miracles…

The book, “Ethics of the Fathers” , teaches us that all of the miracles of “nature” that would be needed as history unfolds itself through the ages were pre-programmed into the fabric of the universe by The Creator. We acknowledge that the forces of nature are controlled by G-d. We are taught that every single blade of grass has its own angel hovering above it saying “Grow…Grow!”

Yes, it is a miracle every time the wind blows at all, or the grass grows, or a baby is born, but we’re not talking about the little, day-to-day miracles like that. When it come to the “biggies”, the miracles that seem to defy nature (is such a thing really possible if G-d controls all of nature?)…in these cases, the real miracle is WHEN and WHERE the forces of nature act.

“It’s all in the timing…”

“Location, location, location…”

The miracle of the Exodus, the parting of the Reed Sea, is not the fact that the Reed Sea opened to let the Jews pass and then collapsed on the Egyptian pursuers , but the reality that the wind blew at exactly the right time, in exactly the right place to let the Jews pass, and then it stopped at exactly the right moment, when the Egyptian army was in the middle of the sea, and they all were drowned.

Seems quite miraculous to me, primitive and ignorant though I may be…
My Uncle Alan used to tell me, long before I became religiously observant,

You kind of have to pay attention and keep your eyes open to see it…

As to whether or not Jesus walked on water or ice…

I guess it depends upon how you look at things.

Happy Passover…Chag HaPesach Sameach V’Kasher!

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The latest edition of “The Marty Roberts Show”, for Thursday, April 6, is posted.

In today’s show, I talk about Ehud Olmert’s efforts to put together a new coalition government for Israel.

You can learn just how the Israeli parliamentary system works by listening to the show.

Avigdor Lieberman and his “Israel, Our Home” party will doubtless play a key role in the formation of Olmert’s new government.

I lay out Lieberman’s platform and principles and analyze its implications for the future of Israel as a Jewish state.

In today’s show, I also discuss the threat posed by Israel’s Arab minority, as spelled out in the platform of the “United Arab” party, which received 4 mandates in the current Knesset.

“We’ve got a hot one today!”…Don’t miss the show…

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Some have accused me of being a bit slow on the uptake…maybe I just don’t get it, but how can you explain the Olmert government’s policy towards Hamas…

A refusal to recognize Israel’s right to exist and the Palestinian Authority’s continued support of terror activity has granted the IDF the legal right to target and strike the Hamas Palestinian leadership, a member of the IDF General Staff told The Jerusalem Post this week.

“This new reality, in which the PA supports terror, does not prevent terror and does not recognize Israel’s right to exist can legally allow for diplomatic and operational decisions that were not made in the past,” the officer said.

OK, fair enough…sounds reasonable…I applaud the new, more aggressive policy…It sends the right message to the US, Europe and the rest of the world as to just how they should be dealing with Hamas…as a murderous terrorist organization, not a respectable sovereign government…good job, Ehud…

The Post then goes on to report…

Police detained a minister in the Palestinians’ new Hamas government on Thursday morning, the first time Israel has arrested a minister since the Cabinet was sworn in last week, Hamas officials said.

I guess these guys really mean business!…looks like terrorists will be treated like terrorists, not government officials…great message to Israel’s allies…a consistent policy, for a change!

But wait…What’s is this story in Israel’s Ha’Aretz newspaper:

Israel is considering limited contact with the Hamas-led Palestinian government as part of efforts to prevent a humanitarian crisis in the territories, senior government officials in Jerusalem said Wednesday

Is it me, or is there a double messsage here? Are we going to be tough with Hamas, or not?

And who said that we are responsible for the humanitarian needs of our enemies? Unfortunately, when you are at war with an entity, those in control are not the only ones that you are at war with…the sad truth of war is that innocents suffer as well. When the allies went to war against Nazi Germany, Germany and the Germans were seen and treated as the enemy…not just Hitler and his cronies. The same is