Review I received on Amazon.com says it all.

I confess that "Leaving Home, Going Home, Returning Home" is a book that I normally would not read. I am a web designer by trade and a techie book author as well (How to Start a Home-Based Web Design Business, 4th (Home-Based Business Series)). A book about a guy's journey to Israel didn't seem to match my normal pattern of technical tomes. But when I picked it up and thumbed through it, I found myself settling back in my easy chair starting the first chapter. By time I had read a few chapters, I felt the book warranted my full attention.

Alster taught me more about Israel, its people, culture, and history than I had ever been aware of before. I was able to view it through the eyes of someone who was willing to give a non-judgemental panoramic view of a culture that I previously only knew superficially. Through his eyes, I was able to see a part of the Jewish history that allowed me to understand more than I ever did before.

I remember in the early 1990's when I watched the televised version of Iraq shooting scud missiles during the Gulf War. It was a low-impact experience so many miles away. However, as I read about Alster protecting his daughter and family as he could hear the scud missiles just outside his own home, it became very real to me. This was not just a crazed dictator firing random artillery into the desert -- this was a real threat to real people! Seems obvious now but it took the skilled writing of Alster to bring me into the house with him and his family, feeling each painful explosion. By this time, I couldn't put the book down.

This book was written in a style in which I feel I have a better understanding of why so many of my Jewish friends talk respectfully about a desert land so far away. I understand it through a glimpse of someone with American values growing up in a Jewish household. And through someone who, forsaking all he grew up with, moved to a land of his heritage to make a new home. And then when he decided to return to the US, it made me think of it as the modern day equivalent to the 1915 book "Acre of Diamonds" (Acres of Diamonds: -1915).

If you are looking for a well-written book on a young man traveling to Israel and back, you can't go wrong with this one. It is educational, entertaining, and inspirational.

Thomas Friedman Again- let me show you why he is wrong.

Leaving Home Going Home Returning Home.
This is the article Thomas Friedman wrote for the new York Times. I will in the article show you why this is wrong- and from a respected person who has an agenda.
My commentary is in parenthesis.
OP-ED COLUMNIST
Why Not in Vegas?
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Published: July 31, 2012 417 Comments


I’ll make this quick. I have one question and one observation about Mitt Romney’s visit to Israel. The question is this: Since the whole trip was not about learning anything ( an assumption- when you assume you make an AS of YOU and ME)  but about how to satisfy the political whims of the right-wing, super pro-Bibi Netanyahu, American Jewish casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, why didn’t they just do the whole thing in Las Vegas? ( If Bibi lived in the USA he would be a conservative/ a modernist/ and not a right winger) .  I mean, it was all about money anyway (  another ASSumption) — how much Romney would abase himself by saying whatever the Israeli right wanted to hear and how big a jackpot of donations Adelson would shower on the Romney campaign in return ( Is going to Israel only about donations- PS Israel is not the safest place in the world to go for a donation) . Really, Vegas would have been so much more appropriate than Jerusalem. They could have constructed a plastic Wailing Wall and saved so much on gas ( blasphemy does not become Thomas Friedman) .



The observation is this: Much of what is wrong with the U.S.-Israel relationship today can be found in that Romney trip ( why does everything connected to Israel have to be wrong? That is negative thinking) . In recent years, the Republican Party has decided to make Israel a wedge issue ( why not - Israel I am sure loves to be center stage) . In order to garner more Jewish (and evangelical) votes and money, the G.O.P. decided to “out-pro-Israel” the Democrats by being even more unquestioning of Israel ( I would also bet that Americans in the military also vote for an Israeli USA relationship for a vast variety of reasons) . This arms race has pulled the Democratic Party to the right on the Middle East ( not Iran of course - but Israel)  and has basically forced the Obama team to shut down the peace process and drop any demands that Israel freeze settlements ( but netanyahu said in his address at the Congress that Israel already tried to freeze settlements and it did not work) . This, in turn, has created a culture in Washington where State Department officials, not to mention politicians, are reluctant to even state publicly what is U.S. policy ( as if they really knew)  — that settlements are “an obstacle to peace” — for fear of being denounced as anti-Israel. ( The settlements are not as much an obstacle to peace as the Arab nations not protesting against Hezbullah and Iran who outwardly say they will try to throw Israel into the sea).

Add on top of that, the increasing role of money in U.S. politics and the importance of single donors who can write megachecks to “super PACs” — and the fact that the main Israel lobby, Aipac, has made itself the feared arbiter of which lawmakers are “pro” and which are “anti-Israel” and, therefore, who should get donations and who should not — and you have a situation in which there are almost no brakes, no red lights, around Israel coming from America anymore (  Is because Israel has a kick ass military and is an ally of the USA that might be part of the reason too?) . No wonder settlers now boast on op-ed pages that the game is over, they’ve won, the West Bank will remain with Israel forever — and they don’t care what absorbing all of its Palestinians will mean for Israel’s future as a Jewish democracy ( Israels official policy settlers or not is a two state solution and everyone knows it, but the settlers have free speech and have a right to lobby for their cause democratically. PS. the settlements are considered illegal by the USA , but everyone forgets to mention thet not the land itself because it was captured in a defensive war. If Israel made national parks or army bases on that land there would be no ILLEGAL argument).

It is into this environment that Romney wandered to add more pandering and to declare how he will be so much nicer to Israel than big, bad Obama. ( Those are Freidmans words not Obamas - i.e. artistic license) This is a canard. On what matters to Israel’s survival — advanced weaponry and intelligence — Defense Minister Ehud Barak told CNN on Monday, “I should tell you honestly that this administration under President Obama is doing in regard to our security more than anything that I can remember in the past.”
 ( NO NO NO !!!!!!!!!!!! What matters to Israel is what it says in the Bible-  that Israel are the chosen ones and a light unto the nations. Israel wants to be a major player among nations and like prime minister Begin  told Reagan once " Israel is not a banana republic")

While Romney had time for a $50,000-a-plate breakfast with American Jewish donors in Jerusalem, with Adelson at his elbow, he did not have two hours to go to Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority, to meet with its president, Mahmoud Abbas, or to share publicly any ideas on how he would advance the peace process. ( with the major detractor to peace in the area Syria- having a civil war - now is really not the time for peace talks when Abbas could have done that before he missed the boat)  He did have time, though, to point out to his Jewish hosts that Israelis are clearly more culturally entrepreneurial than Palestinians ( obviously, Palestinians supporting suicide bombings not too long ago also affected the economy- and the Palestinian street admitted that they chose death over life????) . Israel today is an amazing beehive of innovation — thanks, in part, to an influx of Russian brainpower, massive U.S. aid and smart policies ( this is where Friedman show his true colors- he does not mention the many Anglo Saxons that moved to Israel including the tens of thousands of Americans. What really helped Israel grow is the Free Trade Act between the USA and Israel and the favored status of America trade with Israel, not to take away anything from the Russians who also brought Eastern European mentality to Israel). . It’s something Jews ( Jews or Israelis or Israeli Jews- or all of the citizens of Israel Arabs included) should be proud of. But had Romney gone to Ramallah he would have seen a Palestinian beehive of entrepreneurship, too, albeit small, but not bad for a people living under occupation( Helllllllo isn't this Shimon Peres idea to have good economic bridges with the Palestinians for peace? Did not Romney sit with Shimon Peres?????) . Palestinian business talent also built the Persian Gulf states. In short, Romney didn’t know what he was talking about.

On peace, the Palestinians’ diplomacy has been a fractured mess, and I still don’t know if they can be a partner for a secure two-state deal with even the most liberal Israeli government. But I do know this: It is in Israel’s overwhelming interest to test, test and have the U.S. keep testing creative ideas for a two-state solution. That is what a real U.S. friend would promise to do. Otherwise, Israel could be doomed to become a kind of apartheid South Africa. ( Here Friedman shows his true colors again- what if the Palestinians accepted autonomy or a federation with their Jordanian brothers- would that be so bad? I wounder what Mr. Friedman will say when the Kurds will want their own state? Will he tell Turkey to give up some of their vast territory??)

And here is what I also know: The three U.S. statesmen who have done the most to make Israel more secure and accepted in the region all told blunt truths to every Israeli or Arab leader: Jimmy Carter, who helped forge a lasting peace between Israel and Egypt; Henry Kissinger, who built the post-1973 war disengagement agreements with Syria, Israel and Egypt; and James Baker, who engineered the Madrid peace conference. All of them knew that to make progress in this region you have to get in the face of both sides. They both need the excuse at times that “the Americans made me do it,” because their own politics are too knotted to move on their own. ( America has a problem here with this because America has many territories she won in war and would have to return them if Mr. Friedmans assumptions were correct- or also exit military bases on foreign soil).

So how about all you U.S. politicians — Republicans and Democrats — stop feeding off this conflict for political gain. Stop using this conflict as a backdrop for campaign photo-ops and fund-raisers. Stop making things even worse by telling the most hard-line Israelis everything that they want to hear, just to grovel for Jewish votes and money, while blatantly ignoring the other side. There are real lives at stake out there. If you’re not going to do something constructive, stay away. They can make enough trouble for themselves on their own. ( The other side???  Wait isn't the USA in Saudi Arabia, the Gulf, Iraq, Afghanastan, Pakistan , Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan ,  maybe Syria soon etc etc etc....

Mitt Romney gets it right and has my vote!!!

For a real  good source of information about what Israel is all about- You have to get " Leaving Home Going Home Returning Home. " I think Mitt Romney used it as a source.

Relaxing Zen from Israel

Just got my sales report from CreatSpace. My videos Relaxing Zen from Israel and Zen for ADD, ADHD are BIG BIG hits.  A relaxing video of scenes from Israel by biofeedback specialist Jason Alster MSc . Let serenity surround you with harmonious elements from the natural environment. Peace of mind from simplicity let's you escape to far off places.
Directed by: RainbowCloud.

Relaxing Zen from Israel

https://www.createspace.com/1000252310